Rénier de Trith
Rénier de Trith († after 1206) was a French crusader of the fourth crusade . He was lord of Trith-Saint-Léger ( Dép: Nord ) in the county of Hainaut .
Live and act
According to Gottfried von Villehardouin , Rénier de Trith took on February 23, 1200 together with Count Balduin IX. from Flanders the cross for the fourth crusade. His son Rainald also joined the crusade. Until the conquest of Constantinople in April 1204, Rénier is no longer mentioned by Villehardouin, although Count Hugo IV of Saint-Pol included him in a letter among those crusaders who, after the conquest of Zara (1202), decided to take a detour of the crusade had voted to Constantinople.
After Constantinople had been conquered and the Count of Flanders was elected the first emperor of the Latin Empire , Rénier de Trith was named "Duke of Philippopolis" (now Plovdiv ). In November 1204 he was able to move into this city with one hundred and twenty knights without a fight and with the support of the local Greek population. However, he could not gain any control over the area around his fiefdom, as the Greeks there rose against the rule of the Latins and were supported by the Bulgarian ruler Kalojan (Johannitzes) . After only a few months, a hundred knights deserted who wanted to support Emperor Baldwin in the siege of Adrianople . But after the emperor had been defeated and captured by the Bulgarians in April 1205, the people of Philippopolis revolted against the Latins, whereupon Kaloyan was able to occupy the city. The uprising against the Latins was particularly supported by the Paulician community , whose neighborhood Rénier de Trith burned down because of this. After the loss of the city, he entrenched himself with no more than fifteen knights in the nearby Stenimachos Castle (today Asenovgrad ) and withstood a thirteen-month siege by Kaloyan until he was freed from relief under the leadership of Villehardouin in the spring of 1206; the castle had to be given up, however.
During the siege, Rénier de Trith was the first of the crusaders to find out about the death of Emperor Baldwin in captivity, whereupon his brother and reigning regent Heinrich could be crowned the new emperor. After the fighting over Stanimachus, no more reports were made about Rénier de Trith.
literature
- Jean Longnon: Les compagnons de Villehardouin, Recherches sur les croisés de la quatrième croisade (Geneva, 1978)
- Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard: A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The later Crusades, 1189-1311 (2006)
Individual proof
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rénier de Trith |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Lord of Trith-Saint-Léger, Duke of Philippopolis, crusader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 12th Century |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1206 |