Crusades and Crusaders in Medieval Greece 33
to direct negotiations with the Byzantine state of Nicaea, aimed at Church
Union.21 With the exception of a limited permission for crusade preaching in
Venice in 1253,22 the Latins in Greece seem to have been left to fend for them-
selves with little outside assistance.
The shock of the Byzantine recovery of Constantinople and the destruction
of the Latin Empire in 1261, however, brought about the revival of crusading
for Frankish Greece. The news moved the newly-elected pope, Urban iv (1261–
64), to action. A crusade was proclaimed for the reconquest of Constantinople
and the protection of the remaining Latin possessions in Greece. Particular
emphasis was given to the Principality of Achaea which represented not only
the most potent Latin state in Greece, but also a significant bridgehead for
any crusade in the area. The crusade bull warned of the imminent danger
that Achaea too might fall and called for quick action before Latin fortunes
in the area declined beyond repair.23 Urban’s crusade call was at least as wide-
reaching as those of Gregory ix and of the First Council of Lyon. However, it did
not fare well. The requested subsidies were universally unpopular and, despite
Urban’s diplomacy and censures, reactions erupted on the part of the clergy in
Castile-León, Aragon, England and France. The prelates complained that they
were already overburdened with multiple papal demands for crusade taxation
and other urgent subventions. The pope had to back down, annulling for the
most part his earlier requests. The situation in Italy was, once more, another
impediment to the crusade for Frankish Greece. Although Frederick was now
dead, his illegitimate son Manfred was in control of Sicily and southern Italy
and posed a great threat to papal interests. The papacy eventually opted to
eliminate Manfred by supporting Charles of Anjou, the brother of King Louis ix
of France, as claimant to the Sicilian crown. This was a major project which
absorbed all the crusade resources at the papacy’s disposal and consigned the
plight of Romania to a much lower position among the curia’s concerns.24
The dynamic appearance of Charles of Anjou in Mediterranean politics
radically altered the course and shape of crusading in Frankish Greece. Having
21 Antonino Franchi, La svolta politico-ecclesiastica tra Roma e Bisanzio (1249–1254) (Rome,
1981); Chrissis, Crusading, pp. 159–72.
22 Élie Berger, ed., Les Registres d’Innocent iv, befar, 4 vols. (Paris, 1884–1911), nos. 6829,
6845.
23 Jean Guiraud, ed., Les Registres d’Urbain iv, befar, 5 vols. (Paris, 1892–1958), no. 131
(Registre Ordinaire).
24 Chrissis, Crusading, pp. 179–249; Édouard Jordan, Les origines de la domination angevine
en Italie, 2 vols. (Paris, 1909; repr. New York, 1960); Norman Housley, The Italian Crusades:
The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades against Christian Lay Powers, 1254–1343
(Oxford, 1982), pp. 17–19, passim.