jerry-book (edited)
I finished the Fourth Crusade, The Conquest of Constantinople by Queller and Madden. This is a history of the crusade that went off the tracks and ended up attacking two Christian cities, Zara and Constantinople, instead of recovering Jerusalem. In starting the book I had previously thought the Venetians were the bad guys. I had thought Gandolfo, the Doge of Venice, cynically used the Crusaders to accomplish Venetian goals--overthrow of two Venetian foes namely Zara and Constantinople. Clearly, Gandolfo used the Crusaders to storm Zara on the Adriatic, a thorn in Venetian's hide. But initially the Crusaders were led to Constantinople by Alexius IV, an usurper. Alexius IV made outlandish promises to the Crusaders about funding the Crusade in rerun for their support. This was a promise he could not keep. Even though the Crusaders successfully placed Alexius IV on the throne everything back-fired when Alexius IV could not pay the bill. Alexius IV was seen to be a tool of the Crusaders and was executed. This put the Crusaders in an awkward position. They couldn't pay the Venetians to go to Jerusalem. They seemed stuck at Constantinople without the money to do anything. This crisis resulted in the subsequent sack of Constantinople and a major massacre. In sum, Alexius IV was as bad a culprit as Gandolfo in causing the downfall of Byzantium. Even though Pope Innocent III was one of the most powerful popes of the Middle Ages he totally lost control of this Crusade. Even excommunicating the Venetians did no good. ( )

The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople written by Donald Queller and Thomas Madden provides the reader with a detailed account of the events of the Fourth Crusade. The twists and turns that were taken in order for Pope Innocent III’s call for a crusade to have dissolved into the conquests of two Christian cities, Zara and Constantinople, are examined and discussed. The uncertainty and tensions present among the crusaders are evident. A sentence which summed up the overall themes of the book was “The Fourth Crusade lived and died by its contracts, oaths, and vows.” For Queller and Madden all of the troubles and difficulties that the crusaders faced came down to the Treaty of Venice, and the crusaders inability to uphold their side of the bargain and pay off their debts to the Venetians for the fleet. The estimated numbers agreed upon for the treaty were far more generous than those who actually assembled. The crusader’s were stuck outside Venice, their honor would not allow them to turn back, but a solution was needed if the Venetians were to agree to help them. The economic effects of the crusaders lack of hard money had long lasting consequences, and altered the whole course of the crusade.

Pope Innocent III found out firsthand the difficulties of controlling a crusade army once it was set loose. He wrote letters, threatened excommunication, and withdrew his official legate in attempts to stop the crusaders from disobeying. His words fell on deaf ears; the crusade leaders agreed on a plan, created justifications, and then followed through. With their financial problems threatening to dissolve the army the crusaders accepted the Venetian plan in order to finally move and encourage the troops to remain and not return home. They agreed to attack Zara, and justified it as attacking a rebel state which needed to be restored to its rightful ruler.

Against the will of the pope the crusaders time and time again had their local clergy vocally support their actions and offer reasons for attacking fellow Christians. They ignored and suppressed his letters to keep the common men in the dark. When they set out for Constantinople to seek the promised assistance of Alexius IV if they would help him gain the throne, no one expected to attack the city, much less break through its defenses and put a Latin on the throne. The crusaders only meant to intimidate the usuper, see Alexius crowned and then they expected him to fulfill his promises and aid them in reaching the Holy Land.

The original emperor Alexius III escaped into exile. Then Alexius IV’s father Isaac II was re-declared emperor and Alexius was co-emperor. But since the Latin army camped outside the walls were friends of Alexius he gained more power. Isaac died shortly after his reunion with Alexius. Alexius realized that he could not make good on his promises to the crusaders and Venetians, without completely alienating the Greeks. Eventually he was overthrown by a native high ranking official and the new emperor Alexius V began to rule. He later had the young Alexius killed to stop any rescue attempts by the crusaders. With Alexius IV dead the crusaders felt no remorse for attacking the city and the countryside to “pay themselves” off of the bounty of the Byzantine Empire.

In the end economic factors were major influences on the trials and difficulties faced by the crusaders. The majority of the crusaders never went further east than Constantinople. During the campaign the crusaders twice attacked Constantinople, broke through the defenses, and three times parts of the city burned. Four emperors were crowned; the final Greek emperor escaped the city right after his coronation as the crusaders swept through the city. He established the Nicean Empire which lasted 60 years. The Fourth Crusade forced Latin Christians to attack and kill fellow Christians, ignore the pope, plunder the greatest city in Europe, and set up a Latin Empire in Byzantium. During the sack of Constantinople all the churches and monasteries were cleaned of relics and anything of value, the Hagia Sophia was stripped bare. Once the crusaders had control they elected delegates to choose a new emperor. Baldwin of Flanders gained the most support and a Latin knight was crowned emperor.

Through plundering Zara and Constantinople the crusaders were finally able to pay off their debts, and some of the leaders reaped great material benefits. However for the common soldier who survived the hardships and years of being deterred from Jerusalem the crusade was seen in a very critical light. The common man must have felt disillusioned and guilty from attacking two Chrisitan cities and never once fighting Muslims.

The Fourth Crusade which was initially summoned to aid the defense of the Levant against Muslim forces had a very different outcome from those expected by the pope or even the secular leaders. The initial planning went well and for the first months the crusade seemed to be blessed by good luck. A treaty was signed with Venice, men began mustering and men were confident of success. Economic hardship combined with chivalric honor was the undoing of the crusade and led to its derailment and failure. ( )

The history of this horrific blight on Western history and the loss of Eastern history is much more complicated than surface reviewers would have us believe. ( )

Top read about this crusade-with-the-most-disastrous-consequences. The author was a historian who has given a lengthy part of his life to this subject. The history of the reception of this book is also very interesting: In his book Queller has taken something of the blame of the disaster from the shoulders of the Venetians and spreaded it more evenly over all the allies, the so called "Franks". He did this painstakingly meticulous. The reactions in the world of the byzantologists in 1977, the year the book was published and long after, were very hostile and not so matter of fact at all. Things looked like a complete excommunication. At this moment historians are leaning more and more to the views of Queller. As I am very interested in the workings of the business of history writing, and the ongoings in the world of the historians, I hope that someone will take courage and write a book about this very curious course of things. ( )