Fourth Crusade. First assault on Constantinople. The French crusaders request to land above the Golden Horn so they can attack from land, as befits their rank as knights, and fight in a manner that makes them invincible. Doge Enrico Dandolo, however, insists on attacking the Golden Horn from the sea to take advantage of the Venetians’ skill in transforming their ships into formidable war machines. The knights are stopped by the Byzantine Varangian Guard, composed of Anglo-Saxon and Danish mercenaries. Meanwhile, the Venetians, attacking from the sea, seize several towers of the mighty walls. The Doge, despite his age (over eighty) and blindness, stands fully armed at the bow and shouts to his sailors to bring him ashore. He is carried to a tower with the Venetian flag, amidst clouds of stones and arrows. Soon, twenty-five towers are in Venetian hands. Dandolo orders the houses beneath the walls to be set on fire; the wind does the rest, and soon a wall of flame engulfs the city and protects the Venetians. He then sends captured horses and hundreds of soldiers to aid the French in the northwest. The Byzantine Greeks accept the imposition of Alexios the Younger as their ruler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth Crusade. First assault on Constantinople. The French crusaders request to land above the Golden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vg-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n