The History of the Renaissance World Quotes

“As each German and Italian and Frankish nobleman arrived in Constantinople with his own private army, ready to cross over the Bosphorus Strait and face the enemy, Alexius had demanded a sacred oath. Whatever “cities, countries or forces he might in future subdue . . . he would hand over to the officer appointed by the emperor.” They were, after all, there to fight for Christendom; and Alexius Comnenus was the ruler of Christendom in the east.1 Just as Alexius had feared, the chance to build private kingdoms in the Holy Land proved too tempting. The first knight to bite the apple was the Norman soldier Bohemund, who had arrived in Constantinople at the start of the First Crusade and immediately became one of the foremost commanders of the Crusader armies. Spearheading the capture of the great city Antioch in 1098, Bohemund at once named himself its prince and flatly refused to honor his oath. (“Bohemund,” remarked Alexius’s daughter and biographer, Anna, “was by nature a liar.”) By 1100, Antioch had been joined by two other Crusader kingdoms—the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the County of Edessa—and Bohemund himself was busy agitating the Christians of Asia Minor against Byzantium. By 1103, Bohemund was planning a direct attack against the walls of Constantinople itself.2 To mount this assault, Bohemund needed to recruit more soldiers. The most likely source for reinforcements was Italy; Bohemund’s late father, Robert Guiscard, had conquered himself a kingdom in the south of Italy (the grandly named “Dukedom of Apulia and Calabria”), and Bohemund, who had been absent from Italy since heading out on crusade, had theoretically inherited its crown. Alexius knew this as well as Bohemund did, so Byzantine ships hovered in the Mediterranean, waiting to intercept any Italy-bound ships from the principality of Antioch. So Bohemund was forced to be sneaky. Anna Comnena tells us that he spread rumors everywhere: “Bohemond,” it was said, “is dead.” . . . When he perceived that the story had gone far enough, a wooden coffin was made and a bireme prepared. The coffin was placed on board and he, a still breathing “corpse,” sailed away from Soudi, the port of Antioch, for Rome. . . . At each stop the barbarians tore out their hair and paraded their mourning. But inside Bohemond, stretched out at full length, was . . . alive, breathing air in and out through hidden holes. . . . [I]n order that the corpse might appear to be in a state of rare putrefaction, they strangled or cut the throat of a cock and put that in the coffin with him. By the fourth or fifth day at the most, the horrible stench was obvious to anyone who could smell. . . . Bohemond himself derived more pleasure than anyone from his imaginary misfortune.3 Bohemund was a rascal and an opportunist, but he almost always got what he wanted; when he arrived in Italy and staged a victorious resurrection, he was able to rouse great public enthusiasm for his fight against Byzantium. In fact, his conquest of Antioch in the east had given him hero stature back in Italy. People swarmed to see him, says one contemporary historian, “as if they were going to see Christ himself.”4”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“One of the first Italians to give a name to the reawakened interest in Greek and Roman learning was the poet Petrarch, who announced early in the 1340s that poets and scholars were ready to lead the cities of Italy back to the glory days of Rome. Classical learning had declined, Petrarch insisted, into darkness and obscurity. Now was the time for that learning to be rediscovered: a rebirth, a Renaissance.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“There was no more emperor in the east”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“he was sentenced to death by public dismemberment: zhe,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“The Hussite Wars would drag on for another twenty years:”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Nearly four hundred high-ranking clergy were present:”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“promising sinners that their punishment would be revoked gave Christ’s saving power to the pope.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“the three kingdoms of Denmark and Norway and Sweden had not yet played a leading role in the world’s affairs.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Constantinople still lay under siege,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“and for twelve years”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Le Quy Ly then executed the abdicated emperor and declared himself regent for his grandson.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“By the time of his death”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“a purely political realm,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Dante insisted that the Church had never been given authority over any earthly kingdom,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“a wind blew against them and pointed them towards Constantinople”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Between 1273 and 1294,
Kublai Khan conquers China”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“One may see the footsteps of many who have gone there”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“The King of kings . . . has conferred full power on us.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“He was answerable to no man”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“He”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“for the latter desire their father’s death, the former his master’s glory.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“One obedient slave is better than three hundred sons,” an eleventh-century sultan had written,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“The five years of destruction between 1180 and 1185, the Gempei War,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“Philip II immediately marched into Burgundy, attacked the fortress of Chatillon,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“his reign was marked by increasingly strict laws against swearing, blasphemy, gambling, and other church-condemned pastimes.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“However, before our eyes are the Jews, and no people is more hostile to God than they are.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“and during the First Crusade this had hardened into open hatred.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“European Christians had long shared the ancient Christian suspicion of Jews as complicit in the crucifixion of Christ,”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“The Jews were a natural target.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

“the other ruled by the High King as Henry’s vassal.”
― Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople