Crusades and Crusaders in Medieval Greece 31
already in the spring of 1205. A few months later he ordered the preaching of
a new crusade in aid of the Latin Empire which had suffered its first major
setback at Adrianople at the hands of the Bulgarian king, Kalojan. A crusade
force was successfully raised, particularly from Flanders, the Latin Emperor’s
homeland. However, the army seems to have been defeated upon its arrival by
the Greeks of Epirus. Nevertheless, a contingent from Flanders, under Peter of
Douai, did reach Constantinople in late 1207 or early 1208.17
After Innocent had taken the crucial step of introducing the crusade for the
defence of Frankish Greece, his successors were to go further down that road.
Every time there was a crisis in Romania the papacy and the local Latin powers
would resort to crusading. Honorius iii (1216–27) first used the threat of a cru-
sade against Theodore of Epirus, when the latter captured the newly-elected
Latin Emperor, Peter de Courtenay, in 1217. Then, in 1222–25, a crusade under
Marquis William vi of Montferrat was launched to assist the Latin Kingdom of
Thessalonica against the mounting pressure of the Greeks of Epirus. Although
it failed to prevent the fall of Thessalonica (December 1224) or to reclaim the
city, as William and many of his soldiers died in an epidemic of dysentery, it
was significant that an expedition of considerable size was successfully mobil-
ised, adequately funded, and actually made its way to Greece.18
The most ambitious crusade, however, was the one organised by Pope
Gregory ix (1227–41) to help defend Latin Constantinople against the attacks
of Emperor John Vatatzes of Nicaea and his ally, John Asen of Bulgaria. As the
combined pressure of Vatatzes and Asen seemed to spell the end of the Latin
Empire, the papal curia sprang to action. From 1235 to 1240, a plethora of let-
ters were sent out, summoning crusaders from France, England, and Hungary,
while in equal measure enjoining and threatening sovereigns such as Béla iv of
Hungary and Emperor Frederick ii to offer their assistance. Gregory tenaciously
pushed ahead with his plan, despite various obstacles and the unwillingness
of some crusaders to set out for Romania. The pope involved the mendicant
orders quite extensively in recruiting crusaders and raising funds for the
planned campaign. One of the greatest lords of France, Peter of Dreux, count
of Brittany, was expected to lead the expedition. However, circumstances in
17 Othmar Hageneder et al., eds., Die Register Innocenz’ iii., 12 vols. (Graz, 1964–) [in
progress], 7: no. 152; 8: nos. 70 (69), 131–33 (130–32); 9: no. 45. See Nikolaos G. Chrissis,
Crusading in Frankish Greece: A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204–
1282 (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 1–56.
18 Petrus Pressutti, ed., Regesta Honorii Papae iii, 2 vols. (Rome, 1888–95), nos. 684–91, 859,
4059–60, 4353–55, 4360, 4753–54, 5189–5270; Chrissis, Crusading, pp. 57–82; Donald M.
Nicol, The Despotate of Epiros (Oxford, 1957), pp. 57–64.