Gales of Dampierre (French ''Walon de Dampierre'', Latin ''Gualo de Domna Petra'') was a priest and soldier in Frankish Greece, one of the original participants in the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

. He rose to become bishop of Domokos. Walon may have been a son of Richard de Dampierre. He was a priest in the diocese of Langres before he joined the Crusade. According to the anonymous '' Historia translationum reliquiarum sancti Mamantis'' ("History of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Mammes"), he was a "man of honest living and good testimony" (''vir honeste vite et boni testimonii'') but also as a soldier "not the least in the army of the Latins" (''in exercitu Latinorum non minimus''). In

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

he came into "custody of cantorship in the church of the

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/Katharevousa Greek ''Ἅγιοι Τεσσεράκοντα''; Demotic: ''Άγιοι Σαράντα'') were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII ''Fulminata'' (Armed with Lightning) w ...

and of the provostship in another" (''custodiam cantoriae in ecclesia sanctorum XL martyrum ... et custodiam alterius praepositurae''). By virtue of these offices he participated in the election of the

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople was an office established as a result of the Fourth Crusade and its conquest of Constantinople in 1204. It was a Roman Catholic replacement for the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ...

. Walon became bishop in 1207, but three days after his consecration he abandoned his diocese on account of its abject poverty, leaving it in the custody of the powerful secular lord Amé Pofey. This provoked the intervention of

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...

, and on 14 July 1208 he combined the diocese of

Domokos Domokos ( el, Δομοκός), the ancient Thaumacus or Thaumace (Θαυμακός, Θαυμάκη), is a town and a municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. The town Domokos is the seat of the municipality of Domokos and of the former Domokos Province. ...

and Kalydon. Later, Walon obtained the relic of the head of Mammes of Caesarea, the patron saint of Langres, from the

Papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...

Peter of Capua. He brought it to Dampierre before bestowing it on the cathedral of his native diocese. There survives a letter from Peter to

Robert de Châtillon The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, bishop of Langres, and his chapter advising them of Walon's mission.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * {{Cite book, last=Thomas, first=John P., title=Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire, year=1987, location=Washington, D.C., publisher=Dumbarton Oaks, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCAl9udu8IwC, isbn=9780884021643 Christians of the Fourth Crusade 13th-century French people People of Frankish and Latin Greece Medieval Central Greece