General Notes

King of Jerusalem 1210-1212 ruled from Acre since Saracens had Jerusalem.[Burke's Peerage]

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John, byname JOHN OF BRIENNE, French JEAN DE BRIENNE (b. c. 1148--d.March 1237, Constantinople), count of Brienne who became titular king ofJerusalem (1210-29) and Latin emperor of Constantinople (1231-37).

A penniless younger son of the French count Erard II of Brienne and Agnesof Montbéliard, John passed most of his life as a minor noble untilbefriended by King Philip II Augustus of France, who arranged for him tomarry Mary (Marie) of Montferrat, queen of the crusader state ofJerusalem, in 1210. John reached the Palestinian town of Acre on Sept.13, 1210, married Mary the following day, and was crowned at Tyre onOctober 3. Mary died in 1212, and John was named regent for their infantdaughter, Yolande de Brienne, who inherited the crown as Isabella II. In1214 John married Princess Stephanie of Armenia, daughter of the Armenianking Leo II, and later had a son by her.

As regent, John arranged a five-year truce with al-Malik al-'Adil, sultanof Egypt and Syria, in July 1212, and during the truce he persuaded PopeInnocent III to launch the Fifth Crusade in support of his daughter'skingdom. In 1218 he joined the crusading force from the West in anexpedition against the Egyptian port of Damietta. After quarrelling withthe crusade leader, the cardinal legate Pelagius, John left Egypt inFebruary 1220, returning in July 1221 to witness the humiliating defeatof the crusaders and the abandonment of the siege of Damietta.

Stephanie died in 1219; John then married Berengaria, daughter ofFerdinand III of Castile, and in 1225 gave his daughter Isabella inmarriage to the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, trying to retain hisrights as regent of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Immediately following themarriage, however, Frederick began to contest these rights.

In 1228 John was invited to Constantinople to be regent and co-emperorwith the young Baldwin II and arranged a match between Baldwin and hisfour-year-old daughter by Berengaria. Crowned in 1231, John helped fendoff attacks by the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II and the Nicaean emperorJohn III Vatatzes, but shortly before his death he was forced to appealto the West for help. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]

He died 21 MAR 1236/37 in As a Franciscan Friar in Constantinople,Turkey.

Name Suffix:<NSFX> King of Jerusalem