Villehardouin
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GEOFFROI DE, a French chronicler; born in the family château near Bar-sur-Aube, about 1160. In 1180 he succeeded his father Guillaume as Marshal of Champagne under Thibaut, brother of Henri II. of France, and in 1201 he was one of the ambassadors despatched to Venice to make arrangements for the transport of the forces for the fourth crusade. On his return he found Thibaut dangerously ill, and it was soon his duty to act as guardian of the rights of the widowed princess, Blanche of Navarre. Having concluded a treaty in her name with the king, Philippe Auguste, he departed for the East, where he distinguished himself greatly in the conflict which finally the placed Baldwin of Flanders on throne of the Byzantine empire. Rewarded by the monarch with extensive lands on the Hebrus, and appointed Marshal of Rumania, he repaid the favor by saving the crusaders from disastrous defeat near Adrianople in 1205. On his death in 1213 his nephew Geoffroi inherited his title and possessions. The narrative of the fourth crusade by which Villehardouin ranks among the most important historians of the time, covers the period from 1198-1207, and consists largely of his own p personal experience. de Viginère as First published by Blaise de "History of the Conquest of Constantinople by the French Barons, associated with the Venetians in the year 1204, in the Change of its Absolute Language to Modern and Intelligible" one more (1584), it has been frequently re-edited by Ducange (1657); by Petitot in his "Collections of Memoirs" (1819); by Bouquet quet in his "Things Gallic." "Scriptures" (1838); and by Natalis de Wailly (1st ed. 1871, 2d 1874). There is an English translation by T. Smith, "Chronicles concerning the Conquest of Constantinople" (1829), and German a translation by Todt (1878).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The life Collier's set out in 1921 still stands in outline, though its text garbles one detail: Thibaut III of Champagne was the brother of Henri II of Champagne, king of Jerusalem, not of any "Henri II of France." The bibliography is what has aged: the standard critical text is now Edmond Faral's edition of 1938–39, and English readers use modern versions such as M. R. B. Shaw's 1963 Penguin translation rather than T. Smith's of 1829. What has shifted most is how the chronicle is read — where Collier's treats Villehardouin simply as "among the most important historians of the time," scholars since the mid-20th century have examined him as an interested party defending the diversion of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople, and debate over whether that diversion was accident or design has been central to crusade historiography, notably in Donald Queller and Thomas Madden's work. The sack of 1204 itself has become a live matter of Christian memory: in 2001 Pope John Paul II expressed sorrow for it to the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens.
Written for this edition, 2026.