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Robert of Courtenay

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ROBERT OF COURTENAY (d. 1228), emperor of Romania, or Constantinople, was a younger son of the emperor Peter of Courtenay, and was descended from the French king, Louis VI., while his mother Yolande was a sister of Baldwin and Henry of Flanders, the first and second emperors of Constantinople. When it became known in France that Peter of Courtenay was dead, his eldest son, Philip, marquess of Namur, renounced the succession to the Latin empire of Constantinople in favour of his brother Robert, who set out to take possession of his distracted inheritance, which was then ruled by Conon of Bethune as regent. Crowned emperor on the 25th of March 1221, Robert, who was surrounded by enemies, appealed for help to the pope and to the king of France; but meanwhile his lands were falling into the hands of the Greeks. Some little aid was sent from western Europe, but soon Robert was compelled to make peace with his chief foe, John Ducas Vataces, emperor of Nicaea, who was confirmed in all his conquests. Robert promised to marry Eudoxia, daughter of the late emperor of Nicaea, Theodore Lascaris I., a lady to whom he had been betrothed on a former occasion; however, he soon repudiated this engagement, and married a French lady, already the fiancee of a Burgundian gentleman. Heading a conspiracy, the Burgundian drove Robert from Constantinople, and early in 1228 the emperor died in Achaia.