Berthold II. (Katzenelnbogen)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Berthold II von Katzenelnbogen († after 1217) was a German knight and participant in the fourth crusade . He belonged to the von Katzenelnbogen family of counts in the Middle Rhine region and was a son of Berthold I. von Katzenelnbogen.

Berthold often stayed in the entourage of his uncle, Bishop Hermann II of Munster , for example in February 1199 in Worms at the court of King Philip of Swabia . In 1202 he joined his cousin Diether von Diez at the head of a German knight contingent and the Byzantine Prince Alexios Angelos in the already conquered Zara for the fourth crusade. He was the highest ranking and thus probably the informal leader of the German crusade participants. When Constantinople was conquered in 1204, he and the Germans were under the command of Bonifatius von Montferrat . Berthold accompanied him to the newly founded kingdom of Thessaloniki, where he was entrusted with Velestino (formerly Pherai in the Thessaloniki prefecture of Magnisia ).

Berthold did not last long in Greece, in 1205 he is mentioned in eastern Asia Minor, where he was commissioned by Pope Innocent III. unsuccessfully mediated between the King of the Armenians of Cilicia and the Prince of Antioch . He then traveled on to the Kingdom of Jerusalem , where he was named in the years 1206 and 1207 in the retinue of the regent John the Elder of Ibelin in Acre and Caesarea . He returned to Thessaloniki around 1209, where he was entrusted with the supervision of the deposed regent Oberto von Biandrate in the castle of Serres . In the following years Berthold was one of the leading Latin barons and supporters of the child king Demetrius . Apparently he used his position primarily for self-enrichment. The Archbishop of Herakleia had complained to the Pope about him because he had forcibly gained control of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople .

The last time Berthold von Katzenelnbogen was addressed in a letter to Pope Honorius III. dated April 21, 1217, here finally in the position of regent of Thessaloniki ( baiulus regni Thessalonicensis ). He probably died shortly afterwards, but he never returned to his German homeland.

literature

  • Klaus-Peter Todt: Count Berthold II. Von Katzenelnbogen (before 1183-after 1217) in the Aegean region and in the Middle East , in: Nassauische Annalen 117 (2006), pp. 65–87

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Regesta Honorii Papae III , ed. by Pietro Pressutti (Rome, 1888), no.526, p. 92
personal data
SURNAME Berthold II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berthold II von Katzenelnbogen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German knight and participant in the fourth crusade
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1217