VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROI DE, a French chronicler; born in the family château near Bar-sur-Aube, about 1160. In 1180 he succeeded his father Guil laume as Marshal of Champagne under Thibaut, brother of Henri II. of France, and in 1201 he was one of the ambassa dors despatched to Venice to make ar rangements 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 him self greatly in the conflict which finally placed Baldwin of Flanders on the throne of the Byzantine empire. Re warded 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 in herited his title and possessions. The
narrative of the fourth crusade by which Villehardouin ranks among the most im portant historians of the time, covers the period from 1198-1207, and consists largely of his own personal experience. First published by Blaise de Viginere as "History of the Conquest of Constanti nople by the French Barons, associated with the Venetians in the year 1204, in the Change of its Absolute Language to one more Modern and Intelligible" (1584), it has been frequently re-edited by Ducange (1657) ; by Petitot in his "Collections of Memoirs" (1819) ; by Bouquet in his "Things Gallic." "Scrip tures" (1838) ; and by Natalie de Wanly (1st ed. 1871, 2d 1874). There is an English translation by T. Smith, "Chron icles concerning the Conquest of Con stantinople" (1829), and a German translation by Todt (1878).