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Birth:          ABT 1170 of Acre, Palestine
Death:          21 Mar 1237 Constantinople

Notes
homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/rfc/gw14.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Brienne
John of Brienne (c. 1170 – 27 March 1237), also known as John I, was King of 
Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. 
He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champagne. 
John, originally destined for an ecclesiastical career, became a knight and owned 
small estates in Champagne around 1200. After the death of his brother, Walter III, he 
ruled the County of Brienne on behalf of his minor nephew Walter IV (who lived in 
southern Italy).

The barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem proposed that John marry Maria, Queen of 
Jerusalem. With the consent of Philip II of France and Pope Innocent III, he left 
France for the Holy Land and married the queen; the royal couple were crowned in 
1210. After Maria's death in 1212 John administered the kingdom as regent for their 
infant daughter, Isabella II; an influential lord, John of Ibelin, attempted to dethrone 
him. John was a leader of the Fifth Crusade. Although his claim of supreme command 
of the crusader army was never unanimously acknowledged, his right to rule Damietta 
(in Egypt) was confirmed shortly after the town fell to the crusaders in 1219. He 
claimed the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia on behalf of his second wife, Stephanie of 
Armenia, in 1220. After Stephanie and their infant son died that year, John returned to 
Egypt. The Fifth Crusade ended in failure (including the recovery of Damietta by the 
Egyptians) in 1221.

John was the first king of Jerusalem to visit Europe (Italy, France, England, León, 
Castile and Germany) to seek assistance for the Holy Land. He gave his daughter in 
marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1225, and Frederick ended John's rule 
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although the popes tried to persuade Frederick to 
restore the kingdom to John, the Jerusalemite barons regarded Frederick as their 
lawful ruler. John administered papal domains in Tuscany, became the podestà of 
Perugia and was a commander of Pope Gregory IX's army during Gregory's war against 
Frederick in 1228 and 1229.

He was elected emperor in 1229 as the senior co-ruler (with Baldwin II) of the Latin 
Empire, and was crowned in Constantinople in 1231. John III Vatatzes, Emperor of 
Nicaea, and Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria occupied the last Latin territories in Thrace and 
Asia Minor, besieging Constantinople in early 1235. John directed the defence of his 
capital during the months-long siege, with the besiegers withdrawing only after 
Geoffrey II of Achaea and united fleets from Italian towns defeated their fleet in 1236. 
The following year, John died as a Franciscan friar.
life[edit]

John was the youngest of the four sons of Erard II, Count of Brienne, and Agnes of 
Montfaucon.[1][2] He seemed "exceedingly old ... about 80"[3] to the 14-year-old 
George Akropolites in 1231;[4] if Akropolites' estimate was correct, John was born 
around 1150.[5][6] However, no other 13th-century authors described John as an old 
man.[5] His father referred to John's brothers as "children" in 1177 and mentioned the 
tutor of John's oldest brother, Walter III, in 1184; this suggests that John's brothers 
were born in the late 1160s.[7][8] Modern historians agree that John was born after 
1168, probably during the 1170s.[9][10]

Although his father destined John for a clerical career, according to the late 13th-
century Tales of the Minstrel of Reims he "was unwilling".[10] Instead, the minstrel 
continued, John fled to his maternal uncle at the Clairvaux Abbey.[10] Encouraged by 
his fellows, he became a knight and earned a reputation in tournaments and fights.
[10] Although elements of the Tales of the Minstrel of Reims are apparently invented 
(for instance, John did not have a maternal uncle in Clairvaux), historian Guy Perry 
wrote that it may have preserved details of John's life.[11] A church career was not 
unusual for youngest sons of 12th-century noblemen in France; however, if his father 
sent John to a monastery he left before reaching the age of taking monastic vows.[11] 
John "clearly developed the physique that was necessary to fight well" in his youth, 
because the 13th-century sources Akropolites and Salimbene di Adam emphasize his 
physical strength.[12]

Erard II joined the Third Crusade and died in the Holy Land in 1191.[13] His oldest 
son, Walter III, succeeded him in Brienne.[14] John was first mentioned in an 1192 (or 
1194) charter issued by his brother, indicating that he was a prominent figure in 
Walter's court.[5][14] According to a version of Ernoul's chronicle, John participated 
in a war against Peter II of Courtenay.[15] Although the Tales of the Minstrel of Reims 
claimed that he was called "John Lackland", according to contemporary charters John 
held Jessains, Onjon, Trannes and two other villages in the County of Champagne 
around 1200.[14] In 1201, Theobald III granted him additional estates in Mâcon, 
Longsols and elsewhere.[16] After Theobald's death his widow Blanche of Navarre 
persuaded John to sell his estate at Mâcon, saying that it was her dowry.[17]

Walter III of Brienne died in June 1205 while fighting in southern Italy.[17] His widow 
Elvira of Sicily gave birth to a posthumous son, Walter IV, who grew up in Italy.[17] 
John assumed the title of count of Brienne, and began administering the county on his 
nephew's behalf in 1205 or 1206.[18] As a leading vassal of the count of Champagne, 
John frequented the court of Blanche of Navarre (who ruled Champagne during her 
son's minority).[19] According to a version of Ernoul's chronicle, she loved John "more 
than any man in the world"; this annoyed Philip II of France.[6][19]

The two versions of Ernoul's chronicle tell different stories about John's ascent to the 
throne of Jerusalem.[20] According to one version, the leading lords of Jerusalem sent 
envoys to France in 1208 asking Philip II to select a French nobleman as a husband 
for their queen Maria.[6][19] Taking advantage of the opportunity to rid himself of 
John, Philip II suggested him.[20] In the other version an unnamed knight encouraged 
the Jerusalemite lords to select John, who accepted their offer with Philip's consent.
[20] John visited Pope Innocent III in Rome.[21] The pope donated 40,000 marks for 
the defence of the Holy Land, stipulating that John could spend the money only with 
the consent of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the grand masters of the Knights 
Templar and the Knights Hospitaller.[22]

King of Jerusalem[edit]

Co-ruler[edit]

 The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states in the early 13th century
John landed at Acre on 13 September 1210;[23] the following day, Patriarch of 
Jerusalem Albert of Vercelli married him to Queen Maria.[23] John and Maria were 
crowned in Tyre on 3 October.[23] The truce concluded by Amalric II, King of 
Jerusalem and the Ayyubid sultan Al-Adil I had ended by John's arrival.[24] Although 
Al-Adil was willing to renew it, Jerusalemite lords did not want to sign a new treaty 
without John's consent.[23] During John and Maria's coronation, Al-Adil's son Al-
Mu'azzam Isa pillaged the area around Acre but did not attack the city.[23] After 
returning to Acre, John raided nearby Muslim settlements in retaliation.[25]

Although about 300 French knights accompanied him to the Holy Land,[26] no 
influential noblemen joined him; they preferred participating in the French Albigensian 
Crusade or did not see him as sufficiently eminent.[27] John's cousin, Walter of 
Montbéliard, joined him only after he was expelled from Cyprus.[27] Montbéliard led a 
naval expedition to Egypt to plunder the Nile Delta.[25] After most of the French 
crusaders left the Holy Land, John forged a new truce with Al-Adil by the middle of 
1211[25][23] and sent envoys to Pope Innocent urging him to preach a new crusade.
[23]

Conflicts[edit]

Maria died shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Isabella, in late 1212.[28][29] 
Her death triggered a legal dispute, with John of Ibelin (who administered Jerusalem 
before John's coronation) questioning the widowed king's right to rule.[28][30] The 
king sent Raoul of Merencourt, Bishop of Sidon, to Rome for assistance from the Holy 
See.[31] Pope Innocent confirmed John as lawful ruler of the Holy Land in early 1213, 
urging the prelates to support him with ecclesiastical sanctions if needed.[32] Most of 
the Jerusalemite lords remained loyal to the king, acknowledging his right to administer 
the kingdom on behalf of his infant daughter;[33] John of Ibelin left the Holy Land and 
settled in Cyprus.[34]

The relationship between John of Brienne and Hugh I of Cyprus was tense.[35] Hugh 
ordered the imprisonment of John's supporters in Cyprus, releasing them only at Pope 
Innocent's command.[35] During the War of the Antiochene Succession John sided 
with Bohemond IV of Antioch and the Templars against Raymond-Roupen of Antioch 
and Leo I, King of Cilician Armenia, who were supported by Hugh and the 
Hospitallers.[35] However, John sent only 50 knights to fight the Armenians in 
Antiochia in 1213.[36] Leo I concluded a peace treaty with the Knights Templar late 
that year,[37] and he and John reconciled.[37] John married Leo's oldest daughter, 
Stephanie (also known as Rita), in 1214[37] and Stephanie received a dowry of 
30,000 bezants.[38] Quarrels among John, Leo I, Hugh I and Bohemond IV are 
documented by Pope Innocent's letters urging them to reconcile their differences 
before the Fifth Crusade reached the Holy Land.[38]

Fifth Crusade[edit]

Main article: Fifth Crusade

Pope Innocent proclaimed the Fifth Crusade in 1213, with the "liberation of the Holy 
Land" (the reconquest of Jerusalem) its principal object.[39][40] The first crusader 
troops, commanded by Leopold VI of Austria, landed at Acre in early September 1217.
[41] Andrew II of Hungary and his army followed that month,[41] and Hugh I of Cyprus 
and Bohemond IV of Antioch soon joined the crusaders.[38][42] However, hundreds of 
crusaders soon returned to Europe because of a famine following the previous year's 
poor harvest.[43] A war council was held in the tent of Andrew II, who considered 
himself the supreme commander of the crusader army.[44] Other leaders, particularly 
John, did not acknowledge Andrew's leadership.[42] The crusaders raided nearby 
territory ruled by Al-Adil I for food and fodder, forcing the sultan to retreat in November 
1217.[45][46] In December John besieged the Ayyubid fortress on Mount Tabor, joined 
only by Bohemond IV of Antioch.[42][47] He was unable to capture it, which 
"encouraged the infidel", according to the contemporary Jacques de Vitry.[42][48]

Frisian crusaders attack a tower near Damietta during the Fifth Crusade (from Matthew 
Paris' 13th-century Chronica Majora).
Andrew II decided to return home, leaving the crusaders' camp with Hugh I and 
Bohemond IV in early 1218.[49] Although military action was suspended after their 
departure, the crusaders restored fortifications at Caesarea and Atlit.[50] After new 
troops arrived from the Holy Roman Empire in April, they decided to invade Egypt.[51]
[52] They elected John supreme commander, giving him the right to rule the land they 
would conquer.[53] His leadership was primarily nominal,[54] since he could rarely 
impose his authority on an army of troops from many countries.[55]

The crusaders laid siege to Damietta, on the Nile, in May 1217.[56] Although they 
seized a strategically-important tower on a nearby island on 24 August,[54][53] Al-
Kamil (who had succeeded Al-Adil I in Egypt) controlled traffic on the Nile.[57] In 
September, reinforcements commanded by Pope Honorius III's legate Cardinal 
Pelagius (who considered himself the crusade's supreme commander) arrived from 
Italy.[58]

Egyptian forces attempted a surprise attack on the crusaders' camp on 9 October, but 
John discovered their movements.[57] He and his retinue attacked and annihilated the 
Egyptian advance guard, hindering the main force.[57] The crusaders built a floating 
fortress on the Nile near Damietta, but a storm blew it near the Egyptian camp.[57] 
The Egyptians seized the fortress, killing nearly all of its defenders.[57] Only two 
soldiers survived the attack; they were accused of cowardice, and John ordered their 
execution.[57] Taking advantage of the new Italian troops, Cardinal Pelagius began to 
intervene in strategic decisions.[59] His debates with John angered their troops.[60] 
The soldiers broke into the Egyptian camp on 29 August 1219 without an order, but 
they were soon defeated and nearly annihilated.[60] During the ensuing panic, only 
the cooperation of John, the Templars, the Hospitallers and the noble crusaders 
prevented the Egyptians from destroying their camp.[60]

In late October, Al-Kamil sent messengers to the crusaders offering to restore 
Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth to them if they withdrew from Egypt.[61] Although 
John and the secular lords were willing to accept the sultan's offer, Pelagius and the 
heads of the military orders resisted; they said that the Moslems could easily recapture 
the three towns.[61][62] The crusaders ultimately refused the offer.[62] Al-Kamil tried 
to send provisions to Damietta across their camp, but his men were captured on 3 
November.[63] Two days later, the crusaders stormed into Damietta and seized the 
town.[64] Pelagius claimed it for the church, but he was forced to acknowledge John's 
right to administer it (at least temporarily) when John threatened to leave the 
crusaders' camp.[64] According to John of Joinville, John seized one-third of 
Damietta's spoils;[65] coins minted there during the following months bore his name.
[66] Al-Mu'azzam Isa, Sultan of Damascus, invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem and 
pillaged Caesarea before the end of 1219.[67]

John's father-in-law, Leo I of Armenia, died several months before the crusaders 
seized Damietta. He bequeathed his kingdom to his infant daughter, Isabella.[68] John 
and Raymond-Roupen of Antioch (Leo's nephew) questioned the will's legality, each 
demanding the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia for themselves.[66] In a February 1220 
letter, Pope Honorius declared John Leo's rightful heir.[69] Saying that he wanted to 
assert his claim to Cilicia, John left Damietta for the Kingdom of Jerusalem around 
Easter 1220.[70][71] Although Al-Mu'azzam Isa's successful campaign the previous 
year also pressed John to leave Egypt, Jacques de Vitry and other Fifth Crusade 
chroniclers wrote that he deserted the crusader army.[72]

Stephanie died shortly after John's arrival.[73] Contemporary sources accused John of 
causing her sudden death, claiming that he severely beat her when he heard that she 
tried to poison his daughter Isabella.[72] Their only son died a few weeks later, ending 
John's claim to Cilicia.[73] Soon after Pope Honorius learned about the deaths of 
Stephanie and her son, he declared Raymond-Roupen the lawful ruler of Cilicia and 
threatened John with excommunication if he fought for his late wife's inheritance.[74]

John did not return to the crusaders in Egypt for several months.[75] According to a 
letter from the prelates in the Holy Land to Philip II of France, lack of funds kept John 
from leaving his kingdom.[75] Since his nephew Walter IV was approaching the age of 
majority, John surrendered the County of Brienne in 1221.[76] During John's absence 
from Egypt, Al-Kamil again offered to restore the Holy Land to the Kingdom of 
Jerusalem in June 1221; Pelagius refused him.[77] John returned to Egypt and rejoined 
the crusade on 6 July 1221 at the command of Pope Honorius.[78][77]

The commanders of the crusader army decided to continue the invasion of Egypt, 
despite (according to Philip d'Aubigny) John's strong opposition.[78][79] The 
crusaders approached Mansurah, but the Egyptians imposed a blockade on their 
camp.[80] Outnumbered, Pelagius agreed to an eight-year truce with Al-Kamil in 
exchange for Damietta on 28 August.[81] John was among the crusade leaders held 
hostage by Al-Kamil until the crusader army withdrew from Damietta on 8 September.
[81]

Negotiations[edit]

After the Fifth Crusade ended "in colossal and irremediable failure", John returned to 
his kingdom.[82][83] Merchants from Genoa and Pisa soon attacked each other in 
Acre, destoying a significant portion of the town.[83] According to a Genoese 
chronicle, John supported the Pisans and the Genoese left Acre for Beirut.[83]

John was the first king of Jerusalem to visit Europe,[84] and had decided to seek aid 
from the Christian powers before he returned from Egypt.[85] He also wanted to find a 
suitable husband for his daughter, to ensure the survival of Christian rule in the Holy 
Land.[83] John appointed Odo of Montbéliard as a bailli to administer the Kingdom of 
Jerusalem in his absence.[86][87]

Marriage of John's daughter, Isabella II of Jerusalem, and the Holy Roman Emperor 
Frederick II in 1225 (from Giovanni Villani's Nuova Cronica)
He left for Italy in October 1222 to attend a conference about a new crusade.[86][87] 
At John's request, Pope Honorius declared that all lands conquered during the 
crusade should be united with the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[88] To plan the military 
campaign, the pope and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II met at Ferentino in March 
1223;[89] John attended the meeting.[90] He agreed to give his daughter in marriage 
to Frederick II after the emperor promised that he would allow John to rule the 
Kingdom of Jerusalem for the rest of his life.[90]

John then went to France, although Philip II was annoyed at being excluded from the 
decision of Isabella's marriage.[91] Matilda I, Countess of Nevers, Erard II of 
Chacenay, Albert, Abbot of Vauluisant and other local potentates asked John to 
intervene in their conflicts, indicating that he was esteemed in his homeland.[92] John 
attended the funeral of Philip II at the Basilica of St Denis in July;[91] Philip 
bequeathed more than 150,000 marks for the defence of the Holy Land.[88][91] John 
then visited England, attempting to mediate a peace treaty between England and 
France after his return to France.[93]

He made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in March 1224.[94][95] According to 
the Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, John went to the Kingdom of León to marry 
one of the elder daughters of Alfonso IX of León (Sancha or Dulce) because Alfonso 
had promised him the kingdom "along with her".[95] The marriage could jeopardize the 
claim of Sancha's and Dulce's half-brother, Ferdinand III of Castile, to León.[95] To 
protect her son's interests, Ferdinand's mother Berengaria of Castile decided to give 
her daughter (Berengaria of León) to John in marriage.[95] Although modern historians 
do not unanimously accept the chronicle's account of John's plan to marry Sancha or 
Dulce, they agree that the queen of France (Blanche of Castile, Berengaria of 
Castile's sister) played an important role in convincing John to marry her niece.[94][95] 
The marriage of John and Berengaria of León was celebrated in Burgos in May 1224.
[96]

About three months later, he met Emperor Frederick's son Henry in Metz and visited 
Henry's guardian, Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne.[97] From Germany John went to 
southern Italy, where he persuaded Pope Honorius to allow Emperor Frederick to 
postpone his crusade for two years.[97] Frederick married John's daughter, Isabella 
(who had been crowned queen of Jerusalem), on 9 November 1225.[98] John and 
Frederick's relationship became tense.[99] According to a version of Ernoul's 
chronicle, John got into a disagreement with his new son-in-law because Frederick 
seduced a niece of Isabella who was her lady-in-waiting.[99] In the other version of 
the chronicle John often "chastised and reproved" his son-in-law, who concluded that 
John wanted to seize the Kingdom of Sicily for his nephew Walter IV of Brienne and 
tried to murder John (who fled to Rome).[99] Frederick declared that John had lost his 
claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem when Isabella married him; he styled himself king of 
Jerusalem for the first time in December 1225.[99][100] Balian of Sidon, Simon of 
Maugastel, Archbishop of Tyre, and the other Jerusalemite lords who had escorted 
Isabella to Italy acknowledged Frederick as their lawful king.[101]

Papal service[edit]

Pope Honorius did not accept Frederick's unilateral act, and continued to regard John 
as the rightful king of Jerusalem.[102] In an attempt to take advantage of the revived 
Lombard League (an alliance of northern Italian towns) against Frederick II, John went 
to Bologna.[103] According to a version of Ernoul's chronicle, he declined an offer by 
the Lombard League representatives to elect him their king.[103] Even though this 
account was fabricated, John remained in Bologna for over six months.[104] The dying 
Pope Honorius appointed John rector of a Patrimony of Saint Peter in Tuscany (part of 
the Papal States) on 27 January 1227,[105][106] and urged Frederick II to restore him 
to the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[103] Honorius' successor, Gregory IX, 
confirmed John's position in the Papal States on 5 April[107] and ordered the citizens 
of Perugia to elect him their podestà.[107]

Gregory excommunicated Frederick II on 29 September 1227, accusing him of 
breaking his oath to lead a crusade to the Holy Land;[108] the emperor had 
dispatched two fleets to Syria, but a plague forced them to return.[109] His wife 
Isabella died after giving birth to a son, Conrad, in May 1228.[110] Frederick 
continued to consider himself king of Jerusalem, in accordance with the precedent set 
by John during Isabella's minority.[110]

The imperial army invaded the Papal States under the command of Rainald of 
Urslingen in October 1228.[111] Although John defeated the invaders in a series of 
battles, it took a counter-invasion by another papal army in southern Italy to drive 
Rainald back to Sulmona.[112] John laid a siege[112] before returning to Perugia in 
early 1229 to conclude negotiations with envoys of the Latin Empire of 
Constantinople, who were offering him the imperial crown.[112]

Emperor of Constantinople[edit]

Election[edit]

The Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Robert I, died in January 1228.[113] His brother 
Baldwin II succeeded him, but a regent was needed to rule the Latin Empire since 
Baldwin was ten years old.[113] Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria was willing to accept the 
regency, but the barons of the Latin Empire suspected that he wanted to unite the 
Latin Empire with Bulgaria.[114] They offered the imperial crown instead to John, an 
ally of the Holy See.[114]

After months of negotiation, John and the envoys from the Latin Empire signed a treaty 
in Perugia which was confirmed by Pope Gregory on 9 April 1229.[115][116] John was 
elected emperor of the Latin Empire for life as senior co-ruler with Baldwin II, who 
would marry John's daughter Marie.[115][116] The treaty also prescribed that although 
Baldwin would rule the Latin lands in Asia Minor when he was 20 years old, he would 
become sole emperor only after John's death.[115][116] John also stipulated that his 
sons would inherit Epirus and Macedonia, but the two regions still belonged to 
Emperor of Thessalonica Theodore Doukas.[115]

After signing the treaty, John returned to Sulmona.[112] According to the 
contemporary Matthew Paris, he allowed his soldiers to plunder nearby monasteries to 
obtain money.[112] John lifted the siege of Sulmona in early 1229 to join Cardinal 
Pelagius, who launched a campaign against Capua.[117] Frederick II (who had 
crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) returned to 
Italy, forcing the papal troops to withdraw.[118][119]

John went to France to recruit warriors to accompany him to Constantinople.[120] 
Pope Gregory did not proclaim John's expedition to the Latin Empire a crusade, but 
promised papal privileges granted to crusaders to those who joined him.[120] During 
his stay in France, John was again an intermediary between local potentates[121] and 
signed a peace treaty between Louis IX of France and Hugh X of Lusignan.[121] He 
returned to Italy in late 1230.[122] John's envoys signed a treaty with Jacopo Tiepolo, 
Doge of Venice, who agreed to transport him and his retinue of 500 knights and 5,000 
commoners to Constantinople in return for John's confirmation of Venetian possessions 
and privileges in the Latin Empire.[123] Shortly after John left for Constantinople in 
August, Pope Gregory acknowledged Frederick II's claim to the Kingdom of 
Jerusalem.[124]

Rule[edit]

John was crowned emperor in Hagia Sophia in autumn 1231;[125] by then, his territory 
was limited to Constantinople and its vicinity.[126] The Venetians urged him to wage 
war against John III Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea, who supported a rebellion against 
their rule in Crete.[127] According to Philippe Mouskes' Rhymed Chronicle, John could 
make "neither war nor peace";[125] because he did not invade the Empire of Nicaea, 
most French knights who accompanied him to Constantinople returned home after his 
coronation.[125] To strengthen the Latin Empire's financial position, Geoffrey II of 
Achaea (John's most powerful vassal) gave him an annual subsidy of 30,000 hyperpyra 
after his coronation.[126][127]

Taking advantage of John III Vatatzes' invasion of Rhodes, John launched a military 
expedition across the Bosphorus against the Empire of Nicaea in 1233.[128][129] His 
three-to-four-month campaign "achieved little, or nothing"; the Latins only seized 
Pegai, now Biga in Turkey.[128] With John's approval, two Franciscan and two 
Dominican friars wanted to mediate a truce between the Latin Empire and Nicaea in 
1234 but it was never signed.[130] In a letter describing their negotiations, the friars 
described John as a "pauper" abandoned by his mercenaries.[131]

John III Vatatzes and Ivan Asen II concluded a treaty dividing the Latin Empire in 
early 1235.[132] Vatatzes soon seized the last outposts of the empire in Asia Minor 
and Gallipoli, and Asen occupied the Latin territories in Thrace.[132] Constantinople 
was besieged in an effort to persuade the defenders to gather in one place, enabling 
an invasion elsewhere.[133] Although the besiegers outnumbered the defenders, John 
repelled all attacks on the town's walls.[134] Mouskes compared him to Hector, 
Roland, Ogier the Dane and Judas Maccabeus in his Rhymed Chronicle, emphasizing 
his bravery.[134]

A Venetian fleet forced Vatatzes' naval forces to withdraw, but after the Venetians 
departed for home the Greeks and Bulgarians besieged Constantinople again in 
November 1235.[135] John sent letters to European monarchs and the pope, pleading 
for assistance.[135] Since the survival of the Latin Empire was in jeopardy, Pope 
Gregory urged the crusaders to defend Constantinople instead of the Holy Land.[136] 
A combined naval force from Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Geoffrey II of Achaea broke 
through the blockade.[135] Asen soon abandoned his alliance with Vatatzes, who was 
forced to lift the siege in 1236.[137]

Death[edit]

According to three 13th-century authors (Matthew Paris, Salimbene di Adam and 
Bernard of Besse), John became a Franciscan friar before his death.[138] They agree 
that John's declining health contributed to his conversion, but Bernard also described 
a recurring vision of an old man urging the emperor to join the Franciscans.[139] Most 
13th-century sources suggest that John died between 19 and 23 March 1237,[140] the 
only Latin emperor to die in Constantinople.[140]

According to the Tales of the Minstrel of Reims, he was buried in Hagia Sophia.[141] 
Perry wrote that John, who died as a Franciscan friar, may have been buried in the 
Franciscan church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi which was built in Galata 
during his reign.[141] In a third theory, proposed by Giuseppe Gerola, a tomb 
decorated with the Latin Empire coat of arms in Assisi's Lower Basilica may have been 
built for John by Walter VI, Count of Brienne.[142]

Family[edit]

John's first wife (Maria the Marquise, born 1191) was the only child of Isabella I of 
Jerusalem and her second husband, Conrad of Montferrat.[143] Maria inherited 
Jerusalem from her mother in 1205.[144] John and Maria's only child, Isabella (also 
known as Yolanda), was born in late 1212.[29][28]

Stephanie of Armenia became John's second wife in 1214.[28] She was the only 
daughter of Leo II of Armenia and his first wife, Isabelle (niece of Sibylle, the third 
wife of Bohemond III of Antioch).[145] Stephanie gave birth to a son in 1220, but she 
and her son died that year.[73]

John married his third wife, Berengaria of León, in 1224;[146] she was born around 
1204 to Alfonso IX of León and Berengaria of Castile.[147][148] John and Berengaria's 
first child, Marie, was born in 1224.[97] Their first son, Alphonse, was born during the 
late 1220s.[84] Berengaria's cousin, Louis IX of France, made him Grand Chamberlain 
of France and he acquired the County of Eu in France with his marriage.[149] John's 
second son, Louis, was born around 1230.[84] His youngest son, John, who was born 
in the early 1230s, was Grand Butler of France.[150]

Parents
DE BRIENNE Erard II (ABT 1140 - 8 Feb 1191)
DE MONTFAUCON Agnes (ABT 1150 - 23 Oct 1186)

Siblings
DE BRIENNE Jean (ABT 1170 - 21 Mar 1237)

Marriage To ALFONSEZ Bernegaria (Berenguela) (1204 - 12 Apr 1237)
    m. 1224 Toledo, Spain

Notes

Parents
FERNANDEZ Alfonso IX (15 Aug 1171 - 24 Sep 1230)
OF CASTILE Bernegaria (Berenguela) (Jun 1180 - 8 Nov 1246)

Children by ALFONSEZ Bernegaria (Berenguela) 1204 - 12 Apr 1237
DE BRIENNE Jean (ABT 1230 - 1296)
DE BRIENNE Louis "D' Acre" (ABT 1235 - 1297)

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