James II of Avesnes

Jakob von Avesnes (French: Jacques d'Avesnes ; † before 1209 ) was a knight of the fourth crusade . He was probably the son of Jacob von Avesnes from Hainaut , who was a prominent protagonist of the third crusade .

Jacob took on February 23, 1200 together with Count Balduin IX. from Flanders-Hainaut the cross for the fourth crusade. In the course of the company he was one of those knights who raised their voice against the diversion of the crusade to Constantinople on the island of Corfu , but who were able to be voted back by the leaders. During the siege of Constantinople in the spring of 1204 he made a successful campaign of conquest with Heinrich von Flanders to Philia (now Şile ) on the Black Sea .

After the conquest of Constantinople, Jacob joined the retinue of Boniface de Montferrat , who had risen to become King of Thessaloniki . On their journey together to ancient Greece to fight Leon Sgouros , Jacob received the island of Evia ( rule of Negroponte ) as a fief from Bonifatius in the spring of 1205 . He entered the island only briefly to order the construction of a castle in Chalkis , but then rejoined Boniface's army. In the same year Jacob took the lower city of Corinth and besieged Leon Sgouros on Acrocorinth . He succeeded in repelling an attempted failure of the besieged, where he was badly wounded in the leg.

With the permission of his liege lord, Jacob divided Euboea into three fiefs in August 1205, which he gave to Lombard knights. He gave the south ( Karystos ) to Ravano dalle Carceri , the middle part (Chalkis) to his relative Gilberto da Verona and the north ( Oreos ) to Pegoraro dei Pegorari. So that was triumvirate (gen: triarchs , terzieri or tierciers ) founded by Evia, which until the conquest of the island by the Ottomans had consisted 1470th Jacob himself remained the overlord of the island until he died shortly before or in 1209. Since Pegoraro had already traveled back to his Lombard homeland and Gilberto died at this point, Ravano dalle Carceri took over the rule of the entire island.

literature

• John. B. Bury : The Lombards and Venetians in Euboia. (1205-1303). In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 7, 1886, ISSN  0075-4269 , pp. 309-352.
• Louis de Mas Latrie: Les Seigneurs tierciers de Négropont. In: Revue de l'Orient latin. 1, 1893, ZDB -ID 280906-0 , pp. 413-432.
• Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard: A History of the Crusades. Volume 2: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311. 2nd edition. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI et al. 2005, ISBN 0-299-04844-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Setton, Wolff and Hazard (p. 262), who call Florence of Hainaut a great-nephew of James II of Avesnes.