Oberto II of Biandrate

Count Oberto II of Biandrate († after 1224) was an Italian participant in the fourth crusade and temporarily regent of the Kingdom of Thessaloniki . He was a son of Count Oberto I of Biandrate .

Oberto took part in the entourage of the related Margrave Boniface of Montferrat in the fourth crusade (1202-1204). The margrave rose there after the conquest of Constantinople to the king of the newly founded kingdom of Thessaloniki and fell in 1207 in the fight against the Bulgarians. His underage son Demetrius succeeded him as the new king , under the reign of his mother Margaret of Hungary .

Oberto von Biandrate took over the post of Bailli as one of the closest followers of Boniface and effectively ousted the Queen Mother in government over the kingdom. He was able to rely on the support of the Lombard knighthood, who had settled in Thessaloniki with Boniface of Montferrat.

Oberto immediately revolted against the supremacy of the Latin emperor Heinrich and questioned the legality of the succession of Demetrius. Instead, he and his followers favored Boniface's eldest son, Margrave Wilhelm VI. of Montferrat , as a legitimate king, who was staying in Italy. Margarete called against Oberto the help of Emperor Heinrich, who moved against Thessaloniki in the winter of 1208 . Since Oberto denied him entry and the required homage, the emperor had to spend the cold winter outside the city gates in the tent of his encampment. Only after he made some concessions to Oberto, such as the recognition of all land from Dyrrhachion to the Aegean Sea as well as sovereignty over Thebes and Achaia for the kingdom, the emperor was able to move into Thessaloniki at the beginning of 1209. The emperor had Oberto arrested immediately and imprisoned in the castle of Serres under the supervision of Berthold von Katzenelnbogen . On January 9, 1209, Demetrius was personally crowned King of Thessaloniki by the emperor and at a parliament convened in Ravennika at the beginning of May 1209, he placed the principalities of Thebes and Achaia under the direct sovereignty of the empire.

The rebellious Lombards, who refused to submit to the emperor in Ravennika, had meanwhile holed up in the Kadmeia of Thebes. On May 8, 1209, however, the emperor was able to take the Kadmeia and force the Lombards to submit, the uprising was finally ended. Oberto was released from prison at the end of the same month. He turned to Euboea (Negroponte) and hoped with his former follower Ravano dalle Carceri, who ruled here, to instigate another uprising against Emperor Heinrich. But after he threatened to land on Euboea, Ravano dalle Carceri refused his support, whereupon Oberto had to finally give up. He moved back to his Italian homeland, to the court of Margrave Wilhelm VI. from Montferrat.

According to rumors in contemporary reports, Oberto was responsible for the sudden death of Emperor Henry in 1226. The last time he was a participant in the Wilhelms VI expedition. called by Montferrat, who set out in 1224 to recapture Thessaloniki, which had fallen to Theodoros I Angelos .

literature

• Sofia Boesch Gajano:  Biandrate, Uberto di. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 10:  Biagio-Boccaccio. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1968, pp. 280-282.
• GM Virgil: I possedimenti dei conti di Biandrate nei decoli XI e XIV , in Bolletino Storico Bibliografico Subalpino 72 (1974), pp 633-685
• Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard: A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311 (2006), pp. 206-210, 214