Savari de Mauléon

Who was Savari de Mauléon?

Savari de Mauléon was a French soldier, the son of Raoul de Mauléon, Viscount of Thouars and Lord of Mauléon.

Having espoused the cause of Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, he was captured at Mirebeau, and imprisoned in Corfe Castle. But John of England set him at liberty in 1204, gained him to his side and named him seneschal of Poitou.

In 1211, Savari de Mauléon assisted Raymond VI of Toulouse, and with him besieged Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester in Castelnaudary. Philip II of France bought his services in 1212 and gave him command of a fleet which was destroyed in the Flemish port of Damme. Then Maulon returned to John of England, whom he aided in the First Barons' War.

He was one of those whom John designated on his deathbed for a council of regency to govern the Kingdom of England in the name of new king Henry III of England.

Then Savari went to Egypt, and was present at the taking of Damietta. Returning to Poitou he was a second time seneschal for Henry III. He defended Saintonge against Louis VIII in 1224, but was accused of having given La Rochelle up to the king of France, and the suspicions of the English again threw him back upon the French. Louis VIII then turned over to him the defence of La Rochelle and the coast of Saintonge.