44 Chrissis
all the Christian powers of the area at Thebes (1373). Crusading in the Eastern
Mediterranean was also deflected southwards on account of the ambitions of
the Cypriot monarchy. King Peter i of Cyprus led a crusade which resulted in
the sack of Alexandria (1365), an impressive but ephemeral feat. Despite some
suggestions by John v and the pope, the campaign had no bearing on the cir-
cumstances in the Aegean.55
Arguably the most efficient western effort to assist Byzantium in the 14th
century was the crusade of Amadeo vi of Savoy, cousin of Emperor John V, in
1366–67. Amadeo arrived in Romania at the head of a flotilla of 15–20 ships
and around 4000 men. The expedition’s most important achievement was the
recovery of Gallipoli, in August 1366, which allowed Byzantium to protect its
coastal possessions as well as to obstruct further Turkish reinforcements from
Asia Minor.56 Amadeo’s crusade can be seen as the transition from the sec-
ond to the third phase of crusading in the Balkans and the Aegean. In form
it resembled the naval leagues, as it was a small seaborne campaign, relying
on an allied Christian fleet. But it was targeted against the Ottomans and the
main operations were land-based. Furthermore, starting with the crusade
efforts in the mid-1360s and owing to a large part to the personal involvement
of Emperor John V, the defence of Byzantium was now the explicitly stated aim
of crusading. However, there could be little hope of coordinated action in the
following years, as the ferocious War of Chioggia broke out between Venice and
55 For John V ’s efforts and crusading in the period, see: Aloysius L. Tautu, ed., Acta Innocentii
pp. vi (1352–1362), pc/cico (Vatican, 1961), nos. 84, 122–25; idem, Acta Urbani pp. v
(1362–1370), pc/cico (Vatican, 1964), nos. 74, 90, 169–70, 181–85; idem, Acta Gregorii pp.
xi (1370–1378), pc/cico (Vatican, 1966), nos. 48–48a–48b, 66, 77–78, 137, 173; Philippe
de Mézières, The Life of Saint Peter Thomas, ed. Joachim Smet (Rome, 1954), pp. 74–89,
102–24, 206–12; Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, 2: nos 142–46; Gill, Papacy, pp. 208–10, 213–
21; Nerantzi-Varmazi, Βυζάντιο και Δύση, pp. 48–51, 67–107, 130–43; Halecki, Un empereur;
Setton, Papacy, 1:224–84; Frederick J. Boehlke, Pierre de Thomas: Scholar, Diplomat and
Crusader (Philadelphia, 1966), esp. pp. 129–80 and 204–94; Freddy Thiriet, “Una proposta
di lega antiturca tra Venezia, Genova e Bisanzio nel 1362,” Archivio Storico Italiano 113
(1955), 321–34; Nicholas Coureas, “Cyprus and the Naval Leagues, 1333–1358,” in Cyprus
and the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Riley-Smith and Nicholas Coureas (Nicosia, 1995), 107–24;
Housley, Avignon Papacy, pp. 40–44; Anthony Luttrell, “Gregory xi and the Turks, 1370–
1378,” Orientalia christiana periodica 46 (1980), 391–417.
56 For Amadeo’s crusade, see: Eugene Cox, The Green Count of Savoy: Amadeus vi and
Transalpine Savoy in the Fourteenth Century (Princeton, 1967), pp. 204–39; Nerantzi-
Varmazi, Βυζάντιο και Δύση, pp. 109–43; Setton, Papacy, 1:291–309. The main source is the
chronicle of Jehan Servion, Gestez et chroniques de la mayson de Savoye, ed. Federigo E.
Bollati (Turin, 1879); see also Federigo E. Bollati, ed., Illustrazioni della spedizione in oriente
di Amadeo vi (Turin, 1900).