Editing Fourth Crusade (section)

== Holy Land ==
The main army that sailed from Venice to Constantinople experienced several waves of defections as men sought to fulfill their vows independently of the leadership. Most of them sailed directly from ports in [[Apulia]] (southern Italy) to Acre. According to Villehardouin, the majority of those who set out on the Fourth Crusade went to the Holy Land, while only a minority participated in the attack on Constantinople. Villehardouin, however, regarded those who went to the Holy Land as deserters of the main army and its leadership and he may have exaggerated their number in order to magnify the accomplishments of the minority that besieged Constantinople.<ref name=Kedar />{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

Modern historians have tended to disregard Villehardouin's claims. [[Steven Runciman]] thought that only a "tiny proportion" and [[Joshua Prawer]] only some "pitiful remnants" of the original army arrived in the Holy Land. Recent studies suggest that the number was substantial but shy of a majority. Of the 92 named individuals who took the crusader vow in Villehardouin's account, between 23 and 26 of them went to the Holy Land. The rate of "desertion" seems highest among the French faction.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}} Only about a tenth of the knights who had taken the cross in Flanders arrived to reinforce the remaining Christian states in the Holy Land, but over half of those from the Île-de-France did. All told, about 300 knights with their retinues from northern France made it to the Holy Land.{{sfn|Nicolle|2011|p=78}} Of the contingents from Burgundy, Occitania, Italy and Germany there is less information, but there were certainly defections among the Occitan and German contingents.<ref name=Kedar />

A large sum of money raised by the preacher Fulk of Neuilly did reach the Holy Land. Before his death in May 1202, Fulk gave the money to the [[Abbey of Cîteaux]]. Abbot [[Arnaud Amalric]] sent it to Acre in two installments. It was used to repair walls, towers and other defences that had been damaged by the [[1202 Syria earthquake|earthquake of May 1202]]. A second wall was even added at Acre sometime before 1212.<ref name=Kedar />

=== Apulia to Acre ===
Several crusaders, instead of going on to Venice, turned south at [[Piacenza]] in the summer of 1202 intending to go directly to the Holy Land from ports in southern Italy. Among them were [[Vilain of Nully]], [[Henry of Arzillières]], [[Renard II of Dampierre-en-Astenois|Renard II of Dampierre]], [[Henry of Longchamp]] and Giles of Trasignies with their retinues. They do not seem to have been acting in concert or travelling together. Ultimately, several hundred knights and accompanying infantry reached the Holy Land via south Italian ports. The force was so small that King [[Aimery of Jerusalem]] refused to break his truce with the [[Ayyubids]] to allow them to go to war, despite the pleas of Renard, who was fulfilling the crusading vow of the late Count [[Theobald III of Champagne]] and possessed ample funds. As a result, eighty crusaders under Renard decided to go to the [[Principality of Antioch]], which had no such truce. Advised against such a move, they were ambushed on the road and all but Renard were killed or captured. Renard remained in captivity for thirty years.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

When the crusade was diverted to Zara, many crusaders returned home or else remained behind in Italy. Some bypassed the Venetian fleet and found other means of going to the [[Holy Land]]. [[Geoffrey I of Villehardouin|Geoffrey of Villehardouin]], the historian's nephew, was one of them. [[Stephen du Perche (died 1205)|Stephen of the Perche]], was prevented from going with the main army on account of illness. Upon his recovery in March 1203, he took ship in southern Italy and travelled directly to the Holy Land with many others who had remained behind, including Rotrou de Montfort and Yves of La Jaille. Stephen re-joined the main army after the fall of Constantinople.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

Following the siege of Zara, more contingents abandoned the main army. The crusaders sent Robert of Boves as an envoy to the pope, but after his mission was done he went straight to the Holy Land. Abbot Martin of Pairis joined him on the trip to Rome and afterwards took ship for Palestine at [[Siponto]]. Martin arrived in Acre on 25 April 1203 in the midst of an outbreak of plague. According to the ''[[Devastatio Constantinopolitana]]'', after the decision was made at Zara to place Alexios IV on the throne of Constantinople, the leaders of the crusade granted permission for about 1,000 men to leave and find their own way to the Holy Land. In fact, about 2,000 men abandoned the main army at that stage. Most of them were among the poorer crusaders, and two ships carrying them sank with loss of life. The German crusader Garnier of Borland also abandoned the main army after Zara.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

From Zara, an official embassy, led by [[Renaud of Montmirail]], was dispatched to the Holy Land. It included Hervé of Châtel, [[Guillaume de Ferrières|William III of Ferrières]], Geoffrey of Beaumont and the brothers John and Peter of Frouville. They were supposed to return to the main army within fifteen days of accomplishing their mission. In fact, they remained in the Holy Land and did not return until after the fall of Constantinople.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

In the winter of 1203–1204, [[Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]] led a large contingent of defectors disgusted with the attack on Zara and opposed to the Constantinople venture. He and his men had even avoided the ruins of Zara and camped in Hungary.<ref name="Lippiatt 2012">{{citation |author=G. E. M. Lippiatt |title=Duty and Desertion: Simon of Montfort and the Fourth Crusade |journal=Leidschrift |volume=27 |issue=3 |year=2012 |pages=75–88 |url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/72758/27-03-08_Lippiatt_printklaar.pdf}}.</ref> Among Simon's followers were his brother, [[Guy de Montfort, Lord of Sidon|Guy de Montfort]]; the [[Yvelines|Yvelinois]] Simon V of Neauphle, Robert IV Mauvoisin and Dreux II of Cressonsacq; Abbot [[Guy of Vaux-de-Cernay]]; and the unnamed abbot of [[Cercanceaux Abbey|Cercanceaux]]. Shortly afterwards they were joined by [[Enguerrand II of Boves]].{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}<ref name="Lippiatt 2017">{{citation |first=G. E. M. |last=Lippiatt |title=Simon V of Montfort and Baronial Government, 1195–1218 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017}}.</ref> They marched up the coast from Zara back to Italy and then down the Italian coast, where they embarked for Palestine.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

=== Flemish fleet ===
For reasons unknown, Baldwin of Flanders divided his forces, leading half to Venice himself and sending the other half by sea. The Flemish fleet left Flanders in the summer of 1202 under the command of [[John II of Nesle]], [[Thierry of Flanders (flourished 1197–1207)|Thierry of Flanders]] and [[Nicholas of Mailly]].{{efn|Nicholas of Mailly joined the main army after the fall of Constantinople.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}}} It sailed into the Mediterranean and, according to the chronicler [[Ernoul]], attacked and captured an unnamed Muslim city on the African coast. The city was left in the hands of the [[Livonian Brothers of the Sword]] and the fleet went on to [[Marseille]], where it wintered in 1202–1203. There the fleet was joined by a number of French crusaders, including Bishop [[Walter II (bishop of Autun)|Walter II of Autun]], Count [[Guigues III of Forez]], [[Bernard IV of Moreuil]], Henry of Arraines, Hugh of Chaumont, John of Villers, Peter Bromont and the brothers Walter and Hugh of Saint-Denis and their retinues.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

The pilots of Marseille had more experience sailing out of sight of land than those of any other Mediterranean port, having been doing it since the mid-12th century. In summer, they could make the trip to Acre in fifteen days. They possessed a fleet sufficient to transport the army of [[Richard the Lionheart]] on the [[Third Crusade]] in 1190. It was also a cheaper and more accessible port for the French contingent.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

Baldwin sent orders to his fleet in Marseille to sail at the end of March 1203 and rendezvous with the Venetian fleet off [[Methoni, Messenia|Methoni]].{{efn|Baldwin of Flanders' wife, [[Marie of Champagne]], sailed from Marseille to Acre in the spring of 1204. She was there when she learned of his election as emperor.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}}} His messengers must also have brought news of the decision to go to Constantinople before proceeding to the Holy Land. For this reason the Flemish leaders may have opted to ignore the rendezvous and sail directly to Acre. It is also possible that they kept the rendezvous, but not finding the Venetian fleet (which did not get to Methoni before May) went on to Acre alone. They probably arrived there before Martin of Pairis on 25 April 1203.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}} At least a part of the fleet stopped at [[Kingdom of Cyprus|Cyprus]], where Thierry of Flanders made a claim on the island in the name of his wife, the [[Damsel of Cyprus]], daughter of [[Isaac Doukas Komnenos]], former emperor of Cyprus. Thierry, his wife and those knights that had supported him were ordered by Aimery to leave his kingdom, so they went to the [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia|Kingdom of Armenia]], homeland of Thierry's mother-in-law.<ref name="WHRdC">W. H. Rudt de Collenberg (1968), "L'empereur Isaac de Chypre et sa fille (1155–1207)", ''Byzantion'' '''38''' (1): 123–179, at 172–173.</ref>

The Flemish crusaders in Acre encountered the same difficulty as Renard of Dampierre. King Aimery was unwilling to break his truce for the sake of such a small army. The crusaders, therefore, split up. Some entered the service of the Principality of Antioch and others that of the [[County of Tripoli]]. Bernard of Moreuil and John of Villers joined Renard of Dampierre and were captured along with him. John of Nesle went to the aid of Armenia and thus found himself fighting some of his former comrades, since [[War of the Antiochene Succession|Armenia and Antioch were then at war]]. Sometime before 5 November 1203, however, the truce was broken. The Muslims seized two Christian ships and in retaliation, the Christians had seized six Muslim ships. The Flemish crusaders returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem to fight.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

On 8 November, Martin of Pairis and [[Conrad of Swartzenberg]] were sent to the main army, then besieging Constantinople, to press for it to continue on to the Holy Land now that the truce was broken. The envoys arrived on 1 January 1204, but the army was in the midst of heavy fighting and nothing came of their embassy.{{sfn|Queller|Compton|Campbell|1974}}

Assessing the disastrous results of the expedition he had started, [[Pope Innocent III]] spoke against the crusaders thus:
{{blockquote|How, indeed, will the church of the Greeks, no matter how severely she is beset with affIictions and persecutions, return into ecclesiastical union and to a devotion for the Apostolic See, when she has seen in the Latins only an example of perdition and the works of darkness, so that she now, and with reason, detests the Latins more than dogs? As for those who were supposed to be seeking the ends of Jesus Christ, not their own ends, who made their swords, which they were supposed to use against the pagans, drip with Christian blood, they have spared neither religion, nor age, nor sex. They have committed incest, adultery, and fornication before the eyes of men. They have exposed both matrons and virgins, even those dedicated to God, to the sordid lusts of boys. Not satisfied with breaking open the imperial treasury and plundering the goods of princes and lesser men, they also laid their hands on the treasures of the churches and, what is more serious, on their very possessions. They have even ripped silver plates from the altars and have hacked them to pieces among themselves. They violated the holy places and have carried off crosses and relics.<ref>Pope Innocent III, ''Letters'', 126 (given July 12, 1205, and addressed to the papal legate, who had absolved the crusaders from their pilgrimage vows). Text is taken from the [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1204innocent.html Internet Medieval Sourcebook] by Paul Halsall. Modified. Original translation by J. Brundage.</ref>}}