Crusade IV

Paper Summary:

This essay examines the writings of Villehardouin in, Joinville and Villehardouin, "Chronicles of the Crusades". Great care is taken in examining this work from a militaristic approach with regards to Villehardouin's merits, biases, and historical accuracy. While a familiarity with the time period and the Fourth Crusade is helpful in gaining full understanding of this work, care has been taken to make the text usable for the layman as well.

From the Paper:

"The fourth crusade can be said to begin in 1198 when pope Innocent III encouraged yet another crusade into the holy lands. The merits of this individual crusade make defining an ending date rather hard. Possible dates for ending this crusade could range from its roots in 1201 with the deal struck with the Venetians, to as late as 1311 when the last of the Franks were destroyed by rebellious mercenaries, but most likely falls sometime in between. Villehardouin's account takes in to consideration the relatively small, but vastly important amount of time from 1198 to 1207. From its onset the crusade seemed to be doomed. Its chosen leader, Theobald of Champagne died before the expedition even began. Of not is that Villehardouin, writing his words years later, doesn't connect the early misfortunes of the crusaders as signs of its eventual failure, though it is important to note that Villehardouin no where mentions that the crusade was a failure in anyway. Perhaps this is because of the rather abrupt ending to his book which may have been due to his death."

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