[1] In October 1204, following the definitive partition of the former Byzantine Empire (Partitio Romaniae), Demotika was given as a fief to Hugh IV of Saint Pol,[2] a Picard veteran of the Third Crusade who would die soon after, in March 1205, in Constantinople.
[3] Latin rule in Thrace was not secure, however, as it was threatened by the Bulgarian Empire in the north, and the resentment of the local Eastern Orthodox Greek population towards their new Roman Catholic masters.
Thus in early 1205, the locals rose up in revolt in Demotika, Adrianople and other cities, evicted their Latin garrisons, and acknowledged the suzerainty of the Bulgarian Tsar Kalojan.
Thus in early 1206 the inhabitants of Demotika and Adrianople submitted to the Greek lord Theodore Branas, who was in the Latin Emperor's service.
Henry, now Latin Emperor, managed to recapture the inhabitants as they were being taken prisoner to Bulgaria, but before he withdrew from Demotika, Kalojan ordered the town's fortifications razed, making it useless as a military base.