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Was the largest of the three successor states of the Byzantine Empire that were formed after the Fourth Crusade were Western European forces conquered Constaintinople. In 1261 the Empire of Nicaea restored the Byzantine Empire after the reconquest of Constantinople.
Establishment
November 1204: The Latin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had poor control over former Byzantine territory, and Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire sprang up in Epirus, Trebizond, and Nicaea. Theodore appeared as his father-in-law's representative and secured the Bithynian towns' loyalty in Alexios III's name until the end of 1204. The local Greeks acknowledged him as the strategos (or military leader) of Bithynia.
November 1204: In 1204, the territory of Samsun and its surroundings fell under the control of the Empire of Trebizond.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the Medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291.
1.1.Fourth Crusade
Was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem. However, the Western Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204 and partitioned the Byzantine Empire.
January 1205: Following the Fourth Crusade's attack on the Byzantines in 1204, the Christian Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruled by King Levon I and his wife Queen Isabella, periodically held the port of Alanyia and the surrounding coast as part of their expanding territory.
January 1205: Latin forces defeated the Nicaean forces at Poimanenon and Prusa in 1204.
Were a series of conflicts between the Second Bulgarian Empire and the Latin Empire.
May 1205: Theodore Lascaris was able to capture much of northwestern Anatolia after the Bulgarian defeat of Latin Emperor Baldwin I in the Battle of Adrianople.
Expansion during the rule of Henry in the Latin Empire.
January 1206: The initial campaigns of the crusaders in Asia Minor resulted in the capture of most of Bithynia by 1205, with the defeat of the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa.
January 1207: The Latin Empire took control of Nicomedia in 1206. Its reign will last until 1240.
April 1207: The Latins invaded Asia Minor and captured Nicomedia and Cyzicus during the winter of 1206-1207.
October 1211: Henry landed with his army at Pegai and marched eastward to the Rhyndacus river. Henry assaulted his positions and scattered the Nicaean troops in a day-long battle on 15 October.
October 1211: Henry of Flanders, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople captured Nymphaion and Pergamon.
January 1215: The Treaty of Nymphaeum gave the Latin Empire control of most of Mysia up to the village of Kalamos, which was to be uninhabited and mark the boundary with the Empire of Nicaea.
Was the successful Seljuk capture of the city of Attalia (today Antalya, Turkey), a port in southern-western Asia Minor.
April 1207: The siege of Antalya in 1207 was led by the Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan III, against the Byzantine Empire. The capture of the city of Attalia was a significant victory for the Turks in their expansion into Asia Minor.
Were the military campaigns of the Nicaean Empire, the largest of the rump states that succeeded the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade, aimed to reconquer the territories of the Byzantine Empire. The Nicaean Empire was succesful in the reconquest of Constantinople and refounded the Byzantine Empire, but the former territorial extent of the Empire was never achieved.
5.1.The Empire of Nicaea annects Bitinia
The Empire of Nicaea annects Bitinia.
January 1211: The Empire of Nicaea annexes Bythinia.
5.2.The Empire of Nicaea conquers Ikaria
Nicaean conquest of Ikaria.
January 1223: Nicaean conquest of Ikaria.
5.3.The Empire of Nicaea conquers Kios
Nicaean conquest of Kios.
January 1223: Nicaean conquest of Kios.
5.4.The Empire of Nicaea conquers Lesbos
Nicaean conquest of Lesbos.
January 1223: Nicaean conquest of Lesbos.
5.5.The Empire of Nicaea conquers Samos
Nicaean conquest of Samos.
January 1223: Nicaean conquest of Samos.
5.6.The Empire of Nicaea conquers the southern coasts of the Marmara Sea
Nicaean counquest of the southern coasts of the Marmara Sea.
January 1223: Nicaean conquest of the southern coasts of the Marmara Sea.
The Genoese took possession of island of Rhodes, a dependency of the Empire of Nicaea, in a surprise attack in 1248.
January 1249: The Genoese took possession of the city and island of Rhodes, a dependency of the Empire of Nicaea, in a surprise attack in 1248.
January 1251: Rhodes is conquered by Nicaean forces.
Nicaean Emperor Theodore II Laskaris invaded The Bulgarian Empire and conquered Veles.
March 1255: In 1255, the Empire of Nicaea, led by Emperor Theodore II Laskaris, launched a surprise attack on the invading forces in Thrace. The successful assault forced the invaders to retreat from the territory.
December 1255: Theodore I Laskaris, the Emperor of Nicaea, invaded Macedonia in 1255. He successfully forced the Bulgarian garrison in Veles to surrender, gaining control of the territory.
The recapture of the city of Constantinople by the forces of the Empire of Nicaea, led to the re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty, after an interval of 57 years where the city had been the capital of the Latin Empire installed by the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
July 1261: The Latin Empire, established after the Fourth Crusade, ended in 1261 when Michael VIII Palaeologus of the Byzantine Empire retook Constantinople from the last Latin Emperor, Baldwin II. This marked the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in the region.
January 1205: Following the Fourth Crusade's attack on the Byzantines in 1204, the Christian Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruled by King Levon I and his wife Queen Isabella, periodically held the port of Alanyia and the surrounding coast as part of their expanding territory.
January 1212: By 1211 all Asian territories of the Latin Empire, with the exception of Pegai, were conquered by the Nicaeans.
January 1215: Taking advantage of a conflict between the Latin Empire and Serbia, Theodore and Sultan Kaykaus I invaded the Empire of Trebizond simultaneously in 1214. Theodore forced David Komnenos to abandon Heraclea Pontica on the Black Sea. Whether he conquered eastern Paphlagonia during this campaign, or only years later, is unclear. His conquest of the region put a narrow strip of land along the Black Sea coast under Nicaean control, and thus removed the emperors of Trebizond from the competition for Constantinople.
January 1222: Alanya conquered by Sultanate of Rum.
January 1226: The Nicaeans seized Adrianople from the Latins in 1225.
January 1226: Threatened both by Nicaea in Asia and Epirus in Europe, the Latin emperor sued for peace, which was concluded in 1225. According to its terms, the Latins abandoned all their Asian possessions except for the eastern shore of the Bosporus and the city of Nicomedia with the surrounding region.
January 1227: Epirote armies conquered Thrace in 1225-26, appearing before Constantinople itself. The Latin Empire was saved for a time by the threat posed to Theodore by the Bulgarian tsar Ivan II Asen, and a truce was concluded in 1228.
February 1227: Epirote armies conquered Thrace in 1225-26, appearing before Constantinople itself. The Latin Empire was saved for a time by the threat posed to Theodore by the Bulgarian tsar Ivan II Asen, and a truce was concluded in 1228.
January 1228: John III's possession of Adrianople was terminated by Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus and Thessalonica, who drove the Nicaean garrison out of Adrianople and annexed much of Thrace in 1227.
January 1236: Venetian Tekirdağ (Rodosto) and Gelibolu Peninsula (Gallipoli), 1204-1235.
January 1241: Leo Gabalas acknowledged some form of suzerainty by the Empire of Nicaea, but remained virtually independent until his death, sometime in the early 1240s.
January 1241: After the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Nicomedia was captured by the Latin Empire. In 1240, it was recaptured by the Empire of Nicaea under the leadership of John III Doukas Vatatzes, marking the end of Latin rule in the city.
January 1242: Nicaean forces conquer the coast of Thessaly and Chalkidiki.
January 1243: In spite of some reverses against the Latin Empire in 1240, John III was able to take advantage of Ivan Asen II's death in 1241 to impose his own suzerainty over Thessalonica (in 1242).
January 1247: Demetrios Angelos Doukas lost Thessalonica to Nicaea in 1246.
January 1247: The Nicaean army conquered large areas in southern Thrace, the Rhodopes, and Macedonia—including Adrianople, Tsepina, Stanimaka, Melnik, Serres, Skopje, and Ohrid—meeting little resistance.
January 1247: The Nicaea annexed much of Bulgarian Thrace in 1246.
January 1247: In 1246 the Upper Vardar valley, including Skopje, was incorporated once more into a Byzantine state, the Empire of Nicaea.
January 1248: When Nicaean Emperor Johannes Vatatzes began to expel the weakened Bulgarians from Romania in 1246, took large parts of Thrace from them and advanced as far as Prilep in Upper Macedonia, Michael of Epirus recaptured Central Albania and Ohrid.
January 1252: Theodore, the exile and former ruler of Thessaloniki, convinced Michael II in 1251 to invade the emperor's possessions. However, within a year the despot of Epirus was defeated by Johannes Vatatzes. In the peace treaty that followed, he had to recognize John as the rightful emperor, cede western Macedonia and possibly also areas in Albania, and hand over Theodore, the instigator of the war.
January 1254: The Bulgarians reacted as late as 1253, invading Serbia and regaining the Rhodopes the following year.
January 1255: Michael II Asen's indecisiveness allowed the Nicaeans to regain all of their lost territory, with the exception of Tsepina.
February 1255: Michael of Bulgaria invaded Macedonia and Thrace in December 1254 or January 1255. The Bulgarians quickly seized most Thracian fortresses. Two Macedonian towns, Veles and Skopje, also surrendered to them.
January 1256: In 1255, the Bulgarians quickly regained Macedonia, whose Bulgarian population preferred the rule of Tarnovo to that of the Nicaeans.
September 1256: Rostislav accepted it and signed the peace treaty on Michael II's behalf on 29 June. The treaty prescribed that Michael II cede Tzepaina to the Nicaeans, but the Bulgarian garrison was not withdrawn immediately from the fortress. Theodore became convinced that Rostislav had deceived him and ordered the public whipping of Akropolites. His act proved imprudent, because the Bulgarians ceded the fortress in early September.
January 1257: All Bulgarian gains in Macedonia were lost in 1256, after the Bulgarian representative Rostislav Mikhailovich betrayed his cause and reaffirmed Nicaean control over the disputed areas.
January 1258: Nicaean emperor Michael successfully operated in central Albania in 1257 and recaptured Durazzo.
January 1260: Michael VIII Palaiologos, the Byzantine Emperor, captured the capital of Arta from Michael II Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus.
January 1261: Arta was recovered by 1260 while Michael VIII was occupied against Constantinople.
Disestablishment
January 1261: Arta was recovered by 1260 while Michael VIII was occupied against Constantinople.
July 1261: The Latin Empire, established after the Fourth Crusade, ended in 1261 when Michael VIII Palaeologus of the Byzantine Empire retook Constantinople from the last Latin Emperor, Baldwin II. This marked the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in the region.
Empire of Nicaea
