Walter III of Caesarea
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Walter III (French: Gautier), sometimes called Walter de Brisebarre or Walter Grenier (bef. 1180 – 24 June 1229), was the
Lord of Caesarea in the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1216. He was the eldest son of Juliana Grenier, Lady of Caesarea, and Guy de Brisebarre. Since he was witnessing royal charters by 1195, he must have been born no later than 1180. In the 1220s he was generally referred to as "the old lord of Caesarea", although probably only in his fifties.[1] He took part in two Crusades and in two civil wars on the side of the House of Ibelin
.
As a young man, Walter was frequently in attendance at the royal court. He witnessed charters of
John of Ibelin in 1206. On an act of Amalric's he is term "lord of Caesarea", although his mother was still living, as was her second husband, Aymar de Lairon, who subscribed as "lord of Caesarea" to the same charter of John of Ibelin witnessed by Walter. In 1200 and 1206 he was a witness on charters of his mother and Aymar.[1]
Loss of Caesarea and the Fifth Crusade
In 1206,
Siege of Damietta in 1218. By July he had returned to Nicosia, where the dowager queen, Alice, was regent for the new infant king, Henry I.[1]
In 1217–18, while Walter was in Egypt, a Muslim army threatened
Werner von Egisheim and the Republic of Genoa.[1] In 1220, Walter was at Nicosia at the court of Queen Alice, where he witnessed a charter of hers. In 1225, he was in Tyre for the coronation of Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem.[1]
Breakout of civil war and the Sixth Crusade
Walter III married Margaret, a sister of the ex-regent John of Ibelin and the regent of Cyprus,
Amaury Barlais and Anceau de Brie, which took place in Cyprus before Frederick's arrival at the head of the Sixth Crusade.[1]
After Frederick's arrival, he held a banquet in
bailliage of the kingdom. This was the spark which ignited the so-called War of the Lombards, a series of intermittent civil wars between those of the local baronage who sided with the Ibelins and those who sided with the Italians (i.e., Lombards) who followed Frederick to Cyprus. Only after a truce was arranged between the emperor and John, was the former able to continue his journey to Palestine. Walter accompanied him and witnessed one of his charters in Acre in April 1229.[1] He took possession of Caesarea again after Frederick signed the Treaty of Jaffa with Egypt on 11 February 1229. When war broke out on Cyprus again, he returned to fight for the Ibelins and died at the Battle of Nicosia on 24 June.[1]
Family
Walter was the second husband of Margaret of Ibelin, widow of
John of Gibelet. Helvis became a nun.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j John L. LaMonte, "The Lords of Caesarea in the Period of the Crusades", Speculum 22, 2 (1947): 154–56.
- ^ LaMonte, "Lords of Caesarea", 155 n. 68, mentions a charter of Henry I of Cyprus dated October 1217 and witnessed by Walter, but Henry did not become king until January 1218.
- L'estoire d'Eracles empereur, King John "closed the castle" (fermer le chastel).
- ^ LaMonte, "Lords of Caesarea", 155. The source for this episode, John of Ibelin's Assises, confuses Walter with his son.