ABSTRACT
Contrary to received opinion we now know that the Byzantines had a perfectly good understanding of the Crusades and at first gave them qualified approval. It did not, of course, survive the crusader conquest of Constantinople in 1204, but even before this the Byzantines were beginning to have second thoughts about the moral and spiritual value of the Crusades. These were sparked by the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 to Saladin and the failure of the Third Crusade to recover it, which suggested that the Crusades were no longer pleasing to God.
