House of Courtenay | |
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![]() Arms of the Capetian House of Courtenay | |
Parent house | Capetian dynasty |
Country | ![]() ![]() |
Founded | c. 1150 |
Founder | Peter I of Courtenay |
Titles | |
Dissolution | 1733 |
Cadet branches |
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The Capetian House of Courtenay, also known simply as the House of Courtenay, was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. Founded by Peter I of Courtenay, a son of King Louis VI of France, the family drew its name from the lordship of Courtenay, to which Peter's wife was heiress.
The marriage of Peter I of Courtenay, also known as Peter of France, with Elizabeth, heiress of the elder branch of the lords of Courtenay, took place in 1150. They had four sons, Phillip (1153 – before 1186) who didn't have a child, Peter II of Courtenay whose agnatic descendants died out in 1283 by the death Philip I, Latin Emperor, Robert of Courtenay whose agnatic descendants died out in 1733, and William, Seigneur of Tanlay whose agnatic descendants died out in 1384
Peter II of Courtenay (eldest son of Peter of France, Lord of Courtenay and Elizabeth) became Count of Auxerre, Nevers and Tonnerre by his marriage with the Countess Agnes of Nevers. After the death of his first wife, he married Yolanda of Flanders. In 1216, on the death of his wife's brother, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople Henry of Flanders, the barons of Constantinople chose Peter II of Courtenay to succeed him; but he was captured while attempting to reach Constantinople and died in captivity in 1219.
His son, Robert of Courtenay, attempted to keep the empire by selling their possessions (including the Marquisate of Namur). The Emperor Robert was expelled from Constantinople by his subjects in 1228. His brother and successor Baldwin II of Constantinople lost the crown when Constantinople was taken by the Greeks (1261), and died in exile in Italy in 1273. His granddaughter, Catherine of Courtenay, married in 1300 Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France, and the lands of the Courtenay passed into the House of France.
Robert, the second son of Peter of France and Elizabeth of Courtenay, received some lordships, including that of Champignelles. One of his sons, Peter of Courtenay, Lord of Conches, accompanied Saint Louis in the Holy Land during the Seventh Crusade; he was killed at the Battle of Mansurah (1250), along with the king's brother, Robert I, Count of Artois. His only daughter Amicie de Courtenay married Robert II, Count of Artois, the son of Robert of Artois. In 1285, Robert II of Courtenay, Lord of Champignelles (grandson of Robert) became the head of the House of Courtenay at the death of Philip of Courtenay, son of the Emperor Baldwin II Courtenay.
After the extinction of the members of the senior branch, the Courtenay family fell into oblivion. They had become minor provincial lords, since the elder branch had sold most of the family's possessions in their attempt to preserve the Latin Empire in the east. One of the descendants of Robert de Courtenay, John III of Courtenay-Champignelles, was taken prisoner by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and later he fought alongside Bertrand du Guesclin. His nephew Peter III of Courtenay-Champignelles became chamberlain and advisor to King Charles VI. Another member of the family, François de Courtenay-Bléneau is knighted at Marignan (1515), and Anne de Courtenay, another descendant of Robert, in 1583 became the first wife of Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully.
The title of Head of the House of Courtenay is transmitted over time from one branch to another, in 1472 to John II of Courtenay, Lord of Bléneau, then in 1655 to Louis de Courtenay, Lord of Chevillon. From 1603, they tried in vain to gain recognition, many times, the status of "princes of royal blood." The last male of the final branch died in 1733, and the family was extinguished on June 29, 1768, with the death of his niece, Helen of Courtenay, Marquise of Bauffremont (1689–1768).
While the wars in Constantinople were unfortunate to the French in general, its loss was dearer still to the Courtenay family. Having had the honor of an imperial dignity, they had spared no cost in order to preserve it, but found that it could not be kept. The grandeur and wealth of the family was lost, that when the time came for the princes of Capetian lineage to be exalted above others, the Courtenays, who would have been best entitled in more ancient times, could no longer be esteemed princes of the blood in France.
With the establishment of the Salic law in France, the male-line descendants of the third race of the kings of France were recognized as princes of the blood, who had the contingent right of succession to the French crown. Though the House of Courtenay multiplied, they did so in obscurity and poverty. From princes they became barons, and from barons they became rural lords. Compared to the mighty princes of the blood — the dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, Orléans, Anjou, Bourbon, and Alençon — the royal blood seemed like a drop in the lords of Champignelles and Tanlay. Their name had largely disappeared in the history of the kingdom, but might still be found by the patience and diligence of heralds and genealogists. In the 16th century, the accession of the House of Bourbon, itself distantly related to the preceding House of Valois, awoke the princely spirit of the Courtenays. They appealed to the justice and compassion of Henry IV of France; they obtained a favorable opinion of 20 lawyers from Italy and Germany, and compared themselves to the descendants of King David, whose rights were not impaired by the lapse of ages or the trade of a carpenter. But every ear was deaf, and every circumstance was adverse, to their lawful claims. The princes of the blood, more recent and lofty, disdained the alliance of this humble kindred. The parliament, without denying their proofs, eluded them by arbitrarily selecting St. Louis as the progenitor of the royal line. [nb 1] A repetition of complaints and protests was repeatedly disregarded; and the hopeless pursuit was terminated in the 18th century by the death of the last male of the family. [2]
The Capetian dynasty, also known as the "House of France", is a dynasty of European origin, and a branch of the Robertians and the Karlings. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, and consists of Hugh Capet, the founder of the dynasty, and his male-line descendants, who ruled in France without interruption from 987 to 1792, and again from 1814 to 1848. The senior line ruled in France as the House of Capet from the election of Hugh Capet in 987 until the death of Charles IV in 1328. That line was succeeded by cadet branches, the Houses of Valois and then Bourbon, which ruled without interruption until the French Revolution abolished the monarchy in 1792. The Bourbons were restored in 1814 in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat, but had to vacate the throne again in 1830 in favor of the last Capetian monarch of France, Louis Philippe I, who belonged to the House of Orléans. Cadet branches of the Capetian House of Bourbon are still reigning over Spain and Luxembourg.
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Duke of Burgundy was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by the French crown in 1477, and later by members of the House of Habsburg, including Holy Roman emperors and kings of Spain, who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian Netherlands.
Duke of Bourbon is a title in the peerage of France. It was created in the first half of the 14th century for the eldest son of Robert of France, Count of Clermont, and Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. In 1416, with the death of John of Valois, the Dukes of Bourbon were simultaneously Dukes of Auvergne.
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The House of Courtenay is a medieval noble house, with branches in France, England and the Holy Land. One branch of the Courtenays became a royal house of the Capetian dynasty, cousins of the Bourbons and the Valois, and achieved the title of Latin Emperor of Constantinople.
Catherine I, also Catherine of Courtenay, was the recognised Latin Empress of Constantinople from 1283 to 1307, although she lived in exile and only held authority over Crusader States in Greece. In 1301, she became the second wife of Charles of Valois, by whom she had one son and three daughters; the eldest of these, Catherine II of Valois, Princess of Achaea succeeded her as titular empress.
Peter I of Courtenay was the sixth son of Louis VI of France and his second wife, Adélaide de Maurienne. He was the father of the Latin Emperor Peter II of Courtenay.
The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, or House of Anjou-Naples was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin, meaning "from Anjou" in France. Founded by Charles I of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century. The War of the Sicilian Vespers later forced him out of the island of Sicily, which left him with the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Naples. The house and its various branches would go on to influence much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages until it became extinct in 1435.
The House of Valois-Burgundy, or the Younger House of Burgundy, was a noble French family deriving from the royal House of Valois. It is distinct from the Capetian House of Burgundy, descendants of King Robert II of France, though both houses stem from the Capetian dynasty. They ruled the Duchy of Burgundy from 1363 to 1482 and later came to rule vast lands including Artois, Flanders, Luxembourg, Hainault, the county palatine of Burgundy (Franche-Comté), and other lands through marriage, forming what is now known as the Burgundian State.
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Peter of Courtenay (French: Pierre de Courtenay was a French knight and a member of the Capetian House of Courtenay, a cadet line of the royal House of Capet. From 1239 until his death, he was the ruling Lord of Conches and Mehun-sur-Yèvre.
Robert of Courtenay, born was lord of Champignelles and grandson of Louis VI of France. Robert de Courtenay was the seventh child of ten children of Peter I of Courtenay and his wife, Elizabeth de Courtenay. Robert took part in the conquest of Normandy in 1204. During the siege of Château Gaillard, he fought alongside his cousin Philip II of France. In 1228, he left for a crusade to the Holy Land, where he died eleven years later in Palestine.