Baldwin II. (1228–1261), the youngest of Peter of Courtenay’s sons, a boy of eleven, was now proclaimed Emperor. John de Brienne, the ex-king of Jerusalem [see chapter xix], was soon called in to hold the regency. He married his daughter to Baldwin, was crowned joint-Emperor, and saved his ward’s throne from the Greeks and Bulgarians. On John’s death in 1237, new perils beset the young Baldwin. The Latin state had had a few years of breathing time through the rivalry of the Angeli of Thessalonica and the house of Ducas, to which, after the death of Theodore Lascaris, had passed the Empire of Nicæa. [Sidenote: Union of Thessalonica and Nicæa.] John III. Ducas ended the strife in his own favour by the conquest of Thessalonica in 1241. Henceforth, the Angeli had to be contented with the title of Despot of Epirus, and were confined to the uplands of the west. A single strong Greek power now threatened Constantinople, both from the side of Asia and the side of Europe. [Sidenote: John III. Ducas, 1222–1254.] Moreover, John III. was a competent administrator, a good warrior, and an able financier. Nothing but the mighty walls of Constantinople, which the Greeks had vainly attempted to assault, and the Venetian command of the sea, now saved the Latin Empire from immediate extinction. Baldwin II. spent most of his long reign in the vain quest of Frankish assistance. He left his son as a pledge to Western bankers, and sold the most precious relics of Constantinople to St. Louis. He had to sell the lead of his palace-roof to buy food, and warm himself by burning the wood of his outhouses. But the death of John III. in 1254 prolonged the long agony of the Latin Empire. Michael Palæologus, an ambitious and unscrupulous soldier, became regent for the infant grandson of John III., and soon associated himself with his ward as joint ruler. [Sidenote: Michael VIII. Palæologus, 1259–1282.] In 1259 Michael was crowned Emperor at Nicæa, and the rights of his little colleague were soon forgotten. But Michael VIII. showed vigour and military capacity which went some way to justify his usurpation. In 1261, he profited by the absence of the Venetian fleet to make a sudden attack on Constantinople. [Sidenote: Conquest of Constantinople, 1261.] The unlucky Baldwin could offer no effective resistance. On 15th August, Michael entered in triumph the ancient capital, and the Latin Empire perished, unwept and unhonoured. [Sidenote: The revived Greek Empire, 1261–1453.]