الإمبراطورية اللاتينية
The initial expansionist ambitions of the Latin Empire were crushed only one year after its foundation after the Battle of Adrianople in 1205, where its Emperor Baldwin I was captured and most of his knights perished. After that crucial defeat the Latin Empire had to defend itself against Bulgaria and the successor states of the Byzantine Empire, the Nicaean Empire in Asia Minor and the Despotate of Epirus in the Balkans.