Guigues VII of Viennois

Who was Guigues VII of Viennois?

Guigues VII, of the House of Burgundy, was the dauphin of Vienne and count of Albon, Grenoble, Oisans, Briançon, Embrun, and Gap from 1237 to his death. He was the son of Andrew Guigues VI and Beatrice of Montferrat.

He fought great contests over the counties of Embrun and Gap with Charles, Count of Provence and Forcalquier. Those counties were the dowry of his father's first wife, Beatrice of Forcalquier. Guigues VI had repudiated his first wife and married a second, giving the counties of his former wife to the son of his second: Guigues VII. Charles, as heir to the county of Forcalquier, claimed the counties. A compromise was eventually reached whereby Guigues retained Embrun, but Charles received Gap.

In 1253, Guigues married Beatrice, daughter of Count Peter II of Savoy and Agnès de Faucigny. For her dowry, Beatrice brought Guigues Faucigny, a distant territory menacing Savoy, the traditional enemy of the Viennois. Many wars of Guigues descendants would be aimed at the defence of this land from the Savoyard counts. Guigue had two sons and a daughter:

⁕John I, his successor

⁕Andrew

⁕Anne, later successor, married in 1273 to Humbert de la Tour du Pin