William of Champlitte

William I of Champlitte (French: Guillaume de Champlitte) (1160s-1209) was a French knight who joined the Fourth Crusade and became the first prince of Achaea (1205–1209).

Early years and the Fourth Crusade

William was the second son of Odo or Eudes I of Champlitte, viscount of Dijon. He later married Elisabeth of Mount-Saint-Jean, but they divorced in 1199.

William was one of the crusader leaders who signed the letter written in April 1203 by Counts Baldwin IX of Flanders, Louis I of Blois and Chartres and Hugh IV of Saint Pol to Pope Innocent III after the occupation of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia).

The imperial throne was given to Baldwin IX of Flanders on May 16, 1204.

Foundation of the Principality of Achaea

Early in 1205 Geoffrey of Villehardouin, one of William of Champlitte's allies went to the camp of Boniface I of Thessalonica at Nauplia (now Nafplion, Greece). He had earlier occupied some parts of Messenia.

William in short time occupied Coron (now Koroni, Greece), Kalamata and Kyparissia.

William became the Prince of Achaea during 1205.

While traveling to France, his death occurred during 1208 in Apulia.

See also

• Fourth Crusade
• Principality of Achaea
• Battle of the Olive Grove of Koundouros

Sources

• Andrea, Alfred J. (2000). Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade. Brill. ISBN 90-04-11740-7.
• Evergates, Theodore (2007). The Aristocracy in the County of Champagne, 1100-1300. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4019-1.
• Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1994) [1987]. . Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-10079-8.

• Longnon, Jean (1969) [1962]. . In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. Vol. 2 (Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 234–275. ISBN 0-299-04844-6.

• Runciman, Steven (1954). A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Setton, Kenneth M. (1976). . Vol. 1. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-114-0.

Further reading

• Bon, Antoine (1969). [The Frankish Morea. Historical, Topographic and Archaeological Studies on the Principality of Achaea] (in French). Paris: De Boccard.

• Finley Jr, John H. "" Speculum, Vol. 7, No. 4. (Oct., 1932), pp. 477–499.
• Joinville, Jean de; Villehardouin, Geoffroi de; Shaw, Margaret R. B. (1963). Chronicles of the Crusades. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044124-7.
• Tozer, H. F. "" The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 4. (1883), pp. 165–236.