House of Valais-Reade

The Noble House of Valais-Reade

The House of Valais-Reade is an Anglo-Valaisan house whose recorded tradition joins the ecclesiastical and temporal history of the canton of Valais with later service at the Tudor court and in the English-speaking Atlantic world. The family name appears in successive forms as de Walais, Heneage, Reade, and Valais-Reade. Its family record traces the dignity of Count of Valais to the episcopal government established at Sion in 999 and preserves a succession carried through continental, English, colonial American, and modern branches.

Notre sang a connu la mitre et l’étoile, l’épée et l’exil.

Traditional maxim of the House of Valais-Reade

Origins in the episcopal county of Valais

The house places its earliest institutional origin in the grant made in 999 by Rudolf III, King of Burgundy, to the Bishop of Sion. By that act the bishop received comital authority in Valais, uniting spiritual office and temporal government in the form characteristic of an imperial prince-bishopric. Hugues of Sion, recorded about 993–1020, stands at the beginning of the house tradition as the first prince-bishop and Count of Valais.

The family record associates the later line with the governing and ecclesiastical society of medieval Valais. Among the principal figures preserved in that record are Aymon of Savoy, active from 1034 to 1054; Guichard Tavelli, bishop of Sion from 1342 until his death in 1375; Walter Supersaxo, bishop and territorial statesman in the later fifteenth century; and Cardinal Matthäus Schiner, bishop of Sion, cardinal, diplomat, and a leading advocate of the Swiss alliance in Italian and imperial affairs. These associations gave the house tradition its enduring combination of church, diplomacy, and military service.

The Anglo-Valaisan branch

The English branch took form during the Tudor period. Michel de Walais entered English court service under the name Michael Heneage and served in the learned world of the royal Latin secretariat. The family archive records his education at Cambridge, his marriage in 1538 to Maria de la Mare, and his preservation of correspondence associated with Cardinal Schiner in a collection known as the Codex Valesiana. The codex is no longer extant, but its memory remained important to the later family archive.

In England, the forms Heneage and Reade came to identify branches active in administration, diplomacy, landed affairs, and colonial service. The family’s later tradition retained the continental dignity of Count of Valais while also preserving the Baronies of Reed and Carrighmain and the lordship of Hasley. The American Revolution altered the family’s political and landed position, but the house continued through the Reade and Valais-Reade lines in North America and Europe.

Principal succession and family record

The following register presents the principal persons named in the house succession and its associated episcopal and Anglo-Valaisan line. Dates are given in the form preserved by the family record.

1. Hugues of Sion (fl. 993–1020), prince-bishop of Sion and Count of Valais following the Burgundian grant of 999.
2. Aymon of Savoy (fl. 1034–1054), associated with the early episcopal succession at Sion.
3. Guichard Tavelli (fl. 1342–1375), bishop of Sion and reforming territorial prelate.
4. Walter Supersaxo (fl. 1457–1482), bishop of Sion and defender of Valaisan territorial authority.
5. Cardinal Matthäus Schiner (fl. 1499–1522), prince-bishop, cardinal, and diplomat.
6. Michael Heneage, Esq., born Michel de Walais (1515–1544), Tudor Latinist and founder of the Anglo-Valaisan branch.
7. Sir Gervais Heneage, recorded as Gervasius de Walais (1538–1604), representative of the English court and administrative line.
8. William Reade, Sr., recorded as Guillaume de Rede (1580–1621), bearer of the Reade form of the family name.
9. Jacobus Elias de Rede (1595–1675), of the seventeenth-century line.
10. Philippe Valais-Reade (1623–1696), in whose record the compound family name is preserved.
11. Jacobus Redius Valais-Reade (1673–1709).
12. Jacobus Lex Rede (1700–1775).
13. Tite de la Montagne Rede (1736–1788).
14. David Reade of Hadley (1767–1814), of the North American line.
15. Henricus Reade (1791–1856).
16. Hiramus Valais-Reade (1820–1873).
17. Oscarus Valais-DeWitt Reade (1848–1922).
18. Daniel Edouard Reade (1930–1990).
19. Antina Rosa DeReade (born 1956), Countess of Valais and custodian of the succession during the modern reorganization of the house.
20. James Allister Odd (born 1979), Count of Valais, 19th Lord of Hasley, Baron of Reed, and present head of the house.

Present head of the house

James Allister Odd

Count of Valais · 19th Lord of Hasley · Baron of Reed · Lord Rector of the Order of Saint Sigismond

Born in 1979 to Antina Rosa, Countess of Valais, and James Amos Odd, he succeeded under the modern succession charter of the house. His tenure has emphasized the preservation of the family archive, the restoration of its ceremonial institutions, and the maintenance of the house’s Swiss, English, and American historical record.

The succession is governed by the house charter. Its modern form preserves the historic line while permitting a female custodian of the dignity during an interregnum, as occurred under Countess Antina Rosa. The heir and wider family are recorded in the house register maintained by the archival office.

Heraldry, titles, and styles

The house badge displays a crowned blue cross charged and bordered in gold, accompanied by the motto Fides et Corona. The principal style of the head is Count of Valais and Lord of Hasley, with the additional dignities Baron of Reed and Baron of Carrighmain used in the house record. Members are entered according to their position in the family register and the succession charter.

• Count of Valais — the principal comital dignity, derived in the house tradition from the temporal authority of the episcopal county.
• Lord of Hasley — the principal English landed style of the head of the house.
• Baron of Reed — a hereditary dignity associated with the Reade line.
• Baron of Carrighmain — a dignity preserved in the continental and Anglo-Irish family tradition.

The Guard of Valais

The Guard of Valais is the ceremonial household guard associated with the house. Its institutional history is dated from 1816, when a small corps was organized to preserve the family standard, accompany the head of the house, and maintain ceremonial order. The active formation was dissolved in 1920, but the guard survives as a ceremonial and commemorative body.

Its traditional duties include custody of the colours, attendance at investitures and memorial observances, and support for the household’s protocol office. Its motto is Fidèles aux montagnes, loyaux au roi — Faithful to the mountains, loyal to the king.

The Order of Saint Sigismond

The Order of Saint Sigismond is the spiritual and chivalric institution of the house. Its devotional tradition looks to Saint Sigismond of Burgundy and to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice at Agaunum, founded in 515 and long central to the religious history of Valais. The order was restored in modern form as a house confraternity, drawing upon the region’s medieval traditions of pilgrimage, guardianship, and service.

The Count of Valais serves as Lord Rector. The order’s observances unite remembrance of Saint Sigismond, care for the house’s ecclesiastical heritage, and recognition of loyal service. Its insignia and ceremonies are administered through the rectorate and the household protocol office.

Archives and household offices

The family archive is responsible for the genealogical, heraldic, and documentary record of the house. Its principal recorded sources include the illuminated Codex de Rede, compiled in 1861; the family register De Redibus, dated 1835; and later archival recensions preserving material attributed to the lost Codex Valesiana. The archive supports the continuing register of family members, succession, titles, and ceremonial acts.

Family archivist

Custody of the Codex de Rede, De Redibus, and the genealogical register.

Historical research office

Continental, British, and American documentary research concerning the house and its collateral lines.

Ecclesiastical adviser

Advice on religious observance, memorial practice, and the traditions of the Order of Saint Sigismond.

Office of Protocol and Ceremonial Affairs

Styles, precedence, investitures, household ceremonies, and official engagements.

Private secretary to the count

Household administration, formal correspondence, and coordination of ceremonial and chivalric affairs.

Related records

• Nobility of Switzerland
• Kingdom of Italy — House of Savoy
• Colonial Families of the United States of America — Part I
• Chivalric Orders of Knighthood