ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role played by Byzantium in the crusading movement and the effects of the crusade on Byzantine thought, arguing that the prevailing theme uniting the variety of ways in which the crusades affected Byzantium was the empire’s marginalisation. Central to the origins of the crusade, imperial concerns were soon relegated to the periphery of crusading thought, while the Byzantine reaction to crusading encouraged western Christians to regard the empire as occupying an ambiguous position on the margins of the Christian community. The crusades embodied a profound challenge to the imperial state’s own notion of its special status in the world, and worked to undermine the centrality of that state to its inhabitants’ conception of their own society and identity.
