The Fourth Crusade 1202-04 by David Nicolle

Author:David Nicolle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Fourth Crusade 1202–04
ISBN: 9781849088213
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2011-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

The Adriatic and Aegean areas, c.1202

The simple floor mosaics in the church of San Giovanni Evangelistica in Ravenna were made shortly after the Fourth Crusade and include a representation of the conquest of Zadar. (Lipedia photograph)

The Cathedral of St Anastasia in Zadar is the largest in Dalmatia. Constructed during the 12th and 13th centuries, it survived the Fourth Crusade reasonably intact. (Author’s photograph)

The leaders of Zadar were reportedly prepared to surrender but others ‘within the army’ believed that the pope’s warning would stop the Crusaders attacking. Indeed the people of Zadar hung crosses outside their walls to show that they were not only Christians but Crusaders. Nevertheless Archbishop Thomas of the rival city of Split, farther down the Dalmatian coast, blamed Zadar for the attack, claiming that many of its leading citizens had protected or helped Bosnian heretics and that they were themselves polluted by heresy. Many in the Crusader host were unhappy about this confrontation and held back, but the majority joined the Venetians’ siege, which was brief and brutal.

According to Robert of Clari: ‘When the Doge saw that the barons would aid him he caused his engines to be set up to assault the city, until they of the city saw that they could not hold out against them; then they came to terms and surrendered the city to them’.6 The date was 24 November 1202. How much damage was done at this stage is unclear, but an Italian source called the Memorie della Dalmazia stated that: ‘After the desolation of Zara [Zadar], many of the inhabitants sought refuge in the interior of Croatia, and on some of the islands’.

For their part the Crusaders and Venetians settled down to spend the winter in the conquered city, which provided plenty of shelter but not much food. At some unspecified date that winter the pope took the remarkably drastic step of excommunicating an entire Crusader army. Given this it is hardly surprisingly that many Crusaders, including some senior men, either abandoned the crusade or made their own way to the Holy Land. However, the majority remained in Zadar, where the army received some welcome reinforcements, including Pierre de Bracheux, a knight who had not travelled with his feudal lord Louis of Blois but who would play a prominent role in the crusade and its aftermath. During that winter, negotiations continued with Prince Alexios Angelos, and in January these culminated in a formal treaty by which the leaders of the Fourth Crusade agreed to help Prince Alexios become ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

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