SOURCE: “Geoffroy de Villehardouin and the Conquest of Constantinople,” History, Vol. LIII, No. 177, 1968, pp. 24-34.

In the essay that follows, Morris discusses the content and style of Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople, arguing that despite some omissions and the “unfair” treatment of certain subjects, Villehardouin's account is primarily an honest and accurate one.

The Conquest of Constantinople, by Geoffroy de Villehardouin, was much the most popular history of the fourth Crusade during the Middle Ages, and is still today the most easily available of the contemporary accounts.¹ It deserves its popularity. It gives a vivid description, told by one of the commanders, of the series of events by which a Crusade was turned to the destruction of the Christian Byzantine Empire. Villehardouin was in an unusually good position to give us a record of the decisions of the high command and the reasons for them. The story, as we...