In 1204, the medieval world was shocked by the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders. The army of the western feudal lords went east, wanting to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, and eventually captured the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire. Knights with unprecedented greed and cruelty plundered the richest city and practically destroyed the former Greek state.
Searching for Jerusalem
The epochal capture of Constantinople in 1204 for contemporaries took place as part of the Fourth Crusade, which was organized by Pope Innocent III, and headed by feudal lord Boniface of Montferrat. The city was captured not by Muslims, with whom the Byzantine Empire had long been at enmity, but by Western knights. What made them attack the medieval Christian metropolis? At the end of the 11th century, the crusaders first went east and conquered the holy city of Jerusalem from the Arabs. For several decades, Catholic kingdoms existed in Palestine, which in one way or another collaborated with the Byzantine Empire.
In 1187, this era was left in the past. The Muslims recaptured Jerusalem. The Third Crusade (1189-1192) was organized in Western Europe, but it ended in failure. The defeat did not break the Christians. Pope Innocent III set about organizing a new Fourth Campaign, with which the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 turned out to be connected.
Initially, the knights were going to get to the Holy Land through the Mediterranean Sea. They hoped to end up in Palestine with the help of the ships of Venice, for which a preliminary agreement was concluded with her. A 12,000-strong army, consisting mainly of French soldiers, arrived in the Italian city and capital of an independent trading republic. Venice was then ruled by the aged and blind Doge Enrico Dandolo. Despite his physical infirmity, he possessed an intriguing mind and cold prudence. As payment for the ships and equipment, the Doge demanded from the crusaders an unbearable amount - 20 thousand tons of silver. The French did not have such a sum, which meant that the campaign could end before it could begin. However, Dandolo had no intention of driving the crusaders away. He offered an unprecedented deal to the war-hungry army.
New plan
There is no doubt that the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 would not have taken place if not for the rivalry between the Byzantine Empire and Venice. The two Mediterranean powers were vying for maritime and political dominance in the region. The contradictions between the Italian and Greek merchants could not be resolved peacefully - only a large-scale war could cut this long-standing knot. Venice never had a large army, but it was ruled by cunning politicians who managed to take advantage of the wrong hands.crusaders.
First, Enrico Dandolo suggested that Western knights attack the Hungarian-owned Adriatic port of Zadar. In exchange for help, the Doge promised to send the warriors of the cross to Palestine. Upon learning of the daring agreement, Pope Innocent III forbade the campaign and threatened the disobedient with excommunication.
Suggestions didn't help. Most of the princes agreed to the terms of the republic, although there were those who refused to take up arms against the Christians (for example, Count Simon de Montfort, who later led a crusade against the Albigensians). In 1202, after a bloody assault, an army of knights captured Zadar. It was a rehearsal, followed by a much more important capture of Constantinople. After the pogrom in Zadar, Innocent III briefly excommunicated the crusaders from the church, but soon changed his mind for political reasons, leaving only the Venetians in anathema. The Christian army prepared to march east again.
Old abacus
Organizing another campaign, Innocent III tried to get from the Byzantine emperor not only support for the campaign, but also a church union. The Roman Church has long tried to subdue the Greek, but over and over again, her efforts ended in nothing. And now in Byzantium they abandoned the union with the Latins. Of all the reasons why the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders happened, the conflict between the pope and the emperor became one of the most key and decisive.
The greed of the Western knights also affected. The feudal lords who went on a campaign managed to kindle theirappetite for robberies in Zadar and now they wanted to repeat the predatory pogrom already in the capital of Byzantium - one of the richest cities of the entire Middle Ages. Legends about its treasures, accumulated over the centuries, kindled the greed and greed of future marauders. However, an attack on the empire required an ideological explanation that would put the actions of the Europeans in the right light. It did not take long. The crusaders explained the future capture of Constantinople by the fact that Byzantium not only did not help them in the fight against the Muslims, but also entered into alliances with the Seljuk Turks that were harmful to the Catholic kingdoms in Palestine.
The main argument of the militarists was a reminder of the "massacre of the Latins". Under this name, contemporaries remembered the massacre of the Franks in Constantinople in 1182. The then emperor Alexei II Komnenos was a very small child, instead of whom the regent mother Maria of Antioch ruled. She was the sister of one of the Catholic princes of Palestine, which is why she patronized Western Europeans and oppressed the rights of the Greeks. The local population rebelled and pogrom in foreign quarters. Several thousand Europeans died, and the most terrible anger of the crowd fell upon the Pisans and Genoese. Many foreigners who survived the massacre were sold as slaves to Muslims. This episode of the massacre of the Latins in the West was remembered twenty years later, and, of course, such memories did not improve relations between the empire and the crusaders.
Contender for the Throne
No matter how strong the dislike of Catholics for Byzantium was, it was not enough toarrange the capture of Constantinople. For years and centuries, the empire was considered the last Christian stronghold in the east, guarding the peace of Europe against a variety of threats, including the Seljuk Turks and Arabs. Attacking Byzantium meant going against one's own faith, even though the Greek Church was separated from the Roman one.
The capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in the end was due to a combination of several circumstances. In 1203, shortly after the sack of Zadar, the western princes and counts finally found a pretext to attack the empire. The reason for the invasion was a request for help from Alexei Angel, the son of the deposed Emperor Isaac II. His father languished in prison, and the heir himself wandered around Europe, trying to persuade the Catholics to return his rightful throne.
In 1203, Alexei met with Western ambassadors on the island of Corfu and concluded an agreement with them on assistance. In exchange for a return to power, the applicant promised the knights a significant reward. As it turned out later, it was this agreement that became the stumbling block, because of which the capture of Constantinople in 1204, which stunned the whole world of that time, took place.
Impenetrable Stronghold
Isaac II Angel was deposed in 1195 by his own brother Alexei III. It was this emperor who clashed with the Pope over the question of the reunification of the churches and had many disputes with Venetian merchants. His eight-year reign was marked by the gradual decline of Byzantium. The we alth of the country was divided amonginfluential aristocrats, and the common people experienced more and more strong discontent.
However, when in June 1203 a fleet of crusaders and Venetians approached Constantinople, the population nevertheless rose to the defense of the authorities. Ordinary Greeks disliked the Franks just as much as the Latins disliked the Greeks themselves. Thus, the war between the crusaders and the empire was fueled not only from above, but also from below.
The siege of the Byzantine capital was an extremely risky undertaking. For several centuries, no army could capture it, be it Arabs, Turks or Slavs. In Russian history, the episode is well known when in 907 Oleg captured Constantinople. However, if we use strict formulations, then there was no capture of Constantinople. The Kyiv prince besieged the treasured city, frightened the inhabitants with his huge squad and ships on wheels, after which the Greeks agreed with him on peace. However, the Russian army did not capture the city, did not rob it, but only achieved the payment of a significant contribution. The episode when Oleg nailed a shield to the gates of the Byzantine capital became a symbol of that war.
Three centuries later, the Crusaders were at the walls of Constantinople. Before attacking the city, the knights prepared a detailed plan of their actions. They acquired their main advantage even before any war with the empire. In 1187, the Byzantines entered into an agreement with the Venetians to reduce their own fleet in the hope of helping the Western allies in case of conflicts with the Muslims. For this reason, the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders took place. the datethe signing of the treaty on the fleet was fatal for the city. Before that siege, Constantinople was saved every time thanks to its own ships, which were now sorely lacking.
The overthrow of Alexei III
Encountering almost no resistance, the Venetian ships entered the Golden Horn Bay. An army of knights landed on the shore next to Blachernae Palace in the northwestern part of the city. An assault on the fortress walls followed, foreigners captured several key towers. July 17, four weeks after the start of the siege, the army of Alexei III capitulated. The emperor fled and spent the rest of his days in exile.
The imprisoned Isaac II was released and proclaimed the new ruler. However, the crusaders themselves soon intervened in the political reshuffle. They were dissatisfied with the results of the castling - the army never received the money promised to it. Under pressure from Western princes (including the leaders of the campaign of Louis de Blois and Boniface of Montferrat), the emperor's son Alexei became the second Byzantine ruler, who received the throne name of Alexei IV. Thus, dual power was established in the country for several months.
It is known that the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 put an end to the thousand-year history of Byzantium. The capture of the city in 1203 was not so catastrophic, but it turned out to be a harbinger of the second assault on the city in 1204, after which the Greek empire simply disappeared from the political map of Europe and Asia for some time.
Riot in the city
Putted on the throne by the crusaders, Alexei tried his best to collect the amount needed to pay off the strangers. When the money in the treasury ran out, large-scale extortions from the common population began. The situation in the city became more and more tense. The people were dissatisfied with the emperors and openly hated the Latins. The crusaders, meanwhile, did not leave the outskirts of Constantinople for several months. Periodically, their detachments visited the capital, where marauders openly robbed rich temples and shops. The greed of the Latins was kindled by unprecedented riches: expensive icons, utensils made of precious metals, precious stones.
At the beginning of the new year 1204, a disgruntled crowd of commoners demanded the election of another emperor. Isaac II, afraid of being overthrown, decided to ask the Franks for help. The people learned about these plans after the plan of the ruler was betrayed by one of his close officials Alexei Murzufl. The news of Isaac's betrayal led to an instant uprising. On January 25, both co-rulers (both father and son) were deposed. Alexei IV tried to bring a detachment of crusaders into his palace, but was captured and killed on the orders of the new emperor Alexei Murzufla - Alexei V. Isaac, as the chronicles say, died a few days later from grief over his dead son.
Fall of the capital
The coup in Constantinople forced the crusaders to reconsider their plans. Now the capital of Byzantium was controlled by forces that treated the Latins extremely negatively, which meant the termination of the payments promised by the former dynasty. However, the knights were no longer up to long-standing agreements. For several months, Europeans managed to get acquainted with the city and its innumerable riches. Now they wanted not a ransom, but a real robbery.
In the history of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, much more is known about the fall of the Byzantine capital in 1204, and yet the catastrophe that struck the empire at the beginning of the 13th century was no less a disaster for its inhabitants. The denouement became inevitable when the expelled crusaders concluded an agreement with the Venetians on the division of Greek territories. The original goal of the campaign, the fight against Muslims in Palestine, was safely forgotten.
In the spring of 1204, the Latins began organizing an assault from the Golden Horn Bay. Catholic priests promised Europeans absolution for participating in the attack, calling it a charitable deed. Before the fateful date of the capture of Constantinople came, the knights diligently filled up the moats around the defensive walls. On April 9, they broke into the city, but after a long battle they returned to their camp.
The attack resumed three days later. On April 12, the vanguard of the crusaders climbed the fortress walls with the help of assault ladders, and another detachment made a breach in the defensive fortifications. Even the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans, which happened two and a half centuries later, did not end with such significant destruction of architecture as after the battles with the Latins. The reason for this was a huge fire that began on the 12th and destroyed two-thirds of the city's buildings.
Division of the empire
The resistance of the Greeks was broken. Alexei V fled, and a few months later the Latins found him and executed him. On April 13, the final capture of Constantinople took place. The year 1453 is considered the end of the Byzantine Empire, but it was in 1204 that the same fatal blow was de alt to it, which led to the subsequent expansion of the Ottomans.
About 20 thousand crusaders participated in the assault. This was more than a modest figure compared to those hordes of Avars, Slavs, Persians and Arabs that the empire had repelled from its main city for many centuries. However, this time the pendulum of history swung not in favor of the Greeks. The long economic, political and social crisis of the state affected. That is why for the first time in history the capital of Byzantium fell exactly in 1204.
The capture of Constantinople by the crusaders marked the beginning of a new era. The former Byzantine Empire was abolished, and a new Latin one appeared in its place. Its first ruler was Count Baldwin I, a participant in the crusade of Flanders, whose election took place in the famous Hagia Sophia. The new state differed from the former one in the composition of the elite. French feudal lords occupied key places in the administrative machine.
The Latin Empire did not receive all the lands of Byzantium. Baldwin and his successors, in addition to the capital, got Thrace, most of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. The military leader of the Fourth Crusade, the Italian Boniface of Montferrat, received Macedonia, Thessaly, and his new vassal kingdom in relation to the emperorbecame known as the kingdom of Thessaloniki. Enterprising Venetians got the Ionian Islands, the Cyclades, Adrianople and even part of Constantinople. All their acquisitions were selected according to commercial interests. At the very beginning of the campaign, Doge Enrico Dandolo was going to establish control over the Mediterranean trade, in the end he managed to achieve his goal.
Consequences
The average landlords and knights who participated in the campaign received small counties and other land holdings. In fact, having settled in Byzantium, the Western Europeans implanted in it their usual feudal orders. The local Greek population, however, remained the same. For several decades of the rule of the crusaders, it has practically not changed its way of life, culture and religion. That is why the Latin states on the ruins of Byzantium lasted only a few generations.
The former Byzantine aristocracy, which did not want to cooperate with the new government, managed to establish itself in Asia Minor. Two large states appeared on the peninsula - the Trebizond and Nicaean empires. The power in them belonged to the Greek dynasties, including the Komnenos, who were overthrown shortly before in Byzantium. In addition, the Bulgarian kingdom was formed to the north of the Latin Empire. The Slavs who won their independence became a serious headache for European feudal lords.
The power of the Latins in a region alien to them never became durable. Due to the many civil strife and the loss of European interest in the Crusadesin 1261 there was another capture of Constantinople. Russian and Western sources of that time recorded how the Greeks managed to recapture their city with little or no resistance. The Byzantine Empire was restored. The dynasty of Palaiologos established itself in Constantinople. Almost two hundred years later, in 1453, the city was captured by the Ottoman Turks, after which the empire finally sunk into the past.
