Conon de Béthune (before 1160[1] in the former region of Artois, today Pas-de-Calais - 17 December 1219, possibly at Adrianople) was a French crusader and trouvère poet who became a senior official and finally regent of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.
[1] His four elder brothers were: Conon was educated by his cousin, the noted poet Hugues III d'Oisy, Castellan of Cambrai, who taught him the art of poetry.
He was however embarrassed, as he recorded wryly in the poem Mout me semont Amors ke je m'envoise, by his Artesian accent.
At the outset he was chosen as one of six knights to command all transport and supplies and when the army arrived at Constantinople he was appointed its spokesman in negotiations with the Byzantines.
His rhetorical ability, wisdom and chivalry were praised by fellow Crusader Geoffroi de Villehardouin, who said of Conon: Bon chevalier et sage estoit et bien eloquens (A good knight and a wise one he was, and most eloquent).