Blessed Umberto III, Count of Savoy

Humbert III (1136 – 4 March 1189), surnamed the Blessed, was Count of Savoy from 1148 to 1189. His parents were Amadeus III of Savoy and Mahaut of Albon. He ceded rights and benefits to monasteries and played a decisive role in the organisation of Hautecombe Abbey. It is said that he would rather have been a monk than a sovereign. On the death of his third wife, he retired to Hautecombe, but then changed his mind and, by his fourth wife finally had a son, Thomas. He sided with the Guelph party of Pope Alexander III against the Ghibelline emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The result was an invasion of his states twice: in 1174 Susa was set on fire, and in 1187 Henry VI banished him from the Holy Roman Empire and wrested away most of his domains. He was left with only the valleys of Susa and Aosta. He died at Chambéry in 1189. He was the first prince buried at Hautecombe. His memorial day is 4 March. Humbert III was born around 1136 in the castle of Avigliana, Piedmont, near Turin, to Count Amadeus III of Savoy and Mahaut (Mathilde), Countess of Albon and Vienne. Humbert III is an important figure in medieval society, as attested in the history of the House of Savoy. His life was characterised by certain key features, including mysticism, borne of a vocation and tradition of the contemplative life. This he fostered in parallel with, and notwithstanding, his role as military leader and politician, undertaken reluctantly and only to safeguard his family’s dynastic claims. With his father he had inherited from his grandfather, Humbert II, the dream of reuniting the fragmented Kingdom of Burgundy, in sharp contrast with a centralising policy of the French royal family. In those efforts, Humbert was supported by Frederick I Barbarossa, but found himself required to quell neighbouring feudal lords settled among his domains. Like his father, himself dying young when his son was not yet of age, his education was entrusted to Amadeus of Lausanne, former abbot of Hautecombe.