Amadeus VI was born on January 4, 1334, the eldest son of Aymon, Count of Savoy, and Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat. He would come to rule over the County of Savoy for four decades, earning along the way the enduring nickname the Green Count, a title derived from the color he chose for his tournaments and ceremonial displays. His reign marked a critical period in the elevation of Savoy from a regional power to a significant player in the complex political landscape of late medieval Europe.
When his father died in 1343, Amadeus inherited the county at the age of nine. Because of his youth, his father's will had designated two cousins as co-regents: Amadeus III of Geneva and Louis II of Vaud. The arrangement was carefully circumscribed; a document limited the power of both regents, requiring them to act jointly on any significant decision while remaining subject to review by a resident council of nobles representing all the administrative districts of the county. This institutional check on regency power reflected the maturity of Savoy's governance structures and would help ensure continuity during the transition.
The early years of the regency were not without complication. A cousin named Joan of Savoy renewed a dynastic claim to the county, arguing descent from Edward, Count of Savoy, though her claim had already been denied under the county's Semi-Salic traditions. When she died the following year, she left the county in her will to Philip, Duke of Orleans as a final act of spite against her relatives. In 1345, negotiations resolved the matter through the payment of 5,000 livres annually in exchange for the yielding of the claim, a diplomatic resolution that preserved stability.
Amadeus received an education befitting both his station and the age. He studied classic texts on warfare and governance, including De Re Militari and De Regimine Principum, and his physical education included martial training in combat and horsemanship. His religious devotion was genuine if sometimes excessive; he took vows to fast more frequently than was wise for his health, ultimately requiring him to seek a papal dispensation from Clement VI. The pope granted it, substituting the requirement that Amadeus feed twelve of the poor each week, a practical form of piety that suited the young ruler well.
Savoy was drawn into the turbulent politics of northern Italy almost from the beginning of his personal rule. When the young Queen Joanna I of Naples took her throne, rivals moved quickly to exploit her inexperience and seize her Italian territories. John II, Marquess of Montferrat, led the initial incursions, while James of Piedmont, a cousin and vassal of Amadeus, supported the queen. After her first army was defeated in 1345, the fighting spread into James's own territory. In 1347, James requested Amadeus's assistance, and Amadeus dispatched an army that drove back the attackers through July of that year, with Amadeus himself joining the campaign in its final weeks.
The opponents regrouped. John enlisted the help of Humbert II, Dauphin of Viennois, a traditional enemy of the Savoyards, and Thomas II, Marquess of Saluzzo, and together they overcame the Angevin position. Pope Clement VI spent 1348 attempting to broker a truce, producing an agreement that satisfied no one. That same year, the Black Death arrived in the county with devastating force, halving the population of some villages. In 1348, anti-Jewish violence swept through parts of the region, as peasants accused Jews of poisoning wells and fountains. The castellans in some places attempted to protect Jewish communities, but violence broke out nonetheless. In Chambery, the Jewish population was locked in the castle for their protection, but a mob broke through and killed several of them. Under pressure from the courts, surviving members of the community were found guilty of poisoning, eleven were executed, and the remainder were charged a substantial ongoing fine.
In 1349, a treaty of mutual defense aligned Amadeus with his Geneva and Piedmont cousins and with the powerful House of Visconti, rulers of the Lordship of Milan. The treaty included a provision for Lord Galeazzo II Visconti to marry Bianca of Savoy, the count's sister. To celebrate the marriage in 1350, Amadeus established the Order of the Black Swan, one of his more colorful acts of chivalric theater. That same year, Amadeus acquired the Dauphine of Viennois, which Humbert II ceded to France but which extended Savoy's influence in the surrounding region.
The achievement for which Amadeus VI is most celebrated came in the form of the Savoyard Crusade against the Ottoman Turks, which he not only led but personally financed. The Byzantine emperor, beleaguered by Turkish advances, received crucial military aid from the Green Count's expedition, and the campaign demonstrated Savoy's capacity to project force and prestige far beyond its Alpine borders. The combination of military success and diplomatic activity during the crusade extended Savoy's reputation across the continent and cemented Amadeus's legacy as one of the most capable rulers the county had ever produced. He died on March 1, 1383, having transformed Savoy from a county navigating regency politics and plague into a recognized European power.
