1048
Constantinople

August 15, 1118
Constantinople

Byzantine emperor

"The blood of Christians flows in unheard-of scenes of carnage.... Therefore in the name of God … we implore you to bring to this city [Constantinople] all the faithful soldiers of Christ."

—Alexius I, letter to Robert of Flanders, which partly inspired the First Crusade; quoted in The Story of the First Crusade, http://www.brighton73.freeserve.co.uk/firstcrusade/People/Eastern_Christians/alexius_comnenus.htm

Alexius I was the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern portion of the old Roman Empire based in...