William of Champlitte

William I of Champlitte († 1209 ) was a participant in the Fourth Crusade, and from 1205 to 1209 the first prince of Achaia.

William was the third son of Odo of Champlitte, which was possibly have been a son of Count Hugh of Champagne. During the Crusade, he joined acquaintance with Boniface of Montferrat and I helped to overcome its differences with Baldwin of Flanders, the first Latin emperor. After the conquest of Constantinople and the division of the Byzantine Empire, he took in the fall of 1204 in the campaign Boniface of Monferrato in part to the conquest of Greece. William landed in 1205, together with Gottfried I of Villehardouin on the west coast of the Morea ( Peloponnese ). They occupied Patras and Andra Vida, Corinth and Argos. Pope Innocent III. appointed him princeps totius Achaie provinciae. In the northwestern part of the Morea, in the field to the foot of the Taygetos Mountains, he established the Frankish principality of Achaia. Because of the origins of his grandfather (of Champagne), he was called by the Greeks Campanezis ( Καμπανέζης ).

When he was in 1209 involved in the organization of the administration of the principality, he received news that his older brother Ludwig had died childless. William I. gave the land as a fief under his knights. Then he hurried to France in order to preserve his rights as head of the family. He died on the journey in Puglia. Shortly afterwards died of his nephew Hugo Champlitte, the William had appointed as his deputy in the Morea. Gottfried I of Villehardouin was his successor.