Barony of Vaud

It was semi-independent state, capable of entering into relations with its sovereign, the Holy Roman Emperor (as in 1284), and of fighting alongside the French in the Hundred Years' War.

[1] The pays de Vaud at the time of its purchase by the Count of Savoy in 1359 comprised fertile farmland probably yielding more revenues annually than the neighbouring County of Geneva.

It lay on important trade routes leading from the Alpine passes of the Great St Bernard and Simplon along its lakeside paths northwards into Germany and westward into France.

[5] The feudal obligations owed by the baron of Vaud are evidenced by the participation of 160 men-at-arms (gentes armorum), who were mounted and fully armoured, and 2,500 infantrymen, all of whom were pledged to serve at least twenty-two days in the campaign of the spring of 1352 against the pays de Gex.

In the spring of 1355, when the Count of Savoy was invading the Barony of Faucigny, the baroness of Vaud provided 122 men-at-arms under her bailli, Jean de Blonay, and another seventeen under his lieutenant, Arnaud d'Aigrement.

In 1271 her uncle, Count Philip I, forced her to concede the pays de Vaud to him, partly through the intervention of Edmund Crouchback, who was travelling through the region to join the Ninth Crusade.

[2] The final contract of sale signed on 19 June 1359 initiated the definitive integration of the magna baronia ("great barony") into the County of Savoy, at the price of 160,000 florins.