All wondered how this expedition would face the sea. Lord Geoffrey de Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne, was appointed to negotiate with Venice. So there he and his companions traveled by way of Mont Cenis pass, through the marquisate of Montferrat, through Piacenza, across the Lombard plain. During the first week of Lent they arrived to consult the venerable doge, Enrico Dandolo, who was by most accounts ninety years old and blind, or nearly so, requiring a groom to lead his horse. Some think he got his wound in a youthful brawl. Others say that when he visited Constantinople the Greeks put out his eyes with a burning glass. No matter that it happened fifty years ago, Venetians knew how Enrico Dandolo despised and hated Byzantium.
He greeted the Franks while seated on a throne draped with gold, a parasol overhead. The Franks offered letters of credence that authorized them to commit their principals. Enrico Dandolo instructed them to return in four days.
Anon the envoys stood before him and his Small Council, a council of six. My Lord, said the Franks, on behalf of those who have taken the cross, we come to you. In the name of God, consider the shame done to Jesus Christ in the land oversea. Whereupon they submitted to the doge and his council a request. Vessels adequate to transport four thousand five hundred knights with their chargers, nine thousand equerries, twenty thousand foot soldiers.
Enrico Dandolo replied that it was a serious matter needing much thought.
Eight days later he told them he would provide naves and usserii, these being ships for transporting men and horses, as well as supplies for one year. In exchange, ninety-four thousand marks. Also, Venice would provide fifty war galleys in exchange for one-half of what the Franks and Venetians together should gain through conquest. The fleet would prepare to sail on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. These conditions seemed reasonable to the Franks.
Then, as was customary, Doge Enrico summoned the popular assembly of ten thousand citizens. He spoke to them inside Saint Mark’s, explaining how this agreement would honor and benefit Venice. Next he invited the envoys to address the citizens. Lord Geoffrey spoke, saying the powerful barons of France had sent him and his colleagues to Venice because no other city on earth so thoroughly governed the sea. He implored Venetians to think upon Jerusalem, to recall how it was desecrated, violated. He fell on his knees, weeping miserably, joined by his comrades, and all vowed they would not get up unless their supplication was granted. Enrico Dandolo wept, as did others. Many stretched up their hands. And toward heaven went such a roar as shook the church.
We consent! We consent!
Although this agreement did not specify where the fleet should drop anchor it was assumed to be Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile, or perhaps Damietta, whence the Holy Land might be invaded. For good reason was Alexandria called the marketplace of two worlds and if Christians gained control of that port they might thrust a stake through the vitals of Islam. No longer would Babylon communicate by sea with Turks. Next, Jerusalem would fall.
Yet there was discord from the start. Many preferred to embark at Marseille. And when the barons gathered at Venice they had not money enough to pay for the ships. Common pilgrims and sergeants contributed. Still there was not enough. Then, said the Venetians, you must capture the port of Zara, which was wrongly taken from us by the king of Hungary. So after much consultation the barons agreed, albeit some did not think this right.
Doge Enrico Dandolo again spoke to a vast assembly in the church of Saint Mark. He praised the Franks, saying they were to embark upon the greatest conquest in the history of the world and if in their hearts they wished him to take the cross to guide and govern them, that would he do. With a single voice they beseeched Enrico Dandolo to lead, to guide and direct. Down he came from his reading desk and he went before the altar where he knelt, weeping through sightless eyes. They sewed a cross to the doge’s cotton hat because he wished all men to see it.
His Holiness Innocent, who thought they would assault Damietta or Alexandria, grew furious when he learned their destination and excommunicated them. It is related that he acted like a wild beast struck with an arrow that claws and bites the wound. Numerous pilgrims, too, felt troubled and quarreled among themselves. Robert de Clari speaks of this proposal to attack Zara as cruel and iniquitous because the inhabitants were Christian, also because the king of Hungary himself had taken the cross and made his land subservient to the pontiff. Thus, some who objected to pillaging and slaughtering fellow Christians decided to go home.
In October of that year 1202 the fleet departed. Forty Venetian naves for the transport of Jerusalemfarers. One hundred usserii for conveyance of animals. Sixty-two galleys. This according to the author of Devastatio, whose name is lost, perhaps a German or Italian in the service of Marquis Boniface. Nicetas Choniates, who would observe this fleet from a turret of Constantinople, counted more.
Each lord equipped his galley to please himself. All were light and swift and sleek, propelled by sixty benches of oarsmen, directed by two oars at the stern. Each carried forty to fifty armed sergeants, apart from oarsmen who themselves went armed. From the yard depended an iron spike to drop on enemy vessels and bilge them, while a pointed ram extended from the bow. Thus, each would cause the bravest man’s teeth to clatter. It is said that once upon a time galleys were constructed with three, four, five banks of oars one above another, stroking the sea at greater or lesser distance. When Augustus fought Antony during the battle of Actium
