Latin Empire

The Latin Empire, also called the Latin Empire of Constantinople or the Constantinopolitan Empire, and officially the Empire of Romania, was a feudal Crusader state. Its leaders, who took part in the Fourth Crusade, founded it on lands they had captured from the Byzantine Empire. It existed from 1204 CE until it was ended in 1261 CE. It was meant to take the place of the Byzantine Empire as the Roman Empire in the east, as recognized by the West. Instead of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors, a Catholic emperor would sit on the throne. Crusade leaders such as Boniface I of Montferrat, along with the Republic of Venice, planned this goal during the Fourth Crusade.

The Fourth Crusade was first called to retake the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem. However, a series of economic and political events led the Crusader army to sack Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in April 1204. At first, the crusaders planned to restore the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos, who had been pushed off the throne by Alexios III Angelos. Isaac's son, Alexios IV, had promised the crusaders money and military help for their journey on to Jerusalem. When the crusaders arrived, the situation quickly became unstable. Isaac and Alexios ruled only briefly, and the crusaders did not get the payment they had hoped for. They then captured the city and took its great wealth.

The crusaders chose their own emperor, Baldwin IX of Flanders, and divided the former Byzantine lands into several new crusader states that served under the empire. The Latin Empire's power was challenged right away. Byzantine rump states rose up against it. The Laskaris family, who were connected to the Angelos dynasty, ruled from Nicaea. The Komnenos family, who had ruled as Byzantine emperors, ruled from Trebizond. The Komnenos Doukas family ruled in Epirus and Thessalonica, especially from 1224 to 1242. The Latin Empire never gained full control over the other Latin powers in the former Byzantine lands, especially Venice. After a short period of military success, it slowly declined because of constant wars with Bulgaria to the north and with the various Byzantine claimants.

In 1261, the Nicene Empire recovered Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire under Michael VIII Palaiologos. The last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile. However, the imperial title lived on, with several pretenders claiming it until the 14th century.

Etymology

The name "Latin Empire" was not used at the time. Historians in the 1500s first used it to tell the Crusader state apart from the old Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, which all called themselves "Roman." The name "Latin" was chosen because the crusaders (Franks, Venetians, and other Westerners) were Roman Catholic and used Latin for worship and learning, while the local Eastern Orthodox people used Greek. The Byzantines called the empire the Frankokratia, meaning "rule of the Franks," or the Latinokratia, meaning "rule of the Latins." The crusaders' founding treaties called it the imperium Constantinopolitanum ("Constantinopolitan Empire"). This was different from the usual Byzantine nomenclature and ideology, which called the empire the Basileía Rhōmaíōn, "Empire of the Romans." Western Europe generally saw the German Holy Roman Empire as the true Roman Empire, so the crusaders would have found it hard to call their empire "Roman." A German chronicle, Deeds of the Bishops of Halberstadt, called the first Latin Emperor, Baldwin I, imperator Grecorum ("emperor of the Greeks"), the same title it gave to Alexios I Komnenos.

Baldwin's full title was very similar to that of Alexios IV Angelos, the emperor the crusaders had earlier placed on the throne. In letters to Pope Innocent III, Baldwin called himself imperator Constantinopolitanus. His successor Henry used the name imperium Romanum in at least one letter. The Venetian statesman Marino Sanuto the Elder used yet another name. The word "Romania" had long been used by people in the Late Roman state for their country. Under Henry, three versions of the imperial title were used, possibly for different recipients. Holding the city of Constantinople itself set the Latin Emperors apart from Byzantine rulers in Nicaea, Trebizond, and Thessalonica.

History

See also: Frankokratia

After the Sack of Constantinople, the crusaders agreed to divide up Byzantine territory. In the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae, signed on 1 October 1204, three eighths of the empire, including Crete and other islands, went to the Republic of Venice. The Latin Empire claimed the rest and controlled parts of Greece, split into vassal fiefs such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the Principality of Achaea, the Duchy of Athens, and the Duchy of the Archipelago. It also held the short-lived Duchy of Philippopolis in north Thrace. More duchies were planned in Asia Minor, at Nicaea (for Louis of Blois), Nicomedia (Thierry de Loos), Philadelphia (Stephen du Perche), and Neokastra, but these stayed mostly on paper because of the Empire of Nicaea. The Doge of Venice was not a vassal, but his control of three-eighths of the land and parts of Constantinople gave Venice great influence. Other successor states, led by Byzantine Greek nobles, such as the Despotate of Epirus, the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond, wanted to win back land from the Latins. Baldwin I was chosen emperor with Venetian support on 9 May 1204 and crowned on 16 May in the Hagia Sophia, following Eastern Roman customs. This meant five states now claimed to be the Roman Empire: the Latin Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and three remnants of the Byzantine Empire, namely the Despotate of Epirus, the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond.

The crusaders first captured most of Bithynia by 1205, defeating the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa. A truce was signed in 1207 with Theodore, newly proclaimed Emperor of Nicaea. The Latins won a further defeat of Nicaean forces in October 1211, and the Treaty of Nymphaeum (1214) recognized their control of most of Bithynia and Mysia. Peace lasted until 1222, when Nicaea felt strong enough to challenge the Latins, who had been weakened by constant war in Europe. At the battle of Poimanenon in 1224, the Latin army was defeated, and Robert of Courtenay gave up all Asian lands except Nicomedia and the areas across from Constantinople. Nicaea also took islands in the Aegean, and by 1235 the last Latin possessions had fallen. In Europe, the Latin Empire faced the powerful Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan, who was called in by Byzantine lords of Thrace. At the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205, Kaloyan's troops and Cuman allies defeated the Latin knights, and Emperor Baldwin was captured and died in the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo. Kaloyan was killed in 1207 during a siege of Thessalonica, and Baldwin's successor, Henry of Flanders, regained most lost lands before making peace in 1210 through his marriage to Maria of Bulgaria. The Despotate of Epirus, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, also threatened the Latin vassals in Thessalonica and Athens, but Michael later submitted. Henry's campaigns in Macedonia, Thessaly, and Central Greece were aimed at the rebellious Lombard lords of Thessalonica. After Henry died in 1216, Peter of Courtenay was crowned in 1217 but was captured and executed by Theodore Komnenos Doukas. Peter's widow, Yolanda of Flanders, ruled until 1219, and regents, including Conon de Béthune and Giovanni Colonna, governed until Robert returned in 1221. Waiting in vain for help from Pope Honorius III and the French king, the Latins could not stop Thessalonica from falling to Epirus in 1224. A truce with Bulgaria's Ivan II Asen was agreed in 1228.

After Robert of Courtenay died in 1228, John of Brienne became regent. Epirus was defeated by Bulgaria at the Battle of Klokotnitsa, but Nicaea under John III Doukas Vatatzes took its place as a threat, allied with Bulgaria, and besieged Constantinople unsuccessfully in 1235 (see siege of Constantinople). Baldwin II took power in 1237 over a much smaller state and sought help in Western Europe, with little success. To raise money, he removed the lead roofs of the Great Palace and sold them, and he gave his son Philip to Venetian merchants as security for a loan. By 1261, Nicaea under Michael VIII Palaiologos had surrounded Latin holdings. In July 1261, the Nicaean general Alexios Strategopoulos, with about 800 soldiers, most of them Cumans, learned that the Latin garrison and the Venetian fleet were away. On the night of 24 to 25 July, his men entered through a secret passage near the city walls, opened a gate, and took control of the city. Baldwin II and the Latins hurried to the harbours of the Golden Horn, but many escaped by ship, and the city was lost. The remaining Latin states in present-day Greece lasted for some time and are known as Latinokratia. Baldwin II and his successors kept the imperial title, which passed to Philip of Courtenay and later to the princes of Taranto. In 1373, James of Baux inherited the title from Philip II of Taranto, and he later claimed the Principality of Achaea with help from the Navarrese Company against Joanna I of Naples, dying in 1383.

Organization and society

Main article: Latin Patriarch of Constantinople

The empire was set up and run using Western European feudal ideas, with some parts of the Byzantine bureaucracy. The emperor was helped by a council of barons and the Venetian Podestà of Constantinople and his six council members. The podestà was very powerful and almost independent of the emperor. He ruled the Venetian areas of Constantinople and Pera, and acted more like an ambassador and vicegerent of Venice than a vassal of the empire. The Latins did not trust the Greek officials and removed the Greek economic system, which caused serious problems for farming and trade. For a few years, the empire sold wheat and furs to other places and gained from Constantinople's position on trade routes. It did better while Henry of Flanders was alive, but after his death in 1216 its leadership was weak. By the 1230s, the city faced shortages of basic foodstuffs, even though far fewer people lived there. Its main real export was selling relics taken from Greek churches back to Western Europe. For example, Emperor Baldwin II sold the Crown of Thorns while in France trying to raise money.

The elite were Frankish and Venetian lords, led by the emperor, the barons and lower-ranking vassals, including many former Byzantine aristocrats. Most people were Orthodox Greeks, who were still grouped by income based on land ownership. A Latin Catholic church system was set up, and Western religious orders such as the Cistercians, Franciscans and Dominicans had houses there. Greek bishops who accepted the pope's authority could keep their positions, and Greek priests kept serving most people, but Greek clergy held a lower place. Church leadership was shared between the Latin patriarch of Constantinople and a papal legate. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX gave the legate role to the Latin patriarch, Simon of Tyre. The Greek clergy kept some of its traditions, including married priests, and disputes continued over ordination, church authority and tithes. Very few artworks from the Latin Empire are known today. André Grabar suggested this was because they were destroyed, because their making was disrupted, or because they are hard to tell apart from copies made abroad. Crusader rule did increase awareness of Byzantine art in Italy and contributed to the Italo-Byzantine style. One example is the Italian painting Virgin and Child by Berlinghiero, made around 1230, which was based on a Byzantine icon type called the Hodegetria. The original Hodegetria icon kept at the Hodegon Monastery is believed to have been destroyed after Constantinople was sacked by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.