The Great Betrayal: The Great Siege of Constantinople

 

The Great Betrayal: The Great Siege of Constantinople by Ernle Bradford

It happens. Not often, but it happens.  I’ll buy a book based on its cover and title, without knowing anything about the historical event, and I’ll end up feeling much more learned, enriched, and educated. I come away with a sense of victory that I ‘accidentally’ discovered a great book.  This book was a highly interesting and informative read; so much so that I’m tempted to scoop up other works by the author.  That’s not to say that the subject matter within these pages is pleasant.  No, far from it.  But history is history and, if anything, you would hope that people would learn from past mistakes.

The topic of this book is the Fourth Crusade that took place in the very early years of the thirteenth century.  Actually, a more appropriate description would be the diversion of the Fourth Crusade.  The crusaders and their escorts never arrived at their intended destination.  We read, though, that this was planned all along by the insiders.   The crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III.  The intention was to “convert the heathen” in neighboring Egypt and Syria.  I’m assuming the reader of this review knows a bit about the crusades, so I’ll just mention that they were an embarrassing part of Christian history. We now know better, but we weren’t always as smart.

The pope enlists the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo and his legion of Venetians to lead the crusade and the actual crusaders.  The issue is, unbeknownst to the pope, Dandolo has already made an agreement with the Moslems in Egypt not to invade, and he’s not about to go back on his word.  Instead, he conjures up a far more lucrative scheme.  He instead sets his sights on the Byzantium Empire, specifically the city of Constantinople.  Constantinople, though, is also Christian.  So why attack neighboring Christians?  Well, it seems that there’s an exiled “pretender” to the Byzantium throne known as Alexius.  Alexius makes a deal with Dandalo – restore him to the throne, and he’ll ensure Dandalo will reap a sea of riches.  Well, who can refuse an offer like that?  Especially since the 80-year old blind Dandolo cares much more about money than a crusade.  So the journey begins.

I won’t go into any more plot details, but the story itself is quite enthralling.  In fact, I’m surprised that Netflix or any other movie or television producer hasn’t snatched up this story (to my knowledge).   It would be quite a ratings grabber if done right.  The length of this book seemed just about right – only 200 pages or so.  That may seem a bit small, but that was really all that was needed.

What makes this tale much more tragic is that the author really hits home with his readers the beauty and majesty of the Byzantine empire before it was sacked.  He goes into quite a bit of detail with the descriptions of the many aspects of the culture, and this clearly came across as the place to be if one were alive at the time.  It’s sad when one reflects that, due to this event, a multitude of writings and works of art were destroyed and therefore lost to history.  Again, you wouldn’t think Christians would go to war with other Christians, but one only has to view the modern day barking among the divisions, no matter how minor they may be, and it sadly doesn’t come across as that surprising upon reflection.  It should point out that the Byzantine Empire was considered “Eastern” and the Roman Empire was known as “Western”, and there were some apparent divisions of the two factions.  Still, though, the idea of “conquering” the East by the West was not what Pope Innocent III had in mind at all.

What’s even sadder, is the ravaged Constantinople is never really able to lick its wounds, and is therefore vulnerable to the Turkish invasion that would take place two and a half centuries later. This essentially sealed its historic fate for good.  (What was once known as Constantinople is now Istanbul, Turkey.)

So, no, not a happy tale, but one well told.  I never felt overwhelmed by too many names, or swamped under with too much meticulous detail.  The author did a great job with pacing the narrative.  In addition to telling the linear story, he sets up the main players well by giving us plenty of background and history before the actual event commenced.  If you’re like me, not only will you enjoy this book, but you’ll learn a whole lot of history as well.