This chapter begins, then, on a rather muted note, with the effective
extinction of the Ramerupt cadet branch–part of the human cost of
Louis IX’sfirst crusade. Indeed, one might say that the verve and risk-
taking of the notorious Erard I of Ramerupt had all been for nothing,
with the main line of his familyfizzling out in the next generation.
Across the Latin WestThe picture is very different when we turn to examine the heirs of John of
Brienne, king of Jerusalem and Latin emperor of Constantinople. All his
surviving children were products of his third marriage, to Berengaria of
Castile–that is, a daughter, Mary, and three sons, Alfonso, Louis and
John. The names of the two elder sons, in particular, are revealing: they
flaunt their intimate family relationship with the royal house of Castile,
and, by extension, with that of France. (It is worth adding that Alfonso,
Louis and John often bore the toponym‘of Acre’, since their father was
remembered, above all, for his rule there, but it is not a particularly
apposite label, since they were born well after his reign as king of Jerusa-
lem hadfinished.)^13 In the mid-1230s, in accordance with the terms of
the treaty of Perugia, Mary was wedded to her father’s ward, the future
Latin emperor Baldwin II. Since the bride was under-age, it is reasonable
to assume that the marriage was not consummated until some time later–
that is, when Baldwin returned from overseas. In 1236, as we have seen,
Baldwin had set off for the West to plead for aid for the tottering empire,
and his new brothers-in-law, who were‘very young’, went with him.^14
Thefirst stop could well have been at the curia, at which the young
Briennes were probably presented to their father’s old friend, Pope
Gregory IX.^15 The little party may then have wintered in Venice before
going on to the French royal court.^16 It is frequently observed that
Baldwin does not seem to have impressed the French queen mother,
Blanche of Castile. She is supposed to have found him‘childish in his
speech’, whereas the Latin empire needed the rule of a‘wise and vigorous
man’. However, these quotes come from the notoriously untrustworthy
(^13) See below,83, 111, for examples of this usage.
(^14) William of Nangis,Chronicon,inRHGF, xx, 550; and Perry,John, 164.
(^15) For the visit to the curia, seeibid., 164 n. 20.
(^16) SeeRegesta imperii, vol. v:Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II,
Heinrich (VII), Conrad IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard, compiled by J. F.
Böhmer, J. Ficker and E. Winkelmann (Innsbruck, 1881–1901), part 1, no. *2249;
and ‘Unbekannte Schreiben Kaiser Friedrichs II. und Konrads IV. in einer
Handschrift der Universitätsbibliothek Innsbruck’, ed. J. Riedmann, inDeutschen
Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters63 (2006), no. 179. I would like to thank
Professor Riedmann for drawing this point to my attention.
78 In the Pages of Joinville (c. 1237–1267)