Taking advantage of this situation, Michael I of Epirus, a former ally of Boniface, attacked the kingdom in 1210, as did the Bulgarians. As a result, Henry's brother Eustace then became regent for Demetrius. Henry marched against them in 1209 and forced their submission. These nobles, under the regent Oberto, began plotting to place William VI of Montferrat, Boniface's elder son, on the throne, and openly defied the Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders. The kingdom passed to Boniface's son Demetrius, who was still a baby, so actual power was held by various minor nobles of Lombard origin.

The Lombard Rebellion īoniface's rule lasted less than two years before he was ambushed by Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria and killed on September 4, 1207. Emperor Henry of Flanders' expedition against the rebellious Lombard barons of Thessalonica in 1208–09, however, ended the feudal dependency of the southern principalities-the Duchy of Athens, the Marquisate of Bodonitsa, the Lordship of Salona, and the Triarchy of Negroponte-on Thessalonica, replacing it with direct imperial suzerainty. The boundaries of the actual Kingdom of Thessalonica seem to have extended only up to Domokos, Pharsalus, and Velestino: southern Thessaly, with the towns of Zetounion and Ravennika, was under governors appointed by the Latin Emperor, and the principalities of southern Greece were only Boniface's feudal vassals. In 1204–05, Boniface was able to extend his rule south into Greece, advancing through Thessaly, Boeotia, Euboea, and Attica. Late 13th and 14th century sources suggest that Boniface based his claim to Thessalonica on the statement that his younger brother Renier had been granted Thessalonica on his marriage to Maria Komnene in 1180. He then went on to capture the city later in 1204 and set up a kingdom there, subordinate to Baldwin, although the title of 'king' was never officially used. At first he had to compete with Emperor Baldwin, who also wanted the city. The Venetians wanted an emperor whom they could control more easily, and with their influence, Baldwin of Flanders was elected as emperor of the new Latin Empire.īoniface reluctantly accepted this, and set out to conquer Thessalonica, the second-largest Byzantine city after Constantinople. However, the Venetians felt that Boniface was too closely tied to the Byzantine Empire, as his brother Conrad had married into the Byzantine imperial family. The Kingdom of Thessalonica ( Greek: Βασίλειον τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης, romanized: Vasílion tis Thessaloníkis) was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over conquered Byzantine lands in Macedonia and Thessaly.Īfter the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders in 1204, Boniface of Montferrat, the leader of the crusade, was expected by both the Crusaders and the defeated Byzantines to become the new emperor.

Ck2 coat of arms list