The Great Events by Famous Historians [Volumes 1-14]

In the treaty arranged at the end of the Third Crusade (1192) it was stipulated that all hostilities between the Christians and the Moslems should cease. The Fourth Crusade (1196-1197), which is sometimes considered merely as a movement supplementary to the Third, forced renewed hostilities, against the wishes of the Palestine Christians, who preferred that the three-years' peace should continue. The Fourth Crusade ended disastrously, those who remained longest to prosecute it being finally cut to pieces at Jaffa in 1197. The travellers returning to the West from Syria besought immediate help for the Christian survivors there. The Byzantine empire had fallen into decrepitude, and the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced to a mere strip of coast. Only by prompt action could it be hoped to save any portion of it from complete wreck.

Innocent III, who became pope in 1198, well understood the meaning of the Moslem triumphs. The four crusades had already greatly extended the papal jurisdiction, and Innocent himself was the moving spirit of the Fifth, although an ignorant priest named Fulk also preached it with a success almost equal to that of Peter the Hermit in the first expedition. Vast numbers of warriors took the cross, though no king and only a few minor princes joined them. Most famous among the leaders were Boniface II, Marquis of Montferrat, and Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders.

Venice joined the crusaders under the lead of her doge, Henry Dandolo, then more than ninety years old. When ambassador at the Byzantine court (1173) he was blinded by order of the emperor Manuel I, and revenge was probably one of the motives which took him again to the East. The Venetians, being asked to transport the crusaders, demanded an extortionate price; but as Venice was the only power possessing the necessary ships, a contract was made with her for the service in 1201. Immediately the Venetians, by a secret treaty with Egypt, for the sake of commercial privileges, betrayed the crusaders to the Moslems. Embarkation from Venice in the summer of 1202 was made very difficult, and many intending crusaders went home in disgust. Still Venice insisted upon the full price; but money to pay it was wanting; and in spite of the Pope and many of the bitter spirits, a bargain was struck—the crusaders agreed to help the Venetians in taking and plundering Zara, a rival Christian city on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was accordingly captured—ultimately to be destroyed by the Venetians, who next drew some of the crusaders into a plot to overthrow the Byzantine emperor Alexius IV, and place his son on the throne. By this means the Venetians thought to make good their promise to frustrate the crusade, and at the same time to obtain great commercial advantages at Constantinople. Thus was the pilgrim host "changed from a crusading army into a filibustering expedition."

Having wintered at Zara, the crusaders were landed, in June, 1203, under the walls of Constantinople. The Emperor was deposed by his own people, and his son, Alexius V, crowned during a revolution in the city, which followed an unsuccessful attack by the crusaders in July. The second and successful assault, in April, 1204, with its sequel of pillage and debauchery, forms the subject of Pears' brilliant narrative. The city, during these troubles, suffered from two fires, of which the second, in July, 1203, deserves to be reckoned among the great historic conflagrations of the world.

The preparations which the leaders had been pushing on during several weeks were completed in April, 1204, and that day was chosen for an assault upon Constantinople. Instead of attacking simultaneously a portion of the harbor walls and a portion of the landward walls, Venetians and crusaders alike directed their efforts against the defences on the side of the harbor. The horses were embarked once more in the huissiers.[39] The line of battle was drawn up; the huissiers and galleys in front, the transports a little behind and alternating between the huissiers and the galleys. The whole length of the line of battle was upward of half a league, and stretched from the Blachern to beyond the Petrion.[40] The Emperor's vermilion tent had been pitched on the hill just beyond the district of the Petrion, where he could see the ships when they came immediately under the walls. Before him was the district which had been devastated by the fire.

On the morning of the 9th the ships, drawn up in the order described, passed over from the north to the south side of the harbor. The crusaders landed in many places, and attacked from a narrow strip of the land between the walls and the water. Then the assault began in terrible earnest along the whole line. Amid the din of the imperial trumpets and drums the attackers endeavored to undermine the walls, while others kept up a continual rain of arrows, bolts, and stones. The ships had been covered with blanks and skins so as to defend them from the stones and from the famous Greek fire, and, thus protected, pushed boldly up to the walls. The transports soon advanced to the front, and were able to get so near the walls that the attacking parties on the gangways or platforms, flung out once more from the ships' tops, were able to cross lances with the defenders of the walls and towers.