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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm King Lamber and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And there are

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Speaker 1: many crusades that today's topic. The Fourth Crusade from twelve

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Speaker 1: oh two to twelve oh four was the least successful.

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Speaker 1: Its aim was to take Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks

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Speaker 1: who had seized it in eighties seven, but the result

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Speaker 1: was an attack on Christian cities and a permanent divide

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Speaker 1: between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. So clearly

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Speaker 1: something went horribly horribly wrong, and we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about what it was that went wrong today. So as

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Speaker 1: far as the Crusades in general, they were rooted in

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Speaker 1: both political and religious motives. The Byzantine Empire was threatened

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Speaker 1: by these Seldic Turks, and Pope Urban the Second agreed

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Speaker 1: to endorse a war against them. This is the first

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Speaker 1: crusade to both save the Christians who were supposedly being

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Speaker 1: tortured and to save Jerusalem from the infidels. By saving Jerusalem,

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Speaker 1: the crusaders themselves would save their own souls. The win

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Speaker 1: win deal, and these were seen as defensive wars because

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Speaker 1: the church was under attack. But of course there's a

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Speaker 1: lot more to it than that, And if you want

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Speaker 1: a little more background, definitely check out an older episode

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Speaker 1: recorded by Candis and Jane on the Crusades of the

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Speaker 1: whole you can get all the background information. And we've

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Speaker 1: actually got a really good article on this too, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: by Molly Edmunds of stuff Mom never told you how

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Speaker 1: the crusades worked. And an important thing to remember that

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Speaker 1: I got from her article quote many of the crusades

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Speaker 1: would begin with a goal to reach the Holy Land,

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Speaker 1: but would break down because of politics and warfare failure. Regardless,

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Speaker 1: religion was always the primary trigger for a crusade, so

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Speaker 1: remember that as we go along. So we have religion

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Speaker 1: and we have politics x, which go together like peanut

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Speaker 1: butter and jelly. And like I said to Sarah earlier,

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Speaker 1: a PPJ that blows up in your face sounds like

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Speaker 1: a sandwich that is far too dangerous for my taste.

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Speaker 1: But as we mentioned, Jerusalem is under the control of

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Speaker 1: the Muslims and the goal of the fourth Crusade is

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Speaker 1: to get it back. Sounds pretty simple, right, Hope Innocent

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Speaker 1: the third had been wanting a crusade of his own.

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Speaker 1: We all want a crusade of our own, and the

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Speaker 1: French answer is called they would take part. They would

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Speaker 1: make up the majority of the troops, and as their

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Speaker 1: leader they'll have an Italian count named Boniface molt Ferra.

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Speaker 1: The leaders of the crusade decide that the best way

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Speaker 1: to recapture Jerusalem is to go by sea to Egypt

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Speaker 1: and then invade from there. But they need a way

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Speaker 1: to transport all of their men and all of their

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Speaker 1: supplies by sea. They need help, and who is better

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Speaker 1: at all things seaworthy than the Venetian nations. So they

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Speaker 1: go to Venice and they meet with the ninety year

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Speaker 1: old blind Doge, Enrico din Dolo, who is in control

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Speaker 1: of Venice. And the crusaders want ships. They want about

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Speaker 1: thirty thousand men to man them, and they want food.

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Speaker 1: So the Doge agrees in exchange for eighty five thousand marks,

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Speaker 1: which is a ridiculously huge sum of money, but they

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Speaker 1: agree because after all, this is God, yeah, exactly, and

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Speaker 1: the Venetians do the work. It takes up almost all

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Speaker 1: of Venice's resources to build these ships and to man

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Speaker 1: them and to stock them, but more than thirty thousand

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Speaker 1: crusaders are supposed to congregate in Venice. So it all

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Speaker 1: work out because everybody will bring a little bit of money,

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Speaker 1: they'll have enough men for all the ships, and they'll

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Speaker 1: be together. They're all starting off in one group. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you can really stir up morale that way. So from

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Speaker 1: there they would proceed on their mission. But there's a problem.

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Speaker 1: Only a third of the men show up because a

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Speaker 1: lot of the troops have decided, well, we don't want

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Speaker 1: to go all the way to Venice to meet with

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Speaker 1: you guys. We're going to leave from our own port.

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Speaker 1: Don't tell me what to do. So the result is

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Speaker 1: that there isn't enough money to pay Venice, and they

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Speaker 1: have way too much stuff because they have supplies, you know,

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Speaker 1: for thirty thou people, and they've only got twelve thousand.

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Speaker 1: They can't go back home. It would be dishonorable. They've

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Speaker 1: made this vow that they're going to do this religious thing,

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Speaker 1: and they can't not pay the Venetians. They have a

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Speaker 1: moral obligation to do so how can we resolve this? Fortunately,

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Speaker 1: the Doge makes them a pretty good offer. Attack the

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Speaker 1: city of Zara and we'll give you a little more

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Speaker 1: time to pay up. We're not going to write off

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Speaker 1: the debt, but you'll have more time to pay It's

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Speaker 1: not that great of a deal. Actually, it's kind of

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Speaker 1: a bad deal. Zara was on the Dalmatian coast and

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Speaker 1: Venice basically had had control over it until the Hungarian

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Speaker 1: king came along. But this presents a dilemma for the crusaders.

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Speaker 1: They need to pay their debt. But the Hungarian king

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Speaker 1: is Christian and under the Pope in realm to not

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Speaker 1: the the Eastern version of the Church, and he's a crusader,

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Speaker 1: so attacking him is attacking one of their own. What

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Speaker 1: can they do? Some refuse to attack, and others agree

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Speaker 1: to it because it's for the good of the crusade

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Speaker 1: as a whole. The ends justify the means that Pope

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Speaker 1: Innocent the Third is not pleased and basically sends them

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Speaker 1: a letter that says, don't you dare, I will excommunicate you.

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Speaker 1: But of course the Pope's message only gets to the

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Speaker 1: leadership the knights who are in charge, and they neglect

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Speaker 1: to pass it on to the common man because obviously,

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Speaker 1: under the threat of excommunication, which is the heaviest punishment

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Speaker 1: that the Church can give someone a lot of the

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Speaker 1: army would fall apart. So they keep this information to themselves,

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Speaker 1: and they attack, and they conquer, and the Pope excommunicates

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Speaker 1: them all again. The leaders are the only ones who

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Speaker 1: know that this has happened. They have all the information,

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Speaker 1: they have all the power, so they don't even know

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Speaker 1: that they're possibly damned. But meanwhile, there is a prince

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Speaker 1: in exile whose ears have perked up at the news

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Speaker 1: of what's going on in Zara. He is Alexius Angelos,

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Speaker 1: and his father, Isaac the Second had been Emperor of Byzantium,

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Speaker 1: but he had been deposed by his brother Alexius the Third,

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Speaker 1: who also ordered that his eyes be gouged out. Apparently

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Speaker 1: that was very popular style. So our exiled prince, the

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Speaker 1: rightful heir to the throne, goes to the leaders of

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Speaker 1: the Fourth Crusade and offers them a deal. He will

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Speaker 1: give them money and men to help them retake the

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Speaker 1: Holy Land if they will come to Constantinople, the capital

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Speaker 1: of the Byzantine Empire, and help him take the throne back.

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Speaker 1: And more importantly, he says that he will return what

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Speaker 1: is now the Greek Orthodox Church to the rule of

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Speaker 1: the Pope in Rome. This would be a huge coup.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the Pope would stop being so mad at the crusaders,

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Speaker 1: and also they would have reunited the church. So as

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Speaker 1: far as a religious mission goes, this is a word one.

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Speaker 1: And the doge supports the plan too, because he's thinking

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Speaker 1: of Venice's trade roots. And if Byzantium is an ally,

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Speaker 1: they're in a pretty good place all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: so Boniface says, we're in And a note on Constantinople.

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Speaker 1: It is an incredibly rich city at the time, both

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Speaker 1: in culture and in a actual cash money. They have

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Speaker 1: the Hagia Sophia, for example, and founded by Constantine the

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Speaker 1: first in a d. Three thirty. It is the greatest

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Speaker 1: city of the Middle Ages, certainly better than anything Europe has.

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Speaker 1: They have, you know, the crown of Thorns relic, what

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Speaker 1: do you have? And it's the perfect place for trade.

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Speaker 1: It's right in between the East and the West. And

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Speaker 1: my favorite detail from a New Yorker article by Joan Acochella,

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Speaker 1: it's ladies watched over by twenty thousand eunuchs were silk

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Speaker 1: and jewels and white wigs. But it's not just the

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Speaker 1: ladies who are well defended. The city is really well

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Speaker 1: defended too. In nine years no one has taken it.

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Speaker 1: So this is the mark. We can imagine things are

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Speaker 1: going to be pretty tough from here on out. And

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Speaker 1: as far as this whole idea of going into Constantinople goes,

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Speaker 1: some of the other Crusaders are very unhappy because they're

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Speaker 1: supposed to be going to Jerusalem. What does Constantinople have

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Speaker 1: to do with any holes of well, and it's this

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Speaker 1: Christian cities. Why are we even getting involved in what

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Speaker 1: they're doing? Perhaps we're missing the point, regardless of what

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Speaker 1: some people think. The Crusaders arrive in Constantinople in twelve

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Speaker 1: o three and they're here to seize the throne from

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Speaker 1: Alexeius the third, return it to Isaac, who he doesn't

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Speaker 1: know this, but he's going to be co ruling with

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Speaker 1: his son who will be crowned Alexius the fourth, And

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Speaker 1: from there they can pay off Venice, they can reunite

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Speaker 1: the Eastern and Western churches, and hopefully finally be on

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Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem. The people of Constantinople honestly aren't

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Speaker 1: all that interested in any of this. They're not perturbed

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Speaker 1: with this change in rule but Alexeius the Third is

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Speaker 1: he puts up a fight and he loses, and during

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Speaker 1: this fight the Frank's burned part of the city. Alexius

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Speaker 1: the Fourth has what he wanted, but the Venetians and

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Speaker 1: the Franks do not. Alexius doesn't have the money that

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Speaker 1: he promised, so he's forced to tax everyone, and he

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Speaker 1: begins melting down icons to try to raise it. The

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Speaker 1: citizens of Constantinople are not very happy. They're being taxed,

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Speaker 1: their icons are being melted down, and their city is

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Speaker 1: overrun by Franks, by Crusaders who are running amok and

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Speaker 1: trying to get what they can for themselves. So the

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Speaker 1: Greeks saith the Franks. The Franks saith. The Greeks were

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Speaker 1: constantly having skirmishes and Alexius the Fourth unpopularity catches up

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Speaker 1: with him. He is murdered. Um Isaac also mysteriously dies

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Speaker 1: around the same time, possibly murdered as well, and Alexius

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Speaker 1: the Fifth takes over. And Alexis the Fifth is not

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Speaker 1: interested in paying Alexius the Fourth debt. He says, I

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Speaker 1: don't have anything to do with this. You guys work

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Speaker 1: it out yourselves, so that's it. The Venetians want their money,

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Speaker 1: and the leaders of the Crusade vow to fight. Now

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Speaker 1: they see the Byzantines as an obstacle to be overcome,

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Speaker 1: and their fight is justified. They say they need to

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Speaker 1: save the Greeks from their own orthodox selves and punish

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Speaker 1: them for murdering their ruler, which isn't quite what this

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Speaker 1: is about, but we'll let them have it. And again

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Speaker 1: Innocence of third tells them in no uncertain terms not

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Speaker 1: to do this, but of course they do. For having

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Speaker 1: your own crusade. This is really not going according to plan.

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Speaker 1: For Innocent nobody's listening to him. So the Crusaders and

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Speaker 1: Alexius the Fifth Men fight, and the Greeks put up

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Speaker 1: a really good fight. This time Alexius flees, though, and

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Speaker 1: the fight still isn't over. This is in April twelve

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Speaker 1: o four. Finally, the Crusaders lay siege to the city

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Speaker 1: of Constantinople, and in three days it's over. So the

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Speaker 1: city that is not fallen in nine years it only

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Speaker 1: takes three days to fall. The crusade waters sacked the city, completely,

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Speaker 1: burned down parts of it, steal every piece of art

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Speaker 1: they can find, every religious relic, the patriarchal library is burned,

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Speaker 1: and precious religious icons in the Hockey Sophia destroyed. But

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Speaker 1: beyond the looting, the sacking of Constantinople is so notorious

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Speaker 1: because it wasn't just about the theft and the violence.

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Speaker 1: There was plenty of rapes and murders, but the atmosphere

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Speaker 1: was more like a big drunken party. It was jovial,

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Speaker 1: it was celebratory. They put a prostitute on the patriarch's

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Speaker 1: throne and the hockey Sophia and let her sing. They

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Speaker 1: get drunk, drinking out of chalices. This is the defilement

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Speaker 1: of all that the people in Constantinople held sacred. So

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Speaker 1: the Venetians claim their share of the loot, which is

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Speaker 1: most of it, as part of their payment. Have they

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Speaker 1: even fulfilled the debt entirely? Yet? I think they also

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Speaker 1: got some islands. How the Venetians come out okay, I guess.

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Speaker 1: So this is why you can still find Byzantine, aren't there.

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Speaker 1: It's it's part of that payment for all of these

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Speaker 1: ships and the men and the supplies. By the way,

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Speaker 1: a lot of our knowledge about the sacking of Constantinople

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Speaker 1: comes from a firsthand account from Nikita's kniatis. So that's

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Speaker 1: why some of these details about the prostitute singing from

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Speaker 1: the throne are so vivid and so out of this world.

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Speaker 1: So we started with this religious mission to quote unquote

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Speaker 1: save Jerusalem and we end with a prostitute on the

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Speaker 1: patriarchs throne in Constantinople. How did we get here? And

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Speaker 1: what's going to happen? While the aftermath is that the

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Speaker 1: people of the Byzantine Empire have seen what the Latins

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Speaker 1: can do and they would rather take their chances with

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Speaker 1: the Turks. The divide between what will be the Eastern

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Speaker 1: Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches is now permanent. This is

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Speaker 1: known as the Great Sism or the East West Sism,

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Speaker 1: and it's still that way today. The sacking of Constantinople

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Speaker 1: also marks the beginning of the end of the Byzantine Empire.

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Speaker 1: It's this sophisticated, wealthy, culturally rich city and it's never

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Speaker 1: quite the same again. It suffered a very serious blow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it would be taken again, finally falling to the

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Speaker 1: Turks in fourteen fifty three. So this crusade that begins

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Speaker 1: to save the Holy Land ends with Islam winning the

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Speaker 1: day in the East. Ironically, despite the complete and total

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Speaker 1: failure of this crusade, no one seemed to learn from it,

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Speaker 1: because these missions to save the Holy Land went on

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Speaker 1: for centuries, and it reminded me a lot of when

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Speaker 1: we were talking about the Reformation, and specifically the wars

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Speaker 1: between the Catholics and the Huguenots, which seemed to be

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Speaker 1: never ending. But compared to this, it's barely a drop

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Speaker 1: in the bucket. I mean, these go on for centuries.

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Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. And of course, while we're not still sailing

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Speaker 1: with ships with our red crosses on our chests, religious

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Speaker 1: war are still going on today. Speaking of France and

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Speaker 1: its religious wars, that brings us to our listener mail.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the ultimate result of those religious wars is

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Speaker 1: the rise of the Bourbon family, and our email today

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Speaker 1: is from Sam Sunnite, who requests a podcast on the

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Speaker 1: fabulous life of Madame du Pompadoor. But he also includes

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Speaker 1: a little tidbit on our podcast on who would have

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Speaker 1: been the Nazi King and Wallace Simpson and the radication crisis.

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Speaker 1: He says, I was remembering a picture of the Duke

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Speaker 1: and Duchess with my grandmother. She was a journalist for

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Speaker 1: the Boston Globe, but later had to leave because she

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Speaker 1: met my grandfather there and relationships were not allowed in

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Speaker 1: the workplace. Sorry, madman fans that didn't work out with

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Speaker 1: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. My grandparents met the socialites,

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Speaker 1: movie stars, sports players and entertainers of the day, from

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Speaker 1: Katherine Hepburn to Judy Garland and JFK to Georgia O'Keefe,

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Speaker 1: who my grandfather. I said, it was horribly stuck up

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Speaker 1: and terrible more. We're not advocating at this point of view.

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Speaker 1: We're just reading a letter. He also said, I was

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Speaker 1: going to write you magnificent ladies a letter, but I

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Speaker 1: couldn't find the address. I'm sorry to say. I had

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Speaker 1: written it in calligraphy, and I embellished it with the

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Speaker 1: baroque doodles of my creation. And that brings us to

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Speaker 1: a little thing. We keep being asked what is the address,

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Speaker 1: but we think of it as a bit of a

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Speaker 1: scavenger hunt. We're hoping that you will search the website

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and you will find it

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Speaker 1: and be persistent, and it will reach us. If you're

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Speaker 1: not inclined to your own Baroque doodles. An easier way

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Speaker 1: to reach us is at our Twitter which is at

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Speaker 1: Missed in History, or on our Facebook vandpage, or you

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Speaker 1: can email us at History Podcast at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com and again, if you want to try and

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Speaker 1: find us, go to our homepage at www dot how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands

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Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and

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Speaker 1: be sure to check out this stuff you Missed in

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Speaker 1: History class blog on the how stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: pun page