Three years later the Latins had apparently fallen upon better times. The new emperor, the weak Isaac Angelos, had been raised to the purple by a popular revolution. We have seen that Pranas, after he had suppressed the Wallach and Bulgarian rising, took the opportunity, seeing the unpopularity of the sovereign, of declaring himself emperor, and that, being an able man, he would probably have succeeded if Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, had not happened to be in Constantinople.

With the assistance of a hundred and fifty Latin knights and a body of Latin adventurers, mostly Pisans, found in Constantinople, Conrad put the army of Pranas to flight. As the country immediately round Constantinople had been generally on the side of the rebel, the emperor gave the Latins and those who had been on his side permission to pillage and plunder it, as well as the houses of Greek nobles whose loyalty was suspected.

Put these nobles were naturally not without supporters. The Latins, who boasted they had saved the emperor, were attacked by the Greeks. Many were killed, and the Latin quarters were attacked and plundered. Isaac was probably glad to be able to make his peace with Venice, and confirm the former privileges of the Venetians on condition that they should come to his aid with a hundred galleys. Before the year was out similar privileges were granted to the Genoese. They were to have their own quarter of the city, their own wharves, churches, and freedom of trade.

The abstention of privilege

The abstention of privileges was, however, by no means prized as it had been a generation previously. The commerce of the capital had already fallen off. The dynastic rebellions had weakened the empire, and had injured it still more b}7 showing how greatly it had been weakened by its struggles with the Turks and other enemies. During the last twenty years of the century the members of each Italian colony had had troubles with the empire, had been expelled, and had then been allowed to return. A spirit of distrust had arisen on both sides.

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