Timeline The Sack of Constantinople 1204

The Sack of Constantinople 1204 12

• 1195 – 1203 The Angelos dynasty -- Byzantine weakness exposed The Angelos dynasty (1185-1204) is a catastrophic interlude of misgovernment that makes 1204 possible. Andronikos I's brutal reign (1183-1185) ends when he is lynched by a Constantinople mob. Isaac II Angelos (1185-1195) is overthrown by his own brother Alexios III, who blinds him. Isaac's son Alexios escapes to the West and appeals to the Fourth Crusade for help recovering his throne, offering the union of the churches, 200,000 marks of silver, 10,000 troops for the Crusade and Byzantine submission to Rome. The offer diverts the Crusade from Egypt -- its intended target -- to Constantinople.
• 1201 – 1202 Venice and the Fourth Crusade -- Dandolos diversion Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice (1193-1205), is approximately 85 years old and blind when he negotiates the transport contract for the Fourth Crusade. Venice agrees to transport 33,500 Crusaders to Egypt for 85,000 marks. When only 12,000 Crusaders arrive and cannot pay the full amount, Dandolo proposes an alternative: help Venice retake Zara (a Christian city in Dalmatia, then under Hungarian control) as partial payment. Pope Innocent III forbids the attack on Zara; the Crusaders attack it anyway. The diversion of the Crusade to Zara establishes the pattern of moral compromise that leads to 1204.
• 1202 – 1261 The Sack of Constantinople 1204 The sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade (13 April 1204) is the most consequential act of Christian-on-Christian violence in history and one of the great cultural catastrophes of the Middle Ages. A Crusade launched to recover the Holy Land is diverted -- through Venetian commercial interests, Byzantine dynastic intrigue and sheer opportunism -- to attack the greatest Christian city in the world. The three-day sack destroys centuries of accumulated treasure, burns priceless libraries, and installs a Latin Emperor on the Byzantine throne. Pope Innocent III condemns it; the Orthodox world never forgets it. The Latin Empire lasts 57 years; its consequences last forever.
• 1203 First siege -- Alexios IV restored The Fourth Crusade arrives at Constantinople in June 1203 and mounts a naval assault on the sea walls. The Crusaders' attack is repulsed; a Venetian galley fire-attack on the harbour chain forces its collapse. Alexios III flees with the imperial treasury. The blind Isaac II is restored; his son Alexios IV is crowned co-emperor. The Crusaders camp outside the walls waiting for their promised payment. Alexios IV cannot pay -- he has promised 200,000 marks but the treasury has been looted by Alexios III. The Crusaders' patience runs out; the Byzantine population's patience with Alexios IV runs out simultaneously.
• 1204 Alexios V murders his predecessor -- the final betrayal In January 1204, Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos ('Bushy-eyebrows') overthrows and strangles Alexios IV, imprisons and starves Isaac II (who dies shortly after), and proclaims himself Alexios V. He tries to buy off the Crusaders and, failing that, prepares to defend the city. His appointment is the last Byzantine act before the catastrophe: he is an energetic and capable emperor who simply has no time. The Crusaders, now without any pretext for restraint (their ostensible reason for being at Constantinople -- restoring the legitimate emperor -- has been eliminated by Alexios V himself), vote to attack the city and divide the empire.
• 1204 – 1261 The Greek successor states -- Nicaea, Trebizond, Epirus Three Greek successor states maintain Byzantine tradition in exile after 1204. The Empire of Nicaea (in northwestern Anatolia) is the most powerful: the Laskaris dynasty governs efficiently, rebuilds the army, and is recognised by the Patriarch of Constantinople (who relocates to Nicaea). The Empire of Trebizond (on the Black Sea coast) is wealthy from the Silk Road trade but geographically isolated; it survives until 1461. The Despotate of Epirus (in northwestern Greece) controls much of mainland Greece and threatens to reconquer Constantinople before the Nicaeans do. The three states' rivalry weakens the Greek counter-attack.
• 1204 The assault -- 9 April and 13 April The first assault (9 April 1204) is repulsed. The second assault (13 April) succeeds when Crusader ships lash themselves to the sea wall towers and Crusaders fight their way from ship to tower. A group gets through a blocked gate; the troops inside flee. The city that had withstood Persians, Arabs, Bulgars, Rus and Normans falls in hours. Alexios V flees. Enrico Dandolo -- ancient and blind -- is reportedly the first to jump ashore from his ship. By evening of 13 April, Constantinople is in Crusader hands. The three-day sack begins.
• 1204 The sack -- a cultural catastrophe The three-day sack of Constantinople (13-15 April 1204) destroys a significant portion of the accumulated cultural wealth of a thousand-year civilisation. The imperial palace is looted; the Hippodrome's bronze statues are melted down; the great library (containing unique manuscripts of classical antiquity) is burned; the treasury of Hagia Sophia is stripped; relics from across the Christian world are stolen and distributed to western churches. The horses of San Marco in Venice -- four ancient bronze horses from the Hippodrome -- are among the most visible surviving trophies. Pope Innocent III writes: 'the purity of your deeds has surpassed that of the Saracens.'
• 1204 – 1205 The Latin Empire established Baldwin of Flanders is elected the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople on 16 May 1204. The empire is divided according to the Partitio Romaniae: Venice receives three-eighths of Constantinople and the key maritime positions (Crete, the Cyclades, strategic ports); the Crusaders divide the remaining territories. The Latin Empire is a colonial extraction enterprise that never achieves legitimacy with the Greek population. It is perpetually short of money and men, harassed by the Bulgarian Empire, Greek successor states and Muslim powers simultaneously. Its 57 years are a story of continuous crisis.
• 1205 Battle of Adrianople -- Baldwin captured by Bulgars Emperor Baldwin I is defeated and captured by the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan at the Battle of Adrianople (14 April 1205) -- less than a year after the Latin Empire's establishment. Baldwin dies in Bulgarian captivity (probably murdered). The defeat demonstrates the Latin Empire's fundamental weakness: it controls Constantinople and some coastal territory but cannot project power into the Balkan interior. The Bulgarian and Greek threats prevent consolidation. The Latin Empire's tenure is a demonstration that military conquest is insufficient to maintain an empire without legitimacy, administrative capacity and local support.
• 1261 Legacy -- the sack that broke Byzantium The Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople is the decisive event in Byzantine decline. The 57-year Latin occupation disrupts the thematic administrative system, allows the Anatolian frontier to collapse, creates a permanent Venetian commercial empire within Byzantine territory and generates a mutual hostility between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity that poisons relations to the present day. The reconquered empire of 1261 never recovers its former strength. Michael VIII's Palaiologan dynasty rules for 192 more years -- years of cultural brilliance and political catastrophe. The path from 1204 to 1453 is a straight line.
• 1261 Michael VIII reconquers Constantinople On 25 July 1261, the commander Alexios Strategopoulos reconnoitres Constantinople's defences and discovers the garrison is away on a military expedition. He sends a small force through an unguarded gate. The city falls without a battle. Michael VIII Palaiologos enters in triumph, walking barefoot to Hagia Sophia. He has the eyes of the last Latin Patriarch gouged out. The Orthodox liturgy is restored for the first time in 57 years. Michael is crowned emperor. The restoration is greeted with enormous joy -- but the empire he inherits is a fragment of its former self, with most of the Anatolian interior in Turkish hands.