Tarentaise

Who holds it

Name

Aymon de Briancon (Aymon II)

Title

Archbishop of Tarentaise, count of Tarentaise

Since

1174-1176 (elected after Peter II died on 14 September 1174; consecrated before 20 March 1176)

Confidence

high

Eldest son of Aymeric II, lord of Briancon and viscount of Tarentaise; his brother Aymeric III holds the family castle and the viscounty; cousin of Henri de Faucigny. A Carthusian of the Grande Chartreuse before his election. On 6 May 1186 (en.wikipedia; fr.wikipedia gives 1 November 1186) Frederick Barbarossa's golden bull invested him with the county of Tarentaise and made him an immediate vassal of the Empire; Henry VI confirmed his secular jurisdiction at Turin (28 July 1196 in en.wikipedia; 1191 in fr.wikipedia).

He led a Burgundian contingent on the Third Crusade and held Philippopolis with four other bishops in November-December 1189. He crowned Philip of Swabia at Mainz in September 1198 and stayed there until at least September 1199. He arbitrated the 1179 peace between the count of Savoy and the church of Sion. Later course: summoned to Rome by Innocent III on 3 October 1202 under threat of suspension for the coronation; acquires lands at Les Allues (1202); receives homage for Briancon from his kin (1206); dies 21 February 1211, succeeded by Bernard de Chignin from Maurienne.

What it holds

• The county of Tarentaise: comital rights, justice and regalia in the upper Isere valley and its side valleys (Bozel, Les Allues, Belleville), by Barbarossa's golden bull of 1186
• Moutiers, the archbishop's city
• The road to the Little Saint Bernard pass and its traffic
• Overlordship of the viscounts of Tarentaise (the lords of Briancon, his own family), who hold the castle at the valley's narrows

How it was acquired

Golden bull of Frederick Barbarossa, 1186 (6 May at Pavia, or 1 November); confirmed by Henry VI (1191 or 1196). Papal confirmations of the see's rights in 1176 and 1182-1184.

How things stand that morning

Aymon is back from Mainz or on his way (where he is on 1 January is not pinned). He holds the comital rights of the valley; Savoy presses from below. His coronation of Philip makes him a marked man at Rome.

Wealth

Traffic over the Little Saint Bernard between Savoy and the Aosta valley; salt springs at Moutiers (worked in later centuries; 1200 not pinned); alpine pasture, cheese and cattle; mines of the Vanoise (later records).

Threats

• Rome's anger over the uncanonical coronation of Philip of Swabia
• Savoyard encroachment from the lower valley

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Savoy (Thomas I, count since 1189, a young Staufen ally), lords of the lower valley round Conflans; the viscounts of Briancon, his kin; the monasteries of the valley (Tamie).

Places of note

• Moutiers: Archbishop's city
• Briancon castle: Castle of the viscounts, the archbishop's kin, at the narrows of the Isere

Where the sources disagree

• The notes say Aymon has been archbishop since the 1170s; the research pins it to election after 14 September 1174 and consecration before 20 March 1176.
• The date of Barbarossa's golden bull for Tarentaise differs between en.wikipedia (6 May 1186, Pavia) and fr.wikipedia (1 November 1186).

Evidence: Aymon's career is well documented; the extent of his direct domain within the valley, as against the Briancon viscounts and Savoyard castles, is not pinned for 1200.

On the map: The polygon covers the valley above the Briancon narrows, the comital area of the 1186 bull. Inside it the viscounts and other lords held castles and land of the archbishop, and Savoyard influence was growing; the lower valley round Conflans was Savoy's.