Aimery of Lusignan, erroneously referred to as Amalric in earlier scholarship, was the first king of Cyprus, reigning from 1196 to his death in 1205. He also reigned as the king of Jerusalem from his marriage to Queen Isabella I in 1197 to his death. He was a younger son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, a nobleman in Poitou. After participating in a rebellion against Henry II of England in 1168, he went to the Holy Land and settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The 1200s began on January 1, 1200, and ended on December 31, 1209.
The 1170s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1170, and ended on December 31, 1179.
The 1180s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1180, and ended on December 31, 1189.
The 1190s was a decade of the Julian calendar which began on January 1, 1190, and ended on December 31, 1199.
Year 1248 (MCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Year 1196 (MCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Year 1153 (MCLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Year 1261 (MCCLXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, rather than the conquest of Egypt as originally planned. This led to the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae or the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders and their Venetian allies leading to a period known as Frankokratia, or "Rule of the Franks" in Greek.
Baldwin I was the first Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople; Count of Flanders from 1194 to 1205 and Count of Hainaut from 1195 to 1205. Baldwin was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the sack of Constantinople in 1204, the conquest of large parts of the Byzantine Empire, and the foundation of the Latin Empire. The following year he was defeated at the Battle of Adrianople by Kaloyan, the emperor of Bulgaria, and spent his last days as a prisoner.
Kaloyan or Kalojan, also known as Ivan I, Ioannitsa or Johannitsa, the Romanslayer, was emperor or tsar of Bulgaria from 1196 to 1207. He was the younger brother of Theodor and Asen, who led the anti-Byzantine uprising of the Bulgarians and Vlachs in 1185. The uprising ended with the restoration of Bulgaria as an independent state. He spent a few years as a hostage in Constantinople in the late 1180s. Theodor, crowned Emperor Peter II, made him his co-ruler after Asen was murdered in 1196. A year later, Peter was also murdered, and Kaloyan became the sole ruler of Bulgaria.
Theodore Branas or Vranas, sometimes called Theodore Komnenos Branas, was a general under the Byzantine Empire and afterwards under the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Under the Latin regime he was given the title Caesar and in 1206 he became governor and lord of Adrianople. He is called Livernas by western chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade, including Geoffroi de Villehardouin.
Constance of Hauteville was the ruling princess of Antioch from 1130 to 1163. She was the only child of Bohemond II of Antioch and Alice of Jerusalem. Constance succeeded her father at the age of two after he fell in battle, although his cousin Roger II of Sicily laid claim to Antioch. Alice assumed the regency, but the Antiochene noblemen replaced her with her father, Baldwin II of Jerusalem. After he died in 1131, Alice again tried to take control of the government, but the Antiochene barons acknowledged the right of her brother-in-law Fulk of Anjou to rule as regent for Constance.
Conon de Béthune was a French crusader and trouvère poet who became a senior official and finally regent of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Alternative spellings of his name include Cono, Coesnes, Quenes, Conain, and Quenon.
The Bulgarian–Latin wars were a series of conflicts between the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) and the Latin Empire (1204–61). The wars affected the northern border of the Latin Empire throughout its existence.
Renier of Trit was a knight from Trith-Saint-Léger, Hainaut, who took part to the Fourth Crusade and became the first Frankish duke of Philippopolis from 1204 to 1205.
The struggle for Constantinople was a complex series of conflicts following the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, fought between the Latin Empire established by the Crusaders, various Byzantine successor states, and foreign powers such as the Second Bulgarian Empire and Sultanate of Rum, for control of Constantinople and supremacy within the former imperial territories.
The timeline of the Latin Empire is a chronological list of events of the history of the Latin Empire—the crusader state that developed on the ruins of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade in the 13th century.
Thierry of Flanders was a Flemish nobleman and crusader active in 1197–1207.
