Godefroy by Briel

Godefroy Briel (also: Godefroid de Briel , Gottfried , Eng .: Geoffrey of Briel / Geoffrey of Bruyeres , Greek Γοδεφρείδος ντε Μπρυγέρ; Γ ντε Μπριέλ. : Godefridos * 1222 / 1223 ; † the end of 1275 ) was a French knight and the third lord of the barony of Karytaina in the Principality of Achaia , in Franconian Greece . He led a colorful and turbulent life, which is detailed in the Chronicle of Morea . he is described as one of the best knights in the principality, who fought in the wars against the Byzantines , was captured in the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259 and was sent back to Achaea with the Byzantine demands in 1261. Godefroy lost his barony twice, once when he rebelled against his uncle, Prince of Achaea Wilhelm II von Villehardouin , and the second time because he had left his principality without permission to take a vacation with a lover, the wife of one of his feudal lords to make in Italy. Both times he was pardoned, but received his title only as a fiefdom of the prince. He died childless in 1275 and the barony was divided.

origin

Godefroy was the son of Hugh von Briel and Alice von Villehardouin , a daughter of the Prince of Achaea , Gottfried I von Villehardouin . The family came from Briel-sur-Barse in the Franconian province of Champagne , which is named differently in the sources: "Brieres", "Prieres" ( Greek Μπριέρες, Πριέρης ), "Bruières", "Briers", "Briel" or " Brielle ”. Godefroy's father inherited the barony of Karytaina around 1222 from his brother, Renaud von Briel . The barony was the third largest (after the Akova and Patras baronies ) in the Principality of Achaia , with 22 knighthoods, and was responsible for overseeing the rebellious residents of Skorta .

Baron von Karytaina and revolt against Wilhelm II von Villehardouin

Engraving by Karytaina with the castle.

Godefroy was born in Greece, possibly in "Karytaina", soon after his father arrived there (approx. 1222/3). Hugh von Briel died in the spring of 1238, not yet forty years old, and was succeeded by the young Godefroy. The main source about the life of Godefroy are the different versions of the Chronicle of Morea , which, in the words of the scholar A. Bon , “with great detail and great enjoyment” the “many dazzling adventures” of a “special and charming figure who very representative of the generation of Franconian gentlemen who were born in Greece is told ”. The chronicle attributes the building of the castle of Karytaina to Godefroy , the "Greek Toledo ", as the historian William Miller calls it. Godefroy had a brilliant reputation as a warrior and was called the "Best Knight in Morea". According to the Aragonese version of the chronicle , he maintained a knight school in the castle, where the sons of the Greek nobles were trained as knights in the western style.

Godefroy married Isabella de la Roche , daughter of the Grand Lord of Athens and Thebes , Guido I. de la Roche . 1256 to 1258 he was involved in the succession disputes of Euboea , in which he initially fought as a lieutenant of his uncle, Prince Wilhelm II of Villehardouin . In this capacity he led a team that destroyed Euboea and recaptured the city of Negroponte for the prince. Later, however, he switched to the side of his father-in-law Guido de la Roche and the other Franconian gentlemen who opposed Wilhelm's hegemony efforts. However, Wilhelm triumphed in the battle of Karydi in 1258 and a meeting was called in Nikli to judge the defeated lords. Godefroy was pardoned and his confiscated land was returned, but only as a personal grant instead of a fief.

Pelagonia, Byzantine captivity and vacation in Italy

1259 Godefroy took part in a campaign in which the Prince's army took part to support the alliance of Achaia - Epirus - Sicily against the Empire of Nikaia . The united armies, weakened by suspicion between the Latins and the Epirotian Greeks, suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Pelagonia . Wilhelm and most of his barons, including Godefroy, were captured after the battle ended.

Map of Morea (Peloponnese) in the late Middle Ages.

The Frankish masters remained in captivity until 1261, when Constantinople was regained by the Nicaeans. The Emperor Michael VIII. Palaiologos offered them freedom in return for an oath of allegiance and the surrender of some fortresses in southeastern Morea. Wilhelm agreed and Godefroy was dismissed to take the emperor's proposals to the nobles of the principality. Another meeting was held in Nikli, attended by Godefroy, Guido de la Roche and the Chancellor Leonard of Veroli . The captive masters were represented by their wives. Hence this assembly was later referred to as the “Parliament of the Ladies”. Parliament approved the terms, at which point Godefroy surrendered the fortresses to the Greeks and returned to Constantinople, along with a number of hostages. Wilhelm and his barons were released.

With the surrender of the fortresses began a long-running conflict between the Greeks of the resurgent Byzantine Empire and the forces of the principality for control of Morea. Wilhelm was released from his oath of allegiance to the palaeologists by the Pope , and war preparations began almost immediately after his return to his principality. Despite this dangerous situation, Godefroy withdrew from his fiefdom without asking Wilhelm's permission. He spent the years 1263-1265 in Italy, ostensibly on a pilgrimage, but in reality on a love holiday with the wife of his vassal Ioannis Katavas ( Greek Ιωάννης Καταβάς ). His absence gave the residents of Skorta time to organize a rebellion and to support the Byzantine troops in their offensive, which was only stopped by the same vassal Ioannis Katavas in the battle of Prinitsa . Godefroy was again stripped of his title, and again pardoned and reinstated when he returned.

Last years and death

Godefroy is mentioned again in the campaigns of the early 1270s, when Palaiologos created a new commander after Morea: Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos . In 1270 Godefroy and his neighbor, the Baron von Akova, joined the prince's army with 150 horsemen and 200 infantrymen. The Latins conquered the Byzantine possessions in Laconia , but Philanthropenus avoided open battle. During and after the Second Council of Lyon , there was initially peace, but in 1275 the truce was broken by the Greeks. Wilhelm gave Godefroy a force with 50 riders and 200 archers, who stationed them and used them to monitor the gorges of Skorta. But Godefroy died of dysentery in late 1275 . After his death, Karytaina was increasingly attacked by the Byzantines and finally fell into their hands again in 1320.

Godefroy died childless; for the barony that had been granted to him, only direct descendants were entitled to inheritance and accordingly it was divided up after his death: one half went to his widow, Isabella de la Roche, who married Hugo von Brienne before her death in 1279 , and the other half Half went back to the reign of the prince. Two pretenders appeared in the next few years: a Johann Pestel and Godefroy's nephew, Godefroy the Younger , who, after great resistance, actually received the Moraina fiefdom .

In the literature

"Geoffrey" is the eponymous hero in Alfred Duggan's 1962 novel Lord Geoffrey's Fancy . A personable but filthy hero, described by his distant cousin, an admiring but increasingly disaffected narrator, the Baron von Karytaina is the prime example of both the qualities and the faults of the Frankish knights.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bon 1969: 105, 367, 700.
2. ↑ Bon 1969: 105 note 3.
3. ^ Bon 1969: 105, 365-367.
   Miller 1921: 72.
4. ↑ Evergates 1994: 106.
5. ↑ Evergates 1994: 104, 106
6. ↑ “narrates with so much detail and indulgence the many and colorful adventures of a peculiar and charming figure, very representative of the generation of Frankish seigneurs born in Greece”. Bon 1969: 105-106.
7. ↑ Miller 1921: 72.
8. ↑ Bon 1969: 367.
9. ↑ "best knight in the Morea". Longnon 1969: 258.
10. ^ Dourou-Iliopoulou 2005: 134.
11. ^ Bon 1969: 106, 367.
12. ↑ Bon 1969: 119-120.
13. ↑ Longnon 1969: 245-246.
14. ↑ Setton 1976: 78-80.
15. ↑ Bon 1969: 121-122.
16. ↑ Bon 1969: 123-125.
17. ↑ Bon 1969: 125ff.
18. ↑ Bon 1969: 130-131.
19. ^ Bon 1969: 106, 368.
20. ↑ Bon 1969: 142.
21. ↑ Bon 1969: 143.
22. ↑ Bon 1969: 368.
23. ^ Bon 1969: 106, 148, 368.
24. ↑ Evergates 1994: 108.

literature

• Antoine Bon: La Morée franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d'Achaïe. De Boccard, Paris 1969 ( online ).
• Maria Dourou-Iliopoulou: Το Φραγκικό Πριγκιπάτο της Αχαΐας (1204–1432). Ιστορία. Οργάνωση. Κοινωνία. (The Frankish principality of Achaia (1204–1432). History. Organization. Society.) Vanias Publications, Thessaloniki 2005, ISBN 960-288-153-4 .
• Theodore Evergates: The Origin of the Lords of Karytaina in the Frankish Morea. In: Medieval Prosopography. Volume 15, Number 1, 1994, pp. 81-114.
• Jean Longnon: The Frankish States in Greece, 1204-1311. In: Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard (Eds.): A History of the Crusades. Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1969, ISBN 0-299-06670-3 , pp. 234-275 ( online ).
• William Miller: Essays on the Latin Orient. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1921 ( online ).
• Kenneth Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571). Volume 1: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia 1976, ISBN 0-87169-114-0 ( online ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Hugh of Briel	Baron of Achaia 1238-1275	Isabella de la Roche for half of the domain