"… we hit them with arrows;"
(Numbers 21:30)
And it was so - this is a prelude to the very story of the battle - that the completely blind Doge of Venice, Dandolo, turned out to be a man of great intelligence, and when by 1202 many crusaders gathered there to sail to Egypt, he decided to take advantage of this circumstance and crush Byzantium with their help. Everything is very simple - "God's business" is an important thing, of course, but the question arose, who will pay for their transportation by sea? Of course, the "soldiers of Christ" did not have money to pay for the transportation of money, and besides, living in Venice, many there were heavily in debt. To pay off the debts, Dandolo forced the crusaders to go not to Egypt, but to Dalmatia, and there they did not at all like a Christian: on November 15, 1202, the Christian city of Zara, which was an important trade rival of Venice, was betrayed to fire and sword.
Having such a significant historical fact in their history, the Bulgarians shot a very impressive historical film "Kaloyan" about this event, very similar to the Soviet "Alexander Nevsky". The film is colorful, bright, but only a little ill-considered in terms of costumes … Well, how do you like this frame from the film? One could think of more fantastic helmets, but … nowhere!
Then Alexei IV Angel, the son of the overthrown emperor of the Byzantine Empire Isaac II, turned to the leaders of the campaign for help. He asked for help and was so "convincing" that the crusaders went to Constantinople, laid siege to the city, took it by storm and, of course, brutally plundered. Well, and on the ruins of the once great empire in 1204, they founded their own - the Latin Empire.
Coat of arms of the Latin Empire.
In order to visualize the samples of Latin warriors, let us turn, as always, to effigies - gravestone sculptures. Let's start with a slightly earlier era to show the continuity of weapons. Here we have the effigy of Gamot de Weston (c. 1189), buried in the Church of Weston near Lizard.
The battle took place in 1205. This effigy belongs to William de Lanvaley (Valkern Church) and dates back to 1217. As you can see, both knights are dressed in chain mail armor from head to toe, and a fully closed helmet is on their head.
William Marshal 1st Earl of Pembroke, died 1219, buried at Temple, London.
The famous effigy of William Longspy, died 1226, Salisbury Cathedral.
For some, all these events were important, very important. And for some it is only … “some movement on the periphery of their borders,” since their own affairs are infinitely more important. It was a matter of extreme importance at this time that the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan considered negotiations with Pope Innocent III. Their essence was to rely on the forces of the papacy in the struggle for power and strengthening their statehood. As a result, Kaloyan received from the holy throne the desired title "rex", that is, "king", but the Bulgarian archbishop became "primate", which was actually equivalent to the highest status of the patriarch. All these "high titles" and the struggle for them seem a little strange to us - it would be better, say, that a man took care of the number of troops. But then people were simple and being a "rex" meant a lot for many rulers.
Illustration from the Westminster Psatiri of Matthew of Paris, mid-13th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He was wearing the typical outfit of a knight of that time, and about the same could be outfitted and "Franks" at Adrianople.
And the most interesting thing is that good relations were established between the Bulgarians and the European knights-crusaders. They did not interfere with each other, in addition, having ruined Constantinople, they even helped them. But then they began to deteriorate day by day and here's why: the Latins began to raid the lands of Bulgaria, which, after the coming to power of Alexei IV, significantly expanded its possessions.
And this is Tsar Kaloyan from the film. The crown on the helmet is very indicative. And in general, his armor. That is, the Bulgarian filmmakers did a good job on the image of their tsar and his warriors.
Then the crusaders found it strange Kaloyan's desire to get them to recognize his royal title, even if in exchange for concluding an alliance treaty. Such a demand on his part caused a very arrogant reaction on the part of Baldwin I, who even stated that John (as Kaloyan's "Franks" were called) should treat them not as a king with friends, but as a slave to masters, for … then he appropriated to himself the power over the lands that he took from the Greeks, and the Greeks, they say, we struck with the power of the sword. That is, we give you the right to this land, but … for this you must recognize yourself as our subjects, and not a king who has equal rights with us!
And it is difficult to add anything to the equipment of these characters … Moreover, there is a following of the historical sources known to us, in particular, the miniatures from the "Review of History" by John Skilitsa.
Accordingly, the local population hated the conquerors, and the Greek nobility, seeing what was happening, entered into secret negotiations with Kaloyan, insisting that “we are of the same faith”! And Kaloyan promised them to start a war with the Latin Empire by Easter 1205. To do this, he had his own army and, in addition, a 10-thousand-strong detachment of Kuman (Polovtsian) mercenaries. In February, Count Gug de Saint-Paul, the governor of the eastern lands of the empire, died, which served as a signal for an uprising throughout the territory of Thrace. The crusaders did not have the strength to suppress it. At this time, they fought in Asia Minor with the Nicene Empire - a fragment of the former Byzantium. And although the victory was on their side, the situation in the north was very serious.
And this is the leader of the Cumans. A typical "Khan Konchak"!
Then the emperor of the Latin Empire, without waiting for the arrival of troops from Asia, at the end of March 1205 went to Adrianople, which was captured by the Bulgarians, and laid siege to it. Accordingly, Tsar Kaloyan went to the city with the aim of unblocking it.
And these are two completely "vile faces" - the leaders of the crusaders, on the right - Emperor Baldwin.
Well, this is his historical portrait.
And Count Louis … is also a typical … proud scoundrel. Good type, good choice! But … well, there were no one-piece forged cuirasses that would have been worn without covering them with a surcoat, and even more so no one would have drawn a cross on such a cuirass! A trifle, of course, but it shows the attitude of many "filmmakers" to history.
“Ioannis, the king of Blakia, went to the aid of those who were in Andrinopol, with a huge army: he brought with him blaks, mounds and almost forty thousand cumenes, who were infidels …" - Geoffroy de Villardouin informs us in his work " Conquest of Constantinople ". Forty thousand Polovtsians is, of course, something too much, especially since Villehardouin himself writes about the number of knights who went with the emperor, as only about hundreds: “The emperor commanded Macairus de Saint-Meneu, and Mathieu de Valincourt, and Robert de Ronçois, who had about a hundred knights …”- further in the text others are mentioned. But there is no doubt that the Cumans came with Kaloyan in large numbers.
Battle plan.
On April 13, the unification of the army of the Bulgarians and Polovtsians approached the besieged Adrianople and entered into battle with the crusaders. Here is what the chronicler writes about this: “And Ioannis was now so close that he was only five leagues away from them. And he sent his komen to their camp; and in the camp there was a cry of alarm, and they rode out of it in disarray. And they chased the Comenius a good league, completely losing their minds. And when they wanted to go back, the komen began to shoot arrows at them non-stop and wounded many of their horses. Truly, whoever wants to punish God, he decides his mind. So it happened with the crusaders. Because the Polovtsians turned their horses around and … began to shoot a detachment of crusaders from bows, which was to be expected from them, because this is the usual tactics of the nomads.
It was with these arrows, or rather, the tips on them, that the Cumans of the Crusaders were put out of action.
The battle resumed the next day. The cavalry of the Crusaders went forward, and the Bulgarians and Cumans could not withstand its onslaught and began to retreat.
Not only effigies, but also miniatures from books of that time can help us shed light on how the warriors looked like, participants in the battle. For example, here is a miniature dating from 1175-1215 from a manuscript in the British Library.
“Count Louis came out first with his fighting force; and he began to chase the komen; and he sent to the emperor Baudouin to follow him. Alas! How badly did they observe what had been decided the night before: for they had thus pursued the Komen for almost two leagues, and they overtook them; and they drove them for some time in front of them; and the komen in their turn rushed at them and began to hoot and shoot."
Here is a very interesting miniature from the Huntingfield Psalter of 1212-1220. from Oxford, which is in the Morgan Library today. It shows what the knightly protective equipment consisted of at that time.
“… There were, in addition to the fighting detachments of knights, others, consisting of warriors who did not know much about military affairs; and they began to feel fear and trembled. And Count Louis, who was the first to engage in battle, was very badly wounded in two places; both the Comenius and the Blacs began to press them back … "- says Geoffroy de Villardouin, that is, it was not the knights who flinched first, but some warriors" who did not know the military business very well. " Who they are, now it is impossible to find out, but, apparently, there were a lot of them. Meanwhile, the Cumans and Blaks (Bulgarians) entered from both sides and, like the last time, began to shoot the army of Emperor Baldwin from bows. Now no one wanted to fight, and some detachments began to scatter in all directions … To justify the defeat, the chronicler said: "Finally - after all, God allows failures - ours were defeated."
As a result, according to the chronicler, the crusaders suffered heavy losses in this battle, many knights died, and the emperor Baldwin himself was taken prisoner by the Bulgarians, where he later died. Well, on June 1, in Constantinople, at the age of 98 (!), The Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo, who participated in this campaign, also died and was buried in the Cathedral of St. Sophia.
Tomb of Enrico Dandolo in Hagia Sophia.
“Bishop Pierre of Bethlehem and Etienne du Perche, brother of Count Geoffroy and Renaud de Montmirail, brother of Count of Nevers and Mathieu de Valincourt, and Robert de Ronçois, Jean Frinazes, Gaultier de Nulli, Ferry d'Hierre, Jean, his brother, Estache perished there. de Eumont, Jean, his brother, Baudouin de Neuville and many others, about which the book does not speak here ….
Emperor Baldwin's coins.
Among the saddest consequences of this defeat is the fact that the halo of invincibility around the crusaders, which until now had compensated for their insignificant number, was destroyed. The united army of Bulgarians and Polovtsians could now freely ravage the lands up to Redest, Selimvria and Constantinople, which did not like the Greeks there very much.
But this picture from the same Huntingfield Psalter shows the scene of the assassination of Thomas Becket, who was killed on the steps of the altar of Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. But … the psalter itself was written and illustrated in 1212-1220. and the warriors in her miniatures are depicted from this time. That is, they were all either in surcoat or dressed from head to toe in chain mail armor. Helmets could be either closed or in the form of a "pill".
Well, the captive Latin emperor was taken to the Bulgarian capital, Tarnovo, and locked up in a tower next to the Frensky Gate. The tower has not survived: it had to be reconstructed, but the gate still stands today. There is no exact information about the further fate and circumstances of Baldwin's death. Most likely, he was treated well enough, since he was an important hostage, but according to one version, Kaloyan killed him in a fit of rage. According to the Bulgarian legend, Baldwin tried to seduce Kaloyan's wife (which once again suggests that the crowned prisoner was treated quite decently, since he even met the wife of the Bulgarian king!), Well, it is clear that the king was jealous. The historian Georgy the Acropolitan also gives such a detail that Kaloyan made a cup from Balduin's skull, which had happened to Emperor Nicephorus I four hundred years earlier. According to another version, Baldwin's arms and legs were chopped off and thrown to torment in the gorge, and birds of prey pecked him while he was still alive.
Balduin's Tower in Veliko Tarnovo. Reconstruction of 1930.
Only in July 1206 did they learn about Baldwin's death in Constantinople. He was succeeded by his brother Henry, who was crowned imperial in August of the same year. In Flanders, since he was also the Count of Flanders, two daughters, Jeanne and Margarita, became Baldwin's heirs.
