In 1352, he won his fi rst military victory. At a tourna-
ment held during the following Christmas season, his
elaborate use of green robes and trappings earned him
the sobriquet “Green Count”—a name that would last
and an identity that he would continue to cultivate delib-
erately. By 1360, through both military and diplomatic
assertion, Amadeo had expanded his territories in the
western Alps, including signifi cant areas of present-day
France and Switzerland, and thus consolidated the west-
ern regions of the nascent Savoyard state. In many of
these regions, he remained a vassal of the French king,
whose cousin he took as his fi rst wife in 1355; it was
only by a turn of circumstances that Amadeo did not
participate in the battle of Poitiers the following year and
thus escaped being captured there with his overlord.
Amadeo was drawn meanwhile to protect the inter-
ests of his southern holdings in the Piedmont. Through
the marriage in 1350 of his sister Bianca to Galeazzo
II Visconti of Milan (Bianca and Galeazzo II became
the parents of the great Gian Galeazzo), Amadeo de-
veloped cordial relations with the powerful Visconti
family, eventually consolidating power over territories
he had held in vassalage to them. He accomplished an
uneasy subjection of his cousin of the Achaea branch,
Giacomo, whose territories he annexed and with whom
he developed a long and bitter rivalry. This rivalry was
extended to Giacomo’s son Filippo, whom Amadeo
was fi nally to destroy in 1368. In a campaign in 1363,
Amadeo subjected his rebellious vassal the marquis of
Saluzzo. Two years later, Amadeo entertained the Holy
Roman emperor Charles IV, who confi rmed Amadeo’s
title of imperial vicar over areas that corresponded to
much of the old kingdom of Aries. This status was more
symbolic than real, but it allowed Amadeo to play off his
dependency on the French crown against his vassalage
to the empire.
In 1364, Amadeo was caught up in schemes for
a crusade being fostered by Pierre de Lusignan, the
king of Cyprus. Amadeo formally “took the cross” and
organized a crusading Order of the Collar, signaling
his new ambition to distinguish himself in this sphere.
However, he was drawn away from Lusignan’s project
by an idea of collaborating with Louis the Great of
Hungary against the Turks, who were progressing in
the Balkans. He was also distracted by the needs of the
Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos (Palaeologus),
his fi rst cousin through their shared Montferrat links;
Amadeo might have seen himself as a distant pretender
to John’s title. Leaving his wife as regent, Amadeo set
forth in the spring of 1366, sailing from Venice with a
substantial military force. John was himself visiting the
Hungarian court when Amadeo set out for Constanti-
nople. The Green Count undertook some immediate
military operations on his way, compelling the Turks
to surrender the crucial port city of Gallipoli, and thenmaking a demonstration against the Bulgarian king, who
was preventing John’s return to his capital.
Amadeo’s limited resources prevented anything more
than token local military operations. Nevertheless, on
the basis of discussions held during the winter, Amadeo
persuaded John to appeal directly to Pope Urban V for
more aid against the Turks. John achieved few practical
results from this, but Amadeo established his own stat-
ure as an international diplomat and a valiant crusader.
Following his triumphant return to Italy in the summer
of 1367, Amadeo personally attended Urban V on his
arrival in Rome from Avignon.
In the following years, Amadeo was caught up in the
tangle of northern Italian politics, which were strained
by the bold new ambitions of the Visconti, directed es-
pecially against the lands of Montferrat. By July 1372,
Amadeo joined a broad alliance against the Visconti—
the coalition included Pope Gregory XI; the princes
of Montferrat, Este, and Carrara; the queen of Naples;
and the republics of Genoa and Florence. Accepting
the command of the allies’ forces, Amadeo broke the
Visconti’s siege of Asti and, in concert with the league’s
other commander, John Hawkwood, discomfi ted the
enemy forces. In the spring of 1374, satisfi ed with his
record, Amadeo withdrew from the league and became
reconciled with the Visconti; but relations between the
house of Savoy and the Visconti continued to be pre-
carious. Through complex manipulations, Amadeo was
able to annex considerable areas of Montferrat lands,
although Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who was in power by
1378, retained Asti.
As he consolidated the Savoy lands, Amadeo began
to develop orderly institutions for his nascent state. The
Great Schism of 1378 brought the election of the French
counterpope Clement VII, a cousin of Amadeo. Clem-
ent was naturally recognized gladly by Savoy, which
benefi ted from his resolutions of some jurisdictional
disputes. By 1380, Amadeo became concerned about the
expansion of the latest war between Genoa and Venice;
initially, this was a confl ict over the Greek island of
Tenedos, but it expanded into the “Chiogga war,” with
a scrambling of alliances that threatened the balance of
power in northern Italy and encouraged the Visconti’s
aggression. Amadeo’s offer of mediation was accepted,
and his negotiation of the Peace of Turin (April 1381)
established him even more fi rmly as a statesman of in-
ternational stature. One faction in strife-ridden Genoa
even offered Amadeo the protectorship of the city, with
the title of doge. Meanwhile, with the Visconti momen-
tarily checked again, Amadeo established his theoretical
rights over Asti (though not actual control of it) and,
more tangibly, secured possession of the important
border city of Cuneo.
Amadeo is said to have dreamed of a new crusade,
directly to the Holy Land. But his fi nal adventure insteadAMADEO VI, COUNT OF SAVOY