page_title: Robert of Nantes
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert of Nantes / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Louis IX reçoit le patriarche de Jérusalem
context_page_description: Robert of Nantes was the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem from 1240 to 1254.
context_section_description: Robert was a native of the Saintonge. He was a bishop in Apulia, but was expelled by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In 1236, Pope Gregory IX appointed him bishop of Nantes. In Nantes, Robert came into conflict with Peter I, Duke of Brittany and Peter's son John, whom the church accused of appropriating ecclesiastical property. Robert complained several times to Gregory and appealed to the pope in person in Rome in 1238.
  Meanwhile, Emperor Frederick claimed the regency of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for his underage son Conrad II, whose mother, Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem, had died in childbirth. However, Frederick had been excommunicated by Gregory IX. In 1239, Gerold of Lausanne, Patriarch of Jerusalem, died during the Barons' Crusade. The canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem selected the former Bishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry, as his replacement, but as Jacques had recently died, Gregory IX appointed Robert instead in May 1240. Gregory likely appointed Robert because of his experience with Frederick in Apulia.
  Gregory IX died in 1241 and was eventually succeeded by Pope Innocent IV in 1243. In the meantime, Robert remained in Europe and did not arrive in Jerusalem until 1244. Soon after his arrival, the Khwarazmian Turks captured Jerusalem. The Khwarazmians allied with Egypt and defeated a combined army from Jerusalem and Damascus at the Battle of La Forbie in October of the same year. Robert was present at the battle and barely escaped. In 1247, Robert sent a relic of the Holy Blood to Henry III of England in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to convince him to go on crusade. The subsequent Seventh Crusade was instead led by King Louis IX of France, who invaded Egypt in 1250. Louis was defeated and taken captive at the Battle of al-Mansourah, and Robert was imprisoned along with him.
caption: St. Louis receives the Patriarch of Jerusalem in Damietta, Jean-Marie Oscar Gué (1847)
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