John of Brienne

John of Brienne
(1148-1237)
John (Jean) Count of Brienne was a French noble who came to prominence in later life. He held the title King of Jerusalem and also became Latin Emperor of Constantinople.
In 1208 the barons of the vestigial Kingdom of Jerusalem delivered a request to Philip II Augustus, asking that he send a French noble to marry Queen Maria, the daughter of Isabella of Jerusalem and Conrad of Montferrat, and become King of Jerusalem. Philip sent John of Brienne, despite his being 44 years older than Maria. They married in 1210. John’s coronation in Acre was arranged and attended by the Grand Master of the Templars, Guillaume de Chartres. Two years later Maria died, shortly after giving birth to the union’s only child, the Princess Yolande.
John, retaining his title, took a lead in the Fifth Crusade, fighting alongside the Templars. Unfortunately, however, ultimate control lay with the Papal Legate Pelagius of Albano, who steered the enterprise into a disaster. Subsequently John toured Europe (in the meantime having married and lost another wife, an Armenian princess). He met with Pope Honorius III and with the Emperor Frederick II, and promised the Emperor the hand of Yolande in exchange for a guarantee of support in the Holy Land. Then in Spain John took another young wife, Berengaria of Castile. Meanwhile Frederick II took Yolande (who herself died in childbirth). Frederick subsequently sought to deprive John of his title King of Jerusalem, claiming it for himself. John gained revenge by leading the Guelf armies against Frederick’s lands in Southern Italy while the Emperor was engaged in the Holy Land on the Sixth Crusade. In 1229 John, though aged, was invited to Constantinople to take the throne as Latin Emperor, by the Frankish barons who had clung to power there since the Fourth Crusade delivered it to them. John held the throne for the remainder of his life, and successfully held off Greek forces from Nicæa who attempted to retake the city.