66 Chrissis
Unlike Humbert of Vienne, a number of those drawn to fight in Greece and
the Aegean by the allure of glorious feats were actually seasoned crusade veter-
ans, who offered their services on various different fronts. Humbert v of Beaujeu,
who was enlisted for the relief of Constantinople in the mid-1230s, had earlier
distinguished himself in the Albigensian Crusade where he had gained the
nickname “the hammer of Languedoc”.142 Most strikingly, Marshal Boucicaut
had fought in a number of crusades, including the Baltic, northern Africa and
Nicopolis, before coming to the help of Byzantium in 1399. Boucicaut’s enthu-
siasm for fighting cannot be doubted, and hardly his involvement in one cam-
paign had finished before he started to look for another: although he had been
captured at Nicopolis, very soon after being ransomed he set out to fight the
Ottomans again and to assist Emperor Manuel Palaiologos. However, his main
motivation seems to have been honour rather than a religious imperative, as
is evident from his anonymous contemporary biography.143 The attraction of
participating in a crusade, regardless of the specifics of each conflict, remained
strong for many members of the nobility in the 14th and 15th centuries: at least
35 of the nobles who escorted John of Nevers at Nicopolis had previously taken
part in one or more crusade campaigns in Prussia and the Mediterranean;144
John of Vienne took part both in the crusade of Amadeo of Savoy in 1366 and
in the crusade of Nicopolis, 30 years later; John of Châteaumorand, Boucicaut’s
lieutenant in 1399, had likewise taken part in the Barbary Crusade in 1390;
the Burgundian Geoffrey of Thoisy led fleets to assist the defence of Rhodes
against the Mamluks in 1441 and 1444, before joining the Crusade of Varna.145
But the most striking case of a power involved in the crusades in Romania
without a direct interest in the area was Burgundy. Crusading was an impor-
tant part of the ideology of the Burgundian court, especially under Philip the
Good (1419–67). Burgundy was thus taking up the role held by France in the
142 See e.g. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, pp. 168–69, 187.
143 Le Livre des fais du bon messire Jehan Le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut, mareschal de France
et gouverneur de Jennes, ed. Denis Lalande (Geneva, 1985); Jaques Paviot, “Boucicaut et
la croisade ( fin xive–début xve siècle),” in La noblesse et la croisade à la fin du Moyen
 ge: France, Bourgogne, Bohême, ed. Martin Nejedlý and Jaroslav Svátek (Toulouse, 2009),
pp. 69–83; Norman Housley, “Le Maréchal Boucicaut à Nicopolis,” in Paviot and Chauney-
Bouillot, Nicopolis, 1396–1996, pp. 85–99.
144 Bertrand Schnerb, “Le contingent franco-bourguignon à la croisade de Nicopolis,” in
Paviot and Chauney-Bouillot, Nicopolis, 1396–1996, pp. 59–74, at 65, 72–74.
145 See e.g. Setton, Papacy, 1:355, 360; Gustave Schlumberger, “Jean de Châteaumorand, un
des principaux héros français des arrière-croisades en Orient à la fin du xive siècle et à
l’aurore du xve,” in idem, Byzance et croisades: pages médièvales (Paris, 1927), pp. 282–336;
Housley, Avignon Papacy, p. 100; Paviot, “Burgundy and the crusades,” p. 77.