Aymon III of Geneva

Aymon III or Aimon III (died 30/31 August 1367), a soldier, statesman and Crusader, was the twelfth Count of Geneva between January 1367 and his death seven months thence. He was the eldest son and successor of Amadeus III and Mahaut d'Auvergne. He pursued a policy of alliance and cooperation with the House of Savoy begun by his father. By all contemporary accounts, he was "handsome [and] possessed great charm of person and of manner." Youth of soldiering During his youth, while still only heir to Geneva, Aymon was frequently in the entourage of his first cousin once removed, Count Amadeus VI of Savoy. On 20 October 1361 Aymon was with his cousin's army at the castle of Lanzo in Italy when they were ambushed by some members of an English “great company”. Aymon was among those captured and forced to pay a ransom for his freedom. Aymon later accompanied Amadeus to Avignon, then the residence of the Popes, and stayed at an inn under "the sign of the Fleurs-de-Lys and the Stag" (signum Florum Lilii et Cervi) beside the hostelry of Saint-Georges between 2/3 and 13 December 1362. The purpose of the trip to Avignon was for Amadeus to confer with King John II of France and to plan a punitive campaign against the great companies ravaging southeastern France and Italy, but Pope Urban V envisaged a new crusade against the Ottoman Turks and sought to bring them into a great anti-Turkish alliance. In the summer of 1363 Aymon took part in Amadeus' campaign to force the Margrave Frederick II of Saluzzo into submission. Marriage proposals With the help of a faction at the Neapolitan royal court, Aymon made a bid to marry Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo, a niece of the powerful Queen Joanna I of Naples. This faction persuaded the duchess that Aymon was a superior suitor to the one proposed by the queen, Frederick II of Sicily, to whom a marriage would have a meant a rapprochement between the Neapolitan and Sicilian kingdoms, and that he was "more beautiful" (pulcrior) than Louis of Navarre, another suitor and the one Joanna eventually married. When Joanna finally met Aymon, she immediately fell in love. Among the courtiers who persuaded the young Joanna to refuse to marry Frederick in favour of Aymon was the latter's uncle, Cardinal Guy of Boulogne. He and Joanna's great uncle Elias Talleyrand were opposing candidates for the Papacy in 1362, and the latter made several attempts to frustrate Aymon's marriage to Joanna.