Alexius III. Angelus (1195–1203), was as wasteful, as profligate, and as incompetent as his brother, pillaging his subjects to reward the conspirators who had helped him to the throne. Rebellions broke out in the provinces, and the Venetians and Pisans fought out their feuds in the streets of the capital. The efforts to reconquer Bulgaria proved abortive, and the Turks of Roum again threatened the heart of the Empire. The utter feebleness of the Byzantine power tempted the Emperor Henry VI. to re-enact the part of Robert Guiscard and Roger. His death postponed, without averting, the danger of Western conquest. Philip of Swabia was the brother-in-law of the deposed Isaac, and welcomed his son Alexius, when he escaped in a Pisan ship from his ill-guarded prison. The Venetians, though loaded with privileges, clamoured for more. It was just at the moment when the anarchy of Constantinople had reached its height that the army of Crusaders, collected from all Europe by the zeal of Innocent III. and the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly, appeared at Venice, waiting to take ship thence in the vessels of the republic for the Holy Land. The golden age of the Crusades was now over. The difficulties that limited the success of the Third Crusade now prevented even the undertaking of a new one on the same grand lines. The long efforts of Celestine III. to start a new Crusade had borne little fruit. [Sidenote: The mustering of the Fourth Crusade, 1198–1202.] Fulk of Neuilly began his preaching very soon after Innocent III.’s accession to the Papacy, and the new Pope warmly supported him. But none of the great princes of Europe responded to his call. It was not until 1201 that the beginnings of a crusading army was gathered together under leaders more of the status of the heroes of the First Crusade than of those of the Second or Third. Theobald III., Count of Champagne, was not deterred by his brother Henry’s death from striving to redeem his brother’s lost kingdom. Among the lords of Champagne that attended him was his marshal, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, who has left us a famous account of the expedition. Among Theobald’s companions of high rank were his kinsman Louis, Count of Blois, and his sister Mary, who accompanied her husband, Baldwin IX., Count of Flanders, Baldwin’s brothers Eustace and Henry, and Simon of Montfort, soon to become famous as the leader of the Albigensian Crusade. Theobald of Champagne was appointed general-in-chief, and it was resolved to attack Egypt, as the real centre of the Ayoubite power. Early in 1201, ambassadors of the Crusaders, conspicuous among whom was Villehardouin, appeared at Venice to negotiate with the Republic as to their means of transport. After lengthened negotiations a treaty was concluded between them and Henry Dandolo, the blind and aged, but still ardent, subtle, and active Doge. It was agreed that the Venetians should provide the necessary transports, with provisions for a year, and a convoy of fifty galleys.