Guigues III of Albon

Who was Guigues III of Albon?

Guigues le Vieux, count of Albon, called Guigues III was the first Count of Albon from 1079, when the County of Vienne, then in the possession of the Archdiocese of Vienne, was divided between him and Humbert I of Savoy, who received Maurienne.

He was the son of Guigues_II_d'Albon and Ida de Forez. His ancestors were lords of the castle of Albon and counts in the Grésivaudan and Briançonnais.

Guigues's reign was marked by continual strife with Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble, over the suzerainty of certain church lands in the Grésivaudan. Hugh accused the count of usurping the lands with the help of the Bishop Mallem and invented fantastic stories to back up his claim to the disputed estates. Finally an accord was signed between Guigues and the bishop in 1099. Guigues returned the ecclesiastic land, while Hugh recognised the authority of the count in the vicinity of Grenoble.

In 1095, Guigues contracted an exemplary marriage with the high-born Matilda, long thought to be the daughter of Edgar the Aetheling, but now thought more likely to have been a daughter of Roger I of Sicily, the Great Count, and his third wife, Adelaide del Vasto. Patrick Deret, however, alleges, on the basis of possible birth dates, that her mother must have been Roger's second wife, Eremburga of Mortain.