Power of Venice, A.D. 1202. monarch, Alexius Angelus, who had escaped in the disguise of a common sailor on board an Italian vessel, their case was at once promised consideration, and was soon after brought under the notice of the leading pilgrims of the West, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and the Marquis of Montferrat, then assembled at Venice, to negotiate with that republic for shipping to convey them on the Fourth Crusade.[1] For many centuries the inhabitants of Venice had been considered as a portion of the subjects of the Greek empire; but when their power and influence had greatly increased, notably by the acquisition of the cities on the coasts of Istria and Dalmatia, the extent of their maritime commerce entitled them to assume an independent position. "The sea was their patrimony;" and with the chief command of the western shores of the Mediterranean, the Venetian galleys had now secured the still more lucrative commerce of Greece and Egypt.
Nor were they simply traders: Venetian glass and silk manufactures had an early reputation; while their system of banking and of foreign exchange, which they worked on a much more extensive scale than any other
- ↑ It seems worth while to append here a note concerning the results of the principal Crusades. First Crusade.—Preached by Peter the Hermit, and led by Robert Guiscard and Godfrey de Bouillon, chiefly against the Seljuk Turks, A.D. 1096. Jerusalem taken, A.D. 1099. Second Crusade.—Preached by St. Bernard, and led by Louis VII. and Conrad III., A.D. 1146. Stopped by the Seljuk Turks, by their victory at Iconium (Konieh), A.D. 1147. Third Crusade.—To avenge the capture in A.D. 1187 of Jerusalem by Saladin; and led by Frederick Barbarossa, Richard Cœur-de-Lion, and Philip of France, A.D. 1188. Results: Acre, Joppa, and Askalon taken from Saladin, A.D. 1192. Fourth Crusade.—Led by Baldwin, Count of Flanders, with aid from Venice, A.D. 1202. Results: taking of Zara and of Constantinople, A.D. 1204. The remaining Crusades were, comparatively, unimportant.
