Enrico Dandolo

Enrico Dandolo was doge of Venice from 1192 to 1205 and one of the dominant leaders of the Fourth Crusade. Although elderly and visually impaired, he negotiated the transport agreement with the crusaders and helped redirect the expedition first against Zara and then Constantinople.

He died in the conquered Byzantine capital and was traditionally said to have been buried in Hagia Sophia. Dandolo was doge during the Fourth Crusade and played a decisive role in the expedition that captured Constantinople in 1204, greatly expanding Venetian commercial and territorial influence.

In Roger Crowley’s City of Fortune, the decisive expansion came through shipping, crusading and commercial privilege, above all during the Fourth Crusade, when Doge Enrico Dandolo helped direct the expedition that culminated in the sack of Constantinople in 1204. In Simon Turney’s City of God (Knights Templar), as Enrico Dandolo and the western leaders tighten their hold over events, Arnau sees negotiation give way to assault and the sack of Constantinople. Protecting people and sacred objects places him against men who share his faith and nominal cause.