John of Brienne

John I
Coronation of John and his first wife, Maria (from a 13th-century miniature)
Latin Emperor of Constantinople together with Baldwin II
Reign	1229–1237
Coronation	1231
Predecessor	Baldwin II
Successor	Baldwin II
King of Jerusalem together with Maria (1210–1212), and with Isabella II (1212–1225)
Reign	1210–1225
Coronation	3 October 1210
Predecessor	Maria
Successor	Isabella II and Frederick
Count of Brienne
Reign	1205/06–1221
Predecessor	Walter III
Successor	Walter IV
Born	c. 1170
Died	19–23 March 1237 (aged 66–67) Constantinople
Burial	Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey)
Spouse	Maria of Jerusalem Stephanie of Armenia Berengaria of León
Issue	Isabella II of Jerusalem Marie, Empress Consort of Constantinople Alphonse, Count of Eu Louis, Viscount of Beaumont John
Dynasty	Brienne
Father	Érard II, Count of Brienne
Mother	Agnes of Montfaucon
Religion	Roman Catholic

John of Brienne (c. 1170 – 27 March 1237) was King of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in the County of Champagne. John was originally destined for a Church career, but he preferred to be a knight. He held small estates in Champagne around 1200. After the death of his brother, Walter III, he ruled the County of Brienne on behalf of his minor nephew, Walter IV, who lived in southern Italy.

The barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem proposed that John marry Maria, Queen of Jerusalem. With the consent of Philip II of France and Pope Innocent III, he left France for the Holy Land, where he married the queen. The royal couple was crowned in 1210. After his wife died in 1212, John continued to administer the kingdom as regent for their infant daughter, Isabella II, although an influential lord, John of Ibelin, tried to dethrone him. He was a leading figure of the Fifth Crusade. His claim to the supreme command of the crusader army was never unanimously acknowledged, but his right to rule Damietta in Egypt was confirmed shortly after the town fell to the crusaders in late 1219. John laid claim to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia on behalf of his second wife, Stephanie of Armenia, in 1220. After Stephanie and their infant son died in the same year, John returned to Egypt. The Fifth Crusade ended in failure (including the recovery of Damietta by the Egyptians) in 1221.

John was the first king of Jerusalem to visit Europe (Italy, France, England, León, Castile and Germany) to seek assistance for the Holy Land. He gave his daughter in marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, in 1225. Frederick denied John's right to continue to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The popes tried to persuade Frederick to restore the kingdom to John, but the Jerusalemite barons regarded Frederick as the lawful ruler. John was made the administrator of the popes' domains in Tuscany and podestà of Perugia. He was a commander of Pope Gregory IX's army during the pope's war against Frederick in 1228 and 1229.

John was elected emperor in 1229 to rule the Latin Empire as the senior co-ruler of Baldwin II. He was crowned in Constantinople in 1231. John III Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea, and Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria occupied the last Latin territories in Thrace and Asia Minor and laid siege to Constantinople in early 1235. John directed the defence of his capital during the siege which lasted for months. The besiegers only withdrew after the united fleets of Italian towns and Geoffrey II of Achaea defeated their fleet in 1236. In the next year John died as a Franciscan friar.

Early life

John was the youngest of the four sons of Erard II, Count of Brienne, and Agnes of Montfaucon.^[1][2] John appeared to be "exceedingly old ... about 80"^[3] for the 14-year-old George Akropolites in 1231.^[4] If Akropolites's estimation was correct, John was born around 1150.^[5][6] However, no other 13th-century authors described John as an old man.^[5] John's father referred to John's brothers as "children" in 1177 and mentioned the tutor of John's oldest brother, Walter, in 1184, suggesting that John's brothers were born in the late 1160s.^[7][8] Consequently, modern historians agree that John was born after 1168, most probably in the 1170s.^[9][10]

His father destined John for a clerical career, but John "was unwilling", according to the late 13th-century Tales of the Minstrel of Reims.^[10] Instead, continued the Minstrel of Reims, John fled to his maternal uncle to the Clairvaux Abbey.^[10] Urged by his fellows, John became a knight and won himself a considerable reputation in tournaments and fights.^[10] Although the Tales of the Minstrel of Reims contain obviously invented elements (for instance, John did not have a maternal uncle in Clairvaux), it may preserved actual details of John's life, according to historian Guy Perry.^[11] Church career was not unusual for youngest sons of 12th-century noblemen in France, but even if his father sent John to a monastery, John left it before taking monastic vows.^[11] 13th-century sources (Akropolites and Salimbene di Adam) emphasized John's physical strength, suggesting that he trained his body in his youth.^[12]

John's father, Erard II, joined the Third Crusade and died in the Holy Land in 1191.^[13] His oldest son, Walter III succeeded him in Brienne.^[14] John was first mentioned in a charter issued in 1192 or 1194 by his brother, showing that he was a prominent figure in Walter III's court.^[5][14] According to a version of Ernoul's chronicle, John participated in a war against Peter II of Courtenay.^[15] The Tales of the Minstrel of Reims claimed that he was called "John Lackland", but actually John held Jessains, Onjon, Trannes and two other villages in the County of Champagne around 1200, according to contemporaneous charters.^[14] In 1201, Theobald III, Count of Champagne, granted him further estates at Mâcon, Longsols and other places.^[16] After Theobald's death, his widow, Blanche of Navarre, persuaded John to renounce his estate at Mâcon for a compensation, stating that it was her dowry.^[17]

Walter III of Brienne died while fighting in Southern Italy in June 1205.^[17] His widow, Elvira of Sicily, gave birth to a posthumous son, Walter IV, who grew up in Italy.^[17] John assumed the title of count of Brienne and began administering the county on his nephew's behalf in 1205 or 1206.^[18] Being a leading vassal of the count of Champagne, John frequented the court of Blanche of Navarre, who ruled Champagne during her son's minority.^[19] A version of Ernoul's chronicle even stated that she loved John "more than any man in the world", which annoyed Philip II of France.^[6][19]

The two version of Ernoul's chronicle preserved two different stories about John's ascension to the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.^[20] One version claimed, the leading lords of Jerusalem sent envoys to France in 1208, asking Philip II to select a French nobleman as husband to their queen, Maria.^[6][19] Taking advantage of the situation to get rid of John of Brienne, Philip II proposed him.^[20] The other version recorded that an unnamed knight proposed the Jerusalemite lords to select John of Brienne, but he only accepted their offer after Philip II had given his assent to the plan.^[20] John came to see Pope Innocent III in Rome.^[21] The pope donated 40,000 marks for the defence of the Holy Land, but stipulated that John could only spend the money with the consent of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the grand masters of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller.^[22]

King of Jerusalem

Co-ruler

Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states in the early 13th century

John landed at Acre on 13 September 2010.^[23] Next day Albert of Vercelli, Patriarch of Jerusalem, married him to Queen Maria.^[23] John and Mary were crowned in Tyre on 3 October.^[23] The truce that Amalric II, King of Jerusalem and the Ayyubid Sultan, Al-Adil I concluded in 1204 had come to an end by the time of John's arrival.^[24] Al-Adil was willing to renew it, but the Jerusalemite lords did not want to sign a new treaty without John's consent.^[23] During the coronation of John and Mary, Al-Adil's son, Al-Mu'azzam Isa, pillaged the region of Acre, but did not attack the city.^[23] After returning to Acre, John made a counter-raid against the nearby Muslim settlements.^[25]

About 300 French knights accompanied John to the Holy Land.^[26] However, no influential noblemen joined him either because they preferred to participate in the Albigensian Crusade in France, or because they did not regard him as an eminent lord.^[27] His cousin, Walter of Montbéliard, joined John only after he had been expelled from Cyprus.^[27] Montbéliard led a naval expedition to Egypt to plunder the region of the Nile Delta.^[25] After most French crusaders left the Holy Land, John made a new truce with Al-Adil before the middle of 1211.^[25][23] John sent his envoys to Pope Innocent, urging him to proclaim a new crusade.^[23]

Conflicts

John's wife, Maria, died shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Isabella, in late 1212.^[28][29] Her death gave rise to a legal dispute, because John of Ibelin, who had administered Jerusalem before John's coronation, questioned the widowed king's right to rule the kingdom.^[28][30] The king sent Raoul of Merencourt, Bishop of Sidon, to Rome to seek assistance from the Holy See.^[31] Pope Innocent confirmed John's position as the lawful ruler of the Holy Land in early 1213, urging the prelates to support him even by using ecclesiastical sanctions if it were necessary.^[32] Most Jerusalemite lords remained loyal to the king, acknowledging his right to administer the kingdom on his infant daughter's behalf.^[33] John of Ibelin left the Holy Land and settled in Cyprus.^[34]

The relationship between John and Hugh I of Cyprus was tense.^[35] Hugh ordered the imprisonment of John's partisans who landed in Cyprus, and only released them on Pope Innocent's demand.^[35] During the War of the Antiochene Succession, John sided with Bohemond IV of Antioch and with the Templars against Raymond-Roupen of Antioch and Leo I, King of Armenia, who were supported by Hugh I and the Hospitallers.^[35] However, John sent only 50 knights to fight against the Armenians in Antiochia in 1213.^[36] Leo I concluded a peace treaty with the Knights Templar in late 1213.^[37] Before long, John and Leo were also reconciled.^[37] John married the oldest daughter of Leo I, Stephanie (or Rita), in 1214.^[37] Stephanie received a dowry of 30,000 bezants from his father.^[38] However, quarrels between John, Leo I, Hugh I and Bohemond IV continued, as it is demonstrated by letters of Pope Innocent who urged them to reconcilate their differences before the troops of the Fifth Crusade reached the Holy Land.^[38]

Fifth Crusade

Pope Innocent had proclaimed the Fifth Crusade in 1213, declaring the "liberation of the Holy Land" (the reconquest of Jerusalem) its principal object.^[39][40] The first crusader troops, which were under the command of Leopold VI of Austria, landed at Acre in early September 1217.^[41] Andrew II of Hungary and his army followed them in the same month.^[41] Before long, Hugh I of Cyprus and Bohemond IV of Antioch joined the crusaders.^[38][42] However, hundreds of crusaders soon returned to Europe because of the famine that followed the poor harvest of the previous year.^[43]

A war council was held in the tent of Andrew II who regarded himself the supreme commander of the crusader army.^[44] However, other leaders (especially John) did not acknowledge Andrew's claim to leadership.^[42] To seize food and fodder, the crusaders made a raid against the nearby territory which was under the rule of Al-Adil I, forcing the sultan to retreat in November.^[45][46] In December, John laid siege to the fortress that the Ayyubides had erected on Mount Tabor, although only Bohemond IV of Antioch joined him.^[42][47] John could not capture the fortress, which "encouraged the infidel", according to the contemporaneous Jacques de Vitry.^[42][48]

Frisian crusaders attack a tower near Damietta during the Fifth Crusade (from the 13th-century Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris)

Andrew II decided to return home and left the crusaders' camp in early 1218.^[49] Hugh I and Bohemond IV accompanied him.^[49] After their departure, all military actions were suspended, but the crusaders restored the fortifications at Caesarea and Atlit.^[50] After new troops arrived from the Holy Roman Empire in April 2018, the crusaders decided that they would invade Egypt.^[51][52] They elected John their supreme commander, acknowledging his right to rule the land to be conquered.^[53] John's leadership remained mostly nominal,^[54] because he could rarely impose his authority on an army composed of troops from many countries.^[55]

The crusaders laid siege to Damietta on the Nile in May 1217.^[56] They seized a strategically important tower on a nearby island on 24 August.^[54][53] However, Al-Kamil, who had succeeded Al-Adil I in Egypt, continued to control the traffic on the Nile.^[57] In September, reinforcements arrived from Italy, which were under the command of the legate of Pope Honorius III, Cardinal Pelagius who regarded himself as the supreme commander of the crusade.^[58]

The Egyptian forces attempted to make a surprise attack on the crusaders' camp on 9 October, but John noticed their maneuvers.^[57] He and his retinue attacked and annihilated the Egyptian advance guard, hindering the invasion of the main forces.^[57] The crusaders built a floating fortress on the Nile near Damietta, but a storm drove it to the vicinity of the Egyptian camp.^[57] The Egyptians seized the fortress and killed most soldiers who defended it.^[57] Only two soldiers survived their attack, but they were accused of cowardice and executed on John's order.^[57]

Taking advantage of the arrival of new troops from Italy, Pelagius started to intervene in strategic decisions.^[59] He persuaded the crusaders to attack Al-Kamil's camp near Damietta, but a rainstorm forced them to withdraw.^[60] After noticing a plot against his life, Al-Kamil fled from his camp in early February 1219, which enabled the crusaders to complete the blockade around Damietta.^[60][61] However, all assaults on the walls of the town were repelled during the following months.^[62] Debates between John and Pelagius over the strategy continued, outraging the common soldiers.^[63] They broke into the Egyptian camp on 29 August 1219 without their commanders' order, but they were soon defeated and almost annihilated.^[63] During the ensuing panic, only the cooperation of John, the Templars, the Hospitallers and the noble crusaders hindered the Egyptians from destroying the crusaders' camp.^[63]

Al-Kamil sent messengers to the crusaders in late October, proposing to restore Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth to them if they withdrew from Egypt.^[64] John and the secular lords were willing to accept the sultan's offer, but Pelagius and the heads of military orders resisted, emphasizing that the Moslims could easily recepture the three towns that had been dismantled on the sultan's order.^[64][65] Finally, the crusaders decided to refuse the offer.^[65] Al-Kamil tried to send provisions to Damietta across the crusaders' camp, but his men were captured on 3 November.^[66] Two days later the crusaders stormed into Damietta and seized the town.^[67] Pelagius claimed Damietta for the Church, but he was forced to acknowledge John's right to administer it, at least temporarily, after John announced that he would otherwise leave the crusaders' camp.^[67] John seized one third of the spoils from Damietta, according to John of Joinville.^[68] The coins minted in Damietta during the following months bore John's name.^[69] Al-Mu'azzam Isa, Sultan of Damascus, invaded the kingdom and pillaged Caesarea before the end of 1219.^[70]

Months before the crusaders seized Damietta, John's father-in-law, Leo I of Armenia, died, bequeathing his kingdom to his infant daughter, Isabella.^[71] Both John and Raymond-Roupen of Antioch (who was Leo's nephew) questioned the legality of Leo I's last will, each demanding the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia for themselves.^[69] Pope Honorius declared John the rightful heir to Leo in a letter in February 1220.^[72] Stating that he wanted to assert his claim to Cilicia, John departed from Damietta to return to the Kingdom of Jerusalem around Easter 1220.^[73][74] Al-Mu'azzam Isa's successful campaign in the previous year also pressed John to leave Egypt, but Jacques de Vitry and other chroniclers of the Fifth Crusade stated that he deserted the crusader army.^[75]

Stephanie died shortly after John's arrival.^[76] Contemporaneous gossips accused John of causing his wife's sudden death, claiming that he heavily beat her after he heard that she had tried to poison his daughter, Isabella.^[75] The only son of John and Stephanie died a few weeks later, terminating the basis of John's claim to Cilicia.^[76] Soon after hearing of the death of Stephanie and her son, Pope Honorius declared Raymond-Roupen the lawful ruler of Cilicia, threatening John of excommunication if he started fighting for his late wife's inheritance.^[77]

John did not return to the crusaders to Egypt for months.^[78] According to a letter written by the prelates of the Holy Land to Philip II of France, poverty hindered John from leaving his kingdom.^[78] Since his nephew, Walter IV, was approaching the age of majority, John renounced the County of Brienne in 1221.^[79] During John's absence from Egypt, Al-Kamil again approached the crusaders, offering the restoration of the Holy Land to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in June 1221, but Pelagius refused him.^[80] John returned to Egypt to again join the crusade only on Pope Honorius's command on 6 July 1221.^[81][80]

The commanders of the crusader army decided to continue the invasion of Egypt, although John sharply opposed their plan, according to Philip d'Aubigny.^[81][82] The crusaders approached Mansurah, but the Egyptians imposed a blockade on their camp.^[83] Outnumbered by the enemy forces, Pelagius made peace with Al-Kamil who agreed to sign a truce for eight years in exchange for Damietta on 28 August.^[84] John was among the crusader leaders who were handed over as hostages to Al-Kamil till the crusader army withdrew from Damietta on 8 September.^[84]

Negotiations

After the Fifth Crusade ended "in colossal and irremediable failure", John returned to his kingdom.^[85][86] Before long, merchants from Genoa and Pisa attacked each other in Acre, causing the destruction of a significant part of the town.^[86] According to a Genoese chronicle, John supported the Pisans and the Genoese left Acre for Beirut.^[86]

John was the first king of Jerusalem to visit Europe.^[87] He had already decided to seek assistance from the Christian powers before he had returned from Egypt.^[88] He also wanted to find a powerful husband for his daughter to secure the survival of the Christian rule in the Holy Land.^[86] He appointed his kinsman, Odo of Montbéliard, as bailli to administer the Kingdom of Jerusalem in his absence.^[89][90]

Marriage of John's daughter, Isabella II of Jerusalem and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II in 1225 (from Giovanni Villani's Nuova Cronica)

John departed for Italy in October 1222 to attend a conference about a new crusade.^[89][90] On his request, Pope Honorius declared that all lands conquered during the crusade should be united with the Kingdom of Jerusalem.^[91] To make arrangements for the military campaign, the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II met at Ferentino in March 1223.^[92] John also attended the meeting.^[93] He agreed to give his daughter in marriage to Frederick II, but only after the emperor promised that he would allow John to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the end of his life.^[93]

From Italy, John went to France, although Philip II of France was annoyed by having been ignored when the decision of the marriage of John's daughter was made.^[94] Matilda I, Countess of Nevers, Erard II of Chacenay and Albert, Abbot of Vauluisant and other local potentates asked John to act as an intermediary in their conflicts, which shows that he was highly estimated in his homeland.^[95] He was present at the funeral of Philip II at the Basilica of St Denis in July.^[94] The late king had bequeathed more than 150,000 marks for the defence of the Holy Land in his last will.^[91][94] John visited England and tried to mediate a peace treaty between France and England after his return to France.^[96]

John made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in March 1224.^[97][98] According to the Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, John actually came to the Kingdom of León to marry one of the eldest daughters of Alfonso IX of León, Sancha or Dulce, because Alfonso had promised the kingdom to John "along with her".^[98] The marriage could jeopardize the claim of Sancha's and Dulce's half-brother, Ferdinand III of Castile, to León.^[98] To protect her son's interests, Ferdinand's mother, Berengaria of Castile, decided to give her daughter, Berengaria of León, in marriage to John.^[98] Modern historians do not unanimously accept the credibility of the chronicle's report of John's plan of marrying Sancha or Dulce, but they agree that the queen of France, Blanche of Castile (who was Berengaria of Castile's sister), played an important role in convincing John to marry her niece.^[97][98] The marriage of John and Berengaria of León was celebrated in Burgos in May 1224.^[99]

About three months later, John met Emperor Frederick's son, Henry in Metz, and visited Henry's guardian, Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne.^[100] From Germany, John went to Southern Italy where he persuaded Pope Honorius to allow Emperor Frederick not to depart for a new crusade for two years.^[100] Frederick married John's daughter, Isabella (who had already been crowned queen of Jerusalem) on 9 November 1225.^[101] John's and Frederick's relationship became tense.^[102] According to a version of Ernoul's chronicle, John got into an argument with his new son-in-law because Frederick seduced a niece of Isabella (who was also her lady-in-waiting).^[102] Frederick declared that John had lost his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem with Isabella's marriage to him.^[102][103] According to the other version of the same chronicle, John often "chastised and reproved" his son-in-law who concluded that John wanted to seize the Kingdom of Sicily for his nephew, Walter IV of Brienne, and tried to murder John, forcing him to flee to Rome.^[102] Frederick styled himself king of Jerusalem for the first time in December 1225.^[103] Balian of Sidon, Simon of Maugastel, Archbishop of Tyre, and all other Jerusalemite lords who had escorted Isabella to Italy acknowledged Frederick as their lawful king.^[104]

In the Pope's service

Pope Honorius did not accept Frederick's unilateral act and continued to regard John the rightful king of Jerusalem.^[105] In an attempt to take advantage of the revival of the Lombard League (the alliance of the northern Italian towns) against Frederick II, John travelled to Bologna.^[106] Here the representatives of the allied towns wanted to elect him their king, but John refused their offer according to a version of Ernoul's chronicle.^[106] Even if the story was only fabricated, John stayed for more than six months in the town, proving his close association with the citizens.^[107]

The dying Pope Honorius made John the rector of the Patrimony of Saint Peter in Tuscany, entrusting the management of one of the provinces of the Papal States to him on 27 January 1227.^[108][109] The pope also urged Frederick II to restore John to the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.^[106] Honorius's successor, Pope Gregory IX confirmed John's position in the Papal States on 5 April.^[110] On the pope's demand, the citizens of Perugia elected John their podestà.^[110]

Pope Gregory excommunicated Frederick II on 29 September 1227, accusing him of having broken his oath to lead a crusade to the Holy Land.^[111] The emperor had actually dispatched two fleets to Syria, but a plague forced him to return.^[112] His wife, Isabella, died after giving birth to a son, Conrad, in May 1228.^[113] Frederick continued to style himself king of Jerusalem, in accordance with the precedent established by John during Isabella's minority.^[113]

The imperial army invaded the Papal States under the command of Rainald of Urslingen in October 1228.^[114] John defeated the invaders in a series of battles, but only a counter-invasion by an other papal army against Southern Italy forced Urslingen to retreat as far as Sulmona.^[115] John laid siege to the town.^[115] He returned to Perugia in early next year to conclude his negotiations with envoys from the Latin Empire of Constantinople who had offered him the imperial crown.^[115]

Emperor of Constantinople

Election

Seal of John's second daughter, Marie, Empress Consort of the Latin Empire: John was senior co-emperor of her husband, Baldwin II

The Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Robert I, died in January 1228.^[116] His brother, Baldwin II, succeeded him, but a regent was needed to rule the Latin Empire, because Baldwin was only ten.^[116] Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria was willing to accept the regency, but the barons of the Latin Empire suspected that he actually wanted to unite the Latin Empire with Bulgaria.^[117] Instead, they offered the imperial crown to John of Brienne who was a close ally of the Holy See.^[117]

After months of negotiations, John and the envoys of the Latin Empire signed a treaty in Perugia, which was confirmed by Pope Gregory on 9 April 1229.^[118][119] John was elected emperor of the Latin Empire for life as senior co-ruler of Baldwin II who was to marry John's daughter, Marie.^[118][119] The treaty also prescribed that Baldwin would personally rule the Latin lands in Asia Minor from the age of 20, but he would only become sole emperor after John's death.^[118][119] John also stipulated that his sons would inherit Epirus and Macedonia, although the two regions were still to be conquered from Theodore Doukas, Empiror of Thessalonica.^[118]

After signing the treaty, John returned to Sulmona.^[115] In lack of sufficient financial resources, he allowed his soldiers to plunder nearby monasteries, according to the contemporaneous Matthew Paris.^[115] John lifted the siege of Sulmona in early 1229 to join Cardinal Pelagius who launched a campaign against Capua.^[120] However, Frederick II, who had meanwhile crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre returned to Italy, forcing the papal troops to withdraw.^[121][122]

John went to France to recruit warriors to accompany him to Constantinople.^[123] Pope Gregory did not proclaim John's expedition in the Latin Empire a crusade, but promised the same privileges that the popes granted to crusaders to those who joined John.^[123] During his stay in France, John again acted as an intermediary between local potentates.^[124] He was one of the signatories of a peace treaty between Louis IX of France and Hugh X of Lusignan.^[124] From France, John returned to Italy in late 1230.^[125] His envoys signed a treaty with Jacopo Tiepolo, Doge of Venice, who agreed to transport John and his retinue of 500 knights and 5,000 commoners to Constantinople without payment, but John was required to confirm the Venetians' all possessions and privileges in the Latin Empire.^[126] Shortly after John departed for Constantinople in August, Pope Gregory acknowledged Frederick II's claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.^[127]

Rule

Coat of arms of the Latin Empire of Constantinople

John was crowned emperor in Hagia Sophia in autumn 1231.^[128] The territory under the emperor's direct rule had by that time been confined to Constantinople and its environs.^[129] The Venetians urged him to wage war against John III Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea, who supported a rebellion against their rule in Crete.^[130] However, John could make "neither war nor peace", according to Philippe Mouskes' Rhymed Chronicle.^[128] Because he did not invade the Empire of Nicaea, most French knights who had accompanied him to Constantinople returned home after his coronation.^[128] To strengthen the financial position of the Latin Empire, Geoffrey II of Achaea, who was John's most powerful vassal, granted an annual subsidy of 30,000 hyperpyra to John after his coronation.^[129][130]

Taking advantage of John III Vatatzes's invasion of Rhodes, John launched a military expedition across the Bosborus against the Empire of Nicaea in 1233.^[131][132] Although his campaign lasted for three or four months, John "achieved little, or nothing", because the Latins could only seize Pegai (now Biga in Turkey).^[131] With John's approval, two Franciscan and two Dominican friars wanted to mediate a truce between the Latin Empire and Nicaea in 1234, but it was not signed.^[133] The friars described John as a "pauper", left by all mercenaries in a letter about their negotiations.^[134]

John III Vatatzes and Ivan Asen II concluded a treaty about the partition of the Latin Empire in early 1235.^[135] Before long, Vatatzes seized the last outposts of the Latin Empire in Asia Minor and Gallipoli, and Asen occupied all Latin territories in Thrace.^[135] The enemy forces laid siege to Constantinople, trying to persuade the defenders to gather in one place which would have enabled them to break into the town at an other place.^[136] Although the besiegers outnumbered the defenders, John repelled all attacks against the walls of the town.^[137] To emphasize John's bravery during the fights, Mouskes associated him with Hector, Roland, Ogier the Dane and Judas Maccabeus in his Rhymed Chronicle.^[137] A Venetian fleet forced the naval forces of Vatatzes to withdraw, but after the Venetians departed for home, the Greeks and Bulgarians again laid siege to Constantinople in November.^[138] John sent letters to the pope and other European monarchs, pleading for assistance.^[138] Since the survival of the Latin Empire was in danger, Pope Gregory urged the crusaders to go to fight for Constantinople instead for the Holy Land.^[139] A combined naval force of Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Geoffrey II of Achaea broke through the blockade.^[138] Before long, Asen abandoned his alliance with Vatatzes who was thus forced to lift the siege in 1236.^[140]

Death

Three 13th-century authors (Matthew Paris, Salimbene di Adam and Bernard of Besse) recorded that John became a Franciscan friar before his death.^[141] They agree that John's ague contributed to his conversion, but Besse also wrote of a recurring vision of an old man urging the emperor to join the Franciscans.^[142] Most 13th-century sources suggest that John died between 19 and 23 March 1237.^[143] He was the only Latin Emperor who died in Constantinople.^[143]

According to the Tales of the Minstrel of Reims, he was buried in Hagia Sophia.^[144] Historian Guy Perry proposes that John, who died as a Franciscan friar, may have been buried in the Franciscan church, dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, which was built in Galata during John's reign.^[144] According to a third view, first proposed by Giuseppe Gerola, a tomb decorated with the coat-of-arms of the Latin Empire in the Lower Basilica in Assisi may have been built for John by Walter VI, Count of Brienne.^[145]

Family

John's first wife, Maria the Marquise, was the only child of Isabella I of Jerusalem and her second husband, Conrad of Montferrat.^[146] She was born in 1191.^[147] Mary inherited Jerusalem from her mother in 1205.^[148] The only child of John and Mary, Isabella (also known as Yolanda), was born in late 1212.^[29][28] Before long, Mary died and her infant daughter succeeded her.^[28] Isabella became the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II in 1225, and died in 1228.^[149][150]

John married his second wife, Stephanie of Armenia, in 1214.^[28] She was the only daughter of Leo II of Armenia and his first wife, Isabelle (who was the niece of Sibylle, the third wife of Bohemond III of Antioch).^[151] Stephanie gave birth to a son in 1220, but both she and her son died in 1220.^[76]

John married his third wife, Berengaria of León in 1224.^[152] She had been born around 1204 to Alfonso IX of León and Berengaria of Castile.^[153][154] The first child of John and Berengaria, Marie, was born in 1224.^[100] Marie married to Baldwin II, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, in 1236.^[87] The first son of John and Berengaria, Alphonse, was born in the late 1220s.^[87] His mother's cousin, Louis IX of France, made him Grand Chamberlain of France.^[155] Alphonse seized the County of Eu in France through his marriage.^[155] John's second son, Louis, was born around 1230.^[87] John's youngest son, John, who was born in the early 1230s, became Grand Butler of France.^[156]

References

1. Buckley 1957, pp. 316–318.
2. Perry 2013, p. 16.
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6. Runciman 1989, p. 132.
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71. Runciman 1989, p. 164.
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76. Runciman 1989, p. 165.
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80. Runciman 1989, p. 166.
81. Van Cleve 1969, p. 424.
82. Perry 2013, p. 118.
83. Van Cleve 1969, pp. 425–426.
84. Runciman 1989, p. 169.
85. Van Cleve 1969, p. 428.
86. Perry 2013, p. 120.
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151. Runciman 1989, p. 87, Appendix III (Genealogical trees No. 2. and 4.).
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Sources

Primary sources

• George Akropolites: The History (Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Ruth Mackrides) (2007). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921067-1.

Secondary sources

• Bianchini, Janna (2012). The Queen's Hand: Power and Authority in the Reign of Berenguela of Castile. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4433-5.
• Buckley, James Michael (April 1957). "The Problematical Octogenarianism of John of Brienne". Speculum (The University of Chicago Press) 32 (2): 315–322. doi:10.2307/2849122. JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/stable/2849122.
• Lock, Peter (1995). The Franks in the Aegean, 1204–1500. Longman. ISBN 0-582-05140-1.
• Perry, Guy (2013). John of Brienne: King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, c. 1175–1237. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-04310-7.
• Runciman, Steven (1989). A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-06163-6.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.
• Van Cleve, Thomas C. (1969). "The Fifth Crusade; The Crusade of Frederick II". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry. A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 377–462. ISBN 0-299-04844-6.

External links

• Griffith, John "J-Cat" (6 December 1998). "Jean de Brienne". Find A Grave. Retrieved 24 March 2016. (shows John's alleged tomb in the Lower Basilica in Assisi)
• Cawley, Charles (30 June 2015). "Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families, Jerusalem, kings, chapter 1E: Kings of Jerusalem 1210–1220 (Comtes de Brienne)". Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Retrieved 24 March 2016.