_Death of Saladin--Disunion among his Successors--Celestine III. preaches
a new Crusade--Henry of Germany takes the Cross--Abandons his
Purpose--Crusaders proceed without him--Saif Eddin takes the Field, and
captures Jaffa--The Crusaders are reinforced--Defeat Saif Eddin--Lay Siege
to Thoron--Seized with Panic, and retreat--Disperse--Death of Henry of
Champagne, King of Jerusalem--His Widow marries Almeric, King of
Cyprus--Truce--Death of Almeric and Isabella--Mary, Heiress of Jerusalem,
wedded to John of Brienne--Affairs of Europe--Innocent III. and Foulque of
Neuilly promote a Crusade--The Barons of France take the Cross--Proceed to
Venice--Their Difficulties--Turn to the Siege of Zara--A Change of
Purpose--Proceed to Constantinople--Siege and Taking of that
City--Subsequent Proceedings--A Revolution in Constantinople--Alexius
deposed by Murzuphlis--Second Siege and Capture of the Greek
Capital--Flight of Murzuphlis--Plunder and Outrage--Baldwin, Count of
Flanders, elected Emperor._
For some time the Christians of the Holy Land enjoyed an interval of
repose. Saladin was a religious observer of his word; and during the short
space that intervened between the departure of Richard Coeur de Lion and
the death of his great adversary, the Latins received the full benefit of
the treaty which had been executed between those monarchs.
A year had scarcely elapsed ere Saladin was seized with a mortal sickness;
and, finding his end approaching, he commanded the black standard, which
had so often led the way to victory, to be taken down, and replaced by
the shroud which was to wrap his body in the grave. This was then borne
through the streets, while the criers called all men to behold what
Saladin, the mighty conqueror, carried away with him of all his vast
dominion.[725] Saladin died, a monarch in whose character, though the good
was not unmixed with evil, the great qualities so far preponderated, that
they overbalanced the effects of a barbarous epoch and a barbarous
religion, and left in him a splendid exception to most of the vices of his
age, his country, and his creed.
At that period the principle of hereditary succession was not very clearly
ascertained either in Europe or in Asia; and the vast monarchy which
Saladin had been enabled to consolidate was broken in pieces at his death.
Saif Eddin, his brother, took possession of the greater part of Syria, and
strengthened himself by the soldiers of his dead relative, who both loved
and esteemed him. Three of the great monarch's sons seized upon such
portions of their father's dominions as they could reach; and civil
dissensions followed, highly detrimental to the power of the Moslem, and
favourable to the security of the Christians. This, indeed, was the moment
when a crusade was most practicable, and Pope Celestine III. exhorted all
Christendom to snatch the opportunity. In most instances his call fell
upon cold and unwilling ears. Philip Augustus was too deeply engaged in
those vast and magnificent schemes which, however impeded by the
prejudices of the day, rendered his reign a great epoch in the history of
nations.[726] Richard Coeur de Lion had learned the danger of quitting his
own kingdom, and the vanity of hoping for union among ambitious men. Henry
of Germany alone, moved by wild schemes for aggrandizing his territories,
assented at once to the crusade; but finding that Sicily seemed ready to
receive him, he deemed the nearer conquest the more advisable; and on the
same principle he had taken the Cross, he abandoned it again. Not so his
subjects; an immense number of the vassals followed eagerly the road which
he had quitted;[727] and several Teutonic bishops, with the Dukes of
Saxony, Brabant, and Bavaria, set out from Germany, and reached Acre in
safety.
The Christians of Palestine were at that moment in the enjoyment of
peace,[728] and they beheld the coming of new crusaders with horror and
despair. Had the troops that arrived been sufficient, indeed, to give any
thing like certainty to their enterprise, all the Latins of the Holy Land
would willingly have concurred; but the prospect of new and desolating
wars, waged by scanty forces, was, notwithstanding the dissensions of
their enemies, a hopeless and painful anticipation. Nevertheless, the
Germans began their operations at once;[729] and Saif Eddin, with his
whole attention suddenly directed to the Christians, showed, by the
energetic activity of his movements, that the spirit of Saladin survived
in his brother. Jaffa was taken by assault,[730] with a great slaughter of
the Christians, and all promised a speedy destruction to the small remains
of the Latin kingdom. Fresh succours, however, were received from Europe;
the hopes of the Christians revived; and, under the command of the Duke of
Saxony, they marched on towards Beritus. Saif Eddin hastened to meet them,
and attacked the Latin forces near Sidon; but his army was completely
routed by the firm and steady gallantry of the Germans; and the way to
Jerusalem was once more open to the followers of the Cross. But the
crusaders embarrassed themselves with the siege of the castle of Thoron.
The Saracens had time to recover from their panic; civil dissensions were
forgotten; and while the garrison of Thoron held out with persevering
valour, the sultaun of Egypt advanced to join his uncle, and repel the
Christian invasion. Vague rumours of immense preparation on the part of
the infidels reached the besieging army. The crusaders were, as usual,
disunited among themselves; the Saracens within the castle were fighting
with the coinage of despair; and, at last, a sudden panic seized the
leaders of the German army.[731] They abandoned the camp in the night,
and, flying to Tyre, left their soldiers to follow as they could.[732] A
complete separation ensued between the Germans and the Latins, each
accusing the other of treachery; while the Syrian Christians remained at
Tyre, the Teutonic crusaders proceeded to Jaffa. Thither Saif Eddin
pursued them; and another battle was fought, in which the Germans were
once more victorious, though victory cost them the lives of many of their
princes. Almost at the same time news reached their camp of the death of
the emperor Henry. From that moment, none of the German nobles remembered
aught but the election of a new emperor; and as soon as vessels could be
procured, the principal barons set off for Europe. They left behind them
in Jaffa about twenty thousand of the inferior soldiers, and a few
knights; but the town was surprised by the Saracens on the night of the
following festival of St. Martin; and the Germans, plunged in revelry and
drunkenness,[733] were slaughtered to a man.
Such was the end of the German crusade in Palestine; and before proceeding
to speak once more of the affairs of Europe, it may be as well to touch
upon the brief and uninteresting series of events that followed in that
country. Henry, Count of Champagne, who had married Isabella, the heiress
of Jerusalem, had proved but an indolent monarch; and in the year 1197, at
the precise moment when the Saracens had newly captured Jaffa, he was
killed by falling from a window. His loss was attended by no evil
consequences;[734] for the Saracens were soon involved once more in civil
dissensions by the death of Saladin's second son, Malek el Aziz, sultaun
of Egypt, and the truce with the Christians was willingly renewed.
Isabella, the queen, whose grief was not even so stable as that of the
dame of Ephesus, was easily prevailed on, by the Grand Master of the order
of St. John,[735] to give her thrice-widowed hand to Almeric of Lusignan,
now--by the cession of Richard of England--King of Cyprus. This marriage
was certainly a politic one, as Cyprus afforded both a storehouse and a
granary to Palestine; but the peace with the Saracens remained unbroken
till the bigoted Simon de Montfort, detaching himself from another body of
knights,[736] which I shall mention hereafter, arrived at Acre, and made
some feeble and ineffectual incursions on the Mussulman territory. After
his fruitless attempts, the truce was once more established, and lasted
till the death of Almeric and Isabella, when the crowns of Jerusalem and
Cyprus were again separated. The imaginary sovereignty of the Holy City
now became vested in Mary,[737] the daughter of Isabella, by Conrad of
Tyre, while the kingdom of Cyprus descended to the heirs of Lusignan.
According to feudal custom it was necessary to find a husband for Mary who
could defend her right, and on every account it was determined to seek one
in Europe. The choice was left to Philip Augustus; and he immediately
fixed upon Jean de Brienne, a noble, talented, and chivalrous knight, who
willingly accepted the hand of the lady of Palestine, and that thorny
crown which was held out to him from afar.
The news of his coming, and the prospect of large European reinforcements
to the Christians,[738] depressed the mind of Saif Eddin, who had already
to struggle with vast and increasing difficulties. He tendered the most
advantageous terms of peace; but at that time the two great military
orders may be said to have governed Palestine.[739] They were then, as
usual, contending with jealous rivalry;[740] and the Templars, having for
the moment the superiority, the offers of the sultaun were refused,
because the Hospitallers counselled their acceptance. Jean de Brienne
arrived, and wedded Mary, but the succour that he brought was very far
inferior to that which the Latins had anticipated, and the war which had
begun was confined to predatory excursions on the territory of the
enemy.[741]
I must now retrograde in my history for some years, and speak of the
affairs of Europe. No crusade, as we have seen, had been desired by the
Christians of Palestine[742] since they had enjoyed the comforts of peace,
and no crusade had reached that country; but, nevertheless, one of the
most powerful expeditions which Europe had ever brought into the field had
set out for the purpose of delivering Jerusalem.[743]
This crusade was, in the first place, instigated by the preaching of a man
less mighty than St. Bernard in oratory,[744] and less moved by enthusiasm
than Peter the Hermit; but it was encouraged by one of the most talented
and most ambitious of the prelates of Rome. Foulque of Neuilly would have
produced little effect, had he not been supported by Innocent III.; and
the influence of neither the one nor the other would possibly have
obtained the object desired, had not the young and enterprising Thibalt,
Count of Champagne, embraced the badge of the Cross with his court and
followers, at a grand tournament[745] to which he had invited all the
neighbouring princes. In the midst of their festivities, Foulque appeared,
and called the whole assembly to the crusade. Partly, it is probable, from
the love of adventure, partly from religious feeling, Thibalt, in his
twenty-second year, assumed the Cross. The Count of Blois, who was
present, followed his example; and of eighteen hundred knights who held
vassalage under the lord of Champagne, scarcely enough were left to
maintain the territories of their sovereign. Nothing, except fear, is so
contagious as enthusiasm: the spirit of crusading was revived in a
wonderfully short time. The Count of Flanders, with various other persons,
took the Cross at Bruges, and many more knights joined them from different
parts of France, among whom was Simon de Montfort, who afterward proved
the detestable persecutor of the Albigeois.
After holding two general conferences at Soissons and at Compiegne, it was
determined to send messengers to Italy for the purpose of contracting with
one of the great merchant states to convey the armament to the Holy
Land.[746] The choice of the city was left to the deputies; and they
proceeded first to Venice, furnished with full powers from the crusading
princes to conclude a treaty in their name. Venice was at that time
governed by the famous Henry Dandolo, who, with the consent of the Senate,
agreed not only to carry the crusaders to Palestine for a certain sum, but
also promised to take the Cross himself and aid in their enterprise.[747]
Well satisfied with this arrangement, the deputed barons returned to
France, but found the Count of Champagne sick of a disease which soon
produced his death. After having been refused by Eudes, Duke of Burgundy,
and Thibalt, Count of Bar, the office of commander of the expedition was
offered to Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, and accepted. The new chief of
the crusade repaired to Soissons, to confer with the rest of the knights,
and then proceeded to Italy to prepare for his departure. All these delays
retarded their departure till the year 1202, when they set out in several
bodies for Venice, and arrived safely at that city with very little
difficulty.[748]
Innocent III. had made infinite efforts in favour of the crusade: and,
with the daring confidence of genius, had even taxed the unwilling clergy,
while he merely recommended charitable subscriptions among the laity.
Under such circumstances it will be easily conceived that the voluntary
donations amounted to an equal sum with the forced contributions; but what
became of the whole is very difficult to determine. Certain it is, that
when the crusaders arrived at Venice, not half the money could be raised
among them which they had agreed to pay for the use of the republic's
transports,[749] although the chiefs melted down their plate to supply
those who had not the means to defray their passage.
This poverty was attributed to the fact of various large bodies having,
either by mistake or perversity, taken the way to the Holy Land[750] by
other ports, and carried with them a large part of the stipulated sum; but
it does not appear that the Pope, into whose hands flowed the full tide of
European alms, made any effort to relieve the crusaders from their
difficulties. In this distress the Venetians offered to compromise their
claim, and to convey the French to Palestine, on condition that they
should aid in the recapture of the city of Zara, in Sclavonia, which had
been snatched from the republic some time before by the King of
Hungary.[751] With this stipulation, Dandolo, though aged and stone blind,
agreed to take the Cross; and so deeply affected were the knights, both
with his forbearance and gallant enthusiasm, that the iron warriors of
Europe were melted to tears by the old man's noble daring.
The news of this undertaking having reached Rome, the most vehement
opposition was raised to any change of destination; and Innocent[752]
launched the thunders of the church at the refractory crusaders. Many of
the chiefs--terrified by the excommunication pronounced against those who
should quit the direct road to the Holy Land, to attack the possessions of
a Christian prince--remained in Italy;[753] but the greater part made
every preparation to second the Venetians against Zara.
Before their departure, the crusaders received envoys, the event of whose
solicitations afterward gave a new character to their expedition. At the
death of Manuel Comnenus, emperor of the east, Andronicus, his brother,
seized upon the throne and murdered his nephew, Alexius II., who had
succeeded. Either urged by indignation or ambition, Isaac Angelus, a
distant relation of the slaughtered prince, took arms against the usurper,
overthrew and put him to death; after which he in turn ascended the throne
of Constantinople.[754] His reign was not long; for, at the end of two
years, a brother, named Alexius, whom he had redeemed from Turkish
captivity, snatched the crown from his head, and, to incapacitate him from
ruling, put out his eyes.
His son, named also Alexius, made his escape from prison, and fled to
Italy, where he endeavoured to interest the Pope in his favour. But the
church of Rome entertained small affection for the schismatic Greeks; and
though Innocent wrote an impotent letter[755] to the usurper, he showed
no real favour to the unhappy prince. The young exile then turned to
Philip of Suabia (then Emperor of Germany), who had married his sister
Irene; and at the same time hearing of the crusade, which was delayed at
Venice,[756] he sent deputies from Verona to the chiefs, to solicit their
aid against his treacherous uncle. The barons of France met his prayers
with kindness; and the envoys were accompanied, on their return to the
court of Philip of Suabia,[757] by a party of the crusaders, who were
instructed to receive any proposition which Alexius might think fit to
make.
In the mean while, the knights embarked on board the Venetian galleys,
round the decks of which they ranged their shields, and planted their
banners; and having been joined by Conrad, Bishop of Halberstadt, with a
large body of German soldiers, a finer armament never sailed from any
port.[758]
The chain which protected the harbour of Zara was soon broken through; the
crusaders landed, pitched their tents,[759] and invested the city on all
sides. The besiegers, as usual, were much divided among themselves; and
those who had unwillingly followed the host to Zara, against the commands
of the Pope,[760] still kept up a continual schism in the camp, which
produced fatal consequences to the people of the city. The morning after
the disembarkation, a deputation of citizens came forth to treat with
Dandolo for the capitulation of the town. The Doge replied that he could
enter into no engagement without consulting his allies, and went for that
purpose to the tents of the French chiefs. During his absence, those who
opposed the siege persuaded the deputies from Zara that the
crusaders[761] would not assist the Venetians in an assault. With this
assurance the Doge's reply was not waited for; the envoys returned, and
the city prepared for defence. At the same time, the Abbot of Vaux Cernay
presented himself to the assembled barons, and commanded them, in the name
of the Pope, to refrain from warring against Christians while engaged
under the banners of the Cross. On this the Doge angrily remonstrated; the
greater part of the knights embraced his cause; and Zara, after being
furiously attacked, surrendered at discretion.
The town was now occupied during the winter by the army of the crusade;
and the chiefs of the French forces sent a deputation to Rome to obtain
pardon for their disobedience. This was easily granted; but the Venetians,
who seemed to care little about excommunication, remained under the papal
censure. Notwithstanding the forgiveness they had obtained, many of the
most celebrated knights quitted Zara,[762] and made their way to the Holy
Land. Such desertions took place especially after the return of the
deputies sent to Philip of Suabia; and it was difficult to keep the
army[763] together, when it became known that its destination was likely
to be changed from Acre to Constantinople.
Alexius, however, offered, in case of his being re-established in his
father's dominions,[764] to place the Greek church under the authority of
the Roman pontiff, to turn the whole force of the eastern empire against
the infidels of Palestine, and either to send thither ten thousand men,
and there maintain five hundred knights during his life, or to lead his
forces towards Jerusalem in person. Besides this he promised to pay two
hundred thousand marks of silver[765] to the crusading army, and to place
himself in the hands of the chiefs till the city of Constantinople was
retaken.
These offers were so advantageous that the greater part of the barons
embraced them at once: but many exclaimed loudly against the proposed
interruption of the main purpose of the crusade, and many abandoned the
host altogether.
Alexius the usurper trembled at the news of the treaty between his nephew
and the crusaders, and sent instant ambassadors to Rome,[766] in order to
engage the pontiff in his interest. Such of the chiefs as were opposed to
the measure talked loudly of the papal injunction to refrain from all wars
with the Christians;[767] but it does not appear that Innocent exerted
himself strenuously to turn the Latins from their design. It was far too
much his desire to bring the Greek church under the domination of the
Roman see, for him to dream of thwarting an enterprise backed with the
solemn conditions I have mentioned; and it was not at all likely that the
clearsighted prelate should renounce absolute engagements, as Mills has
supposed,[768] for the vague hope of wringing the same from a treacherous
usurper.
At length, after the Venetians had demolished Zara,[769] to prevent its
falling again into the hands of their enemies, the expedition, having been
joined by the prince Alexius, set sail, and at the end of a short and easy
passage came within sight of Constantinople.[770]
The allies were instantly met by ambassadors from the Emperor, who,
mingling promises with threats, endeavoured to drive them again from the
shore, but in vain. The crusaders demanded the restoration of Isaac, and
submission from the usurper, and prepared to force their landing; but
before they commenced hostilities, they approached the walls of
Constantinople, and sailed underneath them, showing the young Alexius to
the Greek people, and calling to them to acknowledge their prince. No
sympathy was excited, and the attack being determined on, the chiefs held
a council on horseback, according to the custom of the ancient Gauls, when
the order of their proceedings was regulated. The army was portioned into
seven divisions, the first of which was commanded by the Count of
Flanders, and the last by the Marquis of Montferrat. Having procured a
number of flat-bottomed boats, one of which was attached to every galley,
the knights entered with their horses, armed at all points, and looking,
as Nicetas says, like statues of bronze.[771] The archers filled the
larger vessels, and it was the general understanding that each should
fight as he came up.
"The morning was beautiful,"[772] writes the old Mareschal of Champagne,
"the sun beginning to rise, and the Emperor Alexius waited for them with
thick battalions and a great armament. On both sides the trumpets were
sounded, and each galley led on a boat. The knights sprang out of the
barks, while the water was yet to their girdle,[773] with their helmets
laced and their swords in their hands; and the good archers, the
sergeants, and the crossbowmen did the same wherever they happened to
touch. The Greeks, at first, made great show of resistance, but when they
saw the lances levelled they turned their backs and fled."
The tents and camp equipage of the fugitives fell immediately into the
hands of the crusaders; and siege was laid to the tower of Galata, which
guarded one end of the great chain wherewith the mouth of the harbour was
closed. Before night the Greeks had recovered from their panic, and some
severe fighting took place ere the fort could be taken and the barrier
removed; but at length this being accomplished, the Venetians entered the
port. After ten days of continual skirmishing, a general attack was
determined upon; and it was agreed that the Venetians[774] should assail
the city by sea, while the French attempted to storm the walls by land.
The enterprise began on the land side against the barbican; but so
vigorously was every inch of ground disputed by the Pisans, the English
and Danish mercenaries who guarded the fortifications, that though fifteen
French knights obtained a footing for some time on the ramparts, they were
at length cast out, while four of their number were taken.
In the mean while, the fleet of the Venetians advanced to the walls; and
after a severe fight of missiles between the defenders and the smaller
vessels which commenced the assault, the galleys themselves approached the
land; and, provided with high towers of wood, began to wage a nearer
warfare with those upon the battlements. Still the besieged[775] resisted
with extraordinary valour, and the galleys were beaten off; when the blind
chief of the republic, armed at all points, commanded, with tremendous
threats in case of disobedience, that his vessel should be run on
shore;[776] and then, borne out with the standard of St. Mark before him,
he led the way to victory. Shame spread through the rest of the fleet;
galley after galley was brought up close under the walls, and all the
principal towers round the port were in a moment stormed and taken.
Alexius made one great effort to recover the twenty-five towers which the
Venetians had captured; but, with remorseless resolution, Dandolo set fire
to the neighbouring buildings, and thus raised up a fiery bulwark to his
conquest.[777]
As a last resource, the Emperor now issued forth to give battle to the
French: and so infinite was the superiority of his numbers, that the
hearts of the pilgrims almost failed them. The gallant Doge of Venice no
sooner heard of their danger, than, abandoning the ramparts he had so
nobly won, he brought his whole force[778] to the aid of the French,
declaring that he would live or die with his allies. Even after his
arrival, however, the disparity was so great, that the crusaders dared not
quit their close array to begin the fight, and the troops of Alexius
hesitated to attack those hardy warriors whose prowess they had often
witnessed. The courage of the Latins gradually increased by the indecision
of their enemy, while the fears of the Greeks spread and magnified by
delay and at length Alexius abandoned the last hope of courage, and
retreated into the city. The weary crusaders hastened to disarm and repose
themselves, after a day of immense fatigues; but Alexius, having no
confidence either in his own resolution, or in the steadiness of his
soldiery, seized what treasure he could carry, and abandoned
Constantinople to its fate.[779] The coward Greeks, deserted by their
chief, drew forth the miserable Isaac from his prison; and having robed
the blind monarch in the long-lost purple, they seated him on the throne,
and sent to tell the Franks that their object was accomplished. The
crusaders would hardly believe the tidings, but despatched four of their
body to ascertain the truth. The envoys found Isaac enthroned in the
palace of Blachernæ,[780] and surrounded by as large and splendid a court
as if fortune had never ceased to smile upon him.
They now represented to the restored Emperor the conditions of their
treaty with his son; and Isaac, after some slight hesitation, accepted
them as his own. He also agreed to associate the young Alexius in the
throne; but as all these hard terms, especially that which implied the
subjection of the Greek church to the Roman prelate, deeply offended his
subtle and revengeful subjects, he prayed the crusaders to delay their
departure till complete order was re-established.[781] This was easily
acceded to; and the Franks and Venetians, during their stay, wrote to
Innocent III., excusing their having again turned from the road to
Jerusalem.[782] The Pope willingly pardoned both; but intimated, that to
make that pardon efficacious, they must be responsible that the schism in
the church should be healed by the submission of the Greeks to the see of
Rome.
At first, the harmony between the Franks and the Greeks appeared to be
great. The young Alexius paid several portions of the money which had been
stipulated;[783] and while the presence of the Latin army kept the capital
in awe, he proceeded to reduce the provinces to obedience. When this was
completed, however, and the tranquillity of the empire seemed perfectly
restored, his conduct changed towards his benefactors. A fire which broke
out in the city[784] was attributed to the French, who were at the very
moment engaged in serious dispute with a party of Greeks, exasperated by
an insult to their religion. The very domineering presence of the
crusaders was a continual and irritating reproach, and the Greeks began
to testify no small hatred towards their armed guests. Alexius himself,
ungrateful in his own nature, contending with his father about their
divided sovereignty, and hesitating between the people he was called to
govern and those who upheld him in the government, refused or evaded the
fulfilment of many of the items in his treaty with the Latins. The chiefs
soon found that they were deceived, and formally summoned the young
monarch to accomplish his promises. The messengers who bore the haughty
demand to a despotic court hardly escaped with their lives; and the same
desultory warfare which had been waged by the emperors against each body
of crusaders that had passed by Constantinople was now commenced against
the Count of Flanders and his companions.[785] A thousand encounters took
place, in which the Franks were always victorious; and though the Greeks
directed a number of vessels, charged with their terrific fire, against
the Venetian fleet, the daring courage and conduct of the sailors freed
them from the danger, and only one Pisan galley was consumed.
In the mean while the Greeks of the city, hating and despising a monarch
who had seated himself among them by the swords of strangers, and who had
drained their purses to pay the troops that held them down;[786] seeing,
also, that his ingratitude, even to his allies, had left him without the
support by which alone he stood, suddenly rose upon Alexius, and cast him
into prison. Isaac himself died, it is said, of fear; and the Greeks at
first elected a nobleman of a different family, named Nicholas Canabus;
but he was mild and weak, a character which little suited the times or
country in which he assumed so high a station. A rival, too, existed in a
man who had shown unremitting enmity to the Latins, and after a short
struggle, Alexius Ducas, a cousin of the late monarch, a bold,
unscrupulous villain,[787] was proclaimed emperor. Among his first
acts--though at what exact period remains in doubt[788]--the new Alexius,
who was more commonly called Murzuphlis, caused the preceding Alexius to
be put to death. The manner of his fate is uncertain: but the usurper had
the cunning impudence to yield his victim's body a public funeral.
War was now determined between the crusaders and Murzuphlis, and the
attack of the city was resolved; but previous to that attempt, the
crusaders, who were in great want of provisions, despatched Henry, brother
of the Count of Flanders, with a considerable force to Philippopoli, in
order to take possession of the rich magazines which it contained.
Returning loaded with spoil, he was attacked by Murzuphlis; but the Greeks
scattered like deer before the Latins,[789] and Henry rejoined his
companions not only rich in booty, but in glory also. Negotiations were
more than once entered into, for the purpose of conciliating the
differences of the Greeks and the Latins; but all proved ineffectual; and
early in the spring the armies of France and Venice prepared for the
attack. The first step was, as usual, a treaty between the allies to
apportion the fruits of success. By this it was determined that the whole
booty should be divided equally between the French and Venetians;[790]
that six persons from each nation should be chosen to elect an emperor;
that the Venetians should retain all the privileges they had hitherto
enjoyed under the monarchs of Constantinople; and that, from whichever of
the two nations the emperor was selected, a patriarch should be named
from the other. There were various other conditions added, the principal
of which were, that one-fourth of the whole conquest should be given to
the new emperor, besides the palaces of Bucoleon and Blachernæ, while the
rest was divided among the French and Venetians; and that twelve persons
should be selected from each nation, to determine the feudal laws by which
the land was to be governed, and to allot the territory in feoffs among
the conquerors.
On the 8th of April, 1204, the whole army, having embarked on board the
ships,[791] as had been previously concerted, attacked the city by water.
The vessels approached close to the walls, and a tremendous fight began
between the assailants and the besieged: but no hope smiled on the Franks;
they were repelled in every direction; and those who had landed,[792] were
forced to regain their vessels with precipitancy, approaching to flight.
The Greeks rejoiced in novel victory, and the Franks mourned in unwonted
defeat. Four days were spent in consultations regarding a further attempt;
and the chiefs, judging that no one vessel contained a sufficient number
of troops to effect a successful assault on any particular spot,[793] it
was resolved to lash the ships two and two together, and thus to
concentrate a greater force on each point of attack. On the fourth day the
storm was recommenced, and at first the fortune of battle seemed still in
favour of the Greeks; but at length, a wind springing up, drove the sea
more fully into the port, and brought the galleys closer to the
walls.[794] Two of those lashed together, called the Pilgrim and the
Paradise, now touched one of the towers, and, from the large wooden turret
with which the mast was crowned, a Venetian and a French knight named
Andrew d'Arboise sprang upon the ramparts of the city.[795]
The crusaders rushed on in multitudes; and such terror seized the Greeks,
that the eyes of Nicetas magnified the first knight who leaped on the
walls to the unusual altitude of fifty feet.[796] One Latin drove before
him a hundred Greeks;[797] the defence of the gates was abandoned; the
doors were forced in with blows of axes; and the knights, leading their
horses from the ships, rode in, and took complete possession of the city.
Murzuphlis once, and only once, attempted to rally his troops before the
camp he had formed, in one of the open spaces of the town. But the sight
of the Count of St. Pol, with a small band of followers, was sufficient to
put him to flight; and a German having set fire to a part of the
buildings[798] no further effort was made to oppose the victorious
crusaders. The fire was not extinguished for some time; and the Latin
host, in the midst of the immense population of Constantinople, like a
handful of dust in the midst of the wilderness, took possession of the
purple tents of Murzuphlis, and keeping vigilant guard, passed an anxious
and a fearful night, after all the fatigues and exploits of the day.
Twenty thousand was the utmost extent of the Latin numbers;[799] and
Constantinople contained, within itself, four hundred thousand men capable
of bearing arms. Each house was a citadel, which might have delayed and
repelled the enemy; and each street was a defile, which might have been
defended against a host. But the days of Leonidas were passed; and the
next morning the Latins found that Murzuphlis had fled, and that their
conquest was complete. Plunder and violence of course ensued;[800] but
there was much less actual bloodshed than either the nature of the victory
or the dangerous position of the victors might have occasioned.
Fear is the most cruel of all passions; and perhaps the fact that not two
thousand persons were slain in Constantinople after the storm, is a
greater proof of the courage of the Latins than even the taking of the
city. Many noble and generous actions mingled with the effects of that
cupidity and lust which follow always upon the sack of a great town.
Nicetas mentions a striking example which happened to himself, wherein a
noble Venetian dedicated his whole attention to protect an ancient
benefactor;[801] and a body of Frenchmen, in the midst of the unbounded
licentiousness of such a moment, were moved by a father's agony to save
his daughter from some of their fellows. This is the admission of a
prejudiced and inveterate enemy; and it is but fair to suppose, that many
such instances took place. The great evils that followed the taking of the
eastern capital, originated in the general command to plunder.
Constantinople had accumulated within it the most precious monuments of
ancient art,[802] and these were almost all destroyed by the barbarous
hands of an avaricious soldiery. Naught was spared; the bronzes, which,
valueless as metal, were inestimable as the masterpieces and miracles of
antique genius, were melted down,[803] and struck into miserable coin; the
marble was violated with wanton brutality; all the labour of a Phidias or
a Lysippus was done away in an hour; and that which had been the wonder
and admiration of a world left less to show what former days had been,
than the earth after the deluge.
In this the Latins were certainly _barbarians_; but in other
respects--unless subtilty, deceit, vice, and cowardice can be called
civilization, and courage, frankness, and honour can be considered as
barbarism--the Latins deserved not the opprobrious name by which the
Greeks designated them.
The plunder of the city was enormous. In money[804] a sufficient sum was
collected to distribute twenty marks to each knight, ten to each servant
of arms, and five to each archer. Besides this, a vast quantity of jewels
and valuable merchandise was divided between the French and Venetians; and
the republic, who understood the value of such objects better than the
simple Frankish soldiers, offered to buy the whole spoil from their
comrades, at the rate of four hundred marks for a knight's share, and in
the same proportion to the rest. The booty--with a few individual
instances of concealment,[805] which were strictly punished with death
when discovered--was fairly portioned out; and, after this partition, the
twelve persons selected to choose an emperor proceeded to their
deliberations. They were bound by oath to elect without favour the best
qualified of the nobles; and after a long hesitation, between the Marquis
of Montferrat and the Count of Flanders, they named the latter.[806] In
all probability the determining consideration was, that Baldwin, by his
immediate connexion with France, was more capable of supporting the new
dynasty than the Marquis, whose Italian domains could not afford such
effective aid. To prevent the evil consequences of rivalry, the island of
Crete and the whole of Asiatic Greece were given to Montferrat, who
afterward, with the consent of Baldwin, exchanged them for the Sclavonian
territory. Baldwin was then raised upon a buckler,[807] and carried to the
church of St. Sophia. After a brief space of preparation, he was formally
proclaimed, and crowned as emperor; and, according to old usage, a vase
filled with ashes,[808] and a tuft of lighted wool, were presented to the
new monarch, as a symbol of the transitory nature of life and the vanity
of greatness--emblems too applicable to himself and his dominions; for ere
two years had passed, Baldwin had gone down into the grave; and less than
the ordinary life of one man elapsed before the dynasty that he
established was again overthrown.