(This article originally appeared in Varangian Voice No. 14)
“They were not able to believe that there could be so rich a town in the whole world, those high walls and mighty towers, those luxurious palaces and lofty churches.” Geoffrey de Villehardoin
Constantinople was the greatest city of Christendom
in the Middle Ages. Also known as Byzantium, it gave its name to the Byzantine
Empire of which it was the capital. The Vikings knew it as Miklagard (the Great
City), but the Byzantines just called it “I Polis” – the City.
The land walls of
Constantinople, recently restored to appear as they would have in 1204
Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, but
the Byzantine Empire’s ruin was accomplished two and a half centuries earlier
at the hands of fellow Christians. The City had undergone seventeen sieges, and
survived weak Emperors and incompetent generals. The greed of Venice and the
venality and gullibility of the Crusaders contributed to the destruction of an
Empire that had lasted nine hundred years.
“Constantinople had been for centuries the strongest
bulwark of defence
against Asia. The men of the West had every interest to maintain and strengthen
it. Instead of doing so they virtually let loose Asia upon Europe.”
(Pears – Introduction to The Fall of
Constantinople 1886)
In 1199 Count Tibald of Champagne conceived the idea
of a Crusade to attack Muslim Egypt, and a declaration by
Pope Innocent III
gave it official sanction. On Tibald’s death in 1201, Boniface of Montferrat
took over the leadership.
Behind the scenes was a very complex political
situation. Byzantine Emperor Isaac Angelos had been deposed and blinded by his
brother, who took the throne as Alexios III. Isaac’s son, another Alexios, had
escaped Byzantium to Swabia, whose lord, Philip, was son-in-law of the deposed
Emperor. Boniface visited Philip, presumably looking for support for his
Crusade. However, he would hardly have failed to note young Alexios’ presence,
and this may have begun a train of thought which was to lead to catastrophe.
The Venetians, who were to play a major part in the
coming tragedy, were trying to take over Byzantium’s rich trade routes. Their
Doge, eighty year old Enrico Dandolo, had become almost blind years before in
Constantinople, and is thought to have
harboured a secret grudge against the Byzantines. It has also been claimed that Venice was
negotiating a secret trade agreement with the Egyptians, against whom the
Crusade was aimed.
Over optimistic about the likely response to the Crusade, or possibly gulled by the Venetians, the Crusade leaders committed themselves to a fleet three times too large, and a debt of eighty thousand marks. To offset the debt, the Venetians persuaded them to attack the city of Zara, which had rebelled against Venetian control. The Pope, furious at an attack on a Christian city, excommunicated all involved, but recanted so the Crusaders could go to Egypt. The debt was still enormous, and Boniface proposed that the Crusaders deviate to Byzantium and put young Alexios on his father’s throne. In return Alexios offered two hundred thousand marks and an army of ten thousand to aid against Egypt.
After a voyage marked by bitter dissension, the army
reached the Bosphoros, and camped across the Straits from Constantinople. The
Byzantine fleet which should have destroyed them was in ruin. Michael
Stryphnos, admiral of the fleet, and the Emperor’s brother in law, had grown
rich by stripping it and selling off its equipment. A scouting troop of five
hundred cavalry led by Stryphnos landed across the Straits to observe the
Crusaders’ movements, but was chased away by eighty mounted knights. The
Crusaders sent an envoy to Byzantium to proclaim young Alexios as Emperor, but
the Greeks sent him packing, and when Dandolo had Alexios sail past the City to
show himself to the people they jeered and threw insults.
On July 5, 1203 the fleet crossed the straits and landed at Galata, a suburb across the Golden Horn harbour from the City proper. Their ships were unable to enter the harbour, which was blocked by a fifteen hundred foot iron chain protected by a fortified tower. A combined night attack by the Byzantines across the harbour and from the tower failed disastrously – ending with the Crusaders capturing the tower. They lowered the chain, and for the first time in history, a hostile fleet entered the Golden Horn.
Theodore Laskaris, another son-in-law of the ruling
Emperor, Alexios III, was one of the few Byzantine nobles to vigorously oppose
the invaders. He led ceaseless attacks – six or seven a day for ten days –
against the Crusaders’ encampment, but they continued to prepare their attack.
On the tenth day, in a dual assault, the Venetians
beached their ships against the harbour
walls, the weakest part of the City’s
defences, while the Crusaders attacked a barbican at its
landward corner. The Crusaders were cut to pieces by the axes of the Varangian
Guard, but the Venetians scaled the
harbour walls and captured twenty-five towers within an hour. When reinforcements
arrived, they fired the buildings between themselves and the Byzantines.
The northern end
of the Land Walls, where the crusaders were repulsed by Varangian axemen
Emperor Alexios III led an enormous army from the
main gate of the landward wall, threatening the crusaders at the north end, and
forcing a general retreat. But Alexios did not attack the crusaders. Once the
enemy had retreated, he re-entered the City with his army.
Byzantine soldiers, from a church mural in Cyprus
During the night, Alexios III Angelos, ruler of the
greatest Empire in Christendom, and one of the most worthless men in that
Empire, gathered up his favourite daughter and ten thousand gold pieces and
fled the City.
On hearing the news, the crusaders were elated, but
the Byzantines neatly turned the tables on them by returning to the throne
young Alexios’ father Isaac, the Emperor deposed and blinded by the runaway
Alexios III.
Four representatives of the invaders entered the City
along a road lined with tall axe-bearing Varangians. After lengthy negotiations
they managed to have young Alexios made co-Emperor with Isaac. To pay the
crusaders their promised reward, Alexios sequestered the golden treasures of
the Church, masterpieces of Byzantine artistry, and had them melted down.
Theodore Laskaris and Alexios Doukas Murtzuphlus (yet
another son-in-law of the runaway Alexios III) kept resistance alive. Neither
approved of their imposed co-Emperors, but Murtzuphlus worked his way into the
new Alexios IV’s confidence.
Shunned in the City, Alexios spent most of his time
with the crusaders. In an attempt to raise more money, he accompanied them on a
tribute-gathering tour of the nearby province of Thrace. While he was away, a
party of drunken crusader soldiers started a fire which swept through the
richest part of Constantinople. From then on, foreigners were not safe within
the City. Fifteen thousand fled across the Golden Horn to the Crusaders’ camp.
On Alexios’ return from Thrace, he became a recluse
in the Blachernae Palace. His father ceased to be a force in Byzantine
politics, closeting himself with astrologers. Alexios still could not pay his
debts, and on Murtzuphlus’ advice finally stopped the payments entirely. A
delegation to demand their reinstatement threatened the Emperor in front of his
court, scandalizing the Byzantines at their gross breach of protocol.
On the first day of 1204 the Byzantines tried
unsuccessfully to destroy the Venetian fleet with fireships. Dissatisfaction
with Alexios increased, and on January 25th, Murtzuphlus acted. He
decoyed the Varangians away from Alexios, threw him in prison, and took the
Imperial diadem for himself. When told that Alexios had betrayed the fireship
attack to the crusaders, the Varangians transferred allegiance to the new
Emperor. Isaac died about this time, apparently of natural causes, but
Murtzuphlus had Alexios strangled. Though the crusaders now no longer had the
excuse of a puppet to restore to the throne, they had a new one: punishing a
regicide.
Murtzuphlus was a harsh but capable man. He imposed
further taxes, raised the harbour walls, and erected 2-3 storied wooden stages
above the towers. The ordinary citizens gave him grudging respect, but the
nobles disliked him intensely. Murtzuphlus was fighting a losing battle, but he
very nearly carried it off.
A council of crusaders held early in March decided to
take the City by force. They also agreed on the division of spoils, and that if
a crusader were elected Emperor the Patriarch should be a Venetian and vice
versa.
On Friday April 9th, 1204, a mass seaborne
attack was launched at the harbour walls. It was beaten off with severe loss.
After two days of repairs, they attacked again at the same place.
The second assault was far more successful –
fireproof coverings had been placed on the ships and they had been strengthened
against flung boulders. Crusaders ran up landing ramps which reached to the top
of the city towers; the wind blew the ships hard against the walls and the new
wooden structures began to shake. The crusaders poured into the towers and the defenders
retreated stage by stage. Then a small gate was forced open, and sixty
crusaders got through. A contingent of Byzantines sent against them was
worsted. The crusaders managed to open a gate large enough to allow horsemen
through, and the Venetians beached their transport ships before it.
The Imperial cavalry, less well armoured and led by
the disaffected nobility, broke before the Crusaders. Murtzuphlus retreated
through the streets accompanied by his footsoldiers and the Varangian Guard.
The defenders on the walls, seeing the crusaders streaming into the City
beneath them, abandoned their posts. The crusaders set up camp in the Petrion
area, where Murtzuphlus’ command post had been. The City was too large for them
to advance into with safety.
There were three days of sack and massacre in the
occupied area of the City. Thousands were killed. The Crusader Geoffrey de
Villehardoin in his chronicle later wrote:
“More houses were burnt in these fires than are to be found in any of the three largest cities in France.”
The aftermath. Execution of a captive Byzantine. (Church of St John the Evangelist, Ravenna, c. 1213)
Overnight Murtzuphlus, all support gone except for
the Varangian Guard, fled the City. Theodore Laskaris tried to rally the
people, but soon realised the futility of his efforts and left as well. He
crossed the Bosphoros and went to the city of Nikea in Asia Minor, where he set
himself up as Emperor-in-exile. Next morning the Byzantines lay down their
arms.
The crusaders looted the whole city of its treasures.
The Patriarch left Constantinople with neither money nor shoes, mounted on an
ass. A whore was enthroned in the Patriarchal chair. Relics from the churches
were distributed throughout Europe – many of the most precious treasures of
Venice came from the sack of Constantinople. Not only Christian relics, but
also ancient pagan treasures were lost. A bronze of Hercules was melted down,
as well as a statue of Pegasus by Alexander the Great’s court sculptor. The
bronze horses
now at St Mark's Cathedral in Venice formed part of the loot.
The
total of plunder came to four hundred thousand silver marks and ten thousand
horses, not taking into account the amount “stolen” by the troops.
The official leaders of the Crusade, Boniface of Montferrat and Count Baldwin of Flanders were rival contenders for election as Emperor. With the support of the Venetian Doge Dandolo, who considered Boniface too dangerous, Baldwin won the diadem.
The Pope was horrified when he learned what had
happened. The rift between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church was
perpetuated. Even 250 years later, when the Turks were besieging
Constantinople, one of the City’s last great statesmen remarked “Better the
Sultan’s turban than the cardinal’s hat”. The Venetians appointed one of
their own as the new Patriarch of Constantinople, without even consulting the
Pope.
Venice had the pick of the Empire. Boniface got less
and so did Baldwin, even though he was nominally Emperor. Conflict broke out
very soon between Boniface and Baldwin, and it was only with difficulty that
Dandolo made peace between them.
Betrayed and forsaken by his followers, Murtzuphlus
was tricked and captured by ex-Emperor Alexios III who had him blinded. Shortly
afterward, he fell into Baldwin’s hands and was taken in chains to
Constantinople where he was thrown to his death from the top of a high tower.
Alexios III fled Thrace for Asia Minor, where he
conspired against his son-in-law Theodore Laskaris for the Kingdom of Nikea. He
was captured and spent the rest of his life in a monastery.
Within three years Dandolo, Baldwin and Boniface were
all dead. At Byzantine instigation, the Bulgarians attacked the crusader Empire
which claimed authority over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It became a
religious war. Baldwin was captured on April 25th 1205, when his
army was almost completely wiped out near the city of Adrianople. the
Bulgarians cut of his head and sent it to their king Kalojan.
Boniface of Montferrat secured a kingdom in
Thessaloniki and made his vassals rulers of small independent realms. His
daughter, Agnes, married the new Emperor Henri in 1206. But in 1207 Boniface
was caught by the Bulgarians in a defile and mortally wounded.
Dandolo died peacefully in bed and is still regarded
as a hero by the Venetians. he was buried in Haghia Sofia cathedral in
Constantinople, where a stone commemorates him to this day.
Dandolo’s
tombstone in Haghia Sophia cathedral
The “Latin” Empire disintegrated within ten years.
Greece proliferated with small feudal kingdoms, with jousting, Courts of Love,
Seneschals and Grand Constables. Meanwhile the Greeks set up three separate
kingdoms, each claiming inheritance of the Byzantine Empire. Theodore Laskaris’
Empire of Nikea was home to the new Patriarch and was the new centre of the
Orthodox Church. The crusaders were happy to conclude a peace treaty with
Laskaris leaving him in possession of all traditional Byzantine territories in Asia
Minor. Under his successor, John
Vatatzes, nearly the whole of Asia Minor was regained from the Turks.
In 1261 Michael Paleologos, the ruler of the Empire
of Nikea, captured Constantinople,which had been left undefended while the
Latin “Imperial” army was on campaign. Baldwin II, the last Latin Emperor, fled
with the Latin Patriarch and Venetian settlers. the Greek patriarch returned to
Haghia Sophia. Dandolo’s body was apparently dug up and thrown into the
Bosphoros Strait.
Though the Nikean exile had strengthened and purified
Byzantine culture, the Empire had been too badly damaged and its decline could
not be arrested. By the fourteenth century an Arab geographer related seeing “sown
fields within the City and many ruined houses”. The Imperial Palace was in
ruins the last Latin Emperor had stripped the lead off the roof to pay his
debts. A city which had housed one million people lay almost deserted.
In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks. Emperor Constantine XI died heroically in the forefront of the battle. Despite rapine and pillage, the behaviour of the Muslim conquerors was far better than that of the Christians of the Fourth Crusade.
Gregorius later wrote of the Latin Empire “ . . .
it fell after a miserable existence of fifty-seven years, leaving behind it no
other trace than destruction and anarchy. That deformed chivalrous feudal state
of the Latins belongs to the most worthless phenomena of history.”
References:
Medieval Sourcebook: “The Fourth Crusade 1204: Collected Sources”
RECUEIL D'IMAGES RELATIVES AUX CROISADES ET À L'HISTOIRE BYZANTINE