User:Bbroughton/sandbox

The Reconquest of Constantinople took place in 1261 when the Byzantine General Alexios Stratigopoulos spontaneously invaded the Latin's of Constantinople in one night. After the defeat in April 1205 from Latin emperor Baldwin I which caused the Nivelon of Sociccons to leave Constantinople. The Latin emperors saw the bronze statues as good metal to be made into coins. Constantinople's colossal statue of the goddess Hera, the Anemodoulion, the statues that lined the Hippodrome, Lysippos of Sicyon’s Hercules, the Calydonian boar, statues of Victorious charioteers of the past, and countless other priceless masterpieces were dismantled and all went into the furnace. They also stripped the copper and lead from the roofs of buildings, including their own homes in the Great Palace to sell for scraps. The patriarch of Constantinople, Matthew of Jesolo, stripped the copper and lead from the roofs of the churches, but the damage to the churches were for more of a liturgical rather than financial reason. With the roofs gone, all the buildings fell into ruins. Although there were greed and vandalism towards Constantinople from the Latins, the greatest damage to Constantinople was due to the lack of routine repairs and other resources to maintain the buildings. The Great Palace was in a state of decay from stones hurled over the walls by Latin catapults, and the houses in the city were mostly burnt down from the damages of the three raging fires in the city during the 1203 and 1204. Inside the Mosaic decoration the walls were filled with black soot from smoky lamps and fires, and the figures of the pediments of columns were smashed. By 1261, Constantinople was seen as a complete ruin. In July 1261, the general, Alexios Stratigopoulos, and his army were in Thrace, close to the Land walls. Information got out to him that the city was left undefended because most of the Latin garrison left to attack a nearby island, and there was a small gate left open in the walls. The night of July 25, fifteen men crept through the opening and were able to open the main gates to Stratigopoulos and the rest of his troops. The appearance of the troops took the people by surprise. The Latin men rushed to the monasteries to take sanctuary and the women hid in doorways and alleys as the soldiers rushed past and set their houses on fire. There was not a complete massacre of the Latins because the few that were still in the city, including emperor Baldwin II, realized the situation was hopeless to defend and escaped on the nearest ship. By dawn, Constantinople was again in the hands of Byzantine. Although, Michael VIII did not have an part in the reconquest of Constantinople, the establishment of Michael VIII and the removal of the Latins returned the Byzantine empire its capital. This left Michael VIII to face the reality that Constantinople was, ‘only a shadow of its former glory', and the reconstruction and re-population of the capital was one of the emperor's most pressing concerns throughout his reign.