Guigues VII of the House of Burgundy

House of Burgundy

The House of Burgundy was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, descending from Robert I, Duke of Burgundy, a younger son of Robert II of France....

, was the dauphin of Vienne

Dauphin de Viennois

The Counts of Albon were minor French nobles in south-eastern France, in the Rhône Alps region.Under Guigues IV, Count of Albon, who was nicknamed le Dauphin or the Dolphin from the dolphin on his coat of arms, they took a new hereditary title, Dauphin of Viennois , named for the region around...

 and count of Albon

Albon, Drôme

Albon is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France.-Population:-References:*...

, Grenoble

Grenoble

Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...

, Oisans

Oisans

LOisans is a region in the French Alps, located in the départements of l'Isère and Hautes-Alpes, and corresponding to the drainage basin of the River Romanche and its tributaries...

, Briançon

Briançon

Briançon a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....

, Embrun

Embrun, Hautes-Alpes

Embrun is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-Description:...

, and Gap

Gap, Hautes-Alpes

Gap is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Hautes-Alpes department.-Geography:An Alpine crossroads at the intersection of D994 and Route nationale 85 the Route Napoléon, Gap lies above sea level along the right bank of the Luye River...

 from 1237 to his death. He was the son of Andrew Guigues VI

Guigues VI of Viennois

Andrew Guigues VI , known as André de Bourgogne, Dauphin of Viennois, was the Count of Albon, Briançon, Grenoble, and Oisans from 1228 until his death. He was the son of Hugh III of Burgundy and Béatrice of Albon...

 and Beatrice of Montferrat

Beatrice of Montferrat

Beatrice of Montferrat was an Italian noblewoman and the suo jure Lady of Saint-Bonnet. She was the eldest daughter of William VI, Marquess of Montferrat, and the third wife of Guigues VI of Viennois, by whom she had two sons. She married a total of four times...

.

He fought great contests over the counties of Embrun and Gap with Charles, Count of Provence and Forcalquier. Those counties were the dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

 of his father's first wife, Beatrice of Forcalquier. Guigues VI had repudiated his first wife and married a second, giving the counties of his former wife to the son of his second: Guigues VII. Charles, as heir to the county of Forcalquier, claimed the counties. A compromise was eventually reached whereby Guigues retained Embrun, but Charles received Gap.

In 1253, Guigues married Beatrice (1237–1310), daughter of Count Peter II of Savoy and Agnès de Faucigny. For her dowry, Beatrice brought Guigues Faucigny, a distant territory menacing Savoy, the traditional enemy of the Viennois. Many wars of Guigues descendants would be aimed at the defence of this land from the Savoyard

Savoyard

Savoyard is a Romance language group with several distinct varieties that form a linguistic subgroup from the Arpitan language family. It is spoken in some territories of the historical Duchy of Savoy, nowadays a geographic area spanning France , Switzerland , and Italy...

 counts. Guigue had two sons and a daughter:

• John I (1264–1282), his successor
• Andrew (1267 – c. 1270)
• Anne (1255–1298), later successor, married in 1273 to Humbert de la Tour du Pin