Walter III, Count of Brienne

Walter III of Brienne (French: Gautier, Italian: Gualtiero; died June 1205) was a nobleman from northern France.

Becoming Count of Brienne in 1191, Walter married the Sicilian princess Elvira and took an army to southern Italy to claim her inheritance.

Sibylla sought a capable nobleman who would marry her eldest daughter, Elvira (known by a handful of other names, including Albinia and Maria), and press her claim to the Kingdom of Sicily.

Sicily was then controlled by the regents of the orphaned infant king Frederick, whose parents, Henry and Constance, had deposed Sibylla's family.

[5] For the House of Brienne, however, Walter's marriage to Elvira signified a sudden rise and the beginning of the dynasty's golden age.

[7] Besides recruiting men, Walter energetically collected money and supplies from 1200, selling or mortgaging all of his land by April 1201.

[7] Leaving his younger brother John in charge of Brienne,[10] Walter arrived to the Italian Peninsula with a small army, including sixty knights and forty mounted sergeants.