Geoffroi de Villehardouin, Maréchal de Champagne and cousin to Thibaut and Louis de Champagne, enlisted as a crusader with his brother Stephen at Perche in 1199, and his role as planner, provisioner, diplomat, and leader was of supreme importance in the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). Ranking just below the counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Blois and trusted by them for his diplomatic skill and absolute dependability, he was selected to be one of six envoys who met with the doge of Venice to secure transportation for the crusade. He was also privy to, and influential upon, all negotiations and decisions that determined the course of the crusade, working to hold the controversial expedition together when it foundered and personally participating in all its hazards through to its eventual outcome: the parceling out of feudal domains and the defense of the new “Romania.” By the breadth of his experience...