Pierre II de Courtenay, Emperor of Byzantium

Pierre II de Courtenay, aka Peter of Courtenay, was born c. 1158 and died 1219 .

Pierre I, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Comte d'Auxerre et de Tonnerres, Marquis de Namur, and Seigneur de Courtenay. He was deposed as Emperor of Constantinople in 1217.

Married:

1. Agnes I Ctss de Nevers, d'Auxerre et de Tonnerre
2. Yolande de Flandre, July 8, 1193, Soissons

Pierre de Courtenay and Agnes I Ctss de Nevers, d'Auxerre et de Tonnerres had 2 children:

1. Unnamed daughter (disputed, died young)
2. Matilda de Courtenay d. 1254), Ctss de Nevers, Auxerre and Tonerre.

Pierre de Courtenay and Yolande de Flandre had 14 children:

1. Marguerite (Sibylle) de Courtenay
2. Philippe III "à la Lèvre" de Courtenay
3. Pierre de Courtenay
4. Elisabeth de Courtenay
5. Unnamed daughter, wife of Boril, Czar of the Bulgarians
6. Yolande de Courtenay
7. Robert de Courtenay
8. Agnes de Courtenay
9. Constance de Courtenay
10. Marie de Courtenay
11. Eleonore de Courtenay
12. Sibylle de Courtenay
13. Henri de Courtenay
14. Baudouin de Courtenay

Pierre II de Courtenay was the son of Pierre I de France & Élisabeth de Courtenay

Pierre was the Latin emperor of Constantinople, from 1217 to 1219.

He was a grandson of the French king Louis VI, and obtained the counties of Auxerre and Tonnerre by his first marriage. His second wife, Yolande, was sister of Baldwin I and Henry of Flanders, first and second Latin emperors of Constantinople. She brought him the marquessate of Nevers.

Pierre accompanied his cousin, King Philip Augustus, on the crusade of 1190 and fought (alongside his brother Robert) in the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and 1211, when he took part in the siege of Lavaur. He was present at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214.

Pierre was chosen successor to his brother-in-law, Henry of Flanders when Henry died without sons in 1216, and with a small army set out from France to take possession of his throne. Pierre was consecrated emperor in the church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, Rome, by Pope Honorius III on April 9, 1217. Accompanied by an army and a papal legate, he subsequently embarked at Brindisi on ships furnished by the Venetians, for whom he tried to conquer Durazzo from Theodore Ducas, Greek despot of Epirus. Failing in that enterprise, Pierre then set out overland toward Thessalonica. In the mountains near Elbasan, he was taken by Theodore. After an imprisonment of two years, he died, probably by foul means.

Pierre thus never governed his empire, which, however, was ruled for a time by his wife, Yolanda, who had succeeded in reaching Constantinople. Two of his sons, Robert and Baldwin, in turn held the throne of the Latin Empire.

Links

• Wikipedia: Deutsch, English
• MedLands Project