Aosta and lands in Valais, all at the expense of local bishops and archbishops; the territory came to be known as the county of Savoy
.
Biography
Family
Humbert was the son of Amadeus, who may or may not have preceded him as
counts of Albon).[7] It is also likely that Humbert was related to Ermengarde of Burgundy, second wife of Rudolf III.[8]
Humbert initially held lands around Belley and in the county of Sermorens,[9] before gaining lands in Aosta and Valais.[10]
Humbert and the empire
After Rudolf III's death (1032), Humbert I swore fealty to
Aribert, Archbishop of Milan.[12] In return, Conrad II appointed Humbert count of Savoy and granted him Maurienne, Chablais and perhaps Tarentaise.[13] These imperial grants to a loyal supporter secured key passes through the Alps, controlling trade between Italy and Western Europe, which would be the core of Savoy power for centuries.[14]
Marriage and children
Humbert married Ancelie (Auxilia or Ancilia). She may have been Ancilla of Aoste, the daughter of vir illustris Anselme of Aoste[15] or Ancilla of Lenzburg, the daughter of the master of ceremonies of Burgundy. Alternatively, Ancilla may have been a daughter of Anselm and Aldiud, and thus a member of a northern Italian dynasty known as the Anselmids.[16]
With his wife, Humbert had at least four sons:
Humbert is often said to have died c. 1047/8 at Hermillon, a town in the Maurienne region of present-day Savoie, France.[17] More recently, it has been suggested that he died by 1042.[18]
^The title was held to signify his generosity, but may have been a posthumous confusion of a late-medieval record which referred to the walls of his castle (in Latin) as blancis moenibus.[1]
^On the identity of Humbert's wife, see Previté-Orton, Early History, pp. 10f., 19ff., 67f., 71; Die Urkunden der burgundischen Rudolfinger, p. 23 n.11.
^Previté-Orton, Early History, pp. 39f., 69; Hellmann, Grafen, p. 10
C. W. Previté-Orton, The Early History of the House of Savoy (1000-1233) (Cambridge, 1912), accessible online at: archive.org
S. Hellmann, Die Grafen von Savoyen und das Reich: bis zum Ende der staufischen Periode (Innsbruck, 1900), accessible online (but without page numbers) at: Genealogie Mittelalter
Die Urkunden der burgundischen Rudolfinger, ed. T. Schieffer, MGH DD Burg (Munich, 1977), accessible online at: Monumenta Germaniae Historia
C. Ducourthial, Géographie du pouvoir en pays de Savoie au tournant de l'an Mil, in C. Guilleré, J-M. Poisson, L. Ripart and C. Ducourthial, eds., Le royaume de Bourgogne autour de l'an mil (Chambéry, 2008), pp. 207–246.
Laurent Ripart, Les fondements idéologiques du pouvoir des comtes de la maison de Savoie (de la fin du Xe siècle au début du XIIIe siècle (unpublished PhD thesis,
