His reign marked the rapid decline of the empire. All the chiefs of the First Crusade—Baldwin, Henry of Flanders, Boniface de Montferrat, Louis de Blois, Dandolo, and Villehardouin—were dead. The number of Latin warriors diminished unceasingly by combats or by returning to the West, and were not recruited by new arrivals. Robert had one of his sisters married to King Andrew of Hungary, one to Geoffrey of Achaia, and a third to the emperor of Nicæa. One of his nieces married John Asan II of Bulgaria; he himself was about to marry a daughter of Lascaris. But these family alliances gave him neither power nor security.
The despot of Epirus, Theodore, who never ceased taking land from the Latins, took advantage of the Thessalonican king being gone to seek help in the West to surprise his capital and finish conquering his provinces (1222). So perished the Lombard kingdom of Thessalonica.
In Nicæa, Joannes Vatatzes, successor to Lascaris, renewed war against the French, inflicted on them a bloody defeat at Pemanene (1224), and conquered nearly all Thrace. The Greeks had now two emperors, without counting the one at Trebizond, for the despot of Epirus had got himself crowned by the archbishop of Okhrida in Thessalonica. The forces of these two emperors, henceforth enemies, marched each on its own road to Hadrianopolis. The town at first yielded to the Nicæan troops, then drove them away and opened their gates to those of Epirus. Robert could not even interfere in the struggle, and nothing remained but to see which of the two Greek armies would be the first to enter Byzantium. In his own court a bloody drama showed how little respected and how weak was sovereign power. Robert was very much in love with a young Neuville lady, already engaged to a Burgundian cavalier; and the mother consented to get the first engagement broken off. The rejected cavalier gathered his relatives and friends and forced a way into the palace by night. He cut off the nose and lips of the young girl, and threw her mother into the Bosporus. Robert could obtain no redress from his barons for this cruel insult. He went to seek help in the West and died on the journey (1228).[c]
JEAN DE BRIENNE
[1228-1237 A.D.]
It was only in the age of chivalry that valour could ascend from a private station to the thrones of Jerusalem and Constantinople. The titular kingdom of Jerusalem had devolved to Mary, the daughter of Isabella and Conrad of Montferrat, and the granddaughter of Almeric or Amaury. She was given to Jean de Brienne, of a noble family in Champagne, by the public voice and the judgment of Philippe Auguste, who named him as the most worthy champion of the Holy Land. In the Fifth Crusade, he led a hundred thousand Latins to the conquest of Egypt; by him the siege of Damietta was achieved, and the subsequent failure was justly ascribed to the pride and avarice of the legate. After the marriage of his daughter with Frederick II, he was provoked by the emperor’s ingratitude to accept the command of the army of the church; and though advanced in life, and despoiled of royalty, the sword and spirit of Jean de Brienne were still ready for the service of Christendom.
In the seven years of his brother’s reign, Baldwin de Courtenai had not emerged from a state of childhood, and the barons of Romania felt the strong necessity of placing the sceptre in the hands of a man and a hero. The veteran king of Jerusalem might have disdained the name and office of regent; they agreed to invest him for life with the title and prerogatives of emperor, on the sole condition that Baldwin should marry his second daughter, and succeed at a mature age to the throne of Constantinople. The expectation, both of the Greeks and Latins, was kindled by the renown, the choice, and the presence of John de Brienne; and they admired his martial aspect, his green and vigorous age of more than fourscore years, and his size and stature, which surpassed the common measure of mankind.
But avarice and the love of ease appear to have chilled the love of enterprise; his troops were disbanded, and two years rolled away without action or honour, till he was awakened by the dangerous alliance of Vatatzes, emperor of Nicæa, and of Asan, king of Bulgaria. They besieged Constantinople by sea and land, with an army of one hundred thousand men, and a fleet of three hundred ships of war; while the entire force of the Latin emperor was reduced to 160 knights, and a small addition of sergeants and archers. Instead of defending the city, the hero made a sally at the head of his cavalry; and of forty-eight squadrons of the enemy, no more than three escaped from the edge of his invincible sword. Fired by his example, the infantry and the citizens boarded the vessels that anchored close to the walls; and twenty-five were dragged in triumph into the harbour of Constantinople. At the summons of the emperor, the vassals and allies armed in her defence, broke through every obstacle that opposed their passage; and, in the succeeding year, obtained a second victory over the same enemies. By the rude poets of the age, Jean de Brienne is compared to Hector, Roland, and Judas Maccabæus; but their credit and his glory receive some abatement from the silence of the Greeks. The empire was soon deprived of the last of her champions; and the dying monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit of a Franciscan friar (1237).