Walter V, Count of Brienne

Walter V of Brienne was Duke of Athens from 1308 until his death. The only son of Hugh of Brienne and Isabella de la Roche, he was the heir to large estates in France, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Peloponnese. Between 1287 and 1296/97, he was held in custody in the Sicilian castle of Augusta as security for his father's ransom to the Aragonese admiral Roger of Lauria. Following his father's death in battle against Lauria in 1296, Walter succeeded to the County of Brienne in France, and the counties of Lecce and Conversano in southern Italy. Though released soon afterwards, he was captured during a Neapolitan campaign in Sicily in 1299, remaining in captivity until the Treaty of Caltabellotta in 1302.