Johann I. de la Roche

Johann I de la Roche (French: Jean ; † 1280 ) was a Duke of Athens from the la Roche family . He was a son of Duke Guido I of Athens and Agnes de Bruyères.

Johann succeeded his father, who died in 1263, as a duke and in the first few years was able to keep his duchy out of the confused circumstances of Greece. Due to the Treaty of Viterbo (May 23, 1267) of Prince Wilhelm II of Achaia , Johann got into an indirect feudal relationship with Charles of Anjou because of the cities of Argos and Nauplia , but he did not achieve any military successes.

In 1275 the despot of Thessaly , John I Angelus, turned to John and asked him for an alliance against Emperor Michael VIII. Palaeologus , who threatened Thessaly in his endeavor to rebuild the Byzantine Empire . Johann gathered an army of three hundred knights and moved to Thessaly, where a Byzantine army was already besieging Neopatria. According to the knight Nicolas de St. Omer, Johann is said to have quoted the Greek historian Herodotus when he saw the superior enemy : Lots of people, but few men. In a surprise attack, Johann managed to put the Byzantines to flight. Through this victory he was able to expand his duchy to the Othrys . The alliance with Thessaly was then deepened by a marriage between John's brother, Wilhelm , and a daughter of the despot.

As a result, however, Johann got into a direct confrontation with the Byzantine emperor, who landed an army under the traitor Licario on Euboea (Negroponte) in 1278 and had the trio there captured. Johann crossed over to the island with his own army, but was defeated by Licario and taken prisoner himself. He was wounded by an arrow in the process. Johann was brought to Constantinople before the emperor. His union policy with the Roman Church, however, favored Johann's position, so that he only had to pay 30,000 gold solidi as a condition for a peace treaty, but did not have to cede any land.

Soon after his release in 1279, Johann brokered his sister's marriage to Hugo von Brienne from the Brienne family . Shortly afterwards he died. Johann suffered from a serious gout disease all his life, which is why he never married himself. He was followed by his brother Wilhelm I.

literature

• Ferdinand Gregorovius : History of the City of Athens in the Middle Ages. From the time of Justinian to the Turkish conquest. 2 volumes. Cotta, Stuttgart 1889, ( digitized volume 1 , digitized volume 2 ; numerous editions).

footnote

1. ↑ The chronology critic Anatoli Fomenko claims to have recognized in this battle the prototype for the battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) , which never took place after him.

predecessor	Office	successor
Guido I. de la Roche	Duke of Athens 1263–1280	William I de la Roche