Mary of Courtenay

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Maria von Courtenay , French Marie de Courtenay (* around 1204 ; † probably September 1228 in Constantinople ) was a Byzantine imperial wife and regent ( Bailla ) of the Latin Empire of Constantinople from the House of Courtenay .

Life

Maria was born in France around 1204 as one of 13 children of the Latin emperor Peter von Courtenay († 1217/1219) and Jolante von Flanders († 1219). Her siblings included Margaret , Philip II and Henry II of Namur , the Hungarian Queen Jolante and the Latin Emperors Robert and Balduin II.

After the death of Maria's maternal uncle, Emperor Heinrich , in 1217, her parents were determined to succeed him on the throne of the Latin Empire established in Constantinople in the course of the fourth crusade . After her coronation as emperor by the Pope in Rome on April 9, 1217, Maria accompanied her mother directly by sea to Constantinople, while her father undertook a military expedition against the Greek despot of Epirus . After he fell into the captivity of the despot and died there, Jolante took over the reign of Constantinople and arranged the engagement of Mary to the Byzantine counter-emperor of Nicaea , Theodor I. Laskaris . This marriage was supposed to seal a peaceful settlement between the Latins and Greeks. Empress Jolante died in 1219 and Theodor Laskaris, as her son-in-law, demanded reign over Constantinople, which the Latin barons denied him, which led to new battles between them and the Greeks in Asia Minor . This could only be ended after the arrival of Maria's brother and new Latin Emperor Robert , who concluded a new armistice with Theodor Laskaris, recognized his marriage to Maria and also promised to marry a daughter of his from a previous marriage.

The marriage of Mary with Theodor I. Laskaris ended childless with his death as early as 1222, after which they entered a power struggle with John III. Vatatzes moved from Nicaea to Constantinople to see her brother, where she had great influence on the day-to-day political business, perhaps officially sharing rule with her brother. When he left Constantinople in a dispute with his barons in 1227 to ask the Pope for support in Rome, Maria took over the deputy reign of the empire for him. Her reign, which has bypassed the historical record, is only guaranteed by a letter of February 13, 1228, which she addressed to the city chief of Pisa and confirmed to him previously granted trade privileges. In this letter she titled herself as "Maria, Dei gratia imperatrix, baiula imperii Constantinopolitani" (Maria, in the grace of God empress, caretaker of the Empire of Constantinople). Mary's reign ended only shortly afterwards with the death of her brother on his return journey to Morea , whereupon the barons who held the right to vote determined a new reign for the underage Balduin II in the late summer of 1228.

There is no trace of Mary after 1228, and she probably died in September of the same year.

swell

literature

  • Patrick van Kerrebrouck: Les Capétiens 987-1328. Self-published, Villeneuve d'Asq 2000, ISBN 2-9501509-4-2 , p. 459.
  • Samuel Löwenfeld: Une lettre de l'impératrice Marie. In: Archives de l'Orient latin , Volume 2/2, 1884, pp. 256-257.
  • Alice Saunier-Seïté : Les Courtenay: Destin d'une illustrious famille bourguignonne. Éditions France-Empire, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-7048-0845-7 , pp. 151-163 passim .
  • Adolf Schaube: A previously unknown regent of the Latin Empire. In: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung , Vol. 8, 1887, pp. 587-594.
  • Filip Van Tricht: Robert of Courtenay (1221-1227): An Idiot on the Throne of Constantinople ?. In: Speculum , Vol. 88, 2013, pp. 996-1034.
  • Filip Van Tricht: The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228). (= The Medieval Mediterranean: peoples, economies, and cultures, 400-1500 . Vol. 90). EJ Brill, Leiden 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-20323-5 , pp. 174, 296, 364-3365, 368 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Filip Van Tricht: Robert of Courtenay (1221-1227): An Idiot on the Throne of Constantinople? In: Speculum , Vol. 88, 2013, p. 1017.
  2. ↑ Filip Van Tricht: Robert of Courtenay (1221-1227): An Idiot on the Throne of Constantinople ?. In: Speculum , Vol. 88, 2013, p. 1016.
  3. ↑ Chronique rimée de Philippe Mouskes , Vol. 2, ed. von Reiffenberg (1838), line 23149-23150, p. 407. “Si tint l'emperères s'ouneur / Tout entre lui et sa sereur”.
  4. ↑ Filip Van Tricht: Robert of Courtenay (1221-1227): An Idiot on the Throne of Constantinople ?. In: Speculum , Vol. 88, 2013, p. 1028.
predecessor Office successor
Philippa of Armenia Empress of Byzantium
1219–1222 		Irene Laskarina
Jolante of Flanders Empress of the Latin Empire
1228 		Mary of Brienne
personal data
SURNAME Mary of Courtenay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie de Courtenay (French)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine Empress (1219–1222), Latin regent of Constantinople (1228)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1204
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: September 1228
Place of death uncertain: Constantinople