Walter V of Brienne
Encyclopedia
Gautier or Walter V of Brienne (c. 1275 – 15 March 1311) was born in Brienne-le-Château
Brienne-le-Château
Brienne-le-Château is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. It is located from the right bank of the Aube River and 26 m. northeast of Troyes....

, Aube
Aube
Aube is a department in the northeastern part of France named after the Aube River. In 1995, its population was 293,100 inhabitants.- History :Aube is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

, Champagne
Champagne (province)
The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. He was the son of Hugh de Candie des Brienne, known as Hugh of Brienne
Hugh of Brienne
Hugh de Candie, Count of Brienne and Lecce was the second surviving son of Count Walter IV of Brienne and Marie de Lusignan of Cyprus....

, Count of Brienne and Lecce
Lecce
Lecce is a historic city of 95,200 inhabitants in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce, the second province in the region by population, as well as one of the most important cities of Puglia...

, and Isabella de la Roche, daughter of Guy I of la Roche, Duke of Athens
Duchy of Athens
The Duchy of Athens was one of the Crusader States set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade, encompassing the regions of Attica and Boeotia, and surviving until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century....

. He was the heir of the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Hugh, Count of Brienne claimed the regency of Jerusalem in 1264 as senior heir of Hugh I of Cyprus and Alice of Jerusalem, being the son of their eldest daughter, but was passed over by the Haute Cour in favor of his cousin Hugh III of Cyprus. This claim fell to his son Walter V of Brienne and...

 and of Cyprus, as well as to Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....

 and Sicily.

Walter spent his youth as a hostage in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, in the castle of Agosta. On the death of his father Hugh in 1296, Walter inherited the titles of Count of Brienne, Conversano
Conversano
Conversano is an ancient town and comune in the province of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located 30 km south-east of Bari, 7 km from the Adriatic coast, at 219 m above sea-level....

 and Lecce. Like his father, he took up arms in the service of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

, but was captured in an ambush at Gagliano
Gagliano
Gagliano may refer to:* Gagliano Aterno, Abruzzo, Italy* Gagliano Castelferrato, Sicily, Italy* Gagliano del Capo, Lecce, Apulia, Italy* Gagliano , a fictional town in the novel Christ Stopped at EboliPeople with the surname Gagliano:...

 in 1300. He was freed in 1302 with the signing of the Treaty of Caltabellotta. The death of his mother's first cousin, Guy II of la Roche, in 1308 brought him the Duchy of Athens. There he found himself hard pressed by the Despot of Epirus
Despotate of Epirus
The Despotate or Principality of Epirus was one of the Byzantine Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond...

, the Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus and the Lord of Vlachia. In 1310, he hired the Catalan Company
Catalan Company
The Catalan Company of the East , officially the Magnas Societas Catalanorum, sometimes called the Grand Company and widely known as the Catalan Company, was a free company of mercenaries founded by Roger de Flor in the early 14th-century...

, then ravaging the Byzantine empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, to fight the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 encroaching on his territory. After the Company had successfully reduced his enemies, he attempted to expel the Company from Athens with their pay in arrears. The Company refusing this, Walter marched out with a strong force of French knights from Athens, the Morea and Naples and Greek foot from Athens. Walter's army met the Catalans at the Battle of Halmyros
Battle of Halmyros
The Battle of Halmyros, of Orchomenos, or of the Cephissus was fought on 15 March 1311 between the Frankish Greek forces of Walter V of Brienne and the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, resulting in a devastating victory for the Catalans....

 on the river Cephissus
Cephissus (Boeotia)
The northern Cephissus river or Cephisus rises at Lilaea in Phocis and flows by Delphi through Boeotia and eventually issues into Lake Copais which is therefore also called the Cephisian Lake...

 in Boeotia
Boeotia
Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

 on 15 March 1311. The Catalans won a devastating victory, killing Walter and almost all of his cavalry, and seizing his Duchy of Athens, excepting only the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia
Argos and Nauplia
During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos and Nauplia formed a separate Lordship within the Frankish Principality of Achaea in southern Greece....

. His son Walter VI of Brienne
Walter VI of Brienne
Walter VI of Brienne was Count of Brienne, Conversano, and Lecce, and titular Duke of Athens. Walter was the son of Walter V, Duke of Athens, and Jeanne de Châtillon , the daughter of the Count of Porcien, a constable to King Philip IV of France.As grandson of Hugh of Brienne Walter VI of Brienne...

 succeeded him in all his titles; the Catalan Company nominated one of the surviving knights, Roger Deslaur
Roger Deslaur
Roger Deslaur or Desllor, an almogàver from Roussillon in the service of Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens, was one of the few knights to survive the bloody Battle of Halmyros on 15 March 1311...

, as their leader and new Duke of Athens by conquest.

In the year 1306 he married Jeanne de Châtillon and had two children:
  • Walter VI of Brienne
    Walter VI of Brienne
    Walter VI of Brienne was Count of Brienne, Conversano, and Lecce, and titular Duke of Athens. Walter was the son of Walter V, Duke of Athens, and Jeanne de Châtillon , the daughter of the Count of Porcien, a constable to King Philip IV of France.As grandson of Hugh of Brienne Walter VI of Brienne...

     (c. 1304–1356), his successor as Count of Brienne and Lecce and Lord of Argos and Nauplia, as well as the titular Duke of Athens
  • Isabella of Brienne
    Isabella of Brienne
    Isabella of Brienne was suo jure Countess of Lecce and Conversano, claimant to the Duchy of Athens and Kingdom of Jerusalem, etc.-Family and early years:...

     (1306–1360), married Walter of Enghien and succeeded her brother on his death
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