The Conquest of Constantinople
An account of the Fourth Crusade by a knight from Picardy who served in the army. Munro’s collection gives extracts, among them the sermons preached to the crusaders before the final assault on Constantinople.
Robert of Clari was one of the poorer knights in the army of the Fourth Crusade. Munro, introducing his extracts, sets him beside Villehardouin as the second main authority: Villehardouin was one of the leaders and gave what Munro calls an official account, while Robert “told what the bulk of the army knew and thought”. He was not in the leaders’ councils, and where he reports their speeches he reports what reached the ranks. His narrative closes with a short notice of events down to 1216, so it was finished in or after that year.
Only extracts are in the public-domain collection cited here. They cover the debt to Venice, the proposal to go to Zara, the debate over Constantinople, the quarrel with the young emperor Alexius and the preaching of the bishops on the Sunday before the city fell.
Cited in
- April 1204, firm date