The Flemish Sack of Constantinople
The date was 24 of February of the year 1200. After the end of mass, Baldwin IX[i], Count of Flanders and Hainaut, stood before the congregation in the Saint-Donatian’s church in Bruges, on the exact spot where his predecessor Charles the Good had been slain three quarters of a century before. His wife Maria of Champagne[ii], his brothers Henry and Eustache, and numerous noblemen looked up in tense anticipation. Was it true? Had the Count finally succumbed to the virus that had infected the ranks of the European nobility?
The jubilant Count soon confirmed their suspicions. He had decided to answer Pope Innocentius III’s call and join the fourth crusade. After two years of preparations, he kissed his pregnant wife Maria, as well as his infant daughters Joan and Margaret goodbye and left for Venice, where transport ships and trouble awaited.
The crusaders had made a deal with the Venetians to build a fleet to transport the entire crusaders army in exchange for the hefty sum of 85.000 marks of silver. When Baldwin arrived in June 1202, no more than 13.000 troops had arrived, less than half of the anticipated number. Many crusaders had chosen to sail with their ships. The Venetians, who had provided many more ships then needed, were adamant that the promised sum of 85.000 marks of silver had to be paid. Baldwin, one of the figureheads of the crusade, borrowed money and desperately pawned anything of any value. Even after this, the crusaders were only able to raise a little more than half of the money required[iii].
At this point, Enrico Dandolo, the half-blind but enormously cunning octogenarian doge of Venice, proposed the crusaders a very different means of payment. The Venetians had recently lost the city of Zadar (current-day Croatia) to the Hungarians. If, Dandolo suggested, the crusaders would reconquer Zadar for the Venetians, he would forfeit the crusaders’ debt. Notwithstanding the fact that the Hungarians were Catholics just like them, the crusaders accepted and Zadar was conquered. However, because of the lost time, autumn was approaching, and the crusader army was forced to spend the winter there.
During the winter, a young Byzantine nobleman paid the crusaders a visit, seeking their help. The visitor, Alexios, was the exiled son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II. He had fled the Byzantine empire and was looking for support to win his empire back. In return for their help, he promised the crusaders 200.000 marks and an army of 10.000 warriors to help conquer Jerusalem. Moreover, Alexios would end the schism of Christianity, the ecclesiastic brawl that divided the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic church.
The penniless crusaders, including Baldwin, once again accepted to be diverted from their goal. The Venetians, who were in a fierce competition with the Byzantines for power in the Mediterranean, could not believe their luck. Straying ever further from their original quest, the crusader fleet set sail for the heart of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.
Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire, counted over 400.000 inhabitants and was by far the largest city in the medieval European world. It was ten times larger than the big cities in Northern Europe. Protected on three sides by water and high walls all around, the mighty capital of the Eastern Roman Empire seemed impregnable. Nevertheless, with their ‘flesh trembling, the crusaders prepared for an attack.
The Flemish battalion was the biggest one of the crusader army, composed of ‘a great number of excellent soldiers and archers, more than anyone else in the army’. The Count of Flanders was thus in command of the attack.
The crusaders formed their attack formations on the land side. The Byzantine army, led by emperor Alexios III, decided to encounter the crusader army outside of the city walls. Seeing the enemy troops march towards him, the emperor got cold feet. He mumbled that ‘David [the biblical king] was saved by fleeing’ and decided to follow his glorious example. He fled the battle, and the city, ‘taking with him both his wife and ample funds from the imperial treasury’.
The stunned Byzantines decided it wasn’t worth fighting for a cowardly fleeing emperor, and quickly sent word to the crusaders that they would crown the crusaders’ candidate. The deposed emperor Isaac II was released from his jail, and re-crowned emperor together with his son Alexios, the young man who had convinced the crusaders to sail to Constantinople.
The crusaders celebrated their victory in their camps, but their joy was short-lived. Since the fleeing emperor had taken the treasury, the Byzantines couldn’t pay the mind-boggling reward Alexios had promised. Furthermore, the Orthodox Byzantines refused to subjugate to the Catholic church and end the schism of Christianity. The unrest soon led to a palace coup, during which the young emperor Alexios was strangled.
The news of Alexios’ death infuriated the crusaders in their camps across the Bosporus. The crusaders wanted their revenge on the Byzantines. Catholic clergymen — ignoring letters from the Pope — spurred them on, preaching that ‘the Greeks are worse than the Jews’. On the 8th of April 1204, the Venetian fleet attacked Constantinople and after four days, they succeeded in scaling the ramparts by using the masts of ships sailed beneath the walls. Mighty Constantinople had fallen; now she would suffer.
The sack of Constantinople was an event of apocalyptic dimensions. Churches, abbeys and palaces were emptied of anything of value. Art objects such as golden goblets were melted down just for the value of the material. The altar of the Hagia Sophia, made of gold and precious stones, was broken into pieces and distributed among the soldiers. Other artworks were dragged off, such as the horses which now adorn the San Marco Basilica in Venice. Big parts of the town were set aflame. According to a French chronicler ‘more houses burned down than there were in three cities in France’. A Byzantine chronicler lamented that ‘everyone can imagine all the misfortunes that have befallen captured cities — killing of men and enslavement of women, plundering, destruction of homes and all the other things that are wrought by the sword’[iv]. In the streets, men were killed for no reason, while women were being raped.
At the epicentre of this man-made cataclysm, an orgy of looting and plundering was taking place in the proud church of Hagia Sofia, the cultural focal point of the Orthodox world. Horses and mules were brought into the church to transport the plundered booty. When they fell on the slippery church floor, they were killed on the spot, so their blood and guts ran over the sacred floor. A whore was presiding over this chaos. She sat and danced on the Patriarch’s throne, while she sang obscene songs[v].
All medieval sackings were brutal, often leading to outrights slaughters. The sacking of Constantinople however, was unique in that more than a pillaging, it seemed an attempt at cultural genocide against fellow Christians. When he heard about the events, pope Innocentius III — the man who had originally called for the crusade — sent a vitriol-infused letter. Why he asked, would the Orthodox even consider ending the schism after witnessing how the crusaders ‘made their swords, which they were supposed to use against the pagans, drip with Christian blood ? The crusaders have committed incest, adultery, and fornication before the eyes of men’.
The pope eventually calmed down when he learned about the crusaders’ plan to replace the Orthodox Byzantine empire with a Catholic empire, the so-called Latin Empire of Constantinople. In May 1204, a council of 6 Venetians and 6 crusaders elected Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut as the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople[vi]. The Count had led most of the crusade and was now chosen with the approval of the Venetians. The Count of Flanders was now an emperor, ruling over the town and the empire his men had violated.
Baldwin organised the empire as a mirror image of a Western feudal kingdom, split up in several counties and counties. The crusading noblemen dispersed across the Byzantine empire to take possession of their newly granted estates. Since they took their armies with them, they left Constantinople virtually defenceless. Baldwin’s behaviour continued in the mode of the crusaders’ arrival; he showed no respect for, nor understanding of the Byzantines and their culture. Baldwin’s anti-Byzantine policy further alienated the population.
The Byzantines soon rebelled and allied themselves with their archenemies, the Bulgars. Ioannitsa, the King of the Bulgars and the Wallachians, was better known by his soubriquet Romaioktonos, the Slayer of Romans (the Byzantines rightfully called themselves Romans, because they were the Eastern Roman Empire). When Baldwin was beleaguering Adrianopolis (today Edirne in Turkey), the inhabitants asked Ioannitsa for help. Using his fast, light cavalry against the heavily armoured, but slow crusader horses, the crusaders were outmanoeuvred[vii].
Baldwin was captured by the Bulgars during the battle. With the emperor imprisoned, his brother Henry of Flanders became regent. Constantinople was soon buzzing with rumours. ‘The barons said that had often heard tell that the emperor Baldwin died in Ioannitsa’s prison, but they did not believe it’. The Greek historian Nicetas Choniates had heard that Ioannitsa in a fit of rage ‘removed Baldwin from prison, gave orders that his legs be summarily chopped off at the knees and his arms at the elbows before being cast headlong into a ravine. For three days Baldwin lay as food for the birds before his life ended miserably’[viii]. Others whispered ‘that after Ioannitsa killed Baldwin, his head served as a goblet for the barbarian, after it had been cleaned of all its contents and decorated all round with ornament’. Yet another rumour held that Ioannitsa’s wife had tried to seduce Baldwin. She promised to let him escape if he would take her with him and they would rule Constantinople together. Baldwin refused. The spiteful rejected lover returned to her husband and declared that Baldwin had tried to seduce her. The enraged Ioannitsa immediately had Baldwin executed and fed his flesh to the dogs.
We will never know whether Baldwin died of natural causes, was executed or ended up as a fancy drinking cup. But in the end, the crusaders accepted the news of the death of Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainaut, first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Many returned to Europe, completely demoralised. Baldwin’s brother Henry was crowned emperor in difficult conditions, but showed more respect for the Byzantines and did better than his brother. He ruled for 11 years until his death, probably due to poisoning by his own wife. The Latin Empire itself lasted for 50 years.
[i] Baldwin IX of Flanders was at the same time Baldwin VI of Hainaut. Here, we shall call him Baldwin IX.
[ii] The niece of both the French king Philip-August and the deceased English king Richard Leonhart.
[iii] Villehardouin
[iv] Archopolitos, p. 113.
[v] Nicetas Choniates: The Sack of Constantinople. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/choniates1.asp Translation from from Dana C. Munro, “The Fourth Crusade
[vi] He set up the imperial palace in the splendid Boukoleon palace. Amongst the inventory of the palace, there is mention of a bottle with Christ’s blood, probably the one that is now venerated in Bruges. Wife maria of champagne died
[vii] George Akropolites, p. 139.
[viii] https://archive.org/stream/o-city-of-byzantium-annals-of-niketas-choniates-ttranslated-by-harry-j-magoulias-1984/o-city-of-byzantium-annals-of-niketas-choniates-ttranslated-by-harry-j-magoulias-1984_djvu.txt
