John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CAS ROYAUX; PRIVATE WAR]
Cheyette, Frederic. “The Royal Safeguard in Medieval France.” Studia Gratiana 15(1972):631–52.
Kaeuper, Richard. War, Justice, and Public Order: England and France in the Later Middle Ages.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1988.
SAVOY
. The county, then duchy (1416) of Savoy formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy
during the Middle Ages and was never a part of the French kingdom, but the inhabitants
were French in language and culture. Members of the ruling family, originally known as
the counts of Maurienne, were often allies, vassals, and spouses of French princes.
Adelaide of Savoy was the wife of Louis VI and mother of Louis VII; Louis IX’s wife,
Marguerite de Provence, was the granddaughter of Count Thomas of Savoy, as was the
wife of Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily (r. 1266–85). In the later Middle Ages, Savoyard
princes intermarried with the princely houses of Bourbon, Berry, and Burgundy, and both
the wife of Louis XI and the mother of Francis I were Savoyard princesses.
Geographically, Savoy comprised the region of the French Alps centering on the basin
of Lake Le Bourget and the Isère Valley from Montmélian to the confluence with the
Arc; but politically, from an early date, it included the upper Isère watershed and the
Valle d’Aosta, the Arc Valley (Maurienne) and the Val di Susa, and the Swiss Valais, to
which were later added the Pays de Vaud (1263), Bresse (1285), Nice (1388), the
Genevois (1401), and the Italian Piedmont (1418), which had long been ruled by a cadet
branch of the house of Savoy. Savoy was the principal gateway to Italy for medieval
French rulers, merchants, and pilgrims. Under Duke Amadeus VIII (1391–1451), who
became the antipope Felix V (r. 1440–49), the court of Savoy was a center of patronage
for French artists, writers, and musicians. According to the Chanson de Roland, it was in
the “vales of Moriane” (Maurienne) that Charlemagne gave Roland his famous sword
Durendal.
Eugene L.Cox
[See also: ADELAIDE OF SAVOY]
Bautier, Robert-Henri, and Janine Sornay. Les sources de l’histoire économique et sociale du
moyen âge. Paris: CNRS, 1968, Vol. 1: Provence, Dauphiné, et états de la maison de Savoie.
Brondy, Rejane, Bernard Demotz, and Jean-Pierre Leguay. La Savoie de l’an mil à la réforme.
Évreux: Herissey, 1984.
Cox, Eugene L. The Green Count of Savoie: Amadeus VI and Transalpine Savoie in the Fourteenth
Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.
——. The Eagles of Savoie: The House of Savoie in Thirteenth-Century Europe. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1974.
Prévité-Orton, C.W. The Early History of the House of Savoie 1000–1223. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1912.
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