Peter II was a son of
Peter I of Courtenay (died 1183), a younger son of
Louis VI of France and his second wife,
Adélaide de Maurienne. His mother was Elisabeth de Courtenay, daughter of
Renaud de Courtenay (died 1194) and Hawise du Donjon. Peter first married
Agnes I, via whom he obtained the three counties of
Nevers,
Auxerre, and
Tonnerre. In 1193 he married secondly to
Yolanda, a sister of
Baldwin and
Henry of Flanders, who were afterwards the first and second emperors of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Peter accompanied his cousin, King
Philip Augustus, on the
third Crusade in 1190, returning to France in 1193. He fought (alongside his brother Robert) in the
Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and 1211, when he took part in the siege of
Lavaur. He was present at the
Battle of Bouvines in 1214. When his brother-in-law, the emperor
Henry, died without issue in 1216, Peter was chosen as his successor, and with a small army he left his residence of
château de Druyes in
France to take possession of his throne. He was consecrated emperor at the
Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in
Rome by
Pope Honorius III on 9 April 1217. He then borrowed some ships from the Venetians, promising in return to conquer
Durazzo for them, but he failed in this enterprise and sought to make his way to Constantinople by land. On the journey he was seized by the
despot of Epirus,
Theodore Komnenos Doukas, and, after an imprisonment, died, probably by foul means. Peter thus never governed his empire, which, however, was ruled for a time by his wife, Yolanda, who had succeeded in reaching Constantinople. Two of his sons,
Robert and
Baldwin, reigned in turn as emperors of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. In late 1217,
Pope Honorius III still mentioned Emperor Peter as a prisoner.
Giovanni Colonna, who was also imprisoned, was released by the despot in early 1218 after negotiations. However, Peter is no longer mentioned, which suggests his death. ==Family==