Peter II, Count of Savoy

Peter II (1203–1268), called the Little Charlemagne, was the Count of Savoy from 1263 until his death. He built the Savoy Palace in London.

Peter was the seventh of nine sons of Thomas I of Savoy and Marguerite of Geneva, and the uncle of Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of Henry III of England. He travelled first with her to London. Henry made Peter Earl of Richmond in 1241 and gave him the land between the Strand and the Thames, where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263, on the site of the present Savoy Hotel. It was destroyed during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Though Peter was referred to by contemporary chroniclers as the earl of Richmond, the title seems not to appear in any official documents. By his will Richmond was left to his niece the queen, Eleanor, who transferred it to the crown.

Boston (a borough by 1279), on the river Witham, had over many years become an important port for Lincoln. The town was held by the dukes of Brittany until about 1200. In 1241, Peter obtained at the same time as he had Richmond the manor of Boston. It was restored to John I, Duke of Brittany, on Peter's death. Donington manor is also thought to have been passed from John de la Rye to Peter of Savoy about 1255 when a charter was granted for a market to be held at the Manor on Saturdays. A similar grant was made for the holding of a Fair on the 15 August, in the same year also to be held at the manor. A separate charter was issued to Peter to hold a market on a Monday and granted on the 8 April 1255 by the King.

In 1246 the king granted Peter the castle of Pevensey. Peter sided with the Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, in the Second Barons' War; but he eventually left England for France with the queen.

When Peter's nephew Boniface, Count of Savoy, died without heirs in 1263, the question of the succession to Savoy lay unanswered. Besides Peter, there was another possible claimant, the fifteen-year-old Thomas III of Piedmont (1248–82), the eldest son of Peter's elder brother Thomas, Count of Flanders. Peter returned to Savoy and was recognised as Count over his nephew. This led to a dispute between Savoy and Piedmont that was to outlast Peter and Thomas. Already elderly, he died sonless himself and was succeeded by his remaining brother Philip, former Archbishop of Lyon.

Family

In 1234 Peter married to Agnes of Faucigny and had a daughter:
#Beatrice of Savoy ("c".1235–21 November 1310), married firstly Guigues VII of Viennois, secondly Gaston VII of Béarn.