The fourth crusade is a military campaign which was launched of Venice in 1202. It had been raised at the origin in order to conquer the Egypt, but the crusade was diverted by the Vénitiens and leads to the catch of Constantinople by the crusaders and to the foundation of the Latin Empire of the East in 1204.

Call to the crusade

In 1198, six years only after the preceding , the pope Innocent III called with a news Croisade; the call was ignored by the European lords . Indeed, after the failure of the preceding crusade, Europe was reticent to engage another military countryside against the Musulman S. the Germaniques fought against the papal capacity and the England and the France delivered a war between them.

Nevertheless, thanks to the sermon of Foulques de Neuilly, a cross army was finally organized at the time of a Tournoi being held with Écry by the count Thibaut III of Champagne in 1199. Thibaut was elected commander but died on May 24th 1201 and was replaced by it by an Italian count , Boniface de Montferrat. Boniface and the other chiefs sent their emissary, of which the Historien Geoffroi de Villehardouin, in Venice, Genoa and in other city-states, to negotiate a contract of carriage until the Egypt. Indeed, the sovereigns of Europe had acquired the conviction that the Byzantine Empire was hostile with their cause, also henceforth preferred to launch their crusade directly out of Moslem ground, without passing by Constantinople. In addition, Egypt was one of the richest provinces of the East, and its conquest was to carry a fatal blow to the Moslems. Genoa declined the offer, but the République of Venice, which was the principal maritime power of the Mediterranean, agreed to charter the sufficient number of ships to transport 30.000 cross, a considerable number.

Debt of crossed with the Venetian ones

During the summer 1202, the cross army meets in Venice, although much fewer than envisaged. The Venetian ones were directed by the old man (and perhaps blind) Doge de Venise, Enrico Dandolo   ; this last refused that the ships leave the port without the crusaders pouring the totality of the amount envisaged, which was of 85  000 Ducat S of money. The crusaders could pour only 51  of it; 000, and even had to sometimes happen there to be reduced to most extreme poverty about it. The Venetian ones relegated the crusaders on the Lido to decide following giving to the events.

Finally, Dandolo agreed to defer the debt, in exchange of what the powerful army was to take again the port of Zara (now Zadar in Croatia), an old possession venician in Dalmatie, for the account of Venice. Dandolo made great noise of its allegiance to the crusade during a ceremony taking place with the Basilique Saint-Marc of Venice. That made, it directed the crossed fleet against the Hungarian port city. They arrived there the night of the November 11th and projected to spend the winter there, because Dandolo had not let them leave Venice at the beautiful season. But the Hungarian king Émeric was itself catholic and had also agreed to join the crusade. Many crusaders were opposed to this fratricidal attack and some returned on their premises, of which a division ordered by Simon IV of Montfort. The citizens of Zara hung banners carrying of the crosses to their windows to show that they were also catholic; the crusaders nevertheless besieged the city and took it. The Venetian ones and the crusaders were immediately excommunicated for this act by the pope Innocent III.

Diversion of the crusade towards Constantinople

Boniface, which directed the crusade, had however left the fleet before its departure of Venice and returned visit to his/her cousin Philippe de Souabe. The reasons of this visit are prone to debates: it had perhaps included/understood the Venetian plans and had tried to avoid excommunication. Perhaps wanted he rather to meet Alexis IV Angel, brother-in-law of Philippe and wire of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angel, taken refuge at Philippe after the usurpation of the throne by his uncle Alexis III Angel. Isaac II indeed had been deposited in 1195 by his/her own brother and was kept prisoner in the jails of Constantinople, it moreover had been plugged.

Alexis made a proposal difficult to refuse in Boniface: the recovery of the throne of Byzance against the payment of the debt of crossed in Venice. Perhaps Boniface remembered it also old possessions of his/her own brother, Conrad de Montferrat, which had married one of the girls of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I {{er}} Comnène but had had to leave the grounds of the empire towards 1190. Alexis and Boniface thus joined together the crossed fleet with Corfou, that the crusaders had rejoined after the catch of Zara. The Venetian ones were charmed with the idea of Alexis, because they had been offended by the behavior of the Byzantines in their connection, in particular because of the riots of Constantinople of 1182 which cost the life many Europeans, of which a good part was the Venetian ones.

The crusaders were not inclined to fight other Christians against, but were convinced by the clergy which the orthodoxe Byzantines were almost as bad as the Moslems as they had come to fight. Indeed, they had been combined with Saladin at the time of the third crusade, and had not done anything to help the second crusade; they were to be punished for their tepidity. Alexis IV as for him was persuaded to be accommodated as a liberator; unfortunately for him, the citizens of Constantinople preferred a usurper with an emperor supported by “Latin”. The crusaders and the Venetian ones decided to place it on the throne manu militari and an attack by sea route took place in 1203. Curiously, Alexis III panicked in front of the opposing army and flees, leaving women and children in the city. The people of Constantinople had to accommodate bad grace Alexis IV, which was crowned emperor. His/her father, Isaac II was released from the jails and was installed Co-emperor.

Civil war between Byzantines and Latin

The crusaders were opposed to the accession with the throne of Isaac II because they had never seen it, that it did not form part of the market, and that it had been combined before in Saladin. However, the Byzantine citizens did not want a Alexis like only sovereign, because they had never seen it either. In this tense atmosphere, Isaac II realized that the trunks of Byzance had been emptied at the time of the reign of his/her brother, which forced Alexis IV to reconsider the terms of the market that he had proposed to the crusaders.

Alexis also had other concern: a true civil war started to burst, because the citizens of Byzance very badly supported the presence of “Latin” in their city. The opponents anti-Westerners frequently attacked the crusaders whom they found on their road, and Alexis was forced to ask his allies to raise the camp to settle on the other side of the Corne of Gold, the Estuaire which divides Constantinople into two. The confrontations did not cease therefore, and during an attack crossed on a Mosquée, which they were shocked to find in the Christian city, most of Constantinople was burned. A revolution against Alexis IV prepared then and the chief of the anti-Western opposition, Alexis Doukas seized the power and was made crown emperor Alexis V. Alexis IV was strangled and his/her father Isaac II also died in the following days, of natural death.

Second attack against the city

The crusaders and Venetian the, mad ones by the murder of their guard, attacked the city in again 1204. Alexis V, who had an army much larger but trained, sent his troops outside the walls for a total attack on the crusaders. The latter were taken of panic and were armed with all that they could find, but the army of Alexis V made half-turn and returned in the city. It is possible that its infantrymen were afraid of the Western knights which had already overcome them at the time of skirmishes; however, the real cause of this fold is unknown. Against the opinion of the Innocent pope III, the crusaders attacked by ground while the Venetian ones broke the heavy chain which barred the access to the Gold Horn, before launching a maritime attack. The Varanges, which constituted the imperial Garde, fought at the sides of the army of Alexis V, but Alexis himself escaped at the fallen night.

The crusaders dug holes in the walls, which made it possible to the knights to penetrate the enclosure; the Venetian ones also managed to destroy the ramparts by the sea, but had to pay a heavy tribute in human lives in Varanges. The crusaders seized the north-western part of the city around the Palais of Blachernes and used it as bases to carry out the attack against the remainder of the city. They were defended by creating a wall of fire, but fire was propagated to cause a fire even more terrible than the first. The crusaders finally victorious, but were regarded by the Byzantine citizens as usurpers. The Westerners did not have cure and reflect of it the city with bag during three days, which many works of art were flights or destroyed. The four horses which decorate the Basilique Saint-Marc in Venice are one of many testimonys of the Sac of Constantinople.

Partition of the Byzantine empire and weakening of papacy

The Byzantine empire was divided between the Venetian ones and the lords crossed according to a treaty concluded between the two parts; it was the birth of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Boniface was not elected emperor, although the citizens regarded it as such; the Venetian ones thought it too close to the old empire because of the possessions of his/her brother and installed the franc Baudoin of Flandres on the throne. Boniface founded the Royaume of Thessalonique, a vassal State of the new Latin Empire. The Venetian ones founded the Duché of Naxos in the Aegean Sea, they constituted a vast colonial empire made up of counters located all along the sea route between Venice and Constantinople. The Byzantine refugees founded their own States, of which largest was the Empire of Nicée directed by Theodore I {{er}} Lascaris and the Despotat d' Épire.

The fourth crusade had completely escaped with the capacity of the papacy which was in the beginning. The latter lost thereafter much of its political power to the profit of the European monarchs in general and the Germanic Roman Emperor in particular. The Republic of Venice on the other hand was reinforced considerably and benefitted the best from this fourth crusade, with depends on the Byzantine empire. The following crusades will be carried out by secular monarchs.

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