Valentinois

Who he is

Name

Aymar II of Poitiers (Adhemar de Peitieus)

Title

Count of Valentinois and Diois

Since

after May 1187, perhaps 1188 or 1189

Born

about 1180 (not pinned)

Family

Son of William I of Poitiers and Beatrice of Albon, daughter of Guigues IV, so first cousin of the Dauphine Beatrice. Married Philippa of Fay before 1197. Children later attested: William, Semnoresse (later second wife of the Dauphin Andrew) and Jausserande; which were born by 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

high

fr.wikipedia Aymar II de Poitiers.

Overlord

The emperor for the Valentinois; the count of Toulouse for the Diois, with which Raymond V enfeoffed him (before Raymond's death in December 1194)

What it holds

• Crest, with its tower, shared with the bishop of Die and the local lords; he granted rights to its people
• Castles of the lower Drome and the Valentinois plain
• The county of Diois outside the bishop's city
• Philippa of Fay's fiefs in the Vivarais

How it was acquired

Valentinois by inheritance; Diois by enfeoffment from Raymond V of Toulouse; Vivarais fiefs by marriage.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the bishops of Valence and Die. Ties: Toulouse (lord of the Diois), the Dauphine (cousin).

How things stand that morning

Holds his counties; no war recorded that winter. His quarrels with the bishops are chronic.

Wealth

Rhone and Drome valley farmland, tolls on the roads up the Drome toward the Alps, the Vivarais fiefs.

Military

The tower of Crest and the castles of the lower Drome.

Threats

• The bishops of Valence and Die
• Toulouse's overlordship of the Diois

Places of note

• Tower of Crest: Main fortress

Where the sources disagree

• The brief's realm table puts the Valentinois under 'empire'; note that the Diois is held of Toulouse.

Evidence: Count and marriage attested; his castles in 1200 not listed in the sources checked.

On the map: Rough: the count's castles in 1200 are not listed in the sources checked.

Primary sources for Empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Marbach (compiled to 1238, the section on 1198 to 1210 written in the early 13th century). Alsatian annals on the Staufen side of the Upper Rhine. Read online
• Annals of Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online
• Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn; Chronicle of St Peter's, Erfurt (Erfurt chronicle in the 13th century; Reinhardsbrunn compilation about 1340 to 1349 from older annals). The two Thuringian chronicles. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
• Royal Chronicle of Cologne (in stages from about 1175 to about 1250; the section on 1198 to 1220 written soon after the events). The fullest German narrative of the throne war from the Welf and Cologne side. Read online
• Chronicle of Hainaut, Gislebert of Mons (about 1195 to 1196). Ends in 1195, so it has no 1200 entries, but it is the indispensable background for Flanders and Hainaut: the career of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders), his union of the two counties, the settlement with Philip over Artois, the rights, castles, fiefs and vassals of Hainaut listed by a man who ran its chancery, and the youth of Baldwin IX, who held both counties in 1200. Read online

8 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.