14 Tsougarakis
in Frankish Greece and the Aegean, 1204–1453, explores the ways in which the
crusades in Greece shaped the contacts and interactions between Latins,
Greeks and Turks in various fields.30 Though the three volumes have different
chronological and geographical scopes (and though the Latin states of Greece
are not the main focus of the first two) all of them highlight the fluidity and
flexibility of religious and cultural identities and their role in shaping political
allegiances in the fragmented world of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Despite this flourishing of interest, the history of Latin Greece remains, to a
certain extent, both fragmentary and unevenly written. This is the result partly
of the nature of the Latin polities themselves and partly of the peculiarities of
the surviving sources. As is apparent even from the most synoptic overview
of their history, the Latin states of Greece were extremely fragmented and, in
many cases, enjoyed closer ties with western European political entities than
with each other. This makes it very difficult to write a detailed and coherent
narrative account of medieval Greece, without favouring certain regions (usu-
ally Frankish Peloponnese and Venetian Crete) over others.
The Sources
The problem is compounded by the uneven survival of sources. As one would
expect, given the immense significance of the conquest of Constantinople,
the Fourth Crusade itself is well-documented in the narrative accounts of
the age. Three accounts written by participants or on behalf of participants
stand out: the chronicles of Geoffrey de Villehardouin with its continuation
by Henry of Valenciennes, of Robert de Clari, and of Gunther of Pairis who
put into writing the oral account of his abbot, Martin of Pairis.31 Though all
of these accounts are of prime importance for the history of the crusade and
30 Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr, eds., Contact and Conflict in Frankish Greece and the
Aegean, 1204–1453: Crusade, Religion and Trade between Latins, Greeks and Turks (Farnham,
2014).
31 Geoffroy de Villehardouin, La Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Edmond Faral, 2nd
ed. (Paris, 1961); for an English translation see, M.R.B. Shaw, Joinville & Villehardouin:
Chronicles of the Crusades (Baltimore, 1963; repr. 1969); Henri de Valenciennes, Histoire
de l’empereur Henri de Constantinople, ed. Jean Longnon (Paris, 1948); Robert de Clari, La
Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Philippe Lauer (Paris, 1924); for an English translation
see idem, The Conquest of Constantinople, trans. Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York, 1936;
repr. 2005); Gunther von Pairis, Hystoria Constantinopolitana, ed. Peter Orth (Hildesheim,
1994), translated in Alfred J. Andrea, The Capture of Constantinople: the Hystoria
Constantinopolitana of Gunther of Pairis (Philadelphia, 1997).