The Ascension of Pope Innocent III in 1198 AD would be a stroke of good fortune for the Knights Templars. Pope Innocent was a powerful and influential leader, who would reign for eighteen years. He maintained an iron will towards establishing the Church as the supreme ruler of a theocratic hierarchy, in which all Christian kings would willingly submit themselves to the authority of the pope. Innocent protected the Templars, yet he ruled them with an equally firm hand. The Knights Templar became Pope Innocent's personal army, the militia of Christ, by which the pope would enforce his will and attain his goals. Among those goals would be the liberation of Jerusalem by calling for yet another Crusade.
In 1202, Pope Innocent preached a Fourth Crusade whose glory would be equal to that of the First Crusade. Egypt would be the initial target, as taking a leaf from the notes of King Richard. The army of the Fourth Crusade was led by various nobles deemed loyal to Pope Innocent, of whom Boniface of Montferrat was the overall leader. The Templars helped fund the European armies as they assembled and began to travel eastward. The Crusaders assembled in Venice from all across Europe, and from Venice the plan was to sail to Egypt.
The merchants of Venice had been enlisted to provide the required ships and passage arrangements for the army as well as to procure a year's supply of food. The Crusaders were unaware that the Venetians had also at the same time made a trade agreement with the sultan of Egypt, promising him that no European army would land in Egyptian territory. So the Venetians demanded of the Crusaders a price for their services. The Crusaders could not meet the demands of the Venetians, so the Venetians proposed a deal. If the Crusaders captured the Dalmatian port of Zara for Venice, the Venetians would then extend credit to them. Although Zara was a Christian city, the Crusaders agreed, and within five days, the Crusaders delivered the city of Zara to the Venetians. Pope Innocent was mortified at the shedding of Christian blood and excommunicated both the city of Venice and the Crusader army. However, after realizing that the army had been manipulated, the Pope lifted their excommunication.
Now, the Venetian leader Enrico Dandelo, had a long sanding grudge against Constantinople. Intent on winning Venetian dominion in the trade of the east, he all too well remembered his undignified exile from Constantinople when he had served there as an ambassador. So Dandelo in-sighted the conquest of the grand Byzantine city as a detour of opportunity for the Crusaders. They could stamp out the Orthodox Christian heresy and unite all of Christendom under the pope. They could also avail themselves of the legendary wealth of Constantinople to pay their Venetian debt. The Crusader leaders agreed and attacked Constantinople in 1204 AD. The city fell once the Crusaders managed to lower the massive chain which blocked the harbor of the Golden Horn. Sailing in with their fleet and attacking the sea walls and land walls simultaneously with siege engines and scaling ladders, even the elite Varangian Guard could not prevent the Crusaders from forcing their way into the city.
Once the Latin Christian soldiers had entered the Orthodox Christian city, wholesale looting and pillaging followed. The carnage and violence of theft would soon be accompanied by drunkenness, sacrilege, murder, and rape. Thousands were killed. In the aftermath the Byzantine territories were distributed between Venice and its allies. Pope Innocent's dream of a united Christianity was destroyed. The Fourth Crusade extinguished itself without even reaching the Holy Land. However, the Byzantine Empire would be reestablished in 1261 AD, when the Orthodox Christian forces of the Empire of Nicaea led by Michael VIII Palaiologos recaptured Constantinople.
References:
Adduson, C.G. The Knights Templars. (Forgotten Books, 2012).
Haag, M. The Templars: History & Myth. (London, England: Profile Books, 2008).
Robinson, J.J. Dungeon, Fire & Sword. (Lanham, Maryland: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc., 2009).
Wasserman, J. The Templars and the Assassins. (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2001).
