The Barony of Vaud was an appanage

Appanage

An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...

 of the County of Savoy

County of Savoy

The Counts of Savoy emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom of Arles in the 11th century....

, corresponding roughly to the modern Canton of Vaud in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. It was created by a process of acquisition on the part of a younger brother of reigning count beginning in 1234 and culminated in the formalisation of its relationship to the county in 1286. It ceased to exist as a semi-independent state, capable of entering into relations with its ultimate lord, the Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

 (as it did in 1284) or of fighting alongside the French in the Hundred Years' War

Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...

, when it was bought by the count in 1359. It was then integrated into the budding Savoyard State, where the title Baron of Vaud (Italian barone di Vaud) remained a subsidiary title of the heads of the family at least as late as the reign of Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert was the King of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. He succeeded his distant cousin Charles Felix, and his name is bound with the first Italian statute and the First War of Independence...

, although the territory of the barony was annexed by the Canton of Bern during the Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 (1536).

Geography and economy

The pays de Vaud at the time of the its purchase by the Count of Savoy in 1359 comprised fertile farmland probably yielding more revenues annually than the neighbouring County of Geneva

County of Geneva

The County of Geneva, largely corresponding to the later Genevois province, originated in the tenth century, in the Burgundian Kingdom of Arles which fell to the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.-History:...

. It lay between the lakes Geneva

Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...

 and Neuchâtel

Lake Neuchâtel

Lake Neuchâtel is a lake in Romandy, Switzerland . The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by the cantons of Vaud, of Fribourg, and of Bern....

, and between Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, which was the seat of the Bishop of Lausanne

Bishop of Lausanne

The Bishop of Lausanne was a Prince-Bishop of the Holy Roman Empire and the Ordinary of the diocese of Lausanne, Switzerland .Bern secularized the bishopric in 1536....

, to the west and Bern, which was a self-governing commune

Medieval commune

Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...

, to the east. It lay on important trade routes leading from the Alpine passes of the Great St Bernard and Simplon

Simplon

Simplon is the name of a region in the Alps. It can refer specifically to:* Simplon Pass and Tunnel* Simplon , a former French département corresponding with modern Valais, Switzerland* Simplon, Valais, a Swiss municipality...

 along its lakeside paths northwards into Germany

Kingdom of Germany

The Kingdom of Germany developed out of the eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire....

 and westward into France

France in the Middle Ages

France in the Middle Ages covers an area roughly corresponding to modern day France, from the death of Louis the Pious in 840 to the middle of the 15th century...

.

The appanage of Vaud that was formally ceded to the younger brother of the count in January 1286 was a fief of the count owing liege homage. A few lords of the pays de Vaud remained liege vassals of the count and their lands were not a part of the barony of Vaud. These were the Count of Gruyère and the lords of Châtel

Châtel

Châtel is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It is situated in the northern French Alps on the French/Swiss border and is a popular ski resort...

 and Cossonay

Cossonay

Cossonay is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district of Morges.-History:Cossonay has both Roman ruins and medieval graves. The first documentation of the settlement dates from 1096 under the name Cochoniacum...

. Politically, the barony of Vaud was divided into ten castellan

Castellan

A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...

ies centred on Nyon

Nyon

Nyon is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva, and is the seat of the district of...

, Rolle

Rolle

Rolle is a municipality in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It was the seat of the district of Rolle until 2006, when it became part of the district of Nyon. It is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Geneva between Nyon and Lausanne...

, Morges

Morges

Morges is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Morges and is also the seat of the district.-History:...

 (which was the baronial capital, where homage was received and the administration overseen), Moudon

Moudon

Moudon is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It was the seat of the district of Moudon and is now in the Broye-Vully district.-History:...

 (which was the first Savoyard acquisition in the region in 1207), Estavayer, Romont

Romont

Romont may refer to:*Romont, Fribourg, Switzerland*Romont, Berne, Switzerland...

, Rue

Rue, Switzerland

Rue is a municipality in the district of Glâne in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 1993 the former municipality of Blessens merged into Rue, followed by Promasens and Gillarens in 2001.-History:...

, Yverdon, Les Clées

Les Clées

Les Clées is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-History:Les Clées is first mentioned in 1134 as Clees....

, and Vaulruz

Vaulruz

Vaulruz is a municipality in the district of Gruyère in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.-History:Vaulruz is first mentioned in 1115 as Valle Rodulphi. It was first mentioned at Vaulruz in 1303.-Geography:...

.

The feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 obligations owed by the baron of Vaud are evidenced by the participation of 160 men-at-arms (gentes armorum), who were mounted and fully armoured, and 2,500 infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

men, all of whom were pledged to serve at least twenty-two days in the campaign of the spring of 1352 against the pays de Gex. When the barony was ruled by a baroness, who was not therefore a banneret entitled to lead troops in battle under his own banner, the men-at-arms of Vaud fought under their bailli

Bailli

A bailli was the king’s administrative representative during the ancien régime in northern France, where the bailli was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in his baillage...

. In the spring of 1355, when the Count of Savoy was invading the Barony of Faucigny, the baroness of Vaud provided 122 men-at-arms under her bailli, Jean de Blonay, and another seventeen under his lieutenant, Arnaud d'Aigrement.

History

In the settlement of the succession to Savoy, following the death of Thomas I (1233), the first Savoyard count to expand his lordship into the pays de Vaud, the lands in the Vaud went to Peter le Petit Charlemagne in 1234, who later became Count of Savoy (1263–68). It was he who brought most of the Vaud into the Savoyard ambit, by diplomacy and war, with the aid of English money supplied by his nephew-in-law Henry III

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

. Peter willed his barony of Vaud to his daughter, Beatrice, but she never enjoyed it. In 1271 her uncle, Count Philip I, forced her to concede the pays de Vaud to him, partly through the intervention of Edmund Crouchback, who was travelling through the region to join the Ninth Crusade

Ninth Crusade

The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. It took place in 1271–1272....

. In the summer of 1272, Philip's possession of Vaud was limited to the duration of his life, to return to her upon his death (although this was later ignored).

Because of his dispute with King Rudolf

Rudolph I of Germany

Rudolph I was King of the Romans from 1273 until his death. He played a vital role in raising the Habsburg dynasty to a leading position among the Imperial feudal dynasties...

 concerning the Vaud and other Swiss regions, Philip granted it to his nephew Louis

Louis I of Vaud

Louis I was the Baron of Vaud. At the time of his birth he was a younger son of a younger son of the House of Savoy, but through a series of deaths and his own effective military service, he succeeded in creating a semi-independent principality in the pays de Vaud by 1286...

, who by September 1281 was receiving the homage of the vassals of the region. In May 1284 Louis's position was confirmed by Rudolf, who granted him the right to mint coin within the pays de Vaud. Another settlement was needed following the death of Philip I in 1285. Savoy fell to Louis's brother Amadeus V

Amadeus V, Count of Savoy

Amadeus V , surnamed the Great for his wisdom and success as a ruler, was the Count of Savoy from 1285 to 1323. He established Chambéry as his seat...

, who was forced to recognise Louis's possession of all the territories in the pays de Vaud formerly held by Count Peter (1286).

Louis passed the barony on to his son and namesake Louis II

Louis II of Vaud

Louis II , of the House of Savoy, was the Baron of Vaud from 1302 until his death. A military man, he fought widely in Italy and, during the first phase of the Hundred Years' War, in France...

 upon his death. Louis II's only son died at the battle of Laupen

Battle of Laupen

The Battle of Laupen in 1339 was fought between the Bern and its allies on one side, and Freiburg together with feudal landholders from the County of Burgundy and Habsburg territories on the other. Bern was victorious, consolidating its position in the region...

 in 1339 and his heir became his eldest daughter Catherine. She succeeded him, and appears to have ruled with the help of her widowed mother, Isabelle de Chalon-Arlay, although she was also often absent in her husband's domains. When Catherine became pregnant in 1353 after her marriage to her third husband, the then Count of Savoy, Amadeus VI

Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy

Amadeus VI , nicknamed the Green Count was Count of Savoy from 1343 to 1383. He was the eldest son of Aimone, Count of Savoy and Yolande of Montferrat....

, offered to buy the barony from her and her husband in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of another dynasty. The final contract of sale signed on 19 June 1359 initiated the definitive integration of the magna baronia ("great barony") into the County of Savoy, at the price of 160,000 florins. At the time the barony owed large debts.

List of barons

• Peter (1234–68), also Count of Savoy from 1263
• Beatrice (1268–71, died 1310)
  • Guigues (1268–70), her husband
• Philip (1271–81, died 1285), also Count of Savoy from 1268
• Louis I
  Louis I of Vaud
  Louis I was the Baron of Vaud. At the time of his birth he was a younger son of a younger son of the House of Savoy, but through a series of deaths and his own effective military service, he succeeded in creating a semi-independent principality in the pays de Vaud by 1286...
  
   (1281–1302)
• Louis II
  Louis II of Vaud
  Louis II , of the House of Savoy, was the Baron of Vaud from 1302 until his death. A military man, he fought widely in Italy and, during the first phase of the Hundred Years' War, in France...
  
   (1302–49)
• Catherine (1349–59, died 1388)
  • Raoul
    Raoul II of Brienne, Count of Eu
    Raoul II of Brienne was the son of Raoul I of Brienne, Count of Eu and Guînes and Jeanne de Mello. He succeeded his father in 1344 as Count of Eu and Guînes, as well as in his post as Constable of France....
    
     (1349–50), her husband
  • William (1352–59, died 1391), her husband