Aymer (also
Aymar,
Adhemar or
Adomar;
c. 1160 – 16 June 1202) was the last
Count of Angoulême of the House of Taillefer. He was a middle child of Count
William IV and Marguerite de Turenne. Two of his elder brothers,
Wulgrin III and
William VII, became Counts of Angoulême in succession after the death of their father in 1179.
Aymer succeeded his brother in 1186, and soon after was at the court of
Richard the Lionheart, then
Duke of Aquitaine and thus Aymer's lord, to receive recognition of his accession.
[1] By 1191, Aymer had married
Alice of Courtenay, the daughter of
Peter I of Courtenay and thus granddaughter of King
Louis VI of France.
[2] In 1188, they had a daughter,
Isabella of Angoulême, who married King
John of England in 1200. The marriage alliance was sealed by two treaties, one public, the other private between Aymer and John. The count remained a steady ally of the kings of England against the rebellious
House of Lusignan.
[3]Aymer had a claim to the
County of La Marche, where in 1199 or 1200 he was exercising authority, perhaps on behalf of his son-in-law, and issued a charter to some monks of
Aubignac.
[4] In February 1202 when John was visiting
Angoulême to negotiate a treaty with
Sancho VII of Navarre, Aymer took him on a tour of the newly consecrated abbey church at
La Couronne.
[3] The role of Aymer's daughter in John's continued refusal to properly care for his brother Richard the Lionheart's widow,
Berengaria of Navarre, may explain the Count of Angoulême's proximity to the negotiations between the two kingdoms.
[5]Aymer died in
Limoges on 16 June 1202. His daughter and only child succeeded him as Countess of Angoulême. Her title, however, was largely empty since her husband denied her control of her inheritance as well as her marriage dowry and dower. John's appointed governor, Bartholomew de Le Puy (
de Podio), ran most of the administrative affairs of Angoulême until John's death in 1216.
[6] In 1217 Isabella returned and seized her inheritance from Bartholomew, who appealed unsuccessfully to the English king for help.
Aymer's widow, Alice, ruled the city of Angoulême until March 1203, when John summoned her to court and granted her a monthly pension of 50
livres d'Anjou in return for her dower rights. She thereafter retired from public life to her estate at
La Ferté-Gaucher, where she was living as late as July 1215, when she issued a charter at
Provins using the title Countess of Angoulême.
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