The Siege of Constantinople (1235) was a joint Bulgarian-Nicaean siege on the capital of the

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzant ...

Latin emperor The Latin Emperor was the ruler of the Latin Empire, the historiographical convention for the Crusader realm, established in Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade (1204) and lasting until the city was recovered by the Byzantine Greeks in 126 ...

John of Brienne John of Brienne ( 1170 – 19–23 March 1237), also known as John I, was King of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champag ...

was besieged by the

Nicaean emperor The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse ...

John III Doukas Vatatzes John III Doukas Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes ( el, Ιωάννης Δούκας Βατάτζης, ''Iōannēs Doukas Vatatzēs'', c. 1192 – 3 November 1254), was Emperor of Nicaea from 1221 to 1254. He was succeeded by his son, known ...

and

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria Ivan Asen II, also known as John Asen II ( bg, Иван Асен II, ; 1190s – May/June 1241), was Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1218 to 1241. He was still a child when his father Ivan Asen I one of the founders of the Second Bulgarian Empi ...

Prelude

After Robert of Courtenay died in 1228, a new regency under

was set up. After the disastrous Epirote defeat by the Bulgarians at the

Battle of Klokotnitsa The Battle of Klokotnitsa ( bg, Битката при Клокотница, ''Bitkata pri Klokotnitsa'') occurred on 9 March 1230 near the village of Klokotnitsa (today in Haskovo Province, Bulgaria) between Second Bulgarian Empire and Emp ...

, the Epirote threat to the Latin Empire was removed, only to be replaced by Nicaea, which started acquiring territories in Greece. Emperor

of Nicaea concluded an alliance with Bulgaria, which in 1235 resulted in a joint campaign against the Latin Empire.

The siege

In 1235,

Angelo Sanudo Angelo Sanudo (died 1262) was the second Duke of the Archipelago from 1227, when his father, Marco I, died, until his own death. Family Angelo was a son of Marco I Sanudo. According to "The Latins in the Levant. A History of Frankish Greece (1 ...

, the second Duke of the Archipelago, sent a naval squadron for the defense of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

, where the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

was being besieged by

Emperor of Nicaea This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

, and

. The joint Bulgarian-Nicaean siege was unsuccessful. The allies retreated in the autumn because of the incoming winter. Ivan Asen II and Vatatzes agreed to continue the siege in the next year, but the Bulgarian Emperor later refused to send troops. With the death of John of Brienne in 1237, the Bulgarians broke the treaty with Vatatzes because of the prospect that Ivan Asen II could become a regent of the Latin Empire .

Aftermath

By 1247, the Nicaeans had effectively surrounded Constantinople, with only the city's strong

walls Walls may refer to: *The plural of wall, a structure *Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places * Walls, Louisiana, United States * Walls, Mississippi, United States * Walls, Ontario, neighborhood in Perry, Ontario, C ...

holding them at bay, and the Battle of Pelagonia in 1258 signaled the beginning of the end of Latin predominance in Greece. Thus, on July 25, 1261, with most of the Latin troops away on campaign, the Nicaean general

Alexios Strategopoulos Alexios Komnenos Strategopoulos ( gr, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνὸς Στρατηγόπουλος) was a Byzantine aristocrat and general who rose to the rank of '' megas domestikos'' and ''Caesar''. Distantly related to the Komnenian dynasty ...

found an unguarded entrance to the city,Nicol (1993), p. 34. and entered it with his troops, restoring the Byzantine Empire for his master,

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...

References

Bibliography

External links

''The Latin Occupation in the Greek Lands – The Latin Empire'', from the Foundation of the Hellenic World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constantinople (1235)

1235 Year 1235 ( MCCXXXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events * Connacht in Ireland is finally conquered by the Hiberno-Norman Richard Mór de Burgh; Felim Ua Conchobair is expe ...