MOMENTS IN HISTORY |
Presented by
Bill 'Mastermind' Fitzgerald®
The Crusades had begun in 1096 as an effort by Christian Europe to capture the ‘Holy Land’ from the non-believing Muslims. Muslims had been in control of the whole area since the seventh century when Islam first emerged out of the visions of Mohammed. They had captured the area from the Byzantine Empire, that eastern remnant of the old Roman Empire, with its fabulous capital at Constantinople.
The Muslims, like the Christians and the Jews, looked upon Jerusalem (the name means,‘Abode of Peace’) as a city sacred to their religion. And for the most part they were tolerant of both of those faiths during the hundreds of years in which they controlled the city. There were exceptions, of course, but these were few and far between and raised little ire in Christian Europe. Even if they had there was little chance of the Christians there doing anything about it due to their own lack of unity or interest.
Christian Pilgrims had been making their way to the Holy Land ever since Jesus Christ. We are told that ‘Palmers’ could be found everywhere in Europe. These were people who had made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and wore crossed palm leaves as a symbol of their devotional achievement. Muslims called them Hadji when they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, Christians wore palm leaves for the making the trek to Jerusalem. Everyone wants to boast of their travels.
In 1070, however, the Muslim Turks captured the Holy Land from the Muslim Fatimids of Egypt. And from then on travelers began to recount stories of persecution and desecration. This eventuated in the Crusades beginning in 1096 and continuing, off and on, until approximately 1291, almost two hundred years of bloodshed, rape and pillage in a land that everyone claimed to believe was the cradle of their religious faith!
Perhaps the most notorious, or infamous, of the Crusades was the so-called ‘Fourth Crusade’ of 1202-1204. I say, ‘so-called’, because it never managed to get to the Holy Land at all.
The Third Crusade, 1189-1192 had left the Christians with little to show for the mightiest effort made up to that time to recapture Jerusalem and the holy places from the Muslims. But the great conqueror, Saladin, the Kurd who had been the nemesis of the Third Crusaders, died in 1193. This left his conquering forces in disarray and their lands divided.
Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) saw an opportunity and demanded of the monarchs of Europe a new crusade to retake the Holy Land from the non-Christians. He managed to persuade a number of the European aristocracy to undertake a new crusade. The city of Venice was also enlisted to aid with their ships and supplies in return for half of the spoils of conquest and a specified amount of money. Those Venetians drove a hard bargain.
They had made great profits from their trade with the Muslims in Egypt and the Holy Land. But they were always open to better offers. They secretly assured the Sultan of Egypt that they had no intention of leading the Crusaders through his country. I wonder if the Sultan believed them?
When the Crusaders eventually arrived in Venice for their trip to the Holy Land they were short of the specified amount of cash demanded by the Venetians. So instead of going directly to the Holy Land via Egypt as they had expected to do (and as the Venetians had assured the Sultan of Egypt they would not do) the Venetians changed the plans.
They refused to transport the Crusaders to Egypt because of the shortfall in the money demanded of them. However, being good businessmen they had a negotiating point; they would relent on one condition. The Venetian Doge, Dandolo, ninety-five years old and totally blind, but he still drove a hard bargain, demanding that the Crusaders make up the deficit by helping him to seize the Adriatic coastal city of Zara from Hungary. When the Pope heard of this corrupt bargain he was furious. He threatened to excommunicate the Crusaders if they agreed to it.
The lure of booty, however, was apparently too strong to resist. The Crusaders ignored the Pope’s threat and joined the Venetians in taking Zara from the Hungarians. Only then did the Crusaders reply to the Pope, asking for his forgiveness! He agreed but only if they returned their booty. They accepted his forgiveness and kept the booty!
The Ventians had a second part to their plan, unbeknownst to the Crusaders, of course. This was even more audacious and unscrupulous. They intended to capture the very heart of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople itself! This would at least see them honoring one pledge, not to bring the Crusaders through Egypt!
The son of the deposed Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople begged the Crusaders to help him to restore his father to the throne in return for all the help the Empire could give to assist the Crusaders in their war against the Muslims. The deal was detailed in monetary and material terms. He agreed to the hard bargain driven by the Venetians, on the Crusaders behalf, of course.
There was one other important provision to the deal; that the Orthodox Church would submit to reunion with the Roman Catholic Church. If this were to happen the Pope would have been expected to be lenient to the Crusaders for their duplicitous behavior in the capture of Zara. How could he refuse them after such a wonderful and blessed gift?
The Crusaders had taken up the Pope’s call to defeat the infidel Muslims in the Holy Land. Before they could do that they had been compelled to attack the Christian city of Zara in the Adriatic in order to repay their debts to the Venetian Doge. Now they were being compelled again to attack a Christian city, Constantinople itself, in order to restore a deposed Emperor, Isaac Angelus. One has to wonder at the Crusaders zeal to liberate the Holy Land, or about their naivete!?
Nevertheless, they were effective when they did fight. They easily drove the forces of the usurper Byzantine Emperor, Alexius III, from Constantinople and took the city. But then their zeal for plunder proved too strong to be held back. They never did make it to the Holy Land because they had too much fun in Constantinople, sacking the city of its fabled riches. It didn’t worry them that it was a Christian city, albeit Orthodox Christian rather than Roman. They robbed it of its riches and set back the cause of Christian unity, perhaps, irrevocably.
Never again would the Byzantines and the Orthodox Church put their trust in the perfidious West. So the Pope didn’t get the gift that the Crusaders expected to hand to him; a united Christian Church. Neither did he get a Holy Land ruled by Roman Christians. The Fourth Crusade was spectacularly unsuccessful.
And now you know.
This is Bill ‘Mastermind’ Fitzgerald® signing off until next time.