PETER OF

See also:

• COURTENAY
• COURTENAY, RICHARD (d. 1415)
• COURTENAY, WILLIAM (c. 1342—1396)

COURTENAY (d. 1219)  , emperor of Romania (or Constantinople), was a son of Peter of Courtenay (d . 1183), and a grandson of the French king, Louis VI . Having, by a first marriage, obtained the counties of Nevers and Auxerre, he took for his second wife, Yolande (d . 1219), a sister of Baldwin and Henry of Flanders, who were afterwards the first and second emperors of the Latin Empire of Constantinople . Peter accompanied his cousin, King Philip Augustus, on the crusade of 1190, fought against the Albigenses, and was present at the battle of Bouvines in 1214 . When his brother-in-law, the emperor Henry, died without sons in 1216, Peter was chosen as his successor, and with a small army set out from France to take possession of his throne . Consecrated emperor at Rome, in a church outside the walls, by Pope Honorius III. on the 9th of April 1217, he borrowed some ships from the Venetians, promising in return to conquer Durazzo for them; but he failed in this enterprise, and sought to make his way to Constantinople by land . On the journey he was seized by the despot of Epirus, Theodore Angelus, and, after an imprisonment of two years, died, probably by foul means . Peter thus never governed his empire, which, however, was ruled for a time by his wife, Yolande, who had succeeded in reaching Constantinople . Two of his sons, Robert and Baldwin, became in turn emperors of Constantinople .