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THE PLOT. 279 Montferrat found it convenient to find grievances against that of Isaac. Eeynier, the third son of William of Montferrat, younger brother of Conrad and elder brother of Boniface, had married Maria, daughter of the Emperor Manuel, lie was at the time a beardless boy, and she a woman remarkably robust, and thirty years of age.* The Western writers declare that he received as dowry the kingdom of Salon ica, thongh no Greek writer mentions a fact so important. lie died without children after the murder of Conrad, and his only surviving brother was Boniface.^ Thus the leader of the expedition, if we are to judge by narratives which were written by men whose object was in most cases to find an excuse for the conduct of Boniface, had family grievances which made him hostile to Constantinople. He considered himself de jure King of Salonica as inheritor of the dowry of Eeynier. He had also, if Clari is to be be- lieved, to revenge the attempt upon the life of his other brother, Conrad. Philip and he had therefore each his own reason for wishing to attack the Emperor Alexis. It is by no means improbable that they had discussed and decided upon a plan of attacking the empire during the time that Theobald of Champagne was still alive.' The election of Boniface had taken place in June, 1201. In August he took the Cross and was solemnly invested with the title of Cap- tain of the Christian Army. Shortly afterwards, as we have already seen, he left Burgundy for the court of Philip of Swabia, which was then at Ilagenau, where he arrived at the 1 Nicetas, p. 222. 2 A charter of 1204 states that Boniface sold to the Venetians his rights to the fiefs given by Manuel to his/«Mcr, probably a mistake for his brother ("Tafel et Thomas," i. 513). ' See on this point the examination by Count Riant in "Inno. III., Phil., et Boniface," pp. 3G, 37. Tliis author believes Boniface to have been the secret agent of Philip, even before he was appointed to the com- mand of the crusading army. See, however, the arguments on the other side in M. Jules Tessier's " Diversion sur Zara et Constantinople," Paris, 1884.