528 APPENDIX criticism in the light of new e'idence leaves hardly room for reasonable doubt that Villehardouin's work was deliberately intended to deceive the European public as to the actual facts of the Fourth Crusade. There can be no question that Villehardouin was behind the scenes ; he rejiresents the expedition against Constantinople as an accidental diversion, which was never intended when the Crusade was organized ; and therefore his candour can be rescued only by proving that the episode of Constantinople was reallj' nothing more than a diversion. But the facts do not admit of such an interpretation. During the year which elapsed between the consent of the Venetian Republic to transport the Crusaders and the time when the Crusaders assembled at Venice (a.d. 1201-2), the two most important forces concerned in the enterprise — Venice and Boniface of Mont- ferrat — had determined to divert the Crusade from its proper and original purpose. Venice had determined that, wherever the knights sailed, they should not sail to the place whither she had undertaken to transport them, namelj- to the shores of Egypt. For in the course of that eventful 3'ear she made a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, pledging herself that Egypt should not be invaded. And on his part, Boniface of Montferrat had arranged with the Emperor Philip and Alexius that the swords of the Crusaders should be employed at Constantinople. (For all this see above, p. 385, n. 51 and 53, and p. 388, n. G3.) On these facts, which were of the first importance, ViUehardouin says not a word ; and one cannot hesitate to conclude that his silence is deliberate. In fact, his book is, as has been said, an " official " version of the disgraceful episode. The Fourth Crusade shocked jDublic opinion in Europe ; men asked how such a thing had befallen, how the men who had gone forth to do battle against the infidels had been drawn aside from their pious purpose to attack Christian states. The story of Villehardouin, a studied suppression of the truth, was the answer. [Mm. Mas-Latrie and Riant take practically this point of view, which has been presented well and moderately by Mr. Pears in his Fall of Constantinople (an excellent work). M. J. Tessier, La diversion sur Zara et Constantinople (1884), defends Villehardouin. Cp. also L. Streit's Venedig und die Wendung des vierten Kreuzzuges gegen Constantinopel. —Editions: by N. de "SVailly, 3rd ed., 1882; E. Bouchet, 2 vols., 1891.] Besides Gunther's work, which Gibbon used (see p. 386, note 54), some new sources on the Fourth Crusade have been made accessible. The most imjiortant of these is the work of Robert de Clary, Li estoires de chiaus qui conquisent Constantinoble ; which, being ' ' non-official, " supplies us with the check on Villehardouin. [Printed b_v Riant in 1868 and again in 1871, but in so few copies that neither issue could be properl}- called an edition. Edited (1873) by Hopf in his Chroniques Greco-romaines, p. 1 sqq.^ Another contemporary account is preserved, the Devast.^tio Constantinopoli- TANA, by an anonymous Frank, and is an official diary of the Crusade. [Pertz^ Mon. xvi. p. 9 sqq. ; Hopf, Chron. Greco-romaines, p. 86 sqqJ] The work of Moncada, which Ducange and Gibbon used for the history of the Catalan expedition, is merelj- a loose comj)ilation of the original Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner, who was not only a contemporary but one of the most prominent members of the Catalan Grand Company. A Catalonian of good family, born at Peralada, in 12-55, he went to reside at Valencia in 1276, witnessed the French invasion of Phihp the Bold in 1285, and in 1300 set sail for Sicily and attached himself to the fortimes of Roger de Flor, whom he accompanied to the east. He returned to the west in 1308 ; died and was buried at Valencia about 1336. The account of the doings of the Catalans in the east is of course written from their point of view ; and the adventurer passes lightly over their pillage and oppression. It is one of the most interesting books of the period. [Most recent edition of the original Catalan, by J. Corolen, 1886 ; conveniently consulted in Buchon's French version, in Chroniques etrangferes (1860). Monographs : A. Rubio y Lluch, La expedicion y dominacion de los Catalanes en oriente juzgedas por los Griegos, 1883, and Los Navarros en Grecia y el ducado Catalan de Atenas en la epoca de su invasion, 1886 (this deals with a later period).]
