across the Golden Horn in Galata. However, it is possible that, at a
rather later date, plans were laid to transfer his remains to a different
tomb, in the greatest church of S. Francesco of them all: the Lower
Basilica in Assisi.^180
John had one of the most remarkable careers of the entire Middle
Ages, and he undoubtedly marks the high point for the Brienne family.
He is all too easily interpreted as akind of cul-de-sac, however, because
he was the one and only male Brienne monarch, who founded no royal
or imperial dynasty to succeed him. Yet the Briennes’greatest son
should not be downplayed just because he does not seem tofit particu-
larly well. His career was crucial in shaping the future of all the branches
of his dynasty. Indeed, it is clear that the family had‘arrived’by the
mid-thirteenth century. To see where they had got to by then, there is
no better place to look than in one of the most celebrated chronicles of
medieval France.
(^180) Perry,John, 144, 168–74, 180–8; and below, 177–8.
74 Breakthrough and High Point (c. 1191–1237)