The 1230s and 1240s constituted a pivotal turning-point in the eastern Mediterranean, a decade in which the political map of the successor states that emerged from the Fourth Crusade was dramatically redrawn. Foremost among these transformations was the westward advance of the Nicaean exile-Byzantine polity into the Balkans—an expansion that set the stage for its…
After the fall of Andronicus I Komnenos, Isaac II and then his brother Alexis III had the difficult task of reestablishing the position of the Byzantine Empire in the Mediterranean at the end of the 12th century. However, the reconstruction of Byzantine power took place in a context marked by the increasingly strong hostility of…
The unexpected demise of the Byzantine empire after the fall of Constantinople in 1204 had crucial consequences not only within the old imperial boundaries, but for the neighboring states as well. Bulgaria, due to its geographical proximity and its long tradition of political and ideological confrontation with Constantinople, was most affected and forced to develop…
The Fourth Crusade and the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins were some of the key events in medieval history, which determined the creation of a true chasm between Eastern and Western Christianity. The conquest was followed by a real massacre of the city’s inhabitants, which I intend to analyse, both from the perspective of…