Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat

Not to be confused with her grandmother, the Byzantine empress Yolande of Montferrat.
Yolande

Tomb of Aimone and Yolande
Countess of Savoy
Tenure 1 May 1330 – 24 December 1342
Born June 1318
Moncalvo
Died December 24, 1342
Chambery
Burial Hautecombe Abbey
Spouse Aimone, Count of Savoy
Issue Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy
Bianca, Lady of Milan
House House of Palaiologos
Father Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat
Mother Argentina Spinola

Yolande Palaiologina or Violant (Moncalvo, June 1318 – Chambery, December 24, 1342) was the daughter of Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat and Argentina Spinola, a Genoese lady, daughter of Opicino Spinola. She received the name Yolande from her paternal grandmother Irene of Montferrat.

Life

Yolande married on May 1, 1330 to Aimone, Count of Savoy, from her marriage she became Countess consort of Savoy, Aosta and Moriana. Her marriage was arranged to seal the newly found peace between her family and the Counts of Savoy, and on the basis that the latter would succeed to Montferrato in case of extinction in the male line of the Palaeologus family.

According also to this act of inheritance in Montferatto, when the male line died out of the Palaeologus dynasty with the death of Bonifacio IV of Montferrat two centuries later, Charles III, Duke of Savoy laid claim to Montferrato through Yolande his great-great-great-great grandmother. However it was claimed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

After failing to produce a child for the count in the first few years of marriage, she went to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Bourg-en-Bresse, which was considered at the time to help marriages become fruitful. Not long after, she conceived a son, Amadeus. She returned to the shrine after his birth, and was pleased to then conceive a daughter.[1]

They had five children:

  1. Amadeus VI (Amadeo VI) (1334–1383)
  2. Bianca (1336–1388), married in 1350 to Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan.
  3. John (1338–1345), died young
  4. Catherine (1341), died young
  5. Louis (b. 24 December 1342), died young

Yolande herself died whilst giving birth to her son Louis on 24 December 1342, and she was buried in a chapel at Hautecombe Abbey.[2]

Her daughter Bianca was mother to Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Violante Visconti. Among Yolande's descendants are Louis XII of France, Henry II of France and Henrietta Maria, Queen of England.

Ancestry

References

  1. Cox 1967, p. 13.
  2. Cox 1967, p. 31.
Preceded by
Bianca of Burgundy
Countess of Savoy
1330–1342
Succeeded by
Bonne of Bourbon
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