Latin Empire of Constantinople (“Romania”)

The Empire of Romania (Latin: Imperium Romaniae), more commonly known in historiography as the Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople, is a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire.

It is established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasts suntil 1261.

The Latin Empire is intended to supplant the Byzantine Roman Empire as titular successor to the Roman Empire in the east, with a Western Roman Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors.

Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, is crowned the first Latin emperor as Baldwin I on May 16, 1204.

The Latin Empire fails 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 goes into a steady decline.

Weakened by constant warfare with the Bulgarians and the unconquered sections of the empire, it eventually falls when Byzantines recapture Constantinople under Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261.

The last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, goes into exile, but the imperial title survives, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century.

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