Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople (Annotated Version)

Description

A crusade launched to recover Jerusalem ended by conquering the largest Christian city in the world.

Geoffrey of Villehardouin, marshal of Champagne, was there from the beginning. He helped negotiate the 1201 treaty that hired Venice to carry the army, sat in the councils that turned it against Zara and then Constantinople, and saw both sieges, the sack of April 1204, and the crowning of the first Latin emperor. His plain, soldierly chronicle is the fullest near-contemporary account from inside the crusader leadership: the debts, the votes, the amphibious assault on a fortified capital, and the decisions made under pressure.

This edition presents Frank T. Marzials’s 1908 translation with a new introduction by Jim Pitrat on how an army bound for Egypt ended up inside the walls of Constantinople, and why Villehardouin’s account still matters. It adds 499 numbered paragraphs, 239 notes for readers of military history, a glossary of persons and places, a chronology from 1187 to 1207, and maps. It is the first volume in the Crusades series from Edge Weaver Legacy.