Etienne de Montfaucon

Etienne de Montfaucon, (born in 1325, deceased in 1397), is the son of Henri de Montfaucon and Agnès of Trawl-net. He was Seigneur of Montfaucon and Count de Montbéliard of 1367 until his death. He married Marguerite of Trawl-net-Arlay, girl of Jean II of Trawl-net-Arlay.

During the last warlike peregrinations of Henri Ier, his son Etienne , new count de Montbéliard, who had married Marguerite of Trawl-net-Arlay in 1356, ordered already all things with the country. It had 300 vassal distributed on the grounds of County-Frank, in the Country of Montbeliard, the châtellenies of Barns, Clerval, Gangway, Etobon, in the Valley of Morteau, or with Marnay, close to Gray, with Montfaucon and as far as Switzerland in the Country of Vaud, in Orbe, Yverdon, Echallens. The count Etienne, now old, had been widowed, and reigned for thirty years on the county. His wife had given him four children: Henri the elder one, then Jean-Philippe, Louis, and a girl, Jeanne. It was cruelly cut down, because all its hoirs was going to disappear from alive sound. With died in layer of his Jeanne daughter in 1389, in an incommensurable despair, it was withdrawn in the castle of its ancestors with Montfaucon, not supporting more its existence in the county of Montbeliard; death had meanwhile carried one by one all its wire.

Henri de Montfaucon, lord d' Orbe (small town located in Switzerland in the valley of Joux) had given to the count Etienne a grand-daughter who prénommait Henriette. Then it had crossed against the Bazajet sultan and was to disappear in 1396 during this company in front of Nicopolis in Hungary (today Nikopol in Bulgaria). But in spite of the disastrous ones and remote echoes of the forwarding which arrived at the country, the count Etienne kept the hope which his/her oldest son was still alive. Alas! during the following year, the dramatic news that one collected hardly left of doubt about its disappearance. The count Etienne, broken down, still sent emissary to his research. In vain…

Thus, the old man Etienne, last authentic count of the famous family of Montfaucon, only now, without hoirs direct with which to transmit the succession, understood suddenly that the danger threatened its grounds unrelentingly. What was going to its death to become the county of Montbeliard? To fall in déshérence? To be divided between its powerful neighbors? Also, by will, made it lay down the transmission of its goods with Henriette, the elder one of her four grand-daughters. We were in 1397; it was ten years old and the count Etienne, by political game, promised in marriage it to the person of Eberhard IV, young prince of Wurtemberg, duchy located in the Empire. The small prince was nine years old. From now on, Montbeliard was going to turn its glance towards the north of Europe for four centuries. Engagement took place on November 13rd, 1397 with the Château of Montbeliard. In the facts, the count Etienne could not assist to with it. Already, it had received the sacraments of the Church on November 2nd, and its funeral took place the 19 following.

Thus the county of Montbeliard passed in the Maison of Wurtemberg . The marriage of the young couple took place in 1407, but one is unaware of the place and the circumstances. However, one can hardly deviate from Stuttgart.

References: “The Novel of a Principality”. D. Lord. Editions Cêtre - Besancon.

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