Jean de Valenciennes

Jean de Valenciennes ( lat. Johan de Valencenes , dt. Johann von Valenciennes ; † after 1265), was a French knight and diplomat, and by marriage lord of Haifa (Cayphas) in the Kingdom of Jerusalem .

He came from a Franco-Norman aristocratic family, possibly named after the city of Valenciennes .

He took part as a knight on the crusade of King Ludwig IX. from France to Egypt ( Sixth Crusade ) from 1248 to 1250 and then accompanied them to Acre . From there he was sent twice as the king's envoy to Cairo to accelerate the release of the remaining crusaders captured in April 1250 by the Mameluks . Only after Jean assured them that Louis IX. No alliance would be made with the Ayyubids of Damascus , the prisoners were released. As a further concession, the Mameluks also released Guillaume de Chateauneuf , the master hospitaller who had been imprisoned for years, and the mortal remains of Count Walter IV of Brienne , and they also released Louis IX. an elephant and a zebra as a present.

Apparently Jean stayed behind in the Levant after the king returned to France in 1254, because in 1257 he is first recorded as Lord of Haifa , who was called Cayphas by the Franks. He had probably married the heiress of this barony named Helvis , who had previously been married to Gottfried Poulain in her first marriage and to García Álvarez in her second marriage . During the Saint-Sabas War (1256-58) he was a supporter of the Genoese party around Johann von Ibelin-Arsuf . In 1263 and 1264, Pope Urban IV addressed a letter each to Jean and Archbishop Gilles of Tire , in which he was promised financial support to expand the fortifications of Haifa in order to protect the city against an expected attack by the Mamluk sultan Baibars I. prepare. These measures were in vain, Baibars conquered Haifa in 1265. Apparently, by 1264 at the latest, his stepson from the first marriage of his wife, Gilles Poulain , had taken over the government of Haifa.

Sources and literature

Jean de Joinville : Vie de Saint Louis .
Charles du Cange : Les Familles d'outre-mer. Publiées par Emmanuel-Guillaume Rey. Imprimerie Impériale, Paris 1869, p. 269 ff.

annotation

^ Cf. Jean de Joinville: Vie de Saint Louis. Chapter 13.
↑ See Reinhold Röhricht : Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII - MCCXCI). Libraria Academica Wageriana, Innsbruck 1893, pp. 330 f., No. 1259 .
^ Cf. Christopher Marshall: Warface in the Latin East, 1192-1291 (= Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Ser. 4, 17). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1994, ISBN 0-521-47742-5 , p. 75.

predecessor	Office	successor
García Álvarez (de iure uxoris)	Lord of Haifa (de iure uxoris ) around 1257–1264	Gilles I.

personal data
SURNAME	Jean de Valenciennes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Johan de Valencenes, John of Valenciennes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French crusader, Lord of Haifa
DATE OF BIRTH	12th Century
DATE OF DEATH	after 1265

[1] Cf. Jean de Joinville: Vie de Saint Louis. Chapter 13.

[2] See Reinhold Röhricht : Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII - MCCXCI). Libraria Academica Wageriana, Innsbruck 1893, pp. 330 f., No. 1259 .

[3] Cf. Christopher Marshall: Warface in the Latin East, 1192-1291 (= Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Ser. 4, 17). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1994, ISBN 0-521-47742-5 , p. 75.