Blacas

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The Blacas was a very old French house, masters of Aups castle (in Provence). The first Blacas, Pierre d'Aulps, stem of the House of Baux, participated in the First Crusade. As early as the 12th century his grandson Blacacius (died 1236), called "the great warrior," distinguished himself among the most valiant knights of the court of the Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. Blacatz married Laure of Castellane, and excelled as both a soldier and a troubadour. He left three sons, two named after him and one named Boniface. Blacasset succeeded his father as a troubadour while Boniface succeeded in Aulps and married Ayceline of Moustiers. From this union was born another Blacasset, who accompanied Charles I to Naples. His name was immortalized by Frédéric Mistral who attributed him the positioning of the chain that links up the two boulders at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Captured by infidels, Blacasset had vowed that—if freed—he would stretch this chain between the boulders and from it suspend a sixteen-branched star, emblem of his family.

Seigneurs (and later dukes) of the town of Aups, the family fought with the town from 1346 to 1712. Aups won the contest in the end, becoming a direct legal dependent of the French king. The Blacas family possessed the castles of Vérignon and of Aups as well as many other domains in the current district around Aups. The most famous member of the family was Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas, a famous antiquarian and minister to King Louis XVIII during the Bourbon Restoration.