Fourth Crusade. After the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders and the Venetians and the partition of the Byzantine Empire, Venice seized the entire island of Crete for a sum of money. To gain full control, however, they had to rid themselves of a Genoese pirate, Henry the Fisherman, Count of Malta, who had been a nuisance to them for some time, with aid from Genoa and the Greeks. Venice also acquired Negroponte, Modone, and Corone in Greece, which they fortified, and Corfu, which, however, was abandoned shortly thereafter, leaving Ragusa as Venice’s main port in the lower Adriatic.
