Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 308 The mastermind behind the scenes
Innocent III, who was just elected as the Bishop of Rome, that is, Pope in 1196, naturally did not have the tremendous power that he later had.

In fact, this had to wait until he used the Pope's special status twice to interfere with the succession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and Britain.

During his tenure, he achieved the "success" of the Fourth Crusade and facilitated the Albigensian Crusade, which led to a crusade across the southern tip of France.

Combined with the northern Italian region at that time, it was hoped that the Pope's authority would be used to counter the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor.

It was through the Fourth Lateran Council that he brought his power to the pinnacle and became a "demigod".

Innocent III's original name was Lotario de Conti. He was born in 1161. He became a cardinal at the age of 27 and was elected Pope at the age of 37, wearing the triple crown.

As far as the Catholic selection and advancement mechanism is concerned, Innocent III cannot be said to be the youngest Pope.

But compared to most old guys who have to wait until they are in their fifties or sixties to have the opportunity to become Pope, he is a little too young and strong.

For the energetic and ambitious Innocent III, he would naturally not tolerate Jerusalem's eccentricity. In fact, in his view, this provided another opportunity to reaffirm the authority of the Pope.

But unlike the previous two Crusades, the Fourth Crusade did not receive a positive response from European monarchs.

The German emperor was busy competing with the ambitious Innocent III in northern Italy, while England and France were still fighting.

As for the Iberian Peninsula, that is, the Spanish region, it was still in the period of the reconquest movement with the Moors and had no time to participate in Eastern affairs.

On the contrary, it was Theobald III, Count of Champagne in France, who responded to the Pope's call when organizing a tournament and began to organize another aristocratic crusade.

After consulting several previous crusades and deciding that long distance land marches were bullshit.

In 1198, various Crusader nobles sent envoys to Venice, Genoa and other city-states to negotiate transportation contracts.

In the contract, the Count of Champagne informed these merchant republics that he would organize a total of 500 people to participate in the expedition and hoped to rent ships as escort warships and transport ships.

For this, the Crusader nobles were willing to pay 21.25 marks of silver, or tons of silver, as compensation.

Such a huge contract would require even a maritime hegemon like the Republic of Venice to concentrate its efforts for a whole year to prepare, during which time its own trading capabilities would be limited.

Since the Republic of Venice had already obtained a large number of trade privileges and a stable commodity market through the Kingdom of Jerusalem, it naturally rejected the Count of Champagne's contract.

On the contrary, the Genoese, having failed in their competition in the Levant, saw the Fourth Crusade as an opportunity to turn the tables.

So he agreed to the request of the Crusader nobles and was willing to provide ships for the Crusaders.

The Chief Consul of Genoa was naturally keenly aware that the Crusader nobles were unlikely to fulfill this contract.

In 1200, the Crusaders began to gather, with a total of only people, including about knights and infantry.

Even for silver, the Crusaders could only pay about 8.75 marks of silver, or about tons.

The situation fell into an awkward situation. The number of participants in the Crusade was too small, and the silver raised by crowdfunding could not be fulfilled. Even after the Genoese forcibly plundered and distributed the money again, they only collected 14,000 marks of silver.

This is disastrous for Genoa, as they have suspended their commercial activities for almost two years to devote all their efforts to this contract.

In addition, according to the contract, at least 15,000 people were to fill the entire fleet, which was almost all the sailors that Genoa could provide.

If the Fourth Crusade does not take place as scheduled, a city bankruptcy crisis is inevitable.

Due to the Crusaders' breach of contract, the leadership of the Crusades was easily seized by the Genoese.

After that...

Just as the Venetians in history would not easily give up such a large army, Genoa, as a maritime republic, also began to use the large army that it had never controlled to profit from its own commercial trade network.

It would be unwise to send just over 12,000 soldiers to the Holy Land to fight the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had defeated the Ayyubid Caliphate.

To be precise, even with the support of the Kingdom of Egypt, it would most likely be a tough battle.

At this time, the Venetians, the main trade competitors in the Levant, unexpectedly introduced a very special person to the Crusader nobles and the Genoese.

At this point, Gaillis paused and kept the topic in suspense.

The young Turkic man standing nearby had a face full of curiosity, not caring at all about his hands and feet being tied up.

"Who?"

"Alexios Angelos."

The sky was already somewhat dim, and after Gailis uttered the name, a breeze blew.

Everyone present, whether the caravan or the original attackers, the Turks, were immersed in the story told by Gellis.

Unlike Gairis, as a businessman, Yusuf certainly needed to pay attention to various news, but his energy was only focused on the Levant and he had no time to worry about the Latin region.

The young Turk was an Anatolian bumpkin who was good at talking about recent events in Asia Minor, but he rarely had the opportunity to listen to the world like he did today.

This is even more rare now that the storyteller is the legendary Garys.

The other Turks who could understand Arabic now put aside their hostility and listened to Gairis's story while simply translating Gairis's words to their friends around them.

Everyone was immersed in Gellis's story and thought about the meaning of the name Alexios Angelos.

The name Alexios means defense or protection in Greek, and the most famous person with this name is naturally Alexios the Great, the great emperor who saved the Eastern Empire from the crisis of extinction.

That is Alexios I, the founder of the Komnenos dynasty and one of Isabella's ancestors.

Because of Alexios' greatness, the Greeks or Romans also began to popularize this name.

Alexius the Great almost destroyed the Eastern Empire at that time and rebuilt it from scratch, completely reshaping the political structure of the Eastern Empire.

From him, Constantinople began to become the arena for several noble families.

Sometimes they are allies, sometimes they are enemies...

The Angelos family is one of them. Its ancestor, Constantine Angelos, married the daughter of Alexios the Great and began to appear on the historical stage.

Then, in 1185, 16 years ago, Isaac II Angelos overthrew the Komnenos and established a new dynasty.

then……

The family ethics drama of destroying an empire begins to unfold.

Isaac II Angelos's elder brother, Alexios III Angelos, had seized his brother's throne and blinded him. The "Alexios Angelos" introduced by the Venetians to the Genoese was actually Isaac II's son.

That is, he is the nephew of the present master of Constantinople, the child of a fallen Majesty, and possesses a strong claim to the Eastern Empire.

The purpose of the Venetians introducing Alexios Angelos to the Genoese was actually very clear.

The Venetians needed to divert trouble away. As the beneficiaries of Levantine trade and de facto allies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they were naturally unhappy to see the Fourth Crusade actually appear on Levantine soil.

The Genoese did not want to go to the Holy Land with a crusaders force of only 12,000 men.

With the emergence of Alexios Angelos, the new crusade goal seemed obvious.

Alexios Angelos proposed that if the crusaders would sail to Constantinople and overthrow his uncle Alexios III Angelos (brother of Isaac II), then Alexios Angelos would be willing to pay off all debts owed to the Genoese and pay the crusaders 20 marks of silver.

In addition, after the victory he would provide the Crusaders with 1 soldiers, maintain 500 knights in the Holy Land, and send the Byzantine navy to transport the Crusaders to Egypt to support the Crusades.

Not only that, in order to gain the Pope's support, he also promised that when all this was completed.

He would use his position as emperor to force the Constantine Church to recognize the Pope's authority.

After this, most of the other leaders of the Crusaders finally accepted the plan. As for some individual opponents, they began to go to Egypt, intending to support the Egyptian Crusaders in their holy war against the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

When Innocent III received the news, he took all possible measures to stop it except for actual obstruction. He did not even make a clear, severe and clearly worded condemnation.

In short, Innocent III acquiesced.

"Thus, the Venetians, the Genoese, His Holiness the Apostle, the Count of Champagne... they wove a net that spread over the city of desire in the world."

"Constantinople, to be exact, was the victim. That's how it all started."

Gellis finished talking about the origins of the Fourth Crusade and why it eventually landed near Constantinople.

At this time, the young Turkic man next to him suddenly said something.

"Sir... this..."

Just like later generations of star-chasers meeting their idols, the young man thought of a question and wanted to speak, but his words were a little incoherent.

"Slow down, don't be impatient. By the way, what's your name?"

Garys asked casually, letting the other person take it slow.

"A-Arslan!"

After hearing the name, Garys twitched his mouth subconsciously.

Just as the Romans were full of Alexius ever since Alexius the Great reorganized the empire.

As the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire, Muhammad bin Dawood Qaglar.

He defeated the Eastern Empire in the Battle of Manzikert, allowing the Seljuk Turks to successfully seize Roman lands, so much so that he was honored by the Turks as Alp Arslan, which means the Brave Lion Queen.

The name Arsalan began to appear frequently among all ethnic groups in the Near East that had any trace of Turkic culture.

Gairis himself has met no less than five Arsalans, one of whom is even the current supreme leader of Tukopo of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Putting aside the question of the name, Gailis signaled the other party to calm down before telling him his problem.

"Sir, this, the Fourth Crusade, was originally going to head for Jerusalem, right?"

"Yes."

"Now that you have gone to Constantinople, can this... be understood as, sir, actually benefiting from it?"

Of course, there are some things Arsalan did not say directly. He even suspected that Gairis had also been involved in the conspiracy.

Arsalan naturally did not recognize Gairis as a prophet, but he was impressed by Gairis's great achievements, so he naturally could not believe that Gairis's hands were particularly clean.

In this way, the Fourth Crusade was not an accident, but was planned from the beginning.

The Crusaders gained a viable destination, the Genoese found new business opportunities, the Venetians avoided chaos in the Holy Land, and Jerusalem had one less enemy army to deal with.

Even Innocent III had the opportunity to make up for the rise of the Jerusalem sect and gain religious authority.

In this way, a world was achieved in which only Constantinople and the Romans were hurt.

Arslan had a very flexible mind. He just had no chance to access this information before. But now that he had figured out what was going on, he felt that the seemingly approachable Gairis was actually unfathomable.

Garys naturally did not directly answer Arsalan's question, but his expression revealed a lot of information, which made Arsalan flinch.

"Then why are you here? In this turbulent land?"

When saying the word turbulence, Arsalan glanced at the land.

Well, turbulence...geographical turbulence, not just political turbulence.

"The wrath of the Lord is like a raging wave, descending upon this city that calls itself the second Rome. They blasphemed the holy images, tore the vestments, and even fought for the purple robe with blood-stained swords in front of the statue of Jesus!"

"The emperors of Komnenos and Angros trampled the emblem of the double-headed eagle."

"Alexius's golden promises have become a lie, the greed of the wicked has surpassed Nero's tyranny, bishops have sold their sheep for thirty pieces of silver - is this not Sodom reborn on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara?"

“Just as the prophet Ezekiel saw the vision of dry bones coming back to life, the stones crushed by the Latin iron hoof will eventually come together again.”

"The City of Seven Hills will be reborn from the flames and blood!"

“So I’m here to recreate the most exciting and thrilling history.”

Arsalan could hardly hear clearly what Garys said because he used too many allusions, but he just thought it was very impressive.

Of course, what Gellis didn't say is related to the current situation in the Levant.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem is currently confronting Egypt in the south. Although Gairis can easily help Jerusalem win, he actually wants much more than that...

(End of this chapter)