Berthold II, Count of Katzenelnbogen

Berthold II von Katzenelnbogen (fl. 1199–1217) was a German nobleman of the family of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen and a participant in the Fourth Crusade (1202–04), who became lord of Velestino (c.1205–17) and regent of the Kingdom of Thessalonica (c.1217) in Frankish Greece. He was a patron of poets and in politics a Ghibelline.

Born sometime before 1183, Berthold was the son of Berthold I of Katzenelnbogen and nephew of the powerful bishop of Münster, Hermann II (1173–1202). Berthold joined the court of his uncle, and is attested as being with him at Worms in February 1199, after Hermann had joined the court of King Philip of Germany. Disappointed with the political disunity and civil war in the Holy Roman Empire in the aftermath of Philip's 1198 election as king, Berthold joined the Fourth Crusade in 1202. He arrived at the Crusader camp after the Crusaders had besieged and captured Zara (Zadar) in Hungary. Like most of the German contingent, he was placed under the command of the Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, with whom he developed a close personal relationship. In 1203, when the Crusader army reached Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, the German contingent was under the overall command of Henry of Flanders, with whom Berthold developed a good relationship. On 12 April 1204, after the breach of Constantinople by the Crusaders, a certain German count (quidam comes theothonicus), possibly Berthold, set fire to a section of the city in order to force the defending Byzantines to retire.

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