Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm King Lamber and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And there are
Speaker 1: many crusades that today's topic. The Fourth Crusade from twelve
Speaker 1: oh two to twelve oh four was the least successful.
Speaker 1: Its aim was to take Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks
Speaker 1: who had seized it in eighties seven, but the result
Speaker 1: was an attack on Christian cities and a permanent divide
Speaker 1: between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. So clearly
Speaker 1: something went horribly horribly wrong, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about what it was that went wrong today. So as
Speaker 1: far as the Crusades in general, they were rooted in
Speaker 1: both political and religious motives. The Byzantine Empire was threatened
Speaker 1: by these Seldic Turks, and Pope Urban the Second agreed
Speaker 1: to endorse a war against them. This is the first
Speaker 1: crusade to both save the Christians who were supposedly being
Speaker 1: tortured and to save Jerusalem from the infidels. By saving Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: the crusaders themselves would save their own souls. The win
Speaker 1: win deal, and these were seen as defensive wars because
Speaker 1: the church was under attack. But of course there's a
Speaker 1: lot more to it than that, And if you want
Speaker 1: a little more background, definitely check out an older episode
Speaker 1: recorded by Candis and Jane on the Crusades of the
Speaker 1: whole you can get all the background information. And we've
Speaker 1: actually got a really good article on this too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: by Molly Edmunds of stuff Mom never told you how
Speaker 1: the crusades worked. And an important thing to remember that
Speaker 1: I got from her article quote many of the crusades
Speaker 1: would begin with a goal to reach the Holy Land,
Speaker 1: but would break down because of politics and warfare failure. Regardless,
Speaker 1: religion was always the primary trigger for a crusade, so
Speaker 1: remember that as we go along. So we have religion
Speaker 1: and we have politics x, which go together like peanut
Speaker 1: butter and jelly. And like I said to Sarah earlier,
Speaker 1: a PPJ that blows up in your face sounds like
Speaker 1: a sandwich that is far too dangerous for my taste.
Speaker 1: But as we mentioned, Jerusalem is under the control of
Speaker 1: the Muslims and the goal of the fourth Crusade is
Speaker 1: to get it back. Sounds pretty simple, right, Hope Innocent
Speaker 1: the third had been wanting a crusade of his own.
Speaker 1: We all want a crusade of our own, and the
Speaker 1: French answer is called they would take part. They would
Speaker 1: make up the majority of the troops, and as their
Speaker 1: leader they'll have an Italian count named Boniface molt Ferra.
Speaker 1: The leaders of the crusade decide that the best way
Speaker 1: to recapture Jerusalem is to go by sea to Egypt
Speaker 1: and then invade from there. But they need a way
Speaker 1: to transport all of their men and all of their
Speaker 1: supplies by sea. They need help, and who is better
Speaker 1: at all things seaworthy than the Venetian nations. So they
Speaker 1: go to Venice and they meet with the ninety year
Speaker 1: old blind Doge, Enrico din Dolo, who is in control
Speaker 1: of Venice. And the crusaders want ships. They want about
Speaker 1: thirty thousand men to man them, and they want food.
Speaker 1: So the Doge agrees in exchange for eighty five thousand marks,
Speaker 1: which is a ridiculously huge sum of money, but they
Speaker 1: agree because after all, this is God, yeah, exactly, and
Speaker 1: the Venetians do the work. It takes up almost all
Speaker 1: of Venice's resources to build these ships and to man
Speaker 1: them and to stock them, but more than thirty thousand
Speaker 1: crusaders are supposed to congregate in Venice. So it all
Speaker 1: work out because everybody will bring a little bit of money,
Speaker 1: they'll have enough men for all the ships, and they'll
Speaker 1: be together. They're all starting off in one group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can really stir up morale that way. So from
Speaker 1: there they would proceed on their mission. But there's a problem.
Speaker 1: Only a third of the men show up because a
Speaker 1: lot of the troops have decided, well, we don't want
Speaker 1: to go all the way to Venice to meet with
Speaker 1: you guys. We're going to leave from our own port.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me what to do. So the result is
Speaker 1: that there isn't enough money to pay Venice, and they
Speaker 1: have way too much stuff because they have supplies, you know,
Speaker 1: for thirty thou people, and they've only got twelve thousand.
Speaker 1: They can't go back home. It would be dishonorable. They've
Speaker 1: made this vow that they're going to do this religious thing,
Speaker 1: and they can't not pay the Venetians. They have a
Speaker 1: moral obligation to do so how can we resolve this? Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the Doge makes them a pretty good offer. Attack the
Speaker 1: city of Zara and we'll give you a little more
Speaker 1: time to pay up. We're not going to write off
Speaker 1: the debt, but you'll have more time to pay It's
Speaker 1: not that great of a deal. Actually, it's kind of
Speaker 1: a bad deal. Zara was on the Dalmatian coast and
Speaker 1: Venice basically had had control over it until the Hungarian
Speaker 1: king came along. But this presents a dilemma for the crusaders.
Speaker 1: They need to pay their debt. But the Hungarian king
Speaker 1: is Christian and under the Pope in realm to not
Speaker 1: the the Eastern version of the Church, and he's a crusader,
Speaker 1: so attacking him is attacking one of their own. What
Speaker 1: can they do? Some refuse to attack, and others agree
Speaker 1: to it because it's for the good of the crusade
Speaker 1: as a whole. The ends justify the means that Pope
Speaker 1: Innocent the Third is not pleased and basically sends them
Speaker 1: a letter that says, don't you dare, I will excommunicate you.
Speaker 1: But of course the Pope's message only gets to the
Speaker 1: leadership the knights who are in charge, and they neglect
Speaker 1: to pass it on to the common man because obviously,
Speaker 1: under the threat of excommunication, which is the heaviest punishment
Speaker 1: that the Church can give someone a lot of the
Speaker 1: army would fall apart. So they keep this information to themselves,
Speaker 1: and they attack, and they conquer, and the Pope excommunicates
Speaker 1: them all again. The leaders are the only ones who
Speaker 1: know that this has happened. They have all the information,
Speaker 1: they have all the power, so they don't even know
Speaker 1: that they're possibly damned. But meanwhile, there is a prince
Speaker 1: in exile whose ears have perked up at the news
Speaker 1: of what's going on in Zara. He is Alexius Angelos,
Speaker 1: and his father, Isaac the Second had been Emperor of Byzantium,
Speaker 1: but he had been deposed by his brother Alexius the Third,
Speaker 1: who also ordered that his eyes be gouged out. Apparently
Speaker 1: that was very popular style. So our exiled prince, the
Speaker 1: rightful heir to the throne, goes to the leaders of
Speaker 1: the Fourth Crusade and offers them a deal. He will
Speaker 1: give them money and men to help them retake the
Speaker 1: Holy Land if they will come to Constantinople, the capital
Speaker 1: of the Byzantine Empire, and help him take the throne back.
Speaker 1: And more importantly, he says that he will return what
Speaker 1: is now the Greek Orthodox Church to the rule of
Speaker 1: the Pope in Rome. This would be a huge coup.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Pope would stop being so mad at the crusaders,
Speaker 1: and also they would have reunited the church. So as
Speaker 1: far as a religious mission goes, this is a word one.
Speaker 1: And the doge supports the plan too, because he's thinking
Speaker 1: of Venice's trade roots. And if Byzantium is an ally,
Speaker 1: they're in a pretty good place all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: so Boniface says, we're in And a note on Constantinople.
Speaker 1: It is an incredibly rich city at the time, both
Speaker 1: in culture and in a actual cash money. They have
Speaker 1: the Hagia Sophia, for example, and founded by Constantine the
Speaker 1: first in a d. Three thirty. It is the greatest
Speaker 1: city of the Middle Ages, certainly better than anything Europe has.
Speaker 1: They have, you know, the crown of Thorns relic, what
Speaker 1: do you have? And it's the perfect place for trade.
Speaker 1: It's right in between the East and the West. And
Speaker 1: my favorite detail from a New Yorker article by Joan Acochella,
Speaker 1: it's ladies watched over by twenty thousand eunuchs were silk
Speaker 1: and jewels and white wigs. But it's not just the
Speaker 1: ladies who are well defended. The city is really well
Speaker 1: defended too. In nine years no one has taken it.
Speaker 1: So this is the mark. We can imagine things are
Speaker 1: going to be pretty tough from here on out. And
Speaker 1: as far as this whole idea of going into Constantinople goes,
Speaker 1: some of the other Crusaders are very unhappy because they're
Speaker 1: supposed to be going to Jerusalem. What does Constantinople have
Speaker 1: to do with any holes of well, and it's this
Speaker 1: Christian cities. Why are we even getting involved in what
Speaker 1: they're doing? Perhaps we're missing the point, regardless of what
Speaker 1: some people think. The Crusaders arrive in Constantinople in twelve
Speaker 1: o three and they're here to seize the throne from
Speaker 1: Alexeius the third, return it to Isaac, who he doesn't
Speaker 1: know this, but he's going to be co ruling with
Speaker 1: his son who will be crowned Alexius the fourth, And
Speaker 1: from there they can pay off Venice, they can reunite
Speaker 1: the Eastern and Western churches, and hopefully finally be on
Speaker 1: their way to Jerusalem. The people of Constantinople honestly aren't
Speaker 1: all that interested in any of this. They're not perturbed
Speaker 1: with this change in rule but Alexeius the Third is
Speaker 1: he puts up a fight and he loses, and during
Speaker 1: this fight the Frank's burned part of the city. Alexius
Speaker 1: the Fourth has what he wanted, but the Venetians and
Speaker 1: the Franks do not. Alexius doesn't have the money that
Speaker 1: he promised, so he's forced to tax everyone, and he
Speaker 1: begins melting down icons to try to raise it. The
Speaker 1: citizens of Constantinople are not very happy. They're being taxed,
Speaker 1: their icons are being melted down, and their city is
Speaker 1: overrun by Franks, by Crusaders who are running amok and
Speaker 1: trying to get what they can for themselves. So the
Speaker 1: Greeks saith the Franks. The Franks saith. The Greeks were
Speaker 1: constantly having skirmishes and Alexius the Fourth unpopularity catches up
Speaker 1: with him. He is murdered. Um Isaac also mysteriously dies
Speaker 1: around the same time, possibly murdered as well, and Alexius
Speaker 1: the Fifth takes over. And Alexis the Fifth is not
Speaker 1: interested in paying Alexius the Fourth debt. He says, I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to do with this. You guys work
Speaker 1: it out yourselves, so that's it. The Venetians want their money,
Speaker 1: and the leaders of the Crusade vow to fight. Now
Speaker 1: they see the Byzantines as an obstacle to be overcome,
Speaker 1: and their fight is justified. They say they need to
Speaker 1: save the Greeks from their own orthodox selves and punish
Speaker 1: them for murdering their ruler, which isn't quite what this
Speaker 1: is about, but we'll let them have it. And again
Speaker 1: Innocence of third tells them in no uncertain terms not
Speaker 1: to do this, but of course they do. For having
Speaker 1: your own crusade. This is really not going according to plan.
Speaker 1: For Innocent nobody's listening to him. So the Crusaders and
Speaker 1: Alexius the Fifth Men fight, and the Greeks put up
Speaker 1: a really good fight. This time Alexius flees, though, and
Speaker 1: the fight still isn't over. This is in April twelve
Speaker 1: o four. Finally, the Crusaders lay siege to the city
Speaker 1: of Constantinople, and in three days it's over. So the
Speaker 1: city that is not fallen in nine years it only
Speaker 1: takes three days to fall. The crusade waters sacked the city, completely,
Speaker 1: burned down parts of it, steal every piece of art
Speaker 1: they can find, every religious relic, the patriarchal library is burned,
Speaker 1: and precious religious icons in the Hockey Sophia destroyed. But
Speaker 1: beyond the looting, the sacking of Constantinople is so notorious
Speaker 1: because it wasn't just about the theft and the violence.
Speaker 1: There was plenty of rapes and murders, but the atmosphere
Speaker 1: was more like a big drunken party. It was jovial,
Speaker 1: it was celebratory. They put a prostitute on the patriarch's
Speaker 1: throne and the hockey Sophia and let her sing. They
Speaker 1: get drunk, drinking out of chalices. This is the defilement
Speaker 1: of all that the people in Constantinople held sacred. So
Speaker 1: the Venetians claim their share of the loot, which is
Speaker 1: most of it, as part of their payment. Have they
Speaker 1: even fulfilled the debt entirely? Yet? I think they also
Speaker 1: got some islands. How the Venetians come out okay, I guess.
Speaker 1: So this is why you can still find Byzantine, aren't there.
Speaker 1: It's it's part of that payment for all of these
Speaker 1: ships and the men and the supplies. By the way,
Speaker 1: a lot of our knowledge about the sacking of Constantinople
Speaker 1: comes from a firsthand account from Nikita's kniatis. So that's
Speaker 1: why some of these details about the prostitute singing from
Speaker 1: the throne are so vivid and so out of this world.
Speaker 1: So we started with this religious mission to quote unquote
Speaker 1: save Jerusalem and we end with a prostitute on the
Speaker 1: patriarchs throne in Constantinople. How did we get here? And
Speaker 1: what's going to happen? While the aftermath is that the
Speaker 1: people of the Byzantine Empire have seen what the Latins
Speaker 1: can do and they would rather take their chances with
Speaker 1: the Turks. The divide between what will be the Eastern
Speaker 1: Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches is now permanent. This is
Speaker 1: known as the Great Sism or the East West Sism,
Speaker 1: and it's still that way today. The sacking of Constantinople
Speaker 1: also marks the beginning of the end of the Byzantine Empire.
Speaker 1: It's this sophisticated, wealthy, culturally rich city and it's never
Speaker 1: quite the same again. It suffered a very serious blow, yeah,
Speaker 1: and it would be taken again, finally falling to the
Speaker 1: Turks in fourteen fifty three. So this crusade that begins
Speaker 1: to save the Holy Land ends with Islam winning the
Speaker 1: day in the East. Ironically, despite the complete and total
Speaker 1: failure of this crusade, no one seemed to learn from it,
Speaker 1: because these missions to save the Holy Land went on
Speaker 1: for centuries, and it reminded me a lot of when
Speaker 1: we were talking about the Reformation, and specifically the wars
Speaker 1: between the Catholics and the Huguenots, which seemed to be
Speaker 1: never ending. But compared to this, it's barely a drop
Speaker 1: in the bucket. I mean, these go on for centuries.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. And of course, while we're not still sailing
Speaker 1: with ships with our red crosses on our chests, religious
Speaker 1: war are still going on today. Speaking of France and
Speaker 1: its religious wars, that brings us to our listener mail.
Speaker 1: Of course, the ultimate result of those religious wars is
Speaker 1: the rise of the Bourbon family, and our email today
Speaker 1: is from Sam Sunnite, who requests a podcast on the
Speaker 1: fabulous life of Madame du Pompadoor. But he also includes
Speaker 1: a little tidbit on our podcast on who would have
Speaker 1: been the Nazi King and Wallace Simpson and the radication crisis.
Speaker 1: He says, I was remembering a picture of the Duke
Speaker 1: and Duchess with my grandmother. She was a journalist for
Speaker 1: the Boston Globe, but later had to leave because she
Speaker 1: met my grandfather there and relationships were not allowed in
Speaker 1: the workplace. Sorry, madman fans that didn't work out with
Speaker 1: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. My grandparents met the socialites,
Speaker 1: movie stars, sports players and entertainers of the day, from
Speaker 1: Katherine Hepburn to Judy Garland and JFK to Georgia O'Keefe,
Speaker 1: who my grandfather. I said, it was horribly stuck up
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Speaker 1: We're just reading a letter. He also said, I was
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