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Philippe de Savoie
(1340–68)

Other names: Philippe II de Savoie-Achaïe

Biographical

Seigneur de Soliers 1355

Jacques of Achaia had, by his second wife, Sibylle de Baux, a son, Philippe, whom in 1342, at the time of the contemplated union of that young prince with Marie ed Genève, he had 'emancipated', as the phrase was, and appointed his heir. But in 1362, Jacques, again a widower, married Marguerite de Beaujeu, who bore him two other sons, Amédée and Louis. Intent on gratifying his young wife, Jacques now annulled the dispositions made in behalf of his eldest son, and even secretly made a will, by which he destined Amédée to the succession of Piedmont, only bequeathing to Philippe a few lands and castles, which he was to hold as a vassal to his younger brother. This will bears the date of May 1366, and was made there fore a short time after the sailing of Amédée VI on his famous expedition to Constantinople. But the Green Count was already a party to the injustice that was intended to Philippe; he had, on the 7th of March, 1364, used his influence to induce the young prince to renounce, the succession; and there is now every reason to believe that the testamentary deed of Jacques was made with the Count's full knowledge and consent. Notwithstanding the secrecy which enveloped all these transactions, Philippe knew or suspected the injury he bad suffered, and rose in arms against his father. He took the English adventurers into his pay, and made himself so formidable at their head, that Marguerite de Beaujeu, with her two sons, took refuge in Savoy; and even Jacques of Achaia made his escape to Pavia, where he put himself under the protection of his ally, Galeazzo Visconti. Philippe however pursued his father even there, and, by a great show of repentance and submission, so far won the confidence of that doting parent, that he brought him back with him to Pinerolo. Jacques, indeed, even whilst he put himself in the power of his son, took good care to enter a protest against any act to which he might be brought by compulsion. This protest was drawn up in the castle of Pavia on the 25th of April, 1367. Nevertheless it is possible that, away from his cajoling wife, his affection for his eldest son revived, and recalled him to a sense of his injustice, as father and son seem to have been on good terms at Pinerolo, where Jacques even invested Philippe with the fief of Casal d’Osasco, an estate near that town, shortly before his death.

Immediately upon the decease of his father, Philippe assumed the title of Prince of Achaia: but Marguerite de Beaujeu came down from Savoy to dispute it by force of arms. Both parties however agreed to abide the return of Amédée VI, and the reading of Jacques’ will. Amédée VI came back in December, 1367; the will was opened in January, and instructions were given to carry it into effect. Philippe once more had recourse to arms, and Piedmont was delivered up to the ferocity of his English marauders. These kept aloof from Turin, whose walls offered an insurmountable barrier to their fury. They were repulsed at Carignano, which they had entered by surprise, but the open country and the smaller towns were turned into a smoking wilderness. The Count of Savoy, probably exhausted by his more glorious than profitable Eastern enterprise, was unable to afford relief to the Piedmontese. He limited himself to some underhand negotiations to win the foreign hirelings from Philippe, and ended at last by sending the latter a challenge to settle the dispute between them by single combat. Philippe, forsaken by his English company, had taken into his pay a German band, under the command of a chief called the Monk of Hecz. After a long delay, caused by Charles IV putting forth his Imperial veto, and Galeazzo Visconti restraining Philippe by more serious threats of his displeasure, the challenge was accepted, and the day, August 15th, appointed for the encounter. Fifty combatants were to appear against fifty: the Marquis of Montferrat was to be the judge and umpire. The lists were reared at Fossano. The combat, however. never took place. On the eve of the appointed day the Monk of Hecz, who with forty-eight of his troop was to enter the lists as champions of Philippe, deserted him, and with all his company passed over to the Count of Savoy.

Philippe now shut himself up at Fossano, but relying on a safe-conduct from Amédée VI, he met him at Savigliano, where, on the 21st of September, he consented to abide by the sentence of a council of arbitration appointed by the Count at Rivoli. Presently his presence at Rivoli was deemed necessary by the umpires. But Marguerite de Beaujeu had in the meantime also come to Rivoli, and she preferred forty-eight criminal charges against her stepson, demanding that he should be put under arrest. Amédée VI, with a show of impartiality, ordered the imprisonment of both plaintiff and defendant; but Marguerite was almost immediately released, and
Philippe, who had thus, step by step, been unsuspectingly brought into the power of his adversaries, was apprehended, on the 30th of September, and on the 7th of October conveyed to. the castle of Avigliana.

Here history loses sight of him. It is supposed that he died on the 13th of the same month, and that his body was found floating on
the little lake of Avigliana,—perhaps sentenced to die by drowning, a mode of execution sometimes practised by the Counts of Savoy,—perhaps dying by his own hand, and denied Christian burial as a suicide, and consigned to a watery grave. A dark, terrible mystery hangs over the fate of this prince. On the day of his arrest the umpires assembled at Rivoli declared the will of Jacques of Achaia to be valid; but on the accusations brought against Philippe by Marguerite de Beaujeu no sentence seems ever to have been pronounced. Those charges referred especially to Philippe’s ill- treatment of his father, and to the horrid scenes of devastation perpetrated by the English and German cut-throats under his orders. Those charges the ill-fated prisoner refuted to the best of his ability, and in the end threw himself on the mercy of the Count of Savoy, and invoked the safe-conduct which had twice, and in the very amplest and clearest terms, been issued in his favour. But—it is painful to have to record it against that chivalrous and loyal Amédée VI—his remonstrances were answered by miserable quibbles, and it seems very plain that his ruin was deliberately preconcerted. It is possible that his crimes may have filled all measures of clemency; that the wildness of his temper in early youth may have alienated both his father and his natural protector the Count of Savoy, so that, in the end, any means was deemed lawful that could bring, him to justice; but it is also not unreasonable to think that the worst traits in his character only came out when he was writhing under the sense of unmerited wrong.

Place of death: Avigliana

Son of Jacques de Savoie and Sibylle de Baux. He married Alix de Thoire, after 1362, and had no issue.

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