False Baldwin I.
False Baldwin I († 1225 in Flanders ) is in the History , the term for that impostors who himself as the emperor of the Latin Empire , I. Baldwin , spent.
Life
Not much is known about the deceiver's early life. According to some traditions, his real name was Bertrand. He is said to have lived in the Netherlands for a long time. For the first time he appeared in public in the area around Tournai in 1224/25 , where he claimed to be the returned Emperor Baldwin I. After the battle of Adrianople 20 years earlier, he had been captured by Bulgaria and murdered. However, there was a great deal of speculation among contemporaries about the death of the emperor, which the impostor was initially able to use successfully for his story. He found recognition in the surrounding cities and the regional nobility. He was later recognized by the Dukes of Limburg, Brabant and King Henry III of England . who offered him an alliance against France. A civil war loomed between the deceiver and the incumbent ruler of Flanders, Johanna , an ally of Louis VIII of France. The French king met the false Baldwin in the same year and asked him about his previous life. He gave no answers to the questions; His geographical knowledge also turned out to be incomplete. Allegedly the Bishop of Beauvais exposed him as a fraud in this questioning. False Baldwin fled to Cologne the next day , but was soon caught and executed a little later.
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Lee Wolff: Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut, first Latin Emperor of Constantinople, His life, death and resurrection, 1172-1225 . In: Speculum , July 1952, pp. 281-322.
- ↑ Stefan Burkhardt: Mediterranean Empire and Imperial Orders, Berlin 2014, p. 114f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | False Baldwin I. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Impostor who pretended to be Emperor Baldwin I. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 12th Century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1225 |
| Place of death | Flanders |