42 Chrissis
activity. Nevertheless, the commitment of considerable crusade resources for
the Smyrna campaign and Clement vi’s active involvement confirmed the
important shift: the Turks were now the great enemy in the East; the Mamluks
and the recovery of Jerusalem started to fade in the background.
Third Phase: Crusades Against the Ottomans
From the middle of the 14th century the nature of the Turkish threat changed,
and with it also the orientation of crusading. As the power of the naval beyliks
was curbed, Ottoman expansion on land grew at a fast pace, prompting efforts
for closer Byzantine-Latin cooperation. A characteristic of the period is the
growing involvement of Byzantine emperors in advocating crusading action.
Most of the Palaiologoi would turn to the West, but John v (1341/54–91) and,
later, Manuel ii (1391–1425) were the most active in this respect.51 The price
for western help was the promise of Church Union, or more accurately of the
submission of the Greek Church to papal authority.52
In the late 14th and early 15th century, crusade organisation had to face a
set of new problems and challenges. Further Turkish encroachment in the
Balkans made the defence of Hungary, Catholic Christendom’s own frontier,
a central concern of crusading activity, alongside the defence of Byzantium
and the Latin outposts in the Aegean. Conflicts in the West, as always, hin-
dered concerted action. The Hundred Years War between England and France
(1337–1453) deprived the crusades of an essential source of manpower. It is
not without significance that the campaign of Nicopolis could only take place
when there was a lull in the fighting and a climate of cooperation had been
restored between the two sides. Burgundy rose in the international stage, as
France descended into anarchy ravaged by the long war. As a result, Hungary
and Burgundy surfaced as the leading crusade powers in the period: the former
out of the defensive necessity to protect its territory; the latter out of a desire
to enhance its status, embracing a chivalric court culture that promoted heroic
deeds in defence of the faith.
“Die Johanniter und Smyrna 1344–1402,” Römische Quartalschrift 86 (1991), 215–51, and 87
(1992), 47–98.
51 For John V, see: Vasiliki Nerantzi-Varmazi, Το Βυζάντιο και η Δύση (1354–1369) [Byzantium
and the West (1354–1369)] (Thessalonica, 1993); Oskar Halecki, Un empereur de Byzance
à Rome: vingt ans de travail pour l’union des églises et pour la défense de l’Empire d’Orient,
1355–1375 (Warsaw, 1930); Gill, Papacy, pp. 208–29. For Manuel ii: John W. Barker, Manuel ii
Palaeologus (1391–1425): A Study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship (New Brunswick, 1969),
esp. pp. 123–385; Jonathan Harris, The End of Byzantium (New Haven, 2010), pp. 46–102.
52 See Gill, Papacy, esp. pp. 200–32.