See also

Family of Jean + and Stephanie of ARMENIA

Husband: Jean + (1155-1237)
Wife: Stephanie of ARMENIA (1195-1220)

Husband: Jean +

Name: Jean +
Sex: Male
Father: Evrard II + (1150-1191)
Mother: Agnes + of NEVERS (1150-1192)
Birth 1155 Acre, Hafazon, Palestine
Occupation Count of Brienne
Title Count of Brienne
Death 27 Mar 1237 (age 81-82) Constantinople, Turkey

Wife: Stephanie of ARMENIA

Name: Stephanie of ARMENIA
Sex: Female
Father: Leo I (1150-1219)
Mother: Isabelle (c. 1155- )
Birth 1195
Death 1220 (age 24-25)

Note on Husband: Jean +

John of Brienne (c. 1155 – 27 March 1237) was a French nobleman who became King of Jerusalem by marriage, and ruled the Latin Empire of Constantinople as regent.

 

Jean de Candia-Nevers was the second son of Erard II, count of Brienne, in Champagne, and of Agnes de Montfaucon. Destined originally for a clerical career, he had preferred to become a knight, and in forty years of tournaments and fights he had won himself a considerable reputation, when in 1208 envoys came from the Holy Land to ask Philip Augustus, king of France, to select one of his barons as husband to the heiress and ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Philip selected John of Brienne, and promised to support him in his new dignity. In 1210, John married the heiress (Mary) Maria (daughter of Isabella and Conrad of Montferrat), assuming the title of king in right of his wife. In 1211, after some desultory operations, he concluded a five years' truce with Malik-el-Adil; in 1212 he lost his wife, who left him a daughter, Yolande (also known as Isabella); soon afterwards he married the princess Stephanie, daughter of Leo II of Armenia.

 

 

Coat of arms of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.During the Fifth Crusade (1218–1221) he was a prominent figure. The legate Pelagius of Albano, however, claimed the command; and insisting on the advance from Damietta, in spite of John's warnings, he refused to accept the favourable terms of the sultan, as the king advised, until it was too late. After the failure of the crusade, King John came to the West to obtain help for his kingdom. In 1223 he met Pope Honorius III and the emperor Frederick II at Ferentino, where, in order that he might be connected more closely with the Holy Land, Frederick was betrothed to John's daughter Isabella, now heiress of the kingdom. After the meeting at Ferentino, John went to France and England, finding little consolation; and thence he travelled to Santiago de Compostela, where King Alfonso IX of Leon offered him the hand of one of his daughters and the promise of his kingdom. John passed over Alfonso's eldest daughter and heiress in favor of a younger daughter, Berenguela of Leon. After a visit to Germany he returned to Rome (1225). Here he received a demand from Frederick II (who had now married Isabella) that he should abandon his title and dignity of king, which, so Frederick claimed, had passed to himself along with the heiress of the kingdom. John, though fifty or fifty-five years of age, was still vigorous enough to avenge himself on Frederick, by commanding the papal troops which attacked southern Italy during the emperor's absence on the Sixth Crusade (1228–1229).

 

In 1229, John was invited by the barons of the Latin Empire of Constantinople to become emperor-regent, on condition that Baldwin of Courtenay should marry his second daughter and succeed him. For nine years he ruled in Constantinople, and in 1235, with a few troops, he repelled a great siege of the city by John III Doukas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea, and Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, killing around 10,000 of the enemy single-handedly at the age of eighty.[1]

 

After this last feat of arms, which has perhaps been exaggerated by the Latin chroniclers, who compare him to Hector, Roland and the Maccabees, John died in the habit of a Franciscan friar. An aged paladin, he was around 80 years old, somewhat uxorious and always penniless, he was a typical knight errant, whose wanderings led him all over Europe, and planted him successively on the thrones of Jerusalem and Constantinople.

 

Marriages and issueJohn of Brienne married three times. By his first wife, Marie of Montferrat, he had one child, Yolande, later Queen of Jerusalem. He had also one child by his second wife, Stephanie of Armenia, a son named as successor in Armenia, but died in childhood. By his third wife, Berenguela of Leon, he had four children:

 

Marie of Brienne (1225–1275), who married Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople.

Alphonso of Brienne (c. 1228–1270), who married Marie d'Issoudon, countess of Eu, and became count of Eu in right of his wife, and was also Great Chamberlain of France.

Jean (John) de Brienne (c. 1230–1296), who in 1258 became Grand Butler of France. Married as his first wife, Jeanne, daughter of Geoffrey VI, Viscount of Chateaudun, and as his second wife, Marie de Coucy, widow of King Alexander II of Scotland. Had one daughter, Blanche by his first marriage.

Louis of Acre (c. 1235–1263), who married Agnes of Beaumont and became Viscount of Beaumont in her right. His children included Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan, an ancestor of England's Royal House of Lancaster.

Note on Wife: Stephanie of ARMENIA

Stephanie of Armenia (after 1195 – June 1220), also known as Rita, was the only child of Leo I, King of Armenia by his first wife Isabelle, whose origins are uncertain.[1] She was a member of the Rubenid dynasty.

 

[edit] Early Life and FamilyStephanie was brought up by her paternal grandmother Rita of Barbaron.[2] Stephanie was around ten years old when her mother died, who had not born Leo any more children after Stephanie.

 

Stephanie's maternal family is disputed. It is believe that Stephanie's mother was a niece of Sybille, wife of Bohemond III of Antioch.[3] Others [4] believe that her mother was of Austrian and German origins.

 

Stephanie's paternal grandparents were Stephen of Armenia and the previously mentioned Rita. Stephen was son of Leo I, Prince of Armenia.

 

Around 1210 Stephanie's father remarried to Sibylla, daughter of Isabella I of Jerusalem. From this marriage Stephanie gained a half-sister, Isabelle.

 

[edit] Later lifeIn April 1214, Stephanie married John of Brienne. John had only recently lost his first wife Mary of Jerusalem, who was a sister of Stephanie's stepmother Sibylla. Stephanie became stepmother to John's daughter who later became Isabella II of Jerusalem. Stephanie herself gave birth in 1216 to a son named John.[5]

 

In May, 1219 Stephanie's father died. He had made the barons swear an oath of allegiance to his great-nephew Raymond-Roupen, who became his heir. However on his death bed King Leo changed the succession. He made his daughter Isabelle [6] his heir and released the barons from their oath of allegiance. Stephanie was still alive at the time and would have had more right because she was the older daughter. Also, Stephanie had her son John.

 

Stephanie's husband, John pressed the claim on behalf of his wife.[7] Raymond-Roupen also pressed his claim on the throne.

 

John left the Fifth Crusade in February 1220 intending to visit Armenia to press Stephanie's and their son's claim. However, in June 1220 Stephanie died followed not long after by her four-year old son. John of Brienne had no longer a claim on the throne of Armenia.[8][9]

 

Raymond-Roupen was captured and ended his days in prison in 1222. This left Isabelle as the sole heir of Armenia. She ruled from 1219–1252 and was succeeded by her son Leo II, King of Armenia.