Baldwin I, Latin Emperor
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Baldwin I | |
---|---|
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans | |
Baldwin VIII | |
Successor | Joan |
Count of Hainaut | |
Reign | 1195–1205 |
Predecessor | Baldwin V |
Successor | Joan |
Born | July 1172 Valenciennes, Hainaut, Kingdom of France |
Died | c. 1205 (aged about 32–33) Tarnovo, Bulgaria (now Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria) |
Spouse | Marie of Champagne |
Issue | |
Latin Catholic |
Baldwin I (Dutch: Boudewijn; French: Baudouin; July 1172 – c. 1205) was the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople; Count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) from 1194 to 1205 and Count of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI) from 1195 to 1205. Baldwin was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the sack of Constantinople in 1204, the conquest of large parts of the Byzantine Empire, and the foundation of the Latin Empire. He lost his final battle to Kaloyan, the emperor of Bulgaria, and spent his last days as his prisoner.
Early life and family history
Baldwin was the son of Count
Count Philip's wife
In 1186, the younger Baldwin had married
describes Baldwin as being infatuated with his young bride, who nevertheless preferred prayer to the marital bed.Immediately after this arrangement, the count of Hainaut's son Baldwin, thirteen years old,[5] received as wife Marie, the count of Champagne's sister, twelve years old, at Château-Thierry. This Marie began sufficiently young to devote herself to divine obedience in prayers, vigils, fasts and alms. Her husband Baldwin, a young knight, by chaste living, scorning all other women, began to love her alone with a fervent love, which is rarely found in any man, so that he devoted himself to his sole wife only and was content with her alone. The solemn rejoicing of the wedding was celebrated at Valenciennes with an abundance of knights and ladies and men of whatever status.[6]
Through Marie, Baldwin had additional connections and obligations to the defenders of the Holy Land: her brother
Baldwin's own family had also been involved in the defence of Jerusalem: his uncle Philip had died on Crusade. Baldwin's maternal grandmother was great-aunt of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and the counts of Flanders had tried to help Jerusalem relatives in their struggle. Baldwin wanted to continue the tradition. Margaret died in 1194, and the younger Baldwin became Count of Flanders. His father died the next year, and he succeeded to Hainaut.
Count of Flanders and Hainaut
Baldwin took possession of a much-reduced
In this fight against the French king, Baldwin allied with others who had quarrels with Philip, including kings
As part of his effort to leave his domains in good order, Baldwin issued two notable charters for Hainaut. One detailed an extensive criminal code, and appears to be based on a now-lost charter of his father. The other laid down specific rules for inheritance. These are an important part of the legal tradition in Belgium.[12]
Baldwin left behind his two-year-old daughter and his pregnant wife, Countess Marie. Marie was regent for Baldwin for the two years she remained in Flanders and Hainaut, but by early 1204, she had left both her children behind to join him in the East. They expected to return in a couple of years, but in the end neither would see their children or their homeland again. In their absence Baldwin's younger brother Philip of Namur was regent in Flanders, with custody of the daughters. Baldwin's uncle William of Thy (an illegitimate son of Baldwin IV of Hainaut) was regent for Hainaut.[13]
Meanwhile, desperate for funds to support themselves and pay for their expenses, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade were persuaded to divert to Constantinople in large part due to the exiled Byzantine prince Alexios (future Emperor Alexios IV Angelos) who promised them supplies and money in return for their help in ousting his uncle Emperor Alexios III Angelos, and freeing his father Isaac II Angelus. In April 1204, after numerous negotiations attempting to obtain the promised funds from the Byzantines, the Crusaders conquered the most powerfully protected city in the world. Stunned at their own success and unsure of what to do next, the leaders adopted a similar track as their forefathers had during the First Crusade. They elected one of their own, Count Baldwin of Flanders as emperor (of what modern historians refer to as the Latin Empire) and divided imperial lands into feudal counties.
Latin emperor
The imperial crown was at first offered to
The Latin Empire was organized on
Boniface hoped to make himself quite independent of the empire, to do no homage for his kingdom, and he opposed Baldwin's proposal to march to
During the following winter (1204–1205) the Franks prosecuted conquests in Bithynia, in which Henry, Baldwin's brother, took part. But in February the Greeks revolted in Thrace, relying on the assistance of Kaloyan, tsar of Bulgaria, whose overtures of alliance had been rejected by the emperor. The garrison of Adrianople was expelled. Baldwin along with Dandolo, the count of Blois, and Marshal Villehardouin, the historian, marched to besiege that city. The Frankish knights were defeated (14 April 1205); the count of Blois was slain, and the emperor captured by the Bulgarians (see Battle of Adrianople).
Captivity and death
For some time Baldwin's fate was uncertain, and in the meanwhile Henry, his brother, assumed the regency. Not until the middle of July the following year was it ascertained that he was dead. The circumstances of Baldwin's death are not exactly known. It seems that he was at first treated well as a valuable hostage, but was executed by the Bulgarian monarch in a sudden outburst of rage, perhaps in consequence of the revolt of
Tsar Kaloyan wrote to Pope Innocent III, reporting that Baldwin had died in prison. A tower of the Tsarevets fortress of the medieval Bulgarian capital, Veliko Tarnovo, is still called Baldwin's Tower; supposedly, it was the tower where he was interned.
It was not until July 1206 that the Latins in Constantinople had reliable information that Baldwin was dead. His brother Henry was crowned emperor in August.
Back in Flanders, however, there seemed to be doubt whether Baldwin was truly dead. In any case, Baldwin's other brother Philip of Namur remained as regent, and eventually both of Baldwin's daughters, Joan and Margaret II, were to rule as countesses of Flanders.
Twenty years later, in 1225, a man appeared in Flanders claiming to be the presumed dead Baldwin. His claim soon became entangled in a series of rebellions and revolts in Flanders against the rule of Baldwin's daughter Jeanne. A number of people who had known Baldwin before the
Notes
- ^ a b Wolff 1952, p. 281.
- ^ Wolff 1952, pp. 281–282.
- ^ a b c d Wolff 1952, p. 282.
- ^ Evergates 1999, p. 127.
- ^ Baldwin was in fact 14 years old when he married Marie of Champagne in 1186.
- ^ Gislebert of Mons & Napran 2005, p. 105.
- ^ Wolff 1952, p. 283.
- ISBN 0520077105. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
Treaty of Péronne 1200.
- ISBN 1579581161. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ISBN 0313308179. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ^ Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff and Harry W. Hazard eds., A history of the Crusades, Volume II: the later Crusades 1189–1311 (London and Madison, second edition 1969), 159.
- ^ Wolff 1952, pp. 283–287.
- ^ Wolff 1952, p. 288.
- ^ Setton 1976, p. 13.
- ISBN 9780582051393
- ^ See Cohn (1970), pp. 89–93.
References
- Angold, Michael, The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context, Harlow: Pearson, 2003. ISBN 978-0582-35610-8
- Cohn, Norman (1970), The Pursuit of the Millennium, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Evergates, Theodore (1999), Aristocratic Women in Medieval France, ISBN 0-8122-1700-4.
- ISBN 1-84383-120-1.
- Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014. ISBN 978-1-78093-767-0
- Harris, Jonathan, 'Collusion with the infidel as a pretext for military action against Byzantium', in Clash of Cultures: the Languages of Love and Hate, ed. S. Lambert and H. Nicholson, Turnhout: Brepols, 2012, pp. 99–117. ISBN 978 2503 520643
- Savignac, David. "The Medieval Russian Account of the Fourth Crusade – A New Annotated Translation".
- Van Tricht, F., The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204–1228), Leiden: Brill, 2011
- Moore, John C. (January 1962), "Baldwin IX of Flanders, Philip Augustus and the Papal Power", S2CID 159905474.
- ISBN 0-87169-114-0.
- Wolff, Robert Lee (July 1952), "Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut, First Latin Emperor of Constantinople: His Life, Death, and Resurrection, 1172–1225", S2CID 163762031.