Constantinople (Fourth Crusade).
The city was besieged July 7, 1203, by the French and Venetian Crusaders under Count Thibaut de Champagne. After a feeble defence, it was surrendered July 18, by the Usurper, Alexius, and occupied by the Crusaders, who restored Isaac Angelus to the throne, and withdrew.
In January 1204 the Crusaders again laid siege to Constantinople, and at the end of three months, in the course of which Isaac Angelus died, and Mourzoufle assumed the purple, they stormed and pillaged the city. Baldwin was then proclaimed first Latin Emperor of the East.
On July 25, 1261, Constantinople was taken by surprise by the troops of the Greek Emperor, Michael Palæologus, under his lieutenant, Alexius Strategopulus. The Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, made no attempt at resistance, but escaped to the Venetian galleys, and the restoration of the Greek Empire was accomplished without opposition.