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- Count of Brienne; Count of Jaffa.
From Leo Van de Pas (citation details below):
Gauthier was born in 1205, the son of Gauthier III de Brienne, prince of Tarente, comte de Brienne, and Elvira (Albiria) of Sicily. Around the time of his birth, his father lost his bid for the Sicilian throne and died in prison. His inheritance of the principality of Tarente and the county of Lecce was confiscated.
Gauthier IV was not a crusader per se, but a baron of Outremer, having emigrated there upon or following his arranged marriage to Marie de Lusignan about 1233. His family had various Italian involvements with Emperor Frederick II through Gauthier's Sicilian mother, and of course strong connections to Outremer with the marriage of his uncle Jean de Brienne to the heiress of Jerusalem.
As count of Jaffa he had a good military reputation over a number of years. However he was involved in the great losses of the kingdom of Jerusalem to the Khorasmians in 1244. One of the commanders of the combined army of the kingdom in the field against the Khorasmians in October 1244, his tactical choices in the field of Herbgiya (a few miles northeast of Gaza) on 17 October 1244 spelled disaster: the defeat of the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and the greatest loss in pitched battle since Hattin.
Gauthier was taken prisoner. The Khorasmian army then marched to Jaffa and besieged it, hanging Gauthier on a forked pole, outside the walls, threatening to leave him hanging until Jaffa capitulated. While dangling he shouted to his men not to capitulate, and that he would kill them with his own hands if they did. Jaffa held.
He was eventually taken to Cairo. Joinville tells us that the Sultan handed him over to various commanders who avenged their losses at his hands, presumably by torturing him to death at an unknown date, but thought to be between 1247 and 1251. His cousin Marguerite had his remains taken from Cairo and removed to Acre for burial.
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