In a sense, both sides were right in their judgement. The Fourth Crusade was actually conceived in 1199 at a jousting tournament held by Thibaut, Count of Champagne, at Ecry-sur-Aisne in northern France. Despite their oaths and the threat of excommunication, the Crusaders systematically violated the city's holy sanctuaries, destroying or stealing all they could lay hands on; nothing was spared, not even the tombs of the emperors inside the St Apostles church. After the dust settled and everyone had their fill of pillaging and looting, the Partitio Romaniae treaty, already decided on beforehand, carved up the Byzantine Empire amongst Venice and its allies. The attack on Constantinople in 1203/1204 was not, by any rational definition, a “crusade” at all. Cite This Work A Byzantine traitor, however, opened the sea-gates to the enemy. In 1198 he called a new Crusade through legates and encyclical letters. Web. As well as being stolen, works of immeasurable artistic value were destroyed merely for their material value. Historians continue to debate the exact reason why the Crusaders then turned on Constantinople instead of Jerusalem, but one crucial ingredient in the troublesome mix of mutual suspicions between the western powers and Byzantium was the Republic of Venice and one man, in particular, the Doge Enrico Dandolo (r. 1192-1205 CE). [12] Although the Venetians engaged in looting too, their actions were far more restrained. We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. By Mark Bonocore I've recently been reading a book by John J. Robinson called "Dungeon, Fire, and Sword --a history of the Crusades". Alexios fled to Thrace, and three days of looting followed. Start studying Chapter 13 test. Despite the King of Hungary being among those who agreed to join the Crusade, the Venetians instructed the crusaders to storm the city. The diversion of the Fourth Crusade from the Holy Land to attack, capture, and pillage the Byzantine city of Constantinople divided and dissipated the efforts of the Christians to maintain the war against the Muslims. However, because of previous siege of a Catholic Zara, revenge is disputable as a significant motive. Sailing in with their fleet and attacking the sea walls and land walls simultaneously with siege engines and scaling ladders, even the elite Varangian Guard could not prevent the attackers forcing their way into the city. When the crusaders took the piles of money, jewels, and gold that they had captured in the sack of Constantinople back to Rome, Innocent III welcomed the stolen items and agreed to let the crusaders back into the Church The Byzantines lamented not only the awful bloodshed and the monetary loss of the sacking but also the destruction of historically important artworks which they knew full well connected the city and, indeed, the western world back to its Roman heritage. Consequently, a deal was made that in return for passage the Crusaders would stop off at Zara on the Dalmatian coast and reconquer it for the Italians, the city having recently defected to the Hungarians. Some Crusaders were eventually able to knock holes in the walls large enough for a few knights at a time to crawl through; the Venetians were also successful at scaling the walls from the sea, although there was extremely bloody fighting with the Varangians. The Venetians, being the rapacious traders they were, insisted that their 240 ships be paid for, but the Crusaders could not meet the asking price of 85,000 silver marks. Like so many other priceless artworks made of bronze, the statue was melted down for its content by the Crusaders. This allowed the Crusaders to get up to the northern sea wall and eventually enter the city. The incumbent emperor and brother of Isaac, Alexios III Angelos, caught completely unprepared by the arrival of the Crusaders, fled the city. "The spirit of reconciliation of the resurrection... incites us toward reconciliation of our churches. After the capture of the city, the Latin Empire (known to the Byzantines as the Frankokratia or the Latin Occupation)[4] was established and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia. Constantinople was surrounded by thick ramparts or defensive walls, which were over a thousand years old when the Ottoman Turks attacked the city in 1453. Ancient History Encyclopedia has a new name! This seemed as good an opportunity as ever to finally knock out Constantinople as a trade competitor. The Venetians would also provide 50 ships at their own cost and receive half of any territory conquered. The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Reflections on the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 and Lesser-Known Byzantine Atrocities Orthodox Christians are rightly horrified by what took place in the siege of Constantinople in 1204 by western Crusaders. First, the crusaders might be persuaded to leave; second, with or without Emperor Alexius III’s agreement, the Greeks The Massacre of the Latins (Italian: Massacro dei Latini; Greek: Σφαγή τῶν Λατίνων), a massacre of the Roman Catholic or "Latin" inhabitants of Constantinople by the usurper Andronikos Komnenos and his supporters in May 1182,[5][6] had effect on the politics between Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire and led to Sack of Thessalonica by Normans. However, because of previo… Mark is a history writer based in Italy. The legacy of the Fourth Crusade was the deep sense of betrayal the Latins had instilled in their Greek coreligionists. Bartholomew said his acceptance came in the spirit of Pascha. Related Articles. "1204: The Sack of Constantinople." The most infamous action of the Fourth Crusade was the sack of the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople . However, at the time of embarkation in Venice in June of 1202, it was not possible to gather enough troops–and payment. The Fourth Crusade was launched by Pope Innocent III in 1202 CE with the principal intention of reclaiming Jerusalem for Christendom. Before we explore the reasons behind this victory, it is crucial to explain why the Fourth Crusade arrived at Constantinople. We are now World History Encyclopedia to better reflect the breadth of our non-profit organization's mission. Instead, a bizarre twist of fate turned the latest crusaders in a totally unexpected direction—toward the great Christian city, Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire. [13] The very altars of these churches were smashed and torn to pieces for their gold and marble by the warriors. The sack of Constantinople is a major turning point in medieval history. Eight hundred years after the Fourth Crusade, Pope John Paul II twice expressed sorrow for the events of the Fourth Crusade. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University and Michigan State University and University of Missouri. Sack of Constantinople (1204) - Wikipedia "The Crusaders looted, terrorized, and vandalized Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient and medieval Roman and Greek works were either stolen or destroyed. For nine months growing resentment within the city is matched by increasing impatience outside. The Byzantines remained in nominal control, but the French and Venetians were the true power in the city now even as they pretended to let things play out in Constantinople before launching any more attacks. The belief that the conquest of Constantinople would help Crusading efforts was a mirage. It is true that Pope Innocent III had called for a new crusade — to liberate Jerusalem indirectly by seizing control of Egypt. The Byzantines were considered to lack the will to fight the common enemy while, from the other side, the Crusaders were seen as opportunists out to grab the choicest parts of the Byzantine Empire in the east. Worse, they created a damaging rift in east-west relations as blame was apportioned to either side for the lack of success. With the fall of the city, many of its religious icons, relics, and artworks were spirited away and the Byzantine Empire was divided up between Venice and its allies. The Venetians took three-eighths of Constantinople, the Ionian islands, Crete, Euboea, Andros, Naxos, and a few strategic points along the coast of the Sea of Marmara. Byzantine aristocratic refugees founded their own successor states, the most notable of these being the Empire of Nicaea under Theodore Lascaris (a relative of Alexius III), the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus. Baldwin of Flanders was then made the Latin emperor (r. 1204-1205 CE) and crowned in the Hagia Sophia, receiving five-eighths of Constantinople and one-quarter of the empire which included Thrace, northwest Asia Minor, and several Aegean islands (notably Chios, Lesbos, and Samos). The four bronze horses now in St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice were probably once part of a chariot group which stood atop the arena's monumental entrance gate. Enrico Dandolo did not miss the opportunity to propose to the Crusaders that he would postpone the payment of their debt in exchange for help in recapturing t… The world had lost something great and undefinable, as powerfully summarised here by the historian J. J. Norwich: By the sack of Constantinople, Western civilization suffered a loss greater than the burning of the library of Alexandria in the fourth century or the sack of Rome in the fifth - perhaps the most catastrophic single loss in all history. Following the siege of Constantinople in 1203, on 1 August 1203 the pro-Crusader Alexios Angelos was crowned Emperor Alexios IV of the Byzantine Empire. However, the new pair of emperors went back on the arranged deal of assistance - although they had few resources to call on in reality - and also failed to formally make the Byzantine Church subordinate to the Pope. [21] The contemporary Byzantine historian and eye-witness Nicetas Choniates closed his account of the fall of the city with the following description of a column of aristocratic refugees, including the Patriarch, making their way to Selymbria: The peasants and common riff-raff jeered at those of us from Byzantium and were thick-headed enough to call our miserable poverty and nakedness equality...Many were only too happy to accept this outrage, saying "Blessed be the Lord that we have grown rich", and buying up for next to nothing the property that their fellow-countrymen were forced to offer for sale, for they had not yet had much to do with the beef-eating Latins and they did not know that they served a wine as pure and unmixed as unadulterated bile, nor that they would treat the Byzantines with utter contempt.[21].
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