The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople
A crusade aimed at Egypt ends by sacking the greatest Christian city on Earth — Constantinople falls not to Muslims, but to crusaders.
Unable to pay Venice for its fleet, the Fourth Crusade was diverted first to the Christian city of Zara in 1202, then to Constantinople, which the crusaders stormed and sacked in April 1204. The knight Geoffrey of Villehardouin, a participant, chronicled the whole campaign. A Latin Empire ruled from Constantinople until the Byzantines retook the city in 1261, but the empire never recovered its former strength.
Perspective
The Fourth Crusade is the ultimate case of institutional drift: each individual decision — the debt to Venice, Zara, the Byzantine pretender's promises — seemed like a pragmatic fix, and the sum was a catastrophe nobody had set out to commit. It poisoned relations between the Catholic and Orthodox worlds for centuries and hollowed out Byzantium, the very state the crusades had originally been called to help defend.
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What was The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople?
Unable to pay Venice for its fleet, the Fourth Crusade was diverted first to the Christian city of Zara in 1202, then to Constantinople, which the crusaders stormed and sacked in April 1204. The knight Geoffrey of Villehardouin, a participant, chronicled the whole campaign. A Latin Empire ruled from Constantinople until the Byzantines retook the city in 1261, but the empire never recovered its former strength.
When did The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople happen?
The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople: 1202–1204 CE.
Why does The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople matter?
The Fourth Crusade is the ultimate case of institutional drift: each individual decision — the debt to Venice, Zara, the Byzantine pretender's promises — seemed like a pragmatic fix, and the sum was a catastrophe nobody had set out to commit. It poisoned relations between the Catholic and Orthodox worlds for centuries and hollowed out Byzantium, the very state the crusades had originally been called to help defend.