Deadly Chess game

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Leo van de Pas

Deadly Chess game

Legg inn av Leo van de Pas » 16 mai 2006 13:45:02

Gauthier IV 'le Grand' de Brienne, Count of Brienne and Count of Jaffa
born 1205, in 1233 he married Marie de Lusignan and they had several children but these are not the reason for my request.

He went on crusade (I presume) and that is when he became Count of Jaffa. The date of his death is not very clear, he died circa 1247/1251 in Cairo----died in an altercation with an Egyptian emir during a game of chess.

A rather strange way for a crusader (if he was one) to die.

This is all I can establish about him. Does anyone have more biographical details?

With many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

Nathaniel Taylor

Re: Deadly Chess game

Legg inn av Nathaniel Taylor » 16 mai 2006 18:33:39

In article <00a301c678dd$dac5a7d0$0300a8c0@Toshiba>,
leovdpas@netspeed.com.au ("Leo van de Pas") wrote:

Gauthier IV 'le Grand' de Brienne, Count of Brienne and Count of Jaffa
born 1205, in 1233 he married Marie de Lusignan and they had several children
but these are not the reason for my request.

He went on crusade (I presume) and that is when he became Count of Jaffa. The
date of his death is not very clear, he died circa 1247/1251 in Cairo----died
in an altercation with an Egyptian emir during a game of chess.

A rather strange way for a crusader (if he was one) to die.

This is all I can establish about him. Does anyone have more biographical
details?

He was not a crusader per se, but a baron of Outremer, having emigrated
there upon or following his arranged marriage to Marie de Lusignan
(/Cyprus) about 1233. His family had various Italian involvements with
Emperor Frederick II through his Sicilian mother, and of course strong
connections to Outremer with the marriage of his uncle Jean de Brienne
to the heiress of Jerusalem, and Jean's subsequent career around the
Mediterranean.

As count of Jaffa he had a good military reputation over a number of
years. But he was involved in the great losses of the kingdom of
Jerusalem to the Khorasmians in 1244. One of the commanders of the
combined army of the kingdom in the field against the Khorasmians in
October 1244, his tactical choices in the battle of Herbiya (a few miles
northeast of Gaza) on 17 October 1244 spelled disaster: the defeat of
the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and the greatest loss in pitched
battle since Hattin.

Gauthier was taken prisoner. The Khorasmian army then marched to Jaffa
and besieged it, hanging him on a forked pole, outside the walls,
threatening to leave him hanging until Jaffa capitulated. While
dangling he shouted to his men not to capitulate, and that he would kill
them with his own hands if they did. Jaffa held.

He was eventually taken to Cairo. Joinville tells us (in an admiring
aside, which gives us all sort of character tidbits including his
penchant for praying late into the night before retiring to sleep with
his wife) that the Sultan handed him over to various commanders who
avenged their losses at his hands, presumably by torturing him to death,
at an unknown date. The story about the chess game comes apparently (I
infer from the footnote in Runciman, 3:227) from the chronicle of
Francesco Amadi, which I have not read.

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/

my children's 17th-century American immigrant ancestors:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltay ... rantsa.htm

Nathaniel Taylor

Re: Deadly Chess game

Legg inn av Nathaniel Taylor » 16 mai 2006 19:20:53

I wrote:

In article <00a301c678dd$dac5a7d0$0300a8c0@Toshiba>,
leovdpas@netspeed.com.au ("Leo van de Pas") wrote:

Gauthier IV 'le Grand' de Brienne, Count of Brienne and Count of Jaffa

He was eventually taken to Cairo. Joinville tells us (in an admiring
aside, which gives us all sort of character tidbits including his
penchant for praying late into the night before retiring to sleep with
his wife) that the Sultan handed him over to various commanders who
avenged their losses at his hands, presumably by torturing him to death,
at an unknown date. The story about the chess game comes apparently (I
infer from the footnote in Runciman, 3:227) from the chronicle of
Francesco Amadi, which I have not read.

Of course Amadi's chronicle is on Gallica. Here is what he says (my
translation from the Italian):

"Conte Galtier, husband of the sister of king Henry of Cyprus, while he
was in Saracen prison, having been taken at the battle of la Forbie [the
French name for the battle of 17 Oct 1244 near Gaza], was playing chess
with a Saracen amir. They had a quarrel, and the said amir struck him
in the face, and the count gave him such a blow on the head that he [the
amir] was killed; whereupon the Saracens immediately strangled the
count."

Certainly sounds like a story. This undated tidbit is stuck in with
stories of the captivity of Saint Louis in 1249-50, and the editor
assigned a marginal date of 1250 to it perhaps for that reason. Such a
story may well have come back via or through the captives of Saint
Louis' entourage, but Gauthier likely was killed well before then

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/

Leo van de Pas

Re: Deadly Chess game

Legg inn av Leo van de Pas » 17 mai 2006 00:20:02

Many thanks for your two messages. I will have to add and change what I have
about him.
You added a fair amount for me.
Leo


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathaniel Taylor" <nathanieltaylor@earthlink.net>
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 4:20 AM
Subject: Re: Deadly Chess game


I wrote:

In article <00a301c678dd$dac5a7d0$0300a8c0@Toshiba>,
leovdpas@netspeed.com.au ("Leo van de Pas") wrote:

Gauthier IV 'le Grand' de Brienne, Count of Brienne and Count of Jaffa

He was eventually taken to Cairo. Joinville tells us (in an admiring
aside, which gives us all sort of character tidbits including his
penchant for praying late into the night before retiring to sleep with
his wife) that the Sultan handed him over to various commanders who
avenged their losses at his hands, presumably by torturing him to death,
at an unknown date. The story about the chess game comes apparently (I
infer from the footnote in Runciman, 3:227) from the chronicle of
Francesco Amadi, which I have not read.

Of course Amadi's chronicle is on Gallica. Here is what he says (my
translation from the Italian):

"Conte Galtier, husband of the sister of king Henry of Cyprus, while he
was in Saracen prison, having been taken at the battle of la Forbie [the
French name for the battle of 17 Oct 1244 near Gaza], was playing chess
with a Saracen amir. They had a quarrel, and the said amir struck him
in the face, and the count gave him such a blow on the head that he [the
amir] was killed; whereupon the Saracens immediately strangled the
count."

Certainly sounds like a story. This undated tidbit is stuck in with
stories of the captivity of Saint Louis in 1249-50, and the editor
assigned a marginal date of 1250 to it perhaps for that reason. Such a
story may well have come back via or through the captives of Saint
Louis' entourage, but Gauthier likely was killed well before then

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/


Chris Dickinson

Re: Deadly Chess game

Legg inn av Chris Dickinson » 17 mai 2006 01:23:31

Nathaniel Taylor wrote:

<snip>
was playing chess
with a Saracen amir. They had a quarrel, and the said amir struck him
in the face, and the count gave him such a blow on the head that he [the
amir] was killed; whereupon the Saracens immediately strangled the
count."

Neck, mate.

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