April 12, 1204

Sack of Constantinople (1204)

Crusaders breach Constantinople’s walls

A north wind pushed two lashed-together ships — Pilgrim and Paradise — close enough for a ladder to touch a tower. By evening the attackers held part of the city.

Monday, 12 April 1204: the second try

The crusader and Venetian fleet renewed its assault on Constantinople's Golden Horn defenses on Monday, 12 April 1204, after the attack of 9 April had failed. The ships had been repaired and tied together in pairs to carry their ladders.

A north wind drove two of them, Pilgrim and Paradise, against a tower. A Venetian and the French knight Andrew of Urboise entered it, and other attackers followed.

Four towers, three gates, one postern

Elsewhere a small force broke through a blocked postern. Crusader eyewitness traditions name the clerk Aleaume of Clari as the first man through it, followed by ten knights and about sixty sergeants on foot.

The knights took four towers, opened or broke through three gates, and rode toward Emperor Alexios V's camp. The defenders withdrew, leaving the attackers in possession of part of the city by evening.

Alexios V escaped through the Golden Gate during the night, and a fire set between the opposing quarters burned through the night and the following day.

The citywide plunder begins the next morning

On 13 April the crusaders found no organized opposition. They occupied the imperial palaces and spread through the city taking booty.

The Byzantine eyewitness Niketas Choniates describes the desecration of churches, the theft of reliquaries, violence and sexual assault during the sack. Villehardouin reports 50,000 silver marks paid to Venice out of the declared booty and at least 100,000 more divided among the crusaders.

Contemporaries admitted that much was concealed, and the loot and casualty totals repeated since are not secure enough to state as audited counts.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date is the contemporary Julian-calendar date. Its proleptic Gregorian equivalent is 19 April 1204.
Sources blur “capture” and “sack.” Fighting, killing and seizure of movable goods occurred on 12 April, but Villehardouin places the unopposed occupation and citywide gathering of booty on 13 April.
Casualty totals are not securely recoverable. The often-repeated figure of 2,000 Greek civilians should not be presented as a verified count.
Loot totals vary by source and translation, and contemporaries admit that much booty was concealed. The reported 900,000-mark total is not secure enough to state as an audited fact.