UMBERTO III di SAVOIA, blessed. — Son of Amedeo III, b. ca. 1135, d. 4 March 1189, buried in the abbey church of Altacomba.
He succeeded his father Amedeo III while still a minor; the latter died at Nicosia (Cyprus) on 1 April 1148. His guardian was the bl. Amedeo di Hauterive, bishop of Lausanne. He married four times, and only by his last wife, Beatrice, daughter of Count Gerardo di Mâcon, did he have a male heir, Tommaso I (1178). Little is known of his private life, nor does the moral portrait usually given of him, based on the Crognyques de Savoye of Giovanni Dorieville (D'Oronville), called Cabaret, written between 1417 and 1420 (still unpublished; the principal source for the Gestez et croniques de la mayson de Savoye of Giovanni Servion, written between 1464 and 1465; ed. F. E. Bollati, I, Turin 1879, pp. 207–26; and for the Croniques of Perrinet Dupin, compiled from the two preceding works ca. 1477; ed. F. E. Bollati, I, ibid. 1893, pp. 109–206), correspond to the reliable documentation that has come down to us. There is no doubt that he was a religious and beneficent prince, like so many lords of that time, but that he was inept at governing does not correspond to the truth. He was generous in his donations to churches and monasteries; nevertheless, he engaged in serious jurisdictional and territorial disputes with the bishop, St. Antelmo di Belley (1163–73), with whom he eventually reconciled, and with the bishops of Turin, Carlo and Milone (1159–89), whose claims were protected by Federico Barbarossa. U. nevertheless had the courage to remain, together with the bishops of Aosta, Tarantasia, Moriana, and Belley, faithful to Alessandro III,
while the imperial antipopes were being followed all around his state. In the political sphere, U. had to maneuver among many powerful enemies, foremost among them Barbarossa, whom in 1161 he approached on behalf of Milan through St. Pietro, archbishop of Tarantasia. Until the moment when the fugitive Barbarossa had to come to terms in order to cross the Cenisio Pass (February–March 1168), U. maintained a distrustful and hostile attitude toward him; from 1168 until 1183 their relations were correct. This did not prevent U. from forming an alliance with Enrico II of England (1171), disliked by both Barbarossa and the king of France. After the Peace of Constance (25 June 1183), Federico, who no longer needed U.’s friendship, being assured of the league’s communes, once again showed hostility toward the Count on the occasion of the territorial dispute between U. and the bishop of Turin. Having been unsuccessfully summoned in 1184 and 1187 to appear before the Emperor, he was banned from the Empire by Enrico VI, who had been associated with the throne (1187). U. once again offered passive resistance, entrenching himself in his Alpine states. Gregorio XVI confirmed his cult on 7 September 1838. Feast day: 4 March.
A. Pietro Frutaz