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Timeline Main Page Packrat Main Page
Fourth Crusade: 1198 to 1204 and aftermath to 1216 in a nutshell:
French Boniface of Montferrat leads the crusade
Crusaders take Constantinople
Kings of Jerusalem: Henry I, Isabella I, Amalric I, Maria of Montferrat,
John of Brienne, Yolanda
Byzantine Emperors: Alexius III Comnena, Alexius Angelus IV, Alexius V
Murtzouphlos, Theodore Lascaris
The Details:
Originally designed to conquer Jerusalem by taking Egypt first, instead, in 1204, conquered and sacked the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Germans are struggling against papal power, France and England are at war, the Popes had lost power to the Holy Roman Empire.
1198 Aug - Pope Innocent III proclaims the Fourth Crusade, calling everyone to Venice. The Venetians and Greeks have become enemies.
1199 Apr 6 - Richard was killed in a mere skirmish battling for the castle of Châlus-Charbrol in Limousin, France on March 26. Richard had removed some of his chainmail was wounded in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt launched from a tower by Basile, whom Richard forgave, but after his death was flayed alive then hung by Mercadier, a French warrior devoted to Richard.
1199 - Thibaut IV de Blois was elected leader of the Crusade.
1200 - Muslims have managed to greatly decrease Buddaism in northern India, and it eventually is completely wiped out from its land of origin.
1201 - Thibaud dies, replaced by Boniface of Montferrat, a perfect choice. His brothers were William who married Sybilla, the father of Baldwin V, King of Jerusalem, Conrad who saved Tyre in 1187 and Renier, had married a daughter of Manuel Comnenus. A close friend was the Duke of Swabia, married to Irene, ister of a previous Constatinople Emperor.
1201 - Six representative of French lords meet the heads of Venice, who agrees to offer 50 ships for their 4,500 knights and their horses, 9,000 squires, and 20,000 foot soldiers in exchange for an equal partnership in Egyptian booty.
1201 - Bohemond III dies, Tripoli joins Antioch.
1201 - Crusaders gather at Soissons, then south to Cîteaux in September, where they were joined by a large number of Burgundians. They moved on to Italy, in separate parties, drifting in to Venice. The numbers were short as well as their payments to the Venetians, who come up with a new deal. Take back their Zara on the Dalmation coast from the King of Hungary and you get to ride. The Crusaders have no choice, being broke and no place to go.
1202/3 Apr - Alexius Angelus IV, son of Issac, offers the Crusaders 200,000 marks (plus men, arms, expenses and ships) and the unification with Byzantine if they capture Costantinople for him. His uncle, Alexius III currently rules Constantinople. They opt for Zara then Constantinople.
1202 Nov 10 - Crusaders land at Zara, take the Christian city although not everyone participated, and spend the winter there. The Pope forbids them to head to Constantinople, but since they were automatically excommunicated for Zara, they had nothing to lose.
1203 Apr - Crusaders set sail for Constantinople, arriving June 24. A short exchange with Alexius III leads no where.
1203 July 17- Constantinople falls to Crusaders and Venetians, Issac is freed and rules with his son Alexius IV (a condition of the Crusaders, he was crowned in Aug 1), while Alexius III flees to Mosynopolis, Thrace.
Alexius does not pay the Crusaders. Thomas Morosini of Venice is installed as patriarch of Costantinople, creating friction between Western and Eastern churches.
1204 Jan 27/28 - Alexius Angelus IV, Emperor of Constantinople was desposed by Alexius V Murtzouphlos and strangled Feb 8. Blind co-emperor Issac II Angelus was killed immediately after. Alexius V takes the throne Feb 5 for a year.
1204 Apr 9- The unhappy, unpaid Crusaders attack Constantinople after an ally is executed. Pope declares they are not to harm other Christians but is ignored. During Easter week, the Crusaders attack again successfully, creating the Latin Empire of the Byzantines, sacking and raping for three days, trashing the city for years to come. The Pope protests their behaviour but formally reunites Greek and Latin churches. Alexius V flees to Thrace, tries to befriend Alexius III who blinds him, turns him over to the Crusaders who throw him off top of the Pillar of Theodosius as the murderer of Alexius IV. Theodore Lascaris, the son-in-law of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius III Angelus, becomes Emperor of Constantinople until 1222.
This marks the end of the Fourth Crusade. Knights reutrned home with their plunder or stayed behind and granted various fiefs.
1205 - Amalric died of dysentery allegedly brought on by "a surfeit of white mullet" in 1205, just after his son Amalric and just before his wife die. The kingdom of Cyprus passed to Hugh, his son by Eschiva, while the kingdom of Jerusalem passed to Maria, the daughter of Isabella by her previous marriage with Conrad of Montferrat.
1208 Jan - Pierre de Castelnau, a papal legate of France was murdered after starting to convert Cathar Albigensians heretics to orthodox Catholism. This starts a crusade against the Cathars and the Waldenses in southern France by Pope Innocent.
1209 - Teutonic Knights side with Hospitallers and barons in Acre against the Templars and prelates; origin of long-standing opposition between the Templars and Teutonic Knights.
1210 Sept 14 or Oct 3 - John Brienne married Maria, daughter of Isabella and Conrad of Montferrat and assumes the title of King of Jerusalem. Hermann von Salza becomes the grand master of the Teutonic Knights.
1212 - Pope Eugenius authorized a Crusade in Spain against the Moors, granting Alfonso VII of Castile the same indulgence he had given to the French crusaders and urged the Italians, such as Amadeus III of Savoy, to go to the east.
1212 - Maria gives birth to Yolanda (Isabella II) and dies shortly after.
1212 - Saladin's nephew, Al-Mu'azim Issa, ruler of Damascus, continues to rebuild Jerusalem, but tears down many of the buildings in 1219 so that if the Crusaders retook Jerusalem they would not have use of them. This left Jerusalem unwalled and unprotected until Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the city in the 1500's.
1216 - Pope Innocent III dies, Frederick of Hohenstaufen is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Honorius III.
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