Pierre II of Courtenay

Pierre, also Peter II of Courtenay (Template:Langx; died 1219), was emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople from 1216 to 1217.

Biography

Pierre II was a son of Pierre I of Courtenay (died 1183), a younger son of Louis VI of France and his second wife, Adélaide de Maurienne.Template:Sfn His mother was Elisabeth de Courtenay, daughter of Renaud de Courtenay (died 1194) and Hawise du Donjon.Template:Sfn

Pierre first married Agnes I, via whom he obtained the three counties of Nevers, Auxerre, and Tonnerre.Template:Sfn In 1193 he married secondly to Yolanda,Template:Sfn a sister of Baldwin and Henry of Flanders, who were afterwards the first and second emperors of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Pierre accompanied his cousin, King Philip Augustus, on the third Crusade in 1190, returning to France in 1193. He fought (alongside his brother Robert) in the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and 1211, when he took part in the siege of Lavaur. He was present at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214.

When his brother-in-law, the emperor Henry, died without issue in 1216, Pierre was chosen as his successor, and with a small army he left his residence of château de Druyes in France to take possession of his throne. He was consecrated emperor at the Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome by Pope Honorius III on 9 April 1217. He then borrowed some ships from the Venetians, promising in return to conquer Durazzo for them, but he failed in this enterprise and sought to make his way to Constantinople by land.Template:Sfn On the journey he was seized by the despot of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, and, after an imprisonment of two years, died,Template:Sfn probably by foul means. Pierre thus never governed his empire, which, however, was ruled for a time by his wife, Yolanda, who had succeeded in reaching Constantinople. Two of his sons, Robert and Baldwin, reigned in turn as emperors of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

Family

By his first wife Agnes I, Countess of Nevers he had:

• Matilda I, Countess of NeversTemplate:Sfn

By his second wife Yolanda of Flanders, of the House of Flanders Template:Sfn he had:

• Philip (died 1226), Marquis of Namur,Template:Sfn who declined the offer of the crown of the Latin Empire
• Robert of Courtenay (died 1228),Template:Sfn Latin Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople
• Henry (died 1229), Marquis of NamurTemplate:Sfn
• Baldwin II of Constantinople (died 1273),Template:Sfn Latin Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople
• Margaret (died 1270), Marchioness of Namur, who first married Raoul, Lord of Issoudun, and then Henry I, Count of Vianden
• Elizabeth of Courtenay who married Walter, count of Bar and then Eudes sire of Montagu
• Yolanda de Courtenay, who married Andrew II of Hungary, King of Hungary and King of CroatiaTemplate:Sfn
• Eleanor, who married Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre
• Marie de Courtenay, who married Theodore I Lascaris, Emperor of NicaeaTemplate:Sfn
• Agnes, who married Geoffrey II Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea

Sources

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