The Sack of Constantinople: The Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders

[Alkman]

Background of the Fourth Crusade

In the years from 1201 to 1202 the Fourth Crusade, sanctioned by pope Innocent III, was readying itself to set out to conquer Egypt, which was by then the center of Islamic power.
After initial problems, finally Boniface, the Marquis of Monferrat was decided as the leader of the campaign.
But right from the beginning the Crusade was beset by fundamental problems. The main problem was that of transport. To carry a crusading army of tens of thousands to Egypt a substantial fleet was required.
And as the Crusaders were all from western Europe, a western port would be required for them to embark from.
Hence the ideal choice for the Crusaders seemed to be the city of Venice. A rising power in the trade across the Mediterranean, Venice appeared to be the place where enough ships could be built in order to carry the army on its way.
Agreements were made with the leader of the city of Venice, the so-called Doge, Enrico Dandolo, that the Venetian fleet would transport the army at the cost of 5 marks per horse and 2 marks per man.
Venice was therefore to supply a fleet to carry 4'000 knights, 9'000 squires and 20'000 foot soldiers to 'recapture Jerusalem' for the price of 86'000 marks.
The destination might have been worded as Jerusalem, yet from the outset the goal was clearly seen as the conquest of Egypt by the leaders of the Crusade.
Egypt was weakened by a civil war and its famous port of Alexandria promised to make it easy to supply and reinforce any western army. Also Egypt's access to both the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Indian Ocean meant it was rich in trade.
The fleet built with the money should remain in Venetian hands after it had safely dispatched the crusaders to the east.
As a their contribution to the 'holy' efforts of the Crusade the Venetians further agreed to provide fifty armed war galleys as an escort to the fleet. But as a condition of this they shoudl receive half of any conquest that should be made by the Crusaders.
The conditions were steep, and yet no where else in Europe could the Crusaders hope to find a seafaring power capable of shipping them to Egypt.


The Crusade falls into Debt

However, things were not to go according to plan. There was considerable distrust and animosity amongst the crusaders. This led some of them to instead make their own way to teh east, finding their own means of transportation.
John of Nesle reached Acre with a force of Flemish fighters in 1202 without the Venetian fleet. Others made their sea voyage eastward independently from the port of Marseilles.
With many of the fighters therefore not arriving in Venice, the leaders soon realized that they would not reach the expected number of troops. But the Venetians were already building the fleet to the agreed size.
The individual knights had been expected to pay their fare when they arrived. As many had now travelled independently, this money was not forthcoming to the leaders in Venice.
Inevitably, they could not pay the sum of 86'000 marks they had agree with the Doge.
Worse still, they were encamped at Venice on the small island of St. Nicholas. Surrounded by water, cut off from the world, they were not in a strong bargaining position.
As the Venetians finally demanded they should pay the promised money, they tried their best to collect whatever they could, but still remained 34'000 marks short.
The knights, naturally bound by their strict code of honour, now found themselves in a terrible dilemma. They had broken their word toward the Venetians and owed them an enormous sum of money.
Doge Dandolo however knew how to play this to his utmost advantage. It is generally assumed that he had foreseen the shortfall in numbers of the crusaders early on and yet still he had pressed on with the shipbuilding. Many suspect that he right from teh start endeavoured to snare the crusaders into this trap.He had achieved his ambition. And now his plans should begin to unfold.


The Assault on the City of Zara

Venice had been deprived of the city of Zara by the Hungarians who had conquered it. Not only was this a loss in itself, but it also was a potential rival to their ambition of dominating the trade of the Mediterranean. And yet, Venice didn't possess the army it required to re-conquer this city.
Now however, with the massive crusading army indebted to it, Venice suddenly had found such a force.
And so the crusaders were presented with the Doge's plan, that they should be carried to Zara by the Venetian fleet, which they should conquer for Venice. Any spoils thereafter would be shared between the crusaders and teh Venetian republic.
The crusaders had little choice. For one they owed money and saw any loot they should capture in Zara as the only means of repaying their debt. On the other hand they well know that, if they should not agree with the Doge's plan, then supplies such as food and water would suddenly fail to arrive which which to feed their army on their little island off Venice.
Zara was a Christian city in the hands of the Christian King of Hungary. How could the Holy Crusade be turned against it ?
But want it or not, the crusaders had to agree. They had no choice.
Papal protestations were made; any man to attack Zara would be excommunicated. But nothing could stop the impossible from happening, as the Crusade as hi-jacked by Venice.
In October 1202 480 ships left Venice carrying the crusaders to the city of Zara. With some stops in between it arrived on 11 November 1202.
The city of Zara stood no chance. It fell on 24 November after five days of fighting. Thereafter it was thoroughly sacked. In an unimaginable twist of history the Christian crusaders were ransacking Christian churches, stealing everything of value.
Pope Innocent III was furious, and excommunicated every man who had taken part in the atrocity.
The army now passed the winter in Zara.
Message was sent by the crusaders to pope Innocent III, explaining how their dilemma had forced them to act in service of the Venetians. In consequence the pope, hoping that the Crusade might now resume its original plan of attacking the forces of Islam in the east, agreed to restore them to the Christian church and hence annulled his recent excommunication.


The Plan to attack Constantinople is hatched

Meanwhile the situation of the crusaders had not much improved. That half of the loot which they had made with the sack of Zara still was not enough to repay the outstanding debt of 34'000 marks to the Venetians. In fact, most of their spoils was spent on buying food for themselves throughout their winter stay in the conquered city.
Now whilst the army had been in Zara, its leader, Boniface, had passed Christmas in far away Germany at the court of the king of Swabia.
Philip of Swabia was married to Irene Angelina, the daughter of emperor Isaac II of Constantinople who had been overthrown by Alexius III in 1195.
The son of Isaac II, Alexius Angelus, had managed to flee Constantinople and make his way, via Sicily, to the court of Philip of Swabia. It is generally understood that the powerful Philip of Swabia, who was confidently awaiting the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire to be bestowed upon him sooner or later, had ambitions to divert the Crusade toward Constantinople to install Alexius IV on the throne in place of the current usurper.
If the leader of the Crusade, Boniface of Monferrat, visited at such a vital time, it was most likely in order to discuss the Crusade. And it is therefore well likely that he came to know of Philip's ambitions for the campaign and most likely supported them. In any case, Boniface and the young Alexius appeared to leave Philip's court together.
Doge Dandolo also had his reasons for wanting to see the Crusade's planned attack on Egypt diverted. For in the spring of 1202, behind the back of the crusaders, Venice negotiated a trade agreement with al-Adil, the Sultan of Egypt. This deal granted the Venetians enormous privileges of trade with the Egyptians and therefore with the trade route of the Red Sea to India.
Also, the ancient city of Constantinople was the main obstacle to prevent Venice from rising to dominate the trade of the Mediterranean Sea. But furthermore there seemed to have been a personal reason for which Dandolo wanted to see Constantinople fall. For it was during his stay in the ancient city that he had lost his eyesight. If this loss came about by illness, accident or other means is unknown. But Dandolo appeared to hold a grudge.
And so it was that the embittered Doge Dandolo and the desperate Boniface now hatched a plan by which they could redirect the Crusade to Constantinople.
The pawn in their schemes was the young Alexius Angelus (Alexius IV) who promised to pay them 200'000 marks if they would install him on the throne of Constantinople. Also Alexius promised to provide an army of 10'000 men to the Crusade, once he was on the throne of the Byzantine empire.
The desperate crusaders needed not be made such an offer twice. At once they agreed to the plan.
As a excuse for such an attack on what was the greatest Christian city of its day, the crusaders sited that they would act to restore the eastern Christian empire to Rome, crushing the Orthodox church which the pope deemed a heresy.
On 4 May 1202 the fleet left Zara. It was a lengthy journey with many stops and distractions and the odd looting of a city or island in Greece.


The Crusade arrives off Constantinople

But by 23 June 1203 the fleet, consisting of roughly 450 large ships and many other small ones, arrived off Constantinople.
Would Constantinople now have possessed a powerful fleet, it could have given battle and perhaps defeated the invaders. Instead however, bad government had seen the fleet decay over years. Lying idle and useless, teh Byzantine fleet wallowed in the protected bay of the Golden Horn. All that protected it from the menacing Venetian war galleys was a great chain which spanned across the entrance to the bay and hence made any entry by unwelcome shipping impossible.
Meeting no challenge the crusaders took to the eastern shore. Resistance was impossible. In any case, there was none against this horde of thousands which poured on to the eastern shore of the Bosporus. The city of Chalcedon was captured and the leaders of teh Crusade took up residence in the emperor's summer palaces.
Two days later, having plundered Chalcedon for all it was worth, the fleet then moved a mile or two north where it set upon the harbour of Chrysopolis. Once again, the leaders resided in imperial splendour while their army ransacked the city and everything around it.
The people of Constantinople were no doubt shaken by all these occurrences. After all, no war had been declared on them. A trop of 500 cavalrymen were sent to scout out just what was going on amongst this army which to all accounts seemed to have gone berserk.
But no sooner did this cavalry come close it was charge at by mounted knights and fled.
Though one must add that the cavalrymen and their leader, Michael Stryphnos, hardly distinguished themselves that day. Was their force one of 500, the attacking knights were a mere 80.
Next an ambassador, a Lombard named Nicholas Roux was despatched from Constantinople across the water to find out just what was going on.
It was now that it was made plain to the court of Constantinople that this Crusade had not stopped here to continue onwards to the east, but to place Alexius IV on the throne of the eastern empire. This message was followed up by a farcical display the next day, when the 'new emperor' was presented to the people of Constantinople from a ship.
Not only was the ship forced to stay out of reach of the catapults of the city, but so too was it pelted with abuse from those citizens who took to the walls in order to give the pretender and his invaders a piece of their mind.


The Capture of the Tower of Galata

On 5 July 1203 the fleet carried the crusaders across the Bosporus to Galata, the stretch of land lying north of teh Golden Horn. Here the coast was far less sternly fortified than around Constantinople and it was host to the Jewish quarters of the city.
But all this was of no importance to the crusaders. Only one thing mattered to them Tower of Galata. This tower was a small castle which control one end of the chain which barred the entrance to the Golden Horn. This was their goal.
Had the Byzantines tried to put up soem resistance against the landing of the crusaders it was simply wiped aside and sent the defenders fleeing.
Now the crusaders evidently hoped to lay siege to the tower or take it by storm within the following days.
However, with the Tower of Galata and the entrance to the Horn in danger, the Byzantines tried once more to challenge the western knights in battle and drive them off the shore. On 6 July their troops were ferried across the Golden Horn to join the garrison of the tower. Then they charged. But it was an insane effort. The small force was dealing with an army 20'000 strong. Within minutes they were thrown back and drive back to their keep. Worse still, in the ferocity of the fighting, they failed to close the gates and so the crusaders forced their way in and either slaughtered or captured the garrison.
Now in control of the Tower of Galata, the crusaders lowered the chain barring the harbour and the powerful Venetian fleet made its way into the Horn and either captured or sunk the ships within it.


The first Assault

Now the great force prepared for their assault on Constantinople itself. The crusaders set up camp out of catapult range at the northern end of the great walls of Constantinople. The Venetians meanwhile built ingenious giant drawbridges along which three men alongside each other could climb from the deck of their ships up to the top of the walls if the ships closed enough on the city's seaward walls.
On 17 July 1203 the first assault of Constantinople took place. The fighting was fierce and the Venetians took parts the walls for some tie but were eventually driven off. Meanwhile the crusaders received a mauling by the emperor's famous Varangian Guard as they tried to storm the walls.
But next the unbelievable happened and emperor Alexius III fled Constantinople on a ship. Abandoning his city, his empire, his followers, his wife and children, Alexius III took flight on the night from 17 to 18 July 1203, taking with him only his favourite daughter Irene, a few members of his court and 10'000 pieces of gold and some priceless jewels.


Restoration of Isaac II

The next day the two sides awoke to the realization that the reason for the quarrels had disappeared. But the Byzantines, having the advantage of learning of this news first, took the first step in releasing Isaac II from the dungeon of Blachernae palace and restoring him as emperor at once. So, no sooner did the crusaders learn of the flight of Alexius III, then they learnt of the restoration of Isaac II.
Their pretender Alexius IV was still not on the throne. After all their efforts, they still had no money with which to repay the Venetians.
Once more the Fourth Crusade found itself at the brink of ruin. A group was soon arranged to go and negotiate with the Byzantine court and its new emperor, to demand that he, Isaac II, now should fulfill the promises made by his son Alexius.
Alexius now suddenly was in the role of a hostage. Emperor Isaac II, only back on his throne for a few hours, was confronted with the crusader's demands for 200'000 silver marks, a years provisions for the army, the promised 10'000 troops and the services of the Byzantine fleet to carry them to Egypt. The most grave point though was the religious promises Alexius had so rashly made in his efforts to win the favour of the crusaders. For he had promised to restore Constantinople and its empire to the papacy, overturning the Christian Orthodox church.
If only to save his son, Isaac II agreed to the demands and the negotiators of the crusaders left with a document with the golden sea of the emperor on it and went back to their camp. By 19 July Alexius was back with his father at the court of Constantinople.
Yet their was few means by which the emperor coudl actually fulfill the promises he had been forced to make. The recent disastrous rule of Alexius III had, alike many of the previous reigns, virtually bankrupt the state.
If the emperor had no money then any demand to change the religious allegiances of the city and its territories, seemed even more impossible.
Emperor Isaac II well understood that what he now needed most of all was time.
As a first step he managed to convince the Crusaders and teh Venetians to move their camp to the opposite side of the Golden Horn, 'in order to prevent trouble breaking out between them and the citizens'.


The Coronation of Alexius IV

The crusaders however, together with some of the advisors of the court, also managed to persuade Isaac II to allow for his son Alexius to be crowned as co-emperor. For one the crusaders wanted at last to see their puppet emperor on the throne. But also the courtiers thought it unwise to have a blind man like Isaac II on the throne on his own.
On 1 August 1203 Isaac II and Alexius VI were formally crowned in the Santa Sophia.
This done the younger emperor now began to see to it that the moneys he had promised were handed to the menacing army to the north. Did the court not possess 200'000 marks, it set about melting down whatever it could in order to make up the debt. In the desperate efforts to somehow make up this massive amount, the churches were stripped of their treasures.
Alexius VI was of course highly unpopular among the people of Constantinople. Not only were they forced to pay huge sums for the privilege of having the unwelcome crusaders forcing him onto the throne, but he also was known to be partying with these western barbarians. Such was the hatred against Alexius IV that he asked the crusaders to stay until March to help him establish himself in power, or else he feared he might be overthrown no sooner had they left. For this favour he promised the crusaders and the fleet yet more money. Without much ado, they agreed.
During some of the winter months Alexius IV then toured the territory of Thrace in order to assure their allegiance and help enforce the collection of much of the money which was needed to pay off the crusaders. To protect the young emperor, as well as to assure he wouldn't cease being their puppet, a part of the crusading army accompanied him.


The second Great Fire of Constantinople

In Alexius IV absence a disaster struck the great city of Constantinople. A few drunken crusaders, started attacking a Saracen mosque and the people praying within it. Many Byzantine citizens came to the help of the beleaguered Saracens. Meanwhile many of the Italian residents of the merchants quarters rushed to the aid of the crusaders once the violence spiralled out of control.
In all this chaos a fire broke out. It spread very quickly and soon great tracts of the city stood in flames. It lasted for eight days, killing hundreds and destroying a strip three miles wide running right through the middle of the ancient city.
A number as high as 15'000 Venetian, Pisan, Frankish or Genoese refugees fled across the Golden Horn, seeking to escape the wrath of the enraged Byzantines.
It was to this grave crisis that Alexius IV returned from his Thracian expedition. The blind Isaac II by this time had been almost completely sidelined and spent most of his time seeking spiritual fulfillment in the presence of monks and astrologers. The government hence now lay completely in the hands of Alexius IV. And still the overwhelming burden of debt hung over Constantinople, alas the point had been reached where Constantinople reached the point where it either could no longer or simply would no longer pay. Soon after this news reached the crusaders, they began looting the countryside.
Another deputation was sent to the court of Constantinople, this time demanding that the payments be resumed. The meeting was somewhat of a diplomatic disaster. Was its aim to prevent any hostilities from taking place, it instead only inflamed the situation even more. For to threaten the emperor and make demands at his own court was understood as the ultimate insult by the Byzantines.
Open war now broke out again between the two sides.
On the night of 1 January 1204 the Byzantines made their first attack on their opponent. Seventeen ships were filled with flammables, set alight and directed at the Venetian fleet lying at anchor in the Golden Horn. But the Venetian fleet acted swiftly and decisively in avoiding the flaming vessels sent to destroy them and lost only one single merchant ship.


The Night of the four Emperors

The defeat of this attempt of destroying the Venetian fleet only further increased the ill feeling of the people of Constantinople towards their emperor. Riots broke out and the city was thrown into a state of near anarchy. At last the senate and many of the courtiers decided that a new leader, who could command the trust of the people, was urgently needed. The all convened in the Santa Sophia and debated just whom they should elect for this purpose.
After three days of deliberation a young nobleman called Nicholas Canobus was decided upon, much against his will.
Alexius IV, despairing at these meetings at the Santa Sophia to depose him, sent message to Boniface and his crusaders imploring him to come to his aid.
This was the very moment the influential courtier Alexius Ducas (nicknamed Murtzuphlus for his meeting eyebrows), son of the previous emperor Alexius III, had been waiting for. He told the emperor's bodyguard, the famous Varangian Guard, that a mob was setting towards the palace to kill the emperor and that they needed to bar their entry to the palace.
With the Varangians out of the way, he next convinced the emperor to flee. And no sooner was Alexius III stealing through the streets of Constantinople then Murtzuphlus and his co-conspirators set upon him, ceased his imperial robes, put him in chains and thrown in a dungeon.
Meanwhile Alexius Ducas was hailed emperor by his followers.
Hearing of this news, the senators at the Santa Sophia immediately abandoned the idea of their reluctant chosen leader Nicholas Canobus and instead decided to back the new usurper.
So, with the happening of one night, the ancient city of Constantinople had seen the reign of of the co-emperors Isaac II and Alexius IV come to end, a reluctant nobleman called Nicholas Canobus elected for a matter of hours, before Alexius Ducas alas was recognized after usurping the throne for himself.



Alexius V takes Control

The usurper was crowned emperor at the Santa Sophia by the patriarch of Constantinople. The blind and enfeebled Isaac II died of sheer grief and the unfortunate Alexius IV was strangled on the orders of new emperor.
If the new emperor Alexius V Ducas had achieved his power by questionable means, he was a man of action who tried his best arm Constantinople against the crusaders. Immediately he set up work gangs to strengthen and increase in height the walls and towers facing the Golden Horn. He also led cavalry ambushes against those of the crusaders who strayed too far from their camp in search of food or wood.
The ordinary people soon took to him. For it was obvious to them that they stood he best chance of a successful defence against the invaders under his rule.
However the nobility of Constantinople remained hostile to him. This perhaps largely due to the emperor having exchanged all the members of his court against new people. This had cleared away much of the intrigue and possibility of betrayal, but it had also robbed many of the noble families of their influence at court.
Importantly, the Varangian Guard backed the new emperor. Once they had learnt that Alexius IV had sought help from the crusaders and may well have warned them about the attack on the Venetian fleet by the fire ships, they has little sympathy for the overthrown emperor. Also they liked what they saw in the energetic new ruler who was at last taking the fight to the crusaders.



The second Assault

In the camp of the crusaders the leadership may still have theoretically rested in the hands of Boniface, but in practice in now almost lay completely with the Venetian Doge, Enrico Dandolo.
Spring was setting in by now and news was reaching them from Syria that those crusaders who had left independently for Syria at the outset of the campaign, had all either died or had been slaughtered by the Saracen armies.
Their desire for heading to Egypt was getting less and less. And still the crusaders owed the Venetians money. Still they could simply be abandoned by the Venetian fleet in this hostile part of the world, without any hope of aid arriving.
Under Doge Dandolo's leadership it was decided that the next assault on the city should be conducted entirely from the sea. The first attack had shown that the defences were vulnerable, whilst the attack from the landward side had easily been repulsed.
In order to increase the chances of the attacks against the fearsome defensive towers succeeding, teh Venetians lashed pairs of ships together, so creating on single fighting platform, from which two drawbridges simultaneously could be brought to bear on one tower.
However, the recent work by the Byzantines had increased the heights of the towers, making it almost impossible for the drawbridges to reach the top of them.
And yet, there could be no turning back for the invaders, they simply had to attack. Their food supplies would not last forever.
Tightly packed into the ships, on 9 April 1204 the Venetians and Crusaders together set across the golden Horn towards the defences.
As the fleet arrived the crusaders began to drag their siege engines onto the muddy flats immediately in front of the walls. But they stood no chance. The Byzantine catapults smashed them to pieces and then turned on the ships. The attackers were forced to retreat.


The final Assault

The Venetians spent the next two days repairing their damaged ships and readying themselves, together with the crusaders, for the next assault.
Then on 12 April 1204 the fleet left the northern shore of teh Golden Horn again.
Should the fighting have been much the same as just a few days before, this time there was a vital difference. A wind was blowing from the north. Had the Venetian galleys been driven onto the beach with their bows previously, then now the strong wind drove them further up the beach than the oarsmen alone had managed before. This allowed the Venetians to finally bring their drawbridges up against the heightened towers, which had not been able to do three days earlier.
The knights charged up the drawbridges onto the towers and their drove the men from Varangian Guard back.Two of the wall's defence towers fell early on into the hands of the invaders. In the ensuing chaos crusaders on the shore managed to break through a small gate in the wall and forced their way in. The emperor now made the fatal mistake of not sending forth his Varangian bodyguards who could have driven out the intruders who numbered only about 60. Instead he called up reinforcements to deal with them. It was teh mistake which gave the intruders enough time to open a larger gate through which now mounted knights could enter through the wall.
With the mounted knights now streaming in and charging towards his camp on a hilltop overlooking the scene, Alexius V was forced to retire. He retreated through the streets to the imperial palace of Bouceleon together with his infantry and his Varangian Guard.
The day ended with a substantial part of the northern wall in Venetian hands and grounds beneath it in control of the crusaders. It was at this point that as night set in the fighting came to a halt. But in the minds of the crusaders teh city was far from taken. They expected the fighting still to last for weeks, perhaps even months, as they would be forced to contest control of the city street for street and house by house with embittered Byzantine defenders. In their minds things were far from decided. But the people of Constantinople saw things differently. Their famous walls had been breached. They believed themselves defeated.
People were fleeing the city through the southern gates in droves. The army was utterly demoralized and would hardly fight the intruders. Only the Varangian Guard could be counted on, but they were too few to stem the tide of the crusaders. And the emperor knew that if he was captured, he, the murdered of the crusaders' chosen puppet emperor, could expect only one thing.
Realizing that there was no hope left, Alexius V left the palace and fled the city. Another nobleman, Theodore Lascaris, tried in a desperate bid to motivate the troops and the people for one last time, but it was in vain. He too fled the city that night, heading for Nicaea where he eventually should be crowned emperor in exile.
In the same night, the reasons are unknown, yet another great fire broke out, utterly destroying further parts of ancient Constantinople.

The crusaders awoke the next day, 13 April 1204, expecting the fighting to continue, only to find that they were in control of the city. There was no opposition. The city surrendered.


The Sack of Constantinople

Thus began the sack of Constantinople, the richest city of all Europe. Nobody controlled the troops. Thousands of defenseless civilians were killed. Women, even nuns, were raped by the crusading army and churches, monasteries and convents were looted. The very altars of churches were smashed and torn to pieces for their gold and marble by warriors who had sworn to fight in service of the Christian faith.
Even the magnificent Santa Sophia was ransacked by the crusaders. Works of tremendous value were destroyed merely for their material value. One such work was the bronze statue of Hercules, created by the famous Lysippus, court sculptor of no lesser than Alexander the Great. The statue was melted down for its bronze. It is but one of a mass of bronze artworks which was melted down by those blinded by greed.
The loss of art treasures the world suffered in the sack of Constantinople is immeasurable.
It is true that the Venetians looted, but their actions were by far more restrained. Doge Dandolo still appeared to have control over his men. Rather than wantonly destroying all around, the Venetians stole religious relics and works of art which they would later take to Venice to adorn their own churches.
In the following weeks a curious election took place in which the conquerors finally decided upon a new emperor. an election it might have been, but it was self-evident that it was the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, who actually made the decision as to who should rule.
Boniface, the leader of the Crusade would have been the obvious choice. But Boniface was a mighty warrior knight with powerful allies in Europe. The Doge obviously prefered a man to sit on the throne who was less likely to be a threat to the trading powers of Venice. And so the choice fell upon Baldwin, Count of Flanders who had been one of leaders junior to Boniface in the Crusade.


The Triumph of Venice

This left the republic of Venice in triumph. Their greatest rival in the Mediterranean was smashed, led by a ruler who would be of no danger to their aspirations of dominating maritime trade. They had successfully diverted the Crusade from attacking Egypt with whom they had signed a lucrative trade agreement. And now many artworks and religious relics would be taken back home to adorned their own great city. Their old, blind Doge, already in his eighties, had served them well.





http://www.roman-empire.net/constant/1203-1204.html

[Alkman]

Some related stuff:


Eye-witness account - Nikitas Choniates

" . . How shall I begin to tell of the deeds wrought by these nefarious men! Alas, the images, which ought to have been adored, were trodden under foot! Alas, the relics of the holy martyrs were thrown into unclean places! Then was se en what one shudders to hear, namely, the divine body and blood of Christ was spilled upon the ground or thrown about. They snatched the precious reliquaries, thrust into their bosoms the ornaments which these contained, and used the broken remnants for pans and drinking cups,-precursors of Anti-Christ, authors and heralds of his nefarious deeds which we momentarily expect. Manifestly, indeed, by that race then, just as formerly, Christ was robbed and insulted and His garments were divided by lot; only one thing was lacking, that His side, pierced bv a spear, should pour rivers of divine blood on the ground.

Nor can the violation of the Great Church [note: Hagia Sophia] be listened to with equanimity. For the sacred altar, formed of all kinds of precious materials and admired by the whole world, was broken into bits and distributed among the soldiers, as was all the other sacred wealth of so great and infinite splendor.

When the sacred vases and utensils of unsurpassable art and grace and rare material, and the fine silver, wrought with gold, which encircled the screen of the tribunal and the ambo, of admirable workmanship, and the door and many other ornaments, were to be borne away as booty, mules and saddled horses were led to the very sanctuary of the temple. Some of these which were unable to keep their footing on the splendid and slippery pavement, were stabbed when they fell, so that the sacred pavement was polluted with blood and filth.

Nay more, a certain harlot, a sharer in their guilt, a minister of the furies, a servant of the demons, a worker of incantations and poisonings, insulting Christ, sat in the patriarch's seat, singing an obscene song and dancing frequently. Nor, indeed, were these crimes committed and others left undone, on the ground that these were of lesser guilt, the others of greater. But with one consent all the most heinous sins and crimes were committed by all with equal zeal. Could those, who showed so great madness against God Himself, have spared the honorable matrons and maidens or the virgins consecrated to God?

Nothing was more difficult and laborious than to soften by prayers, to render benevolent, these wrathful barbarians, vomiting forth bile at every unpleasing word, so that nothing failed to inflame their fury. Whoever attempted it was derided as insane and a man of intemperate language. Often they drew their daggers against any one ivho opposed them at all or hindered their demands.

No one was without a share in the grief. In the alleys, in the streets, in the temples, complaints, weeping, lamentations, grief, the groaning of men, the shrieks of women, wounds, rape, captivity, the separation of those most closely united. Nobles wandered about ignominiously, those of venerable age in tears, the rich in poverty. Thus it was in the streets, on the corners, in the temple, in the dens, for no place remained unassailed or defended the suppliants. All places everywhere were filled full of all kinds of crime. Oh, immortal God, how great the afflictions of the men, bow great the distress!"

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/choniates1.html





Eastern Christendom has never forgotten those three appalling days of pillage . . . What shocked the Greeks more than anything was the wanton and systematic sacrilege of the Crusaders. How could men who had specially dedicated themselves to God's service treat the things of God in such a way? As the Byzantines watched the Crusaders tear to pieces the altar and icon screen in the Church of the Holy Wisdom, and set prostitutes on the Patriarch's throne, they must have felt that those who did such things were not Christians in the same sense as themselves . . .

Can we wonder if the Greeks after 1204 also looked on the Latins as profani? Christians in the west still do not realize how deep is the disgust and how lasting the horror with which Orthodox regard actions such as the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders.

(Ware, The Orthodox Church, NY: Penguin Books, revised 1980 edition, p. 69)





The sack that followed was one of the worst in all of history . . . No man, woman or child was safe from the ravagers. Robbery and rape were almost universal, mindless destruction widespread. Westerners . . . killed indiscriminately, without mercy or restraint . . . For this to have been done by crusaders - men actually wearing the Cross of Christ - was an ineffaceable disgrace . . . The Greeks never forgot the sack of Constantinople in 1204; its memory, more than anything else, has prevented the healing of the Greek schism from that day to this, despite several major efforts at reunion.

(The Glory of Christendom, Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press, 1993, p. 157-158)







These "soldiers of Christ" who should have turned their swords against the infidel have steeped them in Christian blood, sparing neither religion, nor age, nor sex . . . They stripped the altars of silver, violated the sanctuaries, robbed icons and crosses and relics . . . The Latins have given example only of perversity and works of darkness. No wonder the Greeks call them dogs!"

(cited in Carroll, ibid., p. 158; from Mann, Popes of the Middle Ages, vol. 12, pp. 266-267)

[Ricardo Reis]

THE PREPARATIONS which the leaders had been pushing on during several weeks were completed in April, 1204, and that day was chosen for an assault upon Constantinople. Instead of attacking simultaneously a portion of the harbor walls and a portion of the landward walls, Venetians and crusaders alike directed their efforts against the defences on the side of the harbor. The horses were embarked once more in the huissiers.[1] The line of battle was drawn up; the huissiers and galleys in front, the transports a little behind and alternating between the huissiers and the galleys. The whole length of the line of battle was upward of half a league, and stretched from the Blachern to beyond the Petrion.[2] The Emperor’s vermilion tent had been pitched on the hill just beyond the district of the Petrion, where he could see the ships when they came immediately under the walls. Before him was the district which had been devastated by the fire. On the morning of the 9th the ships, drawn up in the order described, passed over from the north to the south side of the harbor. The crusaders landed in many places, and attacked from a narrow strip of the land between the walls and the water. Then the assault began in terrible earnest along the whole line. Amid the din of the imperial trumpets and drums the attackers endeavored to undermine the walls, while others kept up a continual rain of arrows, bolts, and stones. The ships had been covered with blanks and skins so as to defend them from the stones and from the famous Greek fire, and, thus protected, pushed boldly up to the walls. The transports soon advanced to the front, and were able to get so near the walls that the attacking parties on the gangways or platforms, flung out once more from the ships’ tops, were able to cross lances with the defenders of the walls and towers.
The attack took place at upward of a hundred points until noon, or, according to Nicetas,[3] until evening. Both parties fought well. The invaders were repulsed. Those who had landed were driven back, and amid the shower of stones were unable to remain on shore. The invaders lost more than the defenders. Before night a portion of the vessels had retired out of range of the mangonels,[4] while another portion remained at anchor and continued to keep up a continual fire against those on the walls. The first day’s attack had failed.
The leaders of both crusaders and Venetians withdrew their forces to the Galata side. The assault had failed, and it became necessary at once to determine upon their next step. The same evening a parliament was hastily called together. Some advised that the next attack should be made on the walls on the Marmora side, which were not so strong as those facing the Golden Horn. The Venetians, however, immediately took an exception, which everyone who knew Constantinople would at once recognize as unanswerable. On that side the current is always much too strong to allow vessels to be anchored with any amount of steadiness or even safety. There were some present who would have been very well content that the current or a wind—no matter what—should have dispersed the vessels, provided that they themselves could have left the country and have gone on their way.
It was at length decided that the two following days, the 10th and 11th, should be devoted to repairing their damages, and that a second assault should be delivered on the 12th. The previous day was a Sunday, and Boniface and Dandolo made use of it to appease the discontent in the rank and file of the army. The bishops and abbots were set to work to preach against the Greeks. They urged that the war was just; that the Greeks had been disobedient to Rome, and had perversely been guilty of schism in refusing to recognize the supremacy of the Pope, and that Innocent himself desired the union of the two churches. They saw in the defeat the vengeance of God on account of the sins of the crusaders. The loose women were ordered out of the camp, and, for better security, were shipped and sent far away. Confession and communion were enjoined, and, in short, all that the clergy could do was done to prove that the cause was just, to quiet the discontented, and to occupy them until the attack next day.
The warriors had in the mean time been industriously repairing their ships and their machines of war. A slight, but not unimportant, change of tactics had been suggested by the assault on the 9th. Each transport had been assigned to a separate tower. The number of men who could fight from the gangways or platforms thrown out from the tops had been found insufficient to hold their own against the defenders. The modified plan was, therefore, to lash together, opposite each tower to be attacked, two ships, containing gangways to be thrown out from their tops, and thus concentrate a greater force against each tower. Probably, also, the line of attack was considerably shorter than at the first assault.
On Monday morning, the 12th, the assault was renewed. The tent of the Emperor[5] had been pitched near the monastery of Pantepoptis,[6] one of many which were in the district of the Petrion, extending along the Golden Horn from the palace of Blachern, about one-fourth of its length. From this position he could see all the movements of the fleet. The walls were covered with men who were ready again to fight under the eye of their Emperor. The assault commenced at dawn, and continued with the utmost fierceness. Every available crusader and Venetian took part in it. Each little group of ships had its own special portion of the walls, with its towers, to attack. The besiegers during the first portion of the day made little progress, but a strong north wind sprang up, which enabled the vessels to get nearer the land than they had previously been. Two of the transports, the Pilgrim and the Parvis, lashed together, succeeded in throwing one of their gangways across to a tower in the Petrion, and opposite the position occupied by the Emperor.

A Venetian, and a French knight, Andrew of Urboise, immediately rushed across and obtained a foothold. They were at once followed by others, who fought so well that the defenders of the tower were either killed or fled. The example gave new courage to the invaders. The knights who were in the huissiers, as soon as they saw what had been done, leaped on shore, placed their ladders against the wall, and shortly captured four towers. Those on board the fleet concentrated their efforts on the gates, broke in three of them, and entered the city, while others landed their horses from the huissiers. As soon as a company of knights was formed, they entered the city through one of these gates, and charged for the Emperor’s camp. Mourtzouphlos[7] had drawn up his troops before his tents, but they were unused to contend with men in heavy armor, and after a fairly obstinate resistance the imperial troops fled. The Emperor, says Nicetas—who is certainly not inclined to unduly praise the Emperor, who had deprived him of his post of grand logothete[11]—did his best to rally his troops, but all in vain, and he had to retreat toward the palace of the Lion’s Mouth. The number of the wounded and dead was sans fin et sans mesure.

N INDISCRIMINATE slaughter commenced. The invaders spared neither age nor sex. In order to render themselves safe they set fire to the city lying to the east of them, and burned everything between the monastery of Everyetis and the quarter known as Droungarios.[8] So extensive was the fire, which burned all night and until the next evening, that, according to the marshal, more houses were destroyed than there were in the three largest cities in France. The tents of the Emperor and the imperial palace of Blachern were pillaged, the conquerors making their head-quarters on the same site at Pantepoptis. It was evening, and already late, when the crusaders had entered the city, and it was impossible for them to continue their work of destruction through the night. They therefore encamped near the walls and towers which they had captured. Baldwin of Flanders spent the night in the vermilion tent of the Emperor, his brother Henry in front of the palace of Blachern, Boniface, the Marquis of Montferrat, on the other side of the imperial tents in the heart of the city.
The city was already taken. The inhabitants were at length awakened out of the dream of security into which seventeen unsuccessful attempts to capture the New Rome[9] had lulled them. Every charm, pagan and Christian, had been without avail. The easy sloth into which the possession of innumerable relics, and the consciousness of being under the protection of an army of saints and martyrs, had plunged a large part of the inhabitants, had been rudely dispelled. The Panhagia of the Blachern, with its relic of the Virgin’s robe, the host of heads, arms, bodies, and vestments of saints and of portions of the holy Cross, had been of no more use than the palladium which lay buried then, as now, under the great column which Constantine had built. The rough energy of the Westerns had disregarded the talismans of the Greek Church as completely as those of paganism. In vain had the believers in these charms destroyed during the siege the statues which were believed to be of ill omen or unlucky. The invaders had a superstition as deep as their own, but with the difference that they could not believe that a people in schism could have the protection of the hierarchy of heaven, or be regarded as the rightful possessors of so many relics.
During the night following its capture the Golden Gate, which was at the Marmora side of the landward walls, had been opened, and already an affrighted crowd was pressing forward to make its escape from the captured city. Others were doing their best to bury their treasures. The Emperor himself, either seized with panic or finding that all was lost—as, indeed, everything was lost so soon as the army had succeeded in obtaining a foothold within the walls—fled from the city, He, too, escaped by the Golden Gate, taking with him Euphrosyne, the widow of Alexis. The brave Theodore Lascaris determined, however, to make one more attempt. His appeal to the people was useless. Those who were not panic-stricken appear to have been indifferent. Some, at least, were apparently still dreaming of a mere change of rulers, like those of which the majority of them had seen several. But before any attempt at reorganization could be made the enemy was in sight, and Theodore himself had to fly.
The crusaders had expected another day’s fighting, and knew nothing of the flight of Mourtzouphlos. To their surprise they encountered no resistance. The day was occupied in taking possession of their conquest. The Byzantine troops laid down their arms on receiving assurances of personal safety. The Italians who had been expelled took advantage of the entry of their friends and appear to have retaliated upon the population for their expulsion. Two thousand of the inhabitants, says Gunther, were killed, and mostly by these returned Italians. As the victorious crusaders passed through the streets, women, old men, and children, who had been unable to flee, met them, and, placing one finger over another so as to make the sign of the cross, hailed the Marquis of Montferrat as king, while a hastily gathered procession, with the cross and the sacred emblems of Christ, greeted him in triumph.

Then began the plunder of the city. The imperial treasury and the arsenal were placed under guard; but with these exceptions the right to plunder was given indiscriminately to the troops and sailors. Never in Europe was a work of pillage more systematically and shamelessly carried out. Never by the army of a Christian state was there a more barbarous sack of a city than that perpetrated by these soldiers of Christ, sworn to chastity, pledged before God not to shed Christian blood, and bearing upon them the emblem of the Prince of Peace. Reciting the crimes committed by the crusaders, Nicetas says, with indignation: “You have taken up the cross, and have sworn on it and on the holy Gospels to us that you would pass over the territory of Christians without shedding blood and without turning to the right hand or to the left. You told us that you had taken up arms against the Saracens only, and that you would steep them in their blood alone. You promised to keep yourselves chaste while you bore the cross, as became soldiers enrolled under the banner of Christ. Instead of defending his tomb, you have outraged the faithful who are members of him. You have used Christians worse than the Arabs used the Latins, for they at least respected women.”

N IMMENSE mass of treasure was found in each of the imperial palaces and in those of the nobles. Each baron took possession of the castle or palace which was allotted to him, and put a guard upon the treasure which he found there. “Never since the world was created,” says the marshal, “was there so much booty gained in one city. Each man took the house which pleased him, and there were enough for all. Those who were poor found themselves suddenly rich. There was captured an immense supply of gold and silver, of plate and of precious stones, of satins and of silk, of furs, and of every kind of wealth ever found upon earth.”
The sack of the richest city in Christendom, which had been the bribe offered to the crusaders to violate their oaths, was made in the spirit of men who, having once broken through the trammels of their vows, are reckless to what lengths they go. Their abstinence and their chastity once abandoned, they plunged at once into orgies of every kind.
The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the virgin dedicated to God. Violence and debauchery were everywhere present; cries and lamentations and the groans of the victims were heard throughout the city; for everywhere pillage was unrestrained and lust unbridled. The city was in wild confusion. Nobles, old men, women, and children ran to and fro trying to save their wealth, their honor, and their lives. Knights, foot soldiers, and Venetian sailors jostled each other in a mad scramble for plunder. Threats of ill-treatment, promises of safety if wealth were disgorged, mingled with the cries of many sufferers. These “pious brigands,” as Gunther aptly calls them, acted as if they had received a license to commit every crime. Sword in hand, houses and churches were pillaged. Every insult was offered to the religion of the conquered citizens. Churches and monasteries were the richest storehouses, and were therefore the first buildings to be rifled.
Monks and priests were selected for insult. The priests’ robes were placed by the crusaders on their horses. The icons were ruthlessly torn down from the screens or were broken. The sacred buildings were ransacked for relics or their beautiful caskets. The chalices were stripped of their precious stones and converted into drinking-cups. The sacred plate was heaped with ordinary plunder. The altar cloths and the screens of cloth of gold, richly embroidered and bejewelled, were torn down, and either divided among the troops or destroyed for the sake of the gold and silver which were woven into them. The altars of Hagia Sophia,[10] which had been the admiration of all men, were broken for the sake of the material of which they were made. Horses and mules were taken into the church in order to carry off the loads of sacred vessels and the gold and silver plates of the throne, the pulpits, and the doors, and the beautiful ornaments of the church. The soldiers made the chief church of Christendom the scene of their profanity. A prostitute was seated in the patriarchal chair, who danced, and sang a ribald song for the amusement of the soldiers.
Nicetas, in speaking of the desecration of the Great Church, writes with the utmost indignation of the barbarians who were incapable of appreciating and therefore respecting its beauty. To him it was an “earthly heaven, a throne of divine magnificence, an image of the firmament created by the Almighty.” The plunder of the same church in 1453 by Mahomet II compares favorably with that made by the crusaders of 1204.
The sack of the city went on during the three days after the capture. An order was issued, probably on the third day, by the leaders of the army, for the protection of women. Three bishops had pronounced excommunication against all who should pillage church or convent. It was many days, however, before the army could be reduced to its ordinary condition of discipline. A proclamation was made throughout the army that all the booty should be collected, in order to be divided fairly among the captors. Three churches were selected as depots, and trusty guards of crusaders and Venetians were stationed to watch what was thus brought in. Much, however, was kept back, and much stolen. Stern measures had to be resorted to before order was restored. Many crusaders were hanged. The Count of St. Paul hanged one of his own knights with his shield round his neck because he had not given up the booty he had captured. A contemporary writer, the continuator of the history of William of Tyre, forcibly contrasts the conduct of the crusaders before and after the capture. When the Latins would take Constantinople they held the shield of God before them. It was only when they had entered that they threw it away, and covered themselves with the shield of the devil.
The Italians resident in Constantinople, who had returned to the city with their countrymen, were conspicuous in their hostility to the Greeks. Amid this resentment there were examples, however, that former friendships were not forgotten. The escape of Nicetas himself is an illustration in point. He had held the position of grand logothete, but he had been deposed by Mourtzouphlos. When the Latins entered the city he had retired to a small house near Hagia Sophia, which was so situated as to be likely to escape observation. His large house, and probably his official residence, which he is careful to tell us was adorned with an abundant store of ornaments, had been burned down in the second fire. Many of his friends found refuge with him, apparently regarding his dwelling as specially adapted for concealment. Nothing, however, could escape the observation of the horde which was now ransacking every corner. When the Italians had been banished from the city Nicetas had sheltered a Venetian merchant, with his wife and family. This man now clothed himself like a soldier and, pretending that he was one of the invaders, prevented his countrymen or any other Latins from entering the house. For some time he was successful, but at length a crowd, principally of French soldiers, pushed past and flocked within. From that time protection became impossible.
The Venetian advised Nicetas to leave, in order to prevent himself from being imprisoned and to save the honor of his daughters. Nicetas and his friends accepted the advice. Having clothed themselves in skins or the poorest garments, they were conducted through the city by their faithful friend as if they were his prisoners. The girls and young ladies of the party were placed in their midst, their faces having been intentionally smeared in order to give them the appearance of being of the poorest class. As they reached the Golden Gate the daughter of a magistrate, who was one of the party, was suddenly seized and carried off by a crusader. Her father, who was weak and old, and wearied with the long walk, fell, and was unable to do anything but cry for assistance. Nicetas followed and called the attention of certain soldiers who were passing, and after a long and piteous appeal, after reminding them of the proclamation which had been made against the violation of women, he ultimately succeeded in saving the maiden. The entreaties would have been in vain if the leader of the party had not at length threatened to hang the offender. A few minutes later the fugitives had passed out of the city, and fell on their knees to thank God for his protection in having permitted them to escape with their lives. Then they set out on their weary way to Silivria. The road was covered with fellow-sufferers. Before them was the Patriarch himself, “without bag or money, or stick or shoes, with but one coat,” says Nicetas, “like a true apostle, or rather like a true follower of Jesus Christ, in that he was seated on an ass, with the difference that instead of entering the new Zion in triumph he was leaving it.”

A large part of the booty had been collected in the three churches designated for that purpose. The marshal himself tells us that much was stolen which never came into the general mass. The stores which had been collected were, however, divided in accordance with the compact which had been made before the capture. The Venetians and the crusaders each took half. Out of the moiety belonging to the army there were paid the fifty thousand silver marks due to the Venetians. Two foot sergeants received as much as one horse sergeant, and two of the latter sergeants received as much as a knight. Exclusive of what was stolen and of what was paid to the Venetians, there were distributed among the army four hundred thousand marks, or eight hundred thousand pounds, and ten thousand suits of armor.

HE TOTAL amount distributed among the crusaders and Venetians shows that the wealth of Constantinople had not been exaggerated. Eight hundred thousand pounds were given to the crusaders, a like sum to the Venetians, with the one hundred thousand pounds due to them. These sums had been collected in hard cash from a city where the inhabitants were hostile, and where they had in their wells and cisterns an easy means of hiding their treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones—a means traditionally well known in the East. Abundance of booty was taken possession of by the troops which never went into the general mass. Sismondi estimates that the wealth in specie and movable property before the capture was not less than twenty-four million pounds sterling.

The distribution was made during the latter end of April. Many works of art in bronze were sent to the melting-pot to be coined. Many statues were broken up in order to obtain the metals with which they were adorned. The conquerors knew nothing and cared nothing for the art which had added value to the metal. The weight of the bronze was to them the only question of interest. The works of art which they destroyed were sacrificed not to any sentiment like that of the Moslem against images which they believed to be idols or talismans. No such excuse can be made for the Christians of the West Their motive for destroying so much that was valuable was neither fanaticism nor religion. It was the simple greed for gain. No sentiment restrained their cupidity. The great statue of the Virgin which ornamented the Taurus was sent as unhesitatingly to the furnace as the figure of Hercules. No object was sufficiently sacred, none sufficiently beautiful, to be worth saving if it could be converted into cash. Amid so much that was destroyed it is impossible that there were not a considerable number of works of art of the best periods. The one list which has been left us by the Greek logothete professes to give account of only the larger statues which were sent to the melting-pot. But it is worth while to note what were these principal objects so destroyed.
Constantinople had long been the great storehouse of works of art and of Christian relics, the latter of which were usually encased with all the skill that wealth could buy or art furnish. It had the great advantage over the elder Rome that it had never been plundered by hordes of barbarians. Its streets and public places had been adorned for centuries with statues in bronze or marble. In reading the works of the historians of the Lower Empire the reader cannot fail to be struck alike with the abundance of works of art and with the appreciation in which they were held by the writers.
First among the buildings as among the works of art, in the estimation of every citizen, was Hagia Sophia. It was emphatically the Great Church. Tried by any test, it is one of the most beautiful of human creations. Nothing in Western Europe even now gives a spectator who is able with an educated eye to restore it to something like its former condition, so deep an impression of unity, harmony, richness, and beauty in decoration as does the interior of the masterpiece of Justinian. All that wealth could supply and art produce had been lavished upon its interior—at that time, and for long afterward, the only portion of a church which the Christian architect thought deserving of study. “Internally, at least,” says a great authority on architecture, “the verdict seems inevitable that Santa Sophia is the most perfect and most beautiful church which has yet been erected by any Christian people. When its furniture was complete the verdict would have been still more strongly in its favor.”
We have seen that to Nicetas, who knew and loved it in its best days, it was a model of celestial beauty, a glimpse of heaven itself. To the more sober English observer, “its mosaic of marble slabs of various patterns and beautiful colors, the domes, roofs, and curved surfaces, with gold-grounded mosaic relieved by figures or architectural devices,” are “wonderfully grand and pleasing.” All that St. Mark’s is to Venice, Hagia Sophia was to Constantinople. But St. Mark’s, though enriched with some of the spoils of its great original, is, as to its interior at least, a feeble copy. Hagia Sophia justified its founder in declaring, “I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!” and during seven centuries after Justinian his successors had each attempted to add to its wealth and its decoration. Yet this, incomparably the most beautiful church in Christendom, at the opening of the thirteenth century was stripped and plundered of every ornament which could be carried away. It appeared to the indignant Greeks that the very stones would be torn from the walls by these intruders, to whom nothing was sacred.
Around the Great Church were other objects which could be readily converted into bronze, and the destruction of which was irreparable. The immense hippodrome was crowded with statues. Egypt had furnished an obelisk for the centre, Delphi had given its commemoratory bronze of the victory of Plateae Later works of pagan sculptors were there in abundance, while Christian artists had continued the traditions of their ancestors. The cultured inhabitants of Constantinople appreciated these works of art and took care of them. In giving a list of the more important of the objects which went to the melting-pot, Nicetas again and again urges that these works were destroyed by barbarians who were ignorant of their value. Incapable of appreciating either their historical interest or the value with which the labor of the artist had endowed them, the crusaders knew only the value of the metals of which they were composed.
The emperors had been buried within the precincts of the Church of the Holy Apostles, the site of which was afterward chosen by Mahomet II for the erection of the mosque now called by his name. Their tombs, beginning with that of Justinian, were ransacked in the search for treasure. It was not until the palaces of the nobles, the churches, and the tombs had been plundered that the pious brigands turned their attention to the statues, A colossal figure of Juno, which had been brought from Samos, and which stood in the forum of Constantine, was sent to the melting-pot. We may judge of its size from the fact that four oxen were required to transport its head to the palace. The statue of Paris presenting to Venus the apple of discord followed. The Anemodulion, or “Servant of the Winds,” was a lofty obelisk, whose sides were covered with bas-reliefs of great beauty, representing scenes of rural life, and allegories depicting the seasons, while the obelisk was surmounted by a female figure which turned with the wind, and so gave to the whole its name. The bas-reliefs were stripped off and sent to the palace to be melted.
A beautiful equestrian statue of great size, representing either Bellerophon and Pegasus or, as the populace believe, Joshua on horseback commanding the sun to stand still, was likewise sent to the furnace. The horse appeared to be neighing at the sound of the trumpet, while every muscle was strained with the ardor of battle. The colossal Hercules of Lysippus, which, having adorned Tarentum, had thence been transported to the Elder and subsequently to the hippodrome of the New Rome, met with a like fate. The artist had expressed, in a manner which had won the admiration of beholders, the deep wrath of the hero at the unworthy tasks set before him. He was represented as seated, but without quiver or bow or club. His lion’s skin was thrown loosely about his shoulders, his right foot and right hand stretched out to the utmost, while he rested his head on his left hand with his elbow on his bent knee. The whole figure was full of dignity; the chest deep, the shoulders broad, the hair curly, the arms and limbs full of muscle.
The figure of an ass and its driver, which Augustus had had cast in bronze to commemorate the news brought to him of the victory of Actium, met with the same fate.
For the sake of melting them down into money the barbarians seized also the ancient statue of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus; the statues of a sphinx, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, an elephant, and others, which had represented a triumph over Egypt; the monster of Scylla and others; most of which were probably executed before the time of Christ.

The celebrated statue of Helen was destroyed by men who knew nothing of its original. There must be added to these the graceful figure of a woman who held in her right hand the figure of an armed man on horseback. Then near the eastern goals, known as the “reds,” stood the statues of the winners in the chariot races. They stood erect in their bronze chariots, as the originals also had been seen when they gained their victories, as if they were still directing their steeds to the goals. A figure of the Nile bull in deadly conflict with a crocodile stood near. These and other statues were hastily sent to the furnace to be converted into money. We may judge of the value and artistic merit of the bronze statues which were destroyed, by the specimens which remain. The four horses which the emperor Theodosius had brought from Chios and placed in the hippodrome escaped, by some lucky chance, the general plunder, and were taken to Venice, where they still adorn the front of St. Mark’s.

HE PILLAGE of the relics of Constantinople lasted for forty years. More than half of the total amount of objects carried off were, however, taken away between the years 1204 and 1208. During the few days which followed the capture of the city the bishops and priests who were with the crusaders were active in laying hands on this species of sacred spoil; and the statement of a contemporary writer is not improbable, that the priests of the Orthodox Church preferred to surrender such spoil to those of their own cloth rather than to the rough soldier or the rougher Venetian sailor. On the other hand, the highest priestly dignitaries in the army—men, even, who refused to take of the earthly spoil—were eager to obtain possession of this sacred booty, and unscrupulous as to the means by which they obtained it. The holy Cross was carefully divided by the bishops for distribution among the barons.
Gunther gives us a specimen of the means to which Abbot Martin, who had had the German crusaders placed under his charge, had recourse. The abbot had learned that many relics had been hidden by the Greeks in a particular church. This building was attacked in the general pillage. He, as a priest, searched carefully for the relics, while the soldiers were looking for more commonplace booty. The abbot found an old priest, with the long hair and beard common then, as now, to orthodox ecclesiastics, and roughly addressed him, “Show me your relics, or you are a dead man.”
The old priest, seeing that he was addressed by one of his own profession, and frightened probably by the threat, thought, says Gunther, that it was better to give up the relics to him than to the profane and blood-stained hands of the soldiers. He opened an iron safe, and the abbot, in his delight at the sight, buried his hands in the precious store. He and his chaplain filled their surplices, and ran with all haste to the harbor to conceal their prize. That they were successful in keeping it during the stormy days which followed could only be attributed to the virtue of the relics themselves.
The way in which Dalmatius de Sergy obtained the head of St. Clement is an illustration of the crusader’s belief that the acquisition of a relic and its transport to the West would be allowed as a compensation for the fulfilment of the crusader’s vow. That knight was grievously afflicted that he could not go to the Holy Land, and earnestly prayed God to show him how he could execute some other task equivalent to that which he had sworn, but failed, to accomplish. His first thought was to take relics to his own country. He consulted the two cardinals who were then in Constantinople, who approved his idea, but charged him not to buy these relics, because their purchase and sale were forbidden. He accordingly determined to steal them, if such a word may be applied to an act which was clearly regarded as praiseworthy. The knight, in order to discover something of especial value, remained in Constantinople until Palm Sunday in the following year. A French priest pointed out to him a church in which the head of St. Clement was preserved. He went there in the company of a Cistercian monk and asked to see the relics. While one kept the persons in charge speaking with him, the other stole a portion of the relic.
On leaving, the knight was disgusted to find that the whole head had not been taken, and, on the pretext that he had left his gauntlet behind, a companion regained admittance to the church, while the knight again kept the monk in charge in conversation at the door. Dalmatius went to the chest behind the altar where the relic had been kept, stole the remainder, went out, mounted his horse and rode away. The head was placed with pious joy in the chapel of his house. He returned, disguised, some days after to the church, in order, as he pretended, to do reverence to the relic—in order really to ascertain that he had taken the right head, for there had been two in the chest. He was informed that the head of St. Clement had been stolen. Then, being satisfied as to its authenticity, he took a vow that he would give the relic to the Church of Cluny in case he should arrive safely. He embarked. The devil, from jealousy, sent a hurricane, but the tears and prayers before the relic defeated him, and the knight arrived safely home. The monks of Cluny received the precious treasure with every demonstration of reverent joy, and in the fullest confidence that they had secured the perpetual intercession of St. Clement on behalf of themselves and those who did honor to his head. The relics most sought after were those which related to the events mentioned in the New Testament, especially to the infancy, life, and passion of Christ, and to the saints popular in the West.
In the years which followed the conquest Latin priests were sent to Constantinople from France, Flanders, and Italy, to take charge of the churches in the city. These priests appear to have been great hunters after relics. Thus it came to pass that there was scarcely an important church or monastery in most Western countries which did not possess some share of the spoil which came from Constantinople.
For some years the demand for relics seemed to be insatiable, and caused fresh supplies to be forthcoming to an almost unlimited extent. The new relics, equally with the old, were certified in due form to be what they professed to be. Documents, duly attested and full of detailed evidence—sometimes, doubtless, manufactured for the occasion—easily satisfied those to whom it was of importance to possess certified relics, and throughout the West the demand for relics which might bring profit to their possessors continued to increase. At length the Church deemed it necessary to put a stop to the supply, and especially to that of the apocryphal and legendary acts which testified to their authenticity, and in 1215 the fourth Lateran council judged it necessary to make a decree enjoining the bishops to take means to prevent pilgrims from being deceived.

Notes

[1] Transports.

[2] The Petrion, which is repeatedly mentioned by contemporary writers, was a district built on the slope of a hill running parallel to the Golden Horn for about one-third of the length of the harbor walls eastward from Blachern. It had apparently been a neglected spot during the early centuries of the history of Constantinople, but had lately come to be the residence of numerous hermits, and the site of several monasteries and convents. A great part is now occupied by the Jewish colony of Galata.

[3] Nicetas' _Chronicate_, Greek authority on the Latin conquest.

[4] Engines for throwing stones and other missiles.

[5] Alexius V, Byzantine Emperor.

[6] The remarkable church of this monastery still exists as a mosque, and is known as Eski imaret Mahallasse. It still bears witness to its having been arranged for both monks and nuns. It is on the Fourth Hill, just above the Phanar.

[7] Alexius V, his Greek name.

[8] It was the quarter about the gate in the harbor walls, now known as Zindan Capou, near the dried-fruit market.

[9] Another name of Constantinople.

[10] The Great Church, dedicated to [Christ] the Divine Wisdom; the Santa Sophia, built by Justinian.

[11] This office still exists. The principal duty of the person who holds it is to recite the creed in great religious services when the patriarch officiates.







Edwin Pears




Edwin Pears : Venetians and Crusaders take Constantinople

[Menydh]

Known as it is that Greeks have the habit to blame the crusaders for the fall of Constantinople, I must wonder if they have ever stopped at thinking that the Fourth Crusade took place in 1204 while the Fall of Constantinople happened in 1453.

There are almost 250 years between one event and the next, or a quarter of a millenium.

In contrast, it is curious to observe that Greeks never post articles about the corruption and the decadence of the Byzantine Empire, which led this to fall under the Turks.