Louis of Burgundy

Coin of Ludwig as Prince of Achaia

Coat of arms of Louis of Burgundy

Louis of Burgundy (* 1297 ; † August 2, 1316 ) was Prince of Achaia and Titular King of Thessaloniki ; he was a younger son of Robert II , Duke of Burgundy , and Agnes of France .

In 1313 he was part of a complex marriage alliance that was formed to secure the Angevin and Burgundian control over Frankish possessions in Greece. On July 31, 1313 he married Mathilde von Hennegau , granddaughter and heiress of Wilhelm II. Von Villehardouin , who had given the Principality of Achaia to Philip I of Taranto as a fief. Ludwig ceded his own claims to the family property to his brother Hugo V of Burgundy , who in return gave him the title of King of Thessalonike, which had been sold to the Burgundians in 1266. Ludwig then swore the feudal oath to Philip of Taranto, who as de iure uxoris and titular emperor of Constantinople had suzerainty over Thessalonica, and agreed to participate in a campaign to recapture the Latin Empire.

Mathilde and Ludwig reached Achaia in different ways, she with 1000 soldiers by ship via Marseille and Navarino , he via Venice, where he had come to the Republic of Venice for help . Ferdinand of Mallorca , who also made de iure uxoris claims to the principality (he was married to Isabelle de Sabran, who was descended from the younger daughter of Wilhelm II), landed in Greece in 1315 and had conquered Glarentza , Mathilde came later in the same year and some barons, including the Count of Kefalonia , joined her. On February 22, 1316, she was defeated by Ferdinand in the Battle of Picotin. Around the same time, Ludwig reached Greece, made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the castle of Chalandritsa, but was able to defeat Ferdinand in the Battle of Manolada on July 5, 1316, although he had brought reinforcements from the Kingdom of Mallorca and the Catalan company . Four weeks later, according to the Chronicle of Morea, Ludwig died of a fever, while the Catalan Declaratio summa implies poison administered by Count Johann von Kefalonia. His death left an unsecured principality with his brother Odo IV of Burgundy , Mathilde of Hainaut and the Angevinen as claimants.

literature

• HW Hazard (ed.), The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (A History of the Crusades, vol. III). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 109-114, online

predecessor	Office	successor
Philip I of Taranto	Prince of Achaia (with Mathilde von Hennegau ) 1313–1316	Mathilde of Hainaut