The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople

The Fourth Crusade was a disaster for the unity of Christianity. The rivalry between the Roman Catholic Church (and backed by the various kingdoms) in the West and the Greek Orthodox Church (and backed by the Greek Byzantine Empire) in the East had been simmering for two centuries. A common foe against the Islamist conquest of the Holy Land kept expediency in the forefront for the Latin West and the Greek East until the Fourth Crusade. Instead of liberating Jerusalem, the knights and seamen of the West became embroiled in financial troubles and internal Byzantine politics. By the time the complex double-dealing was done, the Christian West had sacked Constantinople, the capital of the Christian East. Unity was out of the question forever more. Mr. Philips has written an impressive and readable account of the Fourth Crusade for the lay reader. A more academic approach is "The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople" (1997) by Donald Queller and Thomas Madden. Of their 357 pages, over half belongs to a detail and lively narrative of medieval politics and the remaining 150 pages are devoted to an extensive bibliography and readable footnotes. A historical sequel is "The Fall of Constantinople" (1965) by Sir Steven Runciman about the conquest of the city of Constantine in 1453 by the Turks.

Fascinating and concise look at the history of the Fourth Crusade and how it developed into a political fiasco leading to the sacking of Constantinople and one of the lowest points in the history of Crusades and Christianity. This story is a fine example of how the church lost control of the crusade, something that was to happen time and time again during crusade history.

I am not a medievalist in any way, shape, or form. But I decided to give this book a chance and learn about a period of time and event I knew so little about. What I found was an epic story of dramatic purportions. The characters and their motivations seem right out of a fictional drama: The elderly and manipulative Doge of Venice, the brash and ambitious Byzantine pretender, the hypocritical holy men, and the permissive Pope. The author not only provides the historical record, but provides real insight into the thinking of a time so different, and yet so similar, to our own. Replete with modern analogies and references, beyond a mere history book, its a real page-turner.

This is a well-written book that gives some background to the crusading movement in medieval Europe, but its primary focus is on the ill-starred Fourth Crusade. This was a crusade not led by monarchs, but rather like the First Crusade, an undertaking of many nobles of good family. The addition of the Venetian seamen with their needed ships, and an ill-advised agreement about men and money led this holy endeavor to attack, not the occupiers of Jerusalem, but rather the also Christian rulers of the Byzantine Empire. It's a somewhat convoluted tale, but the author tells it extremely well, and at no time does the reader feel that he is lost. This book gives some insight into the schism that exists still today between the Orthodox and Roman churches, and is excellent reading for anyone interested in this fractious history.