Walter V of Brienne

Walter V of Brienne (c. 1275 – March 15, 1311) was born in Brienne-le-Château, Aube, Champagne, France. He was the son of Hugh de Candie des Brienne, known as Hugh of Brienne, Count of Brienne and Lecce, and Isabel of la Roche, daughter of Guy I of la Roche, Duke of Athens. He was the heir of the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and of Cyprus, as well as to Taranto and Sicily.

Walter spent his youth as a hostage in Sicily, in the castle of Agosta. On the death of his father Hugh in 1296, Walter inherited the titles of Count of Brienne, Conversano and Lecce. Like his father, he took up arms in the service of Naples, but was captured in an ambush at Gagliano in 1300. He was freed in 1302 with the signing of the Treaty of Caltabellotta. The death of his mother's first cousin, Guy II of la Roche, in 1308 brought him the Duchy of Athens. There he found himself hard pressed by the Despot of Epirus, the Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus and the Lord of Vlachia. In 1310, he hired the Catalan Company, then ravaging the Byzantine empire, to fight the Greeks encroaching on his territory. After the Company had successfully reduced his enemies, he attempted to expel the Company from Athens with their pay in arrears. The Company refusing this, Walter marched out with a strong force of French knights from Athens, the Morea and Naples and Greek foot from Athens. Walter's army met the Catalans at the Battle of Halmyros on the river Cephissus in Boeotia on March 15, 1311. The Catalans won a devastating victory, killing Walter and almost all of his chivalry, and seizing his Duchy of Athens, excepting only the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia. His son Walter VI of Brienne succeeded him in all his titles; the Catalan Company nominated one of the surviving knights, Roger Deslaur, as their leader and new Duke of Athens by conquest.

In the year 1306 he married Jeanne de Châtillon and had two children:
*Walter VI of Brienne (c. 1304–1356), his successor as Count of Brienne and Lecce and Lord of Argos and Nauplia, as well as the titular Duke of Athens
*Isabella of Brienne (1306–1360), married Walter of Enghien and succeeded her brother on his death

References

*Genealogics name|id=00064486|name=Gauthier V, Comte de Brienne, Duke of Athens
* [http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=jweber&id=I02430 Rootweb World Connect]
*"The Chronicle of Ramón Muntaner", translated into English by Lady Goodenough http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf