Geoffrey De Villehardouin

Why read an interpretation of a historical event when you can read an eye-witness account. The History Matters series bypasses secondary sources to give you the primary source to start your historical inquiry. The fourth crusade is a highly contentious episode in the history of the crusades. It was here that the Latin-led crusaders turned on their own resulting in the attack on Constantinople, home of the Greek and Eastern Christians which ultimately led to the schism between the Greek and Latin churches. Originally written in French, not Latin, this eye-witness memoir by one of the crusaders is a must-read if one wants to get into the real history of the fourth crusade.

Memoirs or Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople is a classic Middle Eastern history text by Geoffrey de Villehardouin. Be it known to you that eleven hundred and ninety-seven years after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the time of Innocent Pope of Rome, and Philip King of France, and Richard King of England, there was in France a holy man named Fulk of Neuilly - which Neuilly is between Lagni-sur-Marne and Paris - and he was a priest and held the cure of the village. And this said Fulk began to speak of God throughout the Isle-de-France, and the other countries round about; and you must know that by him the Lord wrought many miracles.