Isaac Angelus added a tower.[504] In 1203 the palace was the scene of the negotiations between the latter emperor and the envoys of Baldwin of Flanders and Henrico Dandolo, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade.[505] In 1204, upon the capture of the city by the Crusaders, it surrendered to Henry, the brother of Baldwin,[506] but the Latin emperors seem to have preferred the Palace of the Bucoleon for their residence. [Illustration: General View of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.] Baldwin II., however, resided in the Palace of Blachernæ, and left it in such a filthy condition that when taken possession of by the Greeks in 1261, Michael Palæologus could not occupy it until it had been thoroughly cleaned and renovated.[507] It was the usual residence of the Byzantine Court during the period of the Palæologi,[508] and from this palace the last emperor who sat upon the throne of Constantinople went forth to die “in the winding-sheet of his empire.”[509] All descriptions of the palace agree in representing it as of extraordinary splendour.[510] Foreign visitors could not find words in which to give an idea of its magnificence and wealth. According to them, its exterior appearance was incomparable in beauty, while within it was decorated with gold, and mosaics, and colours, and marbles, and columns, and jewels, at a cost hard to estimate, and with a skill that could be found nowhere else in the world.[511] The hill on which the palace stood was partly artificial, to furnish a suitable platform or terrace for the group of buildings which composed the residence, and to afford wide views over the harbour, the city, and the country beyond the walls—“triplicem habitantibus jucunditatem offerens,” as Odo de Dogilo aptly remarks, “mare, campus, urbemque, alterius despicit.” The palace derived much of its importance from its proximity to the venerated shrine of the Theotokos of Blachernæ. And the ease with which the country could be reached from it, to enjoy the pleasures of the chase, must not be overlooked in explaining the favour with which the palace was regarded.[512] It should be added that the palace stood within the fortified enclosure[513] around the western spur of the Sixth Hill, the Castelion of Blachernæ (Τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις φρούριον, μέρος καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦ περὶ τὰ βασίλεια φρουρίου ὂν Καστέλιον προσαγορευόμενον).[514] Footnote 467: Page 719; cf. _Ibid._, p. 500; Cinnamus, p. 274. Footnote 468: _Ut supra_, Περὶ τὸ γεώλοφον ἄφ᾽ οὗπερ ὁρατὰ μὲν τὰ ἐν Βλαχέρναις ἀνάκτορα, ὁπόσα νένευκε πρὸς ἑσπέραν. Περὶ δὲ γε τὴν τούτου ὑπόβασιν ὑπτιάζει τις αὔλειος, πρὸς μεσημβρίαν μὲν ἐς τὸ τεῖχος λήγουσα ὅπερ ἔρυμα τῶν ἀρχείων ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀνήγειρε Μανουὴλ, κατὰ δὲ βορρᾶν ἄνεμον τῇ θαλάσσῃ ἐγγίζουσα. Footnote 469: Anna Comn., vi. p. 275, _et passim_. Footnote 470: Nicetas Chon., p. 269; Benjamin of Toledo, p. 12. Footnote 471: As a rule, two to four courses of stone, alternating with six to nine courses of brick. Footnote 472: