Robert of Courtenay
Robert of Courtenay ruled the Latin Empire of Constantinople for eight years and lost most of what was left of it. Born around 1201, he was the second son of Peter of Courtenay and Yolanda of Flanders. His father had been captured on the way to his own coronation and never seen again; his mother governed as regent until her death in 1219; and his elder brother Philip, offered the throne, declined it and stayed in France. Robert accepted, travelled overland through Hungary, and was crowned in March 1221. He inherited an empire that had been shrinking since it was created. The Latin states in Greece were effectively independent of him, and two Greek successor states — Nicaea in Asia Minor and Epirus in the west — were both closing on the city. He was beaten by Nicaea at Poimanenon in 1224 and lost almost everything in Asia Minor; Epirus took Thessalonica the same year. His personal life then finished him. He had been betrothed to a Nicaean princess as part of a peace, and instead married the daughter of a Burgundian knight who was herself already promised to someone else. The woman's fiancé and a group of French knights broke into the palace, cut off the bride's nose and lips, and drowned her mother. Robert left for Rome to complain and got nothing. He died on the way back in 1228, aged about twenty-seven. The empire lasted until 1261 under a regency. His brother Baldwin II spent his reign selling the palace roof and pawning the Crown of Thorns to Venice.
- Lived: 1201 CE – 1228 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
