Editing Henry of Flanders

{{Short description|Latin Emperor from 1205 to 1216}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Henry of Flanders
| title        = Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
| image        = Henry Flandry.jpg
| image_size   = 
| caption      = Seal of Henry of Flanders
| succession   = [[Latin Emperor of Constantinople]]<br><small>Claimant [[Byzantine Emperor]]</small>
| reign        = 1205–1216
| coronation   = 20 August 1206
| predecessor  = [[Baldwin I of Constantinople|Baldwin I]]
| successor    = [[Peter II of Courtenay|Peter]]
| spouses      = [[Agnes of Montferrat]]<br />[[Maria of Bulgaria, Latin Empress|Maria of Bulgaria]]
| issue        = 
| house        = [[House of Flanders]]
| father       = [[Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut]]
| mother       = [[Margaret I, Countess of Flanders]]
| birth_date   = {{circa|1178}}
| birth_place  = [[Valenciennes]]
| death_date   = 11 June 1216
| death_place  = [[Thessaloniki]]
| burial_date  = 
| burial_place = 
| signature    = 
}}

'''Henry''' (1178? – 11 June 1216) was [[Latin emperor of Constantinople]] from 1205 until his death in 1216. He was one of the leaders of the [[Fourth Crusade]] in which the [[Byzantine Empire]] was conquered and [[Latin Empire]] formed.

==Life==
Henry was born in [[Valenciennes]], [[France]] around 1178.{{sfn|Noble|2006|p=571}} He was the son of Count [[Baldwin V of Hainaut]] and Countess [[Margaret I of Flanders]].{{sfn|Noble|2019|p=518}} Henry first married (in 1204) [[Agnes of Montferrat]], daughter of [[Boniface of Montferrat]].{{sfn|Joinville and Villehardouin|1963|pp=146, 148}} Henry's only child by his first wife Agnes died in childbirth with his mother.{{sfn|Joinville and Villehardouin|1963|pp=146, 148}}

Some contemporary historians say that Henry made peace with Bulgarians after the death of Kaloyan, and a marriage was arranged in 1213 between Henry and [[Maria of Bulgaria, Latin Empress|Maria]], daughter of Kaloyan and stepdaughter of Tsar Boril of Bulgaria.{{sfn|Fine|1994|pp=81–82}}

Henry had a daughter with an unnamed mistress. This daughter, whose name is not recorded, probably (Margaret-Isabel) later married [[Alexius Slav]], who established his own state in the [[Rhodope mountains]].{{sfn|Fine|1994|pp=93–94}} He was later given the title of despot.{{sfn|Fine|1994|p=94}}

==Leadership in the Fourth Crusade==
Having joined the [[Fourth Crusade]] in about 1201, he distinguished himself at the [[siege of Constantinople of 1203]] and elsewhere.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} During the July 1203 siege, Henry was one of eight division generals, the others including [[Boniface I, Marquess of Montferrat|Boniface of Montferrat]] (the crusade leader), Doge [[Enrico Dandolo]] (leader of the [[Venice|Venetians]]), [[Louis I, Count of Blois|Louis of Blois]] (one of the first nobles to take the cross), and Henry's own brother, [[Baldwin IX of Flanders]], who controlled the largest division. During the 1204 siege, Henry led a [[chevauchée]] expedition to gain supplies and raided a castle in [[Şile|Philia]], near the [[Black Sea]] with, according to [[Robert de Clari]], about 30 knights and an unspecified number of mounted sergeants. An ambush was laid for him by Emperor [[Alexius V Ducas]], but Henry and his force routed the Greeks soundly, captured a revered icon supposedly containing relics of Christ, and returned to the crusader camp. He soon became prominent among the princes of the new [[Latin Empire]].

==In the Latin Empire==
When his elder brother, Emperor Baldwin, was captured at the [[Battle of Adrianople (1205)|Battle of Adrianople]] in April 1205 by the [[Bulgarians]], Henry was chosen regent of the empire, succeeding to the throne when the news of Baldwin's death arrived. He was crowned on 20 August 1206.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Upon Henry's ascension as Latin emperor, the Lombard nobles of the [[Kingdom of Thessalonica]] refused to give him allegiance.{{sfn|Nicol|2002|p=12}} A two-year war ensued and after defeating the [[Knights Templar|Templar]]-supported Lombards, Henry confiscated the Templar castles of [[Ravennika]] and Zetouni ([[Lamia (city)|Lamia]]).{{sfn|Coureas|2015|p=175}}

Henry was a wise ruler, whose reign was largely passed in successful struggles with Tsar [[Kaloyan of Bulgaria]] and with his rival Emperor [[Theodore I Lascaris]] of [[Empire of Nicaea|Nicaea]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He later fought against [[Boril of Bulgaria]] (1207–1218) and managed to defeat him in the [[Battle of Philippopolis (1208)|Battle of Philippopolis]].{{sfn|Van Tricht|2011|p=390}} Henry campaigned against the Nicean Empire, expanding a small holding in Asia Minor (at [[Pegai]]) with campaigns in 1207 (at [[Nicomedia]]) and in 1211–1212  (with the [[Battle of the Rhyndacus (1211)|Battle of the Rhyndacus]]), where he captured important Nicean possessions at Nymphaion.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1969|p=430}} Though [[Theodore I Laskaris]] could not oppose this later campaign, it appears that Henry decided it best to focus on his European problems, for he sought a truce with Theodore I in 1214, and amicably divided Latin from Nicean possessions to the favour of Nicea.{{sfn|Akropolites|2007|pp=148–151}}

Domestically, Henry appears to have a different character than many of the other Crusader nobles as seen in his even-handed and pragmatic treatment of the Greeks. [[George Akropolites]], the contemporary 13th-century Greek historian, notes that Henry "though a [[Franks#Crusaders and other Western Europeans as "Franks"|Frank]] by birth, behaved graciously to the [[Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι)|Romans]] who were natives of the city of Constantine, and ranked many of them among his magnates, others among his soldiers, while the common populace he treated as his own people."{{sfn|Akropolites|2007|p=153}}  Indeed, when a Papal legate ([[Pelagio Galvani]], Cardinal-Bishop of Albano) arrived in Constantinople in 1213 and began to imprison Orthodox clergy and to close churches on the orders of [[Pope Innocent III]], Henry countermanded the orders on the request of the city's Greek clergy.{{sfn|Akropolites|2007|pp=155–156}}

Henry appears to have been brave but not cruel, and tolerant but not weak, possessing "the superior courage to oppose, in a superstitious age, the pride and avarice of the clergy."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The emperor died, poisoned, it is said, by [[Oberto II of Biandrate]], ex-regent of Thessaloniki, on 11 June 1216.{{sfn|Sturdza|1999|p=477}} Gardner suggests this happened at the instigation of his wife, [[Maria of Bulgaria, Latin Empress|Maria of Bulgaria]].{{sfn|Gardner|1912|pp=85–86}}  On his death his brother-in-law Peter Courtenay was crowned emperor in Rome but never arrived in Constantinople. In the years 1217 to 1219, therefore, the Latin Empire was effectively ruled by [[Yolanda of Flanders|Yolanda]], Henry's sister and Peter's widow, in regency. The last two Latin emperors were Peter and Yolanda's sons, Robert and Baldwin.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last=Akropolites |first=George |translator-first=Ruth |translator-last=Macrides |title=The History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 }}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Henry of Romania|volume=13|page=280}}
*{{cite book |chapter=The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands under Latin Rule |first=Nicholas |last=Coureas |title=A Companion to Latin Greece |editor-first1=Nickiphoros I. |editor-last1=Tsougarakis |editor-first2=Peter |editor-last2=Lock |publisher=Brill |year=2015 }}
*{{cite book |last=Fine |first=J. V. A. |title=The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1994 }}
*{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=A. |title=The Lascarids of Nicæa, The Story of an Empire in Exile |publisher=Methuen |year=1912 }}
*{{cite book |first=Jonathan |last=Harris |title=Byzantium and the Crusades |publisher=Bloomsbury |edition=2nd |year=2014 }}
*{{cite book |last=Joinville and Villehardouin |translator-last=Shaw |translator-first=M. R. B. |title=Chronicles of the Crusades |url=https://archive.org/details/chroniclescrusa00joingoog |publisher=Penguin |year=1963 }}
*{{cite book |first=Donald M. |last=Nicol |title=The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 }}
*{{cite encyclopedia |first=Peter S. |last=Noble |encyclopedia=The Crusades: An Encyclopedia |title=Henry of Constantinople (d. 1216) |volume=2 |editor-first=Alan V. |editor-last=Murray |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2006 }}
*{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection |editor-first=Spencer C. |editor-last=Tucker |volume=II |publisher=ABC-CLIO  |year=2019  |title=Henry of Constantinople |first=Peter S. |last=Noble }}
*{{cite book |title=History of the Byzantine State |first=George |last=Ostrogorsky |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1969  }}
*{{cite book |last=Sturdza |first=M. D. |title=Dictionnaire Historique et Généalogique des Grandes Familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople |publisher=Chez l'auteur |year=1999 |edition=2e }} 
*{{cite book |last=Van Tricht |first=Filip |title=The Latin "Renovatio" of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204–1228) |translator-first=Peter |translator-last=Longbottom |publisher=Brill |year=2011}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|House of Hainaut||c. 1176||11 June 1216|}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Baldwin I, Latin Emperor|Baldwin I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Latin Emperors|Latin Emperor of Constantinople]]|years=1206–1216}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Peter, Latin Emperor|Peter]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Latin Empire Monarchs}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry Of Flanders}}
[[Category:1170s births]]
[[Category:1216 deaths]]
[[Category:13th-century Latin emperors of Constantinople]]
[[Category:Christians of the Fourth Crusade]]
[[Category:Deaths by poisoning]]
[[Category:House of Hainaut]]
[[Category:Regents of the Latin Empire]]
[[Category:Sons of counts]]
[[Category:Sons of countesses regnant]]