Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/255

 THE PREPAKATIONS FOR A CRUSADE. 037 which it was agreed that the time had come wlien preliminaiy arrangements might be undertaken for the chartering of a fleet. The decision arrived at was that six messengers should be sent to treat with Venice, with full powers to make such agreements for the transport of the army as they deemed necessary. Shortly after, the messengers set out on their journey. Venice was chosen as being the city which was likeliest to furnish, if not the only city which could furnish, the Choice of Veil-, n , r. , ^ ice as port of large fleet of transports and convoys necessary, epartuie. -^^^^ ^^^^ choicc was in many respects an unfortunate one, and ultimately led to the failure of the fourth crusade. We have seen that Venice had occupied a neutral position between the East and the West. On many occasions she had owned allegiance to the New instead of the Old Rome, and although at the end of the twelfth century she had her special reasons for hostility towards her former protector, she was as little inclined as ever to render obedience either to the pope in spiritual things, or to either of the rival claimants for the empire in the West in temporal things. The thunders of In- nocent, which shook every other Western state, fell harmlessly upon Venice. The struggles between Guelfs and Ghibelins, whether in Germany or Italy, aroused comparatively slight attention among her people. Innocent, early in 1201, had de- clared for Otho, a nephew of Eichard of England, the Guelphic claimant for the empire of the West, and had declared against Philip of Swabia, whom he had threatened with the penalties of the Church. But Venice cared little for such threats, and was ready to ally herself with Philip. Her great interest was to have a monopoly of the carrying trade by sea, and in order to preserve this she was ready, with equal indifference, to sup- ply Crusaders and Infidels with contraband of war, or to trans- port the one or the other and their property whither they would. Venice was now in the first springtime of her splendor. The islands, which had themselves been constructed on the marshes, were already covered with stately buildings. The city had increased in wealth as Constantinople had declined.