The painting on the right is called "Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople" by Eugène Delacroix, 1840.
This is one of those pivotal moments in history. Its importance cannot be easily overestimated, even from a distance of 808 years. What happened?
The aim of the Fourth Crusade was to recapture Jerusalem for Christianity. Boniface of Montferrat the leader of the Crusade, with full papal approval and support, negotiated a shipping contract with the Venetians to transport 33500 crusaders to Egypt for an agreed sum of 85000 silver marks. The Venetians took a full year to build 50 war galleys and 450 transports. Too bad only 12000 crusaders showed up in Venice with 51000 silver marks. The Doge of Venice was not amused. He demanded that the Crusaders invade the rival port of Zara in Croatia as a form of financial compensation. Some of the crusaders refused and returned home. The majority of the army followed their leaders to Zara in an attempt to prevent the crusade's complete failure. A letter from the Pope to the leadership threatening excommunication if the army attacked Christian neighbors was concealed from the army. The Christian city of Zara was sacked by the Christian army of the Fourth Crusade on November 23, 1202. When Pope Innocent III heard of the sack of Zara he sent a letter to the crusaders excommunicating them. Out of fear that this would dissolve the army the leaders of the crusade decided not to inform the army of this. Anyway, a little later, regarding the Crusaders as having been blackmailed by the Venetians, The Pope rescinded the excommunications against all non-Venetians in the expedition. Boniface of Montferrat, meanwhile, met with the Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos, the son of the recently deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos. Alexios offered to pay the entire debt owed to the Venetians, give 200000 silver marks to the Crusaders, 10000 Byzantine professional troops for the Crusade, the maintenance of 500 knights in the Holy Land, the service of the Byzantine navy to transport the Crusader army to Egypt and the placement of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the authority of the Pope if they would sail to Constantinople (Byzantium) and topple the reigning emperor Alexios III Angelos. It was a tempting offer for an enterprise that was short on funds. Boniface agreed. Most of the rest of the Crusade's leaders eventually accepted the plan as well. Again not all agreed. Those who refused to take part in the scheme to attack Christendom's greatest city left the Crusade and sailed on their own to Syria.
Thus it happened that the great Christian army of the Fourth Crusade lay siege to one of the oldest and most prosperous Christian cities on earth. Starting July 11th 2013 it took the army until April 12th 2014 to the breach the defenses of Constantinople. Too bad the promised riches failed to materialize. Although Alexios tried in desperation to melt down priceless Byzantine icons, he could not keep his part of the bargain. What followed was a sack described by Speros Vryonis in his book 'Byzantium and Europe' as follows: "The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable. Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found. Though the Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics. The Crusaders vented their hatred for the Greeks most spectacularly in the desecration of the greatest Church in Christendom. They smashed the silver iconostasis, the icons and the holy books of Hagia Sophia, and seated upon the patriarchal throne a whore who sang coarse songs as they drank wine from the Church's holy vessels. The estrangement of East and West, which had proceeded over the centuries, culminated in the horrible massacre that accompanied the conquest of Constantinople. The Greeks were convinced that even the Turks, had they taken the city, would not have been as cruel as the Latin Christians. The defeat of Constantinople, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became an easy prey to the Turks. The Crusading movement thus resulted, ultimately, in the victory of Islam, a result which was of course the exact opposite of its original intention."
How come two great Christian civilizations turned against each other eventually leading to the rise of Islam in South Eastern Europe? The experiences of the earlier Crusades had thrown into stark relief the vast cultural differences between the two civilizations. The Latins (as the Byzantines called them because of their adherence to the Latin Rite) viewed the Byzantine preference for diplomacy and trade over war, as duplicitous and degenerate, and their policy of tolerance and assimilation towards Muslims as a corrupt betrayal of the faith. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines saw the Latins as lawless, impious, covetous, blood-thirsty, undisciplined and unwashed (literally). However, although maybe a little smelly, in one of the first cavalry skirmishes during the siege of Constantinople just 80 Frankish knights defeated 500 Byzantine horsemen.
Eight hundred years after the Fourth Crusade, Pope John Paul II twice expressed sorrow for the events of the Fourth Crusade. In 2001, he wrote to Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens, saying, "It is tragic that the assailants, who set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their brothers in the faith. The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret." In 2004, while Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, was visiting the Vatican, John Paul II asked, "How can we not share, at a distance of eight centuries, the pain and disgust." This has been regarded as an apology to the Greek Orthodox Church for the terrible slaughter perpetrated by the warriors of the Fourth Crusade.
Much of the material in this article comes from the Wikipedia entry on the Fourth Crusade. I encourage everyone to read and heed this. Follow this link.
