Latin Empire - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latin Empire Imperium Constantinopolitanum Imperium Romaniae Imperium Romanorum | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1204–1261[note 1] | |||||||||||||||
![]() The Latin Empire with its vassals (in yellow) in 1204 | |||||||||||||||
Capital | Constantinople | ||||||||||||||
Common languages | Latin, Old French (official) Greek (popular) | ||||||||||||||
Religion | Latin Catholic (official) Greek Orthodox (popular) | ||||||||||||||
Government | Feudal Christian Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
Emperor | |||||||||||||||
• 1204–1205 | Baldwin I | ||||||||||||||
• 1206–1216 | Henry | ||||||||||||||
• 1216–1217 | Peter | ||||||||||||||
• 1219–1228 | Robert I | ||||||||||||||
• 1229–1237 | John | ||||||||||||||
• 1228–1261 | Baldwin II | ||||||||||||||
Historical era | High Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||
1204 | |||||||||||||||
• Joint Nicean-Bulgarian campaign against Empire | 1235 | ||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1261[note 1] | ||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||
1204 est.[2] | 179,000 km2 (69,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
1209 est.[2] | 206,000 km2 (80,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
1228 est.[2] | 47,000 km2 (18,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
1260 est.[2] | 14,000 km2 (5,400 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Today part of | Turkey Greece Bulgaria |
The Latin Empire was a feudal crusader state. It was created during the Fourth Crusade on the land captured from the Byzantine Empire. Originally, the crusaders were told to retake the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem. Instead of doing that, the crusaders looted and captured Constantinople.
History
[change | change source]Fourth crusade
[change | change source]In 1202, Pope Innocent III called for the crusaders to retake the Holy Land from the Abbasid. Due to financial problems, the crusaders were not able to reach their original goals. Crusaders and the Venetians attacked and looted the Catholic city of Zara, Croatia. Soon after this, they were excommunicated by the pope.
Crusaders and the Venetians later decided to go to Constantinople. In 1203, the Crusaders besieged Constantinople. A year later they looted and captured the city.
Latin Empire
[change | change source]In 1204, Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the Latin Emperor of Constantinople in Hagia Sophia. Baldwin did not reign for long. He was captured in the Battle of Adrianople while fighting the Bulgarians.
Notes
[change | change source]- ↑ The Byzantines retook Constantinople under Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. Latin possessions remained in Greece until the Ottoman Empire took the Duchy of the Archipelago in 1579. The other Latin principalities followed a lineage of Latin Emperors until the death of James of Baux in 1383.
- ↑ Arms used by Philip of Courtenay. He held the title of Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1273–1283. This design was sometimes said to be the "arms of the emperors of Constantinople" in early modern heraldry.[1]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Hubert de Vries, Byzantium: Arms and Emblems (hubert-herald.nl) (2011).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Matanov, Hristo (2014). В търсене на средновековното време. Неравният път на българите (VII - XV в.)(in Bulgarian). IK Gutenberg. ISBN 9786191760183.