View source for Amadeus I, Count of Savoy

{{Short description|Count of the House of Savoy (c. 1016–c. 1051)}}
[[File:Ritratto in Armatura del Conte Amedeo I di Savoia - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|413x413px|Portrait of Amadeus, painted centuries after his death]]

'''Amadeus I''' (c. 1016 – c. 1051), nicknamed '''of the Tail''' or '''''la Coda''''' (Latin {{lang|la|caudatus}}, "tailed"), was an early count of the [[House of Savoy]]. He was probably the eldest son of [[Humbert I of Savoy|Humbert I]].<ref name=cognasso>F. Cognasso, [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/amedeo-i-conte-di-savoia_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ "Amedeo I, conte di Savoia"], ''Dizionario biografico degli Italiani'', Vol. 2 (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960).</ref> His nickname derives from an anecdote, preserved only in a thirteenth-century manuscript, that when he met the [[Emperor Henry III]] at [[Verona]] in 1046, he refused to enter the emperor's chambers without his large train of knights, his "tail".<ref name=cognasso/>

Amadeus is first attested in a document of 8 April 1022, when, along with his younger brother [[Burchard (bishop of Aosta)|Burchard]], [[bishop of Aosta]], he witnessed a donation of [[Lambert I (bishop of Langres)|Lambert]], [[bishop of Langres]], to his father.<ref name=cognasso/> Probably sometime after this and before 1030, Amadeus, Burchard, and a third brother, [[Otto, Count of Savoy|Otto]], joined their father in witnessing a donation made by one Aymon de Pierrefort to the [[Abbey of Cluny]]. In a further two undated charters of probably about the same period, Amadeus together with his brothers Otto and Aymon and his father made donations to the Abbey of Cluny and the {{ill|Le Bourget Priory|lt=church of Saint-Maurice|fr|Prieuré du Bourget}} at Matassine ([[Le Bourget-du-Lac]]).<ref name=cognasso/> Amadeus and his father also witnessed another donation, made by several noblemen, to the [[Abbey of Savigny]].

The first record of Amadeus's marriage and use of the title [[count]] comes from a single document dated 22 October 1030. On that date, at [[Grenoble]], the count and his wife, Adelaide,<ref>His wife is elsewhere give as Adila or Adalegidal.</ref> of unknown family, gave the church of Matassine to Cluny. The act was witnessed by one Humbert and his wife Ausilia—who were perhaps Amadeus's father and mother—and also by his brother Otto and by the king and queen of [[Kingdom of Arles|Burgundy]], [[Rudolf III of Burgundy|Rudolf III]] and Ermengarda.<ref name=cognasso/> Although the document of 1030 does not demonstrate that Amadeus and his father both held the rank of count simultaneously, Humbert's diploma of 1040 for the [[Diocese of Aosta]] was confirmed by his eldest son bearing the title count.<ref name=cognasso/> On 21 January 1042 Amadeus, Otto and Aymon confirmed another diploma of their father favouring the church of [[Saint-Chaffre]]. On 10 June Count Amadeus, Count Humbert and Otto donated the church of [[Echelles]] to the church of Saint-Laurence in Grenoble. There is no notice of Amadeus's activities for the following decade, and his last action was recorded on 10 December 1051. In this document, he is called "Count of Belley" (''comes Bellicensium''), but it is almost certainly the same Count Amadeus as the son of Humbert I.<ref name=cognasso/>

According to fourteenth-century sources, Amadeus died shortly after 1051 and was buried in [[Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne]]. His son Humbert had predeceased him, but he left behind a son, [[Aymon (Bishop of Belley)|Aymon]], who became Bishop of Belley. He may have had a daughter who married into the family of the [[Counts of Geneva]]. He was succeeded by his brother Otto in the countship.<ref name=cognasso/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[House of Savoy]]|||||name='''Amadeus I'''}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Humbert I of Savoy|Humbert I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[County of Savoy|Count of Savoy]]
|years=1030–1051}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Otto of Savoy|Otto]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Counts of Savoy}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amadeus 1, Count Of Savoy}}
[[Category:970s births]]
[[Category:1050s deaths]]
[[Category:11th-century counts of Savoy]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]