Detail of Amadeus in a fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze in the Spanish Chapel: Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church and of the Dominican order c.1365
Amadeus VI (4 January 1334[1] – 1 March 1383[2]), nicknamed the Green Count (Italian: Il Conte Verde) was Count of Savoy from 1343 to 1383. He was the eldest son of Aymon, Count of Savoy and Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat. Though he began his rule under a regency, Amadeus quickly proved to be a decisive and capable leader, further advancing Savoy's rise as a political and military force in Europe. His most notable achievement was leading and personally financing the Savoyard Crusade against the Turks, during which he successfully aided the Byzantine emperor and extended Savoy's influence through both warfare and diplomacy.
Early years
When his father died in 1343, Amadeus inherited the County of Savoy. Since he was only nine years old, his father's will left two cousins as co-regents: Amadeus III of Geneva and Louis II of Vaud. The two agreed to a document limiting their power as regents. Neither could make any significant decision without the other, and the decisions of both were subject to review by the resident council of nobles representing all bailis in the county.[3]
Shortly after Amadeus took the county, his cousin Joan of Savoy renewed her claim on the County of Savoy, that she was descended from Amadeus's uncle Edward, Count of Savoy, though her claim had previously been denied under Savoy's Semi-Salic tradition. Though she died the following year, in her will she left the county to Philip, Duke of Orléans to spite her cousins. In 1345, he negotiated a similar settlement to the one Joan reached with Aymon, yielding the claim in exchange for 5000 livres annually.[4]
Coat of arms of the counts of Savoy
Amadeus was educated both physically and mentally. He enjoyed learning to fight and ride. His education included classic works such as De Re Militari and more modern texts, including De Regimine Principum.[5] He also showed religious devotion, requesting a portable altar and the right for his chaplain to say mass for him every morning wherever he may be. He took vows to fast more often than was healthy for him, and then asked Pope Clement VI to release him from these vows. The pope agreed, asking him instead to feed twelve of the poor weekly.[6]
When the young Angevin queen Joanna I of Naples took the throne, several in northern Italy sought to take advantage of her inexperience and seize her lands there. John II, Marquess of Montferrat led the first attacks, while James of Piedmont, a cousin and vassal of Amadeus, backed the queen. After her first army was defeated in 1345, the attackers moved next into the territory ruled by James. In 1347, James asked Amadeus for help, and Amadeus sent an army. That army swept the attackers back through July of that year, with Amadeus joining the fighting in the last few weeks. John then recruited the help of Humbert II, Dauphin of Viennois, an old enemy of the Savoyards, and Thomas II, Marquess of Saluzzo. Together, they conquered the Angevin lands. Pope Clement VI spent 1348 negotiating a truce to end the fighting, which none of the combatants were satisfied with.[7]
From 1348 through 1351, the Black Death ravaged the lands of Savoy, halving the population in some villages. In 1348, many of the peasants thought that it was caused by Jews poisoning wells and fountains. Though the castellans in some places tried to protect them, quite a few were killed. In Chambéry, the Jews were locked in the castle for their protection, but a mob broke in and killed several. Court officers were then pressured into finding the remainder guilty of poisoning, executing eleven and charging the remainder a fine of 160 florins per month for the next six years.[8]
In 1350, Guichard Tavel, the bishop of Sion and an ally of Savoy, attempted to take the rights of some nobles in Valais, a frontier of Savoy. When he and his followers were attacked in August 1351, Pope Clement VIexcommunicated the rebels, and Amadeus sent in thirty knights. Eight thousand peasants rose up in response and captured a couple of castles. A further one hundred knights were sent in and pushed the rebels back. In March 1352, Amadeus assembled an army, including Amadeus of Geneva and John of Montferrat, and the count swept through the valley in April. The rebels yielded quickly, and Amadeus re-established the authority over Sion that his uncle Edward had lost.[11]
16th century portrait of Amadeus VI, by an unknown painter
In the summer of 1352, Hugh of Geneva, uncle of Amadeus of Geneva and a noble within the Dauphiné, re-ignited the long-standing feud with Savoy. The count of Savoy insulted Amadeus of Geneva's honour related to the treaty he had negotiated between Savoy and the Dauphiné, and so Amadeus of Geneva left the council and challenged one of the others, William de la Baume, who had replaced Louis of Vaud on the council. On 6 June 1352, the Count of Savoy made an alliance with Albert II, Duke of Austria for mutual aid in conflict. Amadeus of Savoy gathered an army from his Italian lands to bring to war. As they were crossing the Alps, the rebellion in Valais and Sion broke out anew. Amadeus turned his army there first, and on 3 November defeated the rebels soundly. On the morning of the fourth, his advisor, William, knighted him. He then had part of the wall of Sion torn down, and his army pillaged the city. He also fined the citizens heavily.[12]
He earned the nickname the Green Count when, in celebration of his 19th birthday in 1353, he appeared in a series of tournaments dressed with green plumes upon his helm, a green silktabard over his armour, and his horse bearing green caparisons.[13] He entered with an escort of eleven knights dressed in green, each led by a lady also dressed in green, leading her knight's steed with a green cord. From then on, green was the favourite colour for his clothes and for his court.[14]
In the spring of 1353, Amadeus prepared his army to attack the Dauphiné. King John II of France intervened and settled a truce in July, as he was hoping to use both armies in Gascony against the English, continuing the Hundred Years' War. However, Hugh immediately broke the truce. Amadeus besieged Hugh's forces in Gex from 26 October through 11 November, when Amadeus defeated and burned the city. Pope Innocent VI and John both sent delegations to negotiate a truce, but Amadeus and Hugh continued their fight until April 1354. The fighting ended then when Amadeus destroyed Hugh's army near Les Abrets.[15]
In a treaty concluded in Paris in 1355, Amadeus agreed to exchange territory in Dauphiné beyond the rivers Rhone and Guiers, in exchange for recognition as the undisputed sovereign of Faucigny and the county of Gex, as well as becoming the suzerain lord over the Counts of Geneva, all of whose titles had been the subject of earlier contention between the Counts of Savoy and the Dauphins of Viennois. Amadeus also forced the Marquess of Saluzzo to pay him tribute, thus extending his rule to the Italian side of the Alps.[16]
Amadeus was appointed Imperial vicar of Arelat by the Holy Roman EmperorCharles IV in 1365 in an attempt, which did not succeed, to revive the imperial hold on the Kingdom of Arles (Arelat). The following year, Charles IV ceded his rights to the crown of Arles to CountLouis I of Anjou after, however, transferring the County of Savoy to the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Germany.
Crusade (1366-1367)
Military campaign of Amadeus VI against Bulgaria (1366–67)
In 1377, he ordered the installation of the first public mechanical clock in the region and established an officer to maintain it.[20] He created a system of state-supported poor relief, one of the first of its kind in the late medieval world.[21]
In 1381 at Turin, he mediated between Genoa and Venice and sponsored the peace treaty which brought an end to the War of Chioggia and the larger Venetian-Genoese War.[22] The Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice had for long argued over the ownership of the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea near the Dardanelles.[23] Eventually, it was agreed under the Treaty of Turin that as a compromise the island, after being depopulated and demilitarised, should be formally entrusted to Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, a cousin to the Palaiologos imperial family.[24]
Louis of Savoy, born late 1364, died before the end of the year[33]
In literature
Amadeus is one of the main characters in the New Weird novel La luce di Orione (2007) by Valerio Evangelisti. He is also a supporting character in the Chivalry series by Christian Cameron, with his epithet providing the title of the third novel, The Green Count (2017).[citation needed]
Coolidge, W. A. B. (October 1915). "The Passages of the Alps in 1518". The English Historical Review. 30 (120): 681–691. doi:10.1093/ehr/xxx.cxx.681. Le Col d'Argentière qui est en la terre nove de la conté de Nyce qui souloit estre du païs de Provence. Et fut baillée en gaige pour certaine somme d'argent que l'on dit de lx mille escuzau conte Vert pour lors comte de Savoye.
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