Neither the
first loss of Jerusalem in 1187 nor
its final loss in 1244 led to a surge of written crusade proposals. In both cases, the crusade planning in response was left to secular rulers. In 1291, however,
Pope Nicholas IV issued two
bulls requesting advice on recovering the Holy Land. He was not the first pope to do so.
Innocent III first requested advice from the
Crusader states in the Holy Land in 1199 and in 1213 requested written advice in his summons to the
Fourth Lateran Council. In the bull
Salvator noster (31 March 1272) and again in 1273,
Gregory X issued similar requests for advice in writing in preparation for the
Second Council of Lyon.
Treatises of 1274 ) There are four surviving treatises written in response to Gregory X's appeals. They are different in form and content from those produced after 1291. The earliest, the
De statu saracenorum of
William of Tripoli, may have been requested and written even before Gregory was elected pope. William, however, advised sending missionaries rather than armies.
Gilbert of Tournai's
Collectio de scandalis ecclesiae, probably written in response to the appeal of 1273, saw the solution to the problem of the crusade in moral reform and regeneration in the West.
Bruno of Olomouc, in his
Relatio de statu ecclesiae in regno alemaniae, likewise concentrated on Europe, advising the prosecution of the
crusade in eastern Europe under the general direction of King
Ottokar II of Bohemia to bring peace at home before bringing the war to the Holy Land. The only one of these early treatises to somewhat resemble those that came later is the
Opus tripartitum of
Humbert of Romans, which argued against
criticism of crusading and for careful planning prior to any expedition. Both Gilbert and Humbert advised against a
passagium generale (a large-scale general expedition) and in favour of "perpetual crusade", a regular stream of small, professional expeditions. The four treatises produced for the Council of Lyon were all written by clerics and are less practical and strategic than those that came after 1291. Much of the strategic planning in 1274 took place orally. The most important source for Gregory X's discussions with secular rulers concerning the crusade is the autobiographical
Llibre dels fets of King
James I of Aragon. James proposed to send a force of 500 knights and 2,000 infantry to defend Acre. The
Templar grand master,
William of Beaujeu, also recommended sending reinforcements immediately. In the end, Gregory X did send a force of knights and archers, albeit smaller than what either James or William had proposed. He also instituted a tax of one penny a head on all Christians to finance an expedition, which was perhaps inspired by Gilbert of Tournai's treatise. The treatises of 1274 are not generally considered to belong to the same genre as those that came after 1291. Antony Leopold calls them "antecedents of the recovery treatises". For Sylvia Schein, the earlier treatises were "working papers submitted for conciliar discussions", while the "
de recuperatione treatises" were "a new genre of crusade literature" consisting of "practical guidelines … largely concerned with general strategy as well as with detailed plans."
Treatises after 1291 Nicholas IV The first of the recovery treatises that can be precisely dated, the
Liber de recuperationis Terrae Sanctae of
Fidentius of Padua, had its genesis in Gregory X's appeals, but took so long to complete that it was not finished until 1290 or 1291, just before loss of Acre. At least one other treatise may have been written before the fall of Acre. The
Via ad Terram Sanctam was written in
Old French possibly even before 1289 and translated into
Latin after 1307. It is more likely, however, that it was written shortly after the fall of the city. Nicholas IV, who had attended the council of Lyon and was probably inspired by Gregory's example, issued a new appeal for advice after the fall of Acre in the bulls
Dirum amaritudinis (13 August 1291) and
Dura nimis (18 August). At least three treatises were written during his pontificate, including that of Fidentius. All three advocated a first attack on
Mamluk Egypt to establish a beachhead, followed by a naval blockade, before making an assault on the Holy Land. All saw Christian superiority at sea as the key to defeating the Mamluks. The first response to Nicholas's appeal came from
Ramon Llull, who wrote a letter to Nicholas,
Epistola pro recuperatione Terrae Sanctae, and a more thorough tractate,
Tractatus de modo convertendi infideles, both dated 1292. King
Charles II of Naples, who claimed the throne of Jerusalem, wrote a restrained and practical proposal that was probably not published until the
1292–1294 papal interregnum. One other treatise appeared during the interregnum, that of
Galvano da Levanto.
Clement V Neither
Boniface VIII nor
Benedict XI made appeals for advice and no recovery proposals are known from their pontificates.
Clement V, however, issued such an appeal in one of his first encyclicals in 1305. In 1308, he issued a new request for proposals for the
Council of Vienne, which convened in 1311. The grand masters of the military orders of the
Templars and
Hospitallers both wrote responses to the first request. That of the Hospitaller
Fulk of Villaret formed the basis of the
Crusade of 1309, which helped the Hospitallers
consolidate their hold on Rhodes but failed to disrupt much Mamluk trade. The Templar master
Jacques de Molay's treatise broke with the tendency of the rest by advocating a large-scale operation, perhaps influenced by the
capture of the Templar garrison on Ruad in 1307. Around the same time, the Armenian
Hayton of Korykos visited Europe and produced a recovery treatise at Clement's express request. Four proposals were written for the Council of Vienne. Llull wrote a new proposal advising the creation of schools in oriental languages and the unification of the military orders. While the former goal was realized, the latter was not. In fact, the council
condemned the Templars and in 1312 the order was dissolved. King
Henry II of Cyprus sent a letter to the council bearing his advice.
William of Nogaret and Bishop also wrote proposals. The latter concentrated on preparations in Europe, believing that military matters were best left to experts. He did not believe that another crusade would be possible for at least a decade. Molay aside, the treatises written for Clement V emphasised the blockade of Egypt. Several independent treatises were also written during the pontificate of Clement V. In 1305, Lull wrote a new proposal addressed to King
James II of Aragon. In March 1309, he wrote his last proposal. Both advised the Spain–Africa route to the Holy Land, requiring first a crusade against the
Kingdom of Granada. With papal support, a
crusade against Algeciras was launched by James of Aragon and
Ferdinand IV of Castile in August that year. In 1306,
Pierre Dubois wrote
De recuperatione Terre Sancte, divided into two parts dedicated, respectively, to
Edward I of England and
Philip IV of France. It is a rambling treatise that covers many topics only tangentially related to the crusade. The anonymous
Descriptio Europae Orientalis, written around 1310–1311, is a crusade proposal for the recovery, not of the Holy Land, but of the
Empire of Constantinople.
Treatises after 1314 After Clement V, no pope requested written advice on the recovery of the Holy Land. In 1316–1317,
William of Adam wrote a proposal based on his extensive travels. It was intended for the court of the newly elected
Pope John XXII. Initiative for the recovery, however, had passed to the French crown.
Philip V appointed Count
Louis of Clermont as commander of his planned crusade. Louis requested and received a written brief from the city of
Marseille, where some galleys were under construction in 1318. No crusade came of these efforts. Philip then held three councils on the crusade in 1319–1320. Following the first of these,
William Durant wrote a proposal,
Informatio brevis, probably intended for the king. Simultaneously with Philip V's final council,
Marino Sanudo Torsello presented to John XXII his
Liber secretorum fidelium crucis, which was to become the most famous of recovery treatises. Sanudo later presented a copy to King
Charles IV of France in 1322. He had worked on the
Liber from 1306 to 1321. One of his prominent proposals was an alliance with the
Nubia to attack Egypt from two sides. Just such a strategic pincer is illustrated in the
illuminated copy of the
Liber that he presented to the pope. Sanudo witnessed some of the negotiations between John and Charles over an expedition to aid
Armenia, in which the king proposed a three-stage crusade with progressively larger forces. The pope asked the cardinals to evaluate the plan. Several of their responses survive, all negative. The last proposal intended for Charles IV was written by
García de Ayerbe, who laid stress on a Franco-Spanish alliance. Charles's successor,
Philip VI, made a serious effort to launch a crusade, which he publicly announced in 1333. He had previously requested and received written advice from the
Republic of Venice, urging the blockade of Egypt and defensive actions against the
Anatolian Turks. In 1332, he had received an anonymous and detailed treatise, the
Directorium ad passagium faciendum. In 1335,
Guido da Vigevano wrote Philip an unusual treatise about maintaining his health while on crusade and about various contraptions Guy had designed for prosecuting the war. Around that time,
Roger of Stanegrave dedicated a treatise to King
Edward III of England, who was planning to join Philip's crusade. The creation of the first
Holy League in 1332 signalled a fundamental shift away from recovery of the Holy Land to defence of Europe from the Turks.
Pope Benedict XII cancelled Philip's projected crusade in 1336 amid the rising tensions that would lead to the outbreak of the
Hundred Years' War in 1337. As a result, "the golden age of the literary genre of the
de recuperatione Terrae Sanctae", begun in 1290, came to an end.
Treatises after 1336 For several decades, no new written crusade proposals appeared. The first original crusade proposal after 1336 was that of
Philippe de Mézières in his
Songe du vieil Pèlerin of 1389. He published it after the
Truce of Leulinghem established peace between France and England. He urged the kings of both countries to lead a general crusade, but only after a preparatory crusade led by a new military order intended to supersede all existing ones. In 1395, Philippe wrote a letter to King
Richard II of England with another proposal. In 1420,
Emanuele Piloti dedicated his
Tractatus to
Pope Eugene IV. He had personal experience of the East, but depended heavily on the prior work of Sanudo. He translated his own work into French in 1441. Like Philippe de Mézières, Piloti wrote on his own initiative. Two other memoranda on the crusade were written on the orders of Duke
Philip the Good of Burgundy. Both writers,
Guillebert de Lannoy (1420) and
Bertrandon de la Broquière (1432), had undertaken reconnaissance missions to the East. Unlike the classical recovery treatises, their memoranda were mainly reconnaissance reports. ==List of works==