Othon de Grandson: 1238-1328

http://www.chateau-grandson.ch/en/othon1.html

Certainly the most extraordinary figure in the family was Othon, since the 19th century referred to as Othon I, - which he clearly was not, as there are several Othon in the Grandson family before him.

Due to his father’s connections with King Henri III of England [see below] (reigned 1216-1272), Othon and his brother Guillaume arrived there around 1252 and found employ as pages at the court. A lasting friendship was formed with the young Prince Edward, who was to succeed to the throne as Edward I (reigned 1272-1307).

Othon became a much-trusted diplomat and military expert, serving the English cause, and playing an active part in Prince Edward’s crusade in 1271 to Palestine. The latter became King Edward I upon his return and recompensed Othon with numerous honours and domains in England, Scotland and Ireland. Othon was also named governor of the Channel Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, a title he carried from 1277-1328.

Having bravely fought during the Welsh campaigns in 1277 and 1282, he was named Justiciar of Wales from 1284-1294. In England, as well as the Continental courts, Othon was a highly respected diplomat, in particular at the Vatican, where he had audiences and counseled with several successive popes, from Honorius IV (1285-1287) to Clement V (1305-1314).

Once again in the Near East, he was present during the fall of Acre (18 May, 1291) to the Mamelukes. Having saved many of his knights, they escaped to Cyprus, whence their return to Europe took several years. Arriving in Rome devoid of funds, Pope Boniface VIII honoured Othon with the considerable sum of 4’000 silver marks and, Pope Clement V granted him 2’000 livres tournois.

In 1307 King Edward I died and Othon returned to his native Grandson, to attend to numerous family matters, but also playing an important part in politics. He sided with the bishop of Lausanne against Louis de Savoie, who ruled the barony of the Vaud quite autonomously from the counts of Savoie. The emperor Henri VII gave Othon 1310 the city of Laupen into fief, which the latter sold to the Bernese in 1324.

Château de Grandson was re-fortified and considerably enlarged from 1277-1281, acquiring the silhouette that it retains to this day. Within the walls, the “grand château” was built, containing a vast aula and a hall that was heated not just by open fireplaces, but also by ovens of baked clay. The layout of the castle’s fortifications is a variation of the so-called “carré Savoyard”, as can be found in Yverdon, at Morges and at Champvent. This concept can be attributed to the architect Jacques de Saint-Georges. Having served the counts of Savoy, he follows Othon to England in 1278 and builds immense fortresses in Wales, such as Flint, Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Harlech.

At home, Othon endowed many religious institutions. At Grandson he favoured in 1289 the establishment of a Franciscan convent by the lakeside, of which today only the bell tower remains. Around 1308 he permitted the Benedictine monks from the Chaise-Dieu, to considerably enlarge the Romanesque church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste. The founding of the Chartreuse de La Lance near Concise, in 1317, is due to him. This served to pacify the border with the Counts of Neuchatel, but also to house the tombs of the family.

Othon died April 5, 1328 at the age of 90 years and his remains were laid to rest in the choir of Lausanne cathedral. A plaster cast of the imposing marble effigy is on view at Grandson castle.

His father’s connection with Henry III, King of England was by bloodline. His father was a forth cousin of Henry III and second cousin of the Queen Consort, Isabelle of Angoulême. Otto’s paternal grandmother’s paternal grandfather, [Guillaume I, comte de Genève] is a shared ancestor as the maternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather of [Edward I "Longshanks", King of England] and thus, Otto I and Edward I are third cousins. - James Morgan Maddox

Bibliography:

• Université de Lausanne, Colloqium Othon I, 23-24 Juin 2011, publication en cours
• Robert J. Dean, Castles in Distant Lands, The Life and Times of Othon de Grandson, Willingdon 2009
• Esther Rowland Clifford, A Knight of great Renown, Chicago 1961

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_de_Grandson

Otto de Grandson (c. 1238 – 1328) was a medieval Savoyard knight long in the service of the English crown under Edward I. He was the closest personal friend of Edward, and shared the king's many interests.

The son of Peter, lord of Grandson near Lausanne, the young Otto travelled to England probably in the company of Peter I of Savoy in 1252, certainly not later than 1265. There he entered the service of Henry III and by 1267 was placed in the household of the prince Edward. In 1268 both prince and servant were knighted and in 1271 the latter accompanied his lord on the Ninth Crusade, where he served at Acre that year. According to one source, it was Otto, not Eleanor of Castile, who sucked the poison from the wounded Edward after an attempted assassination. In 1272 Otto was appointed an executor in Acre.

After returning to England, he was employed in Scotland and Wales, where he served as chief justiciar in the north from 1284 to 1294, and in Gascony, where he was sent in 1278 to reform the government with Robert Burnell </wiki/Robert_Burnell>. He was also employed as a diplomat and gained contacts with most of the sovereigns of western Europe. In 1283 he was briefly in the employ of Edmund Crouchback, the king's younger brother, for diplomatic work. It was said that no one could do the king's will better, including the king himself.

He went on a second Crusade to the Holy Land in 1290. At the time of the fall of Acre (1291), he was the master of the English knights in Palestine. At Acre he saved the life of fellow Savoyard Jean I de Grailly, with whom he had served Edward in Gascony earlier. After the fall of the city he fled to Cyprus a poor man, but went on a subsequent pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1298 or 1299, Otto, Jacques de Molay of the Templars , and Guillaume de Villaret of the Hospitallers campaigned in Cilicia in order to fight off an invasion by the Mamluks.] In his La flor des estoires d'Orient, the Armenian monk Hayton of Corycus mentions his activity on the mainland in Cilicia in 1298–1299:

Otto de Grandison and the Masters of the Temple and of the Hospitallers as well as their convents, who were at that time [1298 or 1299] in these regions [Cilician Armenia] . .

In 1307, on Edward's death, Otto left England permanently. He remained in the service of the crown for a while longer, however, for until 1317 he represented England at the Papal Curia. He also continued to have interests in England, for he was in correspondence with John Langton and Walter Reynolds and in 1277 he had been granted the Channel Islands as a lordship for life, along with lands in England and Ireland, in reward for his service. In 1323 he visited the Channel Islands, which he had been ruling (inefficiently) as an absentee. He also made religious foundations from his great wealth, probably accumulated as reward for his work, and for these he obtained privileges and priories from the popes through his embassies. He was a benefactor of Vale Royal, an Edwardian foundation, and of Saint Jean de Grandson, where he increased the number of monks after 1288. He founded a Franciscan friary in 1289 and a Carthusian monastery at La Lance in 1317.

At the end of his life he returned to Grandson, which he had inherited from his father and to which he had made recurrent visits throughout his adult life. He never married and was succeeded by his nephew. He had advanced many of his relatives through his embassies, especially in the church. Three of his relatives served as Bishops of Lausanne and another nephew, John Grandisson, succeeded to the Diocese of Exeter. Otto died an old man, aged about ninety, in 1328. His tomb is in Lausanne Cathedral .