Publisher's Synopsis
This is a powerful account of the Fourth Crusade, which defined a pivotal time in the history of the world. A time when Christian soldiers - Crusaders - set forth from the comfort and safety of their homelands to defend the rights of Christian pilgrims and free the ancient Holy Lands from the tyranny of their muslim oppressors. This book is to be read as one would read a personal journal or diary, entry by entry. There are no chapters here, just a step by step trek to recapture hallowed ground. It is a powerful and captivating chronicle, written by Geoffry de Villehardouin (1160-1212 AD), an actual participant in the Fourth Crusade. Geoffry was a soldier, a Christian Knight, and one of the special envoys sent to facilitate transport of the expedition. This is his story of the Fourth Crusade, a story of Christendom at the end of the Dark Ages. A true classic of great historic significance, providing rare insight to the courage and faith of these mighty Christian knights. Many have debated the successes and failures of the Fourth Crusade, and the ramifications of the conquering of Constantinople in 1204, but none can deny the miraculous achievements of these Christian Knights. The First Crusade gave birth to a new morning in the Holy Land and the Kingdom of Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, when a victorious Christian army raised the Cross of Christ once again in the City of David. And the Crusades that followed served notice on tyrants everywhere that their campaigns of mayhem and oppression would not go unchallenged. These Crusades achieved that goal, and ushered in the end to the Dark Ages, and made possible the founding of a bright shining city on a hill. Judge Hal Moroz, from the Introduction
