Walter V of Brienne

Walter V of Brienne (c.1275 – March 15, 1311) was born in Brienne-le-Chateau, Aube, Champagne, France. He was the son of Hugh Count of Brienne and Isabel de la Roche, daughter of Guy I de la Roche, the Duke of Athens.

Walter spent his youth as a hostage in Sicily, in the castle of Agosta. On the death of his father Hugh in the Battle of Garigliano on August 8, 1296, Walter inherited the titles of Count of Brienne, Conversano and Lecce. The death of his mother's first cousin, Guy II de la Roche, in 1308 brought him the Duchy of Athens. He found himself hard pressed by the Despot of Epirus, the Emperor Andronicus II and the Lord of Vlachia. In 1310, he hired the Catalan Company, then ravaging the Byzantine empire, to fight the Greeks enroaching on his territory. After the Company had successfully reduced his enemies, he attempted to expel the Company from Athens with their pay in arrears. The Company refusing this, Walter marched out with a strong force of French knights from Athens, the Morea and List of monarchs of Naples and Sicily and Greek foot from Athens. Walter's army met the Catalans at the Battle of Halmyros on the river Cephissus in Boeotia on March 15, 1311. The Catalans won a devastating victory, killing Walter and almost all of his chivalry, and seizing his Duchy of Athens, excepting only the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia. His son Walter VI of Brienne succeeded him in all his titles; the Catalan Company nominated one of the surviving knights, Roger Deslaur, as their leader and new Duke of Athens by conquest.

In the year 1305 he married Jeanne de Chatillon and had two children:

• Isabel Countess of Brienne (b.1306).
• Walter VI of Brienne, later his succesor (c.1304 – 1356).

References

• Leo's Genealogics Website
• Rootweb World Connect
• The Chronicle of Ramón Muntaner, translated into English by Lady Goodenough http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf