Peter of Savoy Archives - The History JarThe History Jar

Ebulo was a younger son from Savoy, modern Switzerland, who came to make his fortune in England on the recommendation of Eleanor of Province’s uncle – Peter of Savoy. Or in other words he was one of the foreigners who arrived at the court of Henry III intent on making his fortune- The Savoyards who were Eleanor’s relations and the Lusignans who were Henry III’s relations were deeply resented by England barony because of the matches they made, the grants they received and the rewards they accrued.

Ebulo arrived in England in 1246. Two years later he became one of Henry III’s household knights and began to witness royal grants. In 1249 the king began to make him grants of land and of wardships. In 1254 he became part of Prince Edward’s household in Gascony and his ties to the prince were confirmed by various appointments back in England. In August 1256 he went to Ireland with Edward and witnessed various charters for the prince. It has been suggested that by then he was Edward’s Steward of the Household.

In 1258 baronial resentment reached breaking point and resulted in the provisions of Oxford. Ebulo was sent overseas with Peter of Savoy and in 1260 he represented the king when Louis IX of France arbitrated in the dispute between Henry, his sister (Eleanor) and her husband, Simon de Montfort, in the matter of Eleanor’s dower.

Later he would be subject to the barons’ wrath but in the short term he continued to hold important posts. His loyalty to the crown would earn him the stewardship of Windsor Castle.

He died in 1268.

‘A Vaudois servant of Henry III, Ebal II de Mont (Ebulo de
Montibus)’ (2017), available online at
https://www.academia.edu/31930999/A_Vaudois_servant_of_Henry_III_Ebal_II_de_Mont_Ebulo_de_Montibu
s?email_work_card=view-paper,

‘Three alien royal stewards in thirteenth-century England: the careers and
legacy of Mathias Bezill, Imbert Pugeys and Peter de Champvent’, in Thirteenth Century England X, ed. M.
Prestwich, R. Britnell, and R. Frame (Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 50-70.

Peter of Savoy, statue in front of the Savoy Hotel, was Eleanor of Provence’s uncle. His father intended that Peter should enter the church but in 1234 he concluded that the life of a cleric was not for him. When he arrived in England, Henry III, showered favours on him because it would please Eleanor. In 1240 the king granted him most of the Honour of Richmond. However, the envy of the barons focused upon him and at the start of the Second Barons’ War he life the country for his own safety.

In 1265 Simon de Montfort confiscated the honour but in the aftermath of the Battle of Evesham, Henry III returned the estates to him. Peter, who married his cousin Agnes of Faucigny, had only one legitimate child, a daughter named Beatrice but she did not inherit the honour of Richmond after her father’s death in 1268. Instead the honour reverted to the Crown.

The first man who acquired the barony was the eldest son of Alice of Brittany and Peter de Dreux who became the 2nd Earl of Richmond in 1268. In the succeeding generations five of the earls of Richmond would be Dukes of Brittany. Only one of them lived most of his life in England in service of its kings. John, Earl of Richmond born in 1266 was granted the honour in 1306 by Edward I.

Morris, David, The Honour of Richmond