Amédée
de Savoie
Titular Prince of Achaia
(1363–1402)
Biographical
Titular Prince of Achaia 1368–1402†
Signore di Piemonte 1368–1402†
After his father amended his will to appoint Amédée his principal heir,
his elder half-brother, Philippe, rebelled and between 1366 and 1367,
occupied his father's land with the military. Amedeo, and his brother,
Louis, fled to Savoy with their mother, Marguerite de Beaujeu, and returned
after their father's death in 1367. The crisis ended after Philippe was
imprisoned and died in 1368. Amédée lived at the court of Amédée VI, count
of Savoy, who administered his dominions due to his young age. He came
of age in 1377, and Amédée VI arranged his marriage to Catherine de Genève.
He continued the political and military policies of Amédée VI and his
successor Amédée VII, who, in the 1370s and 1380s, considerably extended
the Savoy dominions on the two Alpine slopes. In the second half of the
1380s, Amedeo's troops joined those of the Comitali in the conflict between
the Savoy and the Marquises of Monferrato for control of various places
in the Canavese area and the Rocca di Verrua. At the end of the 1380s
Amédée attempted to regain control over the Greek principality of Achaia,
for which his grandfather, Philippe, had never received due compensation.
Amédée obtained the support of Clement VII, who in 1387 invalidated the
sale of Achaia carried out by Joan of Anjou in favour of the knights of
Rhodes. Amedeo, was also supported in the enterprise by Amédée VII, Venice,
Genoa and the Visconti. He entered into negotiations with the aristocracy
of Morea and with other powers of the region, such as the despot of Romania,
Theodore Palaeologus, and Neri Acciaiuoli, lord of Athens. In 1391 an
agreement was formulated in Venice which provided for the vassal homage
of the local nobility to Amédée, who travelled to the region in 1392 with
a contingent of armed men and cash aid. But Count Amédée VII died suddenly,
and the project was interrupted. After his return to Piedmont that year,
Amédée dedicated the rest of the decade in attempts to consolidate the
Savoy dominion on the Italian side of the Alps. War between Savoy and
Montferrat was almost incessant. In 1396 Monferrato lost Mondovì,
and it submitted to Amédée. Despite various truces, the conflict with
Monferrato continued into the fifteenth century. After his death, Amédée
was succeeded by his brother, Louis.
Place of birth: Pinerolo?
Place of death: Pinerolo
Place of burial: Pinerolo
Son of Jacques d Savoie and Marguerite de Beaujeu. He married Catherine
de Genève in 1380, and had issue.
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