There were gained some brilliant victories, but
dissensions divided the armies, and at last a truce was made with the
Mohammedans. It is true that these victories made the crusaders
masters of the sea-coast, but, when the armies departed, the Christian
king found himself in possession of cities which he was unable to
garrison, and which he felt would be held only by the sufferance of
the enemy.
THE FIFTH CRUSADE.
48. In the year 1203 a new crusade was set on foot, commanded by
several of the most powerful nobles of Italy and France. Instead of
marching at once against the infidels, the crusaders suffered
themselves to be drawn into a contest with the Greek empire. Just at
this time the emperor of the Greeks had been deposed and deprived of
his eyes by his own brother. His son, Alexius, fled to Europe, and
petitioned the assistance of the Latin princes against the usurper,
promising in return to use his efforts to bring about a union of the
Greek with the Latin church, and to employ all the resources of his
kingdom against the infidels of Syria. The temptation of such a
prospect could not be resisted; the crusaders marched into Greece,
laid siege to Constantinople, and took the city by storm A. D. 1204,
thereby establishing Latin Christianity in the eastern metropolis, but
at what a cost. Neither the works of God nor man were respected by the
invaders; they vented their brutal ferocity upon the one, and
satisfied their avarice upon the other.
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