Bulgarian–Latin wars

Bulgarian-Latin wars
	Balkan and Anatolian Peninsulas
Result	Bulgarian victory The Fourth Crusade loses most of its leaders; The Latin Empire is severely weakened;
Territorial; changes	Weakening of the Latin Empire and enlargement of the Bulgarian Empire, absorbing northern territories

Belligerents

Bulgarian Empire

Latin Empire
Allies:

Commanders and leaders

Ivan Asen II

Boniface of Montferrat †
Henry of Flanders

The Bulgarian–Latin wars were a series of conflicts between the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) and the Latin Empire (1204–61). The wars affected the northern border of the Latin Empire throughout its existence.

The initial expansionist ambitions of the Latin Empire were crushed only one year after its foundation after the

Nicaean Empire in Asia Minor and the Despotate of Epirus

in the Balkans.

As a result of the conflicts the Bulgarian Empire expanded its territory taking control of most of the

Roman Catholic Crusaders, Bulgaria became the centre of Orthodox Christianity

.

Foundation of the Latin Empire

On 13 April 1204 the knights of the

Boniface of Montferrat selected for King.^[3]

Bulgarian intervention

In 1204, the

Kaloyan, the Bulgarian emperor. The impending conflict was precipitated by the Byzantine aristocracy in Thrace

, which rebelled against Latin rule in 1205 and called on Bulgarians for help, offering the Bulgarians its submission.

Kaloyan's campaigns

As the Latin Emperor Baldwin I began to subdue rebel cities and besieged Adrianople, in the words of the Crusader chronicler

Macedonia

. However, the progress of the Bulgarians eventually was interrupted by the assassination of their emperor Kaloyan.

On January 31, 1206 the Bulgarians defeated the Latins again in Thrace, and later proceeded to capture Didymoteikhon. They repeatedly ravaged Thrace, including the important cities of Herakleia and Tzouroulos, and prompting the evacuation of other cities, such as Rodosto (Tekirdağ). Whereas in the past the Bulgarian emperor, Kaloyan, had limited his oppression to the aristocracy, his later campaigns included wholesale transfer of populations from the captured cities to distant regions in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarians besieged Adrianople twice, but failed to take the city because of the withdrawal of their Cuman cavalry, and the determined advance of the new Latin emperor, Baldwin I's brother

Saint Demetrios

.

Peace

Kaloyan's successor

near Plovdiv

but continued to campaign against the Latin Empire until 1210, when the Hungarians and Latin empire made an alliance.

Fall of the Latin Empire

By 1231 the Latin regency had finalized negotiations with John of Brienne, the former king of Jerusalem, who was invited to step in as the guardian and co-emperor of Baldwin II at Constantinople. This action led to the breach of the alliance between Bulgaria and the Latin Empire, and the creation of an alternate alliance between Bulgaria and Empire of Nicaea. However, the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Asen II could not decide whether to support the Niceaen Greeks or the Latins, and no decisive action was taken. Eventually Michael VIII Palaiologos, the ruler of the Niceaen Empire captured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire, bringing an end to the Latin Empire.

Bulgarian–Latin battles

Battle	Year	Bulgarian Commander	Latin Commander	Result
Battle of Adrianople	1205	Kaloyan	Baldwin I	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Serres	1205	Kaloyan	Henry I	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Rusion	1206	Kaloyan	Thierry de Termond	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Rodosto	1206	Kaloyan	Henry I	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Messinopolis	1207	Boril	Boniface of Montferrat	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Beroia	1207	Boril	Henry I	Bulgarian victory
Battle of Philippopolis	1208	Boril	Henry I	Latin victory
Siege of Constantinople	1235	Ivan Asen II	John of Brienne	Two-year truce

Footnotes

^ Герцберг, Г. Ф. История на Бизантия, Москва 1895, с. 359-360
^ Gerland, Е. Geschichte des lateinischen Kaiserreiches von Konstantinopel. 1. Teil: Geschichte des Kaisers Balduin I und Heinrich. Homburg v. d. Höhe 1905. p. 1-10
^ Gerland, Е. Geschichte des lateinischen Kaiserreiches von Konstantinopel. 1. Teil: Geschichte des Kaisers Balduin I und Heinrich. Homburg v. d. Höhe 1905. p. 29-30