The House of Baux is a French noble family from the south of France. It was one of the richest and most powerful families of medieval Provence, known as the 'Race d’Aiglon'. They were independent lords as castellans of Les Baux and Arles and wielded very considerable authority at the local level. They held important fiefs and vast lands, including the principality of Orange.[1]
In Old French: baux (and in Provençal-Occitan, li baou) is the word for 'cliffs, escarpment'. In its use as the family name, it refers to the natural fortress on which the family built their castle, the Château des Baux and the village that surrounded it. The escarpment provided a raised and protected mountain valley that protected their food supply; the natural ridge of the Alpilles allowed control of all the approaches to the citadel of Les Baux-de-Provence and the surrounding countryside, including the passage up and down the Rhone, and the approaches from the Mediterranean. Together, these natural advantages made the fortress impervious to the military technology of the time.
The family of des Baux is still thriving today in Naples in the person of several noble families descended from younger sons who followed Charles of Anjou south.[2] In particular from Bertrand, Lord of Baux and Prince of Orange, derive three cadet branches of the house, which moved to southern Italy, giving rise to the Italianized branches of the "Orsini del Balzo" Counts of Avellino, Dukes of Andria and Princes of Taranto.
After the death of Alix des Baux [fr], the last sovereign of Baux, the chateau and town were seized by King Rene, who gave them to his second wife, Queen Jeanne of Laval. When Provence was united with the crown almost 150 yrs of royal governors followed, including the lords, later counts and princes, de Manville. Les Baux became a centre for Protestantism. Its unsuccessful revolt against the crown led Cardinal Richelieu in 1632 to order that the castle and its walls should be demolished. This was accomplished with the aid of artillery.
Lords of Baux
Original coat of arms of the House of Baux (Lords of Baux). Some authors, and local tradition, with a hagiographic aim, fancifully claimed that the family was descended from Balthazar, one of the three Magi (the 16-rayed star symbolizing the star of Bethlehem). Some, that they descended from the first kings of Armenia, the star signifying that they directly knew Jesus. The mottoes of the family were Au Hasard Baltasar; Jamais Vassal; and Latin: Semper Ardentius.
The earliest definite ancestor was Pons (Poncius Iuvenis, 'Pons the Younger'). The name may indicate a trader from Greece,[why?] while his sobriquet, 'the Younger', distinguished him from his father, Pons the Elder. Pons the Younger was mentioned in three legal acts:[3]
1st in the act of donation of 14 May 971 donating Montmajour to Boson & his wife Folcoare,
2nd in 975 in the act of donation of land to St Etienne d'Arles, now called St. Trophime (Arch. du chap. d'Arles, liv. autent. f. 22)
3rd with his wife Profecte in an act of donation in 981
The family descent then is:
Pons the Younger (born c. 950, fl. 971-1028), father of
Hugh I (born c. 970 – after 1059), father of
William Hugh of Baux [fr]French: Guillaume Hugues or "Guilhem Uc" (after 1030 – 1105), father of
Raymond I (before 1095 – 1150), father of
Hugh II (reigned 1150 – 1167; retired to Sardinia where he died in 1179)
Betrand I (1167–1181), brother of Hugh II
Hugh III (1181–1240), lord of Baux, viscount of Marseille, eldest son of Bertrand I
Raymond III (1353–1372), brother of Robert, father of
John I (1372–1375)
Alice I (1372–1426), sister of John
This branch of the House of Baux was declared extinct in 1426. The domains were inherited by Counts of Provence.
Lords of Berre, Meyragues, Puyricard and Marignane
Bertrand II des Baux [fr], second oldest son of Bertrand I des Baux [fr], lord of Berre, Meyragues and Puyricard, and Marignane (1181–1201)
...
From this branch originated the family branches of the Seigneurs de Berre [fr], Lords of Meyrargues and Puyricard, who became extinct in 1349, and lords of Marignane, acquired by House of Valois-Anjou, as well as the Dukes of Andria.
Princes of Orange
When a branch of the lords of Baux married the heiress of the princes of Orange, they quartered their arms with those of the princes of Orange.
Bertrand I des Baux (1171–1181)
Raymond II of Baux, (1218–1282)
William I, youngest son of Bertrand I des Baux, (1181–1218)
In 1417, the House of Ivrea or House of Châlon-Arlay succeeded as princes of Orange.
A brother of William I started the branch of the Lords of Courbezon (House of Baux-Courbezon), which became extinct in 1393. Another brother started the line of Lords of Suze, Solerieux and Barri (House of Baux-Suze-Solerieux-Barri), which became extinct and reverted afterwards to the counts of Orange.
Les Baux-de-Provence seen from the side, showing the natural fortress created by the escarpment. Without gunpowder, it was impregnable.
^ a bLine of the dukes d'Andria and Nardo, counts of Squillace, princes of Tarento (in Naples) and Achaïa (Greece). Elder branch ended in 1530 in the male line. A younger branch survives in Naples as the "del Balzo" in multiple branches, as dukes of Capriglianode, another as counts del Balzo (died out 1932) and another as the dukes of Presenzano.del Balzo di Presenzano, Gioacchino. "GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux, with bibliography cited there". Retrieved 2012-08-28.
^ a bSg Courthézon, gave his rights to the principality to Raymond IV for this lordship. One male line died out c.1372, the other two lead to the counts d'Alessano, and counts d'Alessano, including the Orsini des Baux, died out by 1550.del Balzo di Presenzano, Gioacchino. "GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux, with bibliography cited there". Retrieved 2012-08-28.
^(Per the references cited in the Simplified family tree footnote section below, rather than footnote each person, as they are from all these sources)
^Gave his rights to his brother. Male line died out c. 1409.del Balzo di Presenzano, Gioacchino. "GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux". Retrieved 2012-08-28.del Balzo di Presenzano, Gioacchino. "GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux, with bibliography cited there". Retrieved 2012-08-28.
^She was married to Odon de Villars and Conrad IV de Furstemberg. Her uncle, on her mother's side, Raymond de Turenne used the fortress of Baux to wage war on the counts of Provence. On her death, the lordship of Baux was seized by King Rene, the count of Provence and given to his wife, Jeanne of Laval, thus ending its independence.fr:Alix des Baux
References
^Grew 1947, p. 5–16
^del Balzo, Gioacchino. "GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux". Retrieved 21 April 2011.
^ a b cPaulet, Ladislas (1986). Les Baux et Castillon: Histoire des communes des Baux, de Paradou, de Maussane, et de Mouries. Arles, France: Editions Culture Provencale Méridionale de Marcel Petit. ISBN 978-2866730604.
^Geary, Patrick J. (1994). Phantoms of remembrance: Memory and oblivion at the end of the first millennium. Princeton, N.J., United States: Princeton University Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780691026039.
^d’Hauthuille, Olivier. Héraldique et généalogie. 89.I.160
^*Cook, Theodore Andrea (1905). Twenty-five great houses of France; the story of the noblest French chateaux. London: Country Life. p. 127. The first Count of Les Baux, whose name alone we know, was Leibulf, whose son Pons, or Poncius, owned large lands in Argence Old Provence
^Grew 1947, p. 16.
Bibliography
Grew, Marion Ethel (1947). The House of Orange. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Sources for the Vicomtes de Marseille
Édouard Baratier, Ernest Hildesheimer et Georges Duby, Atlas historique...
and the table of Henry de Gérin-Ricard, Actes concernant les vicomtes de Marseille et leurs descendants...
Sources: Ancestors of the Lords of Baux section
Genealogy works
Georges de Manteyer, La Provence du premier au douzième siècle, études d'histoire et de géographie... (1908),
Juigné de Lassigny, Généalogie des vicomtes de Marseille...,
Fernand Cortez, Les grands officiers royaux de Provence au moyen-âge listes chronologiques...,
Papon, de Louis Moréri, du marquis de Forbin, Monographie de la terre et du château de Saint-Marcel, près Marseille: du Xe au XIXe siècle... ("Monograph of the land and the castle of Saint-Marcel, near Marseille, from the tenth to the nineteenth century ..."), Marseille, 1888
J. Berge, Origines rectifiées des maisons féodales Comtes de Provence, Princes d'Orange ..., France-Riviera, 1952
Poly, Jean-Pierre, La Provence et la société féodale (879–1166), Paris: Bordas, 1976,
Jacques Saillot, Le Sang de Charlemagne...
Sources: Simplified family tree section
Grew 1947
Rowen, Herbert H. (1988). The princes of Orange: the stadholders in the Dutch Republic. Cambridge University Press.
de Pontbriant, A. (1891). Histoire de la principaute d'Orange: suivre de lettres inedites des princes d'Orange, des rois de France, du Cte de Grignan, etc. Avignon: Seguin freres.
Schwennicke, Detlev (1989). Europäiche Stammtafeln, Stammtafeln der Europäichen Staaten, Neue Folge, Volume III, Part 4, Das feudale Frankreich und sein Einfluß auf die Welt des Mittelalters. Marburg: Verlag J.A. Stargardt. pp. 745, 748, 751, & 752.
Genealogy works
Gioacchino del Balzo di Presenzano, http://www.delbalzo.net/genealogia2.htm GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux extensive bibliography
G.Noblemaire, Histoire de la Maison des Baux, Parigi: 1912 and 1975
J.Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, London/New York: 1998
E.Leonard,Les Angevins de Naples, Paris: 1954
Almanach of Gotha, 1888-1943
F. Mazel,La Noblesse et l’Eglise en ProvenceFin X – debut XIV siecle, L’Exemple des familles d’Agoult-Simiane, des Baux et de Marseilles, CTHS – Paris: 2002
H.Aliquot et R.Merceron,Armorial d’Avignon et Du Comtat Venaissin, Avignon:1987
Cambridge Medieval History, Volumes I – IX, Cambridge: 1911
Cambridge Medieval History, Vol II, III, IV, Revised Edition 1996 -2003
Cambridge Modern History, Volumes I-XII, Cambridge: 1962-63
External links
GENEALOGY Maison del Balzo/des Baux by Gioacchino del Balzo with extensive bibliography
Grand Armorial du Comtat Venaissin by Jean Gallian
