John of Brienne, 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.
Coronation of John and his first wife, Maria (from a 13th-century miniature)
Frisian crusaders attack a tower near Damietta during the Fifth Crusade (from Matthew Paris' 13th-century Chronica Majora).
Seal of John's second daughter, Marie, Latin Empress; John was senior co-emperor of her husband, Baldwin II.
The king or queen of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099. Most of them were men, but there were also five queens regnant of Jerusalem, either reigning alone suo jure, or as co-rulers of husbands who reigned as kings of Jerusalem jure uxoris.
Silver coin: 10 Paoli Francesco III of Tuscany, 1747. On the front of the coin is the Latin phrase: "FRANCISCVS·D·G·R·I·S·A·G·H·REX·LOT·BAR·M·D·ETR" (François I, By the Grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, Always Augustus, King of Germany and Jerusalem, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, Grand Duke of Tuscany)
The death of Fulk, as depicted in MS of William of Tyre's Historia and Old French Continuation, painted in Acre, 13C. Bib. Nat. Française.
The marriage of Amalric I of Jerusalem and Maria Comnena at Tyre
Image: Godfroy
