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Count Hugues "Le Grand" DE FRANCE

Count Hugues "Le Grand" DE FRANCE

Male Abt 1053 - 1101  (~ 48 years)

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  • Name Hugues "Le Grand" DE FRANCE 
    Prefix Count 
    Nickname Le Grand 
    Born Abt 1053  Of Vermandois, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    FamilySearch ID LDW5-FB6 
    Name Le Grand 
    _UID 41AF1AA21D104C8588E25BC096403575AFEF 
    Died 18 Oct 1101  Tarsus, Cilicie Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried St Paul DE Tarse Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I25410  Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
    Last Modified 13 Dec 2022 

    Father Henri CAPET, King Of the Franks,   b. 4 May 1008, Reims, Champagne, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Aug 1060, Vitry, Brie, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 52 years) 
    Mother Duchess/ Anna Agnesa YAROSLAVNA, Of Kiev,   b. 1036, Of Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 5 Sep 1075, La Fert?-Alais, Essonne, ?le-de-France, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 39 years) 
    Married 19 May 1051  Reims Cathedral, Reims, Champagne, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • NOTE MARRIED
    Family ID F33  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Adelle (Adelaide) VERMANDOIS,   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Married
    • NOTE MARRIED
    Children 
     1. Maud (Matilda) DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1080, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1130  (Age ~ 50 years)
     2. Baeatrice DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1082, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1144  (Age ~ 63 years)
     3. Isabel (Elizabeth) DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1085, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 13 Feb 1131, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 46 years)
     4. Raoul I DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1085, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 Oct 1152  (Age ~ 67 years)
     5. Constance DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1086, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     6. Agnaes DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1090, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1125  (Age ~ 36 years)
     7. Henri, Lord Of Chaumont,   b. Abt 1091, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1130  (Age ~ 39 years)
     8. Simon DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1093, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 10 Feb 1148, Selencie Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 55 years)
     9. Guillaume DE VERMANDOIS,   b. Abt 1094, Of Valois, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Abt 1096  (Age ~ 2 years)
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2016 
    Family ID F11491  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Photos
    Count Hugues 'LeGrand'
    Count Hugues "LeGrand"

  • Notes 
    • Hugh I (1053 ? October 18, 1101), called Magnus or the Great, was a younger son of Henry I of France and Anne of Kiev and younger brother of Philip I.

      He was in his own right Count of Vermandois, but an ineffectual leader and soldier, great only in his boasting.

      Indeed, Steven Runciman is certain that his nickname Magnus (greater or elder), applied to him by William of Tyre, is a copyist's error, and should be Minus (younger), referring to Hugh as younger brother of the King of France.

      In early 1096 Hugh and Philip began discussing the First Crusade after news of the Council of Clermont reached them in Paris. Although Philip could not participate, as he had been excommunicated, Hugh was said to have been influenced to join the Crusade after an eclipse of the moon on February 11, 1096.

      That summer Hugh's army left France for Italy, where they would cross the Adriatic Sea into territory of the Byzantine Empire, unlike the other Crusader armies who were travelling by land. On the way, many of the soldiers led by fellow Crusader Emicho of Flonheim joined Hugh's army after Emicho was defeated by the Hungarians (under King Coloman I "The Booklover" at Moson fortress), whose land he had been pillaging.

      Hugh crossed the Adriatic from Bari in Southern Italy, but many of his ships were destroyed in a storm off the Byzantine port of Dyrrhachium.

      Hugh and most of his army was rescued and escorted to Constantinople, where they arrived in November 1096. Prior to his arrival (he would be the first to arrive in Constantinople), Hugh sent an arrogant, insulting letter to Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, according to the Emperor's biography by his daughter (the Alexiad), demanding that Alexius meet with him:

      "Know, O King, that I am King of Kings, and superior to all, who are under the sky. You are now permitted to greet me, on my arrival, and to receive me with magnificence, as befits my nobility."[1]

      Alexius was already wary of the armies about to arrive, after the unruly mob led by Peter the Hermit had passed through earlier in the year ("The People's Crusade"). Alexius kept Hugh in custody in a monastery until Hugh swore an oath of vassalage to him.

      After the Crusaders had successfully made their way across Seljuk territory and, in 1098, captured Antioch, Hugh (and Baldwin of Hainault were) sent back to Constantinople to appeal for reinforcements from Alexius (Baldwin mysteriously vanishes in an ambush along the way). Alexius was uninterested in sending an expedition to claim the city so late in summer. (This triggers off a series of arguments in Antioch, where Bohemund asserts that Alexius had violated his oath to assist the crusades, and therefore, the city by rights was his. This argument, and an outbreak of typhus, ties up the Crusaders for the remainder of the year.)

      Hugh, instead of returning to Antioch to help plan the siege of Jerusalem, went back to France. There he was scorned for not having fulfilled his vow as a Crusader to complete a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Pope Paschal II threatened to excommunicate him.

      Hugh joined the minor Crusade of 1101 ("The Crusade of the Faint-Hearted," alongside William IX of Aquitaine and Welf I, Duke of Bavaria, and accompanied by Ida of Austria, mother of Leopold III of Austria). Half of this army was allowed to set sail from Constantinople for Palestine, while the other half marched overland, reaching Heraclea by September. Hugh was wounded in battle with the Turks (ambushed by Kilij Arslan) in September, and died of his wounds on October 18 in Tarsus. (Their group continued eastward under William of Nevers and Raymond of Toulouse, arriving at Jerusalem in Easter 1102. Kilij Arslan later establishes his capital at Konya after his victories over the "Crusade of the Faint-Hearted.")