In 1204, crusaders on route to the Holy Land sacked the city of Constantinople. The great capital of the Byzantine Empire was weakened and set on a path which led to its eventual fall to the Ottoman Turks while the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity was solidified. What went wrong? The Crusades are generally seen as a misguided outcome of Medieval Western Christian religious enthusiasm with few positive, lasting results. But even within the context of the times, the Fourth Crusade has stood out as a particularly dark chapter. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the context of Fourth Crusade, its events, and its legacies.