The Fourth Crusade : event and context

Rather than another narrative account of the fourth crusade, this is an authoritative assessment of the historical significance of the fall of Constantinople in 1204, by one of the leading historians of the Crusades.

Offering a new perspective on the fourth crusade, Michael Angold looks at the development of Byzantine relations with the West in the crusading era, and relates the conquest to the failure of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the emergence of Venice, the Capetian religion of monarchy, and to the renewal of Byzantium.

He argues that as an event the fall of Constantinople was hugely significant, since it triggered the crystallisation of a series of developments that would mark the history of the later middle ages.

Market1204 is widely covered at undergraduate level.