The words of Kyr Leo may come to pass, the scholar said. And the nobles listening to him were astonished.
They went to look at the column. Doge Enrico Dandolo now spoke up, saying that for a tall man such as Murzuphulus there should be high justice. Nor did anyone disagree.
On the day scheduled for execution a mighty crowd gathered to enjoy the spectacle. So there was Murzuphulus hoisted to the top of this pillar and forced to jump. They say every bone in his body shattered and demons swarmed on the mangled flesh to capture his soul.
As for Alexius who blinded his compassionate brother Isaac Angelus for love of a crown, he ended his days at peace in a Nicaean monastery. How mysterious the gaits and forms of providence. Yet we understand that God, Author of all things, is good.
Soon enough His Holiness Innocent found out more of what happened at Constantinople. Blasphemy. Rape. Murder. Theft. It is said he recalled the intent of Venetian merchants. He wrote again to Emperor Baldwin, his fury undisguised.
You undertook to liberate Jerusalem from bondage. You were forbidden under pain of excommunication from molesting Christians unless they refused you passage through their land. You were under the most solemn obligation, but disregarded your vows. You drew your sword not against infidels but against your own. You did not capture Jerusalem, but Constantinople. Your minds were set on earthly riches. But more than this, you held nothing sacred. You gave up yourselves to debauchery. You have violated married women, widows, virgins, even those whose lives were dedicated to Christ. You have stolen from the Emperor. You have stolen from citizens, rich and poor. You have desecrated sanctuaries of the Holy Church. You have stolen sacred icons. You have destroyed images and relics. Therefore it is no surprise that the Church of Greece, however lamentable, rejects obedience to the Holy See. Nor are we surprised that it perceives in you nothing but malevolence and the primacy of Satan.
The rage of His Holiness did not abate. He demanded to know why swords honed to shed pagan blood now dripped with the blood of Greeks. How was it that instead of seeking the purpose of Jesus Christ they had sought ends of their own? Had they not committed incest, adultery, fornication? Had they not plundered the treasuries of princes and churches? Had they not taken silver plates from altars and hacked and melted them? Had they not violated sacrosanct places? Had they not carried off inestimable relics? Furthermore, under what guise might the Church now beseech others to aid Jerusalem? For surely these Franks and Venetians deviated from their purpose by returning laden with booty, guiltless, absolved.
As for the Greeks, they sent word privily to the king of Vlachs and Bulgars, Johanitza, avowing they would make him emperor if he would rid Constantinople of these Latins. Johanitza had reason to hate the Franks. When he was young he was called John the Vlach and tended horses at the Greek court. If sixty animals were needed, or an hundred, he brought them. One day, according to Robert de Clari, a court eunuch struck him across the face with a whip. Nicetas Choniates asserts that it was not John but his older brother whom the eunuch punished. Whatever the fact, John left court burning with humiliation and returned to Vlachia. There he got a Coman wife and presently made himself lord of these Comans. He began conducting raids as far as the gates of Constantinople and the Greeks were afraid of him. And when the Franks besieged Constantinople he sent word that he would bring one hundred thousand warriors to help them take the city if they would make him king of Vlachia. The barons were surprised. After discussing it they sent word that they needed no help from Johanitza, nor did they care much for him. Further, they would cause him much harm if they could.
Johanitza appealed to His Holiness Innocent. And the pontiff reflected that he might gather these distant Vlachs, Comans, and Bulgars to the Latin church. Therefore he despatched Cardinal Leo with a diadem and scepter, with authority to crown Johanitza and to confer the dignity of primate on Basil, archbishop of Trnovo. All this according to papal missives dated the twenty-fifth of February in the year of our Lord 1204. Thus a provincial youth who had been a sergeant combing horses acquired a throne. He did not forget the court eunuch, nor the insult delivered by Frankish barons.
Now because a Latin empire had been inaugurated, and a Frank wore the crown of Greek emperors, there was tumult. The city of Adrianople revolted. Emperor Baldwin marched away to besiege the city when all at once here came Johanitza with a multitude of Coman warriors. These savages drink milk and live in tents and do not worship anything except the first animal they see in the morning. Each warrior has eight or ten well-trained horses, which enables him to travel a huge distance without stopping by riding one horse after another. And wherever these people go they take captives. It is said the Franks laughed because the Comans wore sheepskin and resembled sheep, and joked that an army of sheep was threatening them. However, three hundred Frankish knights went to sleep in Christ while others retreated to the safety of Constantinople, Doge Enrico Dandolo among them, leaving the earth around Adrianople wet with Frankish blood. Thus did the Lord God castigate these arrogant pilgrims, chastise them, remind them of bad faith and pride.
As for Baldwin, Johanitza led him captive to the city of Trnovo and chopped off his feet and threw him into a deep gorge.
Before long a Coman army trapped Marquis Boniface outside the city of Mosynopolis, took his head and delivered it to Johanitza.
