Editing Paros (section)

===Crusades===
[[File:I Paros - Buondelmonti Cristoforo - 1420.jpg|thumb|Fifteenth century map by [[Cristoforo Buondelmonti]]]]
In 1204, the soldiers of the [[Fourth Crusade]] seized [[Constantinople]] and overthrew the Byzantine Empire. Although a residual Byzantine state known as the [[Empire of Nicaea]] survived the Crusader onslaught and eventually recovered Constantinople (1261), many of the original Byzantine territories, including Paros, were lost permanently to the crusading powers. Paros became subject to the [[Duchy of the Archipelago]], a [[fiefdom]] made up of various Aegean islands ruled by a Venetian duke as nominal [[vassal]] of a succession of crusader states. In practice, however, the duchy was always a [[client state]] of the [[Republic of Venice]].