Oberto II of Biandrate

Last updated

Oberto, Uberto, or Umberto II (English: Humbert) was the Count of Biandrate (Blan-Dras) in Lombardy and a participant in the Fourth Crusade.

Oberto was a companion of Boniface of Montferrat on the Fourth Crusade. After Boniface' elevation to King of Thessalonica and his death, Oberto became acting regent for his son Demetrius (1207–1209). Immediately, Oberto and Amedeo Buffa, the constable of Thessalonica, began to plot the overthrow of Demetrius. They intended to put William VI of Montferrat, Boniface' elder son, on the throne. However, the Emperor Henry marched on Thessalonica to force the Lombard lords to do him homage on Demetrius' behalf, but Oberto closed the gates to him. He demanded the whole of Epirus from the Vardar river (in Macedonia) to the Adriatic and a corridor to the Black Sea going west of Philippopolis, which Henry accepted on condition that Margaret, Boniface' widow, would agree to it. Upon his entry into the city, he convinced her to refuse it and thus disempowered Oberto and Amadeo. He imprisoned Oberto in the castle of Serres under the guard of Berthold II, Count of Katzenelnbogen, but later released him. Oberto went to Negroponte and plotted against the emperor, but Ravano dalle Carceri, lord of that island and a former confederate of Biandrate, protected the emperor and Oberto quickly surrendered and returned to Montferrat, where he sought to convince William to claim Thessalonica.

Oberto has been accused of subsequently poisoning Henry, who died in 1216 at Thessalonica. In 1224, according to Pope Honorius III, Oberto and William were headed east to relieve besieged Thessalonica, but it fell to the Despotate of Epirus before they arrived.

Ancestors

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexios III Angelos</span> Byzantine emperor from 1195 to 1203

Alexios III Angelos, Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty. A member of the extended imperial family, Alexios came to the throne after deposing, blinding and imprisoning his younger brother Isaac II Angelos. The most significant event of his reign was the attack of the Fourth Crusade on Constantinople in 1203, on behalf of Alexios IV Angelos. Alexios III took over the defence of the city, which he mismanaged, and then fled the city at night with one of his three daughters. From Adrianople, and then Mosynopolis, he attempted unsuccessfully to rally his supporters, only to end up a captive of Marquis Boniface of Montferrat. He was ransomed and sent to Asia Minor where he plotted against his son-in-law Theodore I Laskaris, but was eventually captured and spent his last days confined to the Monastery of Hyakinthos in Nicaea, where he died.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry of Flanders</span> 2nd Latin Emperor of Constantinople (r. 1205–16)

Henry was Latin emperor of Constantinople from 1205 until his death in 1216. He was one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade in which the Byzantine Empire was conquered and Latin Empire formed.

Boniface I, usually known as Boniface of Montferrat, was the ninth Marquis of Montferrat, a leader of the Fourth Crusade (1201–04) and the king of Thessalonica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Thessalonica</span> Short-lived Crusader State in Thessaly and Macedon

The Kingdom of Thessalonica was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over conquered Byzantine lands in Macedonia and Thessaly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Despotate of Epirus</span> Byzantine successor state (1204–1479)

The Despotate of Epirus was one of the Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond, its rulers briefly proclaiming themselves as Emperors in 1227–1242. The term "Despotate of Epirus" is, like "Byzantine Empire" itself, a modern historiographic convention and not a name in use at the time.

The King of Thessalonica was the ruler of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, one of the crusader states founded in Greece in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204). The King of Thessalonica was not an independent ruler; the Kingdom of Thessalonica was one of several vassal states created by the crusaders, subservient to the new Latin Empire of Constantinople, which had supplanted the Byzantine Empire.

William V of Montferrat also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest son, William Longsword, was seventh Marquis of Montferrat from 1135 to his death in 1191. William was the only son of Marquis Renier I and his wife Gisela, a daughter of Count William I of Burgundy and widow of Count Humbert II of Savoy. It seems likely, given that he was still fit enough to participate in battle in 1187, that William was one of his parents' youngest children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael I Komnenos Doukas</span> Ruler of Epirus

Michael I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Comnenus Ducas, and in modern sources often recorded as Michael I Angelos, a name he never used, was the founder and first ruler of the Despotate of Epirus from c. 1205 until his assassination in 1214/15.

Margaret of Hungary was a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Isaac II Angelos and Queen of Thessalonica by marriage to Boniface of Montferrat. She was regent of Thessalonica during the minority of her son Demetrius of Montferrat in 1207–1216.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Komnenos Doukas</span> 13th century AD Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans

Theodore Komnenos Doukas was the ruler of Epirus and Thessaly from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica and most of Macedonia and western Thrace from 1224 to 1230. He was also the power behind the rule of his sons John and Demetrios over Thessalonica in 1237–1246.

Demetrius or Demetrios of Montferrat was King of Thessalonica from 1207 to 1224.

Guy or Guido Pallavicini, called Marchesopoulo by his Greek subjects, was the first marquess of Bodonitsa in Frankish Greece from 1204 to his death in or shortly after 1237. He was one of the most important Frankish rulers in Greece, and played a major role in the short-lived Kingdom of Thessalonica: in 1208–1209 he supported the Lombard rebellion against King Demetrius of Montferrat, but by 1221 he was the kingdom's regent (bailli), and was left to defend the city against the ruler of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas. Left unsupported by the Latin Empire, and with a projected crusade to relieve the city delayed, he surrendered the city in December 1224. The belated arrival of the crusade helped to save his own fief from falling to the Epirotes, however, and he was soon able to return there, dying on or shortly after 1237.

William VI was the tenth Marquis of Montferrat from 1203 and titular King of Thessalonica from 1207.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March of Montferrat</span> Former state in Northern Italy

The Marchof Montferrat was a frontier march of the Kingdom of Italy during the Middle Ages and a state of the Holy Roman Empire. The margraviate was raised to become the Duchy of Montferrat in 1574.

Boniface II, called the Giant, was the eleventh Marquis of Montferrat from 1225 until his death. He became the titular King of Thessalonica in 1239.

Ravano dalle Carceri was a Lombard nobleman. He was one of the first triarchs of Negroponte from 1205.

Berthold II von Katzenelnbogen was a German nobleman of the family of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen and a participant in the Fourth Crusade (1202–04), who became lord of Velestino (c.1205–17) and regent of the Kingdom of Thessalonica (c.1217) in Frankish Greece. He was a patron of poets and in politics a Ghibelline.

The First Parliament of Ravennika was convened in May 1209 by Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders in the town of Ravennika in Central Greece in an attempt to resolve the rebellion of the Lombard barons of the Kingdom of Thessalonica.

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.

Rainerioof Travale was an Italian soldier of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) who became the chancellor of the Kingdom of Thessalonica.