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2 results

  • 16 - The Byzantine empire and the Balkans, 1204–1453

  • from Part III - Nations and Formations, c.1300–1500 ce
  • Edited by Anne Curry, University of Southampton
  • David A. Graff, Kansas State University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of War
    Published online:
    25 September 2020
    Print publication:
    01 October 2020, pp 429-448

  • Summary

    The Fourth Crusade (1199–1204), culminating in the sack of Constantinople and the conquest of most of the Byzantine empire, is a textbook example of a noble plan gone awry. The original intent was to attack the Ayyubids in Egypt, but along the way financial and other considerations diverted the French and Venetian crusaders to Constantinople where they restored the deposed emperor Isaac II Angelos (r.1185–95, 1203–4) to power. According to an earlier agreement, Isaac was to provide the crusaders with military and financial aid, but fiscal problems within the empire made this impossible. As time passed, anti-Latin sentiment within the city led to a palace coup which overthrew Isaac. The crusaders then seized the city and the empire itself. The Fourth Crusade and the subsequent Latin conquest intensified the anarchy that already existed within the provinces, providing the grace blow to an empire which had become increasingly fragmented to the point of disintegration.

  • (a) - The Latin empire of Constantinople and the Frankish states in Greece

  • from 17 - Byzantium after the Fourth Crusade
  • David Abulafia, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    21 October 1999, pp 523-542

  • Summary

    The western or Latin conquest of Constantinople on 13 April 1204 heralded a new era in the history of the Byzantine lands, known in the west as Romania. The internal structure and development of the Latin empire was rather complex. The principality of Morea, the third major Frankish state of Latin Romania, survived the Latin empire by some 170 years. The establishment of Latin rule over extensive portions of Romania opened the way to western immigration and settlement in the territories on a scale much larger than before 1204. The breakdown of imperial government in the years immediately preceding and particularly those following the fall of Constantinople the archontes in many areas of Romania exercised effective rule over the local population. One of the most important economic effects of the Latin conquest of Constantinople was the opening of the Black Sea to unrestricted western commerce.