OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 413 CHAPTER LXI Partition of the Empire by the French and Venetians — Five Latin Emperor.s of the Houses of Flanders and Court enaij — Their IVars against the Bulgarians and Greeks — Weakness and Poverty of the Latin Empire: — Recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks — General Consequences of the Crusades After the death of the lawful princes^ the French and Vene- Election of tians, confident of justice and victorv, agreed to divide and Baldwin l •/ ■' ~ AD 1204 I'egulate their future possessions.^ It was stipulated by treaty, May 9.16 ' that twelve electors, six of either nation, should be nominated ; treaty] that a majority should choose the emperor of the East ; and that, if the votes were equal, the decision of chance should as- certain the successful candidate. To him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, they assigned the two palaces of Boucoleon and Blacherna?, with a fourth part of the Greek monarchy. It was defined that the three remaining portions should be equally shared between the republic of Venice and the barons of France ; that each feudatory, with an honourable exception for the doge, should acknowledge and perform the duties of homage and military service to the supreme head of the empire ; that the nation which gave an emperor should resign to their brethren the choice of a patri- arch ; and that the pilgrims, whatever might be their impatience to visit the Holy Land, should devote another year to the con- [from March
- 31 12041
quest and defence of the Greek provinces. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins, the treaty was confirmed and executed ; and the first and most important step was the crea- tion of an emperor. The six electors of the French nation were 1 See the original treaty of partition, in the Venetian Chronicle of Andrew Dan- dolo, p. 326-330 [Tafel und Thomas, Urkunden zur altern Handels- und Staats- geschichte der Republik Venedig, i. 454. The treaty was concluded and drawn up before the city was takenj, and the subsequent election in Villehardouin, No. 136-140, with Ducange in his Observations, and the ist book of his Histoire de Constantinople sous 1' Empire des Fran9ois.
