ABSTRACT
Chapter Five argues that the role of the kingdom as a resource was present throughout the period, particularly in regard to the mainland. By acting as a main route to the Holy Land, engagement through pilgrims, crusaders and traders was constant. At certain points, the mainland hosted large armies bound for the Latin East and was therefore pivotal in their initial supply. The chapter discusses the physical reminders of crusading and the Latin East present within the kingdom, and the ways in which southern Italy acted as a conduit of communication and supply. Returning to the issue of contested identity, it proposes that many southern Italians may well have been mislabelled as Genoese or Pisan, suggesting a constant, albeit low level, participation in trade with the Holy Land. In these ways, the chapter argues that whilst direct military involvement in the Levant was limited, there remained an ongoing interaction which allowed the kingdom to tacitly support the Latin East in a manner that did not actively promote religious division within its own multi-ethnic society.
