European Kingdoms

Duchy of Athens (Fourth Crusade State)
Duchy of Athens (AD 1205 - 1456)

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From the start, the capital of the newly-created Eastern Roman empire was based at Constantinople, dedicated by Emperor Constantine 'the Great' in AD 330. In AD 395, the Roman empire finally suffered a permanent split, creating formal Eastern Roman and Western Roman empires within Europe and beyond, acknowledging what had existed in practise for many years.

With the defeat of the 'Dynasty of the Angeli' by the Fourth Crusade in Constantinople in 1204, Latin rulers governed the city and much of the former empire, backed by Venice and France. The leader of the Fourth Crusade also set up other minor Crusader states in Greece, but other territories were lost, including the Albanian principality of Arbanon.

The reigning Eastern Romans withdrew to Nicæa in Anatolia, but rival claimants also established holdings in Trebizond, Epirus, and in what was now the kingdom of Thessalonica so that, at one point, there were four claimants to the Eastern Roman throne, as well as the Bulgar and Serb states which also claimed dominance over it.

These small Crusader states were founded thanks to Boniface, marquis of Montferrat.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, and from External Links: History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science), and The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Jonathan Shepard (Ed, Revised Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2008, and available via the Internet Archive).)

1456

Conquered by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II.