Cities captured by the crusaders in Byzantium. Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders. What would change

The sack of Constantinople by the crusaders. Formation of the Latin Empire.
The attempt of Pope Innocent 3 immediately after coming to power in 1198 to organize a crusade was unsuccessful. Despite the active propaganda and private initiative of the crusaders, not a single European king actively supported the idea of a crusade.
Pope Inaccentius3 constantly negotiated with Venice about delivering the crusaders by sea to Egypt, where the main attack was supposed to be directed. But the Venetians, who had established normal trade relations with the Arabs, began a double game.
The Venetians demanded payment for transporting the crusaders to Egypt; the crusaders could not collect the required amount.
Finally, the Venetians agreed to transport the Crusader army on the condition that it would first capture the Dalmatian city of Zara (Croatian city of Zadar), in which, according to their information, there were bases of sea pirates. Zaru was a Catholic city and at that time belonged to the enemy of the Venetians in Croatia - Hungary. The leader of the crusade, Margrave Boniface of Montferrat, agreed to these conditions.
On November 8, 1202, the crusaders sailed from Venice on the Fourth Crusade with 480 ships.
A week later, the crusaders took the city of Zara and plundered it. A fight broke out between the Crusaders and Venetians when dividing the spoils. Because of the conflict, the fate of the further expedition was in jeopardy. Reconciliation was achieved thanks to the efforts of the pope. The Pope condemned the sack of the Catholic city, formally excommunicated the Venetians from the church, and forgave the Crusaders.
Through the mediation of the Pope's legates in Zara, the further fate of the campaign was decided.
A contender for the royal throne in Constantinople, Alexey Angel (Alexey 4), the son of Isaac Angel, removed from power in Constantinople, arrived in the city.
Aleksey Angel, back in 1201, achieved an audience with Pope Innocent 3 and asked for help to return his deposed and blinded father to the Byzantine throne. As further developments of events showed, he received support from his dad. At Zara, the papal legates, the Byzantines and the leaders of the crusaders came to an agreement to capture Constantinople. The crusaders were told that Alexei Angelus (Alexey 4) was the legitimate emperor of Byzantium, removed from power by a usurper. The task before the crusaders was set: to return the throne to its rightful emperor.
And Alexey Angel offered to pay the crusaders 200 thousand marks, a huge sum at that time, for their help in returning the imperial throne.
On June 23, 1203, the fleet approached Constantinople. On July 17, the assault on the city began.
The city was defended only by mercenaries and the enemies of the Byzantines - Pisan merchants. After a thirteen-day siege, Emperor Alexei 3 fled, leaving the city to the mercy of fate. On August 1, 1203, Alexei Angel was crowned with the imperial crown.
After the coronation, he had to fulfill his promise to the Pope about the subordination of the Byzantine Church to the Pope, as well as pay the crusaders a huge amount of money (200 thousand marks) for the services rendered to him. He was unable to raise money, since the Greeks did not recognize him as their emperor, and the religious demands of the Pope were rejected.
On January 23, 1204, the elite of Constantinople gathered in the Temple of Hagia Sophia: senators, clergy, wealthy citizens. At the general meeting they decided to remove Alexei 4 from the throne. After making a decision, the conspirators sent Alexei 4 and his father to prison, where they were killed. The court aristocrat Alexei Duka, nicknamed Mutsufl, was appointed emperor under the name of Alexei 5. The crusaders at this time were still at the walls of Constantinople, awaiting the ransom promised by Alexius 4.
Alexy 5 demanded that the crusaders leave the territory of Byzantium, the crusaders refused - the negotiations reached a dead end.
Delivery of food to the crusaders was difficult. The shortage of food in winter began to be felt acutely, the crusaders' hatred of the Greeks increased, and they began to prepare for a second capture of the city.
Alexey 5 began organizing the defense of Constantinople.
The crusaders began their attack on the city on April 9, 1204. On April 12, 1204, the crusaders broke into Constantinople. Attempts by Alexey 5 (Mutsufla) to call on the city residents to defend themselves were unsuccessful. Alexey 5 fled from the city on a boat.
The crusaders, having burst into the city, began to plunder it. And according to barbaric laws, they robbed for three days.
As Nikita Choniates, an eyewitness to what is happening, writes:
“The crusaders destroyed holy images, threw out the relics of the great martyrs, grabbed holy vessels and tore out precious stones from them...
They brought horses and mules into the temple to remove church utensils from there.
Weeping and lamentations could be heard on the streets, in houses and churches.”
Three days later, order was restored by the leaders of the campaign.
In three churches they collected valuables that the crusaders did not manage to get their hands on during the three-day robbery. Of the collected, the fourth part was allocated to the future emperor, whom they intended to elect, the rest was equally divided between the leaders of the Crusaders and Venetians.
It was decided to divide the lands of Byzantium between the participants in the campaign, as was the case in Palestine after its conquest. They decided to elect an emperor from among the crusaders to the imperial throne. The new state entity went down in history as the Latin Empire.
Count Baldwin of Flanders was elected emperor. Baldwin of Flanders, in order to somehow legitimize his claims to the throne, found the widow of Isaac the Angel, Margaret, and married her. The new emperor was crowned on May 16, 1204. Another leader of the crusaders, Boniface of Montferrat, received into his possession the environs of the Greek city of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki), where the Kingdom of Thessaloniki was formed. Venice took possession of a vast part of the imperial territory and the right to free trade in the imperial possessions; Gennady and Pisa were deprived of such rights.
According to the agreement with the crusaders, Venice lost ¾ of the city of Constantinople and the territories giving it power over the Mediterranean; many Greek islands, Greek ports, Crete, the entire Peloponnese peninsula…. The entire territory of the Byzantine Empire was divided between the crusaders.
Emperor Alexei 5 Latins managed to capture him, he was brought to Constantinople and thrown from the highest column in the city.
After the conquest of Byzantium, a struggle for power began between the winners. Emperor Baldwin and King Boniface were the first to clash for power, and a series of continuous wars began on Greek territory. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Bulgarian Tsar Ioannitsa, having captured part of Greece, began to carry out military expeditions deep into its territory.
The Greeks themselves hated the conquerors and helped the Bulgarian Tsar Ioanitsa in the fight against the Latins. On August 14, 1205, the army of Ioannica defeated Baldwin’s army, 300 noble knights died, Baldwin was captured, his further fate is unknown.
Instability in the new Latin Empire immediately led to its collapse. The Crusaders were unable to establish themselves in Asia Minor; Orthodox Greek states were formed there: the Nicaean Empire, Trebizond. The Greek kingdom of Epirus was formed in Europe.

But the Latins were still able to retain power in a significant part of Byzantium thanks to the fact that Baldwin’s successor as emperor, Henry of Flanders was able to come to an agreement with the Greek elite, involving them in the management of the Empire.
They managed to defeat the Bulgarians only in 1208.

(the place where Jesus Christ was buried) took the Byzantine capital by storm. Having burst into Christian Constantinople, they began to plunder and destroy palaces and temples, houses and warehouses. The fires destroyed the repositories of ancient manuscripts and valuable works of art. The Crusaders plundered the Church of Hagia Sophia. The clergy who came with the crusaders took many relics to European churches and monasteries. Many Christian townspeople also died.

Having plundered the richest and largest city in Europe, the knights did not go to Jerusalem, but settled on the territory of Byzantium. They created a state with its capital in Constantinople - the Latin Empire. For more than 50 years there was a struggle against the conquerors. In 1261, the Latin Empire fell. Byzantium was restored, but it could never achieve its former power.

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According to the initial agreement, the Venetians undertook to deliver the French crusaders by sea to the shores of the Holy Land and provide them with weapons and provisions. Of the expected 30 thousand French soldiers, only 12 thousand arrived in Venice, who, due to their small numbers, could not pay for the chartered ships and equipment. The Venetians then proposed that, as payment, the French should assist them in an attack on the port city of Zadar in Dalmatia, subject to the Hungarian king, which was Venice's main rival on the Adriatic. The original plan - to use Egypt as a springboard for an attack on Palestine - was put on hold for the time being. Having learned about the plans of the Venetians, the Pope banned the expedition, but the expedition took place and cost its participants excommunication. In November 1202, a combined army of Venetians and French attacked Zadar and thoroughly plundered it.
After this, the Venetians suggested that the French once again deviate from the route and turn against Constantinople in order to restore the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus to the throne. Deposed from the throne and blinded by his brother Alexei, he sat in a Constantinople prison, while his son - also Alexei - knocked on the thresholds of European rulers, trying to persuade them to march on Constantinople, and gave out promises of generous rewards. The crusaders also believed the promises, thinking that in gratitude the emperor would give them money, people and equipment for the expedition to Egypt. Ignoring the Pope's ban, the crusaders arrived at the walls of Constantinople, took the city and returned the throne to Isaac. However, the question of paying the promised reward hung in the air - the restored emperor “changed his mind”, and after an uprising occurred in Constantinople and the emperor and his son were removed, hopes for compensation completely melted away. Then the crusaders were offended. According to the testimony of the participants in the campaign, Margrave Boniface, standing under the walls of the city, conveyed a message to the emperor: “We got you out of the hole, and we’ll put you in the hole.” The Crusaders captured Constantinople for the second time, and now they plundered it for three days. The greatest cultural values were destroyed, many Christian relics were stolen. In place of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire was created, on the throne of which Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was placed.
The empire, which existed until 1261, of all Byzantine lands included only Thrace and Greece, where the French knights received feudal appanages as a reward. The Venetians owned the harbor of Constantinople with the right to levy duties and achieved a trade monopoly within the Latin Empire and on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Thus, they benefited the most from the Crusade. Its participants never reached the Holy Land. The pope tried to extract his own benefits from the current situation - he lifted the excommunication from the crusaders and took the empire under his protection, hoping to strengthen the union of the Greek and Catholic churches, but this union turned out to be fragile, and the existence of the Latin Empire contributed to the deepening of the schism.

Preparing for the hike

Latin Empire

For more than half a century, the ancient city on the Bosphorus promontory was under the rule of the Crusaders. May 16, 1204 in the church of St. Sophia, Count Baldwin of Flanders was solemnly crowned as the first emperor of the new empire, which contemporaries called not the Latin Empire, but the Constantinople Empire, or Romania. Considering themselves the successors of the Byzantine emperors, its rulers retained much of the etiquette and ceremonial of palace life. But the emperor treated the Greeks with extreme disdain.
In the new state, whose territory at first was limited to the capital, strife soon began. The multilingual knightly army acted in concert only during the capture and plunder of the city. Now the former unity has been forgotten. Things almost came to open clashes between the emperor and some of the leaders of the crusaders. Added to this were conflicts with the Byzantines over the division of Byzantine lands. As a result, the Latin emperors had to change tactics. Already Henry of Gennegau (1206-1216) began to look for support in the old Byzantine nobility. The Venetians finally felt like masters here. A significant part of the city passed into their hands - three out of eight blocks. The Venetians had their own judicial apparatus in the city. They made up half of the council of the imperial curia. The Venetians got a huge part of the loot after plundering the city.
Many valuables were taken to Venice, and part of the wealth became the foundation of the enormous political power and trading power that the Venetian colony acquired in Constantinople. Some historians, not without reason, write that after the disaster of 1204, two empires were actually formed - the Latin and the Venetian. Indeed, not only part of the capital, but also lands in Thrace and on the coast of the Propontis passed into the hands of the Venetians. The territorial acquisitions of the Venetians outside Constantinople were small in comparison with their plans at the beginning of the Fourth Crusade, but this did not prevent the Venetian doges from henceforth pompously calling themselves “rulers of a quarter and half a quarter of the Byzantine Empire.” However, the dominance of the Venetians in the trade and economic life of Constantinople (they took possession, in particular, of all the most important berths on the banks of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn) turned out to be almost more important than territorial acquisitions. Having settled in Constantinople as masters, the Venetians strengthened their trading influence throughout the territory of the fallen Byzantine Empire.
The capital of the Latin Empire was the seat of the most noble feudal lords for several decades. They preferred the palaces of Constantinople to their castles in Europe. The nobility of the empire quickly became accustomed to Byzantine luxury and adopted the habit of constant celebrations and cheerful feasts. The consumer nature of life in Constantinople under the Latins became even more pronounced. The crusaders came to these lands with a sword and during the half-century of their rule they never learned to create. In the middle of the 13th century, the Latin Empire fell into complete decline. Many cities and villages, devastated and plundered during the aggressive campaigns of the Latins, were never able to recover. The population suffered not only from unbearable taxes and extortions, but also from the oppression of foreigners who disdained the culture and customs of the Greeks. The Orthodox clergy actively preached the struggle against the enslavers.

Results of the Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade, which transformed from the “road to the Holy Sepulcher” into a Venetian commercial enterprise that led to the sack of Constantinople by the Latins, marked a deep crisis in the crusader movement. The result of this campaign was the final split between Western and Byzantine Christianity. Many call the Fourth Crusade “cursed,” as the crusaders, who swore to return the Holy Land to Christianity, turned into dishonest mercenaries hunting only for easy money.
Actually, Byzantium after this campaign ceased to exist as a state for more than 50 years; on the site of the former empire, the Latin Empire was created The Medieval Russian Account of the Fourth Crusade - A New Annotated Translation (undefined) .
The information war against Orthodoxy began many centuries ago
Despite the absence of the press and television, the active phase of the information war began immediately after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204
Despite many tragic dates in world history, one day - April 13, 1204- stands apart. It was on that day that participants in the Fourth Crusade stormed Constantinople, and the consequences of this event were in many ways fatal for the whole world.
Moreover, the world will feel their consequences for a long time, and perhaps forever. No matter how strange it may sound.
The events of April 13, 1204 in Western Europe, and indeed in the world in general, have long been forgotten. Few people know what happened that day, what events preceded this tragedy, and even more so no one can imagine the scale of its consequences. Although this day, without exaggeration, changed the course of world history.
The capture of the largest Christian city in the world by the crusader and - which does not fit into the framework of consciousness - by the Christian army shocked everyone. Starting from Pope Innocent III to the Muslim world.
The Crusaders, whose original goal was Jerusalem and the recapture of the Holy Sepulcher, instead They not only took Constantinople, but plundered and burned most of the city, desecrated churches, including the Church of St. Sofia, forced the city's population to abandon their homes and property and flee the city, saving their lives.

Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. Miniature. 15th century National Library, Paris
If in its heyday Constantinople had a population of more than half a million, by 1261, when the Byzantines drove out the Latin occupiers and reclaimed the capital, there were barely 50,000 citizens.
The Fourth Crusade inflicted a mortal wound not only on Byzantium; its consequences would more than once come back to haunt Western Europe itself. After all, Byzantium ceased to exist as a centuries-old barrier to Islamic expansion to the West, and it took only one hundred and fifty years for the first Muslim state to emerge in Europe - the Ottoman Empire.
In fact, the crusaders took the side of the Muslims, clearing the way for them to the West, which resulted in enslavement and the centuries-long Ottoman yoke in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece. And the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II in May 1453 was only the final act of a Byzantine tragedy that lasted almost 250 years.
The echoes of those dramatic events have not subsided to this day. And although in 2004, Pope John Paul II, on behalf of the Catholic Church, apologized for the sack of Constantinople and the massacre of its inhabitants by participants in the Fourth Crusade, this changes little.
The Orthodox capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, is long gone, but there is Turkish Istanbul. There is no Christian Eastern Roman Empire, but there is a Muslim unpredictable Türkiye. And no matter how much you apologize, the past cannot be returned and a crime on a global scale will not cease to be a crime.

It is clear that such a crime had to be somehow justified and an attempt to present in a positive light all that crusader bastard who robbed, raped and killed their brothers in faith in 1204. Therefore, starting from the 13th century to this day, Byzantium is diligently doused with slop and smeared with mud, presenting it as a vile and inert undeveloped land, ruled by sadists, madmen, eunuchs, pathological murderers and intriguers.

From which a very definite conclusion is drawn - this under-country simply, by definition, did not have the right to exist. As is customary in the West, Byzantium itself is blamed for all the troubles of the empire. And the only bright moment in its history, against the backdrop of hopeless darkness, was the appearance of enlightened European knights near the camps of Constantinople in 1203, who brought the light of the true faith to the inhabitants of the empire instead of the “dense” orthodox Orthodoxy.

Jacopo Tintoretto. Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204
In general, there is nothing new in this. A well-known old European trick is to blame the victim for everything bad that happened to him.
The West uses this trick regularly, in connection with which we can recall our recent history, when the Russian Empire, and then the USSR, were also accused of being non-countries that enlightened Europeans would have saved in 1812 and 1941, but bad luck - it didn’t end at all as the European integrators expected.
But it’s better to give the floor to a couple of professional Western “experts” on history: “Oh, this Byzantine Empire! The general verdict of history is that it represents the most perfect culture in its foundation, which in time assumed the most despicable form that civilization has ever taken. There was no other civilization that existed for such a long time, the essence of which would be so accurately reflected by the epithet “mediocre.” The history of Byzantium is a monotonous chain of intrigues of priests, eunuchs, women, a series of conspiracies and poisonings.”(W. Leckie, 1869).
He is echoed by another British critic of the Eastern Roman Empire, E. Gibbon, who considered Byzantium to be frankly inferior, a barbaric country with “excessive” religiosity, and the Byzantines as a cowardly and vile nation. A little more, and this learned man would have agreed to the theory of racial superiority, which was voiced a little later by another “enlightened European” of Austrian origin.
The French giants of thought, Voltaire and Montesquieu, do not lag behind the British. The first called Byzantium “terrible and disgusting,” and the second came to the thoughtful conclusion that “In Byzantium there was nothing but stupid worship of icons.”
Thus, we see this oil painting: Byzantium is an incomprehensible misunderstanding that deserves nothing but contempt, which existed for more than 1000 years. Everything was bad in this country: management, rulers, population and, of course, "wrong" Orthodox faith. At the same time, many “experts” and “thought giants” forget that namely the code of Byzantine laws of Emperor Justinian I(whose remains were thrown out of the sarcophagus by the Crusaders in 1204, having previously been removed from the richly decorated funeral shroud), became the basis for the creation of modern jurisprudence in Western Europe. In the same England and France.
You can talk for a long time about Byzantine education, sciences, literature, art, outstanding philosophers, etc. But the Byzantine barbarians are best characterized by one small detail - namely, underdeveloped, inert Byzantium taught Europe to use a fork, who before her preferred to eat with unwashed hands in an elegant European-primitive style.
European “thinkers” are surprised – and this is putting it mildly – by their complete lack of tolerance, when from the heights of their enlightenment they contemptuously call the Byzantines almost savages.
As you know, the population of Byzantium has always been multinational, but there has never been a national problem there. “There is neither Greek nor Jew”- this commandment of the Apostle Paul was always followed in Byzantium. And when the Anglo-French giants of thought insult the Byzantines with extraordinary ease, they insult a dozen or two nations at once. Starting from the Greeks and ending with the Slavs, Armenians, Syrians, Georgians, etc. However, it seems that even today they do not consider them their equals.
As for the Orthodox faith and the “stupid worship of icons,” there’s nothing worth even commenting on here, because the assessments of Western “experts” reek of dense idiocy a mile away. They deliberately present Orthodoxy as some kind of perverted religion, from which the Roman Church quite wisely distanced itself in 1054.
But the fact is that even after 1054, when the Christian Church allegedly split, no one suspected for a very long time that a schism had occurred. But when exactly it happened, it was after 1204, when a still insurmountable gulf opened up between Eastern and Western Christians.
The reason for this was the atrocities and robberies of the crusaders in Constantinople, and not the theological disputes of the Roman and Constantinople priests. Yes, they had differences, but still they always considered each other brothers in faith. Thanks to the crusaders - now the brothers treat each other with caution at best.
We should also thank for this “experts” like Gibbon, who talk about the “excessive” religiosity of Byzantium. Judging by its negative tone, this is something bad that deserves condemnation and censure. Apparently, in a fit of struggle against the “excessive” religiosity of the Byzantines, the crusaders inspiredly plundered Constantinople churches and monasteries in 1204, simultaneously raping nuns and killing clergy.

The entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople on April 13, 1204. Engraving by G. Doré

“They destroyed holy images and threw the holy relics of the martyrs into places that I am ashamed to name, scattering bodies everywhere and shedding the blood of Christ,” - writes the Byzantine historian Nikita Choniates about the atrocities of the crusaders in the captured Constantinople.
“As for their desecration of the great cathedral (the Church of St. Sophia - author's note), they destroyed the main altar and divided among themselves all the valuable objects that were there. An ordinary whore was seated on the patriarchal throne to shout insults at Christ from there; and she sang obscene songs and danced obscenely in the sacred place.”
As we see, long before the so-called Pussy Riot punk prayer, another great Orthodox church - the Church of St. Sofia - also experienced a demonstration of European “universal human values” - obscene dances and obscene songs. After reading about the “arts” of the European crusader rabble, it becomes clear where many phenomena and events of our time have their legs.
Is it any wonder that after such antics of Western “brothers in faith”, the last Byzantine admiral Luke Notaras uttered the famous phrase shortly before the death of Byzantium in 1453: “Better a Turkish turban than a papal tiara” ?
So great was the hatred of the Byzantines towards their Western “brothers” that even 250 years after the sack of Constantinople, they preferred to see Muslim Turks instead. Nevertheless, Western “experts” continued and will continue to repeat the same thing: the inert, treacherous and spiritually undeveloped Byzantium fully deserved everything that happened to it. It's her own fault, period.
In this regard, it is worth noting the Western position in relation to Russia as the largest Orthodox country in the world. We inherited from our spiritual foremother Byzantium all the dislike of the West. Like Byzantium, Russia continues to remain for the West a “wrong” country with an incomprehensible and unsympathetic people and, of course, an equally incomprehensible religion.
This is why we are endlessly criticized and what “enlightened people of all people” try to teach us about life. Those who believe that they stand at a higher level of civilizational development and are simply by definition obliged to open the eyes of Russian underdeveloped Orthodox barbarians to Western values. As they once tried to do in relation to the Byzantines.
In this regard, it is very important for us not to forget the lessons of history. Especially lessons like this.

Fall of Constantinople (1453)- the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Turks, which led to its final fall.

Day May 29, 1453, undoubtedly, is a turning point in human history. It means the end of the old world, the world of Byzantine civilization. For eleven centuries there stood a city on the Bosphorus where deep intelligence was admired and the science and literature of the classical past were carefully studied and treasured. Without Byzantine researchers and scribes, we would not know much about the literature of ancient Greece. It was also a city whose rulers for many centuries encouraged the development of a school of art that has no parallel in the history of mankind and was a fusion of the constant Greek common sense and deep religiosity, which saw in the work of art the embodiment of the Holy Spirit and the material.

In addition, Constantinople was a great cosmopolitan city where, along with trade, the free exchange of ideas flourished and the inhabitants considered themselves not just some people, but the heirs of Greece and Rome, enlightened by the Christian faith. There were legends about the wealth of Constantinople at that time.

The beginning of the decline of Byzantium

Until the 11th century. Byzantium was a brilliant and powerful power, a stronghold of Christianity against Islam. The Byzantines courageously and successfully fulfilled their duty until, in the middle of the century, a new threat from Islam approached them from the East, along with the invasion of the Turks. Western Europe, meanwhile, went so far that it itself, in the person of the Normans, tried to carry out aggression against Byzantium, which found itself involved in a struggle on two fronts just at a time when it itself was experiencing a dynastic crisis and internal turmoil. The Normans were repulsed, but the price of this victory was the loss of Byzantine Italy. The Byzantines also had to permanently give the Turks the mountainous plateaus of Anatolia - lands that were for them the main source of replenishing human resources for the army and food supplies. In the best times of its great past, the well-being of Byzantium was associated with its dominance over Anatolia. The vast peninsula, known in ancient times as Asia Minor, was one of the most populated places in the world during Roman times.

Byzantium continued to play the role of a great power, while its power was already virtually undermined. Thus, the empire found itself between two evils; and this already difficult situation was further complicated by the movement that went down in history under the name of the Crusades.

Meanwhile, the deep old religious differences between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches, fanned for political purposes throughout the 11th century, steadily deepened until, towards the end of the century, a final schism occurred between Rome and Constantinople.

The crisis came when the Crusader army, carried away by the ambition of their leaders, the jealous greed of their Venetian allies and the hostility that the West now felt towards the Byzantine Church, turned on Constantinople, captured and plundered it, forming the Latin Empire on the ruins of the ancient city ( 1204-1261).

The Fourth Crusade was organized by Pope Innocent III to liberate the Holy Land from infidels. The original plan for the Fourth Crusade included organizing a naval expedition on Venetian ships to Egypt, which was supposed to become a springboard for an attack on Palestine, but was later changed: the crusaders moved on the capital of Byzantium. The participants in the campaign were mainly French and Venetians.

April 13, 1204 Constantinople fell. The fortress city, which withstood the onslaught of many powerful enemies, was captured by the enemy for the first time. What was beyond the power of the hordes of Persians and Arabs, the knightly army succeeded. The ease with which the crusaders captured the huge, well-fortified city was the result of the acute socio-political crisis that the Byzantine Empire was experiencing at that moment. A significant role was also played by the fact that part of the Byzantine aristocracy and merchant class was interested in trade relations with the Latins. In other words, there was a kind of “fifth column” in Constantinople.
Capture of Constantinople (April 13, 1204) by the Crusader troops was one of the epoch-making events of medieval history. After the capture of the city, mass robberies and murders of the Greek Orthodox population began. About 2 thousand people were killed in the first days after the capture. Fires raged in the city. Many cultural and literary monuments that had been stored here since ancient times were destroyed in the fire. The famous Library of Constantinople was especially badly damaged by the fire. Many valuables were taken to Venice.

A Russian traveler who happened to be in the city at that moment wrote: “The next morning, at sunrise, the friars burst into St. Sophia, and stripped the doors and broke them, and the pulpit, all bound in silver, and twelve silver pillars and four arks; and they cut the wood, and the twelve crosses that were above the altar, and between them there were cones, like trees, taller than a man, and the altar wall between the pillars, and it was all silver. And they stripped the wondrous altar, tore off the precious stones and pearls from it, and put it to God knows where...”

For more than half a century, the ancient city on the Bosphorus promontory was under the rule of the Crusaders. Only in 1261 did Constantinople again fall into the hands of the Greeks.

This Fourth Crusade (1204), which evolved from the "road to the Holy Sepulcher" into a Venetian commercial enterprise leading to the sack of Constantinople by the Latins, ended the Eastern Roman Empire as a supranational state and finally split Western and Byzantine Christianity.

Actually, Byzantium after this campaign ceased to exist as a state for more than 50 years. Some historians, not without reason, write that after the disaster of 1204, two empires were actually formed - the Latin and the Venetian. Part of the former imperial lands in Asia Minor was captured by the Seljuks, in the Balkans by Serbia, Bulgaria and Venice. However, the Byzantines were able to retain a number of other territories and create their own states on them: the Kingdom of Epirus, the Nicaean and Trebizond empires.

Having established themselves in Constantinople as masters, the Venetians increased their trading influence throughout the territory of the fallen Byzantine Empire. The capital of the Latin Empire was the seat of the most noble feudal lords for several decades. They preferred the palaces of Constantinople to their castles in Europe. The nobility of the empire quickly became accustomed to Byzantine luxury and adopted the habit of constant celebrations and cheerful feasts. The consumer nature of life in Constantinople under the Latins became even more pronounced. The crusaders came to these lands with a sword and during the half-century of their rule they never learned to create. In the middle of the 13th century, the Latin Empire fell into complete decline. Many cities and villages, devastated and plundered during the aggressive campaigns of the Latins, were never able to recover. The population suffered not only from unbearable taxes and levies, but also from the oppression of foreigners who disdained the culture and customs of the Greeks. The Orthodox clergy actively preached the struggle against the enslavers.

Summer 1261 Emperor of Nicaea Michael VIII Palaiologos managed to recapture Constantinople, which entailed the restoration of the Byzantine and destruction of the Latin empires.

Byzantium in the XIII-XIV centuries.

After this, Byzantium was no longer the dominant power in the Christian East. She retained only a glimpse of her former mystical prestige. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Constantinople seemed so rich and magnificent, the imperial court so magnificent, and the piers and bazaars of the city so full of goods that the emperor was still treated as a powerful ruler. However, in reality he was now only a sovereign among his equals or even more powerful ones. Some other Greek rulers have already appeared. To the east of Byzantium was the Trebizond Empire of the Great Comnenos. In the Balkans, Bulgaria and Serbia alternately laid claim to hegemony on the peninsula. In Greece - on the mainland and islands - small Frankish feudal principalities and Italian colonies arose.

The entire 14th century was a period of political failures for Byzantium. The Byzantines were threatened from all sides - Serbs and Bulgarians in the Balkans, the Vatican in the West, Muslims in the East.

Position of Byzantium by 1453

Byzantium, which had existed for more than 1000 years, was in decline by the 15th century. It was a very small state, whose power extended only to the capital - the city of Constantinople with its suburbs - several Greek islands off the coast of Asia Minor, several cities on the coast in Bulgaria, as well as the Morea (Peloponnese). This state could only be considered an empire conditionally, since even the rulers of the few pieces of land that remained under its control were actually independent of the central government.

At the same time, Constantinople, founded in 330, was perceived as a symbol of the empire throughout the entire period of its existence as the Byzantine capital. For a long time, Constantinople was the largest economic and cultural center of the country, and only in the XIV-XV centuries. began to decline. Its population, which in the 12th century. together with the surrounding residents, amounted to about a million people, now there were no more than one hundred thousand, continuing to gradually decline further.

The empire was surrounded by the lands of its main enemy - the Muslim state of the Ottoman Turks, who saw Constantinople as the main obstacle to the spread of their power in the region.

The Turkish state, which was quickly gaining power and successfully fought to expand its borders in both the west and the east, had long sought to conquer Constantinople. Several times the Turks attacked Byzantium. The offensive of the Ottoman Turks on Byzantium led to the fact that by the 30s of the 15th century. All that remained of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople and its surroundings, some islands in the Aegean Sea and Morea, an area in the south of the Peloponnese. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks captured the richest trading city of Bursa, one of the important points of transit caravan trade between East and West. Very soon they captured two other Byzantine cities - Nicaea (Iznik) and Nicomedia (Izmid).

The military successes of the Ottoman Turks became possible thanks to the political struggle that took place in this region between Byzantium, the Balkan states, Venice and Genoa. Very often, rival parties sought to enlist the military support of the Ottomans, thereby ultimately facilitating the expanding expansion of the latter. The military strength of the strengthening state of the Turks was especially clearly demonstrated in the Battle of Varna (1444), which, in fact, also decided the fate of Constantinople.

Battle of Varna- battle between the Crusaders and the Ottoman Empire near the city of Varna (Bulgaria). The battle marked the end of the unsuccessful crusade against Varna by the Hungarian and Polish king Vladislav. The outcome of the battle was the complete defeat of the crusaders, the death of Vladislav and the strengthening of the Turks on the Balkan Peninsula. The weakening of Christian positions in the Balkans allowed the Turks to take Constantinople (1453).

Attempts by the imperial authorities to receive help from the West and to conclude a union with the Catholic Church for this purpose in 1439 were rejected by the majority of the clergy and people of Byzantium. Of the philosophers, only admirers of Thomas Aquinas approved the Florentine Union.

All neighbors were afraid of Turkish strengthening, especially Genoa and Venice, who had economic interests in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, Hungary, which received an aggressively powerful enemy in the south, beyond the Danube, the Knights of St. John, who feared the loss of the remnants of their possessions in the Middle East, and the Pope Roman, who hoped to stop the strengthening and spread of Islam along with Turkish expansion. However, at the decisive moment, Byzantium's potential allies found themselves captive to their own complicated problems.

The most likely allies of Constantinople were the Venetians. Genoa remained neutral. The Hungarians have not yet recovered from their recent defeat. Wallachia and the Serbian states were vassals of the Sultan, and the Serbs even contributed auxiliary troops to the Sultan's army.

Preparing the Turks for war

Turkish Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror declared the conquest of Constantinople as his life's goal. In 1451, he concluded an agreement beneficial for Byzantium with Emperor Constantine XI, but already in 1452 he violated it, capturing the Rumeli-Hissar fortress on the European shore of the Bosphorus. XI Palaeologus turned to the West for help, and in December 1452 he solemnly confirmed the union, but this only caused general discontent. The commander of the Byzantine fleet, Luca Notara, publicly stated that he “would prefer that the Turkish turban dominate the City rather than the papal tiara.”

At the beginning of March 1453, Mehmed II announced the recruitment of an army; in total he had 150 (according to other sources - 300) thousand troops, equipped with powerful artillery, 86 military and 350 transport ships. In Constantinople there were 4973 inhabitants capable of holding weapons, about 2 thousand mercenaries from the West and 25 ships.

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who vowed to take Constantinople, carefully and carefully prepared for the upcoming war, realizing that he would have to deal with a powerful fortress, from which the armies of other conquerors had retreated more than once. The unusually thick walls were practically invulnerable to siege engines and even standard artillery at that time.

The Turkish army consisted of 100 thousand soldiers, over 30 warships and about 100 small fast ships. Such a number of ships immediately allowed the Turks to establish dominance in the Sea of Marmara.

The city of Constantinople was located on a peninsula formed by the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. The city blocks facing the seashore and the shore of the bay were covered by city walls. A special system of fortifications made of walls and towers covered the city from land - from the west. The Greeks were relatively calm behind the fortress walls on the shores of the Sea of Marmara - the sea current here was fast and did not allow the Turks to land troops under the walls. The Golden Horn was considered a vulnerable place.

The Greek fleet defending Constantinople consisted of 26 ships. The city had several cannons and a significant supply of spears and arrows. There were clearly not enough fire weapons or soldiers to repel the assault. The total number of eligible Roman soldiers, not including allies, was about 7 thousand.

The West was in no hurry to provide assistance to Constantinople, only Genoa sent 700 soldiers on two galleys, led by the condottiere Giovanni Giustiniani, and Venice - 2 warships. Constantine's brothers, the rulers of the Morea, Dmitry and Thomas, were busy quarreling among themselves. Residents of Galata - an extraterritorial quarter of the Genoese on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus - declared their neutrality, but in reality they helped the Turks, hoping to maintain their privileges.

April 7, 1453 Mehmed II began the siege. The Sultan sent envoys with a proposal to surrender. In case of surrender, he promised the city population the preservation of life and property. Emperor Constantine replied that he was ready to pay any tribute that Byzantium was able to withstand, and to cede any territories, but refused to surrender the city. At the same time, Constantine ordered Venetian sailors to march along the city walls, demonstrating that Venice was an ally of Constantinople. The Venetian fleet was one of the strongest in the Mediterranean basin, and this should have influenced the Sultan's resolve. Despite the refusal, Mehmed gave the order to prepare for the assault. The Turkish army had high morale and determination, unlike the Romans.

The Turkish fleet had its main anchorage on the Bosphorus, its main task was to break through the fortifications of the Golden Horn, in addition, the ships were supposed to blockade the city and prevent aid to Constantinople from the allies.

Initially, success accompanied the besieged. The Byzantines blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn Bay with a chain, and the Turkish fleet could not approach the walls of the city. The first assault attempts failed.

On April 20, 5 ships with city defenders (4 Genoese, 1 Byzantine) defeated a squadron of 150 Turkish ships in battle.

But already on April 22, the Turks transported 80 ships overland to the Golden Horn. The attempt of the defenders to burn these ships failed, because the Genoese from Galata noticed the preparations and informed the Turks.

Defeatism reigned in Constantinople itself. Giustiniani advised Constantine XI to surrender the city. Defense funds were embezzled. Luca Notara hid the money allocated for the fleet, hoping to pay off the Turks with it.

May 29 started early in the morning final assault on Constantinople. The first attacks were repulsed, but then the wounded Giustiniani left the city and fled to Galata. The Turks were able to take the main gate of the capital of Byzantium. Fighting took place on the streets of the city, Emperor Constantine XI fell in the battle, and when the Turks found his wounded body, they cut off his head and hoisted it on a pole. For three days there was looting and violence in Constantinople. The Turks killed everyone they met on the streets: men, women, children. Streams of blood flowed down the steep streets of Constantinople from the hills of Petra into the Golden Horn.

The Turks broke into men's and women's monasteries. Some young monks, preferring martyrdom to dishonor, threw themselves into wells; the monks and elderly nuns followed the ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church, which prescribed not to resist.

The houses of the inhabitants were also robbed one after another; Each group of robbers hung a small flag at the entrance as a sign that there was nothing left to take from the house. The inhabitants of the houses were taken away along with their property. Anyone who fell from exhaustion was immediately killed; the same thing was done with many babies.

Scenes of mass desecration of sacred objects took place in churches. Many crucifixes, adorned with jewels, were carried out of the temples with Turkish turbans dashingly draped over them.

In the Temple of Chora, the Turks left the mosaics and frescoes untouched, but destroyed the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria - her most sacred image in all of Byzantium, executed, according to legend, by Saint Luke himself. It was moved here from the Church of the Virgin Mary near the palace at the very beginning of the siege, so that this shrine, being as close as possible to the walls, would inspire their defenders. The Turks pulled the icon out of its frame and split it into four parts.

And here is how contemporaries describe the capture of the greatest temple of all Byzantium - the Cathedral of St. Sofia. “The church was still filled with people. The holy service had already ended and matins was underway. When noise was heard outside, the huge bronze doors of the temple were closed. Those gathered inside prayed for a miracle that alone could save them. But their prayers were in vain. Very little time passed, and the doors collapsed under blows from outside. The worshipers were trapped. A few old people and cripples were killed on the spot; The majority of the Turks were tied up or chained to each other in groups, and shawls and scarves torn from women were used as fetters. Many beautiful girls and boys, as well as richly dressed nobles, were almost torn to pieces when the soldiers who captured them fought among themselves, considering them their prey. The priests continued to read prayers at the altar until they were also captured..."

Sultan Mehmed II himself entered the city only on June 1. Escorted by selected troops of the Janissary Guard, accompanied by his viziers, he slowly rode through the streets of Constantinople. Everything around where the soldiers visited was devastated and ruined; churches stood desecrated and plundered, houses uninhabited, shops and warehouses broken and plundered. He rode a horse into the Church of St. Sophia, ordered to knock it off and turn it into the largest mosque in the world.

St. Sofia in Constantinople
Immediately after the capture of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II first issued a decree “providing freedom to all who survived,” but many residents of the city were killed by Turkish soldiers, many became slaves. To quickly restore the population, Mehmed ordered the entire population of the city of Aksaray to be transferred to the new capital.

The Sultan granted the Greeks the rights of a self-governing community within the empire; the head of the community was to be the Patriarch of Constantinople, responsible to the Sultan.

In subsequent years, the last territories of the empire were occupied (Morea - in 1460).

Constantine XI was the last of the Roman emperors. With his death, the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist. Its lands became part of the Ottoman state. The former capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, became the capital of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse in 1922 (at first it was called Constantine and then Istanbul (Istanbul)).

Most Europeans believed that the death of Byzantium was the beginning of the end of the world, since only Byzantium was the successor to the Roman Empire. Many contemporaries blamed Venice for the fall of Constantinople (Venice then had one of the most powerful fleets). The Republic of Venice played a double game, trying, on the one hand, to organize a crusade against the Turks, and on the other, to protect its trade interests by sending friendly embassies to the Sultan.

However, you need to understand that the rest of the Christian powers did not lift a finger to save the dying empire. Without the help of other states, even if the Venetian fleet had arrived on time, it would have allowed Constantinople to hold out for a couple more weeks, but this would only have prolonged the agony.

He was fully aware of the Turkish danger and understood that all of Western Christianity could be in danger. Pope Nicholas V called on all Western powers to jointly undertake a powerful and decisive Crusade and intended to lead this campaign himself. From the moment the fatal news arrived from Constantinople, he sent out his messages calling for active action. On September 30, 1453, the Pope sent a bull to all Western sovereigns declaring a Crusade. Each sovereign was ordered to shed the blood of himself and his subjects for the holy cause, and also to allocate a tenth of his income to it. Both Greek cardinals, Isidore and Bessarion, actively supported his efforts. Vissarion himself wrote to the Venetians, simultaneously accusing them and begging them to stop the wars in Italy and concentrate all their forces on the fight against the Antichrist.

However, no Crusade ever happened. And although the sovereigns eagerly caught reports of the death of Constantinople, and writers composed sorrowful elegies, although the French composer Guillaume Dufay wrote a special funeral song and it was sung in all French lands, no one was ready to act. King Frederick III of Germany was poor and powerless, since he had no real power over the German princes; Neither politically nor financially he could participate in the Crusade. King Charles VII of France was busy rebuilding his country after a long and ruinous war with England.

The Turks were somewhere far away; he had more important things to do in his own home. For England, which suffered even more than France from the Hundred Years' War, the Turks seemed an even more distant problem. King Henry VI could do absolutely nothing, since he had just lost his mind and the whole country was plunging into the chaos of the Wars of the Roses. None of the kings showed any further interest, with the exception of the Hungarian king Ladislaus, who, of course, had every reason to be concerned. But he had a bad relationship with his army commander. And without him and without allies, he could not dare to undertake any enterprise.

Thus, although Western Europe was shocked that a great historic Christian city had fallen into the hands of infidels, no papal bull could motivate it to action. The very fact that the Christian states failed to come to the aid of Constantinople showed their clear reluctance to fight for the faith if their immediate interests were not affected.

The Turks quickly occupied the rest of the empire. The Serbs were the first to suffer - Serbia became a theater of military operations between the Turks and Hungarians. In 1454, the Serbs were forced, under the threat of force, to give up part of their territory to the Sultan. But already in 1459, all of Serbia was in the hands of the Turks, with the exception of Belgrade, which remained in the hands of the Hungarians until 1521. The neighboring kingdom of Bosnia was conquered by the Turks 4 years later.

Meanwhile, the last vestiges of Greek independence gradually disappeared. The Duchy of Athens was destroyed in 1456. And in 1461, the last Greek capital, Trebizond, fell. This was the end of the free Greek world. True, a certain number of Greeks still remained under Christian rule - in Cyprus, on the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas and in the port cities of the continent, still held by Venice, but their rulers were of a different blood and a different form of Christianity. Only in the south-east of the Peloponnese, in the lost villages of Maina, into the harsh mountain spurs of which not a single Turk dared to penetrate, was a semblance of freedom preserved.

Soon all Orthodox territories in the Balkans were in the hands of the Turks. Serbia and Bosnia were enslaved. Albania fell in January 1468. Moldavia recognized its vassal dependence on the Sultan back in 1456.

Many historians in the 17th and 18th centuries. considered the fall of Constantinople to be a key moment in European history, the end of the Middle Ages, just as the fall of Rome in 476 was the end of Antiquity. Others believed that the mass flight of Greeks to Italy caused the Renaissance there.

- heir to Byzantium

After the death of Byzantium, Rus' remained the only free Orthodox state. Rus was one of the most glorious deeds of the Byzantine church. Now this daughter country was becoming stronger than its parent, and the Russians were well aware of this. Constantinople, as was believed in Rus', fell as punishment for its sins, for apostasy, having agreed to unite with the Western Church. The Russians vehemently rejected the Union of Florence and expelled its supporter, Metropolitan Isidore, imposed on them by the Greeks. And now, having preserved their Orthodox faith unsullied, they found themselves the owners of the only state that had survived from the Orthodox world, whose power was also constantly growing. “Constantinople fell,” wrote the Metropolitan of Moscow in 1458, “because it apostatized from the true Orthodox faith. But in Russia this faith is still alive - the Faith of the Seven Councils, which Constantinople passed on to Grand Duke Vladimir. There is only one true Church on earth – the Russian Church.”

After his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor from the Palaiologan dynasty, the great Moscow Ivan III declared himself heir to the Byzantine Empire. From now on, the great mission of preserving Christianity passed to Russia. “The Christian empires have fallen,” the monk Philotheus wrote in 1512 to his master, the Grand Duke, or Tsar, Vasily III, “in their place stands only the power of our ruler... Two Romes have fallen, but the third stands, and there will be no fourth... You are the only Christian sovereign in the world, ruler over all true faithful Christians.”

Thus, in the entire Orthodox world, only the Russians derived some benefit from the fall of Constantinople; and for the Orthodox Christians of the former Byzantium, groaning in captivity, the consciousness that in the world there was still a great, albeit very distant sovereign of the same faith as them, served as consolation and hope that he would protect them and, perhaps, someday come save them and restore their freedom. The Sultan-Conqueror paid almost no attention to the fact of the existence of Russia.

Russia was far away. Sultan Mehmed had other concerns much closer to home. The conquest of Constantinople certainly made his state one of the great powers of Europe, and henceforth it was to play a corresponding role in European politics. He realized that Christians were his enemies and he needed to be vigilant to ensure that they did not unite against him. The Sultan could fight Venice or Hungary, and perhaps the few allies the pope could muster, but he could fight only one of them at a time. No one came to the aid of Hungary in the fatal battle on the Mohacs Field. No one sent reinforcements to the Johannite Knights to Rhodes. No one cared about the loss of Cyprus by the Venetians.

Constantinople of the 11th-12th centuries is a pearl of the Mediterranean, a center of culture, music and architecture. The wealth and luxury of this city amazed any traveler. Such splendor of palaces, fountains, sculptures and temples was not found at that time in any of the European and Asian cities. The population of this city was many times greater than that of any other. Poets, musicians, writers, chroniclers, sculptors and artists from all over the world flocked here. In addition, science was developed here. There were many schools, seminaries and even a university. Trade and agriculture flourished, and the diversity and skill of the local artisans was known far beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire. For these reasons, Constantinople was not only the subject of admiration of other nations, but also the subject of their envy. His wealth more than once became the object of desire and raids. But, nevertheless, he stood like an ancient Greek colossus, hiding his great wealth and knowledge behind huge fortress walls, protecting him from the hostile and envious outside world.
But the dawn of the Byzantine Empire gave way to its decline. The reason for this was the crusades of European rulers against Jerusalem. The first wake-up call for the Byzantines was the First Crusade. In July 1096, the first crusaders appeared in the vicinity of Constantinople. Mostly they were peasants. Poorly armed, hungry and tired, they went not only for the sake of a religious idea - to return shrines to Christians, but also fled from a difficult life in search of heavenly paradise. They were led by the monk Peter the Hermit. The Byzantine Emperor Alexei Komnenos, despite the unrest and looting that began, still managed to quickly transport thousands of crusaders across the Bosporus, thereby avoiding more serious consequences.
Having been defeated at Nicaea, the crusaders returned. Some of them remained near Constantinople to wait for reinforcements. And in December of the same year it arrived. This was no longer a peasant militia, but real soldiers led by German knights. They were led by Godfrey of Bouillon. Tension between the Crusader army and the Byzantines increased and reached its climax in April 1097, resulting in an open clash. The battle was fought in the vicinity and on the fortress walls of the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This time, thanks to the emperor's personal guard and generous gifts, the Byzantines managed to defeat their opponents. The remainder of the crusader army went to the holy land.
And again Western knights and armed pilgrims came to Byzantine soil. Robberies, arson and other outrages committed by the “holy army” began again. Led by Raymond of Toulouse, after long negotiations and many generous gifts, the crusaders took the oath to the emperor and became his vassals. And in the spring of 1097 they continued their journey to the holy land. In June 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders. Having taken the city, they committed a real massacre. This should have been a warning to the Byzantines that the crusaders would stop at nothing in their quest for power and wealth. But the rulers of Byzantium did not pay due attention to this.
For half a century, peace and prosperity reigned in the Byzantine Empire. But that was just the calm before a new storm. The Pope declared the Second Crusade. And on September 10, 1147, an army of crusaders, consisting mainly of Germans and French, reappeared under the walls of Constantinople. Emperor John Komnenos managed, with the help of force, diplomacy and money, to persuade them to leave the Byzantine lands and go further on a campaign. But robberies, violence and fires could not be avoided this time either. And relations with the newly emerged crusader states became even more hostile.
The death of Emperor Manuel Komnenos led in 1180 to a struggle for the throne. And in 1181 this resulted in violent street riots and bloodshed. Added to the struggle for the throne was the discontent of the people with large extortions, corruption, and the dominance of foreign mercenaries, artisans and merchants. As a result of the Crusades, there were many Western foreigners. And they began to oppress the local residents. Because of this, many artisans and merchants began to lose income. There were more than 60 thousand Italians alone. The influence of the Genoese and Venetians was also great, both in trade and in military terms. At the same time, foreigners behaved defiantly and treated the Byzantines with contempt. The people were tired of them, they needed a man who would return control of trade and craft to the Byzantines. Such a person in the eyes of the Byzantines was Andronikos Komnenos, who was the cousin of the deceased emperor. In the spring of 1182, a popular revolt occurred. The Byzantines destroyed the houses of officials and foreigners. They killed the Latins themselves, sparing neither the elderly, nor women, nor children. Rich foreign neighborhoods, ships, churches, hospitals, schools burned. Few managed to escape. But those who managed to leave the city before the pogrom began, in retaliation, burned and ravaged Byzantine villages on both sides of the Bosporus and called on the West to avenge their brothers.
The pogrom of the Latin foreigners allowed Andronikos to ascend the throne in 1183 on a wave of popular rejoicing. This year began the brutal suppression of dissent. All these events further worsened relations between Europe and Byzantium.
Jerusalem was taken by Saladin and the Third Crusade began in 1189. It was headed by Frederick I Barbarossa. The crusaders did not achieve much success, limiting themselves to only local clashes with the Byzantines in the Balkans.
Pope Innocent III, who proclaimed the Fourth Crusade, wanted Byzantium to renounce its independence in faith and accept the Roman Catholic faith. But the emperor refused. This turned the West even more against Byzantium. Driven by hatred and thirst for unprecedented profit, the crusaders moved towards Constantinople. Along the way, they captured and plundered the Hungarian city of Zadar. The right moment for an attack on the Byzantine capital was another palace coup. Emperor Isaac II of the Angel dynasty was overthrown by his brother Alexios III. The son of Isaac II, Alexei, wanting to return the throne, concluded an agreement with the crusaders, promising them untold riches.
In June 1203, the Crusader fleet entered the Golden Horn almost unhindered, setting up camp near the Blachernae Palace. The fleet of the Byzantines themselves at that time was small (since the Byzantine emperors relied on the mercenary fleet of the Venetians) and could not prevent this. After the capture of several towers and part of the fortress wall by the crusaders on July 17, the emperor fled and his army capitulated. The people freed Isaac II, but the crusaders, not wanting to lose the promised riches, proclaimed Alexei emperor. This led to the simultaneous reign of two emperors. In order to pay off the crusaders, Emperor Alexei increased taxes from the population.
As a result of dissatisfaction with the emperor among the people, a revolt began at the beginning of 1204, which brought Alexei Murchufla to power. The Crusaders did not openly oppose this. But they felt more and more confident that they were masters of the situation, making predatory forays into the city. Soon they concluded an agreement on the division of Byzantium with the Venetians. In April of the same year, the crusaders, led by Boniface of Montferrat, began an assault on the city from the Golden Horn. Despite desperate resistance, they managed to break into the city. One part of the army took the walls by storm, and the other, having made a breach in the wall, rushed inside. Alexey Murchufl fled the city. The city's defenders lost. Fires started, destroying two-thirds of the city. The crusaders raped, killed, robbed everyone. The city was choking with blood. Many architectural monuments were destroyed, ancient manuscripts were burned, temples and palaces were looted, and shrines were desecrated.
The capture of Constantinople by the crusaders was a real collapse of the great Byzantine culture, which even decades later could not restore its former greatness. Having gained power over Constantinople for decades, the crusaders began to export everything valuable from it to Europe. After the fall of the capital, the city of Nicaea became the center of Byzantine culture. And the Byzantine Empire fell apart into many small states. The Crusaders founded the Latin Empire, the capital of which was Constantinople. Venice received several cities on the coast of the Sea of Marmara and the city of Galata. The rest was made up of the Latin Principality of Morea, the Nicaean Empire (which later became the center of resistance to the invaders), the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus.
More than half a century later, after several unsuccessful battles, the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, having secured the support of Genoa and the Seljuk Sultanate, marched on Constantinople. In the summer of 1261, the main forces of the Latin Emperor Baldwin II were on a campaign. This was a good moment for the siege of the city. Having penetrated the city, a small detachment managed to open the gates and let the main forces, led by Alexei Stratigopoulos, into the city. Emperor Baldwin II fled, and Michael VIII was proclaimed emperor of the Byzantine Empire, which lasted for almost two more centuries.