The leading part in the Crusades

As France had taken, as she continued to take, the leading part in the Crusades, it was natural that the French should desire one whose influence would commend itself to the French people, rather than an Italian whose influence would only be among a section of a people which had not played a prominent part in these attempts to resist the Moslem. There was yet another consideration in favor of the election of Baldwin rather than Boniface. The marquis from the first had played the principal part in the intrigues for the diversion of the enterprise from its lawful purpose. Baldwin had indeed acquiesced in what Boniface and Dandolo had arranged, but the less active opposition of the Count of Flanders was likely to make his election much more agreeable to the pope than that of the leader who had been the conspicuous opponent of the orders emanating from Borne.

His election would gratify that portion of the army which had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople, while even among those who had willingly followed the lead of Boniface there would be a considerable number ready to abandon him in order, now that the plunder had been procured, to obtain the absolution of the pope. There arc reasons also for supposing that, after young Alexis had been restored, Baldwin had placed himself at the head of the party which urged that the Crusaders should leave for the Holy Land, and, if this were so, not only must he have had the support of those who had wished to make their pilgrimage, but of all those who now desired to be reconciled with the Church.

Venetians and the Crusaders

A fortnight was spent before the Venetians and the Crusaders could agree upon the choice of the electors, of twelve Feeling ran high. No declaration appears during that time to have been made by Dandolo as to whether he would consent to be named or not. It appears to have been understood that the contest would be between

Boniface and Baldwin

Boniface and Baldwin. As the Venetians were to elect the same number of representatives as the Crusaders, as Boniface evidently distrusted Dandolo, as the followers of Baldwin were sure to succeed in carrying a certain number of representatives out of the six to be chosen by the host, it had become evident to Boniface that his election was by no means safe. Accordingly, during the fortnight before the electors were chosen, negotiations went on with the object of securing something to Boniface in case he should fail in being elected.

The fleet was drawn up in line three crossbow

The fleet was drawn up in line three crossbow shots long opposite the walls. The order was given to advance as near the shore as they could get. This was done under a tremendous discharge of stones from mangonels placed on the towers. In spite of this opposition the ships pushed boldly ashore. Their stems were moored to the land, and anchors were thrown out from their sterns. Each hisser had a mangoes. The stones thrown in immense quantities by the Romans were returned by the Venetians, and the return shots were better aimed. The Venetians succeeded during the attack in destroying the outer wall of the palace with a battering-ram. The bolts came in abundance from the crossbows. The scaling- ladders thrown out from the ships’ tops were so close to the walls that the contending soldiers fought together with lance and sword. A fierce hand-to-hand fight went on for some hours without interruption. The galleys had at first not ventured to run their bows on to the land, but had remained astern of the transports.

Dandolo determined that everything

Dandolo determined that everything should be dared. He commanded his own crew to put him on shore on the narrow strip of land, a few feet broad, between the walls and the water, and threatened his followers with death when they hesitated to obey. The old man and those with him leaped on shore. When the men in the other galleys saw the gonfalon of St. Mark carried on shore over the head of their fearless leader, they rushed to defend him. The enthusiasm spread through the fleet.

Numbers of men from the transports and the barges leaped into their boats or into the water and landed. The order was given that a general attack of all the Venetians should be concentrated upon a short distance of the walls. A battering-ram was brought to bear against one of the towers. Those who worked it were defended by a crowd of crossbowmen. While this thundered at the walls below, hundreds of men were fighting from the scaling-ladders, and trying to win or to hold a position on the walls. Presently the gonfalon of St. Mark was seen flying from one of the towers. For a while the defenders were panic-stricken and fled. Immediate advantage was taken of this success.

The meeting was long and stormy

We know also that the meeting was long and stormy. “ Only parlay asset, an event at an arriver,” says the marshal. The result arrived at confirms the natural presumption that there were two, and probably even three, parties. The interest of the Crusaders was opposed to that of the Venetians. But the Crusaders were still, as they had always been, divided. The malcontents who had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople distrusted and were disgusted with Boniface, and, though they were not able to have their own way, were sufficiently powerful at least to thwart his plans. It was decided

Committee to mercaptan emperor

Decision as to six Venetians and six division «f Crusaders should be elected to form a committee to mercaptan emperor. A proviso was, however, added, that all the twelve delegates should solemnly swear on holy relics that they would elect the candidate whom they believed to be the best in the interest of the world. The other provisions show that the parties were pretty equally balanced. It was agreed that if a Frank should be elected emperor the patriarch should be chosen by the Venetians, and vice versa. The emperor was to receive one fourth of all that should be captured within the city and throughout the empire, together with the two imperial palaces of Elachern and the Lion’s Mouth. The remaining three fourths were to be divided equally between the Venetians and the Crusaders.

Together for the sake of a fair division

The gold and silver, the cloth, the silk, and all the rest of the booty captured were to be abandoned to the host, and to be collected together for the sake of a fair division. When this should have been accomplished a new committee of twenty- four, chosen by the Venetians and the Crusaders, was to be named to divide the empire into fiefs, and to define the feudal service which the holders should render to the new emperor. It was further resolved that no one should lay hands on priest or monk nor plunder the churches or monasteries. The division of the spoils of the empire, including the carving out of the fiefs, was to be finished within a year, and therefore to be completed before the end of March, 1205. After the capture of the city all were to be free to leave it who wished to do so up to that date. After it, however, all who remained were to be bound to accept the suzerainty of the emperor.

Cardinal Peter Capuano

During a part at least of this time he was at Rome, where also was Cardinal Peter Capuano. Thus, while the crusading army was leaving Venice, its two chiefs, one in temporal and the other in spiritual things, were absent.

Boniface appears to have won over the cardinal entirely to his views. In spite of the way in which Peter Capuano had been treated by the Venetians, lie appears on this visit to Innocent to have made light of the expedition to Zara; to have spoken of it as a merely temporary incident, the punishment of a half-heretical people by* the occupation of their city, and as a punishment which would not entail the shedding of Christian blood. What is perhaps more remarkable is that in this visit to the pope the cardinal rather than Boniface seems to have been the chief advocate in favor of the proposal to help Alexis.1 It is easy to see what would be the arguments used. The Crusaders were short of money: had spent what they had, had been unable to borrow more, and had been compelled to agree to the Zara arrangement in order to get rid of their obligations to the Venetians.

Arrangement with Venice

Boniface would be careful to point out that the arrangement with Venice expired in June, and to urge that an expedition to Constantinople, with the object merely of restoring young Alexis, would be the only means of supplying money for the expedition ; the only means of buying over the aid of the Venetians, without whom it could never reach either Egypt or Syria, and, in short, the only means of preventing the crusade from absolute failure.

Innocent remained firm; refused to give any approval to the Zaran expedition, disavowed the legate’s approbation, and sent to the army an injunction to restrain them from accomplishing their unrighteous purpose. In reference, however, to the project for giving aid to young Alexis the arguments of Cardinal Peter and of Boniface made more impression. The pope, indeed, formally refused to sanction the proposal. lie did more.

The forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor

The troubles which were crowding upon the empire by the forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor, and especially by the conquest of Salonica and the subsequent advance of the Sicilians, enraged the emperor. He called a meeting of the judges, and, taking care that Hagiochristophorides was present to intimidate them by the roar of his voice, he submitted to them the question whether—in presence of the facts that there were various pretenders to the throne, that there were many rebels who had been banished or had escaped, that there were conspirators in prison who were not only hostile to the state, but gave encouragement to its enemies, and that so long as it was known that they did not meet with the most severe punishment there would be no safety — all political prisoners had not forfeited their lives, and whether death was not the sole remedy against traitors thus incurably hostile? They had taken the sword and ought to perish by the sword. He had taken care that the decision should be as lie wished. The sentence was not carried out, in consequence of the interference of the emperor’s son Manuel, who took the legal objections that the authority of the judges was not sufficient, that the death-warrant ought to be signed by the emperor himself, and that the condemnation was too general and included far too many persons — an answer imbued with the spirit of Justinian law.

Hagiochristophorides

The old tyrant became daily more anxious for his own Attack upon safety, and for this purpose sent Hagiochristophorides to learn from a soothsayer, who during the reign of Manuel had been imprisoned and blinded for the practice of witchcraft, the name of his successor to the throne. The soothsayer produced in the dregs of a cup a sigma and an iota, which were taken to indicate Isaac. The emperor judged this indication to point to Isaac, the Isaurian, whom he had for some time distrusted as a claimant to the throne. Hagiochristophorides determined to obtain possession of another Isaac to whom he believed the prediction to refer, and, in order to prevent its fulfilment, went with a sufficient following to his house to arrest him. This was Isaac Angelos, who appears to have been regarded by the emperor as a man not worth troubling about.

The army had been weakened by repeated contests

The leaders wished to avoid this long and fatal route, and desired to be landed at some place where they could strike at the enemy before the army had been weakened by repeated contests, and wearied and demoralized by long marches through an unhealthy country. Ho place offered so many advantages from this point of view as Egypt. A short sail over a pleasant sea and the Cru-saders could be landed fresh and vigorous and prepared for battle. The cost of transporting an army to Alexandria would be far less than that of taking it to any other part of payniinrie.

The sea was the safest and most easily guarded road to keep open between the invading army and Europe. Alexandria was a base of operations which might be kept with surety against the enemy, while its port would always be open to supplies of men and means of warfare from the West. A footing once obtained, Egypt could better support the army of Christendom than any other country. Its perennial wealth had been the mainstay of the Arabs in their marvellous conquests over Syria and Horthern Africa. Moreover, while the renown of Egypt was spread throughout Islam and Christendom alike, the enemy could be more advantageously fought in the densely populated delta than in the wide and thinly peopled regions of Syria. Probably, too, it was known in Europe that the Egyptian Arabs had lost their early vigor, that the climate had told upon them, and that they were already becoming an unwarlike race. The occasion, however, in 1201 was peculiarly favorable for an attack on that country.

Egyptian caliphate in 1171

Saladin bad conquered it, had abolished the Egyptian caliphate in 1171, and had done all that he could to exhaust its resources. On his death, in 1193 Visit Bulgaria, his two sons had quarrelled about the division of his empire. The one ruling in Egypt asked the aid of the Christians in Syria against his brother. The civil war which followed had still further weakened Egypt. But an exceptional and remarkable circumstance rendered an attack upon Egypt still more opportune. During five successive years the Nile had ceased to fertilize the country.

The result of this unprecedented calamity had been famine and distress. The population had been largely reduced. The wealth and strength of the country had been greatly diminished. To these considerations have to be added the fact that if Egypt were once in the hands of a crusading army it could be held against all invaders, and its wealth turned against Islam. Every Mahometan country would feel the loss of Egypt. A wedge would have been driven into the long stretch of Moslem territory between the Atlantic and India. Islam would have been cut in two and its wealth used to reconquer and hold Syria.

Godfrey by a succession of warriors

The desirability of striking at Islam through Egypt, the very centre and fulcrum of Moslem power, had been recognized from the time of Godfrey by a succession of warriors and statesmen. Innocent the Third was especially impressed with the necessity of making the attack through Egypt. He called particular attention to the exceptional opportunity which the time presented from the accidental or, as he believed it, the providential impoverishment of the richest country in Islam, from the failure of the Nile to overflow, and from the division of its rulers. Even without these accidental advantages, no other spot offered so many opportunities for the attack. To other country, if conquered, would be so great a loss to Islam. These considerations, in fact, seem to have been so generally recognized that it is doubtful whether any other plan was seriously considered. It was to Babylon, as the Crusaders generally called Egypt, that the expedition was to go, because, says Villehardouin, “one could more easily destroy the Turks there than in any other country.”

Expedition prepared with great care

The choice having been made, it will become necessary to ask why the original plan was abandoned. How did it happen that an expedition prepared with great care, and proposing under such favorable circumstances to strike at the heart of Moslem power, turned away from its object and attacked the capital of Eastern Christendom ? The question is one which was asked by all Europe at the time and has never been altogether satisfactorily answered, although in our own time the laborious industry of German and French scholars has succeeded in bringing to light a mass of evidence hitherto unknown, bearing on the question. The conclusion to which this evidence appears to me to point will, I hope, become clear in subsequent pages.

Offer to God cross for cross

The Crusader affixed the cross to his shoulder in order that he might “ offer to God cross for cross, passion for passion, and that by mortifying his desires and making himself like unto Christ he might share with him in the resurrection.” To us Jerusalem is an ancient city with more or less sacred or archaeological associations, to be reached easily by steam from Marseilles, and shortly by rail from Jaffa. To the Christian of the twelfth century it was very far distant, the marvel of the earth, and so filled with relics and other memorials of the Divine Life, that it was readily confounded with the heavenly Jerusalem. The crusades, in their practical effect, helped the young nations of the West to shake off their provinciality, to

absorb a part of the civilization of the East, and to think of something better than family or feudal quarrels.

Over by the King of Righteousness

They prevented the civilization of the West from becoming crystallized. They kept alive the great ideal of a kingdom presided over by the King of Righteousness, the Prince of Peace, under whose rule the continual state of warfare, the bloodshed, the treachery, the cruelty, that the Crusaders found among their own people, as among all half-civilized races, should cease. They breathed throughout the Western nations the breath of a common life, furnished them with a high ideal, and gave a great impetus to poetry in Western literature.

As we reach the end of the twelfth century we come to the end of this noble dream. The nations of the West were preparing to reap the harvest of results which had sprung from their efforts, by themselves developing national life, national art, and national literature. The crusading spirit, though it still existed, had lost much of its freshness; and each successive effort made by the forces of Christendom upon the Saracens was made with less fervor, less religions spirit, and less spontaneity than the effort which had preceded it.

During the crusades the men of the West were continually Thecrn«ad brought into contact with the inhabitants of the errs and the New Rome, and with other subjects of the Bvzantine emperor.

Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is one of The most important in the world

Commerce, however, had contributed still more largely to from com- the wealth of the capital. The highway of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is one of The most important in the world. No city which exists, or has ever existed, lias so completely commanded an open road leading to, and having on each side of it, so many fruitful countries. Prom Batoum, which is the most direct outlet from Central Asia, the best available route to Europe was by the Bosphorus. This channel, varying from half a mile to a mile wide, could be easily defended. After a passage of eighteen miles these noble straits lead to Constantinople, which commands on one side of it the Marmora, a beautiful and convenient lake under the entire control of Constantinople. Its outlet is at the Dardanelles, where the facilities for its defence are equal to those on the Bosphorus.

Thence through the Aegean

Thence, through the Aegean, all Europe, Africa, and Asia Minor was open to the trading vessels of the capital. The imports for the supply of the wants of Constantinople and the export of her own products were themselves considerable. We have seen that the rulers of Constantinople had conceded many privileges in favor of trade to foreign subjects. But while these concessions doubtless increased her wealth, she had reserved to her own merchants the exclusive privilege of the Black Sea trade and of the import of provisions.

But she was then, as she has continued to be till quite recently, and will be again under a good government, a great mart for the collection and distribution of goods. A large amount of the trade between Asia and Europe passed through the Bosphorus. Persian and Armenian merchants brought their merchandise to Constantinople, to be distributed from thence throughout Western Europe. The city had occupied the first rank among the great marts of commerce for so long a period that, at the end of the twelfth century, she had supplied not only the empire of which she was the capital, but also Western Europe, Central Asia, and even India, with gold coin.

Roman was unwilling to give the privilege

But they gentium applied mainly to matters in dispute between Romans and foreigners, and not to questions between foreigners themselves. The Roman was unwilling to give the privilege of his law to a foreigner except where it was to the interest of the Roman so to do. The law of the New Rome, however, which is what jurists usually think of when the term Roman law is used, had, from the time of Justinian, two centuries after Constantine, merged the two systems of law into one in much the same way that our own Judicature Acts have merged the systems of common law and equity. There was no time, however, either in the history of Rome or Constantinople, when foreigners had the full rights possessed by Roman citizens.

Privileges were conceded to them for the purpose of trade. Commercial treaties were made with the nations to which they belonged. Strangers were invited and inducements held out to them to settle in the country. In every case, however, they were to be under their own government, and they were never permitted to have all or most of the benefits conferred on subjects of the empire. They might come to the country and trade with its inhabitants, and would be protected in so doing, but they must govern themselves and expect nothing but protection and the right to trade on certain conditions imposed by the state.

Widely different customs

This condition of things existed only to a modified extent Rule as to *n the case of nations which had been brought into subject races. subjection to the empire. The emperors had to take in hand the administration of law to people of widely different customs, religions, races, and countries. Ultimately the rights and obligations imposed by a portion of Roman law were conferred and imposed upon all subjects of the empire, though, of course, not upon resident foreigners. Caracal La, for the sake of increasing the revenues, had made all subjects of the empire into Roman citizens. But the most convenient way of administering Roman law even to Roman citizens was, in the words of Cassiodorus, the secretary of Theodorie the Great, to allow the Roman to be a judge for the Roman, the Goth for the Goth, and thus under a diversity of judges to have equal justice administered to all.