Conon, Count of Montaigu

Conon (also Cono or Cuno; died 1 May 1106) was a Lotharingian nobleman and military leader of the First Crusade. He was one of the most prominent lords of the Ardennes, being the count of Montaigu, lord of Rochefort and advocate (defender) of the city of Dinant from 1064. He was also one of the most important vassals of the bishop of Liège. His chief seat was the castle of Montaigu.

Family Conon was the eldest son of Gozelo, count of Montaigu, and his wife Ermentrude of Harenzey. His younger brother Henry was the dean of the Cathedral of Saint Lambert in Liège. Conon's only known wife was named Ida. According to the medieval English historian Orderic Vitalis, Conon married a sister of Godfrey of Bouillon. Godfrey is not otherwise known to have had a sister, but his mother was Ida of Lorraine. In contrast, the Cantatorium, the chronicle of the abbey of Saint-Hubert, records that Conon's wife was the daughter of Lambert the Old, a nobleman from the region of Liège who was buried at Saint-Hubert.

The Cantatorium of Saint-Hubert, in recording Conon's father's death in 1064, only accords him the title "count of Behogne" and not of Montaigu. It has been hypothesised that the elder Gozelo had already ceded the castle of Montaigu to his eldest son and moved his residence to the more secure and central village of Behogne, where he proceeded to erect the castle later known as Rochefort. Whatever the case, Conon inherited his father's lands and titles after his death. A document dated 1 January 1071 in the archives of the abbey of Waulsort records Conon as count under Duke Godfrey IV and under the Emperor Henry IV.

The army of Godfrey of Bouillon, with Conon's smaller retinue, was one of the first to arrive in Constantinople. There the Byzantine emperor Alexios I and Godfrey had different views of the goals of the crusade, and Godfrey was unwilling to commit to the emperor's demands until the remaining crusaders arrived. He camped outside the city, while Conon, Baldwin of Le Bourg and Godfrey of Esch (Fredelo's son) met with Alexios in the palace. Conon and Baldwin subsequently received Alexios' representative, John Komnenos of Dyrrhachium. Conon's son Gozelo died in the East, but he and his son Lambert continued on to Jerusalem, after they considered their vows fulfilled and returned to Montaigu before the end of the year 1099.

Alberic of Trois-Fontaines and Giles of Orval record the tradition that Conon was returning on a ship with Peter the Hermit and some men of Huy when they encountered a severe storm and vowed to build a church if they survived. The storm immediately subsided, and the promise was kept when Conon and Peter founded the Augustinian canonry of Neufmoustier, dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre and John the Baptist. According to the tradition kept at Neufmoustier, Peter lived there until his death in 1115.