Robert of Courtenay emperor of the Latin Empire

Latin Empire

The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...

, or of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, was a younger son of the emperor Peter II of Courtenay, and a descendant of the French king, Louis VI

Louis VI of France

Louis VI , called the Fat , was King of France from 1108 until his death . Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".-Reign:...

, while his mother Yolanda of Flanders

Yolanda of Flanders

Yolanda of Flanders ruled the Latin Empire in Constantinople for her husband Peter II of Courtenay from 1217 to 1219.She was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainault, and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Two of her brothers, Baldwin I and then Henry, were emperors in Constantinople...

 was a sister of Baldwin

Baldwin I of Constantinople

Baldwin I , the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, as Baldwin IX Count of Flanders and as Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut, was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the capture of Constantinople, the conquest of the greater part of the Byzantine...

 and Henry of Flanders

Henry of Flanders

Henry was the second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He was a younger son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut , and Margaret I of Flanders, sister of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders....

, the first and second emperors of the Latin Empire.

When it became known in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 that Peter of Courtenay was dead, his eldest son, Philip

Philip II of Namur

Philip II , called à la lèvre, was the margrave of Namur from 1212 to his death. He was the eldest son of the Peter II of Courtenay and Yolanda of Flanders. On the death of his maternal uncle Philip the Noble, Philip inherited Namur as the designated heir.Philip had to fight the descendants of...

, Marquis of Namur

Marquis of Namur

Namur was a county of the Carolingian and later Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries. Its territories largely correspond with the present-day Belgian arrondissement Namur plus the northwestern part of the arrondissement Dinant....

, renounced the succession to the Latin empire of Constantinople in favor of his brother Robert, who set out to take possession of his distracted inheritance, which was then ruled by Conon of Béthune as regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

. Crowned emperor on March 25, 1221 Robert, who was surrounded by enemies, appealed for help to the pope Honorius III and to the king of France Philip II

Philip II of France

Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...

; but meanwhile his lands were falling into the hands of the rival Despotate of Epirus

Despotate of Epirus

The Despotate or Principality of Epirus was one of the Byzantine Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond...

 and Empire of Nicaea

Empire of Nicaea

The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...

.

Some little aid was sent from western Europe, but soon Robert was compelled to make peace with his chief foe, John Ducas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea, who was confirmed in all his conquests. Robert promised to marry Eudoxia, daughter of the late emperor of Nicaea, Theodore I Lascaris and Anna Angelina

Anna Angelina

Anna Komnene Angelina or Comnena Angelina was a daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos and of Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera....

. He had been betrothed to Eudoxia on a former occasion; the circumstances surrounding the failed negotiations are unclear, but George Akropolites states that the arrangement was blocked on religious grounds by the Orthodox Patriarch

Patriarch of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....

 Manuel Sarentos

Patriarch Manuel I of Constantinople

Manuel I, surnamed Sarantenos or Charitopoulos , was Patriarch of Constantinople from December 1216 or January [1217] to [1222. He seems to have been called "the Philosopher": George Akropolites says he was "a philosopher, it seems, in deed, and so named by the people." Manuel was...

: Robert's sister Marie de Courtenay

Maria

Maria is a female given name in many diverse cultures, including Mexican, African, Arab, Armenian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Pakistani, Afghan, Serbian, Swedish, Spanish.In Roman Empire the...

 was married to Emperor Theodore I Laskaris

Theodore I Laskaris

Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea .-Family:Theodore Laskaris was born to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris and wife Ioanna Karatzaina . He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris Theodoros...

. Accordingly, Robert, already Theodore's brother-in-law, could not also be his son-in-law.,. Regardless, Robert soon repudiated this engagement, and married the Lady of Neuville

Lady of Neuville

Lady of Neuville was the Empress consort of Robert of Courtenay, Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Her first name is unknown, though a number of genealogies have assigned her the name Eudoxie...

, already the fiancée of a Burgundian

Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...

 gentleman. Heading a conspiracy, the Burgundian drove Robert from Constantinople, he fled to Rome to seek redress from the pope who convinced him to return to Constantinople, but on his return trip, in early in 1228, the emperor died in Morea

Morea

The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...

.