April 28, 1192 – Conrad’s Would-be Assassin Names Richard

Conrad of Montferrat, the newly elected King of Jerusalem and not even yet crowned, was attacked in midday as he walked the streets of Tyre with his bodyguard, heading home to have lunch with his wife. The attackers were Assassins (the Hashshashin—“outcasts”), specially trained suicide-soldiers of the order founded by Hassan-I Sabbah during the chaotic days of the early Crusades. They were trained in a mountain fortress in Iran, indoctrinated through drugs and propaganda to give their lives in order to receive Paradise in the afterlife.

One of the crusaders guarding Conrad proved quick enough to throw his own body in front of the king, taking a blow from a knife meant for Conrad’s side to his chest. Another blade struck Conrad’s back, giving him a scar that would last the rest of his life. One assassin was killed, and the other captured and tortured to death, but not before he gave the name of his hirer: Richard of England.

Richard, nicknamed “the Lionhearted” not only for his bravery but also his bravado during the campaign against Castillon-sur-Agen, continued his brashness through the Third Crusade. After the fall of Jerusalem to the forces of Saladin, the new King Richard and his counterpart Phillip II of France launched forces funded by the Saladin Tithe, a special tax of 10% levied on nearly everyone with money to their names. While in Sicily in 1190, locals in Messina balked at their treatment by the visiting crusaders. Richard responded by besieging, conquering, and looting Messina before moving on. On the journey to Acre, a storm separated the ship with his fiancé, Berengaria of Navarre, from the rest of the fleet and drove it to the shores of Cyprus. Richard conquered Cyprus from the Byzantines to win her back. At last the crusaders marched on Acre, and Richard fought despite suffering scurvy, legendarily firing crossbows while soldiers carried him on a stretcher.

Conrad of Montferrat, who had commanded the defense of Tyre against Saladin’s army in the previous years, negotiated the surrender of Acre. He carried a great deal of notoriety with locals and was called “the greatest devil of all the Franks.” During the siege of Tyre, his own aged father, William IV of Montferrat, was brought forward as a prisoner. Saladin promised to release him and shower Conrad with riches if he gave up the city. Conrad replied by aiming his own crossbow at William and saying, “He has lived long already.” Saladin then himself released William, saying that Conrad was “an unbeliever and very cruel.”

Yet Conrad was also handsome and popular among the crusaders. The Third Crusade proved militarily successful, even though Duke Leopold V of Austria marched away after Richard tossed his standard down, saying that it wasn’t worthy of being hung beside those of kings like himself and Phillip II. Phillip II left in 1191 to return to France, leaving his treasure and valuable prisoners with Conrad. Eventually Conrad had to turn the prisoners over to Richard as the king was now sole leader of the crusade. Rather than use them for leverage against Saladin, Richard had them all killed.At last Jerusalem was taken back from Saladin, an election was held on who would be the new king. Richard offered up his own name, but the barons unanimously voted for Conrad.

Richard left immediately and even sold Cyprus, apparently done with the Holy Land if he could not be its king. On his journey toward England, a storm drove his ship to Corfu, held by the Byzantines, who were still upset over losing Cyprus. He sneaked away in a smaller ship, which wrecked and forced him to travel over land disguised as a Knight Templar. Near Vienna in 1192, he was recognized by a fellow crusader, captured, and brought to Duke Leopold. As a vassal of Emperor Henry VI, he was to turn over the prized prisoner, but Leopold sent him back to his cousin, Conrad, King of Jerusalem, to undergo trial for attempted regicide. Pope Celestine III was put in a terrible position since imprisoning a crusader was an excommunicable offense, but so was masterminding such an attack. The matter was resolved when Richard drowned during a storm at sea (suspiciously, it took no other lives).

Although Richard’s death quieted the east, it sent England into civil war. His younger brother John had ousted Richard’s chancellor, William Longchamp, to effectively rule in 1191. He proved very unpopular, and, upon news of Richard’s death, barons in Normandy upheld five-year-old Arthur, son of Richard and John’s brother Geoffrey, as rightful king. John retreated to his holdings in Ireland and re-invaded with aid from Phillip II through the supporting Welsh marcher lords. William the Lion, King of Scotland, agreed to join the alliance in exchange for an earldom in the northern counties. England became war-torn.

After years of campaign and routinely putting down rebellions in his own lands, John won back England only to lose his lands on the continent to France as Philip seized them along with the boy Arthur, whom he kept at court. Deeply indebted and fearful to raise taxes any further, John became a vassal to Philip, who could at any time reject John and establish Arthur. Although John held rule over England, Ireland, and Wales, it was tenuous at best, and he needed French authority to keep down rebellious barons. While John’s son Henry III ruled quietly under France and his grandson Edward I crusaded or warred with Scots and Welsh, later generations would carry out a Hundred Years Rebellion that would eventually wrest England out from under French influence.

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In reality, the assassins’ blades struck home, and Conrad of Montferrat died soon after. Richard was held for a ransom of 65,000 pounds of silver, which was raised by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Upon arriving back in England, Richard made peace with John and named him heir. During his own reign, John would lose his holdings on the continent to France and fight repeated wars with the barons, bringing about the signing of the Magna Carta.

April 5, 1081 - Alexios Komnenos Executed

Still considered by many the eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium fell into renewed chaos in the second millennium after centuries of rule reestablished by military strength of Justinian, Maurice, and Heraclitus.  Justinian had pushed the empire to its zenith in the sixth century, and other great emperors worked to hold onto its expansive territory.  However, the cost in manpower and resources gradually weakened the empire as Arab strength grew.  The Macedonian dynasty of Basil the first restored much of the declining Byzantine strength, but the death of Empress Theodora, childless at 76, left the empire without clear leadership in 1056.  Her successor Michael VI abdicated to become a monk, and his successor Isaac I abdicated after nearly being struck by lightning, leaving rule to the wealthy Doukas family.  They bloated the bureaucracy with highly paid but ineffectual leadership, undercutting the soldiers, who began to rebel on the frontiers.

In 1074, rebellion broke out in Asia Minor, which was put down by Alexios Komnenos.  The Komnenoi were a successful military family, and Alexios fought bravely in wars against the Seljuk Turks and in putting down rebellions in the Balkans.  During the political turmoil, generals Nikephoros Bryennios and Nikephoros Botaneiates revolted simultaneously, and Botaneiates successfully overthrew Michael VII Doukas in 1078.  He effectively politicked for religious and public support and offered Bryennios the position as junior co-emperor.  Bryennios refused and was subsequently defeated by Alexios, blinded, and forcibly retired.

As Nikephoros III Botaneiates, he attempted to establish a new court, but his efforts only worsened the confusion.  The established bureaucracy became alienated and even more ineffective while Botaneiates' co-emperor John Doukas and the old court began plots to overthrow Botaneiates.  They concentrated their efforts on Alexios, who had continued to serve as a heroic general in the West and prepared to battle against invading Normans who fought to return the rule of the deposed Michael VII.  Empress Maria of Alania, former wife of Michael VII and then wife of Botaneiates, adopted Alexios as her son and sent him to raise an army along with his natural and adoptive brothers.  His mother, Anna Dalassena, escaped the suspicious palace guard and sought sanctuary at Hagia Sofia.  The guards attempted to bring her home, but she exclaimed falsehoods of a plan to blind Alexios and his brother, whom she said had fled the city so that they might continue to serve the emperor.  Although they tried to quiet her, she swore that she would only leave the church if Botaneiates gave his cross to her along with the vow that he would do no harm to her family.

Botaneiates became suspicious of her theatrical appeal and refused to give such a vow.  He sent agents to find Alexios and his brother, who were indeed raising an army.  They were brought back to Constantinople on April 1, imprisoned, and executed.  Anna Dalassena hid in Hagia Sofia, which Botaneiates surrounded in a "siege" that prevented food other than sacrament to enter.  Embarrassed, she was forced to leave the church and resigned to the convent of Petrion.  Botaneiates set about rooting out the rest of the conspirators, which crippled the government in a crucial time.

The Normans under Duke Robert Guiscard continued their invasion of Byzantine lands after securing Sicily and Malta from the Muslim forces to the south.  Using the political instability as a pretense, his forces conquered southern Italy and began an invasion of the Balkans with papal blessing.  His army overwhelmed Botaneiates' defenses at Dyrrachium and moved toward Constantinople.  Botaneiates attempted to defeat the army in the field, but his armies were repeatedly crushed, and the loot won by the Normans kept dissension at a minimum.  Finally, in 1085, Robert sacked Constantinople and ended the Byzantine Empire.

Robert died after a few years' rule in Constantinople, and the Norman kingdom there collapsed under Seljuk attack.  The ruling Seljuk emperor, Alp Arslan, had established a frontier of feudal "beyliks" (states) after defeating the Byzantines in Anatolia in 1071 at Manzikert.  When the Seljuks splintered after the death of Malik Shah, Kilij Arslan founded the Sultanate of Rum in Asia Minor, pushing westward with the Emir Chaka of Smyrna until the Normans retreated back to Italy and Sicily.  Muslim control rolled westward across the Balkans, butting up against Christendom's strongest center in Italy.  Many talked of a united Christian force to drive back the Turks, but the most that Pope Urban II was able to manage was a bolstering of defenses for Italy and a push to retake lands along the North African coast to affirm Spain's Reconquista.

Meanwhile, trade flourished between the Italian city-states, such as Venice.  With the Byzantine stranglehold on east-west trade removed, the Muslims gained great influence shipping good westward.  Trade with Kiev at the north of the Black Sea brought Islam to Russia, where it made great advances overriding the Orthodox Christian beliefs adopted in the century before.  Constantinople continued being one of the main hubs of the world, and Europe continued as a rich market for Islamic traders for centuries to come.  Christian kingdoms, meanwhile, expanded southward and across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World there.  While Europe underwent a Renaissance in the seventeenth century, many great minds traveled to the libraries of Constantinople to study, keeping the Islamic world apace with innovations in medicine, mathematics, and science.


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In reality, Alexios successfully overthrew Nikephoros III Botaneiates.  Having taken the vow that he could do no harm to the family and facing Alexios' army that bribed the city guard to enter Constantinople without a fight, Nikephoros had no choice but to abdicate.  Alexios began the Komnenian dynasty, which revitalized the empire for a time.  Perhaps most notable for history, Alexios pleaded for aid from Urban II in fighting the Seljuk Turks as Christian allies, which culminated in the Crusades.