Michael VIII retakes Constantinople

July 25, 1261

Nicaean troops under Alexios Strategopoulos slipped into the city through an unguarded tunnel and overwhelmed the sleeping Latin garrison. Emperor Baldwin II fled by boat. The Palaiologan dynasty restored the Byzantine empire to its old capital, though not to its old strength. The city Michael recovered was a shadow of its former self, its population shrunken, its palaces looted, and its treasury empty.