62 Chrissis
It was trained and specialised crews which were essential rather than cru-
sade volunteers. Indulgences were meant mostly as a boost to the morale for
those who were already set to participate and as a means of procuring funds
from the non-combatants, rather than as a means of raising new recruits.
Nevertheless, the presence of the latter was not necessarily discouraged: the
Crusade of Smyrna seems to have generated some enthusiasm and elicited
adequate response to preaching. The late 14th and 15th centuries saw a return
to major land-based campaigns in the area in order to halt the Ottoman expan-
sion in the Balkans. The king of Hungary, whose realm was now threatened,
led the crusading host in both Nicopolis and Varna, and the bulk of the forces
were made up from the levies and standing army of his domains. Nevertheless,
crusade recruits from the West were numerous, with Franco-Burgundian par-
ticipation quite prominent in both campaigns, along with crusaders also from
Germany, England, Italy, Poland and Bohemia.
This brings us to the next point. Crusade armies, particularly in the earlier
days, could include people from all parts of the social spectrum, from crowned
heads and leading nobles, to middling knights, humbler footmen and even,
occasionally, poor and ill-equipped enthusiasts. However, examining the non-
elite groups is generally an elusive and difficult task, on account of lack of evi-
dence originating from that milieu, even for the major campaigns to the Holy
Land which are well-documented and extensively researched. In the case of
Romania the task is nearly impossible. Furthermore, with regard to motiva-
tion, it is not only easier to examine the nobility, but to an extent also more
appropriate: a large part of any crusade army was made up by the retinue of
the noblemen, and by people who were more or less expected to follow their
lord on account of personal ties or contractual obligations. Also, as time went
on, in the 14th century, warfare became a more specialised occupation and,
in combination with the strengthening of state authority, armies were turn-
ing professional; the role of individually recruited crusaders diminished, espe-
cially as crusade strategy and planning started to focus on small-scale targeted
operations (the passagium particulare) as more efficient, and as a necessary
prerequisite before a passagium generale was launched.
The papal instructions indicating the provinces where crusade preaching
was authorised, combined with prosopographical data on individuals known
to have taken the cross for Romania, provide us with a good overview of the
areas of potential recruitment. In the 13th century, preaching was most com-
monly authorised in France and Hungary, and less extensively also in England,
northern Italy, Spain, and even Poland. Hungary was the nearest Catholic
power and had its own interests in the Balkans, though its crusading record
was far from convincing until the late 14th century when it came under threat