County of Savoy, 1 January 1200

The Humbertine county astride the Mont Cenis and the Great Saint Bernard, ruled by a young count of about 21 with a Genevan wife and an heir.

Its strength is the passes and their tolls; its weakness, that bishops, abbeys and vassals hold much of every valley, and that Chambery, Geneva and Turin are not its own.

Who rules

Name: Thomas I (Thomas Ier, Tommaso I)
Title: Count of Savoy
Since: 1189, on the death of his father Humbert III (4 March 1189)
Born: 1178, at the castle of Charbonnieres by Aiguebelle in the Maurienne (day not pinned); about 21 on 1 January 1200
Family: Son of Humbert III and Beatrice of Vienne. Tutored in his minority by his father's cousin Boniface of Montferrat, with a regency council in which his mother weighed heavily.
Confidence: high

fr.wikipedia Thomas Ier de Savoie.

Overlord

The emperor

The realm that morning

Rules in person; at peace on record. Leans to Philip of Swabia through his archbishop and his neighbours, without a recorded act of his own before 1207.

Threats

The Dauphin on the Isere
The bishops of Geneva, Sion and Turin
A Welf victory in Germany

Consort

Margaret (Beatrice-Margaret) of Geneva, daughter of Count William I of Geneva and sister of Count Humbert, married about May 1196; her father had reportedly meant her for the king of France.

Heirs

Amadeus, born 1197. fr.wikipedia also places Beatrice in 1198 and Thomas in 1199; other lists put them later, so their presence on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Court

Not pinned; Montmelian and Charbonnieres are the counts' strongholds. Chambery is not yet theirs (bought in part in 1232).

Lands

About 25 strongholds in the Maurienne, Novalaise, Tarentaise, the Val di Susa, the Val d'Aosta, the Chablais, the Bugey, Piedmont and the Viennois. Charter of franchises to Aosta (1191); parage with the abbot of Saint-Rambert for Saint-Rambert and Cornillon (1196); authority at Turin restored in 1191 by the marquises of Montferrat and Saluzzo (not effective in 1200, not pinned).

Staufen ties

Henry VI had invaded Piedmont and the Susa valley around 1187 against Humbert III, which pushed the house toward the emperor. On the double election Savoy is reckoned Staufen: Aymon, archbishop of Tarentaise in the count's lands, crowned Philip of Swabia at Mainz in September 1198. But Thomas is not among the signatories of the princes' declaration for Philip at Speyer (28 May 1199), which his neighbours Otto of Burgundy, Berthold V of Zahringen and the archbishop of Besancon did sign, so on 1 January 1200 his own commitment is not attested.

The first firm tie is Philip's confirmation of Thomas's inheritance in 1207, with the fief of Moudon and the fiefs of Chieri and Testona; Frederick II later makes him imperial vicar in Lombardy (1226).

Rome and interdict

Imperial ground. The archbishop of Tarentaise's coronation of Philip of Swabia is held against him at Rome (campaign notes).

Coinage

Not pinned (the counts struck coin at Susa and Aiguebelle in the twelfth century; not checked).

The host

Vassals of the Maurienne and Savoy, the valley castellanies.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

13 January 1200Otto I, count palatine of Burgundy, is murdered at Besancon, next door to Savoy's northern neighbours; a minority follows in the Franche-Comte.Depends on: As in the brief Stopped by: Play changing Otto's circumstances

Where the sources disagree

Thomas's marriage is often dated 1195; fr.wikipedia gives about May 1196.

Evidence: Count and family attested; officers and court not.

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.