The Lure of ConstantinopleThe‘Erard of Brienne affair’was fresh in the mind–indeed, it cast
something of a shadow–when King John headed back to the West in late
- The king’s chief goal was tofind a future husband for his daughter,
the heiress Isabella, who was now about ten years old. A great conference
was held with the pope, the Emperor Frederick and various others at
Ferentino, near Anagni, in March 1223. There it was concluded that, in
due course, the emperor himself would wed Isabella, although it was
specifically agreed that he‘would leave [John] the kingdom of Jerusalem
all of his life’.^149
With his own and his daughter’s future secure, John went on to his old
homeland, north-eastern France, where he had not set foot for more than
a decade, and he made it his base for the rest of the tour period. It is
reasonable to suppose that he would have found the time to revisit
Champagne, and especially the county of Brienne itself–and we know
that he was soon involved as a mediator in that part of the world.^150 John
seems to have returned to the French royal court just before the death of
the old king, Philip Augustus. John was certainly present at Philip’s
funeral, which was held at Saint-Denis on 14 July 1223. Philip left the
king of Jerusalem a bequest in his will, which later became a significant
bone of contention.^151 John attended the coronation of Philip’s heir,
Louis VIII, before crossing over to England. It cannot be said that John’s
brief foray across the Channel was a great success. Nevertheless, it is of
considerable interest in any case, as the one and only visit to England by a
king of Jerusalem during the actual lifetime of the realm in the Latin
East.^152 John then went on to the Iberian peninsula, where he married
Berengaria of Castile, sister of King Ferdinand III. From the Briennes’
own point of view, this was the crucial development of the tour period.
It established them as close kin, not just to the ruling houses of Spain
but also, and much more importantly, to the French crown too, since
Berengaria’s mother and the new queen of France, Blanche, were sisters.
(SeeGenealogy 5.) Finally, John embarked on a short trip around the
Rhineland before returning to Italy. A daughter (Mary?) was born just
inside the borders of Frederick’s kingdom of Sicily. It was rapidly becom-
ing clear that the emperor would not be able to go on crusade according
to the timetable agreed at Ferentino. The upshot was the San Germano
(^149) ‘Colbert-Fontainebleau’, 358; see also Perry,John, 123–4.
(^150) Ibid., 128–9, and Appendix 1, nos. 8 and 11. (^151) Ibid., 127–8.
(^152) For a reassessment of this subject, see my‘A King of Jerusalem in England: John of
Brienne’s Visit in 1223’History100, no. 343 (2015), 627–39.
The Lure of Constantinople 65