Latin Empire


The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople or the Constantinopolitan Empire, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantine Empire as the Western-recognized Roman Empire in the east, with a Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors. The main objective to form a Latin Empire was planned over the course of the Fourth Crusade, promoted by crusade leaders such as Boniface I of Montferrat, as well as the Republic of Venice.
The Fourth Crusade had originally been called to retake the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, but a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army sacking the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Originally, the plan had been to restore the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos, who had been usurped by Alexios III Angelos, to the throne. The crusaders had been promised financial and military aid by Isaac's son Alexios IV, with which they had planned to continue to Jerusalem. When the crusaders reached Constantinople, the situation quickly turned volatile, and while Isaac and Alexios briefly ruled, the crusaders did not receive the payment they had hoped for. In April 1204, they captured and plundered the city's enormous wealth.
The crusaders selected their own emperor from among their own ranks, Baldwin IX of Flanders, and divided the territory of the Byzantine Empire into various new vassal crusader states. The Latin Empire's authority was immediately challenged by Byzantine rump states led by the Laskaris family in Nicaea and the Komnenos family in Trebizond. From 1224 to 1242, the Komnenos Doukas family, also connected to the Angeloi, challenged Latin authority from Thessalonica. The Latin Empire failed to attain political or economic dominance over the other Latin powers that had been established in former Byzantine territories in the wake of the Fourth Crusade, especially Venice, and after a short initial period of military successes, it went into a steady decline due to constant war with Bulgaria to the north and the various Byzantine claimants. Eventually, the Nicene Empire recovered Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire under Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. The last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century.

Etymology

The term "Latin Empire" was not contemporary, and was first used by historians in the 16th century to distinguish the Crusader state from the classical Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, all of which called themselves "Roman". The term "Latin" was chosen because the crusaders were Roman Catholic and used Latin as their liturgical and scholarly language in contrast to the Eastern Orthodox locals who used Greek in both liturgy and common speech. The Byzantines referred to the Latin Empire as the 'rule of the Franks', or the 'rule of the Latins'.
Founding treaties issued by the crusaders specifically refer to the empire as the imperium Constantinopolitanum. Although this is a marked departure from the standard Byzantine nomenclature and ideology, designating the empire as the Basileía Rhōmaíōn 'Empire of the Romans', imperium Constantinopolitanum was the standard name used for the eastern empire in western sources, such as in papal correspondence, and suggests that the Latin leaders viewed themselves as "taking over" the empire rather than "replacing" it. It would have been difficult for the crusaders to justify referring to the empire as "Roman" considering that Western Europe generally held the Germanic Holy Roman Empire to represent the legitimate Roman Empire. These two conclusions—that for outsiders the Roman identity of this empire remained controversial and that its conquest was considered a takeover, not a replacement—are further supported by an entry in Deeds of the Bishops of Halberstadt, a contemporaneous chronicle made in Germany. When referring to the elevation of the first Latin Emperor, Baldwin I, the chronicle called him imperator Grecorum, the same title used on an earlier page for Alexios I Komnenos. Similarly, the Emperor Isaac Angelos is listed in the chronicle as rex Grecorum.
The full title Baldwin actually used was dei gratia fidelissimus in Christo imperator a Deo coronatus Romanorum moderator et semper augustus, a near perfect replication of the one used by Alexios IV Angelos, placed on the throne by the crusaders previously, in a letter to Pope Innocent III: fidelis in Christo imperator a Deo coronatus Romanorum moderator et semper augustus. Letters by Baldwin to Pope Innocent III give his title as imperator Constantinopolitanus, possibly altered by Papal scribes as the Pope recognized the Holy Roman Emperor as the imperator Romanorum. In his seals, Baldwin abbreviated Romanorum as Rom., conveniently leaving it open for interpretation whether he referred to Romaniae 'land of the Romans' or Romanorum 'the Romans'. It is probably more likely that he meant Romanorum. Baldwin's successor Henry called the empire imperium Romanum at least in one letter. A Venetian statesman Marino Sanuto the Elder used yet another appellative, Sebastō Latíno Basilía ton Rhōmaíōn. The term "Romania" had been a vernacular name used for centuries by the population of the Late Roman polity for their country.
Three different versions of imperial titulature are attested under Henry; Henricus Dei Gratia Imperator Romaniae 'Emperor of Romania', Henricus Dei Gratia Imperator Romanorum 'Emperor of the Romans' and Henricus Dei Gratia Imperator Constantinopolitani 'Constantinopolitan Emperor', possibly intended for different recipients. Usage of the title Emperor of Constantinople may not just have been to appease the Pope and Western Europe, but might also have been used to legitimize the rule of the Latin Emperors in regards to the Byzantines that they ruled. Possession of the city itself was a key legitimizing factor that set the Latin Emperors apart from Byzantine claimants in Nicaea, Trebizond and Thessalonica.

History

Origins

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 remainder and exerted control over:
Further duchies were projected in Asia Minor, at Nicaea, Nicomedia, Philadelphia, and Neokastra. These duchies remained theoretical, due to the establishment of the Empire of Nicaea in the area. Nicaea itself was never occupied and Louis of Blois was killed in 1205. Thierry de Loos was captured by the Nicaeans in 1207 and, although released, left the Latin Empire two years later. After a brief Nicaean reconquest, Nicomedia returned to Latin control, but the ducatus Nichomedie remained part of the Imperial domain. Philadelphia never came under actual Latin control, although the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders laid claim to the region after defeating the local strongman, Theodore Mangaphas, in 1205. The duchy of Neokastra on the other hand was never accorded to a single holder, but was divided among the Knights Hospitaller and other feudatories. The term "duchy" in this case reflects the earlier Byzantine term theme, usually governed by a doux, to designate a province.
The Doge of Venice did not rank as a vassal to the Latin Empire. Still, his position in control of three-eighths of its territory and of parts of Constantinople itself ensured Venice's influence in the Empire's affairs. However, much of the former Byzantine territory remained in the hands of rival successor states led by Byzantine Greek aristocrats, such as the Despotate of Epirus, the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond, each bent on reconquest from the Latins.
On 9 May 1204, Baldwin I was elected the emperor with Venetian support, and crowned on 16 May in the Hagia Sophia in a ceremony that closely followed Eastern Roman practices. Not long after the coronation, Baldwin ventured out into the Thracian countryside, posturing not as a conqueror but as a legitimate ruler, expecting to be universally acclaimed by the populace as the Emperor of the Romans. The establishment of the Latin Empire had the curious effect of creating five simultaneously existing polities claiming to be the Roman Empire: the Latin empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and the three remnants of the Byzantine Empire, the Despotate of Epirus, the empire of Nicaea, and the empire of Trebizond.

In Asia Minor

The initial campaigns of the crusaders in Asia Minor resulted in the capture of most of Bithynia by 1205, with the defeat of the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa. Latin successes continued, and in 1207 a truce was signed with Theodore, newly proclaimed Emperor of Nicaea. The Latins inflicted a further defeat on Nicaean forces at the Rhyndakos river in October 1211, and three years later the Treaty of Nymphaeum recognized their control of most of Bithynia and Mysia.
The peace was maintained until 1222, when the resurgent power of Nicaea felt sufficiently strong to challenge the Latin Empire, by that time weakened by constant warfare in its European provinces. At the battle of Poimanenon in 1224, the Latin army was defeated, and by the next year Emperor Robert of Courtenay was forced to cede all his Asian possessions to Nicaea, except for Nicomedia and the territories directly across from Constantinople. Nicaea turned also to the Aegean, capturing the islands awarded to the empire. In 1235, finally, the last Latin possessions fell to Nicaea.