Nicholas III of Saint Omer

Nicholas III of Saint Omer

Nicholas III of Saint Omer (died 1314) was the lord of Thebes in Frankish Greece from 1299 to 1311. A nephew of Nicholas II, he served on two occasions as bailiff of the Principality of Achaea (1300–1302, 1304–1307).

Nicholas, as marshal of Achaea for Princess Isabella of Villehardouin, recommended marrying the young heiress Matilda to Guy II of Athens to solidify the alliance between the two countries (1299). Nicholas later fell out with Isabella's second husband, Philip of Savoy, when he arrested the chancellor Benjamin of Kalamata. Nicholas protested the act by confronting the new prince at Glarentsa, but violence was averted.

Nicholas joined his suzerain Guy of Athens in repelling the invasion of Neopatria by Thomas I Comnenus Ducas, Despot of Epirus. In 1304, Nicholas counselled Philip to call a parliament at Corinth in order to avoid going to war against Epirus. When Philip left later that year for Italy, to settle his claim to Piedmont, Nicholas was appointed bailiff in his absence.

Sources

  • Setton, Kenneth M. (general editor) A History of the Crusades: Volume II — The Later Crusades, 1189 – 1311. Robert Lee Wolff and Harry W. Hazard, editors. University of Wisconsin Press: Milwaukee, 1969.