Founding of the Latin Empire

In May 1204, following the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was crowned emperor in Hagia Sophia, founding the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It was a crusader state, ruled by Western European knights with the Byzantine capital as its center. From the start, the Latin Empire was weak. Its territory was far smaller than the old Byzantine Empire, many of its knights received lands elsewhere or returned home, and it faced enemies on every side, including the Byzantine successor states of Nicaea and Epirus and the Bulgarians. In 1205, just a year after his coronation, Baldwin was defeated and captured by the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan at the Battle of Adrianople, and he died in captivity. His successors struggled to hold on. Much of Constantinople fell into decay, and many of its treasures were sold. By the 1250s, the Latin Empire controlled little more than the city itself, and its last emperor, Baldwin II, was desperately short of money. In 1261, the Empire of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople.