46 Chrissis
The demoralisation following the debacle of Nicopolis hampered further
efforts to raise an army in the West against the Ottomans. Hardly any power
was in a position to undertake a similar task. Hostilities soon resumed between
France and England. The expenses of the campaign, along with the enormous
sums that had to be raised for ransoming John of Nevers and the other cap-
tives, put a severe strain on the finances of Burgundy. Nevertheless, Byzantium
did its best to stoke up the crusade flames. Embassies and letters were sent
all over Europe, including Basil i of Muscovy and King Jagiello of Poland. The
contacts paid off, as the French king sent a small force to Constantinople
under Marshal Boucicaut, a veteran of many campaigns, which was joined by
Venetian, Hospitaller and Genoese ships (1399). The operations conducted in
the Bosporus and the Black Sea were of limited scale, but they offered some
relief to the Byzantine capital. More importantly, while the army’s small size
highlighted the need for more substantial assistance, its presence gave hope
that such a development might be possible.60
So, Manuel followed in the steps of his father, John v, and travelled abroad
to seek help in person. In his famous trip to the West (1400–03) he visited
Italy as well as the French and English courts, while he made contact with
the Christian kingdoms of Iberia and Scandinavia.61 Manuel received plenti-
ful promises for help. Both the Roman pope, Boniface ix, and the Avignonese
one, Benedict xiii, called the faithful to assist the emperor and granted indul-
gences to those who would go to the help of Byzantium.62 In 1401, Manuel opti-
mistically referred to his return to Constantinople in the near future at the
head of “an army [.. .] composed of all sorts of troops, specially chosen and
assembled from all over”, which was “prepared for us by many sovereigns”.63
But disillusionment followed soon afterwards as domestic troubles in the West
took precedence over the situation in the East. The crusade for Byzantium was
stillborn.
Nicopolis, 1396–1996: Actes du colloque international, Dijon, 18 octobre 1996 (Dijon, 1997)
[= Annales de Bourgogne 68.3 (1996)].
60 For Boucicaut’s expedition, see: Delaville Le Roulx, La France en Orient, pp. 359–83;
Barker, Manuel ii, pp. 160–65; Denis Lalande, Jean ii le Meingre, dit Boucicaut (1366–1421):
étude d’une biographie héroïque (Geneva, 1988), pp. 82–93.
61 Barker, Manuel ii, pp. 165–99 (and note 75 for an overview of earlier literature).
62 Aloysius L. Tautu, ed., Acta Urbani pp. vi (1378–1389), Bonifacii pp. ix (1389–1404), Innocentii
pp. vii (1404–1406), Gregorii pp. xii (1406–1415), pc/cico (Vatican, 1970), nos. 85 and 90; Gill,
Papacy, pp. 231–32; Barker, Manuel ii, pp. 172, 183.
63 Manuel ii Palaiologos, Letters, ed. and trans. George T. Dennis (Washington dc, 1977),
nos. 38, 39, 41; Barker, Manuel ii, pp. 184–87.