The Fourth Crusade: Act II
The Empire Strikes Back: No Really, Multiple Times in Fact
You’ve come back.
How… intriguing.
Last we spoke, we left our Crusaders in Venice, nestled into the den of a nearly blind viper.
Today we are to embark on a journey to a land of silks and secrets. To a time where the title Emperor became short lived:
The Byzantine Empire.
However, before we begin, if you have somehow skipped forward, you can catch up by reading the previous article…
The Butcher of Byzantium
Isaac II Angelus was familiar with deposition- why only ten years prior he had been a part of the downfall of Andronicus I Comnenus1.
So perhaps it was poetic that he would lose his throne the same way he had taken it.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Flip the pages of time back and meet me in Constantinople in the year 1182. An army is marching through the gates, flying the banner of the new soon to be Emperor, Andronicus.
You see the ever popular, and so-called divine Emperor, Manuel I Comnenus, had died three years prior and left the throne to his eleven-year-old son. If you have ever spent any meaningful amount of time with an eleven-year-old, you know that they are barely fit to rule a bedroom, let alone an empire.
Thus, his mother, Maria of Antioch, took the reins and ordered the horses forward. Perhaps the child would have been a better option, for she was unpopular and was about to be imprisoned and executed2.
Andronicus had been the cousin to Manuel, though the two did not have the warmest of relationships since the former was exiled during Manuel’s reign. Andronicus returned in a fit of blood, blades, and lies; entering the city under the false pretense that he was there to protect the young emperor Alexius II.
His first action was, naturally, massacre.
We spoke in the last act about the rising tensions of the Venetians and Byzantines. The massacre that took place in the city, targeting Westerners (Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese), did not ease the rising upset in Venice nor the hatred brewing inside Constantinople’s very gates.
Forcing Alexius to sign off on his own mother’s death, Andronicus then had the young emperor strangled with a bowstring3.
Andronicus’ reign was one that would end in the same way he too had taken the throne.
You know what they say, Karma's a bitch.
His end would come to him in the form of a massive mob in 1185. Niketas Choniates speaks of his death in O City Byzantium4,
“Some struck him on the head with clubs, others befouled his nostrils with cow-dung, and still others, using sponges, poured excretions from the bellies of oxen and men over his eyes. Some, using foul language, reviled his mother and all his forebears. There were those who pierced his ribs with spits. The more shameless among them pelted him with stones and called him a rabid dog. A certain incontinent prostitute, grabbed an earthenware pot filled with hot water and emptied it over his face. There was no one who did not inflict some injury on Andronikos.”
His remains would lay uncovered on the streets for years to come.
Blinded by Misplaced Trust
Isaac II Angelus was proclaimed emperor by the very same mob which had deposed his cousin, he was around thirty-nine years old at the time.
His rule was defined by high taxes, victory over the Serbians, and misplaced trust.
While his throne was opulent, it was also a symbol for how easily one could fall, and fall he did.
You see, Isaac was blind far before his sight was actually taken from him. While his gaze was trained on Bulgaria, it missed the snake within his own home. His own brother, Alexius III Angelos seized the throne and ordered his brother blinded5 and exiled in the spring of 1195.
Alexius III, the usurper, did not realize that by deposing his brother, or perhaps by not just killing his nephew, he had loaded the gun now pointing at his head.
Promises
Flip those pages forward- let’s say to the year 1201. Ah yes, we are nearly caught up with our crusaders (I promise we will return to them).
Isaac’s son, Alexius IV Angelus (I will refer to him from here on as Prince Alexius to help with clarity), had also been imprisoned in the gilded city. One night, under the cover of darkness and with pockets full of silver, two Pisan merchants smuggled the teenage boy out of the Empire.
Months later the prince reappeared, sauntering (or perhaps crawling) into the court of Phillip of Swabia.
Remember him? In 1201 Phillip was still locked into the bitter power struggle with Otto of Brunswick over the Holy Roman Empire's throne. Phillip had also married Isaacs second daughter, Irene, making him the exiled prince’s brother-in-law.
It was in Phillip’s court that Alexius made his plea for support to win back what was stolen from his father.
Remember that drink I recommended from Act I? Take a generous gulp.
Coincidentally there was another man in Phillip’s court, getting ready to start his journey south- none other than Boniface, the leader of the Crusade.
It was here that the eastern prince wove a tapestry of promises, simmering with silver, blood, and sheer delusion.
Enough silver AND then some to pay off the crusaders towering debts to Venice.
Troops to accompany the Crusaders into the Holy Land
Provisions and supplies for their holy quest.
And the most unrealistic of all…
The reunification of the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic Church- all under the Pope6.
Sit with that for a moment. Alexius, not even twenty years old, promised to mend the schism that had torn Christians apart for nearly one hundred and fifty years.
It was never going to happen.
But the Crusaders didn’t need to know that.
One can only imagine Boniface leaning back in his chair and swirling his glass of wine as Alexius’ promises stack up higher and higher. He runs his hand through his hair, staring at the young exuberant boy half his age twirling tales as if he were a ballerina.
But somehow, a deal was struck. The Crusaders would first go to Constantinople and right the wrongs made by the usurper. Or so they thought.
Next Up…Let’s talk about money, greed, and ships.
Thank you for reading Act II. I have done my very best to make sure the information given is historically accurate, however if you have any notes/corrections, feel free to share.
My goal is to make historical events, people, and places assessable and interesting for those who love history and those who think of it as a chore worse than doing the dishes.
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Okay, you caught me. I am using the Latin/western spelling of the Byzantine names. Sue me (please don’t actually, that was a joke. My lawyer only knows Bird Law).
So next time your parents tell you that popularity isn’t everything, you remind them that people die from unpopularity. And that no one has ever died from not knowing that the Mitochondria is the Powerhouse of the Cell.
Niketas Choniates notes in O City Byzantium “In the night, Stephanos Hagiochristophorites, Constantine Tripsychos, and a certain Theodore Dadibrenos, the commander of the lictors, fell upon Alexios and throttled him with a bowstring [before September 1183]. When the corpse was taken up and brought to Andronikos, he kicked it in the side and mocked the parents of the dead youth as his body lay stretched out, deriding the father as a perjurer and wantonly insulting his weak mother as a well-known harlot; afterwards, one of the corpse’s ears was pierced with a nail, and a wax impression of Andronikos’s signet ring was hung from it by a thread.”
I want you to first, thank me for not just copying and pasting the entire O City Byzantium, because man that guy can WRITE. If I were you, I would check it out just for the great lines and the ability he has to paint the entire bloody and conniving picture of the crusade.
In order to be Emperor, one must be ‘perfect.’ So it was common of the Byzantines to inflict ‘impurities’ on former leaders to prevent them from ruling.
Remember, the great Schism of 1054 divided the two churches.
"those who think of it as a chore worse than doing the dishes." oops that would be me 🙃 I hated history throughout school so it's pretty wild to me that I'm now reading this willingly and actually ENJOYING IT so much!
I am finally getting around to catching up on this! I’m learning so much!