Dr. Jason T. Roche

1. THE FOURTH CRUSADE Dr. Jason T. Roche

2. READING Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History 2nd. ed. (2005) (Available via Google Books and the Bookshop)

3. Lecture Format: Question that has troubled historians for 800 years: • Why did a crusade that planned to conquer Egypt before recovering Jerusalem for Christendom end up attacking and conquering Constantinople, the greatest city in Christendom? • Lecture will offer the latest theory • You will find the other theories in your reading

4. PLEASE REMEMBER: • Primary and modern secondary sources based on the latest research employed in the creation of lectures • No modern historian in say, the U.K or the U.S. can become a doctor or publish academic articles and journals if the rely on old works and old theories • Or if they have an obvious, subjective agenda which many historians used to have decades ago • Modern historians from somewhere like western Europe must be as objective as possible otherwise they cannot be historians • This is why we must always read modern works based on modern reearch • Unfortunately, nearly all High School teaching in say, the U.K. or in Turkey is ultimately based on old works and is of little value at tertiary level • Therefore, some students will feel uncomfortable with what they hear in a crusades lecture • But do not take your lecturer’s word for what you hear • Read modern works based on modern research and make up your own minds

5. Innocent III issued a crusade bull on 15 August 1198 • Learnt from the disasters of the First and Second Crusades • Advances in maritime technology • Security of the sea lanes • Treaty concluded with Venice in April 1201 • Doge, Enrico Dandolo, played a principal part in the negotiations • Secured shipping to take the crusaders to Egypt Contemporary fresco of Innocent III, the ‘Lawyer Pope’; located in the Monastery of Saint Benedict

6. Only 12,000 of the projected 33,500 crusaders turned up in Venice • Not enough crusaders to pay for the shipping • Danger of crusade being aborted • Dandalo proposed an attack on his enemy, the Dalmatian port of Zara, as a means to postpone payment of debt Geoffroi de Villehardouin: • Leaders argued that they would “be disgraced, if we do not aid in capturing the city” • Argument to help capture Zara as a reflection of chivalric society • Dandalo’s proposal was accepted and he took the cross •  Zara was captured by the Venetians and crusaders in November 1202 and the spoils divided accordingly • The crusaders still didn’t have enough men, money or material to carry on to Egypt

7. Q. WHY DID THE CRUSADERS AND THE VENETIANS SAIL TO ZARA?

8. Forces wintered in Zara and were joined by the chosen leader of the crusade, Boniface of Montferrat • Boniface's cousin was the King of Germany and an imperial candidate, Philip of Swabia • Philip of Swabia was married to Irene Angeline, a daughter of the deposed Byzantine emperor, Isaac II Angelos • Philip’s brother-in-law was therefore the young Alexios Angelos, the son of the deposed emperor of the Byzantine empire, Issac II Angelos • Young Alexios had escaped from the custody of his usurping uncle, Alexios III Angelos, and arrived at the court of his brother-in-law sometime in 1201 • Began seeking help for the restoration of his father Philip of Swabia, Miniature about 1200, St. Gallen

9. Robert of Clari: • Boniface suggested that if the crusaders supported young Alexios they could continue the crusade • Boniface suggested that the young Alexios was the rightful heir and therefore they had a (chivalric) duty to help him • An embassy from the king of Germany, Phillip of Swabia, arrived at Zara • Young Alexios subsequently arrived at Zara Villehardouin: • Ambassadors suggested the army should restore Alexios to his inheritance (chivalric duty)

10. Villehardouin also tells us the ambassadors promised the crusaders that Alexios would first put: ‘...all the empire of Romania under the obedience of Rome, from which it has been separated for a long time. In the second place, he knows that you have spent your property and that you are poor; he will give you 200,000marks of silver and provisions for all the members of the army, humble and noble. He will himself go with you to the land of Babylon or will send thither with you (if you think it better) 10,000 men at his expense. This service he will perform for you during one year. And so long as he lives, he will maintain at his own expense 500 knights in the land of Outremer, to guard the land.‘ Q. Chivalric reasons were put forward for helping Alexios. But what did Alexios offer in return and why might this have proved an attractive proposition?

11. Villehardouin gives the impression that: • Leaders felt they could place a Latin friendly Byzantine prince on the throne • Help the crusaders financially and militarily • Conclude the schism • No need to destroy the empire • Stop at Constantinople was a mere delay before continuing on to Egypt

12. July 17 1203: First attack on Constantinople • Flight of the usurper Alexios III • The old emperor, Issac II Angelos, was released • Young Alexios (IV) duly crowned as co-emperor with his father, Issac II, in Hagia Sophia on 1 August 1203 • Paid 100,000 marks to the crusaders • Along with their patriarch they acknowledged Roman primacy in a letter to Innocent III Mural in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums depicting the siege of Constantinople

13. The emperors reneged on their promises • Stopped payments to the Venetians and crusaders • Couldn’t meet the fabulous offer they had made to them • Crusaders were in desperate need of supplies • Pogroms of Latins in Constantinople • Alexios IV and Isaac II were eventually overthrown by an anti-Latin faction led by Alexios (V) in Jan/Feb 1204 • [Alexios IV and (probably) Issac II eventually killed by fellow Byzantines]

14. March 1204: pact between crusaders and Venetians aimed to maintain unity, acknowledging their desperate situation • Decision made to take Constantinople • April 9: Second attack on Constantinople; crusaders repulsed • April 10-11: Expulsion of prostitutes and period of repentance • April 12: Crusading army captured Constantinople • April 13-15: (Customary) sacking and pillaging of Constantinople • Primacy sources: • Consequence of a series of chance occurrences arising from the inability of the crusaders to fulfil their contractual obligations for transport with the Venetians •  This, remarkably – and given one or two noticeable exceptions - is the modern consensus The Siege of Constantinople, Palma Le Jeune (1544–1620)