A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

crusader armies breached the walls of Constantinople, encountered relatively little

opposition, plundered the city for three days, and finally declared one of their leaders,

Baldwin of Flanders, the new emperor. The Venetians gained the city harbor, Crete,

and key Greek cities; other crusaders carved out other states. (See Map 6.3.) So did

some Byzantines, however, and eventually, in 1261, their successors managed to

recapture Constantinople and re-establish their empire until it fell for good in 1453 to

the Ottoman Turks.

Map 6.3: The Latin Empire and Byzantine Successor States, 1204–c.1250

The Institutionalization of Government in the West

While the Byzantine government was becoming more like those in the West—with

emperors favoring family members and dynatoi creating regional dynasties—some

Western polities were starting to look more Byzantine: more impersonal and

bureaucratic. They entered a new phase of self-definition, codification, and

institutionalization.

LAW, AUTHORITY, AND THE WRITTEN WORD IN ENGLAND