Byzantium

  • Enrico Dandolo’s Revenge or The Fourth Crusade

    Enrico Dandolo had an ax to grind.  At first, it seemed like he had a pretty good life.  He was born in the early 12th century to an influential Venetian noble family.  His father was Vitale Dandolo, who was a famous jurist and diplomat.  His uncle, another Enrico Dandolo, was the patriarch of Grado, the highest ranking churchman in Venice.  Young Enrico followed in his father’s footsteps and went on many diplomatic for the Republic.  He was a shrewd politician and survived a disastrous mission Constantinople in 1171.  The Byzantine Empire was the biggest kid on the block, and had seized the goods of thousands of Venetians living in the…

  • The Loves of John Smith

    As we discussed in our previous post on Pocahontas (http://www.historynaked.com/pocahontas/), explorer John Smith had his life saved by the Native American princess.  Some historians have cast doubt on this story as the only source we have is a letter Smith wrote to Queen Anne describing the event in 1616 when Pocahontas journeyed to England.  Smith’s only journals from that time make no mention of the event and describe the Powhatan people as nothing but friendly.  What is known is Smith had a thing for princesses as another one made a significant impact on his life. Before his journeys to the New World, John Smith was a bonafide pirate.  As a…

  • THE FIRST USE OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AND THE SIEGE OF KAFFA

    It is recorded that by 1331 The Black Death was ravaging its way through central Asia. It was for a long time a mystery as to how exactly this plague managed to make its way to the shores of Europe but by reading ancient texts historians and biologists think they have traced its advancement to the city of Kaffa in Crimea and the first ever recorded use of biological warfare. As the plague killed half the population of China and made its way through India and Persia somehow trade managed to continue. It’s of no surprise then that plague infested rats climbed aboard trading vessels and found their way into…

  • Empress Irene

    Not much is known about Irene’s early life.  She born between 750 and 755 CE and was related in some way to the noble Greek Sarantapechos family of Athens.  She was an orphan, and there is some mystery around why she was chosen from obscurity to be the bride of Leo IV, heir to Constantinople.  It is thought she might have been selected in the first instance of a “bride show”, where girls of outstanding beauty were brought together and a wife was chosen.  There is no evidence of this though. However, she came to the attention of Constantine V Copronymus, the ‘dung-named’ so nicknamed after an unfortunate baptismal font…

  • The Varangian Guard-  Vikings in Constantinople

    Constantinople was the crossroads of many cultures, so it is unsurprising that the Vikings made their way there as well.  Vikings came originally as traders or raiders, depending on which would give them the most profit.  Then they settled in what would become Russia founding the settlements of Novgorod and Kiev.  They intermarried with the native Slavic tribes to consolidate their power base.  The Slavs called the Vikings “Rus”, which eventually lent its name to the region which became Russia.  However, the Greeks and eastern Slavs called them Varangian.  Varangian meant a stranger who had taken military service.  Eventually, it came to mean he foreign warriors still arriving from Scandinavia…