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- BIOGRAPHY
Sulpice, known as 'le Hutin' (the headstrong), was born about 1105, the eldest son of Hugues I d'Amboise, seigneur de Chaumont-sur-Loire, sire d'Amboise, and Elisabeth de Jaligny, dame de Jaligny-en-Bourbonnais. In 1129 he married Agnès de Donzy, daughter of Hervé II de Donzy and a daughter of Hugues le Blanc de La Ferté. They had two sons and two daughters, of whom Hugues II and Denise would have progeny.
In 1135, when Sulpice refused to submit to the new Count of Anjou, Geoffrey V 'the Fair', Geoffrey attacked Amboise. Sulpice, supported by the lords of Chartres, Blois, Orléans and Berry, inflicted a bloody defeat on him. In the following years many wars broke out in Anjou between the vassal and his overlord, but also between Sulpice and his neighbours. During one battle, Sulpice managed to capture Geoffroy II Grisegonelle, comte de Vendôme, having routed his army of more than 7000 men. Then at Cagny, two leagues from Amboise, he defeated the army of Seneschal Bouchard Saint-Amand-de Vendôme, seigneur de Châteaurenaud, whom he captured with seven other knights. He locked them all in his fortress of Amboise.
In 1136 he again defeated the army of the count of Vendôme near Villechauve, and he captured Jean de Preuilly, son and heir of Geoffroy II Grisegonelle, comte de Vendôme, whom he imprisoned in his castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire.
In 1153 he was captured by Thibaut IV, comte de Blois, who incarcerated him in his castle-keep of Chateaudun. Here Sulpice was tortured every day to attempt to force him to relinquish his castle of Chaumont.
Sulpice died of these tortures on 24 August 1153, without having surrendered Chaumont. His two sons Hervé and Hugues II, who had been captured along with him, were only released on the intervention of their cousin Henry Plantagenet, future king of England.
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