Hugh, Count of Brienne (b c 1240. d 1296)

Second surviving son of Count Walter of Brienne and Mary of Lusignan of Cyprus.

His paternal inheritance was mostly in Southern Italy, where they had the claims of principality of Tarent, and claims to succession of King Tancred of Sicily. County of Lecce. Tancred (d. ...

Claimed the regency of Jerusalem (and, indirectly, a place in the succession) in 1264 as senior heir of Hugh I of Cyprus and Alice of Jerusalem, being the son of their eldest daughter, but was passed over by the Haute Cour in favor of his cousin Hugh III of Cyprus. Events May 12 - The Battle of Lewes begins (ends May 14). ... Hugh I of Cyprus (died 1218) succeeded to the throne of Cyprus in 1205 upon the death of his father Amalric of Lusignan. ... Alice de Champagne of Cyprus (1196-1246) was the daughter of Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem and Henry II of Champagne. ... Hugh I of Jerusalem (Hugh III of Cyprus) (died 1284), was the son of Isabella of Cyprus (daughter of Hugh I of Cyprus) and Henry of Antioch. ...

He was the heir-general of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, and thus of the line founded by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Baldwin of Bourcq (died August 21, 1131) was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. ...

Later he was an ally of Charles I of Anjou in Sicily and Naples and in the pursuits of Constantinople and Holy Land. Apparently because of his said dependence on Charles, himself also a claimant of Jerusalem, he did not actively pursue his hereditary rights. Charles I (March 1227 - January 7, 1285) was the posthumous son of King Louis VIII of France, created Count of Anjou by his elder brother King Louis IX in 1246, thus founding the second Angevin dynasty. ...

Hugh's first wife was Isabella of La Roche, heiress of Thebes, and his second Helena Komnena Dukaina of Epirus-Neopatras, heiress of Lamia and Larisa.

Hugh of Brienne acted as Captain-General of Brindisi, Otranto and Apulia.

Hugh of Brienne was succeeded by his son Walter V of Brienne (killed in war near Thebes 1311), Duke of Athens, Count of Lecce etc. His life was largely spent in Greece, where he tried to win back his mother's family's inheritance, the Duchy of Athens. Walter V of Brienne (c. ...