John of Brienne (c.
1148 –
1237) was
King of Jerusalem and
Latin Emperor-Regent or Associate "Consort" Emperor of
Constantinople.
He was the second son of
Erard II de Candia, count of Brienne, in
Champagne, and of
Agnes de Montfaucon, countess of
Montbéliard. Destined originally for the
Church, he had preferred to become a
knight, and in forty years of
tournaments and fights he had won himself a considerable reputation, when in 1208 envoys came from the
Holy Land to ask
Philip Augustus, king of
France, to select one of his barons as husband to the heiress and ruler of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. Philip selected John of Brienne, and promised to support him in his new dignity. In 1210, John married the heiress (Mary)
Maria (daughter of
Isabella and
Conrad of Montferrat), assuming the title of king in right of his wife. In 1211, after some desultory operations, he concluded a six years' truce with
Malik-el-Adil; in 1212 he lost his wife, who left him a daughter,
Yolande (also known as Isabella); soon afterwards he married the princess Stephanie, daughter of
Leo II of Armenia.
During the
Fifth Crusade (1218-1221) he was a prominent figure. The legate
Pelagius of Albano, however, claimed the command; and insisting on the advance from
Damietta, in spite of John's warnings, he refused to accept the favourable terms of the
sultan, as the king advised, until it was too late. After the failure of the crusade, King John came to the West to obtain help for his kingdom. In 1223 he met
Pope Honorius III and the emperor
Frederick II at
Ferentino, where, in order that he might be connected more closely with the Holy Land, Frederick was betrothed to John's daughter Isabella, now heiress of the kingdom. After the meeting at Ferentino, John went to France and
England, finding little consolation; and thence he travelled to
Santiago de Compostela, where King
Alfonso IX of Leon offered him the hand of one of his daughters and the promise of his kingdom. John passed over Alfonso's eldest daughter and heiress in favor of a younger daughter,
Berengaria of Castile. After a visit to
Germany he returned to
Rome (1225). Here he received a demand from Frederick II (who had now married Isabella) that he should abandon his title and dignity of king, which, so Frederick claimed, had passed to himself along with the heiress of the kingdom. John was now a septuagenarian "king in exile," but he was still vigorous enough to revenge himself on Frederick, by commanding the papal troops which attacked southern
Italy during the emperor's absence on the
Sixth Crusade (1228-1229).
In 1229, John, now eighty years of age, was invited by the barons of the Latin Empire of Constantinople to become emperor-regent, on condition that
Baldwin of Courtenay should marry his second daughter and succeed him. For nine years he ruled in Constantinople, and in 1235, with a few troops, he repelled a great siege of the city by
John III Doukas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea, and
Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria.
After this last feat of arms, which has perhaps been exaggerated by the Latin chroniclers, who compare him to
Hector and the
Maccabees, John died in the habit of a
Franciscan friar. An aged
paladin, somewhat uxorious and always penniless, he was a typical
knight errant, whose wanderings led him all over Europe, and planted him successively on the thrones of Jerusalem and Constantinople.
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