The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople — Member Dossier (E-book, PDF)

Was the sack of Constantinople in 1204 a Venetian conspiracy two hundred years in the plotting, or an army with an unpayable debt stumbling from crisis to crisis until it had nowhere else left to go? This Member Dossier goes far beyond the free article on the site, working directly from three surviving eyewitness accounts — Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Robert de Clari, and the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates — and from the two-century historiographical fight between the "conspiracy theory" and the "theory of accidents," from Steven Runciman to Queller and Madden.

Inside: a full chronology from the 1201 Treaty of Venice to the 1261 fall of the Latin Empire, a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of how the debt at Venice led to the sack of a Christian city twice over, primary-source extracts correctly attributed, and a look at how the rupture still echoes in Pope John Paul II's 2001 and 2004 statements of regret to the Orthodox Church.

~2,600 words. Professionally formatted PDF e-book with table of contents and page numbers.

Read the free companion article: The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople

Members (€5/month) and Patrons (€10/month) get this dossier free via Patreon.