Harald
I escaped from Byzantium and went to see Yaroslav. Yaroslav remained a master bullshitter. He’d been hit in the ankle with an arrow, so he limped, but he was King of all Rus and he had a marriageable daughter. I was happy to be alive, but sad that there was a fortune in gold that I had left behind. So Yaroslav and I hatched a plan.
Chronographia
Zoe was open-handed, the sort of woman who could exhaust a sea teeming with gold-dust in one day.
Harald
One thing Zoe couldn’t tolerate was not being able to buy anything she wanted. And there were a lot of things she wanted. Periodically, John the Eunuch would convince her husband that he should limit Zoe’s spending in the name of saving the treasury. Eventually, Zoe’s husbands tended to wind up dead, but Zoe’s immediate response to being denied in this way was to transfer gold from the treasury to the lower vaults of her personal palace in Blachernae.
Which is also where we kept the barracks of the Varangian Guard.
Tale of Bygone Years
Yaroslav sent his son Vladimir to attack Greece, and entrusted him with a large force. He assigned the command to Vyshata, father of Yan. Vladimir set out by ship, arrived at the Danube, and proceeded toward Tsar'grad. A great storm arose which broke up the ships of the Russes; the wind damaged even the Prince's vessel, and Ivan, son of Tvorimir, Yaroslav's general, took the Prince into his boat. The other soldiers of Vladimir to the number of six thousand were cast on shore, and desired to return to Rus', but none of the Prince's retainers went with them. Then Vyshata announced that he would accompany them, and disembarked from his vessel to join them, exclaiming, "If I survive, it will be with the soldiers, and if I perish, it will be with the Prince's retainers." They thus set out to return to Rus'.
Harald
Vladimir headed down the Dnieper to Kherson, to drum up support and buy up as many boats as he could. I knew the ships that were available in Kherson, and while some of them could get you where you were going, in slow short hops during windows of good weather, they were no match for the Byzantine ships in the blue water sailing of the Black Sea. For that, I would need some better boats.
Choniates
The doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, was not the least of horrors; a man maimed in sight and along in years, a creature most treacherous and extremely jealous of the Romans, a sly cheat who called himself wiser than the wise and madly thirsting after glory as no other, he preferred death to allowing the Romans to escape the penalty for their insulting treatment of his nation. And all the while he pondered on how many evils the Venetians associated with the rule of the Angelos brothers [Isaakios II and Alexios III], and of Andronikos before them, and prior to him of Manuel, who held sway over the Roman empire. Realizing that should he work some treachery against the Romans with his fellow countrymen alone he would bring disaster down upon his own head, he schemed to include other accomplices, to share his secret designs with those whom he knew nursed an implacable hatred against the Romans and who looked with an envious and avaricious eye on their goods. The opportunity arose as if by chance when certain wellborn toparchs were eager to set out for Palestine; he met with them to arrange a joint action and won them over as confederates in the military operation against the Romans.
Villehardouin
"Signors," said the Doge, " we will tell you the conclusions at which we have arrived, if so be that we can induce our great council and the commons of the land to allow of them; and you, on your part, must consult and see if you can accept them and carry them through.
"We will build transports to carry four thousand five hundred horses, and nine thousand squires, and ships for four thousand five hundred knights, and twenty thousand sergeants of foot. And we will agree also to purvey food for these horses and people during nine months. This is what we undertake to do at the least, on condition that you pay us for each horse four marks, and for each man two marks.
And the covenants we are now explaining to you, we undertake to keep, wheresoever we may be, for a year, reckoning from the day on which we sail from the port of Venice in the service of God and of Christendom. Now the sum total of the expenses above named amounts to 85,000 marks.
And this will we do moreover. For the love of God, we will add to the fleet fifty armed galleys on condition that, so long as we act in company, of all conquests in land or money, whether at sea or on dry ground, we shall have the half, and you the other half. Now consult together to see if you, on your parts, can accept and fulfil these covenants."
Harald
Yaroslav collected exiled princes with good blood and bad luck, so if that is what you were looking for Kiev was the place for you. Villehardouin had been tasked by the pope to collect a Christian army and carry out a raid on Alexandria, staffed and paid for by the religiously protected adventures. He’d convinced the Venetians to build the boats on spec, and when he was recruiting Yaroslav for an army and money to pay the Venetians for boats that were already built, I saw my opportunity.
We headed east, on horses, around the Hungarian plain, alpine passes, and the Po valley, and arrived in Venice.
Villehardouin
Lords, the Venetians have well fulfilled all their undertakings, and above measure. But we cannot fulfil ours in paying for our passages, seeing we are too few in number; and this is the fault of those who have journeyed by other ports. For God's sake therefore let each contribute all that he has, so that we may fulfil our covenant; for better is it that we should give all that we have, than lose what we have already paid, and prove false to our covenants; for if this host remains here, the rescue of the land overseas comes to naught.
Then the Count of Flanders began to give all that he had and all that he could borrow, and so did Count Louis, and the Marquis, and the Count of Saint-Paul, and those who were of their party. Then might you have seen many a fine vessel of gold and silver borne in payment to the palace of the Doge. And when all had been brought together, there was still wanting, of the sum required, 34,000 marks of silver.
Harald
Enrico Dandolo wanted his money, and the Count of Flanders would have to figure that one out, but down at the ship yards they understood that ships aren’t earning if they aren’t sailing, so a few captains were willing to cut a side deal with me for a share in my future treasure.
Villehardouin
All started from the port of Abydos together. Then might you have seen the Straits of St. George (as it were) in flower with ships and galleys sailing upwards, and the beauty thereof was a great marvel to behold. Thus they sailed up the Straits of St. George till they came, on St. John the Baptist's Eve, in June to St. Stephen, an abbey that lay three leagues from Constantinople. There had those on board the ships and galleys and transports full sight of Constantinople; and they took port and anchored their vessels.
Now you may know that those who had never before seen Constantinople looked upon it very earnestly, for they never thought there could be in all the world so rich a city; and they marked the high walls and strong towers that enclosed it round about, and the rich palaces, and mighty churches of which there were so many that no one would have believed it who had not seen it with his eyes-and the height and the length of that city which above all others was sovereign. And be it known to you, that no man there was of such hardihood but his flesh trembled: and it was no wonder, for never was so great an enterprise undertaken by any people since the creation of the world.
Harald
The Venetians and I stayed tied up and inconspicuous in the Bosphorus until Vladimir and the ramshackle Rus’ fleet finally arrived in the Hellespont.
Chronographia
Having escaped detection, they had already got inside the Propontis when they made their first proposals for peace, conditional on the payment of an enormous sum for reparations. They mentioned the actual amount, a thousand staters for each ship, on the understanding that this money should be counted out to them in one way only — on one of the ships in their own fleet. Such were the proposals they put forward, either because they imagined that there were springs of gold in our domains, or simply because they had decided to fight in any case. The terms were impossible, purposely so, in order that they could have a plausible excuse for going to war. So, as their envoys were not even considered worthy of an answer, both sides prepared for combat. The enemy were so confident in their own overwhelming numbers that they thought the city, with all its inhabitants, would surrender.
Harald
While Vladimir shouted impossible demands at the sea wall, Villehardouin and I got into position inside the Golden Horn.
Villehardouin
Our barons were minded to encamp by the port before the tower of Galata, where the chain was fixed that closed the port of Constantinople. And be it known to you, that any one must perforce pass that chain before he could enter into the port. Well did our barons then perceive that if they did not take the tower, and break the chain, they were but as dead men, and in very evil case. So they lodged that night before the tower, and in the Jewry that is called Stenon, where there was a good city, and very rich.
On the fifth day, the whole host were armed, and the divisions advanced on horseback, each in the order appointed, along the harbour, till they came to the palace of Blachernae; and the ships drew inside the harbour till they came over against the self-same place, and this was near to the end of the harbour. And there is at that place a river that flows into the sea, and can only be passed by a bridge of stone. The Greeks had broken down the bridge, and the barons caused the host to labour all that day and all that night in repairing the bridge. Thus was the bridge repaired, and in the morning the divisions were armed, and rode one after the other in the order appointed, and came before the city. And no one came out from the city against them; and this was a great marvel, seeing that for every man that was in the host there were over two hundred men in the city.
Harald
The emperor, and Zoe’s latest husband, was a guy named Alexios. He thought the Varangian Guard was there to protect him, that they were just immigrant hired help too dumb to help themselves, without a national identity to bind them together. I knew better. The Norsemen needed a kingdom and it was my destiny to be their King. I said a prayer to Odin, Voluspa showed me the way, and with our Dane axes on our shoulders and Norse on our lips we waltzed through the freely opened gate and walked up the hill to Blachernae Palace.
Villehardouin
When the knights see this, who are in the transports, they land, and raise their ladders against the wall, and scale the top of the wall by main force, and so take four of the towers. And all begin to leap out of the ships and transports and galleys, helter-skelter, each as best he can; and they break in some three of the gates and enter in; and they draw the horses out of the transports; and the knights mount and ride straight to the quarters of the Emperor Alexios. He had his battalions arrayed before his tents, and when his men see the mounted knights coming, they lose heart and fly; and so goes the emperor flying through the streets to the castle of Bucoleon.
Choniates
When Alexios saw the pitiable plight of the queen of cities and the affliction of the people, he at last took up arms. And he saw the masses bristling with anger, heaping abuse upon him, and hurling insults against Alexios Angelos him, for by choosing to remain safe inside the palace and resolving to offer no assistance to the defiled City, he had emboldened the enemy even more. In allowing the conflict to reach the walls (a thing which until now had never happened), it was as though he had not realized that forethought is superior to afterthought, that it is better to anticipate the enemy than to be anticipated by him, that the body does not recover its health by succumbing to an excessively grievous illness. Alexios marched out from the palace, followed by many horsemen and a highborn infantry regiment from among the flower of the City that had hastened to join him, and when the opponent's land forces suddenly beheld this huge array, they shuddered. Indeed, a work of deliverance would have been wrought had the emperor's troops moved in one body against the enemy, but now the nagging idea of flight and the faintheartedness of those about him thwarted Alexios from what needed to be done.
Harald
Alexis was a piece of work. I knew Alexios would crack under the pressure, and he did.
Choniates
Alexios entered the palace and made ready his escape. It was as though he had labored hard to make a miserable corpse of the City, to bring her to utter ruin in defiance of her destiny, and he hastened along her destruction. He communicated his scheme to several of his female chamberlains and relatives and to Irene, from among his daughters, and collected one thousand pounds of gold and other imperial ornaments made of precious gems and translucent pearls
This miserable wretch among men was neither softened by the affection of children nor constrained by his wife's love, nor was he moved by such a great city, nor did he, because of his love for his life and his cowardice, give thought to anything else save his own salvation, and even this was doubtful, since he had to quit so many provinces and cities and all his kin.
Harald
We caught Alexios just outside the palace walls. He’d already collected the treasure for us, all we had to do was load it onto our ships. I went inside to find Zoe. She still had her tower rooms, which she had turned into some kind of emollient lab cum perfume factory. She was older, and I was older, but there was still a spark when she looked at me. I told her she had terrible taste in men, and she told me I could never understand what it means to be born to the purple, and we fucked one more time, for old times sake. I left her with a smile on her face, all the gold that Alexios had not already pillaged, and wished her well.
When our boats were finally loaded, we lit the gate marketplace on fire, to signal Vladimir’s fleet that it was now time to attack.
Chronographia
At the time our naval forces were below strength and the fireships were scattered at various naval stations, some here and some there, on guard duty. The emperor therefore gathered together some hulks of the old fleet and strengthened them with new thwarts, added some transport vessels used in the imperial service, and got ready for sea a few triremes, on which he embarked a certain number of fighting men. After a generous supply of Greek fire had been put aboard these ships, he ranged them in the opposite harbour to face the Russian vessels. He himself, with a picked body of senators, spent the night at anchor in the actual harbour, not far from the shore. A clear declaration of war at sea was made to the barbarians by a herald, and when day broke the emperor set his fleet in battle array. The enemy also put to sea from the port on the other side. They sailed out as if they were leaving a military camp, complete with fortified rampart. When they were well out from the land, they arranged all their ships in line, so that they formed a continuous chain stretching across the water from the harbour on one side to the harbour on the other. They were now ready to attack us, or, if we made the first assault, to repel us. It was a sight that produced the most alarming effect on every man who saw it. For my own part, I was standing at the emperor’s side. He was seated on a hill which sloped gently down to the sea, watching the engagement from a distance.
Villehardouin
Then the Greeks bethought themselves of a very great device, for they took seven large ships, and filled them full of big logs, and shavings, and tow, and resin, and barrels, and then waited until such time as the wind should blow strongly from their side of the straits. And one night, at midnight, they set fire to the ships, and unfurled their sails to the wind. And the flames blazed up high, so that it seemed as if the whole world were a-fire. Thus did the burning ships come towards the fleet of the pilgrims; and a great cry arose in the host, and all sprang to arms on every side. The Venetians ran to their ships, and so did all those who had ships in possession, and they began to draw them away out of the flames very vigorously. And to this bears witness Geoffry the Marshal of Champagne, who dictates this work.
Chronographia
Such then was the order of battle on their side and ours. No attempt was made to join combat, however, for each fleet remained motionless, with line intact. A considerable part of the day had already passed, when the emperor signalled two of our big ships to advance slowly on the enemy. They sailed forward line abreast, moving beautifully, with the pikemen and stone-throwers cheering aloft and the hurlers of Greek fire standing by in good order ready to shoot. At this, several of the Russian vessels left their line and bore down on our ships at full speed. Then, dividing in two, they circled round each of the triremes and hemmed them in, while they tried to hole them below deck with long poles. Our men, meanwhile, engaged them with stones from above and fought them off with their cutlasses. Greek fire, too, was hurled at them, and the Russians, being unable to see now, threw themselves into the water, trying to swim back to their comrades, or else, at a loss what to do, gave up all hope of escape.
Chronographia
Thereupon a second signal was given and more triremes put out to sea. Other ships followed or sailed alongside. It was our fleet now that took courage, while the enemy hove-to in amazement. When the triremes neared the barbarians, the latter lost all coherence and their line broke. Some had the fortitude to stay where they were but the majority fled. Suddenly the sun attracted a mist off the low lying land (most of the horizon consisted of high ground) and the weather changed. A strong breeze blew from east to west, ploughed up the sea with a hurricane, and rolled waves down on the Russians. Some of their ships were overwhelmed on the spot under the weight of tremendous seas; others were driven far away and hurled on to rocks and precipitous coasts. A certain number of these latter were hunted down by our triremes. Some they sank in deep water, with the crews still aboard. The fighting men in the triremes cut others in half and towed them, partially submerged, to nearby beaches. So a great massacre of barbarians took place and a veritable stream of blood reddened the sea: one might well believe it came down the rivers off the mainland.
Tale of Bygone Years
It now became known to the Greeks how the Russes had suffered from the storm, and the Emperor sent fourteen ships to pursue them. When Vladimir and his retainers perceived that the Greeks were pursuing them, he wheeled about, dispersed the Greek ships, and returned to Rus' on his ships. But the Greeks captured Vyshata, in company with those who had been cast on land, and brought them to Tsar'grad, where they blinded many of the captive Russes.
Harald
The Venetian ships flew over the waves like shearwaters. Even if the Greeks had been paying attention they never had a chance to catch us.
After passing the checkpoint at Kherson, I raided a Pecheneg village and made them haul my boats upriver.
Heimskringla
That winter King Jarizleif married his daughter to Harald. Her name was Elizabeth, whom Northmen call Ellisif. Witness Stúf the Blind:
Harald
At Kiev I paid Yaroslav his share. I took my gold, his daughter, my friends, and all my boats, and headed north.