Chapter 381 - 269: Heading to Cyprus
Eric and his men remained in Constantinople for five more days. Alexios had granted them permission to access the port, but they were still confined to a specific district of the city.
Eric had no intention of meeting with Henry IV; in a way, they were still enemies.
Meanwhile, Alexios revealed to Eric that Henry IV was deeply displeased with his decision to ally with Mansur Bey against Sultan Suleiman of the Roman Sultanate.
Henry believed that by allying with heretics, Alexios had betrayed the will of the Lord of Heaven. Moreover, due to the prolonged standoff and animosity between the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, some of the lords accompanying Henry had even come to believe the Greeks were secretly conspiring with the Turkic People.
This had led to an uprising a week prior, where some Teutonic Knights in Constantinople rioted in an attempt to seize the city.
Fortunately, Alexios had limited the number of Teutons allowed into Constantinople, so the knights were few in number and their rebellion was easily crushed.
To save face for Henry, Alexios compensated them with fifty thousand Byzantine Gold Coins (approximately 500 pounds).
Despite this incident, Henry remained suspicious of Alexios’s plan, believing an alliance with heretics would taint the purity of the Holy War.
Henry had embarked on this Holy War to have his excommunication lifted. His original plan was simple: fight one or two respectable battles against the Turkic People, kill a thousand or two, force a decisive battle at Jerusalem, capture the city, and then immediately return to the Holy Roman Empire.
He had little interest in the East; his primary concern was the affairs of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course, he would be more than happy if he could one-up the Eastern Empire in the process.
To Henry, Alexios’s proposal to ally with Mansur Bey was tantamount to fighting for the Turkic People. It was a complete joke. Hilbrand, that scorpion, would undoubtedly use it as a reason to refuse to restore his standing within the Church.
Eric, however, offered Alexios a solution. He left a priest from the retinue of the Pope’s Envoy, the Bishop of Le Puy, with Alexios.
He also revealed to Alexios that a powerful lord within the Holy Roman Empire, Duke Rudolph of Bavaria, coveted the imperial throne and was in great conflict with Emperor Henry.
If Alexios showed goodwill, the ambitious Duke would be more than willing to create pressure and trouble for Emperor Henry.
As luck would have it, the day after Eric proposed this solution, Alexios received a letter from Duke Rudolph of Bavaria announcing his arrival in Constantinople in about a week.
Once Rudolph arrived, the problem with Henry would be quickly resolved.
Alexios rewarded Eric personally with three hundred thousand Gold Coins (three thousand pounds) and a villa in Constantinople.
Eric took the opportunity to also inform Alexios of the hardships faced by the Pope’s Envoy, the Bishop of Le Puy, and the English Crusaders at Vasiliky Port.
Alexios promised he would compensate them. Each Count received a reward of one hundred thousand Gold Coins, and the other Knights were also rewarded to varying degrees.
Eric placed a portion of the Gold and Silver Coins into his space. He entrusted the rest to his sister’s Monastery for safekeeping.
As for their spoils of war—spices, silks, and the like—Eric and his men sold them for a total of about one hundred and twenty thousand Gold Coins.
Afterward, Eric and his men stayed in Constantinople for five days.
They gradually grew accustomed to the opulent lifestyle of Constantinople. Its splendor was intoxicating. The Knights were housed in the Emperor’s hunting lodge, which made Normandy and England seem like mere farmhouses by comparison.
On the first night, the Knights washed away the fatigue of their journey in hot water scented with rose petals. Handmaidens massaged their bodies with exotic oils until they felt dizzy with relaxation. The Emperor also provided them with servants to attend to their every need.
The luxury of Constantinople continued to dazzle the Knights. At sunrise and sunset, the entire city gleamed, every surface seemingly plated in gold, copper, and bronze.
At the Emperor’s behest, Brinyos took them to the roof of the Blacherna Palace. On a beautiful, sunny day with a gentle breeze, he pointed out the racecourse, the forums of Constantine and Theodosius, the Saint Sophia Cathedral, and, across the river, the quarter of the Venetian merchants in Galata, which shone like a separate, golden treasure box.
He showed them one breathtaking sight after another, until the scenes began to blur into an indistinct amalgam of crystal, carved stone, and gold. It was almost as if they were entranced by a drug, or simply overwhelmed by the sheer luxury.
However, the Genoese oarsmen and some of the Knight’s Squires who remained at the port had an experience completely different from that of their Knight Lords.
They saw with their own eyes the unseen slums: a filthy, stinking underworld filled with disease and thieves. In the narrow, dark streets of the largest city in the Christian World, the ground level remained dim even during the day, where residents lived out their squalid lives in the gloom.
One of the educated Knight’s Squires said that the city, Constantinople, was like a great golden rock that had been overturned, revealing the dirt and squirming creatures underneath. In comparison, even the darkest and most unpleasant corners of England and the Frankish lands seemed like places of shining light.
On the second to last day before their departure, Eric and his men happened to be there for the Byzantine New Year, September 1st.
Emperor Alexios sent a small group of Clergy to sing hymns in honor of the Saints. Each monk carried a tall candle, exquisitely decorated with gold leaf and bright colors. Among the Greeks were eunuchs, who had been castrated before their voices changed. With their soft, plump bodies, they sang in sweet, high-pitched tones that blended with the deeper voices of the other monks. The beautiful music moved the priests in Eric’s retinue to tears, yet they could not shake a sense of unease.
There was no movement in the pre-dawn darkness. A thin mist shrouded the docks and warehouses, drifting over the greasy water’s surface like smoke, like fragments of a dream.
The city slumbered in the tranquility of the Lord’s Day. No one saw or heard Eric and his party as they raised their sails, slowly steered out of the harbor, and met the gray waves.
Brinyos and some Pechenegs left with Eric.
After a week’s journey, they reached Athens. They rested there for half a week before setting out for Cyprus Island with Robert and his party.
September and October were the most suitable months for an offensive in the Levant. The weather would be starting to cool, making the temperatures there more bearable for the Europeans.
Eric and his party rarely lost sight of land, as the Aegean Sea was dotted with islands, allowing them to put ashore each night.
However, spending the night ashore was not always a wise choice. The Empire’s influence in the Aegean had waned significantly. After Emperor Nikephoros Phokas had established firm control over the Aegean Sea and crushed the pirate strongholds on Crete Island in the tenth century, maritime order had since collapsed once more. Saracen and Turkic Pirates were again running rampant.
Therefore, in some small harbors, the Pisan Sailors preferred to drop anchor and remain at sea, uncertain of what might be lurking beyond the beaches.