Greetings {{first name | Producer}},
Welcome to the Weekly Herald for the week of 12 April 2026.
Each week, we return to the chronicles of the Middle Ages, marking anniversaries, revisiting battles, and tracing the enduring consequences of medieval history.
This week’s journey through the Middle Ages runs from the breached walls of Constantinople to a drowned emperor, from a crusader king taken captive to crowns newly raised and stories first told at court.
The siege of Constantinople in 1204 by Palma il Giovane
12 April 1204 - The Fourth Crusade Sack of Constantinople
In April 1204, soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, attacked and captured the Christian city of Constantinople. Originally intended to strike at Muslim powers in the Holy Land, the crusade had been diverted by political and financial pressures, eventually targeting the heart of the Byzantine Empire.
On 12 April, attackers succeeded in penetrating the city’s formidable walls; accounts emphasize how assaults combined land pressure with seaborne access points, turning the city’s shoreline fortifications into a vulnerability.
After breaching the city’s defenses, Crusader forces poured into Constantinople and spent days looting it. Churches, palaces, and homes were stripped of valuables, relics were stoeln, and large parts of the city were destroyed or burned. The scale of the sack shocked even contemporaries and permanently damaged relations between Eastern and Western Christianity.
The fallout was immense, it deepened the bitterness between Latin and Greek Christian worlds for centuries, and the capture helped usher in the Latin Empire, reshaping power and legitimacy in the eastern Mediterranean.
The siege of 1204 stand as one of the most consequential (and controversial) moments of the Crusades.
THIS WEEK IN THE MIDDLE AGES
15 April 1450 - Battle of Formigny (Hundred Years’ War)
On 15 April 1450, French forces annihilate the English at Formigny in Normandy. The defeat marked a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War, effectively ending English control in northern France. English dominance on the continent rapidly declined.
18 April 1025 - Poland’s First King Crowned
On 18 April 1025, Bolesław I Chrobry (the Brave) was crowned the first king of Poland, formalizing Poland’s status as a sovereign kingdom. The coronation signaled the growing importance of Central European powers in medieval politics.
13 April 1250 - A Crusader King Captured in Egypt
During the Seventh Crusade, Louis IX of France is captured after his army is defeated in Egypt. His capture was a major blow to the crusading movement and required a large ransom for his release. Despite this setback, Louis would later be remembered as a model Christian king and eventually canonized.
17 April 1397 - Chaucer Performs The Canterbury Tales at Court
Geoffrey Chaucer is traditionally said to have read The Canterbury Tales aloud for the first time at the court of King Richard II. The performance marks a pivotal moment in literature as he recited the work in English rather than the court's traditional Norman French.
THE ILLUMINATION
Bayeux Tapestry, Scene 29 (Public Domain)
29 - HIC DEDERUNT HAROLDO CORONA[M] REGIS
(29 - Here they gave the king's crown to Harold)
THE HERALD'S LEXICON
Word of the Week: MACHICOLATIONS
Projecting stonework with openings to drop missiles on attackers at the base of castle walls.
FROM THE FORGE
The Medieval Papacy series continues with another Great Pope, The Iron Pope of the 9th Century.
On the battlefront, A small group of Knights Hospitaller hold off the might of the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Rhodes
PODCAST OF THE WEEK
The 14th century was filled with plague, constant war, schisms and disaster. It all started with a shifting weather pattern and a Great Famine. Discover how the calamitous 14th century began in our podcast episode.
Settle the Record
Question of the Week:
Which Holy Roman Emperor drowned in his heavy armor in the Saleph River while traveling to the Middle East during the Third Crusade?
- Answer
“Time and tide wait for no man.”
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