Chapter 308 The mastermind behind the scenes
Innocent III, who was just elected as the Bishop of Rome in 1196, naturally did not have as much authority as the day after tomorrow.
In fact, this will take until he uses the special status of the Pope twice in a row to interfere with the succession of the throne of Shinra and Britain.
During his tenure, he achieved the "success" of the Fourth Crusade, and promoted the Alby Crusade to attack the entire southern end of France.
Combined with the Northern Italy region at that time, we hope to rely on the authority of the Pope to fight against the authority of Emperor Shenluo.
He then used the Fourth Rutland Conference to bring his power to the top and became a "demigod".
Innocent III's original name, Lotario de Conte, was born in 1161. He became the cardinal at the age of 27. He was elected as the pope at the age of 37 and wore the triple crown.
For the advanced selection mechanism of Catholicism, Innocent III is not the youngest pope.
But compared to most old guys who have to be 50 or 60 before they have the chance to become the pope, he is a little too young and strong.
For the energetic and ambitious Innocent III, he naturally would not be abusive to being independent in Jerusalem. In his opinion, this provided another reaffirmation of the authority of the Pope Chance.
But unlike the previous two crusaders, the Fourth Crusader did not receive a positive response from various European monarchs.
The German emperor was busy competing with the ambitious Innocent III in northern Italy, while England and France were still fighting endlessly.
As for the Iberian Peninsula, that is, the Spanish region, it was still in the reconquest movement of melee with the Moors, and could not take action to participate in Eastern affairs at all.
On the contrary, when the French Earl of Champagne, Theoborde III, responded to the pope's call and began to organize another noble crusader.
After referring to the previous few crusading movements, we determined that long-distance land march was shit.
In 1198, various Crusaders sent envoys to Venice, Genoa and other city-states to negotiate a contract of transportation.
In the contract, the Earl of Champagne informed the merchants that he would organize a total of 30,000 people to participate in the expedition, hoping to rent 500 ships as escort warships and transport ships.
For this, the Crusader nobles were willing to pay 85,000 marks of silver, that is, 21.25 tons of silver as compensation.
A such a huge contract, even a maritime overlord like the Republic of Venice needs to concentrate on preparing for a whole year, during which it will limit its own trading capabilities.
Because the Republic of Venice had obtained a large amount of trade privileges through the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a stable commodity market, it naturally rejected the contract of the Earl of Champagne.
Instead, the Genoese, because the competition in the Levant region failed, regarded the Fourth Crusade as their chance to turn the tables.
So he agreed to the request of the Crusader nobles and was willing to provide ships for the Crusader.
The CEO of Genoa was naturally keenly aware that the Crusader nobles were unlikely to perform the contract.
In 1200, the Crusaders began to gather, with a total of only 12,000 men, including about 4,000 knights and eight,000 infantrymen.
Even silver, the Crusaders could only pay about 35,000 marks of silver, or about 8.75 tons.
Things were in an embarrassing situation. The Crusaders participated too few people and the crowdfunded silver could not fulfill their contract. Even after the Genoese forced themselves to plunder and distribute them again, they only charged 14,000 marks of silver.
This was disastrous for the Genoese, as they had stalled their business activities for almost two years and devoted themselves to the contract.
In addition, according to the contract, at least 15,000 people were about to fill the entire fleet, which was almost all the sailors Genoa could provide.
If the Fourth Crusade Movement is not held as scheduled, a city bankruptcy crisis will inevitably be inevitable.
Due to the breach of contract between the Crusaders, the dominance of the Crusaders was easily seized by the Genoese.
After that...
Just like the Venetians in history, they would not easily give up such a huge army, Genoa, as a maritime republic, began to use the huge continental army that he had never mastered before and began to do so for himself. commercial trade network makes profits.
It is unwise to put soldiers with only 12,000 people in the holy land and fight against the Kingdom of Jerusalem that defeated the Ayubic dynasty.
To be precise, even with the support of the Kingdom of Egypt, it is very likely to be a hard battle.
At this time, the Venetian, who was the main trade competitor in the Levant region, unexpectedly introduced a very special person to the Crusaders and the Genoese.
As he said this, Gerris paused for a moment and kept him in a silence.
The young Turkic man next to him was already full of curiosity and did not care about his situation of being tied up.
"Who?"
"Alexus Angelos."
The sky is already a little dim now, and after Gerris spits out the name, he scrapes up. A breeze.
Everyone present, whether it was the caravan or the original attacker, the Turks, were immersed in the story told by Gerris.
Unlike Gerris, as a businessman, Yusuf certainly needed to care about all kinds of news, but his energy was only concentrated on the Levant and had no way to worry about the Latin region.
And that young Turkic man was an Anatolian country bun. He said that the recent events in Asia Minor were OK, and there was rarely the opportunity to listen to the world like this today.
Especially, the storyteller now is the legendary Gerris, which is even more rare.
The other Turks who could understand Arabic have now given up their hostility and, while listening to Gerris's words, simply translated Gerris's words to their friends around them.
Everyone was immersed in Gerris's story and thought about the meaning of the name Alexius Angelos.
The name Alexius means defense or protection in Greek, and the most famous name is naturally Emperor Alexius, who saved the Eastern Empire from the crisis of destruction. The great emperor.
It is also Alexius I, the founder of the Komuning Dynasty, and one of the ancestors of Isabella.
Because of Alexus' greatness, the Greeks or Romans also began to be popular with this name.
Emperor Alexius almost broke the Eastern Empire and completely reshaped the political structure of the Eastern Empire.
Since he started, Constantinople began to become the arena of several noble families.
They are sometimes allied and sometimes hostile...
The Angelos family is one of them. The ancestor Constantine Angelos married the daughter of Emperor Alexius. , begin to step onto the stage of history.
Then, in 1185, 16 years ago, Isaac II Angelos overthrew the rule of the Komuning Dynasty and established a new dynasty.
Then…
The drama of a family ethics drama destroying an empire begins to take place.
Isaac II Angelos' elder brother, Alexius III, seized the throne of his younger brother and blinded him. The "Alexus Angelos" introduced to the Genoese was essentially the son of Isaac II.
It is the nephew of the current master of Constantinople, a child of His Majesty who is in trouble, who has the strong claim of the Eastern Empire.
The purpose of the Venetians introducing Alexus Angelos to the Genoese is actually very clear.
The Venetians needed to bring disaster to the east. As beneficiaries of the Levant trade and substantial ally of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they were naturally unwilling to see the Fourth Crusade, which really appeared on the land of the Levant.
The Genoese did not want to take the crusaders who had only assembled 12,000 people to the holy land.
With the emergence of Alexius Angelos, the new crusaders' goal seems obvious.
Alexus Angelos proposed that if the Crusaders were willing to sail to Constantinople, overthrow his uncle Alexus III Angelos (brother of Isaac II) Then Alexus Angelos was willing to pay the entire debt owed by the Crusaders to the Genoese and pay the Crusaders 200,000 mark silver.
In addition, after victory, he will provide 10,000 soldiers to the Crusaders, maintain 500 knights in the Holy Land, and send the Byzantine Navy to transport the Crusaders to Egypt to support the great cause of the Crusaders.
Not only that, in order to gain the support of the Pope, he also promised that when all this was done.
He will use his imperial emperor to force the Constantine church to recognize the Pope's authority.
No mistakes, one poem, one post, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one read!
After this, most of the other leaders of the Crusaders finally accepted the plan. As for the individual opponents, they began to go to Egypt, intending to support the Egyptian Crusaders' holy war against the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Innocent III, who received the news, carried out all obstacles except for substantial obstacles, and he did not even conduct clear, harsh and clear condemnation.
In short, Innocent III acquiesced.
"In this way, the Venetians, Genoeses, the Apostle's Crown, the Earl of Champagne... They weave a net of heaven and earth, sprinkled onto the city of desire in the world."
"Exactly Said Constantinople, which is the cause of everything."
Geris finished talking about the origin of the Fourth Crusade and why it ended up near Constantinople Log in.
At this time, the young Turkic man next to him suddenly had something to say.
"First, sir...this..."
Just like the star-chasers in later generations saw their idols, young people thought of a problem and wanted to speak, but they were a little incoherent.
"Slow down, don't worry, by the way, what's your name?"
Geris asked casually, letting the other party slow down.
"Ah, Arslan!"
After hearing this name, Garys subconsciously twitched the corner of his mouth.
It was like Alexus everywhere in the Romans since the reorganization of the empire by Alexus.
As the second sultan of the Seljuk Empire, Mohamed bin Dawood Chagler.
He defeated the Eastern Empire in the Battle of Manchikot, causing the Seljuk Turks to successfully seize the Roman land, so that they were respected by the Turks as Alp Arslan, which is the heroic Lion Queen.
All ethnic groups in the Near East that have some Turkic culture have begun to flood the name Arslan.
Gerris himself had met no less than five Arslans, one of whom was even the supreme leader of Copo, the kingdom of Jerusalem.
Putting aside the question of the name, Garys signaled the other party to calm down and told him his own problem.
"Sir, this Fourth Crusader was going to run to Jerusalem, right?"
"Yes."
"Then now go Constantinople, can this... be understood as, sir, you actually benefited from it? ”
Of course, Arslan didn't say something directly, and he even doubted whether Gerris had also made a move in the conspiracy.
Arslan naturally did not recognize Gerris as a prophet, but he was impressed by Gerris's great cause, so he naturally could not believe that Gerris's hands were particularly clean.
In this way, the Fourth Crusade was not actually a coincidence, but was planned from the beginning.
The Crusaders got a practical destination, the Genoese found new business opportunities, the Venetians avoided the chaos in the Holy Land, and Jerusalem could deal with one less enemy.
Even Innocent III had the opportunity to find a solution to the rise of the Jerusalem clan and gain religious authority.
In this way, only Constantinople and the wounded world of the Romans were achieved.
Arslan has a very flexible mind. He just didn't have the opportunity to access this information before, but now after thinking about what happened, he feels that Gerris, who seems approachable in front of him, is actually unfathomable.
Geris naturally did not directly answer Arslan's question, but his expression revealed a lot of information, which made Arslan wince.
"Then why did you appear here? It appears on this turbulent land?"
Arslan glanced at the land as he said the word turbulent.
Well, turbulence...Geographical turbulence is not just turbulence in the political situation.
"The wrath of the Lord has come to this city that claims to be the Second Roman. They blasphemed the holy images and tore the robes of the church, and they fought for purple with the sword of blood before the statue of Jesus. robe! ”
”Komunin and the emperors of Angelos trampled on the emblem of the double-headed eagle. ”
”Alexus’s golden promise has become false, the wicked The greed was better than Nero's tyranny, and the bishops sold the flock for thirty silver coins - wasn't this exactly the reappearance of Sodom on the Marmara Sea? "
" As the prophet Ezekiel saw The vision of the resurrection of dead bones, the stones shattered by Latin iron hooves will eventually reunite."
"The City of Seven Hills will be reborn from the fire!"
"So I'm here to recast the most exciting and exciting history."
Geris's one Because of the use of so many allusions, Arslan couldn't hear it clearly, but he just thought it was amazing.
Of course, what Gerris didn't say was related to the current situation in the Levant.
Now that the Kingdom of Jerusalem is confronting Egypt in the south, Gerris can easily help Jerusalem win, but he actually wants much more than that...
(This chapter ends)