Gautier V, Count of Brienne | |
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Seal of Gauthier
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Spouse(s) | Jeanne de Châtillon |
Issue | |
Noble family | House of Brienne |
Father | Hugh of Brienne |
Mother | Isabella de la Roche |
Born |
c. 1275 Brienne-le-Château |
Died | 15 March 1311 Battle of Halmyros |
Gautier or Walter V of Brienne (c. 1278 – 15 March 1311) was born in Brienne-le-Château, Aube, Champagne, France. He was the son of Hugh, Count of Brienne and Lecce, and Isabella de la Roche, daughter of Guy I de la Roche, Duke of Athens. He was the heir of the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and of Cyprus, as well as to Taranto and Sicily.
Walter spent his youth as a hostage in Sicily, in the castle of Agosta. On the death of his father Hugh in 1296, Walter inherited the titles of Count of Brienne, Conversano and Lecce.
Like his father, he took up arms in the service of Naples, but was captured in an ambush at Gagliano in 1300. He was freed in 1302 with the signing of the Treaty of Caltabellotta.
The death of his mother's first cousin, Guy II of la Roche, in 1308 brought him the Duchy of Athens. There he found himself hard pressed by the Despot of Epirus, the Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and the Lord of Vlachia (Thessaly), John II Doukas. In 1310, he hired the Catalan Company, then ravaging the Byzantine Empire, to fight the Byzantine Greeks encroaching on his territory.