Amadeus I (c. 975 – c. 1052), nicknamed of the Tail or ''la Coda'' (Latin ''caudatus'', "tailed"), was an early count of the
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...
. He was probably the eldest son of
Humbert I.
[F. Cognasso]
"Amedeo I, conte di Savoia"
''Dizionario biografico degli Italiani'', Vol. 2 (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960). His nickname derives from an anecdote, preserved only in a thirteenth-century manuscript, that when he met the
Emperor Henry III
Henry III (28 October 1016 – 5 October 1056), called the Black or the Pious, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1046 until his death in 1056. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was the eldest son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia.
Henry was raised by ...
at
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
in 1046, he refused to enter the emperor's chambers without his large train of knights, his "tail".
[
Amadeus is first attested in a document of 8 April 1022, when, along with his younger brother ]Burchard Burchard (and all variant spellings) may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Burchard (name), Burchard and all related spellings as a given name and surname
* Burckhardt, or (de) Bourcard, a family of the Basel patriciate
* Burchard-Bélaváry family, an a ...
, bishop of Belley, he witnessed a donation of Lambert, bishop of Langres
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Langres (Latin: ''Dioecesis Lingonensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Langres'') is a Roman Catholic diocese comprising the ''département'' of Haute-Marne in France.
The diocese is now a suffragan in ecclesiastical pr ...
, to his father.[ Probably sometime after this and before 1030, Amadeus, Burchard, and a third brother, ]Otto
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded fro ...
, joined their father in witnessing a donation made by one Aymon de Pierrefort to the Abbey of Cluny
Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter.
The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...
. In a further two undated charters of probably about the same period, Amadeus together with his brothers Otto and Aymon and his father made donations to the Abbey of Cluny and the church of Saint-Maurice at Matassine.[ Amadeus and his father also witnessed another donation, made by several nobleman, to the ]Abbey of Savigny
Savigny Abbey (''Abbaye de Savigny'') was a monastery near the village of Savigny-le-Vieux (Manche), in northern France. It was founded early in the 12th century. Initially it was the central house of the Congregation of Savigny, who were Benedi ...
.
The first record of Amadeus's marriage and use of the comital title ("count", Latin ''comes'') comes from a single document dated 22 October 1030. On that date, at Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, the count and his wife, Adelaide,[His wife is elsewhere give as Adila or Adalegidal.] of unknown family, gave the church of Matassine to Cluny. The act was witnessed by one Humbert and his wife Ausilia—who were perhaps Amadeus's father and mother—and also by his brother Otto and by the king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and queen of Burgundy, Rudolf III Rudolph III or Rudolf III may refer to:
*Rudolf III of Burgundy (971–1032), last king of the independent Kingdom of Arles
* Rudolph III, Count of Neuchâtel (died 1272), son of Count Berthold
* Rudolph III of Austria (c. 1281 – 1307), or Rud ...
and Ermengarda.[ Although the document of 1030 does not demonstrate that Amadeus and his father both held the rank of count simultaneously, Humbert's diploma of 1040 for the ]Diocese of Aosta
french: Diocèse d'Aoste
, image = Aosta Cattedrale.JPG
, image_size = 255px
, image_alt = Facade of Cathedral of Aosta
, caption = Aosta Cathedral
, country = Italy
, metropolitan =
, ...
was confirmed by his eldest son bearing the title count.[ On 21 January 1042 Amadeus, Otto and Aymon confirmed another diploma of their father favouring the church of Saint-Chaffre. On 10 June Count Amadeus, Count Humbert and Otto donated the church of Echelles to the church of Saint-Laurence in Grenoble. For the following decade there is no notice of Amadeus's activities, and his last action was record on 10 December 1051. In this document he is called "Count of Belley" (''comes Bellicensium''), but it is almost certainly the same Count Amadeus as the son of Humbert I.][
Amadeus died shortly after 1051 and, according to fourteenth-century sources, was buried in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. His son Humbert had predeceased him, but he left behind a son, Aymon, who became Bishop of Belley. He may have had a daughter who married into the family of the ]Counts of Geneva
The County of Geneva, largely corresponding to the later Genevois province, originated in the tenth century, in the Burgundian Kingdom of Arles (Arelat) which fell to the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.
History
Several nobles had held the title of a ...
. He was succeeded by his brother Otto in the countship.[
]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amadeus 1, Count Of Savoy
970s births
1050s deaths
11th-century Counts of Savoy
Year of birth unknown
Year of birth uncertain