Agnes of France

French Monarchy-
Capetian Dynasty
(direct Capetians branch)

Hugh Capet
Children
   Robert II
Robert II
Children
   Henry I
   Robert I, Duke of Burgundy
Henry I
Children
   Philip I
   Hugh, Count of Vermandois
Philip I
Children
   Louis VI
Louis VI
Children
   Louis VII
   Robert I of Dreux
Louis VII
Children
   Mary, Countess of Champagne
   Alix
   Marguerite
   Alys, Countess of the Vexin
   Philip II
   Agnes of France
Philip II
(Philip Augustus)
Children
   Louis VIII
Louis VIII
Children
   Louis IX
   Robert I, Count of Artois
   Alphonse, Count of Poitou and Toulouse
   Isabel of France
   Charles I of Anjou and Sicily
Louis IX
Children
   Philip III
   Robert, Count of Clermont
   Agnes of France
Philip III
Children
   Philip IV
   Charles III, Count of Valois
   Louis d'Evreux
   Margaret of France
Philip IV
Children
   Louis X
   Philip V
   Isabella of France
   Charles IV
Louis X
Children
   Joan II of Navarre
   John I
John I
Philip V
Charles IV
Agnes of France was the name of two notable female members of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France in the Middle Ages. One of them served as Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire. The other as Duchess of Burgundy.

Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire

Agnes of France (1171 - 1240) was a daughter of Louis VII of France by his third wife Adèle of Champagne. Her maternal grandparents were Theobald II of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia. The noble house of Blois-Champagne was the second most powerful in France (after the Angevins).

She was a younger half-sister of Marie de Champagne, Alix of France, Marguerite of France and Alys, Countess of the Vexin. She was a younger full sister of Philip II of France.

Betrothed to an Imperial Prince

Eastern Roman Emperor Manuel I Comnenus was looking for allies in Western Europe in the late 1170s. The Treaty of Venice in 1177 had effectively allied Pope Alexander III, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor,William II of Sicily,the Republic of Venice and the other Italian communes against him. In early 1178, Philip, Count of Flanders visited Constantinople in early 1178 on his way back from the Holy Land. Manuel, who had already entertained Louis VII in Constantinople at Christmas 1147, evidently now concluded that France was a desirable ally in Western Europe. Over the winter of 1178-1179 an Imperial embassy accompanying Philip, and led by the Genoese Baldovino Guercio[1], was sent to the French court to secure a match between Agnes and Alexius, the only son and heir apparent of Manuel by his second wife Maria of Antioch. This or some similar marriage alliance had been favoured by Pope Alexander III as early as 1171;[2] some believe it was now opposed by the members of the house of Blois-Champagne, who were pro-German.

It was not uncommon for princesses, when a future marriage had been agreed, to be brought up in their intended husband's family; this is why Agnes probably never met her elder sister Alys, who lived in England from the age of about nine, when her marriage to the future Richard I of England was agreed on (though this marriage never took place). Agnes took ship in Montpellier, bound for Constantinople, at Easter 1179. At Genoa the flotilla increased from five to 19 ships, captained by Baldovino Guercio.[3]

On arrival in Constantinople in late summer 1179 Agnes was received with great festivities, including a fleet of boats colourfully festooned, and her arrival was heralded , and was greeted with an oration from Eustathius, former Master of the Rhetors and archbishop of Thessalonica. She was perhaps now presented with a lavish volume of welcoming verses by an anonymous author, now sometimes known as the Eisiterion, in which the description of her attractions reaches an unusual degree of hyperbole with her 'lively form' being compared to air and crystal. The verses predict that more than seventy ladies of the imperial house would come out to greet her, with one sent ahead to attire her appropriately as an Augusta (empress) for the occasion, while her new sister-in-law Maria Porphyrogenita would pay homage to her in a tent outside the Walls of Constantinople: the arrival of Agnes in the capital and this adoption of Byzantine court costume is illustrated in the manuscript.

Agnes is described as outshining even her new sister-in-law, who, with her fiancAc BAcla III of Hungary had been Heir Presumptive

before the birth of her younger half-brother Alexius II. Maria had since been offered as a bride to William II of Sicily, John Lackland (youngest son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine), and Henry the Cruel (second son of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and Beatrice, Countess of Burgundy). The fact that Maria, who was to be one of the champions of the anti-Latin faction in the city, is shown as doing obeisance to the western-born empress emphasised the superiority of the new Latin princess over her sister-in-law and publicly demonstrated the success of Manuel's pro-western policy

The crusader Robert of Clari, writing 25 years later, is clear about the rich entourage which accompanied Agnes to Constantinople: "then the king arrayed his sister very richly and sent her with the messengers to Constantinople, and many of his people with her ... When they were come, the emperor did very great honor to the damsel and made great rejoicing over her and her people"; but Robert then betrays his ignorance of a period which for him was already legendary in attributing the embassy to Agnes's brother, Philip II of France. Philip did not succeed to the throne until 18 September 1180.

First marriage

According to William of Tyre, Agnes was eight on her arrival at Constantinople, while Alexius was thirteen. William got Alexius' age wrong (he was born on 14 September 1169) and there is no other source for Agnes's year of birth. If she was in fact eight, she was at least three years too young for marriage (according to most twelfth-century views). For example, Irene Ducaena, wife to Alexius I Comnenus and paternal grandmother to Manuel was twelve years old at her marriage in 1078. Theodora Comnena, niece of Manuel and Queen consort of Baldwin III of Jerusalem was thirteen years old at her marriage in 1158. Margaret of Hungary would marry Isaac II Angelus in 1185 when she was approximately ten years old, but this was noted as an exceptional case, Isaac in 1185 being far from secure in his hold on power and having an urgent need for dynastic support.

However this may be, it is now widely said that the ceremony that took place in the Trullo Hall, in the Great Palace, on 2 March 1180, was a wedding and not a betrothal. Those who take this view add that a further wedding ceremony at a later date may have been envisaged, as Agnes is invariably called Alexius' bride, not his wife, in contemporary sources.

The ceremony came approximately one month after the wedding of Maria Porphyrogenita with Renier of Montferrat, son of William V of Montferrat and Judith of Babenberg. William of Tyre was present at both ceremonies, which were conducted by Patriarch Theodosius I of Constantinople.

Agnes now took the official name of Anna. The ceremonial banquet was spectacularly conducted in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and once again, Eustathius of Thessalonica produced a speech to celebrate the occasion, whose title in the manuscript is Oration on the Public Celebrations of the Betrothal of the Two Royal Children. He describes the way in which the starting stalls were converted to kitchens and the poor were able to help themselves to the leftovers. The lavishness of the entertainment was obviously intended not only to win the approval of the inhabitants of the city, but also to dazzle westerners with Byzantine magnificence and sophistication: 'any attempt to describe in detail all the wonders of those days would be utterly futile ... the games of the circus which the inhabitants of Constantinople call hippodromes, and the glorious spectacles of varied nature shown to the people with great pomp during the days of the celebration; the imperial magnificence of the vestments and the royal robes adorned with a profusion of precious stones and pearls of great weight; the vast amount of massive gold and silver furniture in the palace, of untold value ... the valuable draperies adorning the royal abode ... the numerous servants and members of the court, the magnificence of the nuptial splendour, and the generous gifts which the emperor lavished on both his own people and on strangers.

On 24 September, 1180, Manuel I died and her husband succeeded him as Alexius II Comnenus. His mother Maria of Antioch exercised more influence in affairs of state than either Alexius or Anna. We actually hear little of Agnes during the reign of Alexius II (24 September, 1180 to prior to October, 1183). It is highly unlikely that the match was consummated, as it was customary to import imperial brides from overseas at a young age to enable them to become acquainted with the Greek language and with their future ceremonial duties; certainly it was unusual under normal circumstances for Byzantine girls to marry before the age of twelve.

Second marriage

In 1183 Maria was dispaced by a new power behind the throne, Andronicus I Comnenus. Andronicus was a first cousin of Manuel I and harbored imperial ambitions for himself. He was soon crowned co-ruler with Alexius and had him strangled in October of the same year. Anna was now 12, and the approximately 65-year-old Andronicus married her. Despite the fact that his marriage to Anna, some fifty years his junior, may well have been made for political reasons, Nicetas Choniates, with morbid relish, claims that Andronicus sexually exploited the eleven-year old princess. Andronicus had portraits of Maria of Antioch in the capital replaced with ones of himself either alone or accompanied by his child-bride. Choniates makes the most of the opportunity to ridicule Andronicus, his age and the incongruity of the alliance: 'the overripe suitor embracing the unripe maiden, the dotard the damsel with pointed breasts, the shriveled and languid old man the rosy-fingered girl dripping with the dew of love'.

According to Eustathius of Thessalonica as well, the match was repugnant to her, as she regretted Alexius' death and loathed Andronicus: 'She was the young daughter of the king of France, and as everybody knew hated the union because she was full of intelligence; and after having experienced a different kind of gentle loving, she loathed the roughness of Andronicus. Sometimes, they say, she would imagine in her dreams that she saw the young Alexius, and would cry out his name, and she alone knew what she suffered'. However if she alone knew her suffering, one would wonder how did Eustathius know of it. One would also have to question his knowledge of the "gentle loving" of Alexius and "rough loving" of Andronicus. Unless either Eustathius or his unnamed sources withnessed Agnes having sexual intercourse with either of her husbands, chances are the archbishop was recording rumors.

Andronicus had previous affairs with his niece Eudoxia Comnena, his other niece Theodora Comnena and Philippa of Antioch. Philippa was a daughter of Constance of Antioch and her first husband and consort Raymond of Poitiers. She was also a sister of Maria of Antioch, sister-in-law of Manuel and maternal aunt of Alexius II. He had two sons by Theodora and had already seen grandchildren from them. His eldest son Manuel Comnenus was already father to his most notable grandson:Alexius I of Trebizond, founder of the Empire of Trebizond.

Andronicus was not a particularly loyal husband to Agnes. Choniates reports on the new emperor openly consorting with prostitutes and concubines, both in and out of doors. Choniates informs us that Andronicus sought to attain both 'the sexual prowess of the cuttlefish', and that of Heracles with the fifty-one daughters of Thespius, resorting to ointments and other aphrodisiac aids, such as regularly eating an (extremely repugnant) animal similar to the crocodile, for this purpose.

Anna was Empress consort until the deposition and death of Andronicus I on September 12, 1185. She survived his fall. Their relationship may have improved over the last two years. When a revolt in Contantinople under his first cousin, once removed Isaac II Angelus managed to depose Andronicus, the deposed emperor reportedly fled for his life in a boat towards the direction of the realm of Vsevolod the Big Nest, Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal. Andronicus took both Agnes, and the prostitute Maraptike of whom he was rapturously enamoured, with him, along with a few attendants. However, contrary winds thwarted his plans to escape, and he was brought back with Agnes and Maraptike to Constantinople. In an attempt to persuade his captors on board ship to release him, he sang a pathetic lament about his past life and present calamity, in which the women joined, cleverly responding in song to his lamentations. However, his efforts were in vain and he suffered a particularly horrible death in the Hippodrome. We hear nothing of Agnes' life subsequent to the death of Andronicus in Byzantine sources.

Third marriage

However, nearly twenty years later, in 1203, Robert of Clari states that the leaders of the Fourth Crusade found her living in a palace married to Theodore Branas, a 'high man of the city'. The Branas family was related to the Comneni and Angeli, and had produced prominent military commanders since the 11th century. His maternal grandparents were Theodore Vatatzes and Eudocia Comnena. Eudocia was a daughter of John II Comnenus and Piroska of Hungary, daughter of Ladislaus I of Hungary. According to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Theodore and Agnes began to live together in 1193; Alberic contradicts the statement of Robert of Clari that they were married.

Theodore was not only a great-grandson of John II but son of Alexius Branas. Alexius had recaptured Thessaloniki from the forces of William II of Sicily in 1185. He had also prevented the same forces from moving against Constantinople. Issac II sent him to counter the Vlach-Bulgarian Rebellion in 1187 but Alexius started his own revolt. He was defeated in battle by Conrad of Montferrat and his decapitated head was brought to Isaac in triumph. Choniates praises the restraint of the widow when shown the severed head and remarks that Manuel had praised her as the 'flower of his family'.

Theodore is first heard of in 1189 as commander of the Alans (Georgian mercenaries) against the forces of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor who had joined the Third Crusade. Theodore had apparently inherited his father's opposition to Isaac II. In 1195, Alexius III Angelus and his politicaly active wife Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina organized a succesful revolt against Isaac II, brother of Alexius and brother-in-law of Euphrosyne. Theodore supported the revolt and was later employed by Alexius III against the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. By 1199, Theodore was governor of Kouperion.

Agnes received the barons of the Fourth Crusade as befitted a Byzantine empress -- with bad grace, according to Robert, and would talk only through an interpreter, pretending that she knew no French. She was now over thirty years of age and had, after all, spent most of her life in the Byzantine capital and at the Byzantine court.

The forces of the Fourth Crusade had arrived as allies of Alexius IV Angelus, son of Isaac and nephew of Alexius III, who claimed the throne for himself. They had placed him on the throne on 1 August 1203 but remained outside the Walls of Constantinople awaiting payment for the following eight months. Alexius IV was unable to pay his debt and was then deposed on the night of January 27 - January 28, 1204 by Alexius V. The new emperor attempted at first to negotiate with the Crusaders and hostilities soon started. On 13 April, 1204, Constantinople fell to the Crusaders. The Crusaders inflicted a horrible and savage sacking on Constantinople for three days. During these three days Agnes was sheltered in the palace of Boucoleon along with former Empress Margaret of Hungary and several other imperial women.

It was during the summer of 1204, according to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, that Agnes and Theodore finally married, at the urging of the Latin Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople. Other sources confirm that Baldwin would not permit men and women at his court to live together unless they were married.

According to Geoffrey of Villehardouin, however, Agnes' husband was the 'only Greek' who sided with the Crusaders, and he was well repaid by them for his support. As a vassal of the Latin Empire, he was made lord of Didymoteicho and Adrianople in Thrace, where Agnes apparently accompanied him. According to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (s.v. AD 1205), she had a daughter who married Narjaud de Toucy, cousin of Guy de Dampierre. Agnes thereupon disappears from history but the Branas family, including several notable Theodores, continued to accumulate vast estates and intermarry with other noble families, including the Palaeologus family which would rule the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 until 1453.

If Theodore and Agnes had male descendants, continuing the Branas family line, no contemporary source mentions the fact.

Agnes of France in Fiction

Agnes is the subject of the historical novel Agnes of France (1980) by Greek writer Kostas Kyriazis (1920 - ). The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel I, Alexius II and Andronicus I through her eyes. She is also part of the cast of the sequels Fourth Crusade (1981) and Henry of Hainaut (1984). All three have been in print in Greece since their first edition.

Notes

  1. ^ Bernardo and Salem Maragone, Annales Pisani pp. 68-9 Gentile.
  2. ^ Letter of Alexander III to Archbishop Henry of Reims, 28 February 1171 (Patrologia Latina vol. 200 column 783).
  3. ^ Annales Pisani; Ottobono, Annales Genuenses, 1179.

Sources

  • Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L. Van Dieten, 2 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1975); trans. as O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, by H.J. Magoulias (Detroit; Wayne State University Press, 1984).

Bibliography

  • Cartellieri, Alexander. Philipp II. August, König von Frankreich. Vols 1-2. Leipzig: Dyksche Buchhandlung, 1899-1906.
  • Magdalino, Paul. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 2002

Duchess of Burgundy

Agnes of France (c. 1260 - December 19, 1327) was the youngest daughter of Louis IX of France and Marguerite Berenger of Provence.

Agness had ten older siblings, including Philip III of France and Robert, Count of Clermont.

She married Robert II, Duke of Burgundy and became the mother of seven children:

  • Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (1282–1315).
  • Blanche (1288–1348), married Edward of Savoy.
  • Marguerite (1290- 1315), married king Louis X of France.
  • Joan (Jeanne) (ca.1290–1317), married count of Maine and Valois, king Philip VI of France.
  • Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (1295–1350).
  • Louis, King of Thessalonica (1297–1316), married Matilda of Hainaut.
  • Robert, count of Tonnerre (1302–1334), married Joanna, heiress of Tonnerre.

Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA)

Return to Main Index