Challant

CHALLANT. - A powerful and illustrious feudal family of the Aosta Valley, which probably traces its origin to the marquises of Montferrat (11th century); it received from the counts of Savoy the viscountcy of Aosta (late 11th century) and the lordship of Villa C. (13 April 1200), whence the family's patronymic, and from the abbots of St. Maurice of Agaune the investiture of the lordship of Graines (13th century), both situated in the Evançon valley. It renounced the viscountcy of Aosta in favor of Amadeus V (25 September 1295) and received from Amadeus VIII (15 August 1414) the hereditary comital title.

To it is owed the construction of the finest castles of the Aosta Valley and a good part of the works of art still existing in the Valley; it was a benefactress of the Church, not only in the Valley, but also in the numerous fiefs it possessed in Piedmont, in France and in Switzerland.

This family, which later divided into 5 branches, reached the apex of its fortune and its glory in the 14th-16th centuries; thereafter, while always preserving a distinguished place among the nobility of the Savoyard States, it declined slowly until it died out at the beginning of the 19th century. Some of its members are recalled here, who exer-

They exerted a notable political and religious influence, having attained the highest offices of the Savoyard state and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

PIETRO, son of Gotofredo I, canon and provost of Aosta (24 Aug. 1253), canon (11 Apr. 1255), archdeacon (24 Feb. 1256) and archbishop-elect of Lyon (7 Apr. 1287), d. 10 Nov. of the same year. AIMONE, brother of the preceding, canon and bishop of Aosta (from 1272 to 21 Dec. 1273), then transferred to Vercelli (d. 27 May 1303). EBALO MAGNO, brother of the preceding, increased the fiefs and lent active political collaboration to the count of Savoy (d. 1323). BONIFACIO, brother of the preceding, archdeacon of Lyon (1287) and canon of Aosta (15 Nov. 1287), chaplain of the Pope, bishop of Sion (15 Nov. 1289), consecrated by Nicholas IV (18 March 1290), d. 18 June 1308. AIMONE, son of Gotofredo lord of Fénis, canon and archdeacon of Aosta, bishop of Sion (July 1308 - 19 July 1323). GOTOFREDO II, firstborn of Ebalo Magno, senator of Rome (end of the 13th century), governor of Genoa, married Beatrice Fieschi, niece of Innocent IV. BONIFACIO, brother of the preceding, prior of S. Orso, elected bishop of Aosta (26 Oct. 1375-22 Aug. 1376). ILETO, son of Giovanni, politician and warrior, followed Amadeus VI in the Eastern enterprise (1366), captured at Biella and held prisoner for a year, in the castle of Monjovet, Giovanni Fieschi, bishop of Vercelli (1277-78), counsellor of Amadeus VI who sent him to the Court of the antipope Clement VII at Avignon to negotiate a new expedition against Naples (1390), d. 21 Sept. 1409. AIMONE, son of Gotofredo II, man of arms and skilful politician, counsellor of Amadeus VI, of Bona of Bourbon, while the count was in the East (1366), and of Amadeus VII (1383), governor of the duchy of Aosta (1381). ANTONIO, son of the preceding, b. ca. 1350, doctor of law, archdeacon of Reims (1388? - 1403), chancellor of Savoy (1402-1404), created cardinal deacon of S. Maria in via Lata by the antipope Benedict XIII (9 March 1404), archbishop of Tarentaise (3 Aug. 1404), legate to the court of France to induce it to obedience to Avignon; he takes part in the conference of Livorno (June 1408) with the cardinals of Gregory XII, accepts the proposal of a general council, returns to Benedict XIII who disavows the action of his cardinals at Livorno; he takes part in the Council of Perpignan (15 Nov. 1408 - 26 March 1409), as president of the special commission he proposes to Benedict XIII that he go to the Council of Pisa or send ambassadors there with full powers for the renunciation, he arouses the wrath of the antipope, but manages to flee with his brother William, bishop of Lausanne (Febr. 1409); in his capacity as metropolitan of Savoy, he convokes a synod and withdraws the region from Avignon obedience; he appears at the session of 10 June (1409) of the Council of Pisa, he must clear himself of the accusation of having supported Benedict XIII, after the convocation of the Council he takes part in the conclave for the election of Alexander V, he is absolved from every censure and reinstated in his benefices (1 July), he reads the decrees and proclaims the closing of the Council (7 Aug.); he takes part in the conclave for the election of John XXIII, of whom he becomes an ardent supporter, he is created cardinal priest of the title of St. Cecilia, chancellor and chamberlain, he flees from Rome with John XXIII (June 1413), he goes with Card. Zabarella to the emperor Sigismund who was at Lodi to obtain protection, he returns with the proposal of a Council to be assembled at Constance, which John XXIII accepts against his will (July-Aug. 1413). The card. of C. enters Constance with a sumptuous procession of 80 knights (23 Oct. 1414); throughout the duration of the Council he shows himself a supporter of John XXIII and of the supremacy of the Pope over the Council, but he is charged with bringing the act of accusation to John XXIII (24 May 1415) and the decree of his condemnation (31 May 1415), he takes part in the trial against Benedict XIII, condemned on 26 July 1417; he participates in the election of Martin V (8 Nov.

1417), he reads the decrees of the Council among which was that which fixed the next Council at Pavia (19 Apr. 1418). He accompanies Martin V to Lausanne, where he was received by his brother William (19 June 1418), having retired to Bulle, diocese of Lausanne, he dies there on 13 Sept. of the same year and is buried in Aosta. WILLIAM, brother of the preceding, chancellor of Savoy (1404-1406), bishop of Lausanne (13 Aug. 1406-12 March 1431); his political and religious activity is noteworthy; he erects the house of the Innocents (1419), a kind of small seminary and, in his cathedral, the chapel of the Innocents, to whom he leaves his library and his sacred furnishings. BONIFACE I, brother of the preceding, accompanies Amadeus VI in the enterprises against Naples (1382-83), marshal of Savoy (1384-1418), secret and familiar councillor of Amadeus VIII (1405), delegate of the king of France to pacify the dukes of Berry, d'Orléans, of Bourbon and the counts of Armagnac with the king of Navarre, the dukes of Burgundy and Brabant and the count of Nevers (Sept.-Dec. 1410), ambassador to Genoa (1378), to Avignon (1379, 1411), to Lombardy (1381), to Naples (1381), to Valais (1384, 1387), to Paris (1394, 1398), to Milan (1403), to France (1410, 1412, 1416), d. at Pierrechâtel on 26 Febr. 1426. AMADEUS, brother of the preceding, councillor of Amadeus VIII and frequently his ambassador, d. in 1423. JAMES, son of the preceding, is frequently ambassador of the duke of Savoy, meets the antipope Felix V in the Aosta Valley and accompanies him to Turin (1449), takes part in the conspiracy against the favourites of the duchess Anne of Cyprus and is exiled (28 June 1451), is later reinstated in his offices (1456), d. on 14 June 1459. GEORGE, nephew of the cardinal and son of Amadeus, lord of Varey, apostolic protonotary, archdeacon of Aosta, canon of Lyon (19 Nov. 1453), prior of St. Orso (ca. 1468), governor of the duchy of Aosta, rebuilds the castle of Issogne (1494 ff.), great patron, d. on 30 Dec. 1509. RENATO, son of Philibert, b. in the Aosta Valley towards the end of 1503, lord of the principality of Valangin (Neuchâtel, from 1518), in his capacity as marshal of Savoy (1523-65), takes an active part in all the critical political, military and religious events, which made the times of the dukes Charles III and Emmanuel Philibert harsh, whom he served with noble loyalty to the point of suffering a long imprisonment and disbursing an enormous ransom (18 Nov. 1553 - June 1555), he negotiates the peace of Câteau-Cambrésis (1559), establishes at Chambéry the Senate of Savoy (12 Aug. 1559). In his capacity as governor of the duchy of Aosta he contributes effectively, in 1536, to removing from the valley the danger of Protestantism. D. at Ambronay in July 1565. Having instituted, in contrast with the Valdostan customs, sanctioned by the Three States, and with the family pact, first his daughter Filiberta, then Isabella, who went as bride to Giovanni Federico Madruzzo of Trent on 1 Oct. 1557, as his heiress, he gave occasion to a long and ruinous family lawsuit which ended with the sentence of reclamation in favour of the C. brothers (23 June 1696). But by now the family was in its decline. What remained of the immense fortune of the C. passed ca. the middle of the last century, to the counts Passerin d'Entrèves, who preserve in the castle of Châtillon the well-ordered archive (cf. the inventory of 1565 edited by G. Boson, in Société Acad. rel. et scient. du Duché d'Aoste, XXIIe bulletin, Aosta 1929) and the remains of the library of the illustrious family. Many papers of the same family are preserved in the State archive of Turin.

The arms of the C. were: argent with a chief gules and a bend sable (the 5 cadet branches have the bend charged with a different brisure) with the motto: Tout est monde et le monde n'est rien, which originally were to be: Dieu tout est et le monde n'est rien.

A. Pietro Frutaz