As The Komnenoi World Turns, S3 E1
As 1198 rolled around, the marriage of Alexios III's daughter Eudokia was crumbling into sad ruins. She had been married to Stefan Nemanjić, the heir of the kingdom of Serbia, for several years, and had given him several young children. Eudokia was fed up with her husband, and accused him of being drunk from morning until night and fucking anything that would hold still long enough. Stefan Nemanjić fired back by calling her a jizz-hungry cockslut, stripped her of her royal robes, and threw her out of the castle in her undergarments. Eudokia managed to take refuge at the court of her brother-in-law, Vukan, who was sympathetic to her and sent her back safely to Constantinople and the arms of her family.
Her parents had recently weathered a storm in their marriage. Although it was Alexios III who wore the crown, it was clearly Euphrosyne who ruled, and everyone knew it. Soon, the courtiers gossiped she had taken a lover, a young Vatatzes whom Niketas deigns to identify beyond his surname, and rumors flew that she planned to get rid of her husband and put this young stud on the throne. When Alexios III learned of this, he straightaway sent his bodyguard, Bastralites, to dismember this Vatatzes "like a fatted calf". Bastralites brought this young man's head back to the emperor in a sack, and Alexios III amused himself by kicking the head about like a ball and addressing it "in terms wholly unfit to be included in this history".
Finding himself unable to defeat Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III decided to pacify this brigand the only way he knew how: send him one of his female relatives to bang. To that end, Alexios III selected Manuel Kamytzes' daughter and forced her to divorce her husband. He then sent this poor woman to Dobromir Chrysos, who became furious at his wedding when his Kamytzaina wife refused to get as drunk as him.
As for Ivanko, he'd been given a small army and an outpost in 'exotic' (ie lawless) Philippopolis, where he'd proven successful in beating the crap out of Vlakh raiders. The fact that he was a former Vlakh raider himself and therefore knew all their tricks probably helped a lot. Perhaps he was plotting against Alexios III, or perhaps some influential people were jealous of his rise to power, for Alexios III was warned not to trust him. Manuel Kamytzes was dispatched to deal with him. Ivanko laid a trap for the Greek army: he placed a herd of cattle and a group of captives in the Byzantines' path, and just as planned, the Byzantines pounced on them. While busy with their booty, Ivanko's men lept in ambush, kicking their asses far and wide, and capturing Manuel Kamytzes himself. Ivanko sent Kamytzes to Kaloyan, now ruling Bulgaria, as a peace-offering.
Ivanko began ravaging Byzantine lands, taking city after city. He captured so much wealth, wine, and captives that Niketas tells us that for amusement, he would get drunk and watch Byzantine captives be torn limb-from-limb in front of him. This was the man Alexios III had entrusted with his granddaughter, Theodora.
Alexios III requested a meeting. Ivanko, stupidly, didn't ask to exchange hostages, and simply showed up, at which point he was arrested and executed by Alexios' guards. His widow, Theodora, who had not even reached double digits, was returned to her nursery in Constantinople.
Meanwhile, in faraway France, a pair of twenty-something nobles named Thibaut III, count of Champagne and Louis I, count of Blois, deeply felt the pope's call for a Crusade. Thibaut and Louis were double-first cousins 1, of the very highest birth, and inheritors of a great Crusading legacy. Their mutual grandparents, Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine, had been leaders of the Second Crusade. Their mutual uncles, Richard I of England (who had recently died) and Philippe II of France had gone on the Third Crusade together 2. Louis' father had died at the Siege of Acre in 1191. Thibaut's elder brother, Henri, had been king of Jerusalem for a time before dying in 1197 in a most bizarre manner 3. Thibaut hosted a tournament at his castle at Ecry, and there, amidst the pageantry and high spirits, he and Louis announced their intention to take the cross and lead armies to liberate the Holy Land.
Many other notable young men were inspired to take the cross as well. Among them were Count Hugh de St. Pol, a veteran Crusader; Count Geoffrey of Perche and his brother Etienne; and Simon de Montfort, a handsome and fanatically religious young man 4. But by far the most important was Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainaut. Twenty-eight years old, incredibly powerful, very religious, Baldwin was the husband of Thibaut's sister, Marie, and passionately devoted to her. He was joined by his brothers, Hendrik (Henry) and Eustace.
Kaloyan, the last surviving brother of Ivan Asen and Teodor-Kalopeter, was all a-fire to kill the hell out of some Greeks. Having spent his youth as a "guest" at Isaakios II's court, he had by hook or crook escaped and returned to his homeland only to see his brothers die horribly. Basically, the world was a giant bitch to Kaloyan and he determined to be a bastard right back. He sent some of his Bulgar and Vlakh berserkers to tear apart several Byzantine cities, and "driven by bloodthirsty demons", he buried his captives alive in pits.
Long ago, the Byzantine emperor Basileios II had adopted the title Boulgaroktonos, Bulgar-slayer. Kaloyan adapted this into Romanoktonos, Roman-slayer. The Greeks warped his name into Skyloyan, Dog John.
Oh how the tables had turned! Manuel Kamytzes had once lived in Constantinople's grand palaces, dined at fabulous banquets, been the cousin and trusted general of two emperors, commanded armies. Now he moldered in chains at the tender mercy of Kaloyan. He sent letters to Alexios III, begging to be ransomed, but Alexios was like, "Haha, sorry cuz! Guess you're shit out of luck! XOXO."
In desperation, Kamytzes even sent a letter to his new son-in-law, Dobromir Chrysos. Believing that if he ransomed Kamytzes that Alexios III would pay him back, Dobromir Chrysos paid up and so Kamytzes was released and allowed to join his daughter and her barbarian warlord husband in their luxurious fort on the borderlands of Fuck All. To the surprise of no one but Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III refused to hand over a red cent. Dobromir Chrysos was pissed as hell, and you can imagine how betrayed Manuel Kamytzes felt. They joined forces to get some good old-fashioned revenge.
Several towns crumpled before them like a house of cards. Alexios' empire was truly rotting to the core. Sensing an opportunity, a bureaucrat named Ioannes Spyridonakis decided to rebel, as well. This squinty-eyed Cypriote had been a craftsman by trade who had attached himself to Alexios III as his attendant, and was entrusted with the guardianship of several fortified cities. This dual rebellion of malcontents sent Alexios III spiraling into a hydochondriacal fit, jumping about and thrashing his legs "as though held fast by the throat".
Alexios III's cousin, Mikhael, 5 nicknamed Mikhaelis, also rebelled against him. When he lost a battle against Byzantine troops, Mikhaelis fled to the court of the Selcuk sultan, Rukneddin, in Konya, who gave him an army so he could continue raising hell. And raise hell Mikhaelis did, until he was so much trouble for Rukneddin that Rukneddin began to suspect that he was secretly working for Alexios III all along! Alexios III indignantly denied this.
Fortunately, more able men stepped up. One was Alexios Palaiologos, the emperor's son-in-law, and a distant imperial relative. In 1199, he had divorced his lawful wife, a beautiful women from a noble family, to marry Alexios III's daughter Irene. They had a baby daughter named Theodora 6. The valiant Alexios Palaiologos speedily dealt with Spyridonakis, and "that worthless scoundrel among men" fled to Bulgaria.
To deal with Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III once again resorted to auctioning off his little granddaughter, Theodora Komnene. Enchanted by the idea of being the emperor's grandson-in-law rather than just the emperor's cousin-in-law-once-removed, Dobromir Chrysos dumped his Kamytzaina wife and eagerly married poor Theodora. Niketas Choniates remains disappointingly silent on whether the prepubescent Theodora got roaring drunk at her wedding feast alongside her much older husband. Having lost the support of his erstwhile son-in-law, Manuel Kamytzes split for parts unknown.
Alexakos, the teenaged son of the former emperor Isaakios II, could've commiserated with Kaloyan and Manuel Kamytzes on the bizarre whims of fate. At his birth, few could've imagined a future for him grander than being a minor Byzantine noble with a thin smattering of imperial blood in his veins, but then, with his father's sudden accession to the throne, he found himself heir to the empire. His pampered life at Isaakios II's decadent court came crashing down when his uncle Alexios III had his father blinded and cast Alexakos himself into prison.
Alexios III unexpectedly released Alexakos from prison in 1201. Because he allowed Alexakos his freedom and his sight, my suspicion is that Alexios III was keeping his nephew around as a back-up heir in case one or all of his sons-in-law didn't work out. As for Isaakios II, the miserable blind ex-emperor was kept in comfortable retirement on a beachfront property and allowed to have guests. Alexakos went to visit his father and together they hatched a scheme. They sent letters to Isaakios II's daughter (and Alexakos' sister) Irene, who was by then the empress of Philipp of Swabia, the ruler of Germany, telling the whole pitiful story and beseeching her help in getting REAL ULTIMATE REVENGE.
Alexakos was then taken along when his uncle Alexios III set out to confront Dobromir Chrysos and Manuel Kamytzes, and now Stage 2 of his plan went into effect. Alexakos snuck off and boarded a Pisan ship. He clipped his hair and wore Italian-style clothes, and when his uncle's soldiers came and searched the ship, he mingled with the throng of sailors and they walked right past him, not recognizing him. He arrived in Sicily and there he was "homeless and without a country and wandered about like the planets, taking with him no more than his body". His sister Irene got in contact with him and sent a considerable bodyguard to escort him to Germany. There brother and sister had a tearful reunion.
Meanwhile, the would-be Crusaders had a problem. They had lots and lots of people taking the cross, vowing to go to the Holy Land and kick Saracen ass. What they didn't have was a way to get all these righteous, violent, Jesus-freaks to the Holy Land. From past experience with the other Crusades, the overland route was a disaster. Not only did you have to make your way past several mountains and through Byzantine territory, you then had to plow through a shit-ton of angry Turks and Saracens in Anatolia, Syria, etc. before you even got to Jerusalem or Egypt. The Crusading leaders agreed this was balls, so they decided to load everyone on ships and float them there, instead.
So the Crusaders sent their envoys, which included the chronicler Geoffrey de Villehardouin, to Venice to meet with the doge, Enrico Dandolo. They were welcomed by the doge, who wore a grand robe and sat under a parasol. Dandolo was by this time very old, very blind, and ready to begin the next stage of his life as a Bond villain. He was probably rubbing his hands together in glee when the envoys told him what they needed. All he had to do was get them some ships, and he'd have a 250,000 man army in his power.
The Fourth Crusade hit a pothole when Thibaut III of Champagne keeled over dead on May 24, 1201 7. What happened is that when his envoys returned from Venice, telling him that the Venetians had agreed to supply ships to transport the army, Thibaut was so thrilled that he rose from his sickbed and mounted his horse. This exertion worsened his condition, and he died.
Without him, the Crusade lacked a major leader. Bonifazio of Montferrat, now the marquis presiding over a sophisticated troubadour court, was intrigued by the Crusader's envoys, who had passed through his lands on their way to and from Venice. Bonifazio was the last survivor of his father's large and famous clutch of sons. His elder brother, William Longsword, had married Sibylla, the sister of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, only to die in the prime of his life; Renier, the husband of Maria Porphyrogenita, had been poisoned by Andronikos I; and Conrad, the husband of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem, stabbed to death by an assassin in 1192 8. Bonifazio himself was a "worthy and valiant" knight, according to Villehardouin, who knew him personally and admired him. He was offered command of the Crusade and accepted; but as Queller and Madden put it, this was purely symbolic; "No more than Agamemnon could command Achilles before the walls of Troy could Boniface command Baldwin of Flanders before the walls of Constantinople".
Bonifazio then went to spend Christmas 1201 with his cousin, Philipp of Swabia. There he met Philipp, Philipp's sweet-tempered wife, Irene, their baby daughters Beatrix, Kunigunde, and Maria, and a most interesting newcomer: Alexakos Angelos.
1. Their fathers, Henri I of Champagne and Thibaut V of Blois, respectively, were brothers who had married a pair of sisters: Marie and Alix of France, daughters of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Louis VII of France. Marie of Champagne (Thibaut III's mother) was known to be a sophisticated patron of the arts, while her sister Alix (Louis' mother) was disliked by her half-brother, Richard the Lionhearted, for reasons that are unclear.
2. And possibly did some other things together SHWING!
3. Henri had a dwarf jester known as Scarlet. One day, while standing on the balcony of his palace in the Galilee, Henri absentmindedly stepped backwards and fell back against the railing. Scarlet grabbed his leg and was pulled over with him. The thing was Henri might've survived the fall had not the dwarf landed on him.
4. He would later oversee the slaughter of heretics during the Albigensian Crusade. He was the father of the Simon de Montfort who died at Evesham.
5. Mikhael Komnenos Doukas Angelos (known at various times by one or another of those names) was the bastard son of Ioannes Angelos, the uncle of Alexios III. Keep an eye on Mikhaelis; you'll be seeing more of him later.
6. Mother of the future emperor Mikhael VIII Palaiologos.
7. His widow, Blanche of Navarre, delivered a son a few days later, on May 30: the future Thibaut IV of Champagne.
8. Conrad's pregnant widow, Isabella of Jerusalem, remarried to Henri of Champagne, the same fellow who fell off his balcony and died in 1197. Isabella was the half-sister of Sibylla who was married to Conrad's brother William. And just to make it even weirder, Sibylla's second husband was Guy de Lusignan, who's brother Amalric de Lusignan married -- you guessed it! -- Isabella in 1198.
Her parents had recently weathered a storm in their marriage. Although it was Alexios III who wore the crown, it was clearly Euphrosyne who ruled, and everyone knew it. Soon, the courtiers gossiped she had taken a lover, a young Vatatzes whom Niketas deigns to identify beyond his surname, and rumors flew that she planned to get rid of her husband and put this young stud on the throne. When Alexios III learned of this, he straightaway sent his bodyguard, Bastralites, to dismember this Vatatzes "like a fatted calf". Bastralites brought this young man's head back to the emperor in a sack, and Alexios III amused himself by kicking the head about like a ball and addressing it "in terms wholly unfit to be included in this history".
Finding himself unable to defeat Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III decided to pacify this brigand the only way he knew how: send him one of his female relatives to bang. To that end, Alexios III selected Manuel Kamytzes' daughter and forced her to divorce her husband. He then sent this poor woman to Dobromir Chrysos, who became furious at his wedding when his Kamytzaina wife refused to get as drunk as him.
As for Ivanko, he'd been given a small army and an outpost in 'exotic' (ie lawless) Philippopolis, where he'd proven successful in beating the crap out of Vlakh raiders. The fact that he was a former Vlakh raider himself and therefore knew all their tricks probably helped a lot. Perhaps he was plotting against Alexios III, or perhaps some influential people were jealous of his rise to power, for Alexios III was warned not to trust him. Manuel Kamytzes was dispatched to deal with him. Ivanko laid a trap for the Greek army: he placed a herd of cattle and a group of captives in the Byzantines' path, and just as planned, the Byzantines pounced on them. While busy with their booty, Ivanko's men lept in ambush, kicking their asses far and wide, and capturing Manuel Kamytzes himself. Ivanko sent Kamytzes to Kaloyan, now ruling Bulgaria, as a peace-offering.
Ivanko began ravaging Byzantine lands, taking city after city. He captured so much wealth, wine, and captives that Niketas tells us that for amusement, he would get drunk and watch Byzantine captives be torn limb-from-limb in front of him. This was the man Alexios III had entrusted with his granddaughter, Theodora.
Alexios III requested a meeting. Ivanko, stupidly, didn't ask to exchange hostages, and simply showed up, at which point he was arrested and executed by Alexios' guards. His widow, Theodora, who had not even reached double digits, was returned to her nursery in Constantinople.
Meanwhile, in faraway France, a pair of twenty-something nobles named Thibaut III, count of Champagne and Louis I, count of Blois, deeply felt the pope's call for a Crusade. Thibaut and Louis were double-first cousins 1, of the very highest birth, and inheritors of a great Crusading legacy. Their mutual grandparents, Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine, had been leaders of the Second Crusade. Their mutual uncles, Richard I of England (who had recently died) and Philippe II of France had gone on the Third Crusade together 2. Louis' father had died at the Siege of Acre in 1191. Thibaut's elder brother, Henri, had been king of Jerusalem for a time before dying in 1197 in a most bizarre manner 3. Thibaut hosted a tournament at his castle at Ecry, and there, amidst the pageantry and high spirits, he and Louis announced their intention to take the cross and lead armies to liberate the Holy Land.
Many other notable young men were inspired to take the cross as well. Among them were Count Hugh de St. Pol, a veteran Crusader; Count Geoffrey of Perche and his brother Etienne; and Simon de Montfort, a handsome and fanatically religious young man 4. But by far the most important was Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainaut. Twenty-eight years old, incredibly powerful, very religious, Baldwin was the husband of Thibaut's sister, Marie, and passionately devoted to her. He was joined by his brothers, Hendrik (Henry) and Eustace.
Kaloyan, the last surviving brother of Ivan Asen and Teodor-Kalopeter, was all a-fire to kill the hell out of some Greeks. Having spent his youth as a "guest" at Isaakios II's court, he had by hook or crook escaped and returned to his homeland only to see his brothers die horribly. Basically, the world was a giant bitch to Kaloyan and he determined to be a bastard right back. He sent some of his Bulgar and Vlakh berserkers to tear apart several Byzantine cities, and "driven by bloodthirsty demons", he buried his captives alive in pits.
Long ago, the Byzantine emperor Basileios II had adopted the title Boulgaroktonos, Bulgar-slayer. Kaloyan adapted this into Romanoktonos, Roman-slayer. The Greeks warped his name into Skyloyan, Dog John.
Oh how the tables had turned! Manuel Kamytzes had once lived in Constantinople's grand palaces, dined at fabulous banquets, been the cousin and trusted general of two emperors, commanded armies. Now he moldered in chains at the tender mercy of Kaloyan. He sent letters to Alexios III, begging to be ransomed, but Alexios was like, "Haha, sorry cuz! Guess you're shit out of luck! XOXO."
In desperation, Kamytzes even sent a letter to his new son-in-law, Dobromir Chrysos. Believing that if he ransomed Kamytzes that Alexios III would pay him back, Dobromir Chrysos paid up and so Kamytzes was released and allowed to join his daughter and her barbarian warlord husband in their luxurious fort on the borderlands of Fuck All. To the surprise of no one but Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III refused to hand over a red cent. Dobromir Chrysos was pissed as hell, and you can imagine how betrayed Manuel Kamytzes felt. They joined forces to get some good old-fashioned revenge.
Several towns crumpled before them like a house of cards. Alexios' empire was truly rotting to the core. Sensing an opportunity, a bureaucrat named Ioannes Spyridonakis decided to rebel, as well. This squinty-eyed Cypriote had been a craftsman by trade who had attached himself to Alexios III as his attendant, and was entrusted with the guardianship of several fortified cities. This dual rebellion of malcontents sent Alexios III spiraling into a hydochondriacal fit, jumping about and thrashing his legs "as though held fast by the throat".
Alexios III's cousin, Mikhael, 5 nicknamed Mikhaelis, also rebelled against him. When he lost a battle against Byzantine troops, Mikhaelis fled to the court of the Selcuk sultan, Rukneddin, in Konya, who gave him an army so he could continue raising hell. And raise hell Mikhaelis did, until he was so much trouble for Rukneddin that Rukneddin began to suspect that he was secretly working for Alexios III all along! Alexios III indignantly denied this.
Fortunately, more able men stepped up. One was Alexios Palaiologos, the emperor's son-in-law, and a distant imperial relative. In 1199, he had divorced his lawful wife, a beautiful women from a noble family, to marry Alexios III's daughter Irene. They had a baby daughter named Theodora 6. The valiant Alexios Palaiologos speedily dealt with Spyridonakis, and "that worthless scoundrel among men" fled to Bulgaria.
To deal with Dobromir Chrysos, Alexios III once again resorted to auctioning off his little granddaughter, Theodora Komnene. Enchanted by the idea of being the emperor's grandson-in-law rather than just the emperor's cousin-in-law-once-removed, Dobromir Chrysos dumped his Kamytzaina wife and eagerly married poor Theodora. Niketas Choniates remains disappointingly silent on whether the prepubescent Theodora got roaring drunk at her wedding feast alongside her much older husband. Having lost the support of his erstwhile son-in-law, Manuel Kamytzes split for parts unknown.
Alexakos, the teenaged son of the former emperor Isaakios II, could've commiserated with Kaloyan and Manuel Kamytzes on the bizarre whims of fate. At his birth, few could've imagined a future for him grander than being a minor Byzantine noble with a thin smattering of imperial blood in his veins, but then, with his father's sudden accession to the throne, he found himself heir to the empire. His pampered life at Isaakios II's decadent court came crashing down when his uncle Alexios III had his father blinded and cast Alexakos himself into prison.
Alexios III unexpectedly released Alexakos from prison in 1201. Because he allowed Alexakos his freedom and his sight, my suspicion is that Alexios III was keeping his nephew around as a back-up heir in case one or all of his sons-in-law didn't work out. As for Isaakios II, the miserable blind ex-emperor was kept in comfortable retirement on a beachfront property and allowed to have guests. Alexakos went to visit his father and together they hatched a scheme. They sent letters to Isaakios II's daughter (and Alexakos' sister) Irene, who was by then the empress of Philipp of Swabia, the ruler of Germany, telling the whole pitiful story and beseeching her help in getting REAL ULTIMATE REVENGE.
Alexakos was then taken along when his uncle Alexios III set out to confront Dobromir Chrysos and Manuel Kamytzes, and now Stage 2 of his plan went into effect. Alexakos snuck off and boarded a Pisan ship. He clipped his hair and wore Italian-style clothes, and when his uncle's soldiers came and searched the ship, he mingled with the throng of sailors and they walked right past him, not recognizing him. He arrived in Sicily and there he was "homeless and without a country and wandered about like the planets, taking with him no more than his body". His sister Irene got in contact with him and sent a considerable bodyguard to escort him to Germany. There brother and sister had a tearful reunion.
Meanwhile, the would-be Crusaders had a problem. They had lots and lots of people taking the cross, vowing to go to the Holy Land and kick Saracen ass. What they didn't have was a way to get all these righteous, violent, Jesus-freaks to the Holy Land. From past experience with the other Crusades, the overland route was a disaster. Not only did you have to make your way past several mountains and through Byzantine territory, you then had to plow through a shit-ton of angry Turks and Saracens in Anatolia, Syria, etc. before you even got to Jerusalem or Egypt. The Crusading leaders agreed this was balls, so they decided to load everyone on ships and float them there, instead.
So the Crusaders sent their envoys, which included the chronicler Geoffrey de Villehardouin, to Venice to meet with the doge, Enrico Dandolo. They were welcomed by the doge, who wore a grand robe and sat under a parasol. Dandolo was by this time very old, very blind, and ready to begin the next stage of his life as a Bond villain. He was probably rubbing his hands together in glee when the envoys told him what they needed. All he had to do was get them some ships, and he'd have a 250,000 man army in his power.
The Fourth Crusade hit a pothole when Thibaut III of Champagne keeled over dead on May 24, 1201 7. What happened is that when his envoys returned from Venice, telling him that the Venetians had agreed to supply ships to transport the army, Thibaut was so thrilled that he rose from his sickbed and mounted his horse. This exertion worsened his condition, and he died.
Without him, the Crusade lacked a major leader. Bonifazio of Montferrat, now the marquis presiding over a sophisticated troubadour court, was intrigued by the Crusader's envoys, who had passed through his lands on their way to and from Venice. Bonifazio was the last survivor of his father's large and famous clutch of sons. His elder brother, William Longsword, had married Sibylla, the sister of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, only to die in the prime of his life; Renier, the husband of Maria Porphyrogenita, had been poisoned by Andronikos I; and Conrad, the husband of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem, stabbed to death by an assassin in 1192 8. Bonifazio himself was a "worthy and valiant" knight, according to Villehardouin, who knew him personally and admired him. He was offered command of the Crusade and accepted; but as Queller and Madden put it, this was purely symbolic; "No more than Agamemnon could command Achilles before the walls of Troy could Boniface command Baldwin of Flanders before the walls of Constantinople".
Bonifazio then went to spend Christmas 1201 with his cousin, Philipp of Swabia. There he met Philipp, Philipp's sweet-tempered wife, Irene, their baby daughters Beatrix, Kunigunde, and Maria, and a most interesting newcomer: Alexakos Angelos.
1. Their fathers, Henri I of Champagne and Thibaut V of Blois, respectively, were brothers who had married a pair of sisters: Marie and Alix of France, daughters of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Louis VII of France. Marie of Champagne (Thibaut III's mother) was known to be a sophisticated patron of the arts, while her sister Alix (Louis' mother) was disliked by her half-brother, Richard the Lionhearted, for reasons that are unclear.
2. And possibly did some other things together SHWING!
3. Henri had a dwarf jester known as Scarlet. One day, while standing on the balcony of his palace in the Galilee, Henri absentmindedly stepped backwards and fell back against the railing. Scarlet grabbed his leg and was pulled over with him. The thing was Henri might've survived the fall had not the dwarf landed on him.
4. He would later oversee the slaughter of heretics during the Albigensian Crusade. He was the father of the Simon de Montfort who died at Evesham.
5. Mikhael Komnenos Doukas Angelos (known at various times by one or another of those names) was the bastard son of Ioannes Angelos, the uncle of Alexios III. Keep an eye on Mikhaelis; you'll be seeing more of him later.
6. Mother of the future emperor Mikhael VIII Palaiologos.
7. His widow, Blanche of Navarre, delivered a son a few days later, on May 30: the future Thibaut IV of Champagne.
8. Conrad's pregnant widow, Isabella of Jerusalem, remarried to Henri of Champagne, the same fellow who fell off his balcony and died in 1197. Isabella was the half-sister of Sibylla who was married to Conrad's brother William. And just to make it even weirder, Sibylla's second husband was Guy de Lusignan, who's brother Amalric de Lusignan married -- you guessed it! -- Isabella in 1198.