'Edward I' (circa
1293 – November
1336), grandson and namesake of
Edward I of England, was the
Count of Bar from
1302 to his death. He was a minor when he succeeded his father,
Henry III, as count and ruled under the
regency of his grandfather, as his mother, Eleanor, was dead since
1298.
The county was governed on Edward's behalf by
John of Puisaye,
Theobald, Bishop of Liège, and
Renaud, Bishop of Metz.
In
1308, he accompanied
Frederick IV of Lorraine into battle. In
1310, he married Mary, daughter of
Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, and was declared to have attained his majority. Then he purchased the lordship of
Stenay from his uncle John, the aforementioned lord of Puisaye. In
1313, he was captured in war against Frederick and not ransomed until
1314. He constructed a hydraulic forge at
Moyeuvre-Grande in
1323. In
1324, he was again allied in military operations with the duke of Lorraine, and also with the
King of Bohemia,
John, and the
Archbishop of Trier,
Baldwin of Luxembourg. This operations was the
War of Metz, for each of the allied lords was owed something by the citizens of Metz. Edward demanded compensation for garrisoning the city with his own troops during a conflict with the
bishop of Verdun
In 1336, Edward died in a shipwreck off the coast of
Famagusta,
Cyprus, while en route to a
Crusade. By his wife, he left three children:
★
Henry IV, his successor
★ Eleanor (died
1332), married (
1330)
Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine, son of Frederick IV
★ Beatrice, married
Guy I of Gonzaga, Lord of
Mantua
In the
Pierre Plantard hoax which birthed the ''
Da Vinci Code'' and other fantastical ficitional incarnations, he is the fourth grandmaster of the
Priory of Sion.