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Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History

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Class from how Stuff Works dot Com.

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Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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King Lamber and I'm Sarah Dowdy.

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And there are many crusades that

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today's topic. The Fourth Crusade

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from twelve oh two to twelve oh four

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was the least successful. Its

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aim was to take Jerusalem

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from the Muslim Turks who had seized it in

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eighties seven, but the result was

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an attack on Christian cities and

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a permanent divide between the Eastern

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Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. So

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clearly something went horribly horribly

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wrong, and we're going to talk about what

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it was that went wrong today. So

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as far as the Crusades in general,

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they were rooted in both political and

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religious motives. The Byzantine

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Empire was threatened by these Seldic Turks,

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and Pope Urban the Second agreed to endorse

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a war against them. This is the first crusade

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to both save the Christians who were supposedly

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being tortured and to save Jerusalem

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from the infidels. By saving

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Jerusalem, the crusaders themselves

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would save their own souls. The win win

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deal, and these were seen as defensive

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wars because the church was under

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attack. But of course there's a lot

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more to it than that, And if you want a little

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more background, definitely check out an

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older episode recorded by Candis and Jane

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on the Crusades of the whole you can get

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all the background information. And we've

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actually got a really good article on this

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too, Yeah, by Molly Edmunds

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of stuff Mom never told you how the crusades

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worked. And an important

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thing to remember that I got from her article quote

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many of the crusades would begin with a goal

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to reach the Holy Land, but would break down

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because of politics and warfare failure.

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Regardless, religion was always the primary

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trigger for a crusade, so remember

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that as we go along. So we

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have religion and we have politics

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x, which go together like peanut butter

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and jelly. And like I said to Sarah earlier, a

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PPJ that blows up in your face sounds

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like a sandwich that is far too dangerous

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for my taste. But as we mentioned,

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Jerusalem is under the control of the Muslims

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and the goal of the fourth Crusade

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is to get it back. Sounds pretty simple,

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right, Hope Innocent the third had been

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wanting a crusade of his own. We all want

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a crusade of our own, and the

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French answer is called they would take part.

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They would make up the majority of the troops,

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and as their leader they'll have an Italian

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count named Boniface molt Ferra. The

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leaders of the crusade decide that the best

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way to recapture Jerusalem is

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to go by sea to Egypt and then invade

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from there. But they need a way to

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transport all of their men and all of

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their supplies by sea. They

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need help, and who is better at all

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things seaworthy than the Venetian nations.

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So they go to Venice and they

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meet with the ninety year old blind

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Doge, Enrico din Dolo, who

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is in control of Venice. And the crusaders

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want ships. They want about

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thirty thousand men to man them,

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and they want food. So the Doge agrees

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in exchange for eighty five thousand

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marks, which is a ridiculously

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huge sum of money, but they agree

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because after all, this is God,

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yeah, exactly, and the Venetians

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do the work. It takes up almost all of

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Venice's resources to build these

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ships and to man them and to stock

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them, but more than thirty

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thousand crusaders are supposed to congregate

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in Venice. So it all work out because everybody will

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bring a little bit of money, they'll

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have enough men for all the ships, and

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they'll be together. They're all starting off in

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one group. Yeah, you can really stir up morale

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that way. So from there they would

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proceed on their mission. But there's a problem.

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Only a third of the men show up

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because a lot of the troops have decided, well, we

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don't want to go all the way to Venice to meet with

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you guys. We're going to leave from our own port. Don't

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tell me what to do. So

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the result is that there isn't enough

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money to pay Venice, and

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they have way too much stuff because they have supplies,

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you know, for thirty thou people, and they've only got twelve

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thousand. They can't go back

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home. It would be dishonorable. They've

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made this vow that they're going to do

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this religious thing, and they

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can't not pay the Venetians. They

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have a moral obligation to do so

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how can we resolve this? Fortunately,

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the Doge makes them a pretty good offer. Attack

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the city of Zara and we'll

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give you a little more time to pay up. We're not going to write

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off the debt, but you'll have more time to pay

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It's not that great of a deal. Actually, it's

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kind of a bad deal. Zara

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was on the Dalmatian coast and

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Venice basically had had control

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over it until the Hungarian king came along.

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But this presents a dilemma for the crusaders.

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They need to pay their debt. But the Hungarian

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king is Christian and under

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the Pope in realm to not the the Eastern

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version of the Church, and he's

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a crusader, so attacking him

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is attacking one of their own. What

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can they do? Some refuse to attack,

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and others agree to it because it's

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for the good of the crusade as a whole. The

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ends justify the means that Pope

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Innocent the Third is not pleased

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and basically sends them a letter that

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says, don't you dare, I

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will excommunicate you. But of course

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the Pope's message only gets to the leadership

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the knights who are in charge, and they neglect

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to pass it on to the common man

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because obviously, under the threat of excommunication,

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which is the heaviest punishment that

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the Church can give someone a lot

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of the army would fall apart. So

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they keep this information to themselves, and

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they attack, and they conquer, and

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the Pope excommunicates them all

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again. The leaders are the only ones

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who know that this has happened. They

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have all the information, they have all the power, so

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they don't even know that they're possibly damned.

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But meanwhile, there is a prince

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in exile whose ears have perked

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up at the news of what's going on in Zara.

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He is Alexius Angelos,

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and his father, Isaac the Second

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had been Emperor of Byzantium,

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but he had been deposed by his brother Alexius

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the Third, who also ordered that his eyes

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be gouged out. Apparently that was very popular

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style. So our exiled prince,

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the rightful heir to the throne, goes to

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the leaders of the Fourth Crusade and offers

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them a deal. He will give

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them money and men to help them retake

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the Holy Land if they will come

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to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine

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Empire, and help him take the

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throne back. And more importantly,

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he says that he will return what is now

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the Greek Orthodox Church to the rule

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of the Pope in Rome. This would

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be a huge coup. Maybe

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the Pope would stop being so mad at

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the crusaders, and also they would have reunited

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the church. So as far as a religious

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mission goes, this is a word one.

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And the doge supports the plan too, because

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he's thinking of Venice's trade roots.

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And if Byzantium is

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an ally, they're in a pretty

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good place all of a sudden, so Boniface

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says, we're in And

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a note on Constantinople. It

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is an incredibly rich city at the time,

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both in culture and in a

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actual cash money. They

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have the Hagia Sophia, for example,

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and founded by Constantine the first

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in a d. Three thirty. It is

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the greatest city of the Middle Ages,

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certainly better than anything Europe has.

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They have, you know, the crown of Thorns relic,

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what do you have? And it's the perfect

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place for trade. It's right in between

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the East and the West. And my favorite

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detail from a New Yorker article

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by Joan Acochella, it's

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ladies watched over by twenty thousand

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eunuchs were silk and jewels and

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white wigs. But it's not

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just the ladies who are well defended. The city

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is really well defended too. In nine years

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no one has taken it. So this

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is the mark. We can imagine things are

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going to be pretty tough from here on out. And

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as far as this whole idea of going

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into Constantinople goes, some of

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the other Crusaders are very unhappy

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because they're supposed to be going

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to Jerusalem. What does Constantinople

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have to do with any holes of well, and

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it's this Christian cities. Why are we even

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getting involved in what they're doing? Perhaps

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we're missing the point, regardless of what some

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people think. The Crusaders arrive in

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Constantinople in twelve o three and

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they're here to seize the throne from Alexeius

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the third, return it to Isaac, who

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he doesn't know this, but he's going to be co ruling

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with his son who will be crowned Alexius

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the fourth, And from there they

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can pay off Venice, they can reunite

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the Eastern and Western churches, and hopefully

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finally be on their way to Jerusalem.

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The people of Constantinople honestly

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aren't all that interested in any of this. They're

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not perturbed with this change in rule but

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Alexeius the Third is he puts up

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a fight and he loses, and during

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this fight the Frank's burned part of the

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city. Alexius the Fourth has

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what he wanted, but the Venetians

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and the Franks do not. Alexius

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doesn't have the money that he promised,

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so he's forced to tax everyone, and

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he begins melting down icons

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to try to raise it. The citizens

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of Constantinople are not very happy.

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They're being taxed, their icons are being

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melted down, and their city is

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overrun by Franks, by Crusaders

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who are running amok and trying

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to get what they can for themselves. So

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the Greeks saith the Franks. The Franks saith. The

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Greeks were constantly having skirmishes

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and Alexius the Fourth unpopularity

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catches up with him. He is murdered.

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Um Isaac also mysteriously dies around

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the same time, possibly murdered as well,

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and Alexius the Fifth takes over.

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And Alexis the Fifth is not interested

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in paying Alexius the Fourth debt.

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He says, I don't have anything to do with this. You

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guys work it out yourselves, so that's

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it. The Venetians want

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their money, and the leaders of the Crusade

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vow to fight. Now they see the Byzantines

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as an obstacle to be overcome, and

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their fight is justified. They say they

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need to save the Greeks from their own orthodox

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selves and punish them for

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murdering their ruler, which isn't quite

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what this is about, but we'll let them have it. And

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again Innocence of third tells

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them in no uncertain terms not

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to do this, but of course

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they do. For having your own crusade.

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This is really not going according to plan.

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For Innocent nobody's listening to him. So

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the Crusaders and Alexius the Fifth

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Men fight, and the Greeks put up a really

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good fight. This time Alexius

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flees, though, and the fight still

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isn't over. This is in April twelve o four.

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Finally, the Crusaders lay siege

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to the city of Constantinople, and in three

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days it's over. So the city that is

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not fallen in nine years it only

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takes three days to fall. The crusade

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waters sacked the city, completely,

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burned down parts of it, steal

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every piece of art they can find, every religious

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relic, the patriarchal library

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is burned, and precious religious

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icons in the Hockey Sophia destroyed.

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But beyond the looting, the

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sacking of Constantinople is so

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notorious because it

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wasn't just about the theft

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and the violence. There was plenty of rapes

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and murders, but the atmosphere

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was more like a big drunken party.

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It was jovial, it was celebratory.

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They put a prostitute on the patriarch's

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throne and the hockey Sophia and let her sing.

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They get drunk, drinking out of chalices.

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This is the defilement of all

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that the people in Constantinople held

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sacred. So the Venetians

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claim their share of the loot, which is most

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of it, as part of their payment. Have they

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even fulfilled the debt entirely?

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Yet? I think they also got some islands.

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How the Venetians come out okay, I guess.

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So this is why you can still find

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Byzantine, aren't there. It's it's part of that

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payment for all of these ships and the men and

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the supplies. By the way, a lot of our

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knowledge about the sacking of Constantinople

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comes from a firsthand account from

12:13

Nikita's kniatis. So

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that's why some of these details

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about the prostitute singing from the throne

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are so vivid and so out

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of this world. So we

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started with this religious mission to

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quote unquote save Jerusalem and

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we end with a prostitute on the

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patriarchs throne in Constantinople.

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How did we get here? And what's

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going to happen? While the aftermath

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is that the people of the Byzantine Empire

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have seen what the Latins can

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do and they would rather take their

12:46

chances with the Turks. The divide between

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what will be the Eastern Orthodox and Roman

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Catholic churches is now permanent. This

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is known as the Great Sism or the East

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West Sism, and it's still that way today.

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The sacking of Constantinople also marks

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the beginning of the end of the Byzantine Empire.

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It's this sophisticated, wealthy,

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culturally rich city

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and it's never quite the same

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again. It suffered a very serious blow,

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yeah, and it would be taken again, finally

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falling to the Turks in fourteen fifty three.

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So this crusade that begins

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to save the Holy Land ends with

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Islam winning the day in the East. Ironically,

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despite the complete and total

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failure of this crusade, no

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one seemed to learn from it, because

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these missions to save the Holy Land

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went on for centuries,

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and it reminded me a lot of when we were

13:38

talking about the Reformation, and specifically

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the wars between the Catholics and the Huguenots,

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which seemed to be never ending.

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But compared to this, it's

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barely a drop in the bucket. I mean, these go on for

13:50

centuries. It's ridiculous. And

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of course, while we're not still sailing

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with ships with our red crosses on

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our chests, religious war

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are still going on today. Speaking

14:03

of France and its religious wars, that

14:05

brings us to our listener mail. Of

14:10

course, the ultimate result of

14:12

those religious wars is the rise of the

14:14

Bourbon family, and our email today

14:16

is from Sam Sunnite, who

14:18

requests a podcast on the fabulous

14:21

life of Madame du Pompadoor. But

14:24

he also includes a little tidbit on

14:26

our podcast on who would have been the Nazi

14:28

King and Wallace Simpson and the radication

14:30

crisis. He says, I was remembering

14:33

a picture of the Duke and Duchess with my grandmother.

14:36

She was a journalist for the Boston Globe,

14:38

but later had to leave because she met my grandfather

14:41

there and relationships were not allowed in

14:43

the workplace. Sorry, madman

14:45

fans that didn't work out with

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the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. My grandparents

14:49

met the socialites, movie stars, sports

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players and entertainers of the day,

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from Katherine Hepburn to Judy Garland

14:56

and JFK to Georgia O'Keefe,

14:59

who my grandfather. I said, it was horribly stuck

15:01

up and terrible more. We're

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not advocating at this point of view. We're

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just reading a letter. He also

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said, I was going to write you magnificent

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ladies a letter, but I couldn't find the address.

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I'm sorry to say. I had written

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it in calligraphy, and I embellished it with

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the baroque doodles of my creation.

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