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).