The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the TurksPears, Edwin
History
The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks
Pears, Edwin
Byzantine Empire -- History -- 1081-1453; Istanbul (Turkey) -- History -- Siege, 1453
So far from being ruined, his success caused many Greeks to flock into
his empire from Constantinople. When, in 1214, the Emperor Henry again
declared war, Theodore was ready for him; and as the Greeks in Epirus
had commenced a vigorous attack on the crusading barons in Macedonia,
Henry was glad to make a peace which left Theodore undisputed master
of a territory bounded on the west by a line from Heraclea on the
Black Sea to Ismidt, thence to Cyzicus and to the coast just north of
Pergamos. The fruitful valleys of the Meander, the Cayster, and the
Hermus marked his boundaries on the south-west.
Theodore died in 1222. The first duty of the Greeks when driven out of
Constantinople was to make themselves secure against the conquerors and
to prevent the progress of the crusading armies into Asia Minor. This
duty had been effectually done by Theodore. During the eighteen years
of his reign he had made his capital and its beautiful neighbourhood
the rallying-place of what was best in the Greek-speaking populations
of Asia Minor and of Thrace. He had checked the progress of the
crusaders into Asia Minor and had left to his successors the task of
working for the recovery of Constantinople.
[Sidenote: Henry succeeds Baldwin, 1205–1216.]
Meantime, the history of the Latin conquerors of Constantinople had
been one of almost continuous disaster. The first Emperor Baldwin had
been lost in an encounter with the Bulgarians near Adrianople in April
1205, and was probably killed. As his fate remained doubtful, his
brother Henry acted as regent for a year and was then crowned emperor.
Shortly after the commencement of his reign in 1207, Boniface, Marquis
of Montferrat and King of Salonica, was killed in a skirmish. Henry
seems to have realised that in a policy of conciliation towards the
Greeks lay the only hope of the continuance of his empire. He made
peace with the Bulgarians and concluded an arrangement with both the
emperor of Nicaea and the Greek prince who had made himself recognised
as despot in Epirus. He employed Greeks in the public service. He
refused to take part in the persecution of the Greeks who would not
obey the decrees of the pope’s legate. He allowed them to employ the
Greek language in their services, and restrained the pretensions of the
Roman priests. Unfortunately for the Latin empire, the reign of the
chivalrous Henry lasted only ten years.
[Sidenote: Peter succeeds, 1217–1219.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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