Siege of Zara

Battle context

The siege of Zadar in November 1202 marked the first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first recorded instance of Catholic crusaders attacking a Catholic city. The action arose directly from the financial impasse between the crusading force and Venice: unable to meet the cost of Venetian transport across the sea, the crusaders agreed to help Venice seize Zadar, a city that had long been contested between Venice and the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia, backed by the Hungarian king Emeric, who had himself pledged to join the Crusade. Pope Innocent III explicitly forbade the attack and threatened excommunication, and a portion of the crusaders refused to participate — yet the siege proceeded regardless, and the city fell on 24 November, after which both Venetians and crusaders sacked it. The crusaders then wintered in Zadar before continuing their campaign toward Constantinople. The siege established the pattern that would define the Fourth Crusade: strategic and financial pressures diverting the expedition away from its stated objective and toward targets within Christendom, culminating ultimately in the assault on Constantinople.