The Fourth Crusade

In the early 13^th century Pope Innocent III called for a new crusade to retake the Holy Land from the Saracens. A powerful European army was assembled and foregathered at Venice, which had been commissioned to carry the troops with its fleet. However, the financial woes besetting the crusaders were to lead the campaign to entirely different goals.

In January 1203, as the crusaders were preparing to depart, Isaac II Angelos, the deposed Emperor of Byzantium, sought military assistance from the commanders to regain the throne, promising them a handsome reward in exchange. The crusaders accepted and Isaac was restored as monarch, but Byzantine inability to meet the demands of the Westerners only served to exacerbate already tense relations. On 13^th April 1204, the enraged crusaders overran Constantinople. The fall of the imperial city sounded the death knell of the Byzantine Empire, the lands of which were shared out among the crusader leaders.