Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and navy. It also included the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. His re-establishment of the University of Constantinople contributed to the Palaeologan Renaissance, a cultural flowering between the 13th and 15th centuries.
Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Courtenay, was the last Latin Emperor ruling from Constantinople.
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 Byzantine Empire as the Western-recognized Roman Empire in the east, with a Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors. The main objective of the Latin Empire was planned by Venice, which promoted the creation of this state for their self-benefit.
Theodore Branas or Vranas, sometimes called Theodore Komnenos Branas, was a general under the Byzantine Empire and afterwards under the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Under the Latin regime he was given the title Caesar and in 1206 he became governor and lord of Adrianople. He is called Livernas by western chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade, including Geoffroi de Villehardouin.
The Battle of Pelagonia or Battle of Kastoria took place in early summer or autumn 1259, between the Empire of Nicaea and an anti-Nicaean alliance comprising Despotate of Epirus, Kingdom of Sicily and the Principality of Achaea. It was a decisive event in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, ensuring the eventual reconquest of Constantinople and the end of the Latin Empire in 1261.
William of Villehardouin was the fourth prince of Achaea in Frankish Greece, from 1246 to 1278. The younger son of Prince Geoffrey I, he held the Barony of Kalamata in fief during the reign of his elder brother Geoffrey II. William ruled Achaea as regent for his brother during Geoffrey's military campaigns against the Greeks of Nicaea, who were the principal enemies of his overlord, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople Baldwin II. William succeeded his childless brother in the summer of 1246. Conflicts between Nicaea and Epirus enabled him to complete the conquest of the Morea in about three years. He captured Monemvasia and built three new fortresses, forcing two previously autonomous tribes, the Tzakones and Melingoi, into submission. He participated in the unsuccessful Egyptian crusade of Louis IX of France, who rewarded him with the right to issue currency in the style of French royal coins.
The Villehardouin family was a noble dynasty that originated in Villehardouin, a former commune of the Aube department, now part of Val-d'Auzon, France. It is most notable as the ruling house of the Principality of Achaea, a Frankish crusader state in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece, between 1209 and 1278, when possession passed to the Angevin Kings of Naples.
Conon de Béthune was a French crusader and trouvère poet who became a senior official and finally regent of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Alternative spellings of his name include Cono, Coesnes, Quenes, Conain, and Quenon.
John I Doukas, Latinized as Ducas, was an illegitimate son of Michael II Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus in c. 1230–1268. After his father's death, he became ruler of Thessaly from c. 1268 to his own death in 1289. From his father's family he is also inaccurately known as John Angelos.
Narjot III de Toucy, lord of Bazarnes, was the son of Narjot II of Toucy (France) and his wife Agnes de Dampierre.
Leonard of Veroli was the chancellor to and close adviser of William II Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea. He was one of only two high officials of Achaea, the other being Peter of Vaux, not captured or killed at the Battle of Pelagonia.
Marie of Brienne was Latin Empress as the wife of Baldwin II of Courtenay. She served as regent during the absence of Baldwin II twice: in 1237–1239, and in 1243–1257.
The siege of Constantinople in 1260 was the failed attempt by the Nicene Empire, the major remnant of the fractured Byzantine Empire, to retake Constantinople from the Latin Empire and re-establish the City as the political, cultural and spiritual capital of a revived Byzantine Empire.
The Battle of Makryplagi or Makry Plagi was fought between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, and the Latin Principality of Achaea. The Byzantines had been weakened and demoralized by the defection of their numerous Turkish mercenaries to the Achaeans. At Makryplagi, the Byzantines suffered a heavy defeat, which together with their defeat at the Battle of Prinitza the previous year ended their attempted reconquest of the Morea.
Anseau de Cayeux or Anselm de Cayeux was a French knight from Picardy, who participated in the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) and later became one of the leading nobles of the Latin Empire, serving as regent in Constantinople (1237-1238). He was married to Byzantine princess Eudokia Laskarina, younger daughter of former emperor Theodore I Laskaris.
Baldwin of Hainaut was a knight and diplomat of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He undertook important missions to the Cumans (1240) and the Mongols (1251–52).
In 1268, the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice agreed to temporarily end hostilities which had erupted after the Byzantine recovery of Constantinople by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261.
Deno John Geanakoplos was a renowned scholar of Byzantine cultural and religious history and Italian Renaissance intellectual history and the Bradford Durfee Professor Emeritus of Byzantine History, Renaissance History, and Eastern Orthodox Church History at Yale University. He was the author of 13 books and over 100 articles and was considered one of the foremost Byzantine scholars in the world. He was the father of Yale Economist and Professor John Geanakoplos.
The Puisaye is a natural and historical region of France, now divided between the departments of Loiret, Nièvre and Yonne. Its historical and administrative center is the town of Saint-Fargeau. Its inhabitants are known as Poyaudins.
Matilda of Vianden, Lady of Požega was daughter of Henry I, Count of Vianden and Margaret of Courtenay, princess of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Matilda′s father Henry was a prominent noble from the House of Vianden, while her mother Margaret was daughter of Peter Courtenay, Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Margaret′s brothers, consequent Latin emperors Robert and Baldwin II, were Matilda′s maternal uncles.
