Kingdom of Thessalonica

The Kingdom of Thessalonica was a short-lived Crusader state founded after the Fourth Crusade. In 1204 the crusaders partitioned the Byzantine Empire, and Boniface of Montferrat, who had hoped to become Latin emperor, received Thessalonica, the second city of the empire, as a fief of the new Latin Empire. He extended his rule into Thessaly, Boeotia, Euboea and Attica, but the kingdom's direct territory reached only as far as Domokos, Pharsalus and Velestino; the southern principalities were his vassals until 1209. Boniface was killed by the Bulgarians in 1207, and his infant son Demetrius inherited the throne under regents. The Lombard barons rebelled, and Emperor Henry of Flanders intervened. From 1210 the kingdom faced attacks from the Despotate of Epirus. Theodore Komnenos Doukas gradually conquered its lands and captured Thessalonica in 1224, ending the kingdom. The titular title was later claimed by the Montferrat family and by the dukes of Burgundy.