Count of Savoy

Who he is

Name

Thomas I (Thomas Ier, Tommaso I)

Title

Count of Savoy (count in Maurienne, marquis in Italy)

Since

1189, on the death of his father Humbert III (4 March 1189)

Born

1178, at the castle of Charbonnieres by Aiguebelle (day not pinned)

Family

Son of Humbert III and his fourth wife Beatrice of Vienne. Married about May 1196 Margaret (Beatrice-Margaret) of Geneva, daughter of Count William I, whom her father had reportedly meant for the king of France. Children born by 1 January 1200: Amadeus (1197), and by fr.wikipedia's dates Beatrice (1198) and Thomas (1199); other lists put these two later.

Confidence

high

fr.wikipedia Thomas Ier de Savoie. His tutor in his minority was his father's cousin Boniface of Montferrat, with a regency council in which his mother kept much weight; by 1200, aged about 21, he rules in person.

Overlord

The emperor

What it holds

• Maurienne: Charbonnieres castle at Aiguebelle, the valley under the bishop of Maurienne
• Montmelian, the key castle of the Combe de Savoie
• Tarentaise: overlordship beside the archbishop's temporal county
• Novalaise and Yenne
• Bugey: Saint-Rambert and Cornillon by the parage of 1196 with the abbot of Saint-Rambert
• Chablais: Chillon, Allinges, Thonon and Evian country; Saint-Maurice and Monthey
• Val d'Aosta: the city (franchises of 1191) and the valley
• Val di Susa: Susa, Avigliana and the Mont Cenis road
• Claims in Piedmont: Turin, where his authority was restored in 1191; Carignano

How it was acquired

Inherited from the Humbertine counts, whose lands grew around the passes since the eleventh century.

Allies and rivals

Brother-in-law of Humbert of Geneva; protector of the young Faucigny lords; rival of the Dauphin along the Isere and in the Viennois; leans to the Staufen (Henry VI had invaded Piedmont and the Susa valley around 1187, which pushed the house toward the emperor). Philip of Swabia confirms his inheritance and grants Moudon, Chieri and Testona in 1207.

How things stand that morning

Rules in person at about 21. On the German throne he is reckoned a Staufen man, as is his archbishop of Tarentaise who crowned Philip of Swabia in 1198, but he did not sign the princes' declaration for Philip at Speyer (28 May 1199) and no grant to him from Philip is attested before 1207.

Wealth

Tolls of the Mont Cenis and Great Saint Bernard roads (Susa, Saint-Maurice, Aosta), the Alpine salt road from Tarentaise, pasture.

Military

Montmelian, Charbonnieres, Chillon, Susa and Avigliana; the service of the Maurienne and Savoy nobles (La Chambre, Miolans, Seyssel and others).

Threats

• The Dauphin on the Isere
• The bishops of Sion and Geneva
• Turin's bishop and commune
• Imperial politics if Otto IV wins

Places of note

• Montmelian: Main comital fortress
• Chillon: Comital castle on Lake Geneva
• Saint-Maurice d'Agaune: Abbey under the count's protection; Great Saint Bernard road
• Susa: Comital town at the foot of the Mont Cenis

Where the sources disagree

• The GM's Church notes do not touch Savoy's lay lord; nothing to correct. Thomas's marriage is often dated 1195; fr.wikipedia gives about May 1196.

Evidence: Count, marriage and charters are well attested; the 25 castles are not all named for 1200.

On the map: Valleys drawn whole; inside them bishops and vassals held much of the ground.