Fourth Crusade - Twilight of Byzantium (Part one: Angels of Vanity)

Immense greed separated two kingdoms and two faiths to never unite again.

In Byzantium, two ways could have leaded you to the supreme authority (that is, the Empire): you could have been born in the imperial purple and gain authority as parental heritage, or gain it by fate, as “God's reward for your virtue.” Although in Byzantium there was possible to be crowned without imperial origin, it was very easy to lose the crown if you weren’t worthy of the crown - forty-three Emperors in the history of Byzantium have lost the throne by force (deposed, murdered, abdicated).

Angel House was not particularly old nor particularly characterized by something. Angels would probably have remained unknown outside of Lydian city of Philadelphia if one of the daughters of Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, Theodora Porphyrogenitus, have not fallen in love and married to a provincial nobleman Constantine Angel. This marriage secured the family a quick rise and many high positions and honors in the coming generations. But it was a sad day for the Empire when Angels rose on the throne. Of all the families who have in some period wear the imperial crown, the Angels were the worst. Each of the three Angels who have shortly boasted with a crown - Isaac II, Alexius III, and Alexius IV – was, in his own way, responsible for the biggest disaster that ever happened to Constantinople until its final fall.


To read Part two: The Beginning of The End, click HERE.