Geoffrey of Villehardouin

Geoffrey of Villehardouin (French: Geoffroi de Villehardouin, * 1160, † by 1213) was a French knight, military leader and chronicler. He was Marshal of the County of Champagne, later Marshal of the Latin Empire and Lord of Mosynopolis.

With its 1207-1213 written chronicle Histoire de la conquête de Constantinople ( History of the Conquest of Constantinople ), he created the oldest surviving written works in history of French prose, with whom he broke into a domain that had hitherto been reserved Latin.

Life

Gottfried came from the noble family champagnischen Villehardouin. Around 1190 he was Marshal of the County of Champagne and perhaps accompanied his 1190-92 Count Henry II at the Third Crusade. As the incomplete success should be offset by a further crusade, he took in 1199 during a tournament, the successor of Henry Theobald III. hosted, the Cross and worked subsequently as one of the main organizers of the Fourth Crusade. He belonged to the embassy Theobalds, with the Republic of Venice negotiated in 1201, which should provide the ships for the trip to Palestine available. He also played an important role in the election of Boniface of Montferrat as the new leader of the Crusade, after Theobald had died.

Although he does not mention it in his chronicle, he supported the well- intended by the Venetians diversion of the crusade to Zara and then to Constantinople Opel. There he negotiated with the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II, IV should appoint for the purposes of the Venetians Alexios co-emperor.

As Alexios, comes to the throne, his promise was unable to comply, there to thank the Crusaders with troops and money, Gottfried was one of the leaders in the conquest and looting of Constantinople in 1204, that of a short-lived Latin with the murder of Alexius and the establishment " " Empire under Baldwin I ended. For his services he was appointed by Baldwin to the Marshal of the Latin Empire ( " maréchal de Romanie "). After the battle of Adrian Opel in 1205, came at the Baldwin captive, he led the retreat.

In 1207 he was enfeoffed of Boniface of Montferrat, who had meanwhile become the king of Thessaloniki, with dominion over Mosynopolis in Thrace and began writing his chronicle. As might be expected, he is reluctant herein with information that would make it appear negative, the Crusaders. The Greek historian Nicetas Choniates describing the same events from the Byzantine point of view, is often the perfect complement to his report.

Gottfried died shortly after completion of the Chronicle and without being returned to France, probably in 1213, the year in which his son Erard is first attested as Lord of Villehardouin.

His nephew Gottfried I of Villehardouin Prince of Achaia was in 1209 in Morea ( the medieval name of the Peloponnese so ).

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