Page "Alexios III Angelos" Paragraph 6

Soon Alexios III was threatened by a new and yet more formidable danger.

In 1202, soldiers assembled at Venice launched the Fourth Crusade.

Alexios IV Angelos, the son of the deposed Isaac II, had recently escaped from Constantinople and now appealed to the crusaders, promising to end the schism of East and West, to pay for their transport, and to provide military support to the crusaders if they helped him to depose his uncle and sit on his father's throne.