Enrico Dandolo was the 39th and arguably the most remarkable
Doge of Venice. He held the office from 1193 to 1205 and despite being of an
advanced age; perhaps as old as 85 at the time of his accession, had an action-packed reign. Dandolo is
also described as being so blind as not to be able to see his hand in front of
his face but neither age nor infirmity prevented him from undertaking
prodigious military efforts on behalf of the Republic.
Dandolo belonged to one of the most venerable Venetian noble families
and had enjoyed a career as an accomplished diplomat and soldier by the time of
his election as Doge. At the time of his accession Venice was looking to
reestablish itself as the predominant trading power in the Eastern
Mediterranean. This had received a major blow in 1171 when the Byzantine
emperor Manuel Comnenus had rounded up and imprisoned hundreds of Venetian
citizens, confiscating property and impounding ships throughout his empire in a
coordinated backlash against Venetian influence. Dandolo took part in the
Venetian embassy to Constantinople in the aftermath of this outrage where peace
proved elusive and the envoys were treated with disdain. Dandolo is said to
have lost his sight as a result of head injury received during a brawl during
this embassy, whatever the truth of this, he nursed a hatred of Byzantium from
that time forth.
Dandolo’s opportunity to exact the full measure of revenge against
Byzantium came with the preaching of the Fourth Crusade by Pope Innocent III in
1199. This expedition, which was to be launched against Egypt, would require
the significant contribution of Venetian sea power in order to transport the
crusading army. This Dandolo, with a sharp eye for a profit and a determination to
gain as much benefit as possible for Venice from the exercise, was happy to
provide; for a price.
Dandolo declares Venetian support for the Fourth Crusade
In return for the Republic’s assistance, Dandolo had demanded nothing
less than half of all the territory captured and an up-front payment of 84,000
silver marks. At the same time it is likely that the Doge was already seeking
to undermine the expedition since Venice had a vested interest in maintaining
peaceful trade with the Egyptians.
When the turn out for the crusade proved to be lower than expected, the
expedition’s leaders Geoffrey de Villehardouin and Boniface of Montferrat found
themselves unable to come up with the required sum. Dandolo now took advantage
of their embarrassment to divert the crusade to serve his own purpose. In
exchange for writing off some of the debt, Dandolo proposed that the crusaders
could help Venice by retaking the Croatian port of Zara from the Hungarians. To
this the crusaders had little choice but to agree and the city was swiftly
captured and sacked when the crusaders finally set out in 1202. For their
trouble the entire crusade found themselves excommunicated by the outraged Pope for making war on fellow Christians.
Dandolo, though he may now have been in his nineties had accompanied the
expedition and when further opportunity to divert it from its original
objective had presented itself in the form of Alexius; the dispossessed heir to
the Byzantine throne, he championed the young man’s cause.
Alexius had arrived in Zara with extravagant promises of money and
soldiers for their cause if the crusaders would help to overthrow his usurping
uncle and restore him to power.
The forces of the Fourth Crusade duly arrived in Constantinople and
swiftly forced their way into the Golden Horn. The assault upon the sea walls
of the city was led by Dandolo in person, who fearlessly ordered his galley run
ashore and then leapt, with sword in hand and the standard of St Mark in the
other, onto the ramparts. The rest of the Venetians followed him boldly and the
city was taken.
The Venetians storm the sea walls of Constantinople
The usurper fled and with Alexius restored alongside his blinded father
who had been released from prison, the operation appeared to have been a
success. The promised payment was once more not forthcoming however as the
restored emperors found their treasury somewhat bare. One can imagine Dandolo,
with theatrical exasperation, wondering aloud if any of the princes of Europe
were good for their debts.
When a popular uprising swept aside the two restored emperors it was
clear that any reward to be had from the action in Constantinople would have to
be taken by force. The crusaders had withdrawn
across the Golden Horn and the defences along the sea walls were being
hurriedly shored up by the new emperor Alexius Ducas. In the face of this new
resistance, Dandolo proposed that the city should now be taken by storm and the
Empire of Byzantium should be divided between the crusaders; with Venice
gaining over a third of all imperial territory.
The city fell to a renewed assault and was put to three days of
systematic plundering and burning. The destruction and desecration were
terrible. Even the church of Hagia Sofia was profaned; according to the
Byzantine chronicler Nicetas Choniates the high altar was destroyed, a whore
was enthroned in the Patriarch’s chair and mules were brought into the church
to be laden with its plundered treasures.
In the aftermath the crusader Baldwin of Flanders was elected as the
first Latin Emperor of Constantinople; an entity which would last for sixty
years before the Byzantines succeeded in reclaiming their capital.
All of this was of Dandolo’s making. To him must go the credit for
masterminding and manipulating the course of events that had brought the Fourth
Crusade, which had set out to strike at the Muslim occupiers of the Holy Land
through the soft underbelly of Egypt, to sack Constantinople; the greatest city
in Christendom. To him also must go the bulk of the infamy that this act
deserves. Through his actions Dandolo had acquired extensive new territories
for the Venetian Republic which would allow her to dominate trade with the
eastern Mediterranean. Ultimately however the fatal weakening of Byzantium
would hasten its eventual demise at the hands of the Ottoman Turks; an event
which spelled the end for the Venetian commercial empire.
Within a year of this achievement Dandolo was dead. He was laid to rest
somewhat ironically in the Church of Hagia Sofia. His legacy was long-lasting
and far reaching. It is to Dandolo too that we owe the curious presence in the
Basilica of St Mark of the famous bronze horses which once adorned the
hippodrome of Constantinople.
The horses of St Mark
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