VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROY DE (c. 1213), the first vernacular historian of France, and perhaps of modern Europe, who possesses literary merit, is rather supposed than known to have been born at the château from which he took his name, near Troyes, in Champagne, about the year i i6o. Not merely his literary and historical importance, but almost all that is known about him, comes from his chronicle of the fourth crusade, or Conquete de Constantinople. He was one of a list of knights of Champagne who with their count, Thibault, took the cross at a tournament held at Escry-sur-Aisne in Advent 1199. The next year six deputies, two appointed by each of the three allied counts of Flanders, Champagne and Blois, were despatched to Venice to negotiate for ships. Of these deputies Villehardouin was one and Quesnes de Bethune, the poet, another. They con cluded a bargain with the seigniory for transport and provisions at a fixed price. Villehardouin had hardly returned when Thibault fell sick and died. Villehardouin made another embassy into Italy to prevent if possible some of his fellow-pilgrims from breaking the treaty with the Venetians by embarking at their ports and employing other convoy.
Villehardouin does not tell us of any direct part taken by him self in the debates on the question of interfering or not in the disputed succession to the empire of the East—debates in which the chief ecclesiastics present strongly protested against the diver sion of the enterprise from its proper goal. It is quite clear, how ever, that the marshal of Champagne, who was one of the leaders and inner counsellors of the expedition throughout, sympathized with the majority, and it is fair to point out that the temptation of chivalrous adventure was probably as great as that of gain. He narrates spiritedly enough the dissensions and discussions in the winter camp of Zara and at Corfu, but is evidently much more at ease when the voyage was again resumed, and, after a fair pass age round Greece, the crusaders at last saw before them the great city of Constantinople which they had in mind to attack.
When the assault was decided upon, Villehardouin himself was in the fifth "battle," the leader of which was Mathieu de Mont morency. But he does not tell us anything of his own prowess.
After the flight of the usurper Alexius, and when the blind Isaac, whose claims the crusaders were defending, had been taken by the Greeks from prison and placed on the throne, Villehardouin, with Montmorency and two Venetians, formed the embassy sent to arrange terms. He was again similarly distinguished when it be came necessary to remonstrate with Alexius, the blind man's son and virtual successor, on the non-keeping of the terms. Indeed Villehardouin's talents as a diplomatist seem to have been held in very high esteem, for later, when the Latin empire had become a fact, he was charged with the delicate business of mediating be tween the emperor Baldwin and Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, in which task he had at least partial success. He was also appointed marshal of "Romanie"—a term very vaguely used, but apparently signifying the mainland of the Balkan Peninsula, while his nephew and namesake, afterwards prince of Achaia, took a great part in the Latin conquest of Peloponnesus.
Villehardouin himself before long received an important com mand against the Bulgarians. He was left to maintain the siege of Adrianople when Baldwin advanced to attack the relieving force, and with Dandolo had much to do in saving the defeated crusaders from utter destruction, and in conducting the retreat, in which he commanded the rearguard, and brought his troops in safety to the sea of Rodosto, and thence to the capital. As he occupied the post of honour in this disaster, so he had that (the command of the vanguard) in the expedition which the regent Henry made shortly afterwards to revenge his brother Baldwin's defeat and capture. And, when Henry had succeeded to the crown on the announcement of Baldwin's death, it was Villehardouin who fetched home his bride Agnes of Montferrat, and shortly after wards commanded under him in a naval battle with the ships of Theodore Lascaris at the fortress of Cibotus. In the settlement of the Latin empire after the truce with Lascaris, Villehardouin received the fief of Messinople from Boniface of Montferrat, with the record of whose death the chronicle abruptly closes.