ABSTRACT
The emergence of a number of Turkish beyliks along the Anatolian-Aegean littoral at the end of the thirteenth century marked the beginning of a process which saw the Turks replace the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria as the primary target of Western crusading endeavour. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the raids launched from these beyliks against Frankish territories in the Aegean and Greece began to disrupt trade and even threaten the Latin presence in the region. This resulted in the local Christian powers joining with the papacy to provide a united front against the Turks. Pivotal in the formation of this new crusading strategy was the so-called “Crusade of Smyrna” – the first campaign launched solely against the Turks – which lasted from the proclamation of the crusade and the creation of a naval league by Pope Clement VI in 1343 to the disbandment of the Christian fleet in 1351.1This
crusade was of great importance to many contemporaries and was met by a level of popular enthusiasm rarely witnessed in the fourteenth century. Probably as a result of this the expedition also attracted the attention of an unusually high number of medieval chroniclers and was the focus of a considerable amount of surviving diplomatic documents, meaning that details of the campaign can be pieced together on a scale not possible for crusades earlier in the century.
