Heinrich (Latin Empire)

Heinrich von Flanders (* around 1174; † June 11, 1216 in Thessaloniki ) was from August 20, 1206 to June 11, 1216 the second and in general historical judgment the most deserving emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople .

He was a younger son of Count Baldwin V./VIII. of Hainaut-Flanders and the Countess Margaret of Flanders . His eldest brother was Count Baldwin VI./IX. of Hainaut-Flanders, who was elected first Latin emperor as Baldwin I after the fourth crusade in 1204 .

Early years

Fourth crusade

On February 23, 1200, Heinrich took the cross with his brother Balduin for the fourth crusade. In contrast to his brother, Heinrich does not seem to have counted among the leaders of the crusade, as he is not mentioned by any of the participating chroniclers until he reached Constantinople . His personal attitude to the diversion of the train to Constantinople therefore remains unclear, at least no contradiction has been handed down from him, nor did he renounce the crusade.

It was only during the siege of the capital of the Byzantine Empire that Heinrich emerged as a military leader for the first time. With a detachment of thirty knights, he left the siege in the spring of 1204 and led a successful raid against the city of Philia (now Şile ) on the Black Sea . On the way back to the main army he was intercepted on February 2, 1204 by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios V "Murtzuphlos" and put to battle. Despite his numerical inferiority, Heinrich was able to force the emperor to flee behind the walls of Constantinople and capture his imperial standard and a holy icon . During the subsequent conquest of Constantinople in April 1204, Heinrich occupied the Blachernen Palace .

Regent of Constantinople

After the conquest of Constantinople, Baldwin of Flanders was elected the first emperor of the newly established Latin Empire of Constantinople. Heinrich took over the city defense of Constantinople, while Baldwin went out with the army to subdue the Thracian countryside and to take Thessaloniki . On November 11, 1204 Heinrich crossed the Hellespont with one hundred and twenty knights and took Abydos , with which the Latins now also gained a foothold in Asia Minor . He then took Adramyttion and successfully defended this city on March 19, 1205 against a counterattack by Constantinos Laskaris , the brother of the Byzantine Theodor Laskaris , who was exiled to Asia Minor .

On April 24, 1205 the Latins were defeated in the disastrous battle of Adrianople against the Bulgarians under Kalojan (Johannitza) , Emperor Balduin fell into captivity. Heinrich did not take part in the battle, although his brother ordered him back from Asia Minor to conquer Adrianople ; However, he could not reach his brother in time when he was attacked by Kaloyan. In Cartopolis near Rodosto Heinrich was recognized by the assembled barons as regent of the empire for his brother. Then he withdrew with the rest of the army to Constantinople and gave Thrace to the conquest of Kaloyan. However, he was able to hold the cities of Arcadiopolis , Bizye and Napoli (Apros). After he had reorganized the army, he made another attempt to conquer Adrianople, which was unsuccessful because of the strong defense of the city. When the Bulgarians attacked Thrace again, Napoli, Rodosto, Herakleia and several other cities were destroyed.

Emperor of Constantinople

Fight against Kalojan and Theodor Laskaris

The Latin Empire (in yellow) was in its most stable phase under Henry's rule.

After the death of Emperor Baldwin in Bulgarian captivity in the spring of 1206 became known, the Latin barons and knights recognized Heinrich as their new emperor. He was crowned on August 20, 1206 in the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. He then began to take action against Kaloyan, who had just destroyed Didymotika , and beat him in a field battle. The Latins were also supported for the first time by the local Greeks, who had to suffer from the previous destructive actions of the Bulgarians. With their support he succeeded in gradually regaining control of Thrace, and on November 1, 1206, he was finally able to move into Adrianople after it had renounced Kaloyan. He entrusted the command in the city to the Greek Theodoros Branas . Then Henry, for his part, plundered through Thrace and destroyed cities and fortresses, including Aquae Calidae .

After Thrace had been largely brought to rest, Heinrich moved again against Theodor Laskaris in Asia Minor and conquered Nicomedia and Cyzicus . On February 4, 1207 he married in Hagia Sophia Agnes of Montferrat, the daughter of Boniface of Montferrat , King of Thessaloniki . Immediately afterwards, Laskaris and Kalojan decided on a joint alliance against the Latins and launched a combined offensive. Kaloyan penetrated again into Thrace and besieged Adrianople, at the same time Laskaris attacked several castles of the Latins in Asia Minor both on land and at sea. With a fleet of Venetian and Pisan ships, Heinrich succeeded in relieving the castle of Ciboto by the sea and in repelling Laskaris. In April 1207, Kaloyan abandoned the siege of Adrianople and withdrew from Thrace after his Cuman warriors fell from him, which chronicler Villehardouin described as a miracle.

While the war went well for the Latins in Thrace, in Asia Minor they were increasingly on the defensive against Theodor Laskaris. Heinrich therefore sought a diplomatic compromise with him and ceded the recently won Nicomedia to him, so that peace could return to Asia Minor. However, Theodor Laskaris had himself crowned emperor in Nikaia in 1208 by the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, who was also exiled, and thus founded a new Byzantine empire, which from then on stood in constant rivalry with the Latins of Constantinople. But the pressure exerted by the Rum Seljuks in the east on the “Empire of Nikaia” guaranteed a balance of power in Asia Minor, which temporarily prevented the threat of a resurgence of the war between Greeks and Latins here.

In the summer of 1207 Heinrich met in Cypsela near Adrianople with his father-in-law Bonifatius von Montferrat, the former leader of the fourth crusade and former rival of his brother in the election for the office of emperor. Heinrich received homage from him as his overlord, which at the same time underpinned the fact that the Kingdom of Thessaloniki belonged to the Latin Empire. On his return to Thessaloniki, Boniface was attacked and killed by the Bulgarians in September 1207, Kalojan himself died shortly afterwards in an attack on Thessaloniki, whereupon his nephew Boril usurped the throne of the Bulgarians. Boril attacked Thrace immediately in the following year with an army of 33,000 men, but Heinrich was able to inflict a crushing defeat on him with his army of 18,000 men on July 31, 1208 near Philippopolis (today Plovdiv ). With this victory, the city could be won back for the empire after it was occupied by the Bulgarians in 1205. By stirring up internal Bulgarian conflicts, Heinrich managed to neutralize the threat from this side. Among other things, he married his illegitimate daughter to the Bulgarian prince of Melnik , Alexius Slaw , whom he thus won for himself. For the first time since the Latins entered Constantinople in 1204, they found themselves at relative peace with their neighbors.

Lombards uprising

With the Latins, the external calm was followed by a quarrel among themselves. After the death of Boniface de Montferrat, his underage son Demetrius followed him in Thessaloniki under the tutelage of his mother. The powerful faction of the Lombard knights under Oberto von Biandrate , however, questioned this succession and instead favored the eldest son of their fallen leader, Wilhelm VI. of Montferrat , as the new king. The Lombards took control of Thessaloniki and terminated their allegiance to the child king as well as to Emperor Heinrich. He was only able to move to Thessaloniki after Boril had defended himself in the winter of 1208, but had to spend the harsh winter in a tent in front of the city walls, as Biandrate refused entry. It was only after he made unfulfillable concessions to Biandrate that Heinrich was admitted to Thessaloniki at the beginning of 1209. He immediately rejected his promises and had Biandrate imprisoned. He legitimized the kingship of young Demetrius by crowning him personally on January 9th.

On May 1, Heinrich convened the first parlement of the Latins of the East in Ravennika, to which all barons of the empire with the exception of the Lombards also appeared. Here it was decreed that the lords of Thebes-Athens and Achaia should now be under the direct sovereignty of the emperor, after they were originally vassals of Thessaloniki. With the neighboring Byzantine despot of Epirus, Michael I. Komnenos Dukas Angelos , a peaceful understanding could be negotiated by the brother of the emperor, Eustach , was married to a daughter of the despot. At the end of May 1209 Heinrich moved to Thebes and there forced the Lombards who had holed up in the Kadmeia to give up. He then moved to Athens and then crossed over to Euboea (Negroponte) , whose Lombard lord, Ravano dalle Carceri , also recognized his sovereignty.

On May 2, 1210, the Latin barons of Greece gathered for a second parliament in Ravennika by order of Henry. Here the secular lords concluded a concordat with the Latin patriarch Thomas Morosini , which regulated the ownership structure of the newly established Roman-Latin church hierarchy. It was also decided to keep the duties of the clergy to secular lords ( acrostic ) that are customary in Greece . Pope Innocent III recognized this agreement in December of the same year. In 1210, Heinrich had to drive the despot of Epirus out of Thessaloniki after he had invaded there despite the previously agreed agreement.

Last years

In the spring of 1211 Heinrich fended off an attack by the Bulgarian prince Strez von Prosek in a battle on the plains of Pelagonia . In the following year Theodor Laskaris intended to march on Constantinople. Heinrich got ahead of him and defeated him in Asia Minor in a battle on the Rhyndakos River (also called the Battle of Luparchos). This victory enabled him to subjugate the entire Troas to Pergamon and Nymphaion . In 1213 a new peace could be concluded with Laskaris by assigning the entire north-western Asia Minor to the Latin Empire. He placed this land under the administration of the Greek Georgios Theophilopoulos. After that Heinrich tried to win the Bulgarians as allies by marrying Maria , the daughter of Kaloyan and niece of Boril. The alliance did not pay off for him, however, a joint attack with Boril on the Serbian Niš ended in 1214 with the siege being prematurely broken off. Henry arranged a second attack on the Serbs with King Andrew II of Hungary , his niece's husband, apparently with the intention of making Stefan Nemanjić his vassal. But he submitted to the King of Hungary in time, whereupon the campaign had to be canceled.

Troubled by the armor of Theodoros I Angelos in Epirus, Heinrich marched to Thessaloniki in the spring of 1216 to carry out a preventive attack against Epirus from there. Before that happened, he died on June 11, 1216. Contemporary chroniclers suspected a poisoning behind his sudden death. In addition to his second Bulgarian wife, his old enemy Oberto von Biandrate was also suspected of the act.

rating

Heinrich is considered the most deserving and energetic emperor of Latin Greece. He was the only emperor who succeeded in establishing an imperial power in all parts of the country conquered by the Crusaders, in addition to Constantinople itself, especially in ancient Greece. He was also the only emperor who was able to show personal presence in Thebes and Athens. In constant struggle against external enemies such as the exiled Byzantines of Nikaia and Epirus as well as against the Bulgarians, he was able to defend and even expand the empire. His death was regarded by the Latins as one of their most serious losses, according to his deeds. Pope Innocent III, who was first an opponent of the crusade against Constantinople and then the greatest supporter of the Latin Empire, also died just a month after him. The year 1216 marks an important turning point in the history of the Latin Empire, as it was exposed to continuous decline from then on.

In the Empire, Heinrich was inherited by his brother-in-law Peter von Courtenay , who never entered the empire. By 1224, the Byzantine despot of Epirus gradually conquered the kingdom of Thessaloniki, thereby destroying the territorial integrity of the empire. The princes of Athens, Achaia and Euboea were thereby de facto independent rulers and the emperor demoted to the mere city lord of Constantinople.

Heinrich found his contemporaries to be positive, although the work of his biographer Henri de Valenciennes may not have been without influence. But even among Greek authors such as Georgios Akropolites , Heinrich achieved recognition as one of the few Latins of his time. In this way his efforts to find a balance between Latins and Greeks were recognized. Among other things, he stopped the persecution of Greek Orthodox clergy by papal legates such as Pelagius von Albano and included Greek nobles and officials in the administration of the empire.

Familiar

Heinrich was married twice, first from 1207 to Agnes von Montferrat, daughter of Boniface von Montferrat . After her death in 1212 he married the Bulgarian princess Maria , a daughter of the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan . There were no children from either marriage.

However, Heinrich had an illegitimate daughter whom he married to the Bulgarian prince of Melnik , Alexius Slaw .

literature

• Charles Verlinden : Les Empereurs belges de Constantinople (Brussels, 1945)
• Filip van Tricht: "La Gloire de l'empire". L'idée impériale de Henri de Flandre-Hainaut, deuxième empereur latin de Constantinople (1206-1216) , in: Byzantion 70 (2000), pp. 211-241
• Filip van Tricht: La politique étrangère de l'empire de Constantinople, de 1210 á 1216 , in: Le Moyen Age 107 (2001), pp. 219-235

predecessor	Office	successor
Balduin I.	Latin emperor 1206-1216	Peter