The Age of Chivalry

oronations of Byzantine emperors were elaborate affairs. The new incumbent would process across the main square of his capital city of Constantinople and into the cathedral of Hagia Sophia. There he would mount a wooden stage under the building’s soaring dome and be draped in a cloak of imperial purple. He was then anointed and crowned by the patriarch, and acclaimed by the congregation. Just such a ceremony took place on 16 May 1204, but this time there was one significant difference. The new emperor was not called Constantine, Leo or Alexios, but Baldwin. His first language was not Greek, but French. He had been born in the Low Countries, where he had been count of Flanders since 1194. To many observers, it seemed only right that a western European should now be at the helm. This was the era of the crusades, when armoured knights from the West had astonished the world by travelling thousands of miles to capture Jerusalem against all odds. Their