Yolanda of Hainault (; 1175 – September 1219), often called Yolanda of Flanders, was Empress of the Latin Empire in Constantinople from 1217 to 1219. Her husband Peter was captured and imprisoned before he could reach Constantinople, so Yolanda ruled the Empire alone. She was the ruling Margrave of Namur from 1212 until 1216.
Biography
Yolanda was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainault, and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Two of her brothers, Baldwin I and then Henry, were emperors in Constantinople.
In 1212, Yolanda inherited the title of Margrave of Namur from her brother, Philip I, and held the title in her own right.
After the death of her brother, emperor Henry, in 1216, there was a brief period without an emperor, before Peter was elected to succeed her brother.
Her husband Peter accepted the imperial crown at her instigation. Yolanda, who was empress in her own right, was crowned by Pope Honorius III together with her husband Peter.
On their way there, Peter sent Yolanda ahead to Constantinople, while he fought the Despotate of Epirus, during which he was captured. Because his fate was unknown (although he was probably killed), Yolanda ruled Constantinople alone for two years.
described her as a regent, but Filip Van Tricht consider her as an empress in her own right, because:
- For the legitimacy of his emperorship, her husband was dependent on her as the sister of the previous emperors.
- In April 1217 in Rome, she, together with her husband, confirmed the constitutional conventions of the empire in the presence of the envoys of the Venetian doge, something that is unknown of any other empress.
- From a 13th-century Venetian catalogue of emperors, she ruled the empire whilst Conon of Béthune governed it at her side, this ensuing from a woman being on the imperial throne.
She allied with the Bulgarians against the various Byzantine successor states, and was able to make peace with Theodore I Lascaris of the Empire of Nicaea, who married her daughter, Marie.
She died in September 1219.
Legacy
Following Yolanda's death, her second son, Robert of Courtenay, became emperor because her eldest son, Philip, did not want the throne. Robert was still in France at the time.
Yolanda left the title of Margrave of Namur to her eldest son, Marquis Philip II, when she went to Constantinople in 1216.
- Marie (1204–1228), who married Theodore I Lascaris of the Empire of Nicaea
- (1208–1230), who married Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre
- Sybil, nun at Fontevraud-l'Abbaye; died at a young age after 1223