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VI 
THE LATIN EMPIRE OF 
CONSTANTINOPLE, 1204-1261 
 On April 13, 1204, the fifth day of the second siege, the crusaders and
Venetians took Constantinople. When order had been 
 Our excellent narrative sources for the Fourth Crusade, both western and
Byzantine, break off not long after the foundation of the Latin Empire. Villehardouin's
account stops with events of the year 1207; Robert of Clan records one event
as late as i2i6, but after the year 1205 he is writing from hearsay only;
Nicetas Choniates closes his history in 1206. None of the narrative sources
for the period of the Latin Empire is in the same class as these. Villehardouin
found his continuator for the years 1207-1209 in the Old French work of Henry
of Valenciennes, Histoire de l'empereur Henri, ed. and tr. N. de Wailly,
in his edition of Villehardouin (Paris, 1874), pp. 304-420; ed. J. Longnon
(Paris, 1948), in the Documents relatifs a l'histoire des croisades, publiés
par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. Ernoul continues
to furnish information needing confirmation from other sources. 
 For the period 1220-1242, one must consult the vernacular Chronique rimée
de Philippe Mouskes (ed. [F.] de Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1838), II, Collection
de chroniques belges inédites; also MGH, SS., XXVI (partial text only).
The Old French La Cronique des Vénéciens de Maistre Martin
da Canal, ed. F.-L. Polidori, Archivio storico italiano, VIII (1845), 229-798,
gives important details, especially naval, from the Venetian point of view.
A fourteenth-century Venetian chronicle preserving a good tradition is the
Latin Andreae Danduli chronicon (RISS, XII; new ed., Bologna, 1939 ff.).
Aubrey of Trois-Fontaines (MGH, SS., XXIII) continues to be very useful.
The work of the Dominican Simon of St. Quentin, which furnishes information
on the Latins in Asia Minor unavailable elsewhere, is preserved in Vincent
of Beauvais, Biblioteca mundi (Douai, 1624). For the complicated but useful
Franciscan source material see G. Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica
della Terra Santa e deli' Oriente Francescano, 5  vols. (Quaracchi, 1906-1927);
idem, "Disputatio Latinorum et Grecorum," Archivum Franciscanum
historicum, XII (1919), 418-470; L. Wadding, Annales Minorum, 27 vols. (Quaracchi,
1931-1934). Three works of the fourteenth-century Venetian, Marino Sanudo
(Torsello), are also useful: Secreta fidelium crucis (ed. J. Bongars, Gesta
Dei per Francos, Hanover, 1611, II); Istoria del regno di Romania (ed. C.
Hopf, Chroniques grécoromanes, Berlin, 1873, pp. 99-170), the Italian
version of a lost Latin original, dealing mostly with the Morea; and, short
but very valuable, a supplement to Villehardouin (ed. Hopf, ibid., pp. 171
ff.; ed. R. L. Wolff, "Hopf's So-called 'Fragmentum' of Marino Sanudo
Torsello," The Joshua Starr Memorial Volume, Jewish Social Studies,
publication V, New York, 1953, pp. 149-159). 
 The most important single Greek narrative source for the whole period 1204-1261
is Georgii Acropolitae opera (ed. A. Heisenberg, Leipzig, 1903, I), but this
deals only occasionally with the Latins, and reveals a detailed knowledge
of events only beginning with the 1240's. George Pachymeres, De Michaele
et Andronico Palaeologis, Libri XIII (2 vols., CSHB, Bonn, 1835) is useful
for the last years of the Latin occupation; Nicephorus Gregoras, Byzantina
historia (3 vols., CSHB, Bonn, 1829-1855) is occasionally helpful. The Greek
verse chronicle of the Morea (ed. J. Schmitt, London, 1904; ed. P. Kalonaros,
Athens, 1940) also supplies an occasional detail, as do the French and Aragonese
versions (see bibliographical note to chapter VII for full references). A.
Heisenberg, "Neue Quellen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Kaisertums
und der Kirchenunion," Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissen schaften, Philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse (Munich,
1922-1923), I, II, and III, published very important texts of the Greek archbishop
of Ephesus, Nicholas Mesarites. M. A. Andréeva, "A propos de
l'éloge de l'empereur Jean III Batatzès par son fils Theodore
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