Silver Coin Fourth Crusade 2010 Standard Cook Islands

RAZITKO_POSTOVNE_ZDARMA_NENI

History of the Crusades series

An exclusive silver (antique) coin issued by the Cook Islands in 2010 from the History of the Crusades series depicting the scenery of the Fourth Crusade with a portrait of Enrico Dandolo on the reverse. The inscriptions "FOURTH CRUSADE 1202", "HENRICUS DANDULUS DOGE OF VENICE" and the year of publication complete the print. The obverse shows crusader knights holding a flag and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II..

The coin comes in a blue gift box with grey and silver trim along with a numbered certificate of authenticity in a limited edition of only 1000 pieces for the whole world!

Enrico Dandolo

Enrico Dandolo, Latin: Henricus Dandolus, (1107, Venice - 21 June 1205, Constantinople) was a Doge of Venice and ruled the Republic of Venice from 1193 to 1205. He played an infamous role in the Fourth Crusade, which he led as a blind old man against the Byzantine Empire, and the sack of Constantinople. In the 19th century, the Italian navy launched a battleship named Enrico Dandolo in his honour.

Around 1200, the Crusader commanders approached Venice with a request for transportation. In April 1201, after previous hesitation, Dandolo promised to provide the Crusaders with transport and supplies for more than thirty thousand participants in the expedition for 85,000 silver marks. The knights lingered in Venice. Slowly, the reunited crusaders were losing their fighting enthusiasm on the beaches of the Venetian islet of San Niccolo di Lido, and their debts to the Venetians were increasing as they waited for their comrades. The soldiers did not arrive in the expected numbers, and the Venetians insisted on honouring the contract and paying the pre-agreed price for transport.

Enrico Dandolo then took advantage of their financial distress and persuaded them that he would wait to pay their debt, not asking for funds before sailing, if they would help the Venetian Signoria to capture the Dalmatian city of Zadar.

On November 11, 1202, the Crusaders and the Venetians laid siege to Christian Zadar and after a short siege they captured it. While wintering in the conquered city, Alexios Angelos, the son of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac II, together with envoys of the Roman King Philip the Swabian, sought them out and presented the Crusaders with an enticing offer. He demanded that they make a stopover in Constantinople on their way to Egypt and, for a fee of 200,000 marks, reclaim the Byzantine throne for him. The Crusaders could not agree on a course of action.

The conquest and sack of Constantinople took place on 13 March 1204, an event in which Dandolo, despite his advanced age and health, featured prominently. The Catholic crusaders then gained complete control of the capital of the Eastern Orthodox Church and established a Catholic state, the Latin Empire. Venice was given three-eighths of the territory of the Byzantine Empire for its support in the crusade. The Byzantine Empire never again achieved the power it had before the Fourth Crusade. Dandolo was so active that he even advocated a crusade against the Bulgarians, but he died in 1205. He was buried in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, probably in the eastern part.