most unfortunate Baldwin. The eldest of
Yolande's sons, Philip de Courtenay, had the singular good-sense and
good-fortune to decline the offered crown. He found plenty of fighting
in Europe of an equally adventurous kind, and less treacherous than
that among the Greeks. The second son, Robert, accepted the
responsibilities and dangers of the position. For seven years he held
the sceptre with a trembling hand amid all kinds of disasters. The
Despot of Epirus, the treacherous Theodore, swept across the country
as far as Adrianople, where he raised his standard and called himself
emperor. Vatatces, the successor of Theodore Lascaris, seized upon the
last relics of the Asiatic possessions, intercepted western succor,
actually persuaded a large body of French mercenaries to serve under
him, constructed a fleet, and obtained the command of the Dardanelles.

A personal and private outrage of the grossest kind, offered to the
unfortunate Emperor by an obscure knight, drove him in rage and
despair from the city. He sought refuge in Italy, but was recalled by
his barons, and was on his way back to Constantinople when he was
seized with some malady which killed him. It is a miserable record of
a weak and miserable life. On his death, his brother Baldwin being
still a boy, the barons looked about them for a stronger hand to rule
the tottering State. They found the man they wanted in gallant old
John de Brienne, the last of those who raised themselves from simple
knightly rank to a royal palace.

Gauthier de Brienne was King of Sicily and Duke of Apulia. John
himself, one of the last specimens of the great crusading heroes, was
titular King of Jerusalem, having married Constance, daughter of
Isabelle and granddaughter of Amaury.

Philip Augustus himself selected John de Brienne as the most worthy
knight to become the husband of Constance and the King of Jerusalem.
He was now an old man of more than seventy years. His daughter,
Yolande, was married to Frederick II, who had assumed the title of
King of Jerusalem, but old as he was he was still of commanding
stature and martial bearing. His arm had lost none of its strength,
nor his brain any of its vigor. He accepted the crown on the
understanding that the young Baldwin, then eleven years of age, should
join him as emperor on coming of age. Great things were expected from
so stout a soldier. Yet for two years nothing was done. Then the
Emperor was roused into action.

It was und