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Crusaders Against the Cross the Fourth Crusade Depicted in Orthodox-Slavonic Written Sources and Archaeological Evidence

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Crusaders Against the Cross the Fourth Crusade Depicted in Orthodox-Slavonic Written Sources and Archaeological Evidence Crusaders Against the Cross The Fourth Crusade Depicted in Orthodox-Slavonic Written Sources and Archaeological Evidence by Angel Dimitrov Trendafilov A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at the University of Canterbury, 2018 Abstract The Fourth Crusade was a unique event that stood out among all other Crusades. It was conceived as a victorious return of the warriors of Christ on a mission to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslim infidels, thus providing a much-needed lifeline to the overseas Christian kingdoms. But the Fourth Crusade actually ended with the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the largest Christian empire of the time, and the birth of the Latin Empire from the millennium-old ruins of Orthodox Byzantium. The consequences of the Fourth Crusade for the peoples of the Orthodox world have not been thorougly studied and there is a significant gap in the use of important written sources and archaeological data regarding the Fourth Crusade. This thesis makes use of Orthodox- Slavonic texts published only recently to explore the attitude of Orthodox nations towards the Crusade and the changes that had occurred in spiritual and everyday life after the fall of Constantinople. The thesis also analyses Latin written sources that inform our understanding of the diplomatic and religious infighting between the Latin Empire, Bulgaria, and the three Greek statelets that succeeded the Byzantine Empire. It includes the first English translation of some texts and traces the crusade’s impact on the daily life of the Orthodox nations using evidence obtained through little-known and unpublished archaeological data from dozens of settlements and fortresses in what is now southern Bulgaria, then part of the erstwhile Latin Empire. Combining archaeological evidence with all available written sources chronicling the campaign enables the fullest possible reconstruction of the Fourth Crusade. This approach recovers unknown facts, events, and battles involving the knights of the Fourth Crusade and corroborates the veracity of all the written sources about the Fourth Crusade by identifying and including archaeological artefacts discovered at locations described by mediæval chroniclers. Table of Contents CRUSADERS AGAINST THE CROSS .................................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................................... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................................... III LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................................. V LIST OF MAPS ................................................................................................................................................. IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................. X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. XI INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................1 PART I THE OMITTED WRITTEN SOURCES ...................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER I APPROACHES AND GAPS IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE............................ 15 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 STREAMS AND SCHOLARS ........................................................................................................................................ 16 EASTERN SCHOLARS ............................................................................................................................................... 29 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER II ..................................................................................................................................................... 37 THE GREAT SCHISM OF 1054 AS PRESENTED IN ORTHODOX WRITTEN SOURCES AND ITS LEGACY ON POLITICAL-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE ................................... 37 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 37 THE LOST BALANCE OF THE SCALES OF THE CHRISTIANITY ............................................................................................... 38 THE FIRST CRACKS .................................................................................................................................................. 41 THE POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE GREAT SCHISM AND THE RIGHT OF CHOICE .................................................................. 50 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................ 63 CHAPTER III THE FOURTH CRUSADE AS SHOWN IN ORTHODOX-SLAVONIC WRITTEN SOURCES ..................... 65 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 65 CONSTANTINOPLE: THE SPIRITUAL CAPITAL ................................................................................................................. 66 THE AFTERMATH OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE ................................................................................................................ 72 THE RISE AND THE FALL OF THE LATIN EMPIRE ............................................................................................................. 79 THE RIFT HAS TWO SIDES ......................................................................................................................................... 83 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................ 87 CHAPTER IV POLITICS OF THE CROSS VERSUS POLITICS OF THE SWORD: BULGARIA BETWEEN THE CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY ................................................................................................................... 89 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 89 RELIGION AS A MEANS FOR SELF-ASSERTION ................................................................................................................ 90 THE DIPLOMATIC GAME OF KALOYAN ........................................................................................................................ 96 THE HIDDEN INFORMATION BEHIND KALOYAN’S GRAVE ................................................................................................. 99 THE OBEDIENT SUCCESSOR .................................................................................................................................... 104 THE CHOICE OF IVAN ASEN II ................................................................................................................................. 107 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 116 CHAPTER V ................................................................................................................................................... 119 THREE KINGDOMS, ONE EMPIRE, AND ONLY ONE CAPITAL: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR VICTORY .......... 119 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 119 ТHE DESPOTATE OF EPIRUS ................................................................................................................................... 121 iii THE EMPIRE OF NICAEA ........................................................................................................................................ 127 THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND ................................................................................................................................... 134 THE SILENT RECONCILIATION IN CONSTANTINOPLE ..................................................................................................... 136 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 138 PART II THE ACCOUNT OF THE SILENT EYEWITNESSES OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE ........................................ 143 CHAPTER VI .................................................................................................................................................. 145 THE ARCHAEOLOGY: ‘TERRA INCOGNITA’ IN CRUSADERS HISTORIOGRAPHY: WHY IS ARCHAEOLOGY IMPORTANT? ..............................................................................................................................................
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