The (Revised Edition) Byzantine Empire

5. Defeat and Disintegration 1204-1453

5 DEFEAT AND DISINTEGRATION 1204-1453 Painted plate with a Byzantine ship dating from the thirteenth century. Courtesy of American School ofClassical Studies Athens, Corinth Excavations. I. Ioannidou, L. Bartziotou. s Mediterranean Sea Empire of Nicaea c. 1220 Despotate of Epirus c. 1220 Byzantine fronti er c. 1340 Byzantine frontier c. 1350 Byza ntine terri tory c. 1402 p~ B U L G c. ~;TE ~ THE BYZA NTINE WORLD 1 204-1 453 8 I a c k Sea ~~ o 50 100 150 200 Km I , ! I I Gf THE LONG DECLINE The western conquerors ofConstantinople proceeded to divide the former territories ofthe empire between themselves with mathematical precision. One quarter was allocated to the emperor; three-eighths went to Venice as a reward for providing transport, supplies, and naval support; three-eighths was to be divided among the Latin knights as fiefs. Constantinople itself was partitioned equally between the emperor and the Venetians. The reality, however, was somewhat different . The Latins were not in control of the whole of the territory to which they laid claim. There were pockets of resistance headed by former Byzantine officials or local dignitaries in many regions of the European provinces. Some of these were speedily conquered or came to terms with the Latins, while others never submitted to Latin rule. More important, the Latins controlled only a small strip ofAsia Minor bordering on the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. The rest ofthis vast territory was beyond their powers to occupy. The immediate outcome of the conquest was that Thrace and the northwest tip of Asia Minor fell to the Emperor Baldwin; Boniface ofMontferrat established a kingdom in Macedonia and Thessaly with Thessalonica as its capital; central Greece was divided among a number ofpetty states, ofwhich the lordship-later the duchy-ofAthens was by far the most important; the Peloponnese became the principality of the Morea, under the rule of Geoffrey de Villehardouin; while Crete, Euboea, the Ionian Islands and many of the Aegean islands, as well as a number of ports, became Venetian colonies. Michael Angelos , a cousin of Isaac II, established his authority in Epirus. In the far northeast of Asia Minor two grandsons of Andronikos I, Alexios and David Comnenus, who had been in rebellion against the authority of Constantinople before 1204, ruled over the territory between the Black Sea and the Pontic Alps, with the powerful support of Queen Thamar of Georgia; their capital was at Trebizond. Finally, Theodore Laskaris, a son-in-law of Alexios III, gained control of a large area of western Asia Minor and set up his headquarters in Nicaea. Thus there existed three embryo Greek successor states to the dis223 Defeat and Disintegration membered Byzantine Empire. That ofTrebizond was too remote and peripheral to be of much account. Those of Epirus and Nicaea were a real threat to the stability and permanence of the Latin Empire. Theodore Laskaris had the greatest difficulty in consolidating his power in Asia Minor, in the face ofLatin military pressure, the resistance oflocal warlords and grandees who were not eager to see central authority reestablished, and the hostility ofthe Seljuq sultan ofIconium . The rulers of Epirus had similarly to face the Latin states of northern Greece, the sea power ofVenice, and the expansionist ambitions of the Serbs. However the situation was dramatically transformed when a group oflandowners in Thrace, fearful-as well they might be-that their estates would be confiscated, appealed for help to King Kalojan ofBulgaria. Eager to fish in troubled waters, Kalojan led his army into Thrace. On 4 April I205 he decisively defeated the Latin forces at Adrianople and took the Emperor Baldwin prisoner. The weakness and disunity of the Latin Empire was clear for all to see. The Greek successor states in Europe and Asia Minor were granted respite from Latin military pressure. In Asia Theodore Laskaris rapidly built up a replica of the Byzantine administrative structure . When in I208 he succeeded in getting his candidate, Michael Autoreianos, recognized as patriarch by the Church and was solemnly crowned by him in Nicaea, he not only transformed himself from a successful warlord to a legitimate sovereign; he also staked his claim to all territory recovered from the Latins and eventually to Constantinople itself. Though the Byzantine state had been shattered and disrupted, the Byzantine church was intact and its authority extended to all the Orthodox, including those living under Latin rule. The Church thus provided...