At the
Tournament at
Écry-sur-Aisne on 28 November 1199, count Louis and his cousin
Theobald III of Champagne were the first major nobles to respond to
Pope Innocent III's call for a
Fourth Crusade. He left France in 1202, along with a gift of 1,000 marks from his uncle, King
John of England. During the July 1203
siege of Constantinople, Louis was one of eight division commanders, the others including
Boniface of Montferrat (the crusade leader), Doge
Enrico Dandolo (leader of the
Venetians),
Baldwin of Flanders (who controlled the largest division and later became
Latin Emperor of Constantinople), and Baldwin's brother
Henry. During the siege Louis was one of the crusaders who had a meeting with
Agnes of France, Louis' aunt who had been sent in Constantinople when she was around eight. Though she claimed to have forgotten his mother tongue to the crusaders, she held a private discussion with Louis without the help of any traductor. Louis was later afflicted with a severe fever for months, and missed participating in the capture of
Constantinople in 1204. He was too ill to take part in the subsequent forays of his men into
Asia Minor, where he had been created
Duke of Nicaea, a title he never vindicated as the city was captured by
Theodore I Laskaris, founder of the
Empire of Nicaea. He had just recuperated when he participated in the
Battle of Adrianople, where he was slain by a force of
Cumans led by
Kaloyan of Bulgaria ("Johanitza"). Louis chased the enemy too far, exhausting his men and horses and stretching them over a broad plain, where he brought himself and the Emperor
Baldwin I of Constantinople into a trap. == Family ==