Chapter 142: Visigothic Orthodoxy, Eastern Roman Barbarians (Middle)

Alexios the Younger and his father, after the Crusaders stormed Constantinople and overthrew Alexios, took the throne of the empire, that is, Alexios IV and Isaac II. However, to his annoyance, he now owes money to Venice and the Crusaders, and he has not been able to pay for the throne in the hope of winning the throne...... So the Crusaders were stationed in Constantinople.

It is understandable that the citizens of Constantinople were disgusted with the crusaders outside the city...... Thus, in February 1204, the citizens of Constantinople revolted, deposed Isaac II and Alexios IV were deposed, and Alexios Ducasse, the son-in-law of the former emperor Alexios III, who was overthrown by the Crusaders, was proclaimed emperor as Alexios V.

After Alexios V ascended the throne, he did not recognize the agreement between Alexios IV and the Crusaders, refusing to pay money to the Crusaders and the Venetians. On 9 April, the Crusaders stationed outside Constantinople exchanged views with the Venetian governor, Enrico Dandolo, who realized that this was likely an opportunity to divide up the Eastern Roman Empire, to halt the defeat, and to allow Venice to completely dominate the eastern Mediterranean, gaining a large amount of territorial and economic benefits, and attacked Constantinople.

After reaching an agreement, the crusaders launched another assault on Constantinople. After 4 days of fighting, Alexios V could not bear it and fled the city, and when Constantinople had just been breached, another son-in-law of the former emperor Alexios III, Constantine Laskalis of the Laskalis family, was elected emperor by part of the army in the Hagia Sophia, but at this time he was powerless. So Constantine Lascaris and his brother Theodore, who was also the son-in-law of Alexios III, ...... fled separately.

Once again, the Crusaders stormed Constantinople.

In the aftermath of this upheaval, the victors gathered for a feast of spoils, all of whom were vying to feast:

The Republic of Venice reaped the benefits of the efforts of the blind governors, occupying three-eighths of the territory of the former Eastern Roman Empire, including many ports along the Aegean and Adriatic coasts and the island of Crete.

The Crusaders, on the other hand, established the Latin Empire with the Catholic camp as the center and the two states of the Latin Empire that were vassals of Constantinople, namely the Duchy of Athens and the Marquis of Achaia, which were later associated with the establishment of the Despotate of Morea.

These lands were once part of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Western Europeans cut the corpses of Bai Bai to pieces.

However, Byeby's corpse was not dead yet, it was still a little alive, and the resistance began to come alive in the lands that the Crusaders and the Latin Empire had not yet controlled. The descendants of the Komnenos dynasty saw an opportunity to pull the flag and receive the prestige and inheritance of Byeby, so they founded the Empire of Trebizond in northern Asia Minor, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, and proclaimed themselves Roman emperors. In Albania in the Balkans and northern Greece, the Epirus Empire, another exile regime in exile, also claimed to be orthodox – and it had also risen to prominence by destroying the Latin Empire's largest fiefdom, Thessaloniki, but was soon harshly tempered by the Bulgarian Empire and languished.

But these are just nominal regimes that draw tigers and become anti-dogs. The orphans of Byeby, who can truly "continue the unification", are rising in the agricultural regions of Anatolia.

Both became the sons of the former emperor Alexios III, the brothers-in-law of Constantine and Theodor, and successfully escaped to the prosperous city of Nicaea in the western Anatolian Plateau, which is now Iznik. Although they were eyeing western Anatolia, fearing the threat of the Latin Empire and the Crusaders, the Seljuk Turkic Rum Sultanate temporarily cultivated the pair before laughing at Antalya, so the two brothers established the Nicaean Empire, which ruled western Anatolia.

Western Anatolia is the heart of the Eastern Roman Empire's population and agriculture, and in the era of defeat and the last trace of vitality and vitality, the Nicaean Empire became a worshipper by exaggerating the reconquest movement, inspiring the Greek spirit and implementing militarism, and the Nicaean Emperor Michael VIII defeated the combined forces of the Ahou and Epirus in 1259 and occupied most of the eastern Peloponnese, which established the predecessor of the Morea Autocracy, a fiefdom subordinate to the Nicaean Empire.

Two years later, Michael VIII, who had destroyed the Latin Empire and regained its capital, completed the reconstruction of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the flaws of the old system, the indiscriminate issuance of cheap silver coins, the decay of commerce, and the massive deployment of Anatolian front-line troops to defend Europe eventually caused the emperor's eastern frontier to crumble during his death.

At this time, the possessions of Europe carried the last civilization and hope of Byzantium. And the Peloponnese is a land of hope – the land where Sparta was once located.

In 1348, John VI Cantacuzenus conferred the title of "absolute monarch" on his son, Manuel Cantacuzenus.

After Manuel's death in 1380, the Palaiologos dynasty seized control of the Morea, and Theodore I Palaiologos became the absolute monarch of the Morea in 1383. In this way, the Byzantine Emperor also served as the absolute monarch of the Morea autocracy.

After the death of Theodor I, his brother Theodor, son of Emperor Manuel II, ruled Morea successively, Constantine, Thomas, and Demitrios. At this time, the Ottoman Empire, which had recovered from the thunderous blows of the Timurid Empire, had already sent a final test and impact to the lairs of the precarious mayor of Constantinople. However, at a time of crisis in Constantinople, the Morea autocracy developed well, perhaps drawing on some of the Spartans' legacy, and in 1430, the Morea autocracy extended its rule to the whole of the Moberoponnese, with two capitals, Mystras and Glarenza.

The flags on the Peloponnese symbolize what little vitality remains on the outer edge of the Byzantine Empire. When Constantine XI became the monarch of the Morea autocracy, he handed over the Peloponnese to his younger brothers, Thomas Palaiologas and Dimitrios, who ruled the Peloponnese.

It was the only remaining living force in the empire that was not surrounded by the Ottoman Empire. However, the position of mayor of Constantinople was ultimately powerless.