Crusades and Crusaders in Medieval Greece 25
sary, for at least two reasons. The first one is that the crusade, as an analytical
tool and as a narrative focus, provides unity to the examination of a world of
extreme fragmentation. From the 13th to the 15th century, between the disin-
tegration of the Byzantine Empire and the consolidation of Ottoman control
over the Balkans, the area was a complicated patchwork of small states and
lordships, Greek, Latin and Turkish. Following the vicissitudes of each one of
them is not only a difficult task; it is also inadequate for a deeper understand-
ing of wider developments in the area and further afield. Crusading activity
provides a framework which encompasses such wider forces and trends, appli-
cable to the whole of Romania, and which connects them to the situation in
the rest of Europe.
The second reason is precisely this pan-European scope, which extends
beyond Romania, and links its history with developments elsewhere in the
centre and the peripheries of medieval Europe. In a recent thoughtful survey of
the impact of crusading on Byzantium, Chris Wright has argued that the cru-
sades over time brought about the marginalisation of the empire and its people
from the mainstream of European history.4 It can hardly be doubted that the
crusades played a role in isolating the empire on the diplomatic level, and in
1204 they resulted in a direct military blow at the political order of Byzantium.
It is equally true, as will also be shown later, that by aggravating the confron-
tation between the two sides, crusading contributed to a sharper perception
of the Byzantines as “others”, standing apart from the cultural community of
the Christian West. And yet, a rather different argument can also be made: the
transformation of Romania into a theatre of crusading activity integrated it
more firmly into a wider system which involved the same patterns of activity,
the same instruments, and the same symbolic language. As crusade fronts mul-
tiplied, the characteristics of crusading were streamlined and to a large extent
institutionalised, particularly in the 13th century. The mechanisms of setting
a crusade in motion were the same whether the destination was the frozen
shores of the Baltic or the scorching coast of the southern Mediterranean.5 The
justificatory rhetoric made use of comparable notions regarding the defence
or expansion of the Faith, the service to the Lord and the protection of His
inheritance, and sometimes the relevant diplomatic language drew explicit
connections or parallels between the various fronts of activity. For many of the
combatants the destinations were interchangeable as long as the undertaking
guaranteed spiritual and temporal benefits. Furthermore, on a more practical
4 Chris Wright, “On the Margins of Christendom: The Impact of the Crusades on Byzantium,”
in The Crusades and the Near East: Cultural Histories, ed. Conor Kostick (London, 2011),
pp. 55–82.
5 See Section 2 “Characteristics of crusading” below, esp. pp. 51 and 56–60.