Otto de Grandson (–1328), sometimes numbered Otto I to distinguish him from later members of his family with the same name, was the most prominent of the Savoyard knights in the service of King Edward I of England, to whom he was the closest personal friend and many of whose interests he shared.
Family The son of Pierre, lord of Grandson near Lausanne and Agnès de Neuchâtel. He was the elder brother of William de Grandison, 1st Baron Grandison and future Bishops of Verdun Henri de Grandson and Gerard de Grandson, all of whom would join him in England, as would his cousins Pierre de Champvent and Guillaume de Champvent.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 6 His ancestor, Barthélémy de Jura, Bishop of Laon, attended the Council of Troyes (1129) which wrote the rule for the Knights Templar.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 4
Service in England and Wales (1265–90) The young Otto travelled to England probably in the company of Peter II of Savoy by 1252, certainly not later than 1265. His father, a loyal ally of Peter was receiving payments from the English crown from 1245.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 5 There he entered the service of King Henry III and by 1267 was placed in the household of Prince Edward. In return for likely service for Prince Edward at the battles of Lewes and Evesham he was rewarded with property at Queenhithe in London.CPR Henry III vol 5 1258–1266, 465. ‘The like to the following houses late of the king’s enemies in the said city [London] . . .Otoninus de Graunzun, those late of Simon de Hadestok.’ And Ibid. 467. ‘The like to the following of like houses in London: Ottonin de Grauncun, those houses with their appurtenances and rents in the street of the Thames by Quenehithe late of Simon de Hadestok.’ In 1268 both prince and servant were knighted and in 1271 the latter accompanied his lord on the Ninth Crusade, where he served at Acre that year. According to Jean d’Ypres, it was Otto, not Eleanor of Castile, who sucked the poison from the wounded Edward after an attempted assassination.Chron. Bertini. O. Holder-Egger. Ed. 1880. Chronica monasterii Sancti Bertini auctore Johanne de Ypra. Monumental Germaniæ historical Scriptores series. Hannover Hahn. Vol 25. ‘ They said further that this fatal Lord de Grandson, being at that time with others beyond the sea, when he heard the son of the king of England, so strong a man, so poisoned, he alone dared to suggest his wounds thus poisoned, perhaps trusting in his fate foretold of the fire; He therefore sucked, and thus Edward was cured.’ In 1272 Otto was appointed an executor in Acre.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 27
In 1277 he was appointed lord of the Channel IslandsCPR. Edward I vol 1 1272–1281, 188. "January 25th , Worcester, Acquittance to Otto de Grandisono of the farm by which he holds the islands of Guernsey and Jersey and the adjacent islands, and grant of the said islands and their issues for life, and grant, on account of his intimacy with the king, and his long and faithful service from an early age, and for the acquittance of debts incurred in the king‘s service in the aforesaid time, that his executors shall hold the said islands and their issues for five years after his decease for the acquittance of his debts, and the fulfilment of his will without rendering any account therefor.". and in 1290 appointed a bailiff for Jersey and another for Guernsey, giving them civil powers to administer the islands. However, given his many duties for Edward, Grandson would be an absentee landlord. Those appointed by him receiving some criticism.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 188-9 Grandson would make only one certain visit to the islands, this in 1323.Cartulaire de Jersey. No 60. ‘Chier sire, sachez que Monsieur de Grantson vint as illes au Chastel de Gersuy le premier jor deu mois de Juyn.’ Or ‘Dear sir, know that Monsieur de Grandson came to you at Castle of Jersey on the first day of the month of June.’
Returning to England, he was a key household knight of King Edward I in his campaigns in Scotland and Wales, where he served as chief justiciar of Wales, based at Caernarfon Castle from 1284 to 1294CCR Edward I vol 2 1279 – 1288, 273. "Whereas the king has left Otto de Grandisono in Wales to keep that land. . . " - although his time in Caernarfon was limited. During the Welsh Wars of King Edward I Otto was very active diplomatically and militarily, beginning with the siege of Dolforwyn Castle in April 1277.John Goronwy Edwards, ed. 1935. Calendar of ancient correspondence concerning Wales. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press Board. 30-1. In a letter attributed to him from Dolforwyn Castle he may well have been instrumental in bringing Master James of Saint George to Wales - the man who would later build Flint Castle, Rhuddlan Castle, Conwy Castle, Caernarfon Castle, Harlech Castle and Beaumaris Castle.Arnold Taylor. 1963. ‘Some notes on the Savoyards in North Wales, 1277–1300. With special reference to the Savoyard element in the construction of Harlech Castle,’ Genava XI: 298. ‘In a letter to King Edward, written at Dolforwyn during the siege, and dated 3 April 1277, Othon de Grandson said that when the castle surrendered it would need much repair, and expressed his fears that if he assigned the work to Master Bertram the latter would ‘devise too many things and perhaps waste the king’s money, and therefore some other man would be needed who would take the matter in hand’ (Cal. Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales, p.31.)’ Indeed Grandson is recorded as directing early palisade works at Flint Castle.TNA E101/3/15. ‘Vincencio clerico pro duobus solidis quos dedit diversis hominibus precepto O. de Grandisono pro maremio leuando apud Flind, ijs.’ Or ‘Vincent gave to the clerk for the two sol [shillings] that he gave to various men by order of Othon de Grandson for having carted timber in Flint, two shillings.’ On behalf of Edward, he concluded the Treaty of Aberconwy in November that brought the invasion of Wales in 1277 to an end.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 56 In early 1278, he was sent to Gascony by Edward along with Robert Burnel, to reform the government - Grandson and Burnell were joint Lieutenants of Gascony from 7 February 1278 until September 1278.https://www.gasconrolls.org/en/research-tools/duchy-office-holders/kings-lieutenants-in-the-duchy-1278-1453/ They appointed Jean I de Grailly as the new Seneschal and laid the foundations for the Treaty of Amiens sealed in 1279.John Marshall. 2025. Otto de Grandson: Edward I’s Loyal Knight of Renown. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. 58-9 He was also employed as a diplomat and gained contacts with most of the sovereigns of western Europe. During the second invasion of Wales in 1282–83 he narrowly escaped death at the battle of Moel-y-donRichard Copley Christie. 1887. Annales Cestrienses: or Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Werburg at Chester. The Record Society, 112. "Cum magna difficultate evasit dominus Otto de Graunson" translates as "Lord Otto de Graunson escaped with great difficulty" before in April 1283 taking the town of Harlech at the head of 560 infantry.TNA, C47/2/4 ‘pacatum domino Othon de Grandisono ad sustentacionem D et lx peditum secum euncium de Castro de Bere usque Hardelach xx.li per talliam.’ As a commander of the royal army that had begun the campaign from Anglesey he was amongst the first of Edward’s retinue to see the future castle sites at Caernarfon and Harlech. In 1283 he was briefly in the employ of Edmund Crouchback, the king's younger brother, for diplomatic work. It was said that no one could do the king's will better, including the king himself.
Crusading years (1290–95) King Edward I of England sent Otto to Acre in the Holy Land in 1290 along with some English knights.Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: Volume III The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press. 1954, 345. At the time of the fall of Acre (1291), he was the master of the English knights in Palestine. At Acre he saved the life of fellow Savoyard Jean I de Grailly, with whom he had served Edward in Gascony earlier. As the city fell to the Muslims he commandeered Venetian ships filling them with fleeing troops and the wounded Jean I de Grailly, Otto was the last to join them on board.Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: Volume III The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press. 1954, 350. There are conflicting accounts of Grandson’s conduct at Acre, but the only eyewitness account by the Templar of Tyre in his Gestes des Chiprois confirms:
"Then entered a great number of Saracen men on horseback, so much that Sir Jean de Grailly, and Sir Othon de Grandson, and the men of the King of France made great defence, so that there are assessed many wounded and dead; and Sir Jean de Grailly and Sir Othon de Grandson could no longer suffer the charge of the Saracens, and they departed from there and fled, and Sir Jean de Grailly was wounded."Paul F. Crawford. 2003. The Templar of Tyre : Part III of the deeds of the Cypriots. Abingdon: Routledge.131
It is this account which is rendered by the renowned crusade historian Steven Runciman:
"On the eastern sector Jean de Grailly was wounded, but Othon de Grandson took control. He commandeered as many Venetian ships as he could find and placed Jean de Grailly and all soldiers he could rescue on board, and himself was the last to join them."Steven Runciman. 1954. A History of the Crusades: Volume III The Kingdom of Acre and the later Crusades. Eleventh ed. London: The Folio Society. 349-350.
After the fall of the city he fled to Cyprus a poor man, but went on a subsequent pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1298 or 1299, Otto, Jacques de Molay of the Templars, and Guillaume de Villaret of the Hospitallers campaigned in Cilicia in order to fight off an invasion by the Mamluks.Demurger, 142–143.Newman, 231, says that De Molay had an "ill-fated expedition to Armenia around 1299, in which the last Templar holding in that kingdom was lost." In his La flor des estoires d'Orient, the Armenian monk Hayton of Corycus mentions his activity on the mainland in Cilicia in 1298–1299: "Otto de Grandison and the Masters of the Temple and of the Hospitallers as well as their convents, who were at that time [1298 or 1299] in these regions [Cilician Armenia] . . .".Quoted in Demurger, 116
Otto has been hypothesised as the author of the Via ad Terram Sanctam, an Old French treatise on the recovery of the Holy Land. The hypothesis has been widely accepted,C. Köhler, 1903-4." Deux projets de croisade en terre-sainte composée à la fin du xiiie siècle et au debut du xive’, Revue de l'Orient Latin but has its detractors.
Back in England and Diplomacy (1295–1307)
In 1294 Philip IV of France had confiscated Gascony from Edward I, leading to the Gascon War of 1294-1303.Thomas Wright. 1868. The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft: In French Verse from the Earliest Period to the Death of King Edward I, vol 2. ‘Si tu veus recoverer la terre de Gascoyne, Et garder ben de Phelippe ke plus sur tay ne foyne, Levez, si te movez, ne dormez pas cum moyne, Endossez les haubers, defolfe la karoyne, Mountez le destreus, et pemez launce en poyne.’ Following Grandson’s return to England from the Holy Land much of his time until the eventual peace of 1303 was taken up with diplomatic work at the French court and more often the Papal Curia in seeking a return of Gascony.