The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06: (From Barbarossa to Dante)
Dante Alighieri · en
In the treaty arranged at the end of the Third Crusade
(1192) it was stipulated that all hostilities between the
Christians and the Moslems should cease. The Fourth Crusade
(1196-1197), which is sometimes considered merely as a
movement supplementary to the Third, forced renewed
hostilities, against the wishes of the Palestine Christians,
who preferred that the three-years' peace should continue.
The Fourth Crusade ended disastrously, those who remained
longest to prosecute it being finally cut to pieces at Jaffa
in 1197. The travellers returning to the West from Syria
besought immediate help for the Christian survivors there.
The Byzantine empire had fallen into decrepitude, and the
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced to a mere strip of
coast. Only by prompt action could it be hoped to save any
portion of it from complete wreck.
Innocent III, who became pope in 1198, well understood the
meaning of the Moslem triumphs. The four crusades had
already greatly extended the papal jurisdiction, and
Innocent himself was the moving spirit of the Fifth,
although an ignorant priest named Fulk also preached it with
a success almost equal to that of Peter the Hermit in the
first expedition. Vast numbers of warriors took the cross,
though no king and only a few minor princes joined them.
Most famous among the leaders were Boniface II, Marquis of
Montferrat, and Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders.