Latin Empire

The Latin Empire was a Crusader state created after the knights of the Fourth Crusade, together with Venice, captured and sacked Constantinople, and divided the lands of the Byzantine Empire among themselves. Baldwin of Flanders was crowned emperor, but his authority was limited, because the Venetians kept the best harbours and islands and the Frankish lords ruled their own territories. The Latin emperors were short of money and men, and they were threatened by the Bulgarians and by Greek successor states such as the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus. The Latin Empire shrank to little more than the city itself. Constantinople was retaken by the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who restored the Byzantine Empire.

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