Home > William II Villehardouin

William was the son of Geoffrey I Villehardouin. In 1236 he aided the Latin Empire against the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea, and was rewarded with the overlordship of the Venetian Duchy of the Archipelago and other Venetian territories in the Aegean Sea. He came to power in Achaea in 1246 when his brother of Geoffrey II Villehardouin died.

As prince he conquered the remaining territory of the Peloponnese (known at the time as Morea) and built the fortress of Mistra near Sparta. In 1249Events University, the first College at Oxford founded Births Emperor Kameyama of Japan Pope John XXII Deaths July 6 Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1198) Monarchs/Presidents Aragon James I King of Aragon and count of Barcelona (reigned from 1213 to 1276) Ca he captured Monemvasia with help from his EuboeaEuboea or Negropont is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. It is separated from the mainland of Greece by the Euboic Sea. In general outline it is long and narrow; it is about 90 miles long, and varies in breadth from 30 miles to 4. Its general dn vassals, and later that year accompanied Louis IX of FranceEl Greco in the 16th Century. King Louis IX of France or Saint Louis ( April 25, 1214/ 1215 August 25, 1270) was King of France from 1226 to 1270. A member of the Capetian dynasty, he was born at Poissy, France, the son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of C on the Seventh CrusadeThe Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. In 1244 the Khwarezmians retook Jerusalem, after the end of a 10-year truce following the Sixth Crusade. The fall of Jerusalem, no longer an earth-shattering event to European, joining him in CyprusCyprus (in Greek Kypros Κυπρος; and in Turkish Kibris is an island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, 113 kilometres (70 miles) south of Turkey and around 120 km west of Syrian coast. Name and position The English-langua with 400 knights and 28 ships. Louis also gave him a license to mintA mint is a facility which manufactures coins for currency. On the whole the history of mints correlates very closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is normally related in a fashion that more closely ties to the coins in the style of royal French money.

Under William's rule the Duchy of the Archipelago, the Duchy of AthensThe Duchy of Athens was one of the Crusader States set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade. The first duke of Athens (as well as Thebes, at first) was Otto de la Roche, a minor Burgundian knight of the Fourth, and the Venetian lords of Euboea recognized him as their lord. In 1255 his Venetian second wife Carintana dalle Carceri died, leading to a dispute over the inheritance of a fief in Euboea, and war broke out between Venice and Achaea (the Guerre des terciers de l'Eubée, the "War of the Terciers of Euboea," terciers being the three Venetian lords of the island). William won the war and also defeated the Duke of Athens in 1258, reaffirming his influence over the duchy.

In 1259 he married Anna Comnena Ducaina, daughter of Michael II of Epirus, forming an alliance with the Byzantine Despotate of Epirus against Nicaea, an alliance which also included Manfred of Sicily. In September of that year he led the Achaean forces at the Battle of Pelagonia against the Nicaeans, but the Epirote army deserted and William was defeated. He fled the field and hid under a haystack, where he was captured and brought to Nicaea. He remained in captivity until 1262, and was forced to hand over Monemvasia and Mistra to the Byzantine Empire, which had been restored in Constantinople the previous year.

William had now lost all of his previous power, as had his former lord, Baldwin II of Constantinople, whose Latin Empire was destroyed with the Byzantine restoration. William and Baldwin both acknowledged Charles of Anjou as lord of Achaea under the Treaty of Viterbo in 1267; Charles had earlier defeated and killed William's old ally Manfred. As a vassal of Charles, William and 400 Achaean knights fought against Conradin at the Battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268.

William and Anna had two daughters, Isabelle and Margaret; Isabelle, the elder daughter, married into Charles' family. Charles personally succeeded William in 1278, ending the Villehardouin dynasty and setting up Angevin rule, with the principality governed essentially as a province of the Kingdom of Naples. With the decreasing power and influence of Achaea, the Duchy of Athens became the most powerful state in Greece.

William was also noted as a poet and troubador, and the Manuscrit du Roi, containing two of his own compositions, was written in Achaea during his reign. He was also fluent in Greek in addition to his native French.