Abstract
Latin Constantinople in the 1240s and 1250s has often been considered a ripe fruit waiting to fall into the hands of one of the competing political entities in the region (Nicaea, Epiros, Bulgaria, etc.). This paper argues, on the contrary, that under Emperor Baldwin II (1240-1273) the Latin Empire remained a dynamic power in the post-1204 Byzantine world. The basis for this re-evaluation is a revisionist study of the genealogical relations between a number of leading families in the region (among others the Villehardouin, Da Verona, and Cayeux), creating networks both within Latin Romania and beyond. One of the main hypotheses advanced is that two Serbian queens – Stefan Nemanja’s third wife Anna (of Hainaut) and Stefan Uroš I’s wife Helena (Angelos/Courtenay) – were in fact what one might call Latin imperial princesses. This in turn leads to a reconsideration of Latin-Serbian relations in the period 1204-1261.