4th Crusade facts
While investigating facts about 4th Crusade, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The 4th crusade, which intended to capture Jerusalem, never arrived at its intended target but instead took a detour and sacked Constantinople, the largest and wealthiest christian city in the world.
The 4th crusade from 1202-1204 ad. It was commissioned to take back Jerusalem from Muslim control , and take down the Egyptian Sultanate, but all that happened, was the crusaders sacked Christian controlled Constantinople, and got excommunicated.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 5 of the best facts about 4th Crusade I managed to collect.
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In 2004 Pope John Paul II formally apologized for the 4th Crusade's barbaric 1204 sack of Constantinople. Ironically this Crusade, destined for Egypt, only succeeded in destroying its one ally and only Christian power in the Middle East.
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The Latin Massacre. Gang warfare in Constantinople between different Italian city states that eventually lead to the native Greeks slaughtering all of them by the tens of thousands, which in turn lead to the 4th crusade and the Latin conquest of the Byzantine empire.
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There was a running gag in Venice after the 4th crusade that the Doge was "more emperor than the emperor" because he owned more of the land than the Byzantine emperor. To which the Doge would respond "de jure and not de facto".
