1.) What are some common misconceptions about the Crusades, and why are they incorrect?
One of the misconceptions was the act that the crusaders were fixated on wealth. It’s false that the 2nd sons that hadn’t inherited the lands, went on crusades to conquer some land for themselves. It was actually the first born sons that had the lands and they went on crusades to earn more lands and wealth. Another thing to that misconception was that the result to those crusades, many who owned the lands had to mortgage and sell them to raise money they have been losing. In other words, they ultimately impovered themselves as a result of going on crusades.
Another misconception claim was that the crusaders converted the muslims to their religion by force. That’s false because muslims never gave up their religion, let alone by force. They actually kindy listened to whatever they had to say and respectfully sent them off. Besides muslims had always outnumbered them so the crusaders were never a threat.
Another misconception was that there was a claim of a children’s crusade. First of all that’s just insane to be sending kids to fight. Second, this is false because there was never an army of children to possibly train and at that time there was no crusade.
2.) Based solely on the documents you read, describe the events of the Fourth Crusade
In the city of Constantinople the byzantines had this sort of a cycle in which the crowd was constantly unhappy with ruler. The first was a king by the name Alexius III. He made a promise to bring money to the crusaders if they helped him ascend the throne. The crusaders thought that maybe the crowd needed their rightful king to be presented to them, so they agreed. Turns out Alexius III wasn’t welcomed, so the crusaders forced them to accept him. During the dispute between the crowd and the crusaders, in the meantime Alexius III went to get all the money and riches he could carry away and fled from Constantinople. Because of the failure to keep the promise the crusaders they of course got angry about it.
Alexius IV later ascends the throne and gives half of what was promised to the crusaders and asked them to leave the city for the crowd disliked them. Crusaders were thankful even if the price was half and so they left the city. The crowd now disliked Alexius IV because, he got the money by melting all the golden relics from cathedrals and churches. His lieutenant suggested to help take Alexius out of the city into hiding, he agreed. Turns out the lieutenant was actually out there to betray Alexius and ended up killing him. Now the lieutenant ascends the throne and the crowd is confused on how to feel about this. They came into conclusion that the fact that he killed Alexius IV whom was an unwanted ruler he isn’t exactly fit for being a ruler so they confirmed on getting to war with the lieutenant.
After resolving issues with the lieutenant there came a period called the Sack of Constantinople. A westerner comes along and ascends the throne ruling for half a century. Now the relationship between the eastern and western kingdoms are far worse than it was before.
Thanks for taking your time to read these essays. I hope you enjoyed them or learned something new. I’ll be posting more soon and have a great rest of your day!
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