The Chronicles of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople

Geoffrey de Villehardouin  (1160 – c. 1212) was a knight and historian who participated in and chronicled the Fourth Crusade. The Fourth Crusade was initiated in 1202 by Pope Innocent III, with the intention of invading the Holy Land through Egypt. 

He is considered one of the most important historians of the time period, best known for writing the eyewitness account De la Conquête de Constantinople (On the Conquest of Constantinople), about the battle for Constantinople between the Christians of the West and the Christians of the East on 13 April 1204. In 1207 he began to write his chronicle of the Crusade, On the Conquest of Constantinople. It was in French rather than Latin, making it one of the earliest works of French prose.  The Conquest is the earliest French historical prose narrative that has survived to modern times.