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- BIOGRAPHY
Hervé IV de Donzy, sire de Donzy, was born about 1173, the son of Hervé III, sire de Donzy, and Mathilde/Mabille Gouët. In October 1199 he married Mahaut de Courtenay, comtesse de Nevers, daughter of Pierre II de Courtenay, emperor of Constantinople, and his first wife Agnès de Nevers. Their son Guillaume died as a child in 1207; their daughter Agnès would have progeny with her second husband Guy I de Châtillon, comte de St. Pol, having first married Philippe de France, eldest son of the dauphin, the future Louis VIII de France.
Hervé became count of Nevers through his marriage. In a dispute over the château de Gien with his father-in-law, Hervé came to a settlement in 1199, having defeated and captured Pierre at Cosne-sur-Loire. After Pierre's death in 1219 he became count of Auxerre and Tonnerre also, though Philippe de Namur and Robert de Courtenay contested Auxerre. He acquired the Limais in 1210.
Hervé and Mahaut were active in developing the Nivernais, and his lands around Donzy adjoining the Nivernais and Burgundy. In 1209 they founded a Carthusian abbey at Bellary. He reconstructed the château Musard, Billy-sur-Oisy, around 1212-15. The priory at Beaulieu was founded in 1214.
In 1204-05 Hervé supported the French side against the English in fighting in Normandy, Poitou and Touraine. He was active against the Albigensians, taking part in the 1209 siege of Carcassonne. In 1214 he took part in the Battle of Bouvines, on the side of Emperor Otto IV. In 1217 he took part in the French invasion of England. After his return from the Fifth Crusade in Egypt in 1219, he was at Marmande.
Hervé died on 22 January 1223. His death has often been attributed to poison.
In 1226 his widow Mahaut married Guy IV, comte de Forez, who became comte de Nevers in her right. The marriage did not result in progeny.
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