Seal of Antoine le Flamenc (Schlumberger, 1897)

Anthony le Flamenc (french: Antoine le Flamenc, it, Antonio Fiammengo, lat, Antonius Flamengo, el, Αντώνιος Λε Φλαμά; ) was an early 14th-century

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

knight and lord of Karditsa (now

Akraifnio Akraifnio ( el, Ακραίφνιο), before 1933 known as Karditsa (), is a village in Boeotia, Greece. It was the seat of the former municipality Akraifnia, which is a municipal unit of the municipality Orchomenos since the 2011 local governmen ...

) in the region of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...

, in the

Duchy of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of the ...

Life

Anthony le Flamenc was of

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

ancestry (as his surname indicates), and his forefathers had long been settled in the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

before he rose to prominence in

Frankish Greece The ''Frankokratia'' ( el, Φραγκοκρατία, la, Francocratia, sometimes anglicized as Francocracy, "rule of the Franks"), also known as ''Latinokratia'' ( el, Λατινοκρατία, la, Latinocratia, "rule of the Latins") and ...

. The eminent 19th-century scholar of the Frankish rule in Greece,

Karl Hopf Karl Hopf may refer to: * Karl Hopf (historian) Karl Hopf (Hamm, Westphalia, February 19, 1832 – Wiesbaden, August 23, 1873) or Carl Hermann Friedrich Johann Hopf was a historian and an expert in Medieval Greece, both Byzantine and Frankish. ...

, suggested that he was the husband and co-ruler of

Isabella Pallavicini Isabella Pallavicini (died 1286), sometimes Jezebel, was sovereign marchioness of Bodonitsa from 1278 to 1286. She succeeded her brother Ubertino and also inherited her elder sister Mabilia's Italian possessions in Parma. The three were the onl ...

, lady of the

March of Bodonitsa The margraviate or marquisate of Bodonitsa (also Vodonitsa or Boudonitza; el, Μαρκιωνία/Μαρκιζᾶτον τῆς Βοδονίτσας), today Mendenitsa, Phthiotis (180 km northwest of Athens), was a Franks, Frankish state in Gre ...

until her death in 1286, after which he disputed the succession to the march with her cousin

Thomas Pallavicini Thomas Pallavicini ( it, Tommaso Pallavicini) was the marquess of Bodonitsa following a disputed succession in 1286. He was the grandson of Rubino, younger brother of Guy, the first margrave. In 1286, the marchioness Isabella, Guy's daughter, di ...

. However, as William Miller pointed out, this was pure conjecture lacking any basis in contemporary sources. Le Flamenc is mentioned for the first time in 1303, when the French version of the ''

Chronicle of the Morea The ''Chronicle of the Morea'' ( el, Τὸ χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως) is a long 14th-century history text, of which four versions are extant: in French, Greek (in verse), Italian and Aragonese. More than 9,000 lines long, the ''Ch ...

'' records that the

Duke of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of th ...

Guy II de la Roche Guy II de la Roche, also known as Guyot or Guidotto (1280 – 5 October 1308), was the Duke of Athens from 1287, the last duke of his family.''The Latins in Greece and the Aegean from the Fourth Crusade to the End of the Middle Ages'', K. M. Se ...

appointed him as his deputy (''

bailli A bailiff (french: bailli, ) was the king's administrative representative during the ''ancien régime'' in northern France, where the bailiff was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in h ...

'') over

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

, a territory which had come under Guy's protection after its Greek ruler, Guy's uncle

Constantine Doukas Constantine X Doukas or Ducas ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δούκας, ''Kōnstantinos X Doukas'', 1006 – 23 May 1067), was Byzantine emperor from 1059 to 1067. He was the founder and first ruling member of the Doukid dynasty. Duri ...

, died and left his underage son

John II Doukas John II Doukas, also Angelos Doukas ( Latinized as Angelus Ducas) ( gr, Ἰωάννης Ἄγγελος Δούκας, Iōannēs Angelos Doukas), was ruler of Thessaly from 1303 to his death in 1318. John II Angelos Doukas was the son of Constanti ...

under Guy's tutelage. Anthony's son John, also received a post in Thessaly. Miller comments that it was possibly their experience with the

Vlachs "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...

of the region that recommended them for such an important assignment. Anthony is also known to have had estates at nearby Koroneia and Patricio, possibly to be identified with the modern village of

Ypsilantis The House of Ypsilantis ( el, Υψηλάντης; ro, Ipsilanti) was a Greek Phanariote family which grew into prominence and power in Constantinople during the last centuries of Ottoman Empire and gave several short-reign '' hospodars'' to the ...

, where a medieval tower is located. Anthony was apparently held in high esteem: the ''Chronicle of the Morea'' calls him not only "the wisest of the duchy", but "one of the wisest men in Romania atin Greece. Indeed, he is the sole member of the lower nobility of the Duchy of Athens to be mentioned in the sources. He was a loyal follower of

Matilda of Hainaut Matilda of Hainaut ( French: ''Mathilde de Hainaut''; November 1293 – 1331), also known as Maud and Mahaut, was Princess of Achaea from 1316 to 1321. She was the only child of Isabella of Villehardouin and Florent of Hainaut, co-rulers of Achae ...

, the wife of Guy II. In 1305 he was among the witnesses to a deed relating to her property in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

(from which both of them hailed) and he was present with his son at her second engagement with

Charles of Taranto Charles of Taranto (1296 – 29 August 1315) was the eldest son of Philip I, Prince of Taranto and titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople, and his wife, Thamar Angelina Komnene, daughter of the Despot of Epirus, Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas. Bio ...

in Thebes on 2 April 1309. In 1308, the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

accused Anthony, Guy, Rocaforte, and

Boniface of Verona Boniface of Verona ( it, Bonifacio da Verona, died late 1317 or early 1318) was a Lombard Crusader lord in Frankish Greece during the late 13th and early 14th century. A third son from a junior branch of his family, he sold his castle to equip ...

of plotting to seize the Venetian colony of Negroponte. On 15 March 1311, Anthony fought in the

Battle of Halmyros The Battle of Halmyros, known by earlier scholars as the Battle of the Cephissus or Battle of Orchomenos, was fought on 15 March 1311, between the forces of the Frankish Duchy of Athens and its vassals under Walter of Brienne against the merc ...

against the

Catalan Company The Catalan Company or the Great Catalan Company (Spanish: ''Compañía Catalana'', Catalan: ''Gran Companyia Catalana'', Latin: ''Exercitus francorum'', ''Societas exercitus catalanorum'', ''Societas cathalanorum'', ''Magna Societas Catalanorum' ...

and was one of the few survivors, though he was captured and held for ransom, as implied by the presence of his name in a list of correspondents of the Venetian authorities in 1313. Anthony built the Church of Saint George at Karditsa soon after his return from captivity, as attested by a donor's inscription, probably, as Miller suggests, commissioned by Anthony in fulfilment of a vow taken before the battle.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flamenc, Anthony Le 13th-century births 14th-century deaths Christians of the Crusades Medieval Thessaly Medieval Boeotia People of the Duchy of Athens People of Flemish descent Lords of the Crusader states