Description
With the capture of Constantinople and defeat of the Byzantines by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE, a number of vassal states appeared in Greece, initially owing allegiance to the new Latin Emperor in Constantinople. They were primarily French and Italian Crusader states established in the territory of the dissolved Byzantine Empire. They were all eventually swept by the Ottoman Turks as they expanded into the region. The term ”Franks“ was used by the Orthodox Greek and Islamic population in the region to describe all western Europeans, conflating the Franks or French with everyone else.