In the fall of 1202, the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade and their Venetian allies sacked the Christian city of Zara instead of sailing directly to fight Islam in the east. The crusaders owed a substantial debt to the Venetians, who had prepared a large fleet to transport the soldiers and horses and organized provisions for the army. Historians have concluded that too few crusaders – somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 of the anticipated 33,500 soldiers – arrived at Venice, which was the designated rendezvous for the gathering forces. Therefore, the crusaders agreed to a “diversion” to Zara in order to postpone payment of their debt to the Venetians and thereby ensure that the crusade would continue. But this interpretation may be wrong on two counts. There may have been more crusaders than has generally been thought, and logistical considerations, particularly the duration of the crusaders’ stopover at Venice, left the army with little choice but to move on from the Italian city at the onset of winter. This article revisits the question of the size of the crusader army at Venice in the summer of 1202 and explores the consequences of feeding the crusaders as they waited to be taken to the Levant. It may be that the crusader army in Venice was too small to pay its debts but too large for the Venetians to sustain.

Primary Sources and the Size of the Army of the Fourth Crusade

The chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade did not clearly specify the size of the army. Historians have relied primarily on Geoffrey of Villehardouin, who participated in the expedition. Villehardouin knew the leaders of the crusade and acted as one of the envoys to Venice when the original contract was made between the crusaders and the Venetians. The envoys commissioned a fleet for 33,500 men, including “4,500 horses and 9,000 squires, and other ships to accommodate 4,500 knights and 20,000 foot sergeants.” These figures were clear, but apparently optimistic. When later describing the Venetian fleet, Villehardouin said that “It comprised so great a number of warships, galleys, and transports that it could easily have accommodated three times as many men as were in the whole of the army.” As noted above, historians have interpreted Villehardouin’s report as supporting the conclusion that about one-third of the expected 33,500 troops actually reached Venice, or around 11,667 soldiers.