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Count Foulques of Venaissin

Count Foulques of Venaissin (26 January 1312-16 February 1344) was the ruler of the Comtat Venaissin enclave of the Papal States in southern France. Count Foulques was the right-hand man of Pope Benedict XII, serving as Captain-General of the Papal Army, but he fell out of favor with Pope Alexander V and died in his dungeons.

Biography[]

Foulques was born on 26 January 1312 to the House de Chateauneuf-du Pape, a family that ruled the namesake town to the north of Avignon in the Comtat Venaissin enclave of the Papal States in southern France. Foulques served as Marshal of the Papal States under Pope Benedict XII, and he took part in the conquest of Aprutium from the Kingdom of Naples in 1337-38, which led to him being granted the whole Comtat Venaissin county. Pope Benedict married him to Countess Amalia of Venaissin, an Italian woman at his court in Rome, and Foulques became a happy vassal of the Pope. Foulques and Pope Benedict had a good relationship, as both were a part of the temporary French hegemony over the Avignon Papacy, but he fell out of favor with Pope Alexander V. Pope Alexander V had Foulques imprisoned on 20 April 1343 after Foulques was angered by his conversion to the Italian culture from the French culture, and Baron Geronimo of Benevento replaced him as Marshal of the Papal States. His wife fled to Venaissin after the Pope tried to have her arrested as well, and he died on 16 February 1344 in the dungeons of Pope Alexander V. His son and successor, Count Gargamel of Venaissin, was also imprisoned by Pope Alexander to prevent Foulques' family from acting against him.

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