The Fourth Crusade was a shambles. The Crusaders (Geoffrey de Villhardouin consistently calls then "pilgrims") set out to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks, but finished up killing other Christians in Zara, Hungary, and by sacking Constantinople. Villhardouin portrays the whole thing as a glorious and heroic enterprise, but it's relatively easy to find Byzantine sources that portray the sacking of Constantinople as anything but heroic. Pope Innocent III, who initiated the campaign, was significantly annoyed with the Crusaders, whom he viewed as responsible for making the breach between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches permanent. Altogether, a sad account.

The book also contains an account of the crusade undertaken by King (Saint) Louis, which almost succeeded, but for his brother's idiotic cavalry charge.

This is an old translation, written about the beginning of the twentieth century, and the language is stilted and archaic, as was the fashion for translations of medieval works back then. COnsequently, I found it unnecessarily difficult to read.