Corners of Southern Europe

CORNERS AND CORNAYS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

One of the few Cornay surnames from this era in southern Europe found so far in this research belongs to a Robert de Cornay.  The marriage of Marguerite of Cyprus (c. 1244 - 1308), daughter of Henri of Antioch and his wife Isabelle of Cyprus, was arranged by her brother Hugues King of Cyprus as part of his plan to heal the rifts between the various Frankish families in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.  Margaret's husband John of Montfort became Lord of Tyre (a semi-independent domain in the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1246 to 1291).  Charles I of Anjou King of Sicily wrote a letter to Captain Robert de Cornay instructing him to help 'Margarite de Cypro, relicte quondam Joannis Marascotti militis et familiaris nostri' (Marguerite of Cyprus, widow of the late knight John Marascotti [John de Montfort] and our close friend), by charter dated 24 February 1278., link.  Charles d' Anjou had earlier supported Margaret II Countess of Flanders and Hainaut against her eldest son John in exchange for Hainaut in 1253.  

Perhaps Hainaut, a province of Wallonia and Belgium, is where Captain de Cornay came from.  As mentioned above there is a settlement called Cornet in Hainaut.  There was also an ancient fortress and associated settlement known as Cornay (Quarnay) to the east - on the border of the old Kingdom of France in Ardennes.  This book, Histoire de l'île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, Mas Latrie, 1852, has a record of the 'Letter from Charles of Anjou King of the Two Siciles to Captain Robert de Cornay' from the Naples royal archive, 1278.  It is stated that Robert was from a 'French family with Charles of Anjou in the kingdom of Naples, where his descendants still exist. One of its members, don Guillaume de Cornet, is archivist of the abbey of la Cava.'  This is an instance of a subtle mutation from Cornay to Cornet for two members of the same family and highlights the possibility of it happening in other lineages.  La Trinità della Cava, where William de Cornet worked, is in the province of Salerno, southern Italy.  Robert de Cornay ('et aussi de Gournay') appears in the list of French feudal lords in The book of gifts or concessions to Charles the First from the year 1269 as a knight (terrier de l'Hotel), in charge of various military commands intended to maintain the security of the country (1269-1284).  Also, a Laurentius de Cornay was a man at arms (1281) and Poncetus de Cornay, valet of the royal residence, was 'sent as a settler to Lucera' (1275)., link

Margaret of Cyprus, Lady of Tyre, had been violently robbed at Charles I's 'Cairan's cottage' by eleven men from Tuscany.  In the above mentioned letter Robert de Cornay is asked by King Charles to recover her belongings and gold from the armed thieves, or if lost to exact their equivalent value and to then punish the culprits.  In a list of Rectors of Romandiolae Province, the entry for 1294 - April 1295 has a Roberto de Cornay (Robert de Cornay, Knight of the Templars) as rector of Dovadola.  Dovadola is a municipality in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna located about 37 miles southeast of Bologna on the road leading to Florence.  Another mention of the de Cornay surname is found in The registers of the Angevin chancellery, XXIX, doc. 40, Venosa, 13 July 1288, a 'Pierre De Cornay attacked the royal stables of Corneto in 1288 and stole some horses', link.  Margaret of Cyprus was known as Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan and also Margaret of Tyre.

CORNERS OF VENICE

The Venetian noblewoman Catarina Corner, Queen of Jerusalem and Armenia, (1454 - 1510) would later become the last monarch of the Kingdom of Cyprus.  The Corner family of Venice claimed ancestry back to the gens Cornelii, a patrician family of Ancient Rome (Cornelii Scipiones).  The family lineage is said to stem from Publius Cornelius Scipio, the Roman general Africanus who defeated Hannibal and conquered North Africa.  The Corners had a family chapel built in the church of Santa Maria dell Vittoria.  It contains the statue, the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, which the family commissioned Bernini to sculpt in 1645.  'The Cornari were among the twelve tribunal families of the Republic of Venice and provided founder members of the Great Council in 1172.', link.  Early Venetian merchants had wide connections and there are rumours they might have travelled to Scotland, the Faroes and even as far as Iceland and the east coast of Canada in the late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth centuries.  See the adventures of the Venetian Zeno brothers, link.