Yolanda of Flanders
Yolanda of Flanders ruled the Latin Empire of Constantinople as regent for two years and held it together longer than either of her brothers had. Born around 1175, she was the sister of Baldwin IX of Flanders and Henry of Flanders, the first two Latin emperors installed after the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204 — a crusade that never reached the Holy Land and that destroyed the Christian empire it had set out to pass through. She married Peter of Courtenay, a French count and a cousin of Philip Augustus. Baldwin was captured by the Bulgarians in 1205 and died in captivity; Henry ruled for a decade with real ability and died in 1216, probably poisoned. The barons elected Peter, and he and Yolanda travelled east separately. He was crowned at Rome, went by land through Epirus, and was captured by Theodore Komnenos Doukas and never seen again. She had sailed and arrived safely, and governed from 1217 as regent in her own right. Her instrument was marriage rather than war, and the empire had no resources for anything else. She married her daughter to Andronikos of the Nicaean court and secured a treaty with Theodore Laskaris that ended fighting in Asia Minor, and negotiated with the Bulgarians and the Latin principalities of Greece. She died in 1219. Her son Robert succeeded her and lost most of what she had held. The Latin Empire survived until 1261 as a client of Venice and the papacy. The Byzantine state that recovered the city had been rebuilt in exile at Nicaea while she was negotiating with it.
- Lived: 1175 CE – 1219 CE
- Nationality: Flemish
- Roles: empress, regent, head_of_state
