The Byzantine Empire
The Recovery of Constantinople
Vatazes died in 1254 and was succeeded by Theodore II Lascaris. He ruled for only four years, spending most of the time in the Balkans fighting the Bulgars, and in Macedonia fighting the Epirotes. When he died in 1258, he was succeeded by Michael VIII Paleologus. The new emperor dallied a bit with negotiations, then invaded what was left of Byzantium in 1260. He did so because a traitor had agreed to leave open a gate in the walls, but the traitor did not deliver. After pillaging some of the suburbs, Michael agreed to a one-year truce in exchange for money. Baldwin was so poor that he had to strip lead from the roofs and sell it in order to raise the cash.
Michael was still determined to take the city, but he had to make sure his flanks were secure. In 1261 he sent one army westward to attack Michael II, Despot of Epirus, and another army northeast to fight the Bulgarians. This second army, commanded by Alexius Strategopopulus, was marching right by Constantinople in the spring of 1261. Some of the local farmers told him two interesting facts. One, that most of the city's too-few defenders were away, accompanying a Venetian fleet in an attack on the island of Daphnusia in the Black Sea. The second fact was that these farmers knew of a passage underneath the walls of the city, wide enough to admit only one man at a time.
The Nicaean commander seized the opportunity. During the night, he slipped men through the passageway and they opened the gates. There was some street fighting in the darkness, but by morning the city was his. Baldwin II fled the city. When the Venetians returned, they found the city in Greek hands and the Venetian quarter in flames. Alexius had taken the families of the Venetians and placed them on the docks, so when the fleet sailed up, they were interested only in saving their families. The fleet sailed away, and the Nicaeans secured the city. A Venetian ship rescued Baldwin, who returned to Italy. He spent the rest of his life hatching various schemes to recover Constantinople, to no avail.
Micheal VIII Paleologus made his triumphal entry into the city on August 15, 1261. The Latin Empire of Constantinople existed no longer. It had done nothing to further the cause of the Crusades, nor had it led to a reunion of the Churches. One of the first things Michael did was to restore all the Greek churches, and the Greek Patriarch. The only lasting legacy of the Fourth Crusade was the creation of Latin duchies in Greece, and a vast expansion of Venetian power in the eastern Mediterranean. The recapture of the city by the Greeks, in turn, brought extensive privileges to Genoa, which now began its expansion into the Black Sea region.