Activity: Talk, presentation or media contribution › Invited talk
Description
This paper considers the factors that lay behind the diversion of the Fourth Crusade in January to June 1203. It does not discuss the subsequent capture and sack of Constantinople in April 1204 which is a different issue. It argues that the diversion was neither an intricate plot formulated by Venice nor the entirely unforeseen result of a series of errors or accidents. Instead it was the outcome of a widespread opinion among crusade strategists after 1187 that one way to finance the recapture and retention of Jerusalem was to tap the vast resources of the Byzantine empire. Already, attempts had been made to implement that strategy, notably by the German emperor Henry VI in 1196-7. Pope Innocent III had also attempted to persuade the Byzantine emperor Alexios III to subsidise the forthcoming crusade. The negotiations with the Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos and the subsequent diversion to Constantinople should be seen as the culmination of that process.
Period
22 Oct 2025
Event title
III Jornada de Estudos Bizantinos e Medievo Oriental