Yolanda, Latin Empress

Yolanda of Flanders
Born	1175
Died	1219 (aged 43–44)
Noble family	Flanders
Spouse(s)	Peter II of Courtenay
Father	Baldwin V, Count of Hainault
Mother	Margaret I of Flanders

Yolanda of Flanders (Yolande de Hainault; 1175 – August 1219) ruled the Latin Empire in Constantinople for her son Philip of Namur from 1217 to 1219 after her husband Peter of Courtenay was captured and imprisoned before he could reach Constantinople.

Biography

Yolanda was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainault, and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Two of her brothers, Baldwin I and then Henry, were emperors in Constantinople. After the death of the latter in 1216 there was a brief period without an emperor, before Peter was elected. Peter sent Yolanda to Constantinople while he fought the Despotate of Epirus, during which he was captured. Because his fate was unknown (although he was probably killed), Yolanda ruled as regent. She allied with the Bulgarians against the various Byzantine successor states, and was able to make peace with Theodore I Lascaris of the Empire of Nicaea, who married her daughter. However, she soon died, in 1219.

Family and legacy

Following Yolanda's death, her second son, Robert of Courtenay, became emperor because her oldest son, Philip, did not want the throne. As Robert was still in France at the time, there was technically no emperor until he arrived in 1221.

Yolanda was, in her own right, Marchioness of Namur, which she inherited from her brother, Marquis Philip I, in 1212 and left to her eldest son, Marquis Philip II, when she went to Constantinople in 1216.

By Peter of Courtenay she had 10 children:

• Philip (d. 1226), Marquis of Namur, who declined the offer of the crown of the Latin Empire
• Robert of Courtenay (d. 1228), Latin Emperor
• Henry (d. 1229), Marquis of Namur
• Baldwin II of Constantinople (d. 1273)
• Margaret, Marchioness of Namur, who married first Raoul d'Issoudun and then Henry count of Vianden
• Elizabeth, who married Walter count of Bar and then Eudes sire of Montagu
• Yolanda de Courtenay, who married Andrew II of Hungary
• Eleanor, who married Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre
• Marie de Courtenay, who married Theodore I Lascaris of the Empire of Nicaea
• Agnes, who married Geoffrey II Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea

References

Family of Yolanda, Latin Empress

16. Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut 8. Baldwin III, Count of Hainaut 17. Ida of Leuven 4. Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut 18. Gerhard Flaminius de Wassenberg 9. Yolanda of Wassenberg 19. Clemence of Poitou 2. Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut 20. Albert III, Count of Namur 10. Godfrey I, Count of Namur 21. Ida of Saxony 5. Alice of Namur 22. Conrad I, Count of Luxembourg 11. Ermesinda of Luxembourg 23. Clementia of Aquitaine 1. Yolanda of Flanders 24. Gerard, Duke of Lorraine 12. Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine 25. Hedwige de Namur 6. Thierry, Count of Flanders 26. Robert I, Count of Flanders 13. Gertrude of Flanders 27. Gertrude of Saxony 3. Margaret I, Countess of Flanders 28. Fulk IV, Count of Anjou 14. Fulk V of Anjou 29. Bertrade de Montfort 7. Sibylla of Anjou 30. Elias I, Count of Maine 15. Ermengarde, Countess of Maine 31. Mathilda of Château-du-Loire