The Sack of Constantinople or Siege of Constantinople (also called the Fourth Crusade) occurred in 1204; it looted and destroyed parts of the capital of the Byzantine Empire as the city was captured by Western European and Venetian Crusaders. After the capture, the Byzantine Empire fragmented into a number of small successor states, the Crusader-led Latin Empire was founded in its place and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia.