36 Chrissis
the Peace of Caltabellotta, had been enlisted by Andronikos ii in 1303 to fight
against the Turks in Asia Minor; but relations with the Byzantines soon soured
and the Catalans, ambitious and insubordinate, had slipped out of imperial
control, devastating Thrace from their base at Gallipoli. The Catalans agreed
to become the vassals of Charles of Valois in 1307 and assist him in his planned
crusade, which represented a hazardous turn of events for the Byzantine gov-
ernment. But great as the threat might have appeared at that juncture, noth-
ing tangible came out of Charles’s plans which remained an exercise on paper,
while the Catalans moved south and, instead of fighting “schismatics”, took
control of the French duchy of Athens and Thebes.
The crusading effort for the restoration of the Latin Empire was then taken
up by Philip of Taranto, son of Charles ii of Naples. Philip had already acquired
the title of Prince of Achaea in 1307. So, through his marriage to Charles of
Valois’ daughter, Catherine of Valois (1313), the Angevins gathered again in their
hands all the Latin claims in Romania. Popes Clement v and John xxii (1316–
34) gave their backing through the grant of crusade indulgences and proceeds
from ecclesiastical taxation, both for his earlier position in Achaea and for his
plans for Constantinople.31 But despite the nominal support of powerful sov-
ereigns, including the king of France, Frederick iii of Sicily, as well as Philip’s
nephew, Charles Robert, the Angevin king of Hungary, the operations of Philip
of Taranto and his brother John of Gravina in Romania were of a rather limited
scale and generally ended in failure. After Philip’s death in 1331, there was no-
one to take up actively the effort for a Latin recovery of Constantinople.32
Second Phase: Anti-Turkish Naval Leagues
In that same period a radical shift occurred with regard to crusading in the
area. The Turks slowly but steadily came to be seen as the main enemies in
the Aegean, replacing the Byzantines who could now be considered potential
allies. A number of factors contributed to this. Most prominently, the reali-
31 Regestum Clementis, nos. 1604–05, 7759–65, 7893, 8863–68, 8913–16, 9260, 9620–21;
Guillaume Mollat, ed., Jean xxii: Lettres communes analysées d’après les registres dits
d’Avignon et du Vatican, befar, 16 vols. (Paris, 1904–47), nos. 2128, 8241, 16672; Aloysius L.
Tautu, ed., Acta Ioannis xxii (1317–1334), pc/cico (Vatican, 1952), no. 22.
32 For the efforts of Charles of Valois and Philip of Taranto, see: Erwin Dade, Versuche zur
Wiedererrichtung der lateinischen Herrschaft in Konstantinopel im Rahmen der abendlän-
dischen Politik, 1261 bis etwa 1310 ( Jena, 1938), pp. 72–157; Angeliki E. Laiou, Constantinople
and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus ii, 1282–1328 (Cambridge, Mass., 1972),
pp. 54, 200–42 (esp. 202–04, 237–42), 249–60, 318–19; Geanakoplos, “Byzantium and the
Crusades,” pp. 42–48; Peter Lock, The Franks in the Aegean, 1204–1500 (London, 1995),
pp. 66–67, 97–104, 128–29.