d was
personally more popular. Besides, the larger part of the army
consisted of his own people, Flemings.

There was, therefore, no surprise when the council of election
announced that the choice had fallen upon Baldwin, and his rival was
among the first to acknowledge the validity of the election. The
Marquis of Montferrat obtained for his prize Crete and the Asiatic
part of the empire. As, however, he discovered that the latter part of
the Byzantine realm would require to be conquered, he exchanged it for
the kingdom of Thessalonica. The Greek empire had at one blow fallen
to pieces. What the crusaders had conquered was that part of the
country now called Roumelia. Across the Dardanelles, Theodore Lascaris
established himself as emperor at Nicaea; and Alexius, a son of Manuel
Comnenus, created an empire for himself at Trebizond; another
established himself as despot of Epirus; and the other two wandering
emperors, Alexius III and Alexius V, joined their forces, in the hope
of keeping the Latins out of the northwest provinces.

But these two passed masters in duplicity could not, even in
misfortune, trust one another, and Alexius III, the craftier if not
the stronger of the two vagabond usurpers, seized his ally, put out
his eyes, and handed him over to the Latins. They went through the
formality of a trial, and found him guilty of the murder of Alexius
IV. He was sentenced to death, and after a good deal of discussion it
was decided that the manner of his death should be by being hurled
from the top of a lofty column, and this was accordingly done.

As for Alexius III, after a great variety of adventures he finally
fell into the hands of his son-in-law, Theodore Lascaris, who shut him
up in a monastery, where his troubled life came to an end.

Baldwin began his reign by sending a conciliatory letter to the
Pope.[51] He had not, it is true, attempted to carry out the vows
which he and his brother-crusaders had taken upon themselves.
Palestine still groaned under the yoke of the infidel. At the same
time the Pope could not but feel gratified at the extinction of the
Greek schism and the restoration of the unity of Christendom, That
event was undoubtedly due to him, and the Pope acknowledged it in a
careful letter, which left him free at any time to express his
disapprobation of the course pursued by the crusaders. To the King of
France Baldwin wrote, inviting the French knights to find their way to
this new scene