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July 17

July 17

July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining.

Events

- 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa, executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
- 1203 - Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.
- 1453 - Hundred Years' War: The French under Jean Bureau utterly defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the Battle of Castillon at Gascony
- 1762 - Catherine II becomes tzar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
- 1771 - Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
- 1791 - Massacre at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution. 1200-1500 people were killed, including women and children.
- 1815 - Napoleonic Wars: In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to British forces.
- 1816 - The French passenger ship Medusa runs aground off the coast of Senegal. Klondike gold rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle, Washington, USA.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
- 1899 - NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
- 1917 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
- 1933 - After successful crossing of the Atlantic ocean, in Europe under mysterious reasons crashes the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica.
- 1936 - Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the Spanish civil war.
- 1944 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.
- 1944 - World War II: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
- 1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
- 1955 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
- 1962 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
- 1975 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
- 1975 - History of East Timor: East Timor was annexed, and became the 27th province of Indonesia.
- 1979 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
- 1981 - Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby killing 114.
- 1984 - Laurent Fabius becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time at 2510.04.
- 1995 - The Midwestern heat wave in the United States reaches its peak. Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, among other cities, set all-time high temperature records. The heat claims over 400 lives on this day alone.
- 1995 - The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- 1996 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
- 1997 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
- 1998 - In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
- 1998 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
- 1998 - Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.

Births

- 1487 - Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)
- 1674 - Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter (d. 1748)
- 1698 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)
- 1831 - Xianfeng, Emperor of China (d. 1861)
- 1839 - Ephraim Shay, American inventor (d. 1916
- 1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian conductor (d. 1960)
- 1888 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
- 1899 - James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1899 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American author (d. 1970)
- 1901 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)
- 1912 - Art Linkletter, Canadian television host
- 1917 - Phyllis Diller, American comedian
- 1918 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
- 1920 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish chairman of the International Olympic Committee
- 1920 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, English sports commentator (d. 2002)
- 1921 - František Zvarík, Slovakian actor
- 1928 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician and composer (d. 1976)
- 1935 - Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor
- 1935 - Peter Schickele, American composer, author, and radio host, creator of P.D.Q. Bach
- 1938 - Franz Alt, Austrian-born journalist
- 1941 - Spencer Davis, British singer and guitarist (Spencer Davis Group)
- 1941 - Jürgen Flimm, German theatre director and manager
- 1942 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedian
- 1944 - Carlos Alberto, Brazilian football player
- 1947 - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
- 1949 - Charlie Steiner, American sports broadcaster
- 1952 - David Hasselhoff, American actor and musician
- 1954 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
- 1954 - J. Michael Straczynski, American author
- 1960 - Mark Burnett, English-born television producer
- 1960 - Jan Wouters, Dutch football player and manager
- 1963 - Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper
- 1965 - Craig Morgan, American singer
- 1967 - CJ Marsicano, American musician, writer, and journalist
- 1971 - Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist
- 1973 - Eric Moulds, American football player
- 1975 - Konnie Huq, English television presenter

Deaths

- 1070 - Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)
- 1086 - King Canute IV of Denmark
- 1105 - Rashi, French rabbi and commentator (b. 1040)
- 1453 - John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader
- 1531 - Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)
- 1566 - Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)
- 1571 - Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)
- 1588 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)
- 1645 - Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician
- 1704 - Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer
- 1709 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (b. 1646)
- 1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)
- 1791 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
- 1793 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat and murderer (b. 1768)
- 1794 - John Roebuck, English inventor (b. 1718)
- 1878 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)
- 1887 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)
- 1894 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (b. 1810)
- 1912 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician (b. 1854)
- 1917 - Hector Malot, French writer (b. 1830)
- 1918 (N.S.) - Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868)
- Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (b. 1872)
- Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1895)
- Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1897)
- Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1899)
- Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1901)
- Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (b. 1904)
- 1928 - Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman (b. 1842)
- 1959 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
- 1959 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (b. 1875)
- 1961 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)
- 1967 - John Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)
- 1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (b. 1893)
- 1980 - Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
- 1995 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)
- 2001 - Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)
- 2003 - David Kelly, Welsh UN weapons inspector (b. 1944)
- 2003 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Pat Roach, English professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)
- 2005 - Sir Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
- 2005 - Joe Vialls, Australian writer

Holidays and observances

- Iraq - Ba'ath Revolution Day
- Puerto Rico - Luis Muñoz Rivera's Birthday
- South Korea - Constitution Day
- Various mathematics departments - Yellow Pig's Day
- Kyoto, Japan - Gion Matsuri
- Feast Day of St Cynllo

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/17 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 16 - July 18 - June 16 - August 18 -- listing of all days ko:7월 17일 ms:17 Julai ja:7月17日 simple:July 17 th:17 กรกฎาคม

July 17

July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

180

Events

- July 17 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa executed in Carthage for being Christians (known as the Scillitan Martyrs).
- Commodus succeeds his father Marcus Aurelius as Roman Emperor.
- In his Methodus Medendo, Greek physician Galen describes the connection between paralysis and severance of the spinal cord.

Deaths

- March 17 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (b. 121)
- Aulus Gellius, Latin author and grammarian (approximate date)
- Gaius, Roman jurist (approximate date)
- Lucian (approximate date)
- Maximilla, Montanist heresiarchess
- Melito of Sardis, bishop of Sardis
- St. Miggin (martyred in Numidia)
- St. Namphamo and consorts (martyred)
- St. Symphorian (martyred) Category:180 ko:180년

ChristianIty

Christianity

Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), originally designed to conquer Jerusalem by taking Egypt first, instead, in 1204, sacked and conquered the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Background

After the failure of the Third Crusade, there was little interest in Europe for another crusade against the Muslims. The Fourth Crusade was the last of the major crusades to be directed by the Papacy, before the Popes lost much of their power to the Holy Roman Empire and other secular monarchs. The later crusades were directed by individual monarchs, and even the Fourth quickly fell out of Papal control. In 1198, Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade, which was largely ignored among European leaders. The Germans were struggling against Papal power, and England and France were still engaged in warfare against each other. However, due to the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly, a crusading army was finally organized at a tournament held at Ecry by Count Thibaud of Champagne in 1199. Thibaud was elected leader, but he died in 1200 and was replaced by an Italian count, Boniface of Montferrat. Boniface and the other leaders sent envoys to Venice, Genoa, and other city-states to negotiate a contract for transportation to Egypt, the object of their crusade; one of the envoys was the historian Geoffrey of Villehardouin. Genoa was uninterested but Venice agreed to transport 33,500 crusaders (as well as 4,500 horses), a very ambitious number. This agreement required a full year of preparation on the part of the city of Venice to build numerous ships and train the sailors that would man them, all the while curtailing the city's commercial activities.

Attack on Zara

Since there was no binding agreement amongst the crusaders that all should sail from Venice, many chose to sail from other ports, particularly Flanders, Marseilles, and Genoa. By 1201 the crusader army was collected at Venice, though with far fewer troops than expected. The Venetians, under the aged and possibly blind doge Enrico Dandolo, would not let the crusaders leave without being paid the full amount agreed to originally of 85,000 silver marks, but the crusaders could only pay some 51,000, and that only by reducing themselves to extreme poverty. The Venetians barricaded them on the island of Lido until they could decide what to do with them. Dandolo and the Venetians succeeded in turning the crusading movement to their own purposes. Dandolo, who made a very public show of joining the crusade during a ceremony in the church of San Marco di Venezia, proposed that the crusaders could pay their debts by attacking the port of Zara in Dalmatia (essentially an independent community which recognized King Emeric of Hungary as a protector, and which was previously ruled by Venice; now Zadar in Croatia). The Hungarian king Emeric was Catholic and had himself "taken the cross", meaning he too had agreed to join the crusade (though this was mostly for political reasons). Many of the crusaders were opposed to this, and some, including a force led by the elder Simon de Montfort, refused to participate altogether and returned home. While the papal representative to the crusade, Peter Cardinal Capuano, endorsed the move as necessary to prevent the crusade's complete failure, pope Innocent was alarmed at this development and wrote a letter to the crusade leadership threatening excommunication; this letter was concealed from the bulk of the army and the attack proceeded. The citizens of Zara made reference to the fact that they were fellow Catholics by hanging banners marked with crosses from their windows and the walls of the city, but nevertheless the city fell after a brief siege. Both the Venetians and the crusaders were immediately excommunicated for this by Innocent III.

Diversion to Constantinople

Boniface, meanwhile, had left the fleet before it sailed from Venice, and had visited his cousin Philip of Swabia. The reasons for his visit are a matter of debate; he may have realized the Venetians' plans and left to avoid excommunication, or he may have wanted to meet with Byzantine Prince Alexius Angelos, Philip's brother-in-law and the son of the recently deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II. Alexius had fled to Philip when his father was overthrown in 1195, but it is unknown whether or not Boniface knew he was at Philip's court. In any case, Alexius offered to pay off the Crusaders' debt to Venice, if they would restore his family to the Byzantine throne, an offer Boniface found difficult to refuse. Boniface may also have had in mind the former land holdings of his brother Renier of Montferrat, who had married a daughter of emperor Manuel I Comnenus but had been murdered in a Byzantine faction-struggle in 1183. Alexius returned with Boniface to rejoin the fleet at Corfu after it sailed from Zara, and the Venetians, when they learned of Alexius' idea, were particularly pleased with it. They also had been personally offended by the Byzantines in recent years, as thousands of western Europeans (including many Venetians) had been killed in riots against their merchant communities in Constantinople in 1182. The Crusaders were still reluctant to attack fellow Christians, but the clergy convinced them that the Orthodox Byzantines were the next best thing to the Muslims. They had allied with Saladin against the Third Crusade, and had done nothing to aid the Second Crusade; they should be punished for their lack of support. Unfortunately for them, Alexius Angelus had overstated his importance and it was quickly discovered when the crusaders arrived at the walls of Constantinople that the citizens preferred an usurper to an emperor supported by the hated "Latins". The crusaders and Venetians decided to place Alexius on the throne by force, and an amphibious assault was launched on the city in 1203. Unexpectedly, emperor Alexius III panicked and fled, and the citizens of Constantinople reluctantly welcomed Alexius Angelus back into the city. He was crowned emperor as Alexius IV, and his father Isaac II was restored as co-emperor.

Further attacks on Constantinople

Alexius IV The crusaders were opposed to Isaac, as they had never met him and did not believe he was part of their deal with Alexius, but the Byzantines did not want Alexius, who was just as unknown to them, to rule by himself. Isaac soon realized that Alexius' promises were impossible to keep, and Alexius was forced to rescind on his bargain as the imperial treasury was empty. Alexius also had to deal with the growing hatred by the citizens of Constantinople for the "Latins" in their midst. Factions opposed to the Latins frequently attacked any crusaders they could find, and Alexius had to tell his allies to leave and set up camp on the other side of the Golden Horn. Nevertheless there was still fighting in the city, and during an attack by the crusaders on a mosque (which they were shocked to find in the Christian city), a large part of Constantinople was burned down. Opposition to Alexius IV grew, and one of his courtiers, Alexius Ducas Murtzuphlos, soon overthrew him and had him strangled to death. Alexius Ducas took the throne himself as Alexius V; Isaac died soon afterwards, probably naturally. The Crusaders and Venetians, incensed at the murder of their supposed patron, attacked the city once more in 1204. Alexius V, who had a much larger army, although it was much more poorly trained, marched his troops outside Constantinople and seemed to prepare for an all-out assault on the crusader force. As the crusaders panicked and armed everyone they could find, including cooks who wore their pots as helmets, Alexius V turned around and marched his army back into the city. It is possible that his foot soldiers were afraid of the western knights, who had defeated them earlier in the year in skirmishes outside the city, but the actual reason for Alexius' refusal to fight is unknown. Although Innocent III had again warned them not to attack, the papal letter was suppressed by the clergy, and the crusaders prepared for their own attack, while the Venetians attacked from the sea; Alexius' army stayed in the city to fight, along with the imperial bodyguard, the Varangians, but Alexius himself fled during the night.

Final capture of Constantinople; outcome

The crusaders were eventually able to knock holes in the walls, small enough for a few knights at a time to crawl through; the Venetians were also successful at scaling the walls from the sea, though there was extremely bloody fighting with the Varangians. The crusaders captured the Blachernae section of the city in the northwest and used it as a base to attack the rest of the city, but while attempting to defend themselves with a wall of fire, they ended up burning down even more of the city than they had the first time. Eventually, the crusaders were victorious, and the citizens of the city, strangely, at least to western eyes, welcomed them into the city as usurpers, not as conquerors. The crusaders did not see it this way, and they inflicted a horrible and savage sacking on Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient works of art were stolen or destroyed. According to a pre-arranged treaty, the empire was apportioned between Venice and the Crusade's leaders, and the Latin Empire at Constantinople was established. Boniface was not elected as the new emperor, although the citizens seemed to consider him as such; the Venetians thought he had too many connections with the former empire because of his brother's land holdings, and instead placed Baldwin of Flanders on the throne. Boniface went on to found the Kingdom of Thessalonica, a vassal state of the new Latin Empire. The Venetians also founded the Duchy of the Archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Meanwhile, Byzantine refugees founded their own successor states, the most notable of these being the Empire of Nicaea under Theodore Lascaris, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus.

References

Primary Sources

- Nicetas Choniates, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/choniates1.html The Sack of Constantinople]
- Robert of Clari, [http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/SOURCES/clari.htm The Conquest of Constantinople] (see also [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/clari1.html excerpts] from another translation)
- [http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/1204.html The Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders] (excerpts from several contemporary accounts)
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/4cde.html The Fourth Crusade 1204: Collected Sources] (excerpts from several contemporary accounts)
- Geoffrey de Villehardouin, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/villehardouin.html Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople]
- Pope Innocent III, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1204innocent.html Reprimand of Papal Legate]

Secondary Sources

- W.B. Bartlett, An Ungodly War: The Sack of Constantinople & the Fourth Crusade. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2000.
- Charles Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180-1204, ISBN 0751200530
- Nicholas A. Cooke, "[http://aggreen.net/church_history/1204_sack.html The Sack of Constantinople.]" 2000
- John Godfrey, 1204: The Unholy Crusade. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
- Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204, trans. by J.C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993; orig. pub. 1988.
- Serban Marin, [http://www.geocities.com/serban_marin/ramusio01.html A Humanist Vision regarding the Fourth Crusade and the State of the Assenides. The Chronicle of Paul Ramusio (Paulus Rhamnusius)], Annuario. Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica v. 2 (2000): 51-57
- Edgar McNeal and Robert Lee Wolff, [http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistCrusades/HistCrusades-idx?type=turn&entity=HistCrusades000200020179&byte=430841&isize=M The Fourth Crusade], in A History of the Crusades (edited by Kenneth M. Setton and others), vol. 2, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962
- Donald M. Nicol, Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations ISBN 0521428947
- Peter S. Noble, [http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/PDFs/NOBLE.PDF Eyewitnesses of the Fourth Crusade - the War against Alexius III], Reading Medieval Studies v.25 (1999)
- Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, London: Pimlico, 2005.
- Donald E. Queller, The Latin Conquest of Constantinople, New York, London, Sydney, Toronto: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1971
- Donald E. Queller and Thomas F. Madden, The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (2nd Edition, 1999) ISBN 0812217136
- D. E. Queller and Susan J. Stratton, "A Century of Controversy on the Fourth Crusade", Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History v. 6 (1969): 237-277; reprinted in D. Queller, Medieval Diplomacy and the Fourth Crusade, London: Variorum Reprints, 1980 Category:Crusades Category:Byzantine Empire Category:1200s Category:East-West Schism ja:第4回十字軍

Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient Greek name: Byzantium. Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 330, naming the city Nova Roma (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "Caesar" and grad for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word Tsargrad is now an archaic term in Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 1930.

Byzantium

Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the legions and the Imperial courts.Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of St Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

Walls of Theodosius, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425. In the 5th century, when the barbarians overran the Western Empire, its emperors retreated to Ravenna before it collapsed altogether. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the greatest city of the Empire, and the greatest in the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

The City under Justinian

The emperor Justinian (527-565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander, Belisarius, anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor; and also where they openly criticised the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue. The entire late Roman and early Byzantine period was one where Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens, and in the form of a major rebellion in the capital of 532 AD, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). "Nika" riots Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with the incomparable St Sophia, the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets (St Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, and is now a museum). The dedication took place on Christmas Day of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Constantine, with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equally-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the emperors from Constantine himself until the eleventh century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian

Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II and Maurice, able emperors who had to deal with a deteriorating military situation, especially on the eastern frontier. Subsequently there was a period of near-anarchy, which was exploited by the enemies of the Empire. After the Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the situation so dire that at first he contemplated moving the imperial capital to Carthage, but with military genius he succeeded in expelling the invaders. No sooner had he carried war into their own territories, however, and achieved an advantageous peace with Persia, than he was faced with the Arab expansion. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime

Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. 717 Byzantium, later Constantinople, was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenic period and later during the Roman Empire, mostly due to its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean and the Black Sea. During the Fourth Century AD the Emperor Constantine relocated his eastern capital to Byzantium, hence the name Constantinople (Constantine's City), in an attempt to reinvigorate the Empire. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek speaking empire, short several interregnums, for over a thousand years. As the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (now commonly known as the Byzantine Empire), the Greeks called Constantinople simply "the City", while throughout Europe it was known as the "Queen of Cities." In its heyday, roughly corresponding to what is now known as the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, particularly the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. A Russian 14th-century traveller, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sofia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it". The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in its extensive copying throughout Europe, particular examples include St. Mark's in Venice, the basilica of Ravenna and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls (the Theodosian Walls) and urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping a memory alive of the skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The city, also provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire against the invasions of the 5th century, for Europe against the Arabs, and for European Christendom against Islam. Constantine assured the position of the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople as pre-eminent in the Eastern Empire. This action placed Constantinople at the religious heart of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still considered first among equals in the Orthodox Church along with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the later Slavic Patriarchs. This position is largely ceremonial but still carries emotional weight.

The Isaurians

In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754 which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Comneni and Palaeologi

787, 1840]] Following the catastrophic defeat in 1071 of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Armenia, his successor Michael VII pleaded for assistance from the West. In due course this was to lead to the First Crusade, which assembled at Constantinople in 1096 in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, and moved on towards Jerusalem. Much of this is documented by the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work The Alexiad. The Crusades were, however, to lead in time to the disastrous capture and sack of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade on April 12 1204. For the subsequent half-century or more, Constantinople remained the centre of the Roman Catholic crusader state, set up after the city's capture under Baldwin IX, and which became known as the Latin Kingdom. During this time, the Byzantine emperors made their capital at nearby Nicaea, which acted as the capital of the temporary, short-lived Empire of Nicaea and a refuge for refugees from the sacked city of Constantinople. From this base, Constantinople was eventually recaptured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. The Palaeologi founded a beautiful new imperial palace at Blachernae in the north-west of the city, the Great Palace subsequently falling into disuse.

The Ottomans

Blachernae (painted 1499)]] Constantinople and the Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453, during the reign of Constantine XI Paleologus (see Fall of Constantinople). Although the Turks overthrew the Byzantines, Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Second (the Ottaman Sultan at the time) let Orthodox Patriarchy to continue its affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the Vatican.

Constantinople in popular culture

- Constantinople appears as a dusty faded capital, shorn of its glories, in William Butler Yeats' 1926 poem Sailing to Byzantium.
- Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song by The Four Lads later covered by They Might Be Giants entitled Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/istanbul-not-constantinople.html]. "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
- Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Notes

- Constantinople is derived from the Greek Κωνσταντινούπολη. Other names for the city:
- Turkish name: İstanbul.
- Modern Greek name: Κωνσταντινούπολη, older name: Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names)
- Roman name: Constantinopolis;
- Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma
- Arabic name: قسطنطينية (Kostantiniyya)
- Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis
- Swedish viking name: Miklagård
- Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniyye.
- Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Царьград).
- Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City")
- The Sublime Porte - the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in diplomatic notes (the same way "Whitehall" would be used in the case of the British Foreign Office, or "No. 10 Downing" to refer to the PMO)
- Source for quote: Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed T Preger I 105 (see A A Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, 1952, vol I p 188).

External links

- [http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html Info on the name change] from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- [http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster Welcome to Constantinople], documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3
- .html#1 Constantinople], from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- [http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies ko:콘스탄티노폴리스 ja:コンスタンティノポリス

Byzantine Emperor

#ReDIRECT List of Byzantine emperors

Alexius III Angelus

Alexius III Angelus, Byzantine emperor, was the second son of Andronicus Angelus, nephew of Alexius I. In 1195, while his brother Isaac II was away hunting in Thrace, he was proclaimed emperor by the troops; he captured Isaac at Stagira in Macedonia, put out his eyes, and kept him henceforth a close prisoner, though he had been redeemed by him from captivity at Antioch and loaded with honours. To compensate for this crime and to confirm his position as emperor, he had to scatter money so lavishly as to empty his treasury, and to allow such licence to the officers of the army as to leave the Empire practically defenceless. He consummated the financial ruin of the state. The able and forceful empress Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina tried in vain to sustain his credit and his court; Vatatzes, the favourite instrument of her attempts at reform, was assassinated by the emperor's orders. Eastward the Empire was overrun by the Seljuk Turks; from the north Bulgarians and Vlachs descended unchecked to ravage the plains of Macedonia and Thrace; while Alexius squandered the public treasure on his palaces and gardens. Soon he was threatened by a new and yet more formidable danger. In 1202 the Western princes of the Fourth Crusade assembled at Venice, bent on a new crusade. Alexius, son of the deposed Isaac, escaped from Constantinople and appealed to the crusaders, promising as a crowning bribe to heal the schism of East and West if they would help him to depose his uncle. The crusaders, whose objective had been Egypt, were persuaded to set their course for Constantinople, before which they appeared in June 1203, proclaiming Alexius as emperor Alexius IV and summoning the capital to depose his uncle. Alexius III, sunk in debauchery, took no efficient measures to resist. His son-in-law, Lascaris, who was the only one to do anything, was defeated at Scutari, and the siege of Constantinople began. On the July 17 the crusaders, the aged doge Enrico Dandolo at their head, scaled the walls and took the city by storm. During the fighting and carnage that followed Alexius hid in the palace, and finally, with one of his daughters, Irene, and such treasures as he could collect, got into a boat and escaped to Develton in Thrace, leaving his wife, his other daughters and his Empire to the victors. Isaac, drawn from his prison and robed once more in the imperial purple, received his son in state. Shortly afterwards Alexius made an effort in conjunction with Murtzuphlos (Alexius V) to recover the throne. The attempt was unsuccessful and, after wandering about Greece, he surrendered with Euphrosyne, who had meanwhile joined him, to Boniface of Montferrat, then master of a great part of the Balkan peninsula (the so-called Kingdom of Thessalonica). Leaving his protection he sought shelter with Michael I Ducas, despot of Epirus, and then repaired to Asia Minor, where his son-in-law Lascaris was holding his own against the Latins. Alexius, joined by Kay Khusrau I, the sultan of Rüm (also called the sultan of Iconium or Konya), now demanded the crown of Lascaris, and on his refusal marched against him. Lascaris, however, defeated and took him prisoner. Alexius was relegated to a monastery at Nicaea, where he died on some date unknown.

References

- Category:Angelid dynasty Category:Byzantine emperors Category:Crusades ja:アレクシオス3世アンゲロス

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (1384/90-17 July 1453) was an important English military commander during the Hundred Years War. He was second son of Richard, 5th Baron Talbot, by Ankaret, heiress of the last Lord Strange of Blackmere. Talbot was married on 12 March 1406 to Maud Nevill, daughter and heiress of Thomas Nevill, 5th Baron Furnivall (and in her right summoned to Parliament from 1409) and had three children:
- Lady Joan Talbot
- John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury (c. 1413–11 July 1460)
- Sir Christopher Talbot (10 July 1460)
- Thomas Talbot (died before his father in Bordeaux) In 1421 by the death of his niece he acquired the baronies of Talbot and Strange. From 1404 to 1413 he served with his elder brother Gilbert in the Welsh war or the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr. Then for five years from February 1414 he was lieutenant of Ireland, where he held the honour of Wexford. He did some fighting, and had a sharp quarrel with the Earl of Ormonde. Complaints were made against him both for harsh government in Ireland and for violence in Herefordshire. From 1420 to 1424 he served in France. In 1425 he was again for a short time lieutenant in Ireland. He married, secondly, Lady Margaret Beauchamp, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth de Berkeley, on 6 September 1425 and had four children:
- Sir Lewis Talbot
- John Talbot, 1st Viscount Lisle (c. 1426–17 July 1453)
- Sir Humphrey Talbot (before 1453–c. 1492)
- Elizabeth Talbot (before 1453). She married John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk. So far his career was that of a turbulent lord of the Marches, employed in posts where a rough hand was useful. In 1427 he went again to France, where he fought with distinction in Maine and at the battle of Orléans. e fought at the battle of Patay where he was captured and held prisoner for 4 years. As a condition of his release he swore never to carry arms or wear armour against the king of France. Despite commanding several English armies he was literally true to his word. He was appointed in 1445 by Henry VI of England (as King of France) as Constable of France. He was defeated in 1453 at the battle of Castillon near Bordeaux, which effectively ended English rule in the duchy of Gascony, a principal cause of the Hundred Years War. His exploits were those of a good fighter rather than of a general, and it was his stubborn rashness that was chiefly his deficiency. He is portrayed heroically in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part I.

Reference

- Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot, 1st Earl of

Battle of Castillon

The Battle of Castillon was the last battle fought between the French, the Bretons and the English, during the Hundred Years' War. This was the first battle in European history where cannons were the deciding factor. After the French capture of Bordeaux in 1451, the Hundred Years' War seemed at an end. However, after three hundred years of English rule the citizens of Bordeaux considered themselves English and sent messengers to Henry VI of England demanding he recapture the province. On October 17, 1452, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury landed near Bordeaux with a force of 3,000 men-at-arms and archers. The French garrison was ejected by the citizens of Bordeaux, who then gleefully opened the gates to the English. Most of Gascony followed Bordeaux’s example and welcomed the English home. During the winter month Charles VII of France gathered his armies in readiness for the campaigning season. When spring arrived Charles advanced toward Bordeaux simultaneously along three different routes with three armies. Talbot received another 3,000 men to face this new problem, but it was still an inadequate number to hold back the thousands of Frenchmen on Gascony’s borders. When the leading French army lay siege to Castillon, Talbot abandoned his original plans (acceding to the pleas of the town commanders) and set out to relieve it. The French commander, Jean Bureau, in fear of Talbot, ordered his 7,000 to 10,000 men to encircle their camp with a ditch and palisade, and deploy his 300 cannon on the parapet. Talbot approached the French camp on 17 July 1453, arriving before his main body of troops with an advance guard of 1,300 mounted men. He routed a similar sized force of French archers in the woods before the French encampment, giving his men a large boost of morale. A few hours after this preliminary skirmish, a messenger from the town reported to Talbot’s resting troops (they had marched through the night) that the French army was in full retreat and that hundreds of horsemen were fleeing the fortifications. From the town walls a huge dust clouded could be seen heading off into the distance. Talbot hastily reorganized his men and charged down towards the French camp, only to find the parapets defended by thousands of fully armed archers and hundreds of cannon. Surprised but undaunted, Talbot gave the signal to attack the French army that outnumbered his own force six to one. Once battle started, Talbot received a thin trickle of men from his leading foot units. After an hour the cavalry of the Breton army sent by the duke of Brittany arrived and charged his right flank. The English army gave way, pursued instantly by the French main body of troops. During the rout Talbot’s horse was killed by a cannon ball and he fell trapped beneath it, until a Frenchman wielding a battle-axe recognized him and killed him. Following Henry VI's episode of insanity in 1453 and the subsequent outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their claim to the French throne and lost all their land on the continent (except for Calais).

External link

- [http://www.batailledecastillon.com spectacle]
- http://www.xenophongroup.com/montjoie/castilon.htm - From Oriflamme, French medieval history page Category:1453 Castillon 1453 Category:Gironde

1762

1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau first publishes The Social Contract (Du Contrat Social).
- Neolin begins to preach.
- January 4 - Britain declares war on Spain and Naples
- January 5 - Death of the Empress Elisabeth of Russia, who is succeeded by her nephew Peter III. Peter, an admirer of Frederick the Great, immediately opens peace negotiations with the Prussians
- May 15 - The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ends the war between Russia and Prussia.
- May 22 - The Treaty of Hamburg takes Sweden out of the war against Prussia.
- June 24 - Battle of Wilhelmstal. The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats the French forces in Westphalia. The British commander Lord Granby distinguishes himself.
- July 9 - Catherine II becomes empress of Russia upon the depositio

July 17

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

July 17

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

180

Events

Deaths

ChristianIty

Fourth Crusade

Background

Attack on Zara

Diversion to Constantinople

Further attacks on Constantinople

Final capture of Constantinople; outcome

See also

References

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Constantinople

Names

Byzantium

Constantine's Foundation

Public buildings

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

The City under Justinian

The City after Justinian

Importance of the City in its prime

The Isaurians

The Comneni and Palaeologi

The Ottomans

Constantinople in popular culture

Further reading

Notes

See also

External links

Byzantine Emperor

Alexius III Angelus

References

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

Reference

Battle of Castillon

External link

1762

Events