Baldwin I, Latin Emperor
Baldwin I was the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. As Count of Flanders and Hainaut, he was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the sack of Constantinople and the conquest of large parts of the Byzantine Empire, the foundation of the Latin Empire, he lost his final battle to Kaloyan, the emperor of Bulgaria, spent his last days as his prisoner. Baldwin was the son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, Margaret I, Countess of Flanders; when the childless Flemish count Philip of Alsace left on the last of his personal crusades in 1177, he designated his brother-in-law Baldwin his heir. When Philip returned in 1179 after an unsuccessful siege of Harim during a joint campaign on behalf of the Principality of Antioch, he was designated as the chief adviser of prince Philip II Augustus by his sickly father Louis VII of France. One year Philip of Alsace had his protégé married to his niece, Isabelle of Hainaut, offering the County of Artois and other Flemish territories as dowry, much to the dismay of Baldwin V.
In 1180, war broke out between Philip II and his mentor, resulting in the devastation of Picardy and Île-de-France. Count Philip's wife Elisabeth died in 1183, Philip Augustus seized the province of Vermandois on behalf of Elisabeth's sister, Eleonore. Philip remarried, to Matilda of Portugal. Philip gave Matilda a dower of a number of major Flemish towns, in an apparent slight to Baldwin V. Fearing that he would be surrounded by the royal domain of France and the County of Hainaut, Count Philip signed a peace treaty with Philip Augustus and Count Baldwin V on 10 March 1186, recognizing the cession of Vermandois to the king, although he was allowed to retain the title Count of Vermandois for the remainder of his life. Philip died without further issue of disease on the Third Crusade at the siege of Acre in 1191, he was succeeded in Flanders by Baldwin V of Hainaut, although the two had been on uncordial terms since the 1186 treaty. Baldwin V thereupon ruled as Baldwin VIII of Flanders by right of marriage.
When Countess Margaret I died in 1194, Flanders descended to her eldest son Baldwin, who ruled as Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders. In 1186, the younger Baldwin had married Marie, daughter of Henry I, Count of Champagne, Marie of France; the chronicler Gislebert describes Baldwin as being infatuated with his young bride, who preferred prayer to the marital bed. After this arrangement, the count of Hainaut's son Baldwin, thirteen years old, received as wife Marie, the count of Champagne's sister, twelve years old, at Château-Thierry; this Marie began sufficiently young to devote herself to divine obedience in prayers, vigils and alms. Her husband Baldwin, a young knight, by chaste living, scorning all other women, began to love her alone with a fervent love, found in any man, so that he devoted himself to his sole wife only and was content with her alone; the solemn rejoicing of the wedding was celebrated at Valenciennes with an abundance of knights and ladies and men of whatever status. Through Marie, Baldwin had additional connections and obligations to the defenders of the Holy Land: her brother Henry II of Champagne had been King of Jerusalem in the 1190s.
Marie's uncles Richard I of England and Philip II of France had just been on the Third Crusade. Baldwin's own family had been involved in the defence of Jerusalem: his uncle Philip had died on Crusade. Baldwin's maternal grandmother was great-aunt of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and the Counts of Flanders had tried to help Jerusalem relatives in their struggle. Baldwin wanted to continue the tradition. Margaret died in 1194, the younger Baldwin became Count of Flanders, his father died the next year, he succeeded to Hainaut. Baldwin took possession of a much-reduced Flanders, lessened by the large chunk, including Artois, given by Philip of Alsace as dowry to Baldwin's sister Isabelle of Hainaut, another significant piece to his own wife. Isabelle had died in 1190, but King Philip still retained her dowry, on behalf of Isabelle's son, the future Louis VIII of France; the eight years of Baldwin's rule in Flanders were dominated by his attempts to recover some of this land. After Philip II of France took Baldwin's brother, Philippe of Namur, Baldwin was forced to agree to a truce to ensure his safety.
The Treaty of Péronne was signed in January 1200 on the condition that Baldwin receive the territories he had won during the war. Baldwin was made the vassal of Philip II, the king returned portions of Artois to Baldwin. In this fight against the French king, Baldwin allied with others who had quarrels with Philip, including kings Richard I and John of England, the German King Otto IV. A month after the treaty, on Ash Wednesday 1200 in the town of Bruges, Baldwin took the cross, meaning he committed to embark on a crusade, he spent the next two years preparing leaving on 14 April 1202. As part of his effort to leave his domains in good order, Baldwin issued two notable charters for Hainaut. One detailed an extensive criminal code, appears to be based on a now-lost charter of his father; the other laid down specific rules for inheritance. These are an important part of the legal tradition in Belgium. Baldwin left behind his pregnant wife, Countess Marie. Marie was regent for Baldwin for the two years she remained in Flanders and
Hyperpyron
The hyperpyron was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the solidus as the Byzantine Empire's gold coinage. The traditional gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the solidus or nomisma, whose gold content had remained steady at 24 carats for seven centuries and was highly prized. From the 1030s, the coin was debased, until in the 1080s, following the military disasters and civil wars of the previous decade, its gold content was reduced to zero. In 1092, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos undertook a drastic overhaul of the Byzantine coinage system and introduced a new gold coin, the hyperpyron; this was of the same standard weight as the solidus, but of less gold content due to the recycling of earlier debased coins. The hyperpyron remained the standard gold coin until gold coins ceased to be minted by the Byzantines in the mid-14th century, it too, was subject to gradual debasement: under the Empire of Nicaea, its gold content fell to 18 carats, under Michael VIII Palaiologos to 15 and under his son and successor Andronikos II Palaiologos to 12 carats.
At the same time, the quality of the coins declined as well, in the 14th century, their weight was far from uniform. The last hyperpyra, thus the last Byzantine gold coins, were struck by Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos; the name remained in use thereafter as a money of account, divided into 24 keratia. The name was adopted in various forms by Western Europeans and the Slavic countries of the Balkans designating various coins silver, as well as moneys of account. More in the West the hyperpyron was called the bezant among Italian merchants. In the early Komnenian period, the hyperpyron was the equivalent of three electrum trachea, 48 billon trachea or 864 copper tetartera, although with the debasement of the trachea it came to rate 12 electrum trachea and 288 to 384 billon trachea. In the 14th century, the hyperpyron equalled 12 of the new silver basilika, 96 tournesia, 384 copper trachea and 768 copper assaria. Medieval Bulgarian coinage Ragusan perpera Serbian perper Grierson, Philip. Byzantine Coinage.
Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-274-9. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed.. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. Grierson, Philip. Byzantine Coins. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-416-71360-2. Hendy, Michael F.. The Economy, Fiscal Administration and Coinage of Byzantium. London: Variorum Reprints. ISBN 0-86078-253-0. Hendy, Michael F.. Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c. 300–1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-24715-2
House of Capet
The House of Capet or the Direct Capetians and called the House of France, or the Capets, ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. Historians in the 19th century came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. Contemporaries did not use the name "Capetian"; the Capets were sometimes called "the third race of kings". The name "Capet" derives from the nickname given to Hugh, the first Capetian King, who became known as Hugh Capet; the direct line of the House of Capet came to an end in 1328, when the three sons of Philip IV all failed to produce surviving male heirs to the French throne. With the death of Charles IV, the throne passed to the House of Valois, descended from a younger brother of Philip IV. Royal power would pass to another Capetian branch, the House of Bourbon, descended from the youngest son of Louis IX, to a Bourbon cadet branch, the House of Orléans, always remaining in the hands of agnatic descendants of Hugh Capet.
The first Capetian monarch was Hugh Capet, a Frankish nobleman from the Île-de-France, following the death of Louis V of France – the last Carolingian King – secured the throne of France by election. He proceeded to make it hereditary in his family, by securing the election and coronation of his son, Robert II, as co-King; the throne thus passed securely to Robert on his father's death, who followed the same custom – as did many of his early successors. The Capetian Kings were weak rulers of the Kingdom – they directly ruled only small holdings in the Île-de-France and the Orléanais, all of which were plagued with disorder; the House of Capet was, fortunate enough to have the support of the Church, – with the exception of Philip I, Louis IX and the short-lived John the Posthumous – were able to avoid the problems of underaged kingship. Under Louis VII'the Young', the House of Capet rose in their power in France – Louis married Aliénor, the heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine, so became Duke – an advantage, eagerly grasped by Louis VI'the Fat', Louis the Young's father, when Aliénor's father had asked of the King in his Will to secure a good marriage for the young Duchess.
However, the marriage – and thus one avenue of Capetian aggrandisement – failed: the couple produced only two daughters, suffered marital discord. Louis VIII – the eldest son and heir of Philip Augustus – married Blanche of Castile, a granddaughter of Aliénor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England. In her name, he claimed the crown of England, invading at the invitation of the English Barons, being acclaimed – though, it would be stressed, not crowned – as King of England. However, the Capetians failed to establish themselves in England – Louis was forced to sign the Treaty of Lambeth, which decreed that he had never been King of England, the Prince reluctantly returned to his wife and father in France. More for his dynasty, he would during his brief reign conquer Poitou, some of the lands of the Pays d'Oc, declared forfeit from their former owners by the Pope as part of the Albigensian Crusade; these lands were added to the French crown. Louis IX – Saint Louis – succeeded Louis VIII as a child.
She had been chosen by her grandmother, Aliénor, to marry the French heir, considered a more suitable a Queen of the Franks than her sister Urraca. Louis, proved a acclaimed King – though he expended much money and effort on the Crusades, only for it to go to waste, as a King of the Franks he was admired for his austerity, bravery and his devotion to France. Dynastically, he established two notable Capetian Houses: the House of Anjou, the House of Bourbon. At the death of Louis IX (who shortl
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture; the innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttress, the enormous and colorful rose windows, the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration all set it apart from earlier Romanesque architecture. The cathedral was begun in 1160 and completed by 1260, though it was modified in the following centuries. In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. Soon after the publication of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, popular interest in the building revived. A major restoration project supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began in 1845 and continued for twenty-five years. Beginning in 1963, the facade of the Cathedral was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime, returning it to its original color.
Another campaign of cleaning and restoration was carried out from 1991-2000. As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra of the Archbishop of Paris. 12 million people visit Notre-Dame yearly. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris was built on a site which in Roman Lutetia is believed to have been occupied by a pagan temple, thence by a Romanesque church, the Basilica of Saint Étienne, built between the 4th century and 7th century; the basilica was situated about 40 meters west of the cathedral and was wider and lower and half its size. King Louis VII of France wanted to build monuments to show that Paris was the political and cultural capital of France. In this context, Maurice de Sully, elevated Bishop in 1160, had the old basilica torn down to its foundations, began to build a larger and taller cathedral; the cornerstone was laid in 1163 in the presence of Pope Alexander III. The design followed the traditional plan, with the ambulatory and choir, where the altar was located, to the east, the entrance, facing the setting sun, to the west.
By long tradition, the choir, where the altar was located, was constructed first, so that the church could be consecrated and used long before it was completed. The original plan was for a long nave, four levels high, with no transept; the flying buttress was not yet in use, so the walls were thick and reinforced by solid stone abutments placed against them on the outside, by chapels placed between the abutments. The roof of the nave was constructed with a new technology, the rib vault, which had earlier been used in the Basilica of Saint Denis; the roof of the nave was supported by crossed ribs. The pointed arches were stronger than the earlier Romanesque arches, carried the weight of the roof outwards and downwards to rows of pillars, out to the abutments against the walls. Construction of the choir took from 1163 until around 1177; the High Altar was consecrated in 1182. Between 1182 and 1190 the first three traverses of the nave were built up to the level of tribunes. Beginning in 1190, the bases of the facade were put in place, the first traverses were completed.
The decision was made to add a transept at the choir, where the altar was located, in order to bring more light into the center of the church. The use of simpler four-part rather than six-part rib vaults meant that the roofs were stronger and could be higher. After Bishop Maurice de Sully's death in 1196, his successor, Eudes de Sully oversaw the completion of the transepts, continued work on the nave, nearing completion at the time of his own death in 1208. By this time, the western facade was largely built, though it was not completed until around the mid-1240s. Between 1225 and 1250 the upper gallery of the nave was constructed, along with the two towers on the west facade. Another significant change came in the mid 13th century, when the transepts were remodeled in the latest Rayonnant style. Shortly afterwards Pierre de Montreuil executed a similar scheme on the southern transept. Both these transept portals were richly embellished with sculpture. An important innovation in the 13th century was the introduction of the flying buttress.
Before the buttresses, all of the weight of the roof pressed outward and down to the walls, the abutments supporting them. With the flying buttress, the weight was carried by the ribs of the vault outside the structure to a series of counter-supports, which were topped with stone pinnacles which gave them greater weight; the buttresses meant that the walls could be higher and thinner, could have much larger windows. The date of the first buttresses is not known with any precision; the first buttresses were replaced by stronger ones in the 14th century. 1160 Maurice de Sully orders the original cathedral demolished. 1163 Cornerstone laid for Notre-Dame de Paris. 1182 Apse and choir completed. 1196 Bishop Maurice de Sully dies. C.1
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for "dynasty" may include "family" and "clan", among others; the longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", which may be styled as "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" etc. depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of numerous nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties; as such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, to describe events and artifacts of that period. The word "dynasty" itself is dropped from such adjectival references; until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.
Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter established a new dynasty in her husband's ruling house; this has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant; the earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother's dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
Less a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession. Not all feudal states or monarchies were/are ruled by dynasties. Throughout history, there were monarchs. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; the word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team; the word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to "power", "dominion", "rule" itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, "power" or "ability", from dýnamai, "to be able". A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a "dynast", but this term is used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne.
For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication. In historical and monarchist references to reigning families, a "dynast" is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy's rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Duke Maximilian was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position; the term "dynast" is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles. He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain's Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who
Philippe de Toucy
Philippe de Toucy was a French Crusader nobleman. He was the son of Narjot de Toucy, a senior lord of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, a daughter of the Byzantine lord Theodore Branas and Agnes of France, Byzantine empress-dowager and a daughter of Louis VII of France. Like his father before him, Philippe served as regent of the Latin Empire during the absence of Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople to Western Europe in 1243–48. Following the recapture of Constantinople by the Greek Empire of Nicaea in 1261, Philippe fled to France, where he joined the entourage of Charles of Anjou. From his marriage to Portia de Roye, he had two sons: Narjot de Toucy Othon de Toucy Jean Longnon, "Les Toucy en Orient et en Italie au XIIIe siècle" in Bulletin de La Société des Sciences Historiques et Naturelles de l'Yonne Medieval Lands Project
Latin Emperor
The Latin Emperor was the ruler of the Latin Empire, the historiographical convention for the Crusader realm, established in Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade and lasting until the city was recovered by the Byzantine Greeks in 1261. Its name derives from its Western European nature; the empire, whose official name was Imperium Romaniae, claimed the direct heritage of the Eastern Roman Empire, which had most of its lands taken and partitioned by the crusaders. This claim however was disputed by the Byzantine Greek successor states, the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus. Out of these three, the Nicaeans succeeded in displacing the Latin emperors in 1261 and restored the Byzantine Empire. Baldwin II, in exile from Constantinople Philip I, his son Catherine I, his daughter, with... Charles, her husband Catherine II, their daughter, with... Philip II, her husband Robert II, their son Philip III, his brother James, his nephewJames of Baux willed his titular claims to Duke Louis I of Anjou claimant to the throne of Naples, but Louis and his descendants never used the title.
List of Latin empresses List of Roman emperors List of Byzantine emperors
Bury, John Bagnell (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 245.
