What was the greatest military disaster of medieval time? First, there was the 2nd greatest military disaster the Battle of Manzikert. The intricate Empire had long agene been at war with the advancing Muslim Empires and faced off in a massive battle in 1071. This battle was a disaster for the Byzantines.
It was such a disaster that the intricate Emperor was captured alive by the Muslims and the Army that defended Byzantium was entirely crushed. The Muslims would take Anatolia, the heartland the intricate Empire, and deal a serious blow to the formerly proud Roman Empire.
A numerous times subsequently Alexios I Komnenos ascends to the throne in Constantinople and decides he needs to recapture Anatolia. To do this he asks the Pope for military help. The Pope, Pope Urban, was presently in a political fight with the Holy Roman Empire and decided he could use this request to unite Europe around him. So the Pope calls for a crusade to recapture the Holy Land and it works better than anticipated.
Alexios wanted a numerous thousand knights to help reconquer Anatolia, what showed up was, 000 legionnaires and no lower than 8 Lords hell- bent on conquering Jerusalem. The crusaders were ferried into Anatolia, recaptured the region, and also conquered Jerusalem. Alexios was happy( sorta) and the Christians were excited it sounded as though this was “ god’s will ” and the drives were legitimized.
Also more drives were called. First, they were aimed at securing the Christian Crusader businesses and subsequently they were aimed at recovering Jerusalem once it was lost. While all this was passing the Byzantines made peace with the Muslims. This led to the Byzantines turning on the crusaders out of a desire to maintain peace.
It’s now 1198 and Pope Innocent III has mounted to the Papacy. He begins to call for another crusade to recapture Jerusalem. At this point, the intricate Empire was not going to let any crusaders move across their lands to pierce Muslim home but that was ok because the Christians planned to incursion Egypt, crush the heartland of the Ayyubid Dynasty, and also easily recapture Jerusalem.
The crusade was called and the drives leader commissioned the Venetians to make a Navy to ferry, 000 men to Egypt. The Venetians erected this Navy but also only, 000 crusaders showed up. The crusaders could not go this new line and that was a problem. The Venetians were willing to forgive the debt if the crusaders took a slight diversion and recaptured the previously Venetian City of Zara. So the crusade set out to siege and conquer a unqualified Christian municipality.
The Pope was FURIOUS and excommunicated the Venetians, the crusaders, and the crusade’s leaders. multitudinous crusaders went home but multitudinous farther hung around not sure what to do. At this point the son of a deposed intricate Empire, also named Alexios( Alexios IV) met with the crusaders. He offered them capitalist and military support in their crusade if they just overthrew the current intricate Emperor and put Alexios on the throne.
The crusaders agreed and soon they laid siege to Constantinople. In a short time, the current Emperor fled and Alexios IV was established as Emperor. Alexios IV took the throne, looked around, and realized the Empire was busted . He paid the crusaders what little he could and promised more was coming. The crusaders meanwhile hung around staying for their engaged support and payment.
Also Alexis is overthrown in a palace achievement and Constantinople closed its gates to the crusaders. The crusaders were lurid and decided that they would take what they were promised. They laid siege to Constantinople and also took the famed municipality. The capital of the Christian world( arguably) was sacked and the intricate Empire was divided among the crusade’s leaders. nothing ever really made it to Egypt after all.
Constantinople was the 2nd Capital of Christian Europe. It was the wall that defended Europe from the Muslims and it was perhaps the most important municipality in all of Europe. A crusade, called for the purpose of overrunning Muslim Egypt, had just sacked the most important municipality in all of Christendom.
After a while, the intricate Empire would reform and recapture Constantinople but the damage was done. The Byzantines would Norway recover from what happened and was ever weakened by this disaster. When the Benches came knocking a numerous decades subsequently the intricate Empire plodded to survive and eventually would fall.
The irony here is not lost on any of us. The drives were started in part by a intricate Emperor and these same drives would come to crush that truly same Empire. also, the drives, which were meant to gain Jerusalem, would indeed open the door for the Muslims to begin their domination of Europe.
