CHAPTER LXI: Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians .-- Part I.
Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians,--Five Latin Emperors Of The Houses Of Flanders And Courtenay .-- Their Wars Against The Bulgarians And Greeks .-- Weakness And Poverty Of The Latin Empire .-- Recovery Of Constantinople By The Greeks .-- General Consequences Of The Crusades.
After the death of the lawful princes, the French and Venetians, confident of justice and victory, agreed to divide and regulate their future possessions.

[1] It was stipulated by treaty, that twelve electors, six of either nation, should be nominated; that a majority should choose the emperor of the East; and that, if the votes were equal, the decision of chance should ascertain the successful candidate.
To him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, they assigned the two palaces of Boucoleon and Blachernae, with a fourth part of the Greek monarchy.

It was defined that the three remaining portions should be equally shared between the republic of Venice and the barons of France; that each feudatory, with an honorable exception for the doge, should acknowledge and perform the duties of homage and military service to the supreme head of the empire; that the nation which gave an emperor, should resign to their brethren the choice of a patriarch; and that the pilgrims, whatever might be their impatience to visit the Holy Land, should devote another year to the conquest and defence of the Greek provinces.

After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins, the treaty was confirmed and executed; and the first and most important step was the creation of an emperor.

The six electors of the French nation were all ecclesiastics, the abbot of Loces, the archbishop elect of Acre in Palestine, and the bishops of Troyes, Soissons, Halberstadt, and Bethlehem, the last of whom exercised in the camp the office of pope's legate: their profession and knowledge were respectable; and as _they_ could not be the objects, they were best qualified to be the authors of the choice.