- Thomas II of Piedmont
Thomas II (circa 1199 – 1259) was the
Count of Piedmont from 1233 to his death,Count of Flanders "jure uxoris " from 1237 to 1244, andregent of theCounty of Savoy from 1253 to his death, while his nephew Boniface was fighting abroad. He was the son ofThomas I of Savoy andMarguerite of Geneva In 1233, when
Thomas I of Savoy died, Thomas, being a second son, inherited only the lordship ofPiedmont , which he later raised to the status of a county. Historians and genealogists have retrospectively dubbed him "Thomas II of Savoy" in order to distinguish him from the other Thomases of theHouse of Savoy . He married Joanna,Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, daughter of theLatin Emperor Baldwin I, in 1237. The marriage turned out to be childless and Joanna died in 1244.Thomas contracted a second marriage to
Beatrice di Fieschi , niece ofPope Innocent IV . The couple had six children:
#Thomas, his successor and pretender to the County of Savoy
#Amadeus, who later inherited Savoy
#Louis (1250 – after10 January 1302 ),Baron of Vaud
#Eleanor (died6 December 1296 ), married (1270)Louis I of Beaujeu
#Margaret (died May 1292)
#Alice (died1 August 1277 )He also had at least three illegitimate children.
Although he was the next brother of Amadeus IV, he never became the Count of Savoy because he predeceased his nephew, who himself died without sons to succeed him. Although Thomas left sons, upon Boniface' death the remaining uncles, younger brothers of Thomas, ruled the County of Savoy. Thomas' eldest son and heir Thomas III thought it to be an injustice and unsuccessfully claimed Savoy. However, it so happened that Philip I, the last surviving brother of Thomas, made Thomas' younger son Amadeus his heir in Savoy, leaving the elder son, Thomas, and the genealogically senior line descending from him out of the Savoy succession.
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