ABSTRACT
Between the Second and Third Crusades there was an interval of forty years, during which the Latin West had little contact with the Latin East. Manuel’s return from Syria had coincided with the papal schism which followed the death of Hadrian IV. He grasped eagerly at the chance this seemed to offer of realising his ambition and being recognised as Emperor, at any rate in Italy and at Rome. The Venetians hastily raised a fleet of 120 ships, which, under the command of the doge, captured Ragusa and plundered the shores of Greece and the Aegean islands. With the arrival of Richard the concentration of the crusaders was completed. They had been assembling for two years at Acre, and the whole of that time had been spent on the siege of the city. The crusading movement had been in progress for just a century, and during that time very large numbers of Westerners had come into contact with Eastern civilisation.
