Hugh de Candie, Count of Brienne and
LecceLecce 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...
(c. 1240 – 9 August 1296) was the second surviving son of Count
Walter IV of BrienneWalter IV the Great of Brienne was Count of Brienne 1205–1244. He was the son of Walter III of Brienne and Elvira of Lecce. Around the time of his birth, his father lost his bid for the Sicilian throne and died in prison...
and Marie de Lusignan of
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.
His father, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, was murdered in 1244 in
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, and was succeeded by his elder son,
JohnJohn, Count of Brienne was the eldest son of Walter IV of Brienne and Marie of Lusignan, a princess of Cyprus.He inherited the County of Brienne on his father's death in 1246, but preferred to live among his mother's relatives at the court of Cyprus, and played little part in international politics...
.
On the death of John (c. 1260), Hugh inherited the County of Brienne, in
FranceThe 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...
, and the family's claims in southern Italy, including the
Principality of TarantoThe Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Apulia....
and the County of Lecce, which had been confiscated in 1205.
He claimed the regency of the
Kingdom of JerusalemThe Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
(and, indirectly, a place in the succession) in 1264 as senior heir of Alice of Jerusalem and
Hugh I of CyprusHugh I of Cyprus succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Amalric of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem...
, being the son of their eldest daughter, but was passed over by the
Haute CourThe Haute Cour was the feudal council of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the curia generalis, the curia regis, or, rarely, the parlement.-Composition of the court:...
in favor of his cousin
Hugh of AntiochHugh III of Cyprus , born Hughues de Poitiers, later Hughues de Lusignan , called the Great, was the King of Cyprus from 1267 and King of Jerusalem from 1268 . He was the son of Henry of Antioch and Isabella of Cyprus, the daughter of Hugh I...
, and thereafter took little part in the affairs of
OutremerOutremer, French for "overseas", was a general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem...
. His first cousin King
Hugh II of CyprusHugh II of Cyprus was king of Cyprus and, from the age of 5 years, also Regent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem....
died in 1267, and despite Hugh's rights as the senior heir, Hugh of Antioch, was crowned as Hugh III of Cyprus. When his second cousin's son
ConradinConrad , called the Younger or the Boy, but usually known by the diminutive Conradin , was the Duke of Swabia , King of Jerusalem , and King of Sicily .-Early childhood:Conradin was born in Wolfstein, Bavaria, to Conrad...
, King of Jerusalem, was killed in 1268, the succession again went to the junior cousin Hugh III.
Hugh decided to seek his fortune in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
rather than
OutremerOutremer, French for "overseas", was a general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem...
, and took service under Charles I of Naples. Charles made him Captain-General of
BrindisiBrindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
,
OtrantoOtranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce , in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and Italy with Albania...
and
ApuliaApulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
and Lord of
ConversanoConversano 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 he was an enthusiastic partisan of the
AngevinThe Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet. Founded by Charles I of Sicily, a son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century...
cause in Italy. For this service, his family's County of Lecce was restored to him. He was taken prisoner at the
Battle of the Gulf of NaplesThe naval Battle of the Gulf of Naples took place on 5 June 1284 in the south of the Gulf of Naples, Italy, when an Aragonese-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria defeated a Neapolitan galley fleet commanded by Charles of Salerno and captured Charles.Charles' Genoese allies had...
in 1284 with
Charles II of NaplesCharles II, known as "the Lame" was King of Naples, King of Albania, Prince of Salerno, Prince of Achaea and Count of Anjou.-Biography:...
and again at the
Battle of the CountsThe naval Battle of the Counts took place on 23 June 1287 at Naples, Italy, when an Aragonese-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria defeated a large combined Angevin galley fleet commanded respectively by Reynald III Quarrel and Narjot de Toucy.Lauria had taken his fleet to Augusta,...
in 1287, both times in sea battles against
Roger of LauriaRoger of Lauria, Loria or de Llúria in Catalan , was an Sicilian-Aragonese admiral, who was the commander of the fleet of Aragon during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. He was probably the most successful and talented naval tactician of the medieval period...
. On one of these occasions, he obtained his parole by leaving his only son
WalterGautier or Walter V of Brienne was born in Brienne-le-Château, Aube, Champagne, France. He was the son of Hugh de Candie des Brienne, known as Hugh of Brienne, Count of Brienne and Lecce, and Isabella de la Roche, daughter of Guy I of la Roche, Duke of Athens...
as a hostage. He was killed in Sicily, at the Battle of Gagliano, fighting Catalan
AlmogavarsThe almogavars were a class of soldiers from the Crown of Aragon, well-known during the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. They were much employed as mercenaries in Italy, Latin Greece and the Levant during the 13th and 14th centuries.-History:The Almogavars came mainly from the...
, and was succeeded by Walter.
Succession
Hugh's first wife was Isabella de la Roche, heiress of Thebes. She bore him two children:
- Walter of Brienne
Gautier or Walter V of Brienne was born in Brienne-le-Château, Aube, Champagne, France. He was the son of Hugh de Candie des Brienne, known as Hugh of Brienne, Count of Brienne and Lecce, and Isabella de la Roche, daughter of Guy I of la Roche, Duke of Athens...
(d. 1311), Duke of AthensThe 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....
, his heir.
- Agnes of Brienne, married John, Count of Joigny
His second wife was Helena Komnena Dukaina of Epirus-Neopatras, heiress of Lamia and Larisa. She bore him one daughter:
- Joanna of Brienne, married Niccolo Sanudo
Nicholas I Sanudo was the fifth Duke of the Archipelago from 1323 to his death. He was the son and successor of William I....
, Duke of NaxosThe Duchy of the Archipelago or also Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros.-Background and establishment of the...
.