Robert of Courtenay

Robert of Courtenay (c. 1195; † January 1228 in Chlemoutsi ) was from 1221 to 1228 an emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople Opel.

Life

He was the second son of Peter of Courtenay and a great-grandson of King Louis VI. the thicknesses of France. His mother Yolanda of Flanders was a sister of Baldwin I († 1205 ) and Heinrich ( † 1206), the first two emperors of the Latin Empire.

When it became known in France, that Peter of Courtenay was died in 1217, leaned his eldest son, Philip, who had already in 1216 received the paternal Margraviate of Namur and the rule of Courtenay, the succession in favor of his brother Constantine Opel from Robert. The traveled after some lag overland through Hungary through, where his sister Yolanda was Queen, after Constantine Opel where he could be crowned on March 25, 1221 to the emperor. Since the death of Emperor Henry five years earlier, he was the first emperor was able to show the personal presence in Constantinople Opel, which was governed in the meantime by Conon de Béthune.

Since he was surrounded by enemies in his territory, he asked Pope Honorius III. and King Philip II of France for help as his country fell into the hands of rivals from Epirus and Nicaea. The empire was de facto in 1224 shattered as Theodoros Angelos I. had conquered the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica. From then on, the actual sphere of the Latin emperor was limited only to Constantine Opel and environment, the Latin dominions in ancient Greek space were de facto independent.

Only little help came from Western Europe, and soon Robert was forced with his main opponent, John III. Dukas Vatatzes close of Nicaea peace, which was thereby confirmed in all his conquests. Robert promised to Eudocia, the daughter of the later Emperor Theodore Laskaris I. to marry, with whom he had been engaged on a previous occasion. However, he soon recanted this commitment, and married a French aristocrat, from the noble family of Neuville -en- Artois, which was already the betrothed of a Burgundian nobles. This Burgundy, whose name is not known, instigated a conspiracy against Robert and expelled him from Constantinople Opel. Robert then sought protection and confirmation by the Pope in Rome, who encouraged him to return to Constantinople Opel. When Robert Prince Gottfried II of Villehardouin visited on the way back to the castle Chlemoutsi in the Principality of Achaia, he fell seriously ill and died shortly thereafter, childless, in January 1228. Konstantin in Opel inherited him his underage brother Baldwin II.

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