POD: Baldwin I wins at the Battle of Adrianopolis.
[1] Louis of Flanders was born as the son of Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople and his spouse Marie of Champagne. The young Louis would be educated in the imperial capital, being raised more by his uncle Henry than his own father, who spent his life fighting the Byzantine rump states of Nicaea and Epirus, after successfully defeating the Bulgarians in the Battle of Adrionople, and years after conquering the Lombard Kingdom of Thessalonica and what remained of Byzantine authority in Morea. Louis would soon learn about strategy and tactics, being a passionate learner of the ancient leaders of Europe and Asia.
After the death of his father due to a stroke in his campaign against Emperor John of Nicaea in 1224, Louis would be quickly crowned as Emperor in Athens, although he would face fierce opposition by supporters of Robert of Courtenay, a better candidate since Louis was only 16 years old. Nevertheless, Louis would prove to be a capable leader and commander after defeating the numerically superior forces of Robert in the Battle of Larisa. Louis would prove to be a benevolent ruler, pardoning Robert and his allies, although in exchange for a great sum of gold and silver. Louis would temporarily face peasant orthodox uprisings in Epirus and Nicomedia, although they would be crushed shortly after. Unlike his father, Louis consolidated a long-lasting peace after marrying Empress Irene Laskarina in 1223, officially bringing Nicaea to the Latin fold, although their sons would be forced to embrace more Greek costumes, although remaining Catholic.
In 1225, Louis would fight a brief war with Tzar Ivan Asen II, inconclusive since neither side achieved important victories. Although his excellent diplomatic skill allowed him to marry his son Thierry with one of Ivan's daughters, ending the Bulgarian invasions and bringing peace to his European possessions. Louis would bring a decade of peace and prosperity after the bellicose reign of his father, allowing Constantinople to rebuild both infrastructurally and economically, although it was still weak after the savage Fourth Crusade. He would die in 1237 due to lung cancer, being succeeded by an insidious nobleman known as Gauthier Gille as well as the popular general Aléxandros Piopsilá.
Non-contemporary depictions of Emperors Gauthier and Aléxandros illustrated without much reverence compared to many other later rulers.
[2] The circumstances that would quickly result in Gauthier Gille's brief seizure of power in the Latin Empire remain shrouded in relative obscurity due to a lack of reliable sources. However, what has assuredly been pieced together by historians is undeniably fascinating. Ever since the betrothal of Emperor Louis' eldest son to Elena Asenina, one of the daughters of Tsar Ivan Asen II, following a brief conflict involving the aforementioned monarchs, there were fears from many Latin and Greek nobles of growing foreign, i.e. Bulgarian, influence within the imperial court, culminating in the formation of a conspiracy to assassinate the foremost successor to the Latin throne and placing his younger brother upon it, instead. Fortunately, for the House of Flanders, the plot was uncovered, with most of the leaders executed while the health of Emperor Louis greatly worsened in early 1237. One of the men who would go unpunished for his treasonous involvement was Gauthier, of the lengths that his exceedingly influential father went through to avoid the embarrassment for his family. However, merely a few days before the Emperor's death, the young nobleman had either convinced or deceived an accomplished general of Greek origins, Aléxandros Piopsilá, that Louis planned on rewarding the position of regent to Tsar Ivan Asen II, thus necessitating radical action in order to prevent that. Banking upon the fact that the two men would successfully acquire the support from their respective classes in the city of Constantinople, Gauthier and Aléxandros succeeded in taking control of the capital with unexpected ease. However, this arrangement would not last for long, as merely a few months into the joint elevation of both men to the position of Emperors, which had been overwhelmingly marked by a great sense of tyranny against any suspected opponents, Constantinople would find herself under siege by the forces of the Second Bulgarian Empire and loyalists to the House of Flanders, astoundingly brought to a quick end once a swift breach of the city's defences had been concluded. And, although, Aléxandros escaped with a company of loyal men and soon became a general nuisance in Asia Minor for years to come, Gauthier would not be as fortunate upon facing the wrath of his successor Henry I Theodore.
[3] The third Latin emperor of the East, Henry was the son of Thierry of Constantinople with his Bulgarian wife. Henry was named for his grand uncle, Henry of Flanders, and was given the second name Theodore, as had all Latin princes of the House of Flanders following Louis' the first's conquest of Nicaea. A young child when his banner was lifted against the usurpers who had taken Constantinople, Henry spent the first years of his reign under the respective regencies of his mother Elena Asen (1237-1241) and Archbishop of Constantinople, Konrad of Carinthia (1241-1244). A surprisingly stable regency for the young boy, Henry grew into a deeply pious, studious and dedicated man, and he immediately showed it when he was finally coronated in 1244.
Henry of Flanders' reign started, surprisingly for those who had known him until then, with war. The Latin Empire had been at peace ever since the year of the usurpers and, despite no great losses, the Empire had retreated on two fronts - in Greece, where the Despotate of Epirus still held, and in Pontus, where the Trebizondines had marched west and harassed Latin Phlagonia. Henry sailed westwards, where with great fear, he commanded his knights and barons to join him, and thus he amassed a great army that marched into Epirus. While may had doubted him due to his youth, Henry grew - both physically and as a man, during the war. He became taller and stronger, and also more grim, iron-handed and wise during the war, being compared by his franks to Charlemagne, and by his Greeks to Basil the II. After executing many members of the Komnenos Doukas family, the many Epirote and Albanian chieftains of that state bent their knees to Henry, while the rest of the land was assessed by his bureaucrats and either made property of the state or given to loyal, catholic knights.
A modern recreation of a painting of Emperor Henry of Romania by Theodore of Athens.
Henry did not immediately cross into Asia, as he had planned, but was instead bogged down in Constantinople with various issue. Firstly, the Emperor was, unexpectedly, raised in a much more eastern fashion than either his father or grandfather, had been, with both of them having been born in the orient. Thus, when he actually crossed outside of the royal domain for the first time of his life, he was shocked to see was a feudalistic, almost rebellious arrangement. Perhaps ironically, for it had been his own great grandfather, Baldwin of Flanders, who had brought them the ancient ruling bureaucracy of the Orthodox East, Henry would be the one to recreate it in a much more docile, convenient and functional manner. The Henrician ordinances of 1245 restructured the "Romanian Empire" into a set of "Imperial Provinces", above the common law of the land owners. This was very important, as it shattered the most devastating consequences of the fourth crusade and cemented the frankokratia. Curiously, the first recruits into this system came from outside the Empire and were neither Greek nor Frank, being mostly Italian and from the urban communes that challenged the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors. However, as he would go on to prove, Henry was very much not keen of depending on outside forces and so he would go on to fund the first five universities of the Latin Empire (Smyrna, Nicaea, Constantinople, Thessaloniki and Athens).
This new system did much to cement frankish rule in the East and stabilize the state, alongside finally bringing Imperial authority to the border regions of the state. Henry spent much of the period from 1447-1452 crushing rebellion after rebellion, both in Anatolia and Europe, both from Frank and Greek, and was perhaps the first Eastern Emperor since Manuel Komnenos to hold full command of the state, from Morea to Anatolikon. Determined to be the one and only "Roman Emperor", Henry embarked on a massive campaign against the Empire of Trebizond in 1452, subduing the last remnants of the Komnenos in 1453, marrying a daughter of that ancient house to cement his rule further. Many Knights from the Holy Roman Empire, France and Italy came to his service, and alongside them migrated their families and philosophers, scientists, engineers and other thinkers from those lands. With the conquest of Trebizond, Henry ruled a massive Empire that was finally getting back on it's feet.
An extremely catholic man, after re-uniting the Empire Henry decided that the time of the Turks had come, and so, he invaded the shattering Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in 1454, conquering the Turks as far as the Taurus mountains. Introducing a new law-code and new taxation, Henry decided to imitate the Muslims themselves and tax the "infidels" more fiercely, as dhimmis, and settled Catholic Greeks, and also Frankish settlers in Inner Anatolia, with the goal of cementing control of the region. Henry, wanting to create a professional army, decided that for the elite of his army, each infidel family would have to give their oldest son to the Empire, where he would be raised as a Catholic and trained in all arts of war. The birth of the Jannissaries, as would later be adopted, happened during Henry's reign, and they would prove to be Henry's greatest tool.
With a cohesive, unified state, Henry would enter negotiations with Frederick of Sicily to unite their "Imperial" houses, but the offence placed on him by that Emperor greatly shook Henry, who swore revenge - which he would never take, as Frederick died. Nonetheless, Romania, as he called his Empire, entered an age of burgeoning literature and the terms Frankrokratia, Latin Empire or Greek Empire passed out of usage. The Latin Empire would now be simply known as the Empire of Romania, and its people, the Romanians. This direct claim on the legacy of Rome offended the pope, but by that time, Henry was more than powerful.
With his neighbours subdued, Henry decided to redraw Constantinople, that once again was growing in population. The City of Constantine (and various others, especially in Greece, Albania and Pontus and Eastern Anatolia) was redesigned and rehabilitated by the Empire, and once again became a great metropolis. The Bucoleon Palace, the Imperial residence, was redesigned to become one of the grandest of the age, and a new great aqueduct was built in Constantinople. Henry spent the rest of his live as a celebrated Emperor, and would only fight further wars against the infidels of the East and against the Bulgarians to gain control of the Haemus mountains. His main goal, however, that chased him his whole life was the unification of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, the cause which he spent his whole life promoting. He would convene many synods joining various branches of the Christian faith, even those from the further orient, in the hope of unifying Christianity, although he would not succeed in his lifetime. He was a firm supporter of the Crusades and would reconquer Jerusalem for the King of Acre, who would marry one of his daughters.
Henry Theodore passed into history in 1282, already an old man. He was remembered as the thunderbolt for his personality and military victories, but he died a feeble, sick and almost maddened old man who mostly missed his wife and could not go without the comfort his children gave him. He was succeeded by Louis II Theodore.
[4] Louis Theodore of Flanders was the fourth son of Emperor Henry I and his wife Irene Komnenos. He was conceived in 1261, being the last son from the couple and posthumous heir after the death of his elder brothers Thierry due to poisoned food, and Martin, after suppressing a turk insurrection. He would spend his youth in the streets of Constantinople together with his sister Elena where both would learn much about the great social disparity and discord occurring between the franks and greeks. While his sister was sold to the Komnenos in Trebizond, Louis would be soon taught the art of politics and governance after the death of Martin, being Louis 17 years old by the time. His most renowned tutor was Phillip of Thebes, famous philosopher, and writer of important books who criticized religion and the actual social state of the Empire. After the death of his father in 1282, Louis would ascend to the throne of Romania as Louis II Theodore, being 21 years old, and officially starting his rule as Emperor of the Eastern Romans.
Portrait of Louis II Theodore
While it was true that Louis lacked the military abilities of his predecessors, it was also certain that under him Romania experienced a time of cultural growth and economic flourishing never seen before since the times of the ancient Byzantine emperors. His first great challenge as Emperor was break the wall that divided both franks and greeks, who always saw each other with resentment and distrust, as the franks were considered foreign conquerors by the greeks, while at the same time, the greeks were considered as hostile peasants and subjects by the franks. Louis would slowly develop a common language and culture, using Latin scripture but introducing greek letters, while the spoken idiom would use greek phonetics with Latin elements, creating the proto-Romanian language. Despite it was not very well received by his nobility to change their mother tongue for a new one, they would be forced to do so after receiving the support of his most loyal general and governor, Alexander Komnenos, his brother-in-law. It was unquestioned that the initial opposition of the population caused discomfort between the Emperor and his subjects, but as the time passed this resistance dissipated thanks to the calm and tolerant approach of Louis, allowing the population to also speak their languages but also being obligated to learn Romanian in religious places daily. Louis would face a series of invasions from the Ilkhanate in the 1290s, defeating the Mongol hordes in the Battle of Smyrna (1294), although the victory was thanks to his loyal general Alexander, and he credited him with such. Shamefully, the famous general would pass away in 1297, due to stomach pains. Louis would then take his young nephew Manuel Comnenus, as his adoptive son, since the Emperor was sterile and he only married a local noblewoman from Athens for political convenience.
Having stretched his influence over his Asian domains, he would gift his new adoptive son with all the possessions of his father, giving him instructions on how to lead a realm on his own. Louis would then use his vast diplomatic skills to peace with the Ilkhanate, while also absorbing the little Turkish beyliks into the Empire, serving as autonomous territories under his sovereign, but furthermore shields to protect the Romanian core. In 1314, Louis would pay a visit to Jerusalem on a spiritual journey, but he would be fatidically put to death during his entrance to the holy city. Despite he wasn't able to surpass his father or his grandfather in military aspects, Louis II brought a time of prosperity and peace that overflowed the arks with gold and silver, allowing the Empire to unite under a common tongue and culture. He was succeeded by the young Káranos Amástocheres .
A rather rare instance of an ambivalent portrait of Emperor Constantine XI.
[5] As we gazed into the past from the present, it is evident, in retrospect, that Louis II Theodore's decision to name the boy once merely and seemingly destined to be forever remembered (faintly) by the name of Káranos Amástocheres as his heir, the successor to the Romanian throne was the worst that he made in his entire life. Unfortunately, the reasons behind the emperor's choice remain shrouded in mystery. The prevailing theory suggests that Káranos may have had some family ties to the Empress, and his martial demeanor may have appealed to the ailing monarch more than his more qualified successor, Manuel Comnenus. However, regardless of his origins, Káranos, who would soon adopt the name Constantine and engage in a self-centered campaign with the goal of depicting him as the epitome of the ideal Roman descended from famed figures such as Alexander the Great, almost immediately revealed himself as a figure of exceeding vanity and short-sightedness. During his brief reign, Constantine repeatedly and unsuccessfully dealt with domestic and external failures in Constantinople, whose population overwhelmingly opposed the Emperor's attempts to antagonize the reforms of his predecessor, and in the East, where his haughty demeanor only served to exacerbate the unrest brewing among the Armenians in Cilicia and the Caucasus against the imperial authorities. Ultimately, Constantine's reign ended in tragedy, brought on by his own poor judgment. A contingent of his army in Macedonia was ambushed and annihilated by a group of Bulgarian raiders who had received assistance from disgruntled locals. The demise of emperor resulted in the creation of a power vacuum, which was eventually filled by his successor Manuel Comnenus.
[6] If Manuel thought that his succession was going to be easy, he was wrong. The power vacuum left behind by Constantine's misrule and early death, allowed three pretenders to rise up. The first of the great pretenders as they were called by historians was the King Hugh of Jerusalem and Cyprus, claiming his right by being the son of Louis Theodore's younger sister, Irene. (The fact that Irene was young than Manuel's mother Elena was willfully ignored). The second was the King Fredrick III of Sicily, claiming his had letters from Constantine, declaring him his heir. The third was perhaps the most shocking was a young man,
Asad, who claimed to be the son of Martin of Constantinople (older brother of Louis Theodore). Martin apparently had married a young Muslim woman he met in Turkey in secret just nine months before he died.
Each of three had powerful backers behind them with Manuel's sole advantage was being in Constantinople, having already been crowned. (That and control of the royal treasury) Thanks to the actions of Constantine, the royal army was in disarray, and currently in Macedonia, far away from the capital. Although, Manuel still had troops numbering four thousand, he felt pinned to a wall as his enemies came at him from all sides.
Manuel knew he needed allies, so he reached out to the Holy Roman Emperor, the King of Hungary, the King of France, and the King of Naples, asking for aid. He called for mercenaries as well, using a good amount of his royal coffers.
The emperor was almost thankful when instead of directly attacking him, Asad and Hugh choose to fight each other first. He was able now to focus on defending Constantinople from the Sicilian Navy. He sent his wife Irene of Montferrat and their children into hiding, fearing that if Constantinople was captured, they would all be killed.
When King Fredrick arrived with fifty ships, Manuel was waiting for them. Knowing that his own navy stood no chance, he choose another tactic, sending out fire ships against the enemy. Meanwhile, he had his own navy attack the Sicilians from behind. It left King Fredrick no choice, but to retreat. Meanwhile, the ships of Venince, Naples, and Genova attacked Sicily, conquering all the way up to Tomina.
Unfortunately, Manuel did not have long to celebrate for Hugh's ally Theodore Svetoslav of Bulgaria invaded Thrace and was marching towards Constantinople. He choose to meet them outside of Constantinople, wanting to make his last stand here. Thanks to the mercenaries he hired, he had bolstered his troops to eight thousand. The two armies were evenly matched which meant for a hard fight. The battle of Constantinople ended in white peace with a treaty being signed to end Bulgaria's part in the war.
With two of the great pretenders defeated, Manuel had one last rival to defeat, his supposed cousin, Asad. Asad had managed to conquer Jerusalem, forcing Hugh to flee to Cypus and seek peace with Manuel. The emperor welcomed Hugh back to the fold by throwing him into prison, stripping him of his lands and titles and then executed him as a traitor. While Asad slowly conquered the Eastern lands of the Romania Empire, Manuel worked to restore his army back to its former glory before marching into Turkey to fight Asad.
By this time Manuel's pleading with the Holy Roman Empire and France had paid off, as they were eager to go on another crusade especially against a Muslim man claiming to be the rightful Romania Emperor. Unfortunately, Manuel would not live to see if Asad would be defeated. For in 1333, after seventeen years of constant fighting and fearing for his life, the emperor's heart gave out.
