By 1187, Saladin had defeated the Crusader Army that had taken Jerusalem during the Third Crusade a hundred years earlier. The young Pope Innocent III now called for a new crusade, the Fourth Crusade, to free Jerusalem, and he sent a papal legate to Venice to arrange for ships to carry his large army to the Holy Land.

After some very dicey dickering, a huge fleet was assembled, and crusaders began to gather. According to Crowley, almost none of them realized that there was a hidden agenda to the treaty that bound the Crusaders together: the expedition did not mean to go straight to the Holy Land. Egypt was its first target, “because via Cairo one could more easily destroy the power of the Turks than by anywhere else …”

Venice had long been enjoined from trading with Egypt, while Genoa and Pisa were allowed to do so. Egypt was thus of great interest to the Venetians.

The Fourth Crusade never did get to Egypt. After three or four years of moiling around in encampments on the Dalmatian Coast (there being no extra room in Venice), the leaders of the Crusade turned their frustration and fury on the Dalmatian city of Zara, despite the Pope’s explicit instructions that no Christian city be attacked during the Crusade. Their sacking of Zara earned them yet another excommunication by the Pope, although the leaders of the army simply ignored it, and didn’t even tell their soldiers about it.

Ultimately, it was decided that Constantinople, the seat of the Byzantine Empire, should be taken before the Crusade headed to the Holy Land. Constantinople was, of course, Christian, even though Eastern Orthodox Christian, and the furious Pope was forced to issue a yet another excommunication, again to no avail.

Mr. Crowley’s account of the 1204 battle and the sack of Constantinople is detailed and heartbreaking, containing as it does stories of treachery and pillage and destruction of the great art and treasure of the city. And while the Crusaders were never paid the amounts promised to them by Rome before they signed on, the booty they stripped from Constantinople and took home with them surely exceeded their wildest hopes. The upshot of that venture, however, was the death of the Fourth Crusade, without so much as a toe having been set in the Holy Land.

The treaty that ended the campaign greatly increased the power of Venice, granting access to the Black Sea, the island ports of the Aegean and all of western Greece (although they never claimed it, excepting for its ports), Corfu, and the Ionian Islands. They were also given “critical control of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles, and …three-eighths of Constantinople, including its docks and arsenal …”

In 1204, Venice bought Crete from a Crusader lord, but it took them another four years to deal with a Genoese privateer who claimed it. In their continuing competition with Genoa and Pisa, they also took several ports on the Peloponnesian peninsula, and an island on the east coast of Greece. No longer an almost stateless trading power, they had become a colonial force, and referred to themselves as the “Empire of the Sea” (Stato da Mar). The expansion meant they had to deal with assorted unhappy factions and occasional rebellions in their colonies, as well as with the pirates who plied the waters of the Adriatic and Aegean Seas.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3

More Articles

• Nichola D. Gutgold - The Most Private Roosevelt Makes a Significant Public Contribution: Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby
• Oppenheimer: July 28 UC Berkeley Panel Discussion Focuses On The Man Behind The Movie
• The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
• A la Frank Sinatra: "Come Fly With Me", U.S. Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard
• "Henry Ford Innovation Nation", a Favorite Television Show
• Julia Sneden Wrote: Going Forth On the Fourth After Strict Blackout Conditions and Requisitioned Gunpowder Had Been the Law
• Jo Freeman Reviews: Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict Over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920 – 1963
• Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days
• Jo Freeman Writes: It’s About Time
• Jo Freeman Reviews: Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight