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Crusade of the Balkans
Part of the Crusades
Battle of [INSERT MAJOR BATTLE]
Date 29 August 1702 - [END DATE] Location Balkans Result Crusader victory Constantinople sacked Solidification of the Latin and Greek churches Byzantine Empire irrevocably weakened Outbreak of the Bulgarian-Latin wars Territorial changes Venetian authority asserted over Zara Foundation of several Latin Crusader states in the Balkans Partitioning of the Byzantine Empire into rump states centred in Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus
Belligerents
Crusaders : Papal States Vicepapalty of Croatia Kingdom of Romania Vicepapalty of Serbia Spanish Empire Spanish Florida Viceroyalty of Tierra Austral Spanish West Indies Viceroyalty of New Granada New Spain Spanish Brazil Spanish North Pacific Viceroyalty of Peru Louisiana (New Spain) Spanish Colombia Viceroyalty of Peru Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Kingdom of Bohemia Duchy of Burgundy	Sunni Holy League: Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Tunisia
Commanders and leaders
Pope Iulius IV Felipe II z Podebrad of Spain Theobald III of Champagne Balduin of Flanders Louis I of Blois Hugh IV of Saint-Pol Conrad of Halberstadt Martin of Pairis Alexios IV Angelos	Alexios III Angelos Alexios V Doukas
Strength
4-5,000 knights 8,000 infantry 300 siege weapons 10,000 sailors and marines 60 war galleys 100 horse transports 50 troop transports	10,000 Byzantine infantry 5,000 Varangians 20 war galleys

The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a

In August, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios was crowned co-Emperor. However, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising. The Crusaders were no longer able to receive their promised payments from Alexios. Following the murder of Alexios on 8 February, the Crusaders decided on the outright conquest of the city. In April 1204, they captured and plundered the city's enormous wealth. Only a handful of the Crusaders continued to the Holy Land thereafter.

The conquest of Constantinople was followed by the fragmentation of the Empire into three

The Crusade is considered to be one of the most prominent acts that solidified the

The Third Crusade (1189–92) reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also been marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire,^[3] centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into stark relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. The Latins (as the Byzantines referred to them because of their adherence to the Latin Rite) viewed the Byzantine preference for diplomacy and trade over war as duplicitous and degenerate, and their policy of tolerance and assimilation towards Muslims as a corrupt betrayal of the faith. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a strong sense of cultural, organizational, and social superiority over the Latins.^[4]

Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom.^[5] Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, and aqueducts of classical Rome in working form. At its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people^[6] behind thirteen miles of triple walls. Its planned location made Constantinople not only the capital of the surviving eastern part of the Roman Empire but also a commercial centre that dominated trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea,^[7] China, India and Persia.^[8] As a result, it was both a rival and a tempting target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice.

One of the leaders of the Third Crusade,

There was no binding agreement among the crusaders that all should sail from Venice. Accordingly, many chose to sail from other ports, particularly

King Emeric was Catholic and had himself taken the cross in 1195 or 1196. Many of the crusaders were opposed to attacking Zara, and some, including a force led by the elder Simon de Montfort, refused to participate altogether and returned home. While the Papal legate to the Crusade, Cardinal Peter of Capua, endorsed the move as necessary to prevent the crusade's complete failure, the Pope was alarmed at this development and wrote a letter to the crusading leadership threatening excommunication.^[26]

In 1202, Pope Innocent III, despite wanting to secure papal authority over Byzantium, forbade the crusaders of Western Christendom from committing any atrocious acts against their Christian neighbours.^[27] However, this letter was concealed from the bulk of the army who arrived at Zara on 10–11 November 1202, and the attack proceeded. The citizens of Zara made reference to the fact that they were fellow Catholics by hanging banners marked with crosses from their windows and the walls of the city, but nevertheless the city fell on 24 November 1202 after a brief siege. There was extensive pillaging, and the Venetians and other crusaders came to blows over the division of the spoils. Order was achieved, and the leaders of the expedition agreed to winter in Zara, while considering their next move.^[28] The fortifications of Zara were demolished by the Venetians.

When Innocent III heard of the sack, he sent a letter to the crusaders excommunicating them and ordering them to return to their holy vows and head for Jerusalem. Out of fear that this would dissolve the army, the leaders of the crusade decided not to inform their followers of this. Regarding the Crusaders as having been coerced by the Venetians, in February 1203 he rescinded the excommunications against all non-Venetians in the expedition.^[29]

Diversion to Constantinople

The commercial rivalry between the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine Empire and the living memory of the Massacre of the Latins did much to exacerbate the feeling of animosity among the Venetians towards the Byzantines. According to the Chronicle of Novgorod Doge Enrico Dandolo had been blinded by the Byzantines during the 1171 expedition to Byzantium and thus held personal enmity towards the Byzantines.^[30]

To take the city by force, the crusaders first needed to cross the

On 11 July, the Crusaders took positions opposite the Palace of Blachernae on the northwest corner of the city. Their first attempts were repulsed, but on 17 July, with four divisions attacking the land walls while the Venetian fleet attacked the sea walls from the Golden Horn, the Venetians took a section of the wall of about 25 towers, while the Varangian guard held off the Crusaders on the land wall. The Varangians shifted to meet the new threat, and the Venetians retreated under the screen of fire. The fire destroyed about 120 acres (0.49 km²) of the city and left some 20,000 people homeless.^[44]

Alexios III finally took offensive action, leading 17 divisions from the St. Romanus Gate, vastly outnumbering the crusaders. Alexios III's army of about 8,500 men faced the Crusaders' seven divisions (about 3,500 men), but his courage failed, and the Byzantine army returned to the city without a fight.^[45] The unforced retreat and the effects of the fire greatly damaged morale, and the disgraced Alexios III abandoned his subjects, slipping out of the city and fleeing to Mosynopolis in Thrace.^[46] The Imperial officials quickly deposed their runaway emperor and restored Isaac II, robbing the crusaders of the pretext for attack.^[46] The crusaders were now in the quandary of having achieved their stated aim while being debarred from the actual objective, namely the reward that the younger Alexios had (unbeknownst to the Byzantines) promised them. The crusaders insisted that they would only recognize the authority of Isaac II if his son was raised to co-emperor, and on 1 August the latter was crowned as Alexios Angelos IV, co-emperor.^[46]

Further attacks on Constantinople

Alexios IV realised that his promises were hard to keep. Alexios III had managed to flee with 1,000 pounds of gold and some priceless jewels, leaving the imperial treasury short on funds. At that point the young emperor ordered the destruction and melting of valuable Byzantine and Roman icons in order to extract their gold and silver, but even then he could only raise 100,000 silver marks. In the eyes of all Greeks who knew of this decision, it was a shocking sign of desperation and weak leadership, which deserved to be punished by God. The Byzantine historian

Forcing the populace to destroy their icons at the behest of an army of foreign schismatics did not endear Alexios IV to the citizens of Constantinople. In fear of his life, the co-emperor asked the crusaders to renew their contract for another six months, to end by April 1204. Alexios IV then led 6,000 men from the Crusader army against his rival Alexios III in Adrianople.[48] During the co-emperor's absence in August, rioting broke out in the city and a number of Latin residents were killed. In retaliation armed Venetians and other crusaders entered the city from the Golden Horn and attacked a mosque (Constantinople at this time had a sizable Muslim population), which was defended by Muslim and Byzantine residents ^{[citation needed]}. In order to cover their retreat the Westerners instigated the "Great Fire", which burnt from 19 to 21 August, destroying a large part of Constantinople and leaving an estimated 100,000 homeless.

In January 1204, the blinded and incapacitated Isaac II died, probably of natural causes.

A nobleman Alexios Doukas (nicknamed Mourtzouphlos) became the leader of the anti-crusader faction within the Byzantine leadership. While holding the court rank of protovestilarios, Doukas had led Byzantine forces during the initial clashes with the crusaders, winning respect from both military and populace. He was accordingly well-placed to move against the increasingly isolated Alexios IV, whom he overthrew, imprisoned, and had strangled in early February. Doukas then was crowned as Emperor Alexios V. He immediately moved to have the city fortifications strengthened and summoned additional forces to the city.^[50]

The crusaders and Venetians, incensed at the murder of their supposed patron, demanded that Mourtzouphlos honour the contract that Alexios IV had promised. When the Byzantine emperor refused, the Crusaders assaulted the city once again. On 8 April Alexios V's army put up a strong resistance, which did much to discourage the crusaders.^[47] The Byzantines hurled large projectiles onto the enemy siege engines, shattering many of them. Bad weather conditions were a serious hindrance to the crusaders. Fierce wind blew from the shore and prevented most of the ships from drawing close enough to the walls to launch an assault. Only five of the wall's towers were actually engaged and none of these could be secured; by mid-afternoon it was evident that the attack had failed.^[47]

The Latin clergy discussed the situation amongst themselves and settled upon the message they wished to spread through the demoralised army. They had to convince the men that the events of 9 April were not God's judgment on a sinful enterprise: the campaign, they argued, was righteous and with proper belief it would succeed. The concept of God testing the determination of the crusaders through temporary setbacks was a familiar means for the clergy to explain failure in the course of a campaign.^[47] The clergy's message was designed to reassure and encourage the Crusaders. Their argument that the attack on Constantinople was spiritual revolved around two themes. First, the Greeks were traitors and murderers since they had killed their rightful lord, Alexios IV.^[47] The churchmen used inflammatory language and claimed that "the Greeks were worse than the Jews",^[47] and they invoked the authority of God and the pope to take action.

Although Innocent III had again demanded that they not attack, the papal letter was suppressed by the clergy, and the crusaders prepared for their own attack, while the Venetians attacked from the sea. Alexios V's army stayed in the city to fight, along with the imperial bodyguard, the Varangians, but Alexios V himself fled during the night. An attempt was made to find a further replacement emperor from amongst the Byzantine nobility, but the situation had now become too chaotic for either of the two candidates who came forward to find sufficient support.

Sack of Constantinople

On 12 April 1204, the weather conditions finally favoured the crusaders. A strong northern wind aided the Venetian ships in coming close to the walls, and after a short battle approximately seventy crusaders managed to enter the city. Some were able to knock holes in the walls, large enough for only a few knights at a time to crawl through; the Venetians were also successful at scaling the walls from the sea, though there was fighting with the Varangians. The Anglo-Saxon "axe bearers" had been amongst the most effective of the city's defenders, but they now attempted to negotiate higher wages from their Byzantine employers, before dispersing or surrendering.^[51] The crusaders captured the Blachernae section of the city in the northwest and used it as a base to attack the rest of the city. While attempting to defend themselves with a wall of fire, however, they burned even more of the city. This second fire left 15,000 people homeless.^[48] The crusaders completely took the city on 13 April.

The crusaders sacked Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient Greco-Roman and medieval Byzantine works of art were stolen or ruined. Many of the civilian population of the city were killed and their property looted. Despite the threat of excommunication, the crusaders destroyed, defiled and looted the city's churches and monasteries.^[52][53] It was said that the total amount looted from Constantinople was about 900,000 silver marks. The Venetians received 150,000 silver marks that was their due, while the crusaders received 50,000 silver marks. A further 100,000 silver marks were divided evenly up between the crusaders and Venetians. The remaining 500,000 silver marks were secretly kept back by many crusader knights.^[54][55]

Speros Vryonis in Byzantium and Europe gives a vivid account of the sack:

The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable. Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found. Though the Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics. The Crusaders vented their hatred for the Greeks most spectacularly in the desecration of the greatest Church in Christendom. They smashed the silver iconostasis, the icons and the holy books of Hagia Sophia, and seated upon the patriarchal throne a whore who sang coarse songs as they drank wine from the Church's holy vessels. The estrangement of East and West, which had proceeded over the centuries, culminated in the horrible massacre that accompanied the conquest of Constantinople. The Greeks were convinced that even the Turks, had they taken the city, would not have been as cruel as the Latin Christians. The defeat of Byzantium, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became an easy prey to the Turks. The Fourth Crusade and the crusading movement generally thus resulted, ultimately, in the victory of Islam, a result which was of course the exact opposite of its original intention.^[52][53]

When Innocent III heard of the conduct of his pilgrims he was filled with shame and rage, and he strongly rebuked them.

According to a

Only a relatively small number of the members of the Fourth Crusade finally reached their originally intended goal of the Holy Land. Research indicates that about a tenth of the knights who had taken the cross in Flanders arrived to reinforce the remaining Christian states there, plus about half of those from the Île-de-France.^[56] During the ensuing half century the unstable Latin Empire siphoned off much of Europe's crusading energy. The legacy of the Fourth Crusade was the deep sense of betrayal felt by the Greek Christians. With the events of 1204, the schism between the Churches in the East and West was not just complete but also solidified.^[57]

As an epilogue to the event, Pope Innocent III, the man who had unintentionally launched the ill-fated expedition, spoke against the crusaders thus:

How, indeed, will the church of the Greeks, no matter how severely she is beset with afflictions and persecutions, return into ecclesiastical union and to a devotion for the Apostolic See, when she has seen in the Latins only an example of perdition and the works of darkness, so that she now, and with reason, detests the Latins more than dogs? As for those who were supposed to be seeking the ends of Jesus Christ, not their own ends, who made their swords, which they were supposed to use against the pagans, drip with Christian blood, they have spared neither religion, nor age, nor sex. They have committed incest, adultery, and fornication before the eyes of men. They have exposed both matrons and virgins, even those dedicated to God, to the sordid lusts of boys. Not satisfied with breaking open the imperial treasury and plundering the goods of princes and lesser men, they also laid their hands on the treasures of the churches and, what is more serious, on their very possessions. They have even ripped silver plates from the altars and have hacked them to pieces among themselves. They violated the holy places and have carried off crosses and relics.^[58]

Nevertheless, the Pope accepted the new situation. When the crusaders took some of the piles of money, jewels, and gold that they had captured in the sack of Constantinople back to Rome, Innocent III accepted the stolen items. Furthermore, at the Fourth Council of the Lateran the Pope welcomed and recognised to it western (Catholic) prelates from Sees established in the conquered lands – thus recognising their legitimacy over formerly Orthodox areas.^{[citation needed]}

The Latin Empire was soon faced with a number of enemies. Besides the individual

In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, "crusades" on a limited scale were organised by the Kingdoms of Hungary, Poland, Wallachia, and Serbia. These were not the traditional expeditions aimed at the recovery of Jerusalem but rather defensive campaigns intended to prevent further expansion to the west by the Ottoman Empire.^[62] During the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453, up to 2,000 Venetian and Genoese volunteers formed part of the approximately 9,000 defenders of the city. ^[63]

Legacy

The prominent medievalist Steven Runciman wrote in 1954: "There was never a greater crime against humanity than the Fourth Crusade."^[65] The controversy that has surrounded the Fourth Crusade has led to diverging opinions in academia on whether its objective was indeed the capture of Constantinople. The traditional position, which holds that this was the case, was challenged by Donald E. Queller and Thomas F. Madden in their book The Fourth Crusade (1977).^[66]

Constantinople was considered as a bastion of Christianity that defended Europe from the advancing forces of Islam, and the Fourth Crusade's sack of the city dealt an irreparable blow to this eastern bulwark. Although the Greeks retook Constantinople after 57 years of Latin rule, the Byzantine Empire had been crippled by the Fourth Crusade. Reduced to Constantinople, north-western Anatolia, and a portion of the southern Balkans, the empire fell to the Ottoman Turks who captured the city in 1453.^[67]

Eight hundred years later,

In April 2004, in a speech on the 800th anniversary of the city's capture, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I formally accepted the apology. "The spirit of reconciliation is stronger than hatred," he said during a liturgy attended by Roman Catholic Archbishop Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France. "We receive with gratitude and respect your cordial gesture for the tragic events of the Fourth Crusade. It is a fact that a crime was committed here in the city 800 years ago." Bartholomew said his acceptance came in the spirit of Pascha. "The spirit of reconciliation of the resurrection... incites us toward reconciliation of our churches."^[71]

The Fourth Crusade was one of the last of the major crusades to be launched by the Papacy, though it quickly fell out of Papal control. After bickering between laymen and the papal legate led to the collapse of the Fifth Crusade, later crusades were directed by individual monarchs, mostly against Egypt. One subsequent crusade, the Sixth, succeeded in restoring Jerusalem to Christian rule for 15 years.

In fiction and music

• The Fourth Crusade is depicted in Poul Anderson's novel There Will Be Time from the point of view of a 20th-century time traveler who saves the life of a Byzantine girl during the carnage and falls in love with her.
• Neal Stephenson's and Nicole Galland's novel The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O deals with events leading up to and during the Sack of Constantinople from the perspective of modern time travellers.
• Umberto Eco's novel Baudolino begins shortly after the Sack of Constantinople.
• The second volume of Judith Tarr's trilogy The Hound and the Falcon – titled The Golden Horn – also depicts the Fourth Crusade and Sack, showing it from its prelude through the aftermath in a historical fiction/fantasy setting that captures elements of both the Latin and Greek sides of the conflict.
• The IVth Crusade is the title of British death metal band Bolt Thrower's fourth studio album released in 1992.
• Bitter Crusade is a Chronicle, written by Zach Bush, James Maliszewski and Joshua Mosqueira Asheim, for White Wolf's Vampire: The Dark Ages, in which characters get involved in the events of the 4th Crusade.^[72]

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Choniates, Nicetas. "The Sack of Constantinople"
  . Fordham.edu.
• Chronicle of Morea
• de Villehardouin, Geoffrey. "Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople"
  . Fordham.edu.
• Pope Innocent III. "Reprimand of Papal Legate". Fordham.edu.
• Robert of Clari. "The Conquest of Constantinople". deremilitari.org. (see also excerpts
  from another translation)
• "The Fourth Crusade 1204: Collected Sources". Fordham.edu. (excerpts from several contemporary accounts)
• "The Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders". shsu.edu. 1204. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
• "The Medieval Russian Account of the Fourth Crusade – A New Annotated Translation". academia.edu.

Secondary sources

• "Crusades". Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006.
• Angold, Michael, The Fourth Crusade, Harlow: Pearson, 2003
• Charles Brand. Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–1204, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1968
• Godfrey, John. 1204: The Unholy Crusade. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980
• Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014.
  ISBN 978-1-78093-767-0
• Harris, Jonathan, 'Collusion with the infidel as a pretext for military action against Byzantium', in Clash of Cultures: the Languages of Love and Hate, ed. S. Lambert and H. Nicholson, Turnhout: Brepols, 2012, pp. 99–117
• Hindley, Geoffrey. The Crusades: A History of Armed Pilgrimage and Holy War. New York, NY: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2003. New edition: The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy. New York, NY: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2004.
• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes. Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096–1204. Translated by J. C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993; originally published in 1988.
• Madden, Thomas F. (2003). Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8018-7317-1
  .
• Madden, Thomas F., and Donald E. Queller. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997
• Marin, Serban. A Humanist Vision regarding the Fourth Crusade and the State of the Assenides. The Chronicle of Paul Ramusio (Paulus Rhamnusius), Annuario del Istituto Romano di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica vol. 2 (2000), pp. 51–57.
• McNeal, Edgar, and Robert Lee Wolff. The Fourth Crusade, in A History of the Crusades (edited by
  Kenneth M. Setton
  and others), vol. 2, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962
• Nicol, Donald M. Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Noble, Peter S. Eyewitnesses of the Fourth Crusade – the War against Alexius III, Reading Medieval Studies v.25, 1999.
• Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople. New York: Viking, 2004.
  ISBN 978-0-14-303590-9
  .
• Queller, Donald E. The Latin Conquest of Constantinople. New York, NY; London, U.K.; Sydney, NSW; Toronto, ON: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1971.
• Queller, Donald E., and Susan J. Stratton. "A Century of Controversy on the Fourth Crusade", in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History v. 6 (1969): 237–77; reprinted in Donald E. Queller, Medieval Diplomacy and the Fourth Crusade. London: Variorum Reprints, 1980.
• Thomas F. Madden. Crusades: The Illustrated History

Further reading

• Angold, Michael. The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context. Harlow, NY: Longman, 2003.
• Bartlett, W. B. An Ungodly War: The Sack of Constantinople and the Fourth Crusade. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2000.
• Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014.
  ISBN 978-1-78093-767-0
• Harris, Jonathan, "The problem of supply and the sack of Constantinople", in The Fourth Crusade Revisited, ed. Pierantonio Piatti, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2008, pp. 145–54.
  ISBN 978-88-209-8063-4
  .
• Kazhdan, Alexander "Latins and Franks in Byzantium", in Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (eds.), The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001: 83–100.
• Kolbaba, Tia M. "Byzantine Perceptions of Latin Religious ‘Errors’: Themes and Changes from 850 to 1350", in Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (eds.), The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001: 117–43.
• Nicolle, David. The Fourth Crusade 1202–04: The betrayal of Byzantium, Osprey Campaign Series #237. Osprey Publishing. 2011.
  ISBN 978-1-84908-319-5
  .

External links

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1204 Crusade that captured Constantinople rather than Jerusalem

Chrissy Rossettie Sakes is an American musician, drummer, and wildlife photographer living in Kingston, NY. She co-founded the NY noise rock duo “Xaddax” (Skin Graft Records), and played in the Chicago band “The Hex” (Troubleman Records) and the weirdo/no wave “My Name is Rar-Rar” (Liquid Death/Hello Pussy Records, Skin Graft Records), among others.

Rossettie began playing the drums in 1996 after a mystical revelation in Egypt. In 1998 she moved to Chicago to work at Touch and Go Records, and began playing in the bands “Neva” with Joe Conserti (Spanyurd, Nonzoo) and “Physis” with Ratty Scurvics (Ratty Scurvics Singularity) and Zachary Hollback (Chief Acid Officer). Soon after she met Michael Guarine (Watchers) and Chris Kralik (Watchers) and joined the band “The Hex” along with Amelia Luckett. The Hex released the EP “No Car” on Troubleman Unlimited Records in 2000.

Neva ended with a chaotic physical altercation, and Physis ended when, after playing a show in New Orleans, Ratty was ‘kidnapped’ by old friends and could not be located for the drive back to Chicago. He ended up staying in New Orleans, joining the circus, and lives in New Orleans to this day.

Now free to join another band, Rossettie teamed up with Chuck Falzone (Flying Luttenbachers) and Jonathan Hishcke (Flying Luttenbachers, Hella, Le Butcherettes) who’d been working on a band called “Sorry” with Greg Jacobsen (Lovely Little Girls) and they began “My Name is Rar-Rar” - first with singer Camilla Ha (Magic is Kuntmaster) and eventually with Greg Peters (Xerobot). Around this time she also briefly played in an experimental band with Suzy Poling (Pod Blotz) called “Petite Volute.” They would practice on the stage of the historic Congress theatre where Poling lived at the time.

My Name is Rar-Rar released a split 7” with Neon Hunk on Liquid Death/Hello Pussy Records in 2002.

In 2003 My Name is Rar-Rar broke up, and in 2004, Rossettie moved to Brooklyn. Between 2005-2009 she performed as “Iyaxia,” a solo project in which she played electronic drums and synthesizers and sang through a staticky headset. She had a brief stint in the noise band Maximum Cloud with Tony Miller whom she’d known from her college days back in Ann Arbor Michigan.

In 2009, Rossettie met Nick Sakes of Dazzling Killmen/Colossamite/Sicbay fame and they formed [[1]]. They released the album “Counterclockwork” on Skin Graft Records in 2012, the same year they were married. Their honeymoon doubled as the band’s European Tour. In 2014 they moved to Kingston NY and continued playing, releasing a split 7” on Skin Graft with the never-released My Name is Rar-Rar album. The couple went their separate ways in 2018.

Rossettie Sakes currently has several new projects in the works.