User:Paramandyr/Guy VIII
Guy VIII of Laval (c. 1245 - 22 August 22 1295), lord of Laval, of Châtillon-en-Vendelais, of Loué, of Olivet, of Aubigné and baron of Vitré. He was also count of Caserta(near Naples). He succeeded his father and mother in the Barony of Laval, Barony of Vitré, of Acquigny, etc. and in the viscounty of Rennes.
Family
[edit]Guy VIII was the son of Guy VII de Laval and Philippa de Vitré.
In 1260 Guy married Isabelle de Beaumont-Gâtinais, Countess of Caserta, daughter and heiress presumptive of Guillaume de Beaumont-Gâtinais]], Lord of Passy-sur-Marne and Villemomble, and Count of Caserta, near Naples, by the gift that Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily, had made to him. Guy remarried in 1286 with Jeanne de Brienne de Beaumont, daughter of Louis I de Brienne, Viscount of Maine, and of Agnès de Beaumont-au-Maine. From this marriage came the branch of Laval-Roix.
Guy VIII de Laval and Isabelle de Beaumont-Gâtinais had:
- Guy IX de Laval
- Guillaume, lord of Passy-sur-Marne, died in 1283 without posterity
Guy VIII de Laval and Jeanne de Brienne had eight children:
- André de Laval , lord of Châtillon-en-Vendelais
- Guy de Laval, bishop of Quimper, then bishop of Le Mans
- Louis, lord of Aubigné, who lived in 1323
- Thibault de Laval|, lord of Loué, killed at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356
- Matthieu
- Philippine, lady of Princé, who married Guillaume Le Voyer, lord of Paulmy in Touraine, then Guillaume II of Rochefort, lord of Assérac, Viscount of Donges
- Agnès, nun, abbess of Maubuisson
- Catherine, nun at the Abbey of Étival-en-Charnie
His widow Jeanne de Brienne survived until 1333 and was abbess of the Abbey of Étival-en-Charnie.
Sicily
[edit]He participated with the Charles I of Anjou, accompanied by his father, in the expedition to the kingdom of Sicily around 1266.
In 1267, when his father died, he inherited the property of the house of Laval.
Two judgments of the parliament of Paris rendered in 1267 and 1268 show that Guy had not limited himself to demanding immoderate subsidies from his vassals; he had also invaded the land of Attichy. The lordship of Attichy was assured as a dower to Thomasse de Pouancé, his father's second wife. The latter filed a complaint and Guy having not returned within the time limit granted to him, it was decided that, notwithstanding her opposition, his mother-in-law would be restored to possession of what belonged to her.
The war began again in Sicily]]. Conradin, grandson of the emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire, asserted his claims to the crown of Charles I of Anjou, and the latter, not very confident in the support of his new subjects, had recourse a second time to the valor of the lords of France. Guillaume de Beaumont-Gâtinais, father-in-law of Guy VIII, possessed in the kingdom of Naples the county of Caserta, which he had received from Charles, as a reward for the part he had taken in the conquest. His son-in-law was therefore directly interested in coming to the aid of this prince; he went to Italy the same year that Guy VII died and fought at the Battle of Tagliacozzo, near L'Aquila where Conradin was defeated (24 August 24).
The Crusades
[edit]The following year was devoted to preparations for a new crusade. Saint Louis, faced with the failure of his first expedition, managed to persuade his barons to follow him this time again. For The Art of Verifying Dates, he accompanied in 1270, the king Louis IX of France in his expedition to Africa. He participated in the eighth crusade in 1269. He participated with Louis IX of France in the eighth crusade. There he saw the Christian army decimated by the illness and death of Saint-Louis. For Bertrand de Broussillon, no document allows us to affirm with Pierre Le Baud that Guy VIII took part in the crusade of Tunis during which Saint Louis perished.
The following year, back in France, Guy went well accompanied by his noble vassals to help Philip III of France, son of Saint-Louis, to reduce Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix. His participation is established by the minutes of the appearance of the bannerets, where we learn that, having to be accompanied by three knights, Guy VIII had arrived in Tours, with Jean le Boche, Guillaume "Noturum" and Luc de Chemiré.
At the siege of Ramiers, Philippe had him return a sum of 60 pounds. He had lent it to Alphonse de Poitiers, uncle of the king, during the trip to Africa. Tolosae committee, in debitis continetur. Acium apud Apamiam, die Martis ante Pentecostam, anno Demini 1272..
Caserta
[edit]Guy was able to return to Italy in 1275, this time not to fight, but to take possession of the County of Caserta, of which the almost simultaneous death of his father-in-law and his wife made him heir. The length of his stay in this country is unknown.
In 1283, Guy de Laval was, as Count of Caserta, in the Kingdom of Naples, one of the principal lords who went to Bordeaux, to support Charles I of Sicily, King of Sicily, against Peter III of Aragon. In the spring of the year 1285, having put himself at the head of his vassals, he went to join the army that King Philip the Bold was leading against the King of Aragon did not fail to grant his uncle the help that the latter asked him for; the French army went to join him in the plains of San-Martino; but the King of Aragon did not want to accept the battle. He sent word to Charles that it would be a great pity if so many brave people killed each other for their quarrel and that it would be better to end it with a fight between the two of them, each assisted only by a hundred knights. Guy accompanied the king throughout the campaign that followed. After several advantages won by the French army over the King of Aragon, it ended with the death of Pierre III in Perpignan in 1285.
Death
[edit]In 1286, he made a second alliance with Jeanne de Beaumont-Brienne. He had 8 children and fearing that his succession would be a cause of unpleasant discussions between them, with their common consent and that of Guy, son of Ysabeau, he divided his property between them during his lifetime (1292) between the eldest and the younger the following goods. In attributing these goods to the sons of Guy VIII, account was taken of the prohibition of breaking up the land and barony of Laval, carried by Guy VII; the feudal link was not broken. The lordships attributed to the brothers of the Baron of Laval had to be held from him, according to the customs of the countries where they were located, in Brittany as junior lord of the elder, in Maine, in parage.
Resumption of arms
[edit]Before taking up arms again to go to Aquitaine to fight the English under the leadership of Charles de Valois, brother of Philip IV of France, Guy VIII, as if he had a presentiment of his imminent death, recorded his last wishes in a will (1294).
According to the Hosts of the Duke of Brittany Jean II of Brittany, held in Ploermel in 1294, on the Thursday after the Assumption (in the month of August), Guy VIII acknowledged owing the Duke's army five men-at-arms for his lands of Aubigné, Martigné, Coêmes and Rétiers. The Man or knight of the latter fief had to surrender to the orders of the baron of Vitré, if the latter called him first, otherwise he had to obey the call of the lord of La Guerche, if this call preceded him.
He left in 1294, following Charles, Count of Valois, for the war that this prince waged in Auvergne, and took part in the siege and capture of Riom. From there, having gone to the siege of Saint-Sever, having opposed the armies of King Philip IV of France and those of Edward I of England, he fell ill there; and having been carried to Isle-Jourdain, he died there on the Monday after the Assumption (22 August 1295).
His knights deposited his entrails in the Abbey of Notre-Dame de la Réau and brought back his body. His body was brought back and placed next to that of Isabelle, his first wife.