The Fourth Crusade and the fall of the Komnenoi: The Holy Fucking Shit saga

[transemacabre]

Recently, I've been hardcore studying the fall of the Komnenoi dynasty of Constantinople, and the subsequent sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. If you're not a history buff, you can find a synopsis of it all on wikipedia or somewhere, which will give you some idea of the total fuckery of the whole thing. But when you study it in-depth, you will be blown away by how amazingly crazy -- and epic -- and crazy -- the whole saga was.

Seriously. This is the kind of thing that, if you made it into a TV show, people would criticize it for being "too unrealistic". It's like the most amazing exploitation movie ever made.

Shocking betrayals!
Incest!
Princesses locked up in towers!
Pirate lords!
Secret love affairs!
Prison escapes!
Child brides!
Severed heads!
Barbarians!

Also, Kaloyan of Bulgaria makes for one of the all-time great medieval villains (or, if you're Bulgarian, I suppose he could make for a good anti-hero). Kaloyan, aka Ioannitsa, aka Skylojan (he had more aliases than a rapper) only ruled Bulgaria for about ten years, but in that time Kaloyan killed so many Byzantine and Crusader lords, he could've filled a trophy room with just their grisly, severed body parts. Basically, the guy devoted his life to REVENGE. He had the single-minded thirst for vengeance of any ten Mortal Kombat characters, and the self-restraint of Mike Tyson. One of the stories about him was that he had Emperor Baldwin's skull hollowed out, lined with metal, and encrusted with jewels, and then used it as a drinking cup. HOLY CRAAAAP.

Comments

[curtana.livejournal.com]

It is pretty amazing - the Byzantine history course I took in undergrad was one of the most interesting (outside my main subject area, anyway.) I still think Basil Bulgaroktonos (Basil the Bulgar-slayer) is one of the most badass names ever :)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Thorfinn Skull-cleaver rocks, too, as a name.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And trobadors.
Don't forget the trobadors!
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras especially.