On the 12 April 1204 soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, comprising members of the French nobility and their followers as well as Flemings and Venetians, won control of the walls of Constantinople. For three days the venerable city, which was founded by Constantine in 330 as a new Rome, was given over to killing and looting. How did the crusaders, whose intention was to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels, come to be sacking a city whose very foundations were based on Christianity? The answer lies in part in the often-strained relationship between Eastern and Western Europe.

The Purpose of the Fourth Crusade

The initial purpose of the Forth Crusade was to reclaim Jerusalem from the infidels, but the army of Christian soldiers ended up sacking the Christian city of Constantinople. The reason for this is complex.

The events of the Fourth Crusade are contained in a work by the Frenchman Geoffroy de Villehardouin titled The Conquest of Constantinople. It is the first reliable record of the crusading phenomenon to be written in French and was compiled by a man who was familiar with many of the noble personages he mentions in the course of his chronicle, and whose position allowed him access to letters, treaties and army lists. Geoffroy was privy to most of the important decisions made throughout the course of the crusade and his work is fully informed. That is not to say that it is without fault. Villehardouin sets up the conquest, not as a conscious plan by any one party, but as a series of chance occurrences arising from the crusader's inability to fulfil their contractual agreements for transportation with the Venetians.

A Chronology of the Fourth Crusade

1198

Pope Innocent III, in the first year of his pontificate, preaches another crusade to rebuild the old Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed in 1187 and only imperfectly restored in 1192. His attention was focused on the higher ranks of the clergy and the nobility rather than the crowned monarchs of Europe, who had failed on previous occasions. A French parish priest, Fulk of Neuilly, who preached the virtue of poverty and spread the crusading idea through France, aided him in his cause.

1199-1201

The crusade was preached in France but the response was sluggish. At the commencement of 1201, a conference is held at Compiegne by the leading barons who had taken the cross. The crusaders had no option but to travel by sea to the Holy Land as the Balkan and Anatolian routes were closed. It was decided that more ships would be found in Venice than in any other port so envoys were despatched to discuss an arrangement with the city leaders.

April 1201

The envoys met with the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo and informed him of their lord's plans. After consulting his council, the Doge accepted though his motives for doing so are often questioned. Nevertheless, it was agreed that the Venetians would construct transport sufficient for 500 knights, 4,500 horses, 9,000 squires and 20,000 foot soldiers and their equipment. The contract would also include food for the army for a period of nine months, bringing the total bill to 85,000 silver marks. In addition, Venice would supply 50 armed warships on the condition that it took half the conquests, whether they be territories or booty. The Fourth Crusade was now firmly in the hands of the Venetians, who viewed the journey as more of a business venture than a pilgrimage.

June-September 1202

The planned date for the army's departure went by unheeded. Many of the men who had taken the cross decided to make their own way to Jerusalem, including the Burgundians and the men from Provence who set sail from Marseilles. This left the remainder of the crusader army in an embarrassing position.

No more than 11,000 men had assembled in Venice, well below the 35,000 that had been expected, leaving the crusaders unable to pay for the fleet they had commissioned to be built. The Doge, who had the French force over a barrel, suggested a moratorium on their payments if they were prepared to recapture Zara, a city on the Dalmatian coast, which the King of Hungry had taken from the Venetians in 1186. This unprovoked attack on a Christian city by a crusading army set a dangerous precedent.

October 1202- May 1203

During October and November of 1202, the crusading army lay siege to Zara, which was eventually won and razed to the ground. Simon de Montfort and many other disgusted crusaders resigned from the campaign in protest and went straight to the Holy Land. While wintering in Zara, the army leaders were approached by an envoy from the German King Phillip of Swabia and his brother in law, Alexius IV Angelus, a claimant to the throne of Constantinople. They claimed that if the crusaders would restore Alexius' rightful inheritance, he would assist them in the fight against Islam by paying the crusaders 200,000 marks and supplying a contingent of 10,000 Byzantine troops. He also promised to place Constantinople under papal authority. There was much discord in the lower ranks of the army but nevertheless, the offer was accepted and the crusade was diverted to Constantinople.

Impact of the Fourth Crusade on Western Europe

The crusading army would have been overwhelmed by the capital of the Byzantine empire. Renowned for its riches and its relics, Constantinople was the largest city in the medieval world. By the fifth century the capital possessed 323 streets containing 4,383 houses and a population of approximately 500,000, which had rose to 1 million by the ninth century. It had a great many shops and public gardens, an amenity that would have appeared strange to the Western crusaders, as would the street lighting and drainage system that the city boasted. It was a city full of people from many lands, races, customs and religion.

The city occupied a triangular promontory at the northern end of the Sea of Marmora, at a point where Asia and Europe are within a fingertip distance of each other. It could keep in touch with the Western world by means of a network of roads running inland, and by sailing northwards up into the Bosphoros, it had contact with many ports on the shore of the Black Sea. Trade could be developed with Scandinavia. Central Asia, India and China. Across the sea of Marmora lay the Near and Middle East.

But what Constantinople was really famous for was its relics. Since the time of Bede Constantinople was known as a holy city, sanctified by its relics and a great centre for pilgrimage. In the twelfth century the imperial capital was one of the holy places on the pilgrimage route. Once the crusading force had won control of the city the capital was stripped of its relics, many of which found new homes in churches and abbeys throughout France and Italy. The treasures confiscated included a trace of the blood of the Lord, a piece of the True Cross, an arm of St James, a tooth of St Laurence and a foot of St Cosmas and fragments of a further 28 male and8 female saints. The most famous relic to make its way to western Europe after the sack of city was the Shroud of Turin.

After the three day looting spree by the crusading forces, hundreds of devotional and liturgical objects and utensils were also confiscated and taken back to western Europe, where they greatly influenced the development of western art.

Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, a majority of which was stolen or destroyed by the crusaders. It was the items of art that the crusaders took home with them that was the most obvious 'borrowing' from the Byzantine Empire. The Venetians had an appreciation for the art they discovered and saved most of it, whereas the French and others destroyed whatever they could get their hands on. The most famous item of plunder to find its way to Europe after 1204 are the great bronze horses standing over the entrance to St Marks in Venice. The west had been exposed to the art of Byzantines before but the sack and conquest of Constantinople greatly intensified the contact.

The Consequence of The Fourth Crusade

The most obvious must be the break down in relations between the east and the west after the sack of 1204, though the hostility had been there long before the Fourth Crusade. The plundering and looting by soliders of earlier crusades while they advanced through the empire, had created a popular Byzantine bitterness towards the west which was permanent. This was fuelled by their feelings of superiority, which stemmed from their recognition of Constantinople's glorious and ancient past. The population of western Europe was, in their eyes, barbarian. A citizen of Constantinople, Nicetas Chroniates wrote, " Between us and the Latins is set the widest gulf. We are poles apart. We have not a thought in common. They are stiff necked with a proud affection of an upright carriage, and love to sneer at the smoothness and modesty of our manners." The western crusaders actions during the three day sack of Constantinople partly justified their reputation for barbarity.

Amongst the works of classical art which vanished after the devastation of 1204 were statues of Helen of Troy, a large statue of Juno from Constantine's Forum and a Heracles from the fourth century BC. With the burning of the city, many scrolls and codices of the works of ancient authors were destroyed.

In the Latin kingdom created after the capture of Constantinople, feudalism was grafted onto the Byzantine land holding system and terms such as "liege" and "homage" passed into Greek. French romance also had a direct influence on that of the Byzantines.

A more important consequence of the Fourth Crusade was that, contrary to the hopes of Innocent III and the claims of Alexius, the schism in the church was made a reality. Far from bringing the Orthodox church under the universal jurisdiction of the papacy, the Fourth crusade, with its desecration of churches and destruction of relics, tore the church apart.

The most damning consequence of the Fourth Crusade was that, far from being praised for its pious efforts to restore the Holy Land, the ill fated expedition debased the crusading ideal forever.

Further Reading

Pope Innocent III - Reprimand of Papal Legate

Nicetas Chroniates: The Sack of Constantinople

Links

The Fourth Crusade

Map of the Fourth Crusade

Innocent III and the Great Schism

© Text Copyright Lucette Gatehouse 1999. All rights reserved.