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 (connected to the Angelos dynasty of 1185–1204) in Nicaea and the Komnenos family (which had ruled as Byzantine Emperors 1081–1185) 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.

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 (Franks, Venetians, and other Westerners) 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 Frankokratia 'rule of the Franks', or the Latinokratia 'rule of the Latins'.

Founding treaties issued by the crusaders specifically refer to the empire as the imperium Constantinopolitanum ("Constantinopolitan Empire"). 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 ("emperor of the Greeks"), 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 ("king of the Greeks").

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 (only known in its Latin version) 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 (Σεβαστό Λατίνο βασιλιά των Ρωμαίων, lit. "August Latin Empire of the Romans"). 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.

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: