CHAPTER X
From the Death of Saladin to the End of the Crusades. During the third crusade a revolution happened at Constantinople, which divided the eastern empire for fifty-eight years. Alexius Angelus, surnamed the Tyrant, having dethroned Isaac II., usurped his seat in 1195; and Alexius, son of Isaac, applied to the French and Venetians, who passed that way to the holy wars, to assist him in the recovery of his father's empire. They accordingly, in 1203, renouncing their designs against the Holy Land, laid siege to Constantinople, took it by storm, and replaced Isaac on the throne; the next year, Alexius Ducas, surnamed Murtzulphus or Murzufle, assassinated the emperor, whom the crusaders had re-established, and seized the crown. On hearing this the French returned, attacked the city, deposed Murtzulphus and elected Baldwin, count of Flanders, in his room: he had four successors, the last of whom, Baldwin II., was deposed in 1262 by Michael Paleologus. This was the period in which the sovereign pontiffs carried their attempts against crowned heads to the greatest excess; and we shall consequently find that a general history of the European states becomes more and more connected with the court of Rome. But before we enter into the condition of Christian Europe, it will be better that we resume the thread of history by which the crusades are continued, and then return.