Boniface, Count of Savoy

Boniface, Count of Savoy
Count of Savoy
Etching by Francesco Maria Ferrero di Lavriano (1702)
Predecessor	Amadeus IV
Successor	Peter II
Born	1245
Died	1263
Noble family	Savoy
Father	Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy
Mother	Cecile of Baux

Boniface (1245–1263) was Count of Savoy from 1253 to 1263, succeeding his father Amadeus IV. He never married and thus left no heir.

Career

Boniface was born in Chambéry. Since he became Count of Savoy at the age of nine, he required a regency. Throughout the decade before his death, Savoy was governed through a joint regency resembling that devised for his grandfather Thomas in 1189, in which authority was shared between his mother, Cecile of Baux, and one of his uncles, Thomas II of Piedmont. Boniface's other uncles, Peter and Philip, disputed this, seeking to divide the county's many properties, but Thomas took it to arbitration per the family treaty of 1234 which had been negotiated by his brother William and won out. Peter and Philip were, however, granted compensation in return, receiving more properties within the county. When Thomas died in 1259, Cecile continued as regent in Savoy. Under her regency, Philip and Peter continued their previous work of expanding the control and influence over the County of Savoy.

Boniface's campaigns in Flanders and Piedmont were not successful. In September 1262, Rudolf of Geneva offered homage to cousin Boniface after yet another round of the war between Peter and their kin in Geneva. In 1263, Boniface was mortally wounded in battle and died, to be succeeded by his uncle Peter.

References

• Cognasso, Francesco (1971). I Savoia. Milan: Dall'Oglio.
• Cox, Eugene L. (1974). The Eagles of Savoy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691052166.
• Marie José (1956). La Maison de Savoie, Les Origines, Le Comte Vert, Le Comte Rouge. Paris: Albin Michel.