When the crusaders found themselves in Venice, broke and unable to pay the Venetians according the stipulations of their previously agreed ship building contract, the conquest of Zara was proposed by the Venetians as a means of delaying payment. The Venetians, negotiating from a position of strength, offered the crusaders a new deal based on their political circumstances.
Venice had controlled much of the Dalmatian coast on the Adriatic Sea, but in recent years the King of Hungary had been encroaching on their territory. The Hungarian King had promised his protection to the Dalmatian cities if they rebelled against Venetian rule and the city of Zara had defected 15 years earlier. The Venetians saw in the crusader's financial problems a solution to their political problems. They offered to delay payment of the crusaders debt in exchange for their help in recovering control of Zara.
The proposition was highly controversial. Zara was, after all, a Christian city. Many crusaders protested the idea while others completely refused to take part. Yet their only other option seemed to be the abandonment of the crusade. As a result, the crusaders finally agreed to the proposal.
In 1202 the crusaders landed at Zara and the city quickly surrendered, leading to the curious situation in which a crusader army had conquered a Catholic city. Pope Innocent III was furious upon hearing the news and the crusaders and the Venetians were excommunicated. Yet after negotiations with the papacy the crusaders were able to convince the Pope to lift their excommunication in favor of the crusaders making their way to their original destination of Egypt. The pope did not know that the crusaders had already agreed to sail to Contantinople based on a deal with Alexius IV, son of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac II. As a result, the controversy of the conquest of the Christian city of Zara turned out to be only a warm up compared with the later sack of the Christian city of Constantinople in 1204.
Fourth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Primary Sources of the Fourth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Pope Innocent III- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Sack of Constantinople- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Venice- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Constantinople- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Alexius IV- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Dalmatia- Crusades-Encyclopedia
(c) Andrew Holt- June 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.