The Fourth Crusade was the fourth major military action by European Crusaders aimed at conquering the Holy Land. The Crusade is, however, infamous for resulting in the 1204 Sack of Constantinople

BACKGROUND

Jerusalem was reconquered by Muslim forces in 1187 under the command of Al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known to us as Saladin. The so-called Crusader states were reduced to a few coastal cities such as Acre and Tyre. The loss of Jerusalem stunned Christendom and prompted Pope Gregory VIII to call for a Third Crusade.

The Third Crusade (1189-1192) led primarily by King Richard “The Lionheart” of England achieved some successes, pushing back Saladin’s forces and restoring a large portion of the Holy Land to Christian hands, but failed to take Jerusalem. This failure left the door open for another Crusade.

That call came in 1198, when the newly elected Pope Innocent III issued a Bull declaring a Fourth Crusade to take the Holy Land

THE FARCE AWAKENS

In 1201 Enrico Dandolo, then the 95 year old and blind Doge of Venice, was approached by three of the most powerful nobles of France: Theobald, Count of Champagne, Louis, Count of Blois, and Baldwin, Count of Flanders. The Frenchmen offered that if the Venetians built a fleet and ferried them to Alexandria (it was the consensus among Europeans that Egypt was the center of Muslim power in the Mediterranean, and by conquering it would permanently secure the Holy Land), they would pay 85,000 gold marks up front, and the Venetians would receive half of the plunder and a trading monopoly in Egypt after it was taken. They promised to return next year with an army of ~35,000 men. Venice had already benefited greatly from the Crusades, so they readily agreed. This was, however, a massive economic gamble, as a fleet large enough to carry that many men and horses required almost all of the city’s resources for a year, and nearly half the adult male population of the city was needed for crews.

In the summer of 1202 the problems began, the French arrived in Venice with an army of around 10,000, less than a third of what was promised. To make matters worse, they produced only 50,000 gold marks as payment. Venice was basically on the verge of bankruptcy, and a bitter debate between the French and Venetians began on how to proceed. It was finally agreed upon in November 1202 to attack the city of Zara on the Adriatic coast. Zara was once a Venetian vassal but at sworn allegiance to the King of Hungary. Pope Innocent issued a Bull excommunicating anyone who participated in the attack as soon as he caught wind, but the Venetians took great care in suppressing it from spreading through the ranks. Zara was taken and sacked after a short siege, and the Crusaders settled down for the winter.

THE BYZANTINE CONNECTION

While wintering in Zara, the Crusade’s nominal commander, Boniface of Montferrat, traveled to Swabia in Germany and returned with a young man named Alexios Angelos, son of recently deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac Angelos. By contemporary accounts, Alexios was an unimpressive philanderer who drank heavily. Alexios presented the Crusaders with an extraordinary offer. Sail to Constaninople and put him on his father’s throne, and he would pay them 200,000 silver marks, lend 10,000 imperial troops to assist in the Crusade, pay for the upkeep of 500 Byzantine knights to defend Jerusalem after it was taken, and subordinate the power of the Byzantine church to the Pope. The Crusaders engaged in a fierce debate over this offer. The French realized this offer was too good to be true, but Dandolo and the Venetians were desperate to recover costs and wanted to accept. In spring of 1203, the fleet sailed for Constantinople.

The Crusaders stormed the city on July 17th 1203, and Byzantine resistance melted over the course of the day. The current emperor (coincidentally, also named Alexios) emptied the treasury and escaped over the Bosphorus strait during the night. Alexios Angelos was crowned Alexios IV the next day, and his father Isaac was released from prison and made co-emperor. The problems however, would only get worse.

Alexios was reviled by the Byzantine populace. He had brought a foreign army to their city, and the Crusaders had burned down a large portion of the northern part of the city during the assault. Since the imperial treasury had been emptied by his predecessor, the young emperor resorted to looting churches for precious metals to melt into coins to pay the Crusaders, which only enraged the populace further. The payments began to dry up, which enraged the Venetians. Starting in December 1203 mobs of Byzantine citizens began killing any foreigner they could get their hands on

SACK OF CONSTANTINOPLE

On January 27th, 1204, Alexios IV was overthrown in a palace coup and another man (again also called Alexios) was crowned emperor. The Crusaders camped outside the city sent a flurry of messages demanding the release of Alexios IV and the payment of 100,000 marks they were still owed. Alexios V sent back a short message telling the Crusaders to leave or he would “slay them all”. Alexios IV was murdered in prison in early February 1204

In April of 1204, after Easter had passed, the Crusaders stormed the city again. Byzantine resistance led by the Varangian Guard was heroic but not enough to stave off the assault. The city had fallen again by April 12th and the next three days the Crusaders destroyed and looted much of the city. After the smoke had cleared, Baldwin of Flanders was chosen as the new Roman emperor, beginning a period known the the Byzantines as Frankokratia (rule of the Franks)

AFTERMATH

The Sack of Constantinople shocked the Christian world. Despite the Catholic-Orthodox schism the Byzantines were seen as the bulwark against Islam, and the crusading era had marked a warming of relations between the rival churches. However, not all of western Christendom was appalled by the Crusaders’ actions, as many Catholics blamed Byzantine betrayal for the disastrous Second Crusade (1147-1150). Pope Innocent III was dissuaded from excommunicating all those involved, but steadfastly refused to acknowledge the Crusading vows of those who sacked the city as completed.

Most of the Byzantine nobility escaped to Nikea across the Bosphorus and a man named Theodore Laskaris was crowned as emperor. Historians call this state the Nicaean Empire, although contemporary Byzantines did not call it such. The Nicaean empire devoted most of its energy to retaking Constantinople, which was achieved in 1261. The Byzantine Empire never recovered from the Sack, and the chaos that followed allowed for the Ottomans to gain a foothold in western Anatolia where they would expand and one day conquer Constantinople.

Venice was given control over many Aegean islands as the Crusaders divided up the spoils, and Dandolo was given the rather interesting title of Lord of Three Eighths of the Roman Empire. Dandolo would remain in Constantinople to oversee Venetian interests but died in 1205 at the age of 98, and was buried in the Hagia Sophia, the only person ever laid to rest there.

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