Isabella, Countess of Brienne

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Isabella, Countess of Brienne
Born1306
Died1360 (aged 53–54)
Jeanne de Châtillon

Isabella of Brienne (1306–1360) was

Countess of Lecce and Conversano, claimant to the Duchy of Athens and Kingdom of Jerusalem, etc.[1]

Early life

Isabella was daughter of

Hugh of Brienne, Count of Lecce etc., she was a descendant of the Kings of Jerusalem and of Cyprus
.

Her father's life was largely spent in Greece, where he tried to win back his mother's inheritance, the Duchy of Athens. Walter V of Brienne hired the

Jeanne de Châtillon (died 1354), daughter of count of Porcien, may have tried to hold the Acropolis of Athens
against the attacking Catalans, but eventually surrendered it.

The Brienne family retainers continued to hold the

Brienne-le-Chateau. The impoverished family was not able to provide better, and Isabella married Walter III of Enghien,[2] whose lordships in and around the Hainaut were not unsubstantial (Condé, Enghien
).

Countess of Lecce and Brienne

Her brother

Sohier of Enghien
resided in Greece and held Argos and Nauplia.

Isabella survived her brother, whom she succeeded, and died in 1360. Her husband Walter of Enghien had died in 1345.

For a few years, she was Countess of Lecce and Brienne, as well as titular Duchess of Athens and of other claimed titles. Since her eldest son Gauthier had died before her brother, her heir was her second son

Sohier of Enghien
. She allowed her inherited lands to be divided between her numerous children during her own lifetime.

Isabella's brother Gauthier had left Greece sometime in the 1340s, and her eldest surviving son Sohier of Enghien apparently was resident lord of Argos and Nauplia from c. 1350. In the division of the inheritance in 1356–60, he received the title of Duke of Athens, and certain rights in Argos-Nauplia. However, her sixth son Guy of Enghien received the lordship of Argos and Nauplia in the division and resided there as the lord from 1356 to 1377. Guy was also sometimes titled Duke of Athens, although the title officially belonged to his elder brother and the latter's son, and they as Dukes of Athens were overlords of Guy and Guy's heirs.

Isabella's fourth son Louis of Enghien, Lord of Conversano, received the (titular) Duchy of Athens in 1381, when his nephew's inheritance was divided.

Guy's daughter Maria d'Enghien, Isabella's granddaughter, married Pietro Cornaro, a Venetian. They sold the lordship to Venice in 1388.

Her main inheritance went, after some interludes, to the children of her third son John of Enghien: Peter I of Enghien, who died childless, and Mary of Enghien (1367–1446).

Children

Isabella's children were:

  1. Walter (June 5, 1322 – November 18, 1340)
  2. Isabella (d. December 28, 1357), Abbess of
    Flines
  3. Sohier
    (d. March 21, 1364), count of Brienne, titular duke of Athens
  4. John, (d. 1380), count of Lecce and lord of Castro (father of Mary of Enghien)
  5. Margaret, married Pierre de Préaux
  6. Louis
    (d. March 17, 1394), lord (later count) of Conversano, later count of Brienne and titular duke of Athens
  7. James, a canon in Liège
  8. lord of Argos and Nauplia
  9. Engelbert (c. 1330–February 20, 1403), lord of Ramerupt, La Follie, and Seneffe
  10. Frances, married Peter, Count of Montebello
  11. Joan, a nun at Flines

Notes

  1. ^ killed at the Battle of Halmyros near Thebes, Greece, in 1311

References

  1. ^ Fernand de Sassenay, Les Brienne de Lecce et d'Athènes, 1869.
  2. ^ a b Perry 2018, p. xxiii.

Sources

  • Perry, Guy (2018). The Briennes: The Rise and Fall of a Champenois Dynasty in the Age of the Crusades, c.950-1356. Cambridge University Press.


Isabella, Countess of Brienne
House of Brienne
Born: 1306 Died: 1360
Preceded by
Walter VI
 Countess of Brienne
1356–1360 		Succeeded by
Countess of Lecce
1356–1357 		Succeeded by
John
Countess of Conversano
1356–1357 		Succeeded by
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