March 19 in History

The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople or the Constantinopolitan Empire, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It existed from 1204 C.E until its disestablishment in 1261 C.E. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantine Empire as the Western-recognized Roman Empire in the east, with a Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors. The main objective to form a Latin Empire was planned over the course of the Fourth Crusade, promoted by crusade leaders such as Boniface I of Montferrat, as well as the Republic of Venice.

The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 was an agreement between the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice that renegotiated and extended for two years the previous 1268 treaty between the two powers. The agreement was beneficial for both sides: Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos kept the Venetians and their fleet from participating in the attempts of Charles of Anjou to organize an anti-Byzantine crusade, while the Venetians were able to retain their access to the Byzantine market, and even augment their trading privileges by gaining direct access to the Black Sea and the right to their own quarters in Constantinople and Thessalonica. Furthermore, they were able to stop the Byzantine reconquest of Venetian-aligned territories in the Aegean, although the treaty explicitly allowed both sides to continue fighting for control of the island of Euboea (Negroponte). Nevertheless, the agreement's short duration made clear that for both parties, it was a temporary expedient. After the treaty expired, the Venetians allied with Charles of Anjou, but their plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, forcing Venice once more to renew the peace with the Byzantines in 1285.

The Statute of Rhuddlan, also known as the Statutes of Wales or as the Statute of Wales, was a royal ordinance by Edward I of England, which gave the constitutional basis for the government of the Principality of Wales from 1284 until 1536.

The Edict of Amboise, also known as the Edict of Pacification, was signed at the Château of Amboise on 19 March 1563 by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France. The Edict ended the first war of the French Wars of Religion, inaugurating a period of official peace in France by guaranteeing the Huguenots religious privileges and freedoms. However, it was gradually undermined by continuing religious violence at a regional level and hostilities renewed in 1567.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane, in honor of Saint Louis and Louis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later, ill-fated expedition in 1684 to the Gulf coast of Mexico gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition.