Attila BrnyUniversity of Debrecen

King Sigismund and the passagium generale (1391-96)

The paper examines King Sigismunds efforts to organize a grand scheme, a greatcrusading enterprise against the Ottomans in the first half of the 1390s, leading up to the battleof Nicopolis. It was the negotium of prime importance for Sigismund in the first decade of hisrule in Hungary, and it was a major achievement in the period of the Later Crusades toarouse the spirit of the cruciata in the West against the advance of the Turks in the Balkans.The paper investigates Sigismunds work of several years to negotiate over the participationof most of the European powers, through numerous Hungarian embassies to France, Venice,Burgundy and the court of the Duke of Lancaster in Bordeaux. In the organization of the newcrusade Sigismund welcomed in Hungary most illustrious figures of the European chivalroussociety and received several envoys from the court of Charles VI of France and Philippe theBold, Duke of Burgundy. It also gives insight into the smaller crusading enterprises organizedby Sigismund preceding Nicopolis. I am focusing on Sigismunds work in the defence of thefrontier and launching counter-attacks from the year 1390-91, in a way preparing the basis forthe grand enterprise of 1396.

One of Sigismunds major achievements lies in the fact that he consciously strove togain all the apostles of the crusading spirit from Manuel II Palaeologus, Emperor ofByzantium through King Leo VI of Lesser Armenia to Robert the Hermit and EustacheDeschamps for the passagium against the Ottomans in the Balkans and deliberatelyorganized a wide intellectual front. The major advocate of the Crusade against the Ottomanswas Philippe de Mzires, Sigismunds chief compatriot whom the king wished to cooperatein the prime negotium on earth. Both personages came to the understanding that an Anglo-French peace was the essential precondition for restoring the unity of the Catholic church. Inhis work, Letter to King Richard II Mzires found that the only remedy would be thecooperation of Western and Eastern in the organization of a crusade.1 The rulers of France,England, Hungary should stand side-by-side in a brotherhood-in-arms established by a newOrder of Knighthood, Militia Passionis Jhesu Christi called forth in his piece Nova ReligioPassionis.2 One of the major advocates of the crusade not only for the recuperatio TerraeSanctae but to halt the advance of the Ottomans was Philippe de Mzires. He was one of thefirst Westerners to realize the role of the Hungary as antemuralis Christianitatis. He was apartner of Sigismund in calling for the Anglo-French peace as the essential precondition forrestoring the unity of the Catholic church. That is why he dedicated his treatise to the King ofEngland, and found the help of the Hungarians inevitable in the organization of a crusade.Mzires served as a link between Hungary and the West: he was the first one to call forth thecooperation of King Louis the Great and the Western European kingdoms. That is why hechose to give all assistance to Sigismund as well. Mzires was the prophet of the crusade andspiritual father of the Peter de Lusignan, King of Cypruss venture in 1365.3 He found themost appropriate person in King Louis to lead the grand campaign of all the Christian

1 Philippe de Mzires, Une poure et simple epistre dun vieil solitaire des celestins de paris adressant atresexcellent, &c. Richardt par la grace de dieu Roy dangleterre. Original: British Library Manuscripts, RoyalMSS, 20 B. VI. Published: Philippe de Mzires, Letter to King Richard II, transl. G. W. Coopland, Liverpool:Liverpool University Press, 1975.2 Philippe de Mzires, Nova Religio Passionis. Oxford: Bodleain Manuscripts, Ashmole MSS 813; 865. A newreligion of knighthood is called forth in his La Sustance de la Chevalerie de la Passion de Jhesu Crist. Oxford:Bodleain Library, Ashmole MSS 813. fol. 4. Published A. H. Hamdy, Philippe de Mzires and the New Orderof the Passion, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts (of Alexandria University) 18 (1964) 45-54.3 A. S. Atiya, The Crusade in the Later Middle Ages, London: Methuen, 1938. Ch 7.

powers.4 Mzires did lay his trust in the young king of Hungary as well and was convincedSigismund would finalize Louiss tasks. The new chivalrous confraternity established byMzires, the Militia Passionis would terminate the Schism, wage war against Wycliffiteheretics, and prepare the way for the passagium generale. The energy of the chivalry of theWest could be diverted from the shedding of Christian blood to the expulsion of the Infidel.Mzires outlined a whole strategic plan for a joint crusade in his Le songe du vieil pelerine:Hungary and the Western states should proceed to the borders of Turkey and Byzantium,where the are to join the crusading host, the largest contingents of which would come fromEngland, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders and France, who are to sail in two great fleets. In thisparamount enterprise the allies should also seek the co-operation of the Venetian and Genoesesea-powers.5 It is almost a blueprint of the would-be Nicopolis campaign. Nevertheless, asKing Leo VI of Lesser Armenia died (November 1393), Sigismund could have liked to seehimself and of the role of the great Levantine or Central European ruler as the chief championof the Faith.

From the early 1390s after the fall of Serbia and the despot Stefan Lazarevi renderinghomage to the new sultan, Bayezid I, the threat of Ottoman devastation was quite appallingfor the kingdom of Hungary. The Southern borderline regions were heavily plundered byTurkish inroads. The threat of the Ottoman was quite appalling as early as in 1390-91. InJanuary-February 1392 the territory Temeskz (the wardenship of Timioara) was hit by amarauding assault of great force, and in May-June the Szermsg/Srem was attacked andheavily raided. The key strongholds of the Danubian line, Galambc/Golubac and Orsova/Orova fell. Bayezid I initiated a new scheme of systematic conquest in the Balkans and theAegean. In 1393-95 the Ottomans overran Wallachia, Thessaly, Northern Albania, tookSkopje and Tirnovo, devastated Chios and Negroponte and laid siege to Constantinople.Sigismund launched campaigns against them in order to protect these territories but sooncame to the understanding that only with Western support would it be at all possible to haltthe advance of the Ottomans. The King and the Emperor of Constantinople, Manuel IIPalaeologus sought the idea of a joint European intervention. As early as 1392 Sigismundapplied for Western help and fought with the support of Bohemian, Silesian and Englishknights in the Temeskz and the Barancs/Branievo district against Sultan Bayezid, as well aswas able to move forward up to drelo and force him withdraw as the main body of thePadishah did not face a pitched open-field battle.6 It has to be seen as a success in crusadingwarfare, the first real one after the hectic years of defence of 1390-92. The sultan did not dareto measure his army against a joint Christian force. His freshly gained experience fightingtogether with superb Western knights confirmed the king in his conviction that he was toapply to the Western European powers for the aid of Christendom. Due to Sigismundschannels of communication the knighthood of Europe were to learn of the successes of theTurks and the fact the Sultan was preparing to overrun Constantinople, as noted in Westernchronicles by 1393-94.7

4 2 March 1364. The Archbishop and the Chancellor of Cyprus to King Louis. in Wenzel, Gusztv, Magyardiplomcziai emlkek az Anjou-korbl. Acta extera Andegavensia, 3 vols, Budapest: Magyar TudomnyosAkadmia, 18741876. (Monumenta Hungariae historica. Diplomataria. Magyar trtnelmi emlkek. 4. oszt.:Diplomcziai emlkek, 1.) [hereinafter DEA] Vol. II, pp. 608-09.; Nicolae Iorga, Philippe de Mzires (1327-1405), et la croisade au XIVe sicle. Paris: cole Pratique des Hautes tudes, 1896. (Bibliothque de lcole desHautes tudes. Sciences philologiques et historiques. fasc. 110. 1869, etc. 8)5 Philippe de Mzires, Le Songe du Vieil Plerin, trans. G.W. Coopland, 2 vols. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1969. Vol. I, Book III. passim.6 Engel, Pl, A trk-magyar hbork els vei, 1389-1392, [The first years of the Ottoman-Hungarian warfare]Hadtrtnelmi Kzlemnyek 111 (1998), 561-577. p. 577.7 Johannes de Trokelowe, Chronicle. Annales Ricardi Secundi et Henrici Quarti Regum Angliae. Johannes deTrokelowe et Henrici Blaneforde Monachorum Sancti Albani. in Thomas Walsingham, Chronica Monasterii

It has been disputed up to very recent times whether King Charles VI of France,Philippe the Bold, Duke of Burgundy or King Richard II of England initiated the Nicopoliscrusade. Sigismunds role has up to the present day been very much neglected in Westernhistoriography. King Leo VI of Lesser-Armenia and Philippe de Mzires have truly beenrespected as the apostles of the cruciata since they did unquestionably great efforts to enliventhe crusading spirit from the 1380s onwards.8

As the popes not being able to give any financial assistance besides proclaiming thecrusade, Sigismund took the initiative and made all effort to win the leading powers of Europefor the ambitious aim of driving the Ottomans out of the continent. As compared to thefashionable minor crusading voyages of groups of knights to fight the enemies of Christ toPrussia and the Barbary to meet the expectations of the chivalrous society Sigismund did aimat organizing a real great enterprise of formidable forces led by knights of great renown andprofessional captains.

Sigismunds major achievement was that he sought to make the most of the hugecrusading fervour and miles Christi ambition Christian of late 14th-century Western Europeand turn the aspirations of the chivalrous society to his own good. The knights were heated bycrusading deliberation and religious zeal to fight the real evil, not just overrun armlessLivonian peasants or win insignificant victories against minor Moor emirs in Northern Africa.They wished to commit themselves to serve Christ on a real great crusade, on frontesguerrarum paganorum.9 The rulers desired to see themselves as the new archetype of theathleta Christi since with the death of the last rex crucesignatus, King Edward I of Englandthere was no real bellator rex to fight the heathen. Charles VI of France, Duke Philippe theBold of Burgundy, Louis of Orlans and John of Gaunt of Lancaster all aspired to the role ofthe new zelator ecclesiae, the champion of Christendom whol would reunite the forces ofChrist and lead his banner to victories.10 Waht Sigismund did was to divert this crusading zealfrom the daydreams of the recuperatio to the actual struggle against the advance of theOttoman in the Balkans. He was to make the Westerners believe that the new passagiumgenerale should be fought in Europe, to protect Chrsitendom from the real enemy not to fightdistant Muslim sultans in Palestine for the Holy Sepulchre. Even though the program of thegreat crusade in the 1380s-90s might have been first launched either by Charles VI or Philippede Mzires or others, it was Sigismund who shaped the schemes it into a concrete form andas a bellator rex himself fighting the Turks from the end of the 1380s himself realized it infact on the battlefield. Beyond sketching schemes and itineraries in theory Sigismund did thedown-to-earth work to organize the passagium in fact in the field of recruitment, finances,supplies and tactics.

Sancti Albani. ed. H. T. Riley, 6 vols. London, Longmans, Green, Brown, 1863. Reprint, Kraus: Wiesbaden,1965. (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores. Rolls Series, 28) Vol. III, p. 166.8 Anthony Goodman, John of Gaunt, the Exercise of Princely Power in 14th century Europe, Harlow: Longman,1992. p. 201. J. J. N. Palmer, England, France and Christendom, 13771399, Chapel Hill: The University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1972. p. 199. For the debate see Richrd Sznt, Az angolmagyar kapcsolatok nhnyvonatkozsa az 1390-es vek elejn, in Piti, Ferenc (ed.), Magyaroknak eleirl. nnepi tanulmnyok a hatvanesztends Makk Ferenc tiszteletre, Szeged: Szegedi Kzpkorsz Mhely, 2000. pp. 516-35. p. 517.9 About the late 1380s a vision of a French knight became widespread and very much popular in Europe of theunion of knighthood that would reoccupy the Holy Land, only through which Christendom be saved from theevil: habuit visionem quod transiret ad quoslibet Christianos in Europae partibus habitantes ut ipsi omninodimitterent eorum bella et ad pacis redeant unitatem. Higden, Ranulph, Polychronicon Ranulphi Higdenmonachi Cestrensis: together with the English translations of John Trevisa and of an unknown writer of thefifteenth century, ed. Joseph Rawson Lumby, 9 vols, London: Longman and Co, 1869-1886. (RerumBritannicarum medii aevi scriptores. Rolls series, 41) Vol. VIII, p. 201. ; Norman Housley, The Crusaders.Stroud: Tempus, 2002. p. 151.10 J. L. Gillespie, Richard II, Chivalry and Kingship, in J. L. Gillespie (ed.), The Age of Richard II. Stroud:Sutton, 1997. pp. 115138.

Sigismund might have had a Western European participation in mind as early as1388.11 The Livre de fais, the biographic work of Jean le Meingre Boucicaut, Marshal ofFrance being in Hungary for three months in 1388.12 Sigismund received the French knightsvery well and possibly negotiated with them the participation of Western knights incampaigns adversus Turcorum.13 There is an assumption held by Atiya that Sisgismundalso welcomed Philippe dArtois, the count of Eu in Buda, though this is not justified by anyevidence.14 The crusade was not a hobby-horse or far-fetched desire of the King, but it waspart of his long-term strategic conception, which was already formulating at the verybeginning of his rule.15 As early as in the years 1389-90 Sigismund laid great stress on thewar against the Turks.16

One of the chief targets of Sigismund and his partners Philippe de Mzires, KingLeo VI of Armenia, Robert the Hermit in the organization of the crusading host wasEngland. Mzires believed that the most flagrant mischiefs that disgraced the chivalry of theWest were divisio and propria voluntas, thus, the first and foremost precondition of thepassagium is the Anglo-French peace. He expected Richard II (1377-99), the innocent king ofEngland to bring forth the long expected peace. He expected a substantial involvement ofEnglish knights, based upon the highly appreciated Christian deliberation and crusading zealof the kings chivalrous circle of Richard II. There was a strong intellectual background forthe crusading ideas at the court of England, as indicated through the symbolism of the WiltonDyptich, dated to 1395.17 The iconography and the imagery of the Dyptich is a symbol ofRichard IIs crusading commitment.18 It shows an idealized youthful, chaste personage, theChild Unspoiled in the figure of Richard.19 He is the Chosen Messenger onto Earth a lamb,agnus Dei is holding the banner dedicating himself to the liberation of Christs birthplace.20

Richard has an intimate connection to the sign of the white Hart, the symbol of hugeundertakings.21 That is why Sigismund was right to believe that his appeal would fall unto amost mature ground in England and deliberately chose to rely on the young Richard II.

Another ardent propagator of the crusade, and himself a true companion-in-arms ofSigismund was Robert the Hermit, who helped him gain the support of the European crowns.

11 Joseph Delaville Le Roulx, La France en Orient au XIVe sicle. Expeditions du marchal Boucicaut. 2 vols &Pices Justificatives. Paris: Ernest Thorin, 1886. (Bibliothque des coles francais dAtne et de Rome, Fasc. 44.& 45.) [Elibron Classics. Adamant Media Reprint Edn., 2004.] Vol. I, pp. 163-64.; 232.12 Welcomed by Sigismund in Buda. Norman Housley, Boucicaut marsall Nikpolynl, [Marshal Boucicaut atNicopolis] Hadtrtnelmi Kzlemnyek 111 (1998), 593-602. p. 595.13 Le livre de fais du bon messire Jehan le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut, mareschal de France et gouverneur deJennes, ed. Denis Lalande, Genve: Droz, 1985. pp. 86-88.14 A. S. Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, London: Methuen, 1934. p. 36. ; pp. 100101.; Housley finds it unrealthat the count of Eu was also staying for three months at Sigismunds court. Housley, Boucicaut marsall, p.595.; Livre des fais, pp. 8889.; Delaville Le Roulx, La France en Orient, Vol. I, pp. 163164., 232.15 Veszprmy, Lszl, A nikpolyi hadjrat rtkelse az jabb hadtrtnetrsban, [The interpretation of theNicopolis campaign in the recent military historiography] Hadtrtnelmi Kzlemnyek 111 (1998), 3: 603-609.p. 604.16 Engel, A trk-magyar hbork, pp. 562-63.17 The National Gallery, London. Eleanor Scheifele, Richard II and the Visual Arts, in Anthony Goodman andJames Gillespie (eds.), Richard II. The Art of Kingship, Oxford: Clarendon, 1998. 265.; Maurice H. Keen, TheWilton Diptych, the Crusading Context, in The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych, eds. D.Gordon, L. Monnas and C. Elam, London: Harvey Miller, 1997. pp. 189196.18 M. V. Clarke, The Wilton Dyprich, in M. V. Clarke, Fourteenth Century Studies, Oxford: Clarendon, 1937.pp. 272-292.; Palmer, England, France, p. 205.; pp. 242-44.; Christopher Tyerman, England and the Crusades.Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1988. pp. 297-300.19 Tyerman, England and the Crusades, p. 300.20 Adrian Bell, England and the Crusade of Nicopolis, 1396, Medieval Life 4 (1996) 1819. p. 21.21 Marosi, Ern, A kzpkor mvszete. [The art of the Middle Ages] 2 vols. Budapest: Corvina, 1998. Vol. II, p.133.

Robert lErmitte took the participation of the English, French and Burgundians as aprecondition for a crusade against the Ottomans.22 While preaching throughout France andEngland he laid strong emphasis on the pressing danger of the Turkish advance. He did meetthe European monarchs himself in 1395 and called them into action to take up arms againstthe Infidel.23 With his eloquent preaching and austere way of life made a considerableimpression on John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, the chief promoter of the crusade whowelcomed Roberts ideas kind-heartedly.24 As a spokesman of Sigismunds enterprise, he waswarmly received and treated in the court of England as a special messenger under God toEngland. Richard II, during the month of Roberts visit, negotiated over the question of ajoint crusade and in May 1395 he agreed to go on the passagium himself. 25 In the 1393Anglo-French treaty it was stipulated that the two kingdoms would take part in a jointcrusade.26 Another propagator for the cause of the joint enterprise was Eustache Deschamps,whose poems were also reputed all over Europe. He popularized all over Europe the idea thatthe powers, France and England, but also with the Emperor, should join forces.27

Through the workings of Robert the Hermit, King Leo, Mzires and Sigismund, by1392 there were clear-cut plans for an expedition not for the liberation of the Holy Land but todrive the Ottomans out of Europe at the courts of England, France and Burgundy. By 1394definite strategic schemes were formulated for an Anglo-French attack on the Turkish Empirein the Balkans.28

The first diplomatic contact between Sigismund and the Western powers occurredduring the Prussian Reyse and the pilgrimage of Henry of Bolingbroke, the earl of Derby,firstborn son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.29 In 1392 Derby went from his secondPrussian Reyse to Hungary, met King Sigismund and was welcomed in Hungary with greathonours.30 Moving from Prague to Vienna, Derby reached the Hungarian border, but finally

22 Robert le Mennot of Normandy. uvres de Froissart, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, 29 vols. Bruxelles, VictorDevaux, 1870-1877. Vol. XV, pp. 190-201. He travelled widely all over Europe and the Levant, thus, he couldhave been travelling through Hungary when he made voyages to the land of the Tartars or the that of the Turks.Mzires, Letter to King Richard II, p. xxiii.23 en multipliant par la vertu de la croix la seinte foy catholique par toutes les parties dOrient, et l monstrer enDieu la valliance de la chevalerie dAngleterre et de France et des nos autres frres crestiens..., uvres deFroissart, Vol. XV, p. 388.24 uvres de Froissart, Vol. XV, pp. 194-95.25 Mzires, Letter to King Richard II, p. xxiv. uvres de Froissart, Vol. XV, p. 390.26 Franoise Autrand, La paix impossible, les ngociations francoanglaises la fin du 14e sicle, in Nicopolis,13961996, Actes du colloque international. Textes publis par Jacques Paviot et Martine Chauney-Bouillot.Annales de Bourgogne 68 (1996), 11-22. (Dijon, 1997.) p. 17.27 Exhortation a la Croisade: celle conquist; soyons donc exit / De faire autel, longues treves prenons, / Se paixnavons a nostre voulent. / Le Roy des Frans, dEspaigne requerons, / Cil dArragon, dAngleterre; querons / Leprestre Jehan, des Genevois loctroy, / Veniciens, Chypre, Roddes, Le Roy / De Portugal; Navarre alonsrequerre; / Pappe, empereur, mettez vous en courroy / Pour conquerir de cuer la Saincte Terre. [] EustacheDeschamps, uvres compltes publies, daprs le manuscrit de la Bibliothque Nationale. 9 vols, ed. A. H.Queux de Saint-Hilaire and Gaston Raynaud, Paris: Socit des anciens textes franais & Librarie de FirminDidot, 18781903. Vol. I, p. 139.28 However, there is a reference of an even earlier date that the Duke of Lancaster responded positively to theurge of King Charles VI at the peace negotiations at Amiens in December 1391. Palmer, England, France, p.197. Lancaster had already been negotiating even before the Amiens talks in this regard with the Duke ofBurgundy and sent a joint envoy to Charles VI. DEA, Vol. III, 475. 757. The envoy was Guy de La Trmoille,sire de Sully. Palmer, England, France, p. 81.29 Atiya does even state that he was received at the Buda palace of King Sigismund. Atiya, The Crusade ofNicopolis, p. 37. Jakob Caro, Das Bndnis von Canterbury. Eine Episode aus der Geschichte des ConstanzerConcils. Gotha, 1880. p. 15. ; Hans Georg Prutz (ed.), Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys Preussenfahrten13901391 und 1392. Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1893. pp. lxxxivlxxxviii.30 Nam de Prussia versus Hungariam, pertransivit, ubi, a rege Hungarorum honorabiliter receptus, magnismuneribus decoratus est, John Capgrave, De illustribus Henricis, ed. Francis Charles Hingeston. London,:

decided not to move to the centre of the kingdom, as opposed to the belief of some of Englishhistorians, but as it turns out from his household accounts he met Sigismund on the border, onhis way, since the king must have been busy along the southern border.31 Sigismund made adetour just to see the earl for a short, non-conventional meeting, and not for a ceremonialdiplomatic visit.32 Derby was not on a private venture, but also served on a statecommission.33 It is also underlined by his accounts, i.e. the substantial apanage he receivedfrom the Duke of Lanaster.34 From Derbys further negotiations at Rhodes with Grand MasterHeredia and with King James in Cyprus,35 it can be concluded that he did not pay ordinaryceremonious visits as a pilgrim of high ranks would do, but acted as a special envoy, onbehalf of his father, and the subject was a future joint venture of Christianity against theTurks, of which Gaunt would have desired to be the leader of.36 He translated the messages ofhis father, the Director-in-Chief of English foreign policy of the time. It is also proved by thefact that he was in an almost constant connection with Lancaster and was to report to himregularly, as well as the Duke was sending envoys to learn almost everything from Derbystravels.37 It is also to support the assumption that Derby did not act as a humble pilgrim thathe got involved in the talks between the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, the Dukes ofAustria and Moravia and Sigismund for the time being in 1392. He might have been involvedin negotiations of an anti-Polish alliance, aiming to cut territories from Poland.38

Derby entered Prague on 13 October, 39 met Wenceslas of Luxemburg, went with himto Zebrak or Bedeler, the Luxemburgians favourite country residence then stayed for threedays.40 Propagating the family tie as well, Derby gave tribute to the late Emperor Charles IV,the father of his kings queen and gave offerings at the Luxemburgians relics in the castle of

Longman and Co., 1869. [Reprint: Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1970] (Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores.Rolls series, 7) p. 100.31 Richrd Sznt, more or less at the same time with myself, also came to the conclusion that Sigismund andDerby met on the Hungarian-Moravian border. Sznt, Richrd, Derby grfja kzp-eurpai utazsa, [Derbysjourney in Central Europe] in Kzpkortrtneti tanulmnyok. A III. medievisztikai PhD-konferencia eladsai,ed. Weisz, Boglrka, Szeged: Szegedi Kzpkortrtneti Knyvtr, 2003. pp. 151158.32 Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, pp. lxxxiv-lxxxviii.33 As supposed by Kintzinger as well: Martin Kintzinger, Westbindungen im sptmittelalterlichen Europa.Auswrtige Politik zwischen dem Reich, Frankreich, Burgund und England in der Regierungszeit KaiserSigmunds, Stuttgart: Thorbecke, 2000. p. 235.34 For his first journey he received more than 4400 pounds, about the a third or a half of the annual revenue ofthe Duchy of Lancaster; and his second venture was even more generously financed, having received almost5000 pounds, supplemented by 2000 London marks per annum from King Richard II (1 mark = 0.66 pound), anda special donation of 1000 marks as donum. Lucy Toulmin-Smith (ed.), Expeditions to Prussia and the HolyLand made by Henry, Earl of Derby, in the years 13901391 and 13921393, London: Camden Society, 1894.(Camden Miscellany New Series, 52) p. xlvii.; F. R. H. Du Boulay, Henry of Derbys Expeditions to Prussia1390-1 and 1392, in F. R. H. Du Boulay and C. M. Barron (eds.), The Reign of Richard II. Essays in Honour ofMay McKisack, London: Athlone, 1971. pp. 153-172. p. 168.; Anthony Goodman, The loyal conspiracy: theLords Appelant under Richard II. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971. p. 154.35 J. L. Kirby, Henry IV of England, London: Archon Press, 1971. p. 38.36 Kirby, Henry IV, p. 38.37 For example, a knight of the Lancaster household, Sir Thomas Erpingham went after Derby, not to take part inthe Reyse but only in Schneck, after the earl left Danzig, and we propose that he was taking the instructions ofLancaster, regarding Derbys oncoming negotiations with Wenceslas and Sigismund of Luxemburg. J. D.Griffith-Davies, King Henry IV, London: A. Barker, 1935. p. 69.38 The alliance was mainly propagated by the Teutons, who proposed that Sigismund would get an area south ofCracow as it is to be proved by the negotiations of Sigismunds envoy, Ladislas of Opulia in 1392, ZsO. I. 2749.39 His itinerary from Danzig (22 September), towards Dramburg/Dransko, 28 September 28.;Arnswalde/Choszczno, 28-29 September; 1 October, Landsberg an der Warthe /Gorzow Wielkopolski, Drossen/Osno, 2 October; Frankfurt am Oder, 4 October; then up the Neisse by Gubin and Grlitz to reach Prague by 13October. Kirby, Henry IV, p. 36.; Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. lxxxvi.; Du Boulay, Henryof Derbys Expeditions, p. 166.; Kirby, Henry IV, p. 36.40 Bedeler/Bettlern, or Zebrak/Schebrak, Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 191.; p. 310.

Karlstein, among others at that of St. Sigismund.41 On 25 October he set out for Brno. Hearrived to the crossing, Gding (Hodonn) on 29 October 1392, where Sigismund was a fewmiles away.42 Sigismund hurried from Vrad/Oradea on 24 August, 1392 to reach the earl onthe Bohemian border: on 25 September he was in Trencsn/Trenn and on 18 October inNagyszombat/Trnava.43 Between 25 September and 18 October he must have been awaitingfor the opportunity to meet the earl of Derby.44 The King must have assigned a greatimportance to the meeting and spent weeks there even leaving the defence of the countrybehind on the Serbian frontier.45 His sisters husbands nephew: Queen Anne of Englandcould have made this a family event, formally.46 Derby may have already met Sigismundscousins, Jodocuss and Prokops, Margraves of Moravia, or their brothers, John Sobieslawsas well at that time bishop of Olomouc and Patriarch of Aquileia in Olmtz.

Then Derby moved to Weisskirchen, i.e the castle of Holics/jvr/Hol a few milesfrom the crossing, where he most probably met Sigismund, who left Nagyszombat on 25October, and must have arrived there the same or the next day.47 Henry stayed inWeisskirchen until 1 November, or, in the nearby Szakolca/Skalica, that is they must havebeen negotiating for 2-3 days, from 29 October to 1 November.48 Derby set out for Vienna on

41 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 275. Kirby, Henry IV, p. 37.42 Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. 174. Du Boulay, Henry of Derbys Expeditions, p. 166.43 Itinerar Knig und Kaiser Sigismunds von Luxemburg, 1368-1437, ed. Jrg K. Hoensch, Warendorf:Fahlbusch, 1995. [hereinafter Itinerar] p. 57.44 With the exception that was in Bolondc/Beckov on 2 October. Engel, Pl and C. Tth, Norbert: Itinerariaregum et reginarum. Kirlyok s kirlynk itinerriumai (1382-1438), Budapest: Magyar TudomnyosAkadmia, 2005. (Segdletek a kzpkori magyar trtnelem tanulmnyozshoz, 1) [hereinafter Itinerariaregum] p. 66.45 From the beginning of May he was on campaign along the Serbian border. He was in a hurry as was encampedon the frontier in Serbia, in the Barancs/Branievo dictrict along the Lower Danube until 9 August, and hastilymoved from Temesvr/Timioara on 16 August and reached Zlyom/Zvolen on 14 September. Itineraria regum,p. 66.46 Griffith-Davies, Henry IV, p. 69.47 He also issued charters in Nagyszombat between 18-25 October. Zsigmondkori Oklevltr. [Collection ofcharters from the Sigismundian period] eds. Mlyusz, Elemr, Borsa, Ivn, C. Tth, Norbert, 10 vols, Budapest:Akadmiai, 1951-2007. (A Magyar Orszgos Levltr kiadvnyai, 2., Forrskiadvnyok, 1-4.; 22-42.).[hereinafter ZsO] ZsO. I. 2653., 26552659., 2661. The source itself spells out and given in translation by Prutz,nahe der ungarischen Grenze, near to the border of Hungary. This could only refer to the HungarianFehregyhz-Weisskirchen. Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. 175. Itinerar, p. 57.48 Derbys itinerary is wrong in the German and English historiography, since Prutz and Toulmin-Smith identifiedanother Weisskirchen, in Moravia, near Olomouc as the place where the earl was staying after Brno and beforeVienna, and did not understood what he was doing and why he was making a detour northwest of Olomouc. Prutz,Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, pp. 175176. ; Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. lxxiv., p.193.; Sznt, Derby grfja, pp. 154155. If he was at Brno on 29 October, the 4 days till 2 November, when hewas reported to be in Drsing/Driesen, on the Austrian border, are not enough to reach Olomouc and t h a tWeisskirchen, which is even a few miles farther to the east of Olomouc, and return to the Austrian border. It is ajourney of at least 80 kms from Brno, from there Derby could not ride straight to Olomouc as there are theDrahany Mountains ahead, and the medieval road also went at the foot of the mountains, which does evenlengthen the trip. From Olomouc it is at least 90 kms in the Morava valley, to Gding, and another 15 kms to theAustrian customs (in medieval times it was at present-day Bredava). Altogether the journey for 4 days from Brnoto Weisskirchen-Olomouc and back to Drsing including a days stay in Weisskirchen is of 185 kms, whichwould have taken at least 6-7 days of raw, heavy riding. in this light we could rightfully provide proof that Derbystayed in Weisskirchen/Holics, was in Hungary in jvr Castle. The Weisskirchen near Olmtz is simply out ofthe question, a misinterpretation of 19th-century historians. Coming from Moravia, it would have been usual forDerby to follow the Brno-Vienna route and take the crossing at Bernardsthal. It is surprising to find Drsing, inthis sense he had to go down along the river and cross it from the Hungarian side, Drsing can be taken as acircumstantial evidence that Derby came from Hungary since the town was a crossing point, facing theHungarian Cstrtkhely/Plaveck tvrtok, and Malacka/Malacky, later on, but in Austrian-Hungarian relation,30 kms far from the Moravian border. I think the meeting should have occurred in Holics-Weisskirchen. Szntidentifies another, a third Weisskirchent in the region, Pozsonyfehregyhza/Biely Kostol), near Nagyszombat.

1 or 2 November, he stayed on 2 November in Drsing/Driesen [an der Zaya] he reachedSchnkirchen on 3 November, and Vienna a day later.49 Sigismund should have leftWeisskirchen on 31 October as the German-edition itinerary says that he was in Visegrd on 1November. However, the Hungarian-edition Itineraria regum says that there is no data on himbetween 25 October (Nagyszombat) and 22 November (Buda).50 According to this, Sigismundmay have stayed and spent several days together with the earl of Derby, from 29 October to 2November, and might have even escorted him to Vienna. The German Itinerar states that hewas staying in Visegrd from 1 to 11 November.51 If it is valid, he should have been hurryingfrom the Moravian border to reach Visegrd by 1 November and should have leftNagyszombat on 31 October the latest.52 The reason for this hasty meeting was thatSigismund had no time to receive the prince in an orderly fashion since his armies were beingencamped on campaign on the Serbian border facing an Ottoman assault at any minute, andthe king wished to return to his troops as early as possible and not to engage in diplomatictalks. That is why it is not at all possible that he also met the earl in Vienna, even though itcould rightfully fit into his itinerary based on Hungarian archival material.53

Although the English and German historiography has treated it as a factual reality thatDerby met Sigismund in Vienna, if the data for the itinerary of the king are valid, asSigismund is related to have been staying in Visegrd from 1 to 11 November, Derby couldnot meet the king himself but his representatives on about 6 November.54 Sigismund had ahouse on the northern bank of the Danube.55 However, although we know that he wasquartered in the palace of Duke Albert III, there is proof for being in contact with theHungarian negotiators: the reference in his expenses for a "batillagio a Henrico Maunsell ultraaquam iuxta mansionem Regis Hungariae"; and another one reporting on presents, leggings

Sznt, Derby grfja, p. 155. I do not think this is probable since if they had reached Biely Kostol, it wouldhave been simpler to hold the negotiations in Nagyszombat or Pozsony/Bratislava. For the names ofWeisskirchen/Holics/jvr/Alba Ecclesia (in Hungarian Fehregyhz) see Engel, Pl, Kirlyi hatalom sarisztokrcia viszonya a Zsigmond-korban (13871437), [The relationship of royal power and aristocracy underKing Sigismund] Budapest: Akadmiai, 1977. pp. 165166.; Engel Pl, Magyarorszg vilgi archontolgija,13011457, [The secular archontology of Hungary] 2 vols, Budapest: Histria. Magyar Tudomnyos AkadmiaTrtnettudomnyi intzete, 1996. p. 327.49 Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, pp. 175176. ; Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 193.50 Itineraria regum, p. 66.51 Itinerar, p. 57.52 Itineraria regum, p. 66.53 in descensu regn. campo in regno Rasciae, Itinerar, 57. ; Sigismund may have also been contacted becauseDerbys chaplain, Hugh Herle received wages up until 30 September, and he is lost for about two months.Herle could be imagined as the one whom Derby would have sent as an envoy to treat with Sigismund to preparetheir meeting. Herle is presumable to have set out for Sigismund on 30 September, from Derbys hotel inArnswalde, found him between Trencsn, Bolondc and Nagyszombat at the beginning of October, and broughtthe news back to Derby, since he was to be found in Brno and Olmtz with the earl towards the end of October.(Brno and Olmtz is not far from the Hungarian border, where Sigismund was staying at the time, Trencsn andBolondc.) Another possible person for the embassy preparatory would be Richard Kingston, who wascontinually with Derby as an important officer of the household on route (Treasurer). However it is strange tofind that he took no wages, or, was omitted from the wage-lists for eight weeks. He may have been sent to KingSigismund, he may have started from Landsberg on 1 October contacted Sigismund in Hungary then joinedagain his lord on 24 November. Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. li. Another candidate for ourproposed envoy-position might be the herald of the house of Lancaster, who is reported to be in Prague, but wedo not find him until April 1393, so it seems the herald did not escort the earl from Prague, but, might havetravelled to Sigismund as well.54 Lucy Toulmin-Smith finds that they met in Vienna, in Sigismunds house. Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions toPrussia, pp. 194195. It is even acknowledged by the excellent scholar McFarlane that he met Sigismund inVienna. It is mentioned by all the chroniclers to meet the Duke of Austria in Vienna. Also held by: Kirby, HenryIV, p. 37. ; Griffith-Davies, Henry IV, p. 70.; Kenneth Bruce McFarlane, Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. p. 39.55 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 195.; p. lviii.

(caligiae) embroidered with the arms or liveries of Sigismund of Luxemburg.56 We haveletters dated 5 November, which were sent by the Lancaster herald to England from Vienna. Itshould have been a matter of great relevance as he hastened to have his father informed by ahigh-ranking officer of the entourage, the Lancaster herold.57 These letters may have beenreporting King Richard II or John of Gaunt on his sons negotiations, for instance with DukeAlbert or even with Sigismund. It must have been some of the letters sent from Vienna toKing Richard II by way of Derbys herald onto which Richard letter of ante June 1393 waswritten. Richard II wrote to almost all the European rulers who could have been concerned,including Sigismund and Wenceslas as well as the Duke of Austria.58

There are no data in the itinerary of Sigismund for the following 10 days until 22November, when he is proposed to stay continuously in Buda. He must have been staying inBuda and could have received and welcomed some knights who detached from Derbysretinue and undertook to go on Sigismunds crusade after the prince left Vienna on 7November. However, even though there is no data for him leaving the Buda court in between12 and 22 November, and staying at all elsewhere, it might as well be possible, that due to thescarcity of sources we have no knowledge of his tour to the Western border to meet Derbyagain. What is based on documentary evidence is that he was to be found in Serbia only onChristmas Day, 1392, and he should have started his journey at the end of November.59

There could have been another occasion for Derby to meet Sigismund or hisrepresentatives for following talks. Derby proceeded from Vienna on 7 November 1392towards Villach to go to Venice on the usual route through Friaul; and stayed for one night atTraiskirchen,60 but another detour came and stayed another night in Neunkirchen onNovember 9, 1392.61 It may have been taken as a detour to be able to see an envoy fromSigismund: Neunkirchen was only a few miles, not more than 6-7, from the Hungarian border.Then, the following day he took the usual route to the Arnoldstein pass and arrived atMrzzuschlag on 10 November.62

Derby planned to go to the Holy Land, but whether to take the naval route at this pointwas not decided: the earl could have had in mind even at that time to go via the inland route,through Hungary. It is also proposed in English historiography that Sigismund may havethought that he would be able to urge the Prince to go down along the Danube throughHungary and see the Emperor Manuel in Constantinople.63 However, the earl chose then notto travel through the country probably because he wished not to get involved in the Ottomanborderline warfare with an insignificant force but to concentrate all his energies for theorganization of a great crusade returning to the West afterwards. Some scholars found itpossible that Derby did make the detour towards Hungary because he wished to fight theTurks already at that time. He was not content with the insignificant results he gained in theventures in Prussia, he did want to face the real heathen, the Ottomans, a greater challenge.He is referring to this and his crusading commitment in a letter written later on, as King

56 It could be a present of high value. The wardrobe gives a sum of more than 11 Venetian ducats for this, From4 April 1393, on his way back, leaving Venice for Treviso, item pro diuersis caligis factis pro domino, permanus Henrici de Camera, ex liberatione Regis Hungariae, broideratus cum liberate dicti regis, xj duc. liiijs.ven. Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 285.57 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 311.58 The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, ed. Edouard Perroy, London: Royal Historical Society, 1933.(Camden 3rd Series, 48) No. 183.59 in descensu regn. campo in regno Rasciae, Itinerar, p. 57.60 Near the river Traisen, on the western side of the Wienerwlad, south of St. Plten.61 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. lxxiv.; Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. 178., p.194.62 ibid.; Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. 179.63 Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. lxxxviii.

Henry IV: alike his father, he desired to become a new Messiah of Christendom already atthat time and lead the armies of Christ.64 However, Sigismund made the earl understand thatat the given time there was no use to fight and perish at the hands of the pagan but it would bea real aid if he would organize a great enterprise of the whole of Latinity. His tasks was toprepare the knighthood for the great passage, this is his role as a Messiah, not to enter intocombat on the Hungarian border.65 Afterwards, Henry grasped all opportunity to propagatethe cause of the great scheme, in which he was a great help to Sigismund all over Europe. It iseven more relevant that Sigismund was confirmed by Derby in his belief that large numbersof the Western knighthood would answer his appeal againt the heathen. It was after the talkswith the earl of Derby that king of Hungary, being assured of the assistance of a Westernpower, first appealed to the Christian princes for help (29 November 1393).66

On his way to Venice Derby was even entertained and welcomed by anotherLuxemburgian, Sigismunds cousin, John Sobieslav, Patriach of Aquileia.67 Derby and a partof his company set out to sail for Palestine. Wherever he went, either in Cyprus, or at Rhodes,or in Venice, he was treated as the ideal knight, a future leader of a grand enterprise againstthe Infidel. It may have also been helped by Sigismunds diplomacy throughout Europe. Thatis to be proved that as an honour towards his person, or towards his father of excellence, hisLancaster insignia were possible to be painted by his heralds everywhere he stayed, from theGreat Hall of the Knights at Rhodes, from Prague to the Basilica San Marco.68 He returnedhome from Jerusalem as the great prince of the Crusade, and made it public wherever he wentthat his major intention was to organize a joint crusade. That is why he is reported to hasten tothe court of France at Amiens, and passed the information to Charles VI he acquired, maybefrom Sigismund himself, on the situation in the Balkans, and asked the king of France toinitiate the crusade.69

There are no direct sources to underlie that any of the entourage of Henry of Derbystayed in Hungary and entered on crusading ventures of Sigismund in 1392-93 to safeguardthe Serbian-Bosnian confines and Wallachia on the Danube, but there are some hints gaps inthe pay-roll and account books of the earl of Derby70 to found the assumption that theremight have been some of his company who would not have the intention to go to the HolyLand. It is assured by sources that it was only a part of the total men of Derby who set outfrom Venice for Palestine, and regardless of a couple of them who are reported to have stayedin Italy, we have no knowledge of them after December 1392.71 A great number of his retinuewere no longer needed after the Prussian enterprise, and a ship was despatched homewardsfrom Danzig, and transported back to England most of the outlisted, but actually we have noknowledge regarding who of them did really return to England. Several of the men were paidonly until mid-September 1392, and they must have normally returned to England, but we

64 The letter of Henry IV to the Emperor of Abyssinia. Royal and Historical Letters during the Reign of Henrythe Fourth, ed. C. F. Hingeston, 2 vols, London: Longman and Co., 1860. [Reprint: Nendeln, Liechtenstein: -Kraus, 19641966.] (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores. Rolls Series, 18.) Vol. I, pp. 421422. ;Tyerman, England and the Crusades, p. 286.65 Prutz, Rechnungen ber Heinrich von Derbys, p. lxxxviii.66 Chronique du Religieux de Saint-Denys, Vol. II, pp. 112-13.67 It is also proved by circumstantial evidence, Richard Kingston, Treasurer entered money for a nights expensesreceived from the Patriarchs marshal. Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. 150.; Accounts for RichardKingston, Public Record Office, Great Britain, Kew, Surrey [hereinafter PRO]: Duchy of Lancaster, VariousAccounts, DL 28/1/8.68 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, pp. 234-35.69 Palmer, England, France, p. 199.70 For instance for a good number of his men between 1 January and 17 February 1393, whom he did not take onto his voyage to the Holy Land. Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, p. liii.71 A couple of men, 8-10, stayed in Italy, in Portogruaro: Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, pp. 210.; 211.;lxii.

have data on some who did not go with the ship, and most probably stayed in Prussia, orentered other crusading enterprises possibly went directly from Prussia to Hungary.72 Theyare not known to have fought in the Prussian theatre of war after September 1392. The 1392company of Derby had no chance to fulfil their crusader oaths, since they did not even fightthe Lithuanians, as Vitold was put back into his inheritance by Wladislas Jagiello and was inthe act of deserting the Teutonic Order and returning to the allegiance of the Grand Prince.73

That is why there was no further progress made from Knigsberg for Derbys army and thisway they remained workless. Those who were serious in their conviction to fight the Infidelhad to find a new opportunity: for most of them the Reyse was just a waste of time andmoney, and not a crusading and chivalrous act. Some of the crusaders were deliberate in usingtheir swords for the sake of Christ. Since there was no way for fighting in Lithuania, came toHungary. Throughout Derbys travels to Prague and Vienna, and even after his Vienna stayseveral of this entourage detached, most probably entering Sigismunds service to fight theOttoman in the December 1392 Serbian campaign. On the grounds of Derbys accounts itmight as well be possible that these knights did also stay for other subsequent campaigns inSigismunds company.74 We have narrative evidence that in 1392 a considerable number ofinternational force English, Silesian, Czech and Styrian knights came to fight theOttoman in Hungary with Sigismund. 75 That 1392 army must have included some of the earlof Derbys retinue as well. A number of Derbys retinue who did accompany the earl to theHoly Land are not known to have returned to England: they must have detached from thehousehold in Venice, and may have entered the service of Sigismund for the 1393-94 fights.

Sigismund was very serious in waging the war in Serbia, on the altar of which he waseven willing to sacrifice the political game with Poland: he hastened in April 1392 to contractfor a peace with Queen Jadwiga, his sister-in-law in Kassa/Kosice. And he agreed on all theterms the Polish offered.76 It could have occurred that it was in the peace negotiations inKassa that English knights entered to serve Sigismund against the Infidel. These Englishmenmay have been of the contingent of the Earl of Derby in Prussia, who rode through Polishterritories to Hungary to fight the Turks when the crusade against the Livonians by Derbyended. An English commentator in Prussia reported that the kyng of Cracow had asked theheres of Pruse to help against the Saracens.77 It can serve as a proof that, maybe with themediation of the monarch of Poland, Queen Jadwiga, Sigismunds sister-in-law, the crusadersfighting in Prussia were asked to come to Hungary to wage war against the Turks. It might notbe an extraordinary thing for a Western knight to come to Hungary in the 1390s.

72 Toulmin-Smith, Expeditions to Prussia, pp. 210., 212. The earl was escorted to Vienna by 50 men only, out ofthe total 150. McFarlane, Lancastrian, p. 39. This is disputed by Luttrell, stating that he was accompanied by aconsiderable entourage. Anthony Luttrell, Chaucers Knight and the Mediterranean, Library of MediterraneanHistory 1 (1994) 127-60. p. 133.73 Du Boulay, Henry of Derbys Expeditions, p. 167.74 Of those knight who left Derbys entourage in the autumn of 1392, even before his arrival to Venice, i.e. whomost probably left in Vienna, it is known that they fulfilled their pilgrims oaths and went to Jerusalemafterwards to return to Venice only on 27 February 1394, from where they travelled to England. They must havebeen staying in Hungary until the late summer or early autumn of 1393. ZsO I. 3318.; DEA Vol. III, 740.75 1392, Des jar kriegt der von Unngeren mit gen haiden, und hulfen im die herren von Enngellannt: WienerAnnalen von 1348-1404, in sterreichische Chronik von den 95 Herrschaften. Monumenta Germaniae Historica.Scriptores. Scriptorum qui vernacula lingua usi sunt. Vol. VI. Ed. Joseph Seemller, Hannover Leipzig,Gesellschaft fr ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1906-09. p. 236.; Engel, Atrk-magyar, P. 574. Note 102. The participation of troops from Silesia is also justified by Veszprmy.Veszprmy, Lszl, A nikpolyi hadjrat s rtkelse, [The campaign of Niicopolis and its evaluation]iskolakultra 7 (1997), 3:48-59. p. 52.76 Engel. A trk-magyar, p. 574.77 Eric Christiansen, The northern crusades, the Baltic and Catholic frontier, 1100-1525, Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press, 1980. p. 229.

Derby brought the news back from his journey on Sigismunds initiative, and a fewmonths time, John Holand, the earl of Huntingdon, half-brother of the king was appointedenvoy and commissioned to treat with the King of Hungary pro certiis negotiis.78 Judgingfrom the rank and the status of the envoy as well as the position he occupied at thegovernment of Richard II, it seems a diplomatic embassy of huge relevance.79 The GreatChamberlain and a member of the Privy Council was to come to see the king of Hungary,who, could have brought forward the prospect of a substantial participation in the oncomingcrusade on condition, we might suppose, that Sigismund would back the Anglo-French peacenegotiations conclude a peace treaty. Holand was a deeply commited champion of thecruciata, was one of the first to enter the order of the Militia Passionis. Mzires assigned adecisive task to Holand in the organization of the crusade as dedicated a copy of thehandbook of the Order of the Militia Passionis, La Sustance de la Chevalerie de la Passionde Jhesu Crist. 80 Alike his king, Holand also had the badge of the white hart, anunquestionable proof of his deliberation to go on a passagium. When Robert the Hermit wentto England to hand Mziress Epistre to King Richard, he was also to see Huntingdon.81

Holand also had close relations with the prime mover of the English foreign policy, John ofGaunt, Duke of Lancaster.82 Gaunt may have had a hand in the embassy, and had his man inthe government sent on the mission. The significance of the embassy is further proved by thefact that Huntingdon was granted quite a huge sum of 700 marks.83 His mission is even calledupon the attention of some German princes by King Richard in this way stimulating them totake up the cross.84 It is also conspicuous that he was urged as proved by the safe conduct togo to France in return and meet Charles VI, possibly to discuss the results of his negotiationswith King Sigismund.85 He was a reliable person in the eyes of the Holy See as well foundmost appropriate for the task of forging the alliance for the passagium: before leavingEngland Huntingdon had been absolved by Pope Boniface IX and licensed to choose aconfessor to accompany him on his journey against the Turks and other enemies of thechurch,86 which clause could even denote the real motive of his journey: he was alsopreparing to fight heretics when in Hungary, not only to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.87

78 18-20 January 1394. Letter of protection for John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon to go on a mission to Hungaryto King Sigismund. PRO Chancery, Treaty Rolls C 76/78, membrane 21.; Warrant of attorney for Huntingdondated 20 January 1394: Thomas Rymer, Foedera, conventiones, literae, et cujuscunque generis acta publicainter reges Angliae, 20 vols. London, 1704-35. Vol. VII, p. 764. In a letter from King Richard II to a Germanprince the real aim of Huntingdons mission to Hungary is spelt out, pro status militaris honore ac zelo fideiversus partes Hungarie, which should be understood as the cause of the passagium: The DiplomaticCorrespondence of Richard II, No. 199.79 John Holand was within the narrow circle of duketti of the king, a group of courtiers in the hands of whom theKing placed the government of the country. As Justice of Chester; Great Chamberlain; Constable of Tintagel,Captain of Calais he had a paramount role in English politics. Michael A. Hicks, Whos Who in Late MedievalEngland, 1272-1485, London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1991. pp. 187-88. He carried the sword in front of the Kingat his coronation in 1377. Trokelowe, Annales Ricardi Secundi, p. 190.80 le livre de la sustance abregie de la dicte chevalerie, que le vieil solitaire humblement et a grant devocion baillanagaires a vostre tres ame frere, le conte de Hontintone. Mzires, Letter to King Richard II, p. 105.81 uvres de Froissart, XV. P. 196.; p. 202.82 Holand earned the patronage of John of Gaunt. Gaunt made him Constable of the Lancastrian household. Hewas Gaunts son-in-law and had himself built into the Lancastrian interest circle, which was also sealed with aninter-marriage between Huntingdons niece, Lancasters son, John Beaufort. Goodman, John of Gaunt, p. 287.83 PRO, Exchequer of Receipt, Issue Rolls E 403/546, m. 21.84 The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, No. 199.85 [salvus conductus] pro comite Hunt, ffratre domini Regis, profecturus versus Hungrey et Jerusalem departibus Anglie per regnum ffrancie, The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, No. 199. & Note.86 He received a letter De plenaria remissione: Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers relating to GreatBritain and Ireland, Papal Letters, eds. W.H. Bliss and J.A. Twemlow, 20 vols. London, H. Majestys StationeryOffice, 1893-2005. [hereinafter CPL] Vol. IV, p. 489.87 Palmer, England, France, p. 240.

Some scholars propose that he did also fight the Turks in Hungary in 1394.88 Holand arrivedto Hungary in May-June 1394. Huntingdon went to Hungary through Savoy, where he arrivedvery early in March 1394, another fact that is to prove that his mission had to be in connectionwith the English participation in the crusade, since the counts of Savoy were regarded as thecentral figures of the crusading effort of fourteenth-century Christianity.89 Sigismund musthave also wished to have the eagles of Savoy in the passagium, whose commitment towardscrusading was regarded remarkable. This station in Savoy might also suggest that the envoywas instructed to negotiate with Venice as well, which, unfortunately, is not documented.However, it is not by chance that it was in May 1394, just after Huntingdon and the French-Burgundian envoys being present in the city from January, see below had talks with theSerenissima that Venice first declared that she would be willing to take part in a passagium ifthe rulers of France, England and the Empire were present themselves.90 We do not havedirect evidence but it might be possible that Hungarian envoys had already been treating withthe Signoria before the spring of 1394, after the Ottoman threat became acute in the Venetianpossessions in the Aegean with the advance of Bayezid in the early 1390s. When theKanizsai-Szepesi embassy arrived in the spring of 1395, it must not have been the only one,but must have been preceded by some, as the French-Burgundian envoys chose to stay in thecity to be able to be in connection with the king of Hungary. Venice laid her hopes into agreat venture set out from her neutral position, since thousands of Venetian citizens fled to thecity from Negroponte and Chios.91 That is why the Signoria started to turn her attention toSigismunds appeal in the spring of 1394.

What is grounded by fact that the English envoy also dropped in Vienna, obviously togain the support of the Duke of Austria, Ernest of Habsburg.92 If Huntingdon met Sigismundbefore 20 June, it can be assumed that he also escorted the king to his Bosnian campaign anddid actually fight the Turks there since he was not to return to England before the very end ofthe year or the very early days of 1395. Huntingdon is recorded to have embarked forRichards Irish campaign only in February-March 1395.93 The talks with Huntingdon fit intothe itinerary of the king as he was in Buda from 15 to 28 May and from 11 to 16 June andstayed in Visegrd and Esztergom on 6 and 19 June, respectively, where he could receive theearl of Huntingdon. He went to the Bosnian intervention at the end of June and it might bepossible that if Huntingdon did not reach the Hungarian court before Sigismund set out withthe army that he went after him and met him at the siege of Dobor at the end of July, or, on

88 Hicks, Whos who, p. 187.89 Amadeus VII, count of Savoy, the Red Knight participated at the Nicopolis campaign in the army of Jean deNevers. Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold. The Formation of the Burgundian State. London, Longmans, 1962. p.68.90 Rgestes des Dlibrations du de Venise concernant Romanie. ed. Frderic Thiriet. 3 vols, Paris-Limoges-Hague: La Haye, 1958-61. (Documents et recherches sur lconomie des Pays Byzantins, Islamiques et Slaves etleurs relations commerciales au Moyen Age, 1, 2, 4) Vol. I, p. 202.91 Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives andCollections of Venice and other Libraries of Northern Italy, 13 vols, ed. Rawdon Brown, G. C. Bentnick, H. F.Brown, Allen B. Hinds, London: H. Majestys Stationary Office, 1864. [hereinafter Calendar of State Papers.Venice], Vol. I., Nos. 107108.92 Justified by circumstantial evidence, a letter, dated 22 June 1395 proves that while in Vienna, Huntingdonheard cases in relation with Englishmen and forwarded the application of the abbot of the Irishmen in Austria forthe Kings pardon, in consideration by the good cheer shown by the said abbot to the Kings brother. Calendarof Patent Rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office, 27 vols, ed. J. G. Black et al., London: H. MajestysStationery Office, 1894-1916. Vol. I-VI. 1377-1399.: Vol. V. Richard II, 1391-96. p. 594.; CPL 1362-1404. Vol.IV, p. 489.93 Huntingdon: ships from Bristol and all ports of Devon rendered to transport him on 10 February 1395:Calendar of Patent Rolls, Vol. V, 1391-96. p. 536.; p. 587. Huntingdon received wages for war service inIreland, 8 March 1395. PRO Exchequer, Kings Remembrancer, Various Accounts, E 101/402/20, m. 32v.

Sigismunds return journey (either in Bcs/Ba and Ptervrad/Petrovaradin in August).94

Huntingdon should have handed over the messages of Richard II (and of the Duke ofLancaster, of course) to Sigismund informing him of the standpoint of England.

It is to be seen within the framework of a joint Luxemburgian foreign policy that at thesame time with Huntingdons mission, in June 1394 Wenceslas, King of Bohemia alsocontacted his former brother-in-law, Richard II, partly under the influence of his brother,Sigismund, and offered a new dynastic marriage alliance after the death of Anne ofLuxemburg.95 Richard II was at the time seeking for a new bride, and the main purpose of theLuxemburgian diplomacy was to divert England from an alliance with their adversaries in theEmpire, the House of Wittelsbach as Richard sent an embassy to Ruprecht, Palatine of theRhine as early as October 1394.96 Throughout 1395 the English diplomacy was still taking amarriage relationship with the house of Wittelsbach into serious account, and it was onlymonths later that Richard chose lastly a Valois princess, Isabel, daughter of Charles VI.97 TheFrench marriage was also the interest of the Luxemburgs since that would seal theforthcoming Anglo-French peace which could make it possible to concentrate only on thecrusade.98 Sigismund might have also urged the French marriage since it was just afterHuntingdons return, on 15 February 1395 that the first English embassy was sent to the Pariscourt to negotiate for the marriage of Isabel.99 It is not by pure chance either that the marriagenegotiations were to be warmed up just after Sigismunds envoys to the French, Burgundianand Lancastrian courts had talks with the heads of the Valois and Plantagenet diplomacy andmust have urged them to finalise the marriage negotiations and close the peace talks to be ablefocus on the cause of Christendom.100 The French did even send three offers of threeprincesses after Richard to his Irish campaign, but as Richard insisted on Isabel, the talks gotto a standstill until the arrival of Sigismunds envoys in the summer.101 An Anglo-Frenchpeace was of a prime importance for Sigismund, with hostilities between the two major forcesof Christendom he would by no means dare to set out the passagium.

Early in the following month, February 1394, one of the Richard IIs most trustedchamber knights, Sir John Golofre, was similarly accredited to the Polish court, to WladislawII.102 Golofre was most probably a joint ambassador of England and Burgundy. He was topropose the common action agreed between Sigismund and Richard to Charles VI since hejoined Huntingdon and returned to England through Paris at the beginning of 1395. The high-ranked person of the ambassador can testify the significance assigned to the mission. Golofre

94 Of these dates 6 June and the Royal Castle of Visegrd seemed the most probable to welcome and receivethe King of Englands brother. Itinerar, p. 59. However, when the King started his way towards Bosnia after 20June -- the army might have been going ahead of the King as Dobor castle in Bosnia was captured at the end ofJune -- the English envoy did most probably depart back for England. Magyarorszg Trtnelmi Kronolgija, 4vols, ed. Benda, Klmn, Budapest: Akadmiai, 1983. [hereinafter MTK] Vol. I, p. 232. The King is recorded tostay in Pcs on 23 June and from 5 July he was in Diakvr/akovo in Slavonia on his way towards Bosnia.Itinerar, p. 59.95 Edinburgh University Library, MS Laing 183. f. 45r., cited by Arnd Reitemeier, Auenpolitik imSptmittelalter, Die diplomatischen Beziehungen zwischen dem Reich und England, 13771422. Paderborn:Schningh, 1999. p. 180., p. 176.96 Procuration, PRO Exchequer. Foreign Accounts. E 364/30 m. 4v. Published, Rymer, Foedera, Vol. VII, p. 785.97 Christopher John Phillpotts, John of Gaunt and English Policy towards France, 13891395, Journal ofMedieval History 15 (1990), 363-84. p. 383.98 J. J. N. Palmer, The Background of Richard IIs Marriage to Isabel of France, Bulletin of the institute ofHistorical Research 44 (1971), 117.99 PRO Exchequer. Accounts Various. E 101/320 m. 11.100 On 8 July 1395: Palmer, England, France, p. 2.101 AngloNorman Letters and Petitions from All Souls ms. 182. ed. M. D. Legge, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1941.(Anglo-Norman Texts, 3) No. 109.; Palmer, The Background, p. 4.102 Letter of protection issued 12 February 1394, PRO Chancery, Treaty Rolls C 76/78 membrane 9.

was in the same way a man around the King, and was also closely connected to the Duke ofLancaster.103

It could be seen as an influence of the meetings proviso that King Sigismund, havingreceived now the support and the positive answer of the Western knights for the design of thecrusade, returning from Wallachia, where his armies suffered a defeat from the Ottomans,104

turned towards the Christian alliance. Following the negotiations with the count of Eu and theearl of Huntingdon King Sigismund applied to Pope Boniface IX to preach a crusade generalagainst the Turks.105 The Pope issued a crusading bull after the return of Philippe dArtoisfrom the confines of Hungary on 3 June 1394; and also announced indulgences for thecruciata after the news brought by the earl of Huntingdon, on 15 October 1394.106 Somewhatlater the new Avignon pope, Benedict XIII also issued a crusading bull.107

It was In January 1395 that Sigismund sent envoys to Venice to apply for theassistance of the doge to put galleys at the disposal of the crusading army.108 Venice was toprevent the Ottomans from landing in Europe at the Straits. That might have been one of theprovisions for which Huntingdon, on behalf of England, argued before the Serenissima. Thatwould explain why the Earl of Huntingdon had to go on rather a round-about route, via Savoyand Venice. It is further to be explained by the fact that the Signoria sent her envoy CarloZeno to Richard II to treat over the issue of the crusade.109

On 10 March 1395 the Hungarian envoys to Venice, Nicholas Kanizsai, magistertavernicorum, Lord Chief Treasurer and John Szepesi, secret chancellor raised the demandthat Venice provide a fleet of 25 galleys for the crusade.110 A Burgundian manuscript sourcealso says that another baron was member of the embasy when they went to France, someFranzlban, that must be Frank Szcsi, banus of Szrny/Severin.111 Venice answered on 12March that the Serenissima would supply one-fourth of the fleet of the crusade hindering thecrossing of the Ottomans only if the rulers of France, Burgundy and England respondedpositively and accepted the call of Sigismund!112 The precondition of the Western support isemphasized in another document: on 31 October 1395 Venice decided to apply for the

103 Palmer, England, France, p. 240.104 On 10 October 1394 Sultan Bayezid defeated the Hungarian-satellite voivod of Wallachia, Mircea cel Btrn,and Transylvania faced Ottoman assaults from the time of the autumn on. Sigismund was encamped in Temescounty, defending the border. in MTK, Vol. I, p. 233.; November-December in Szeged, Csand, Temesvr andTorda. Itinerar, p. 60. He was even contained in the winter with the Moldavian campaign (January 1395).Itineraria regum, p. 69.105 Alois Brauner, Die Schlacht bei Nikopolis, 1396, Breslau: Lindner, 1876. pp. 8-9.106 Sznt, Az angolmagyar kapcsolatok, p. 525.107 Kintzinger, Westbindungen, p. 253.108 Thallczy, Lajos, Mantovai kvetjrs Budn 1395-ben [Embassy from Mantova to Buda in 1395], Budapest:Magyar Tudomnyos Akadmia, 1905. (rtekezsek a trtneti tudomnyok krbl, 20.4.) pp. 302-03.109 Kiss, Kroly, A nikpolyi tkzet, 1396. szeptember 28. [The battle of Nicopolis on 28 September 1396],Budapest, 1855. p. 29.110 Szkely, Gyrgy, Luxemburgi Zsigmond, egy kzp-eurpai uralkod, [Sigismund of Luxemburg, aCentral-European Ruler] in Mvszet a Zsigmond korban [Art in the age of King Sigismund], eds. Marosi, Ern,Beke, Lszl and Wehli, Tnde, 2 vols, Budapest: Magyar Tudomnyos Akadmia MvszettrtnetiKutatcsoportja: 1987. Vol. I, pp. 29-69. p. 35.111 The Burgundian MSS says it consisted of le sire Franzlbn and three other knights: Bavyn Manuscripts,Bavyn MSS, Memoires du voiage fait en Hongrie par Iean dit, Sans-Peur, Comte de Neuers . Ensemble de laPrison du meme Comte de Neuers, sa Rancon, et son Retour, en France &c. Paris, Bibliothque Nationale,Collection de Bourgogne, MS. 20, Rois et Ducs. f. 340. The details of the Trmoille-embassy are preserved inthe same MSS. Frank Szcsi is mentioned at the time as banus of Szrny, though the office being vacant. Hewas also ispn of Temes until 1394, thus had experience defending the border against the Ottomans. Engel,Magyarorszg vilgi archontolgija, Vol. I, p. 33.112 ZsO. I. 3880.; Monumenta spectantia historiam Slavorum meridionalium. Listine o odnosajih izmedjujuznoga Slavenstva i mletacke Republike, ed. Sime Ljubi, 41 vols, Zagrabiae: Academia Scientiarum et ArtiumSlavorum Meridionalium & Hartman/Officina Societas Typographica/Zupan, 1868-1917. Vol. IV, pp. 339-42.

positive answer of the King of England in a letter.113 It is clear that Venice raised thecondition of a joint Christian participation. That is why the French, English and Burgundianenvoys were also to treat with the Signoria when they were sent on missions to Hungary in1394-95. Venice became a most significant centre of the talks on the passagium generale assome of the Western ambassadors met and treated with the Hungarians there and reportedback the standpoint of King Sigismund to their courts even without having a word withSigismund himself, as the king being involved mostly in campaigning.114

More or less at the same time with the English mission, Philip of Burgundy and theDuke of Orlans had sent their own envoys to Sigismund. On 10 January 1394 the jointambassador of Philip the Bold of Burgundy and Louis, Duke of Orlans, Rnier Pot,chamberlain of the House of Orlans were sent hastily to Hungary.115 The Duke ofBurgundy, Philip the Bold, as reported by his letter, already in 1394 was himselfcontemplating of the idea of a crusade but was hesitating that he himself should fight theTurks in Hungary lastly, that is why he sent his son, John of Nevers.116 The dukes did notwant to fall behind England and -- their most outstanding self-designated leader, the Duke ofLancaster -- manifest their commitment to the Christian cause, maybe it was among theirintentions, being jealous at the champions of chivalry, Gaunt and his son, Bolingbroke, toconquer the Captain General position from the Duke of Lancaster.117 In concert withHuntingdons visit and Pots embassy to Hungary, in July 1394 Philip the Bold wrote toWilliam of Namur stating that he had planned a crusade with the King of Hungary and theDuke of Lancaster to Hungary, early in 1395.118 A couple of days later, on 21 January 1394he was followed, or might have even joined by a Burgundian envoy, Guillaume de laTrmoille, marshal of Burgundy (Pots half-brother), sent conjointly sent by the dukes ofBurgundy, Orlans and Lancaster.119 (Trmoilles brother Guy, was sent to Hungary in 1391,see above.) Trmoille was only partially sent by Burgundy: it seemed that Lancaster wouldfull-heartedly take part in the action. He was the engine to give the major impetus to theenterprise. A document of 21 January 1394 supports this fact: he was instructed to bring thereply of Sigismund to each of the three dukes.120 Trmoille was also to meet the ambassadorsof Emperor Manuel II in Venice.121

Rnier Pot and Guillaume de la Trmoille, who had been staying in Venice since thebeginning of January 1395, were followed in February by another French envoy, MarshalBoucicaut, who may have also sent by the three dukes as a joint representative of England,France and Burgundy.122 The three envoys then concorded their activities from the beginning

113 ZsO. I. 4542.; Ljubi, Monumenta spectantia, Vol. IV, p. 390.114 J. Pot, Histoire de Regnier Pot, conseiller des ducs de Bourgogne, 1362 -1432. Paris, P. Bossuet, 1929. p. 39.;Ljubi, Monumenta spectantia, Vol. IV, p. 338.115 Palmer, England, France, p. 200. Regnier/Rnier Pot was on a Prussian Reyse in 1390-91 with PhilippedArtois and must have got in connection with the earl of Derby and his Lancaster-battalion. Bertrand Schnerb,A franciaburgundi kontingens rszvtele a nikpolyi hadjratban, [The participation of the French-Burgundian contingent in the Nicopolis crusade] Hadtrtnelmi Kzlemnyek 111 (1998), 3: 583592. pp. 591-92.116 Otto Cartellieri, Geschichte der Herzge von Burgund 1363-1477. 2 vols. [I: Philip der Khne. Herzog vonBurgund] Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1910. Vol. I, pp. 145-46. & Appendix X.117 It seemed more and more likely, proved by the contemporary narrative, that John of Gaunt had the greatestchances to have Chief Captainship. Histoire de Regnier Pot, p. 39.118 Cartellieri, Geschichte der Herzge von Burgund, Vol. I, pp. 145-46. see Appendix 10.119 Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p. 36.; Delaville Le Roulx, La France en Orient, Vol. I, pp. 229-30.120 Ljubi, IV. 338.121 Bavyn MSS, f. 340. cited by Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p. 37.122 On 4 February 1395 he urged the Senate to give an answer concerning Venice expected support. Atiya, TheCrusade of Nicopolis, p. 37.

of March.123 (Parallelly with the workings of the English diplomatic machinery, a thirdBurgundian-Orlanist envoy -- another of the Trmoille brothers, Peter -- was sent on amission to Prussia.124) They were to await the coming of Hungarian envoys in the city.125 TheSignoria did want to publish her answer to Burgundy until the Hungarian embassy broughtthe message of Sigismund.126 When they arrived, it might be concluded that they acted interms of the joint interest of Hungary and Burgundy-France and England when they proposedtogether the schemes of the crusading league towards the Signoria.127 The Hungarian and theFrench-Burgundian-Lancastrian envoys were then to persuade the Signoria to support thejoint enterprise with substantial financial means and supply as many galleys as possible. Theywere successful as Venice did even express her deliberation to back the crusade when itbecame obvious that one of the preconditions of the city state, i.e. the Duke of Lancasterwould lead the forces of Christendom, would not be realized.128 In April 1396 the Signoriawrote to Sigismund that Venice would provide the adequate number of galleys to the Straitseven though John of Gaunt was not to be present.129

The houses of Burgundy and Orlans competed not only for the captainship of thepassagium, but also for Sigismunds backing in earning the prime position in the Catholicchurch. Of the envoys awaiting the coming of the Hungarian ambassadors, Rnier Pot andGuillaume de la Trmoille were even to accompany the Sigismunds envoys, Mikls Kanizsaiand Jnos Szepesi and follow them to France and Aquitaine on 15 May 1395.130 Theseambassadors from Hungary were to go Milan, Mantova, Genoa to raise the standard of thecrusade. The envoys traversed Lombardy in the company of Pot and de la Trmoille and werewelcomed at Lyons on 8 May by the Dukes of Burgundy and Orlans.131 Kanizsai andSzepesi are recorded to have treated with the King of France in the summer, but they found iteven more important to primarily negotiate with the Duke of Lancaster.132 First, at thebeginning of June they went directly to Bordeaux (leaving Dijon on 19 May), the Duke ofLancasters seat, and were staying there until the end of July, still accompanied by Reinier Potand some Louis Debure, Chief Secretary to the Duke of Orlans.133 At Bordeaux they wereceremoniously received by John of Gaunt himself, who returned from England at the end ofthe spring, one might even propose, for the sake of his and Sigismunds envoys.134 They could

123 They met on 5 March. Histoire de Regnier Pot, p. 39.124 Vaughan, Philip the Bold, p. 62.125 Venice, 21 January 1395: ZsO. I. 3794.126 No matter how they were urged by the envoy of Burgundy, Trmoille to commit themselves. 4 February1394. ZsO. I. 3805.127 Ljubi, IV. 338.128 The Venetian Signorias letter to Richard II on 10 March 1395. Calendar of State Papers. Venice, No. 117.129 K. M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), 2 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society,1976-8. pp. 344-46. Venice even at that time reported to Sigismund that Lancaster still desired to fight againstthe Ottoman: suam intentionem [] per terram [] contra Turchos, ADE III. No. 478.130 He is to receive 150 francs from the treasury of Orlans. British Library MSS, Additional Charters 3374.131 Brauner, Die Schlacht bei Nikopolis, p. 14., Delaville le Roulx, La France en Orient, Vol. I, p. 231.132 At the end of May they even visited the Duchess of Burgundy at Dijon. Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p.38.; They did not however turn towards Paris but travelled through the south of France to Aquitaine. Setton, ThePapacy, p. 344.133 The sources for the visit in Bordeaux: British Library, Additional Charters 33713374., 33763377.; ArchivesDpartementales de la Cte-dOr, Dijon, B 1503, f 46. v., cited by Palmer, England, France, p. 210. Note 29.For their Bordeaux negotiations see Setton, The Papacy, p. 344.; Jim Magee, Le temps de la croisadebourguignonne, lexpdition de Nicopolis, in Nicopolis, 13961996. pp. 49-58. p. 53.134 Gaunt and Philippe the Bold were even competing for the liking of Sigismund and tried to give preciouspresents to the King of Hungary, by the hand of the envoys. The visit and the Hungarian-English negotiations aretreated in the Bavyn MSS, ff. 340-341. Cited by Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p. 175. Note 38.; ChroniconHenrici Knighton, vel Cnitthon, monachi Leycestrensis, ed. J. R. Lumby, 2 vols. London, H. MajestysStationary Office, 18891895.; (Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores. Rolls Series, 92) Reprint:

have spent the whole June welcomed by the Duke of Lancaster, or, as proposed by Palmer,even more, almost two months, and arrived to Paris at the end of July.135 Kanizsai and Szepesimet the King of France, together with the envoys of Lancaster.136 The text of Kanizsaisspeech to Charles VI survived in Livre de fais of Marshal Boucicaut, in which he spoke of themobilization of the Ottoman. Sigismund was informed just before the envoys left for Parisand Bordeaux that Bayezid was collecting an army of 10,000 horsemen and 30,000 footmento overrun Hungary.137 The statement is doubtful, though, as regards the numbers. Truth is,however, that in February 1395 Sigismund did go on campaign against the Turks, thus, thethreat he asked his envoys to depict before the Westerners was acute in fact.138 Sigismundrelied greatly on Western participation. By this time, nevertheless, it was known in WesternEurope that the Turks were preparing a grand scheme against Christendom.139 By this time,even before the arrival of the Kanizsai-Szepesi embassy, Charles VI had most probably learntthrough his envoys of the Venice negotiations and being aware of Sigismunds urge, wrote aletter to King Richard II calling forth a joint Anglo-French crusading army (15 May 1395).140

The content of another letter by King Richard II to Charles VI alike agreeing to raise a jointcrusading host must have also been made public to Sigismunds envoys in France in earlyAugust. In the letter of 25 May 1395 which might have been a reply sent to Charles VIsletter of 15 May, if the courier did very well between Paris and London that was broughtfrom England by Robert the Hermit, King Richard set up a concrete scheme for therecruitment of the joint crusading force le senct passage doultremer pur secorre nos frerescrestiens et deliver la terre seinte.141 (There was a scheme to wage war even against thepagans in Livonia and Prussia, which was popularized besides the Ottoman crusade.142) TheHungarian envoys must have thus learnt this scheme either in Paris or in Bordeaux, that iswhy there was no use in going to England and have further talks with the English. Back inHungary Sigismund felt that he was confirmed in his hopes about the passagium generale.The war effort was going to be successful: with the help of the English, the French and theDuke of Burgundy the prospects were promising. By the year 1395 there was a zealouscrusading atmosphere and preparations were made for an oncoming campaign. In October1395 Richard II informed Antonio Adorno, Doge of Genoa that he was contemplating acrusade and applied for naval help; 143 and the French did the same, asked for Genoese naval

Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1965. Vol. II, p. 322.135 It is reported that they left Paris within 9 days of the decision of the Royal Council of Charles, which can inthis way put around 29 July, possibly on 6 August. This means that they did not go to Paris much time earlier,that is, after the middle of July. Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p. 175. Notes 38-39.; British Library,Additional MS 3371-4., 3376-7.136 Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys, Vol. II, p. 424.137 Le livre de fais, pp. 88-91.; also accepted as factual by Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, p. 175. Note 41.138 Veszprmy, A nikpolyi hadjrat s rtkelse, p. 52.139 Trokelowe, Annales Ricardi Secundi, p. 166.140 Renier Pot was to go to Paris after returning from Venice to notify King Charles of Sigismunds standpoint,and he was in fact in Paris in May 1395, then, joined the Hungarian envoys in Bordeaux again. His itinerary fitsin the sequence of events, on 15 May Charles wrote his letter to Richard being aware of Venices andSigismunds platform. Atiya, The Crusade in the Later, p. 437.; Palmer, England, France, p. 203. Charlessletter: Oxford: British Library MSS Cotton Cleopatra D. 3. Published: AngloNorman Letters and Petitions, No.108. pp. 242248. However, Perroy found it as a fake letter. The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, p.219. Palmer then justified its authenticity. Palmer, The Background, pp. 9-10.141 British Library, Cotton MSS. Cleopatra D. III. f. 208.; The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, No.219.; Lon Puiseux, Robert lErmite, tude sur un personnage Normand du XIVe sicle, Socit des Antiquariesde Normandie 24 (1859), 123-152.142 Histoire de Regnier Pot, p. 38.143 Palmer, England, France, p. 199.; An English envoy was sent out to treat with doge Antonio Adorno toGenoa in October 1395, The Diplomatic Correspondence of Richard II, No. 225.

assistance to transport the French army against the Infidel.144 A special budget was raised inthe English treasury and a special tax (aides) was levied in Burgundy for the crusade.145

Sigismund also had a personage of great authority, Stephen III Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavariatake part in the Leulinghen peace talks to make the parties come to an agreement as soon aspossible.146 The whole Christendom was expecting that the crusade would succeed.

It is of great relevance that Sigismund succeeded in having the chief dignitary of thekingdom of France, the commander-in-chief of the military organization, the conntable tocome to Hungary on a crusade. The date of the crusade of Philippe dArtois, count of Eu isdisputed in historiography, some scholars dating it to the either 1393 or 1395. It would havebeen quite astonishing to have the conntable of France campaigning in Hungary twice withintwo years time, it is most probable that either the 1393, or, the 1395 date for the venture is notvalid. They year of 1393 is underlined by a number of documentary and narrative evidence, itis duly accepted by the historiographer of the house of Burgundy, Richard Vaughn.147 TheLivre de fais of Marshal Boucicaut places it to 1394.148 The year of 1395 is grounded onseveral narrative sources -- the chronicle of Melk149 and the Histoire de regne Charles VI byBaudot de Juilly relates him coming with a company of 600 knights -- though they might havemixed the year of 1395 for that of 1396 when the conntable indeed came to Hungary.150 Theyear 1395 is also justified by documentary evidence.151 I find that it is probable that the countset out to fight the Turks in Hungary in 1393, just after his compatriot, member of the samecrusading fraternity, the earl of Derby travelled home, through France and by the time thenews on his discussions with Sigismund, the Duke of Austria or the Serenissima Signoria hadreached Paris. Nevertheless, as most of the sources bound Artoiss campaign withSigismunds enterprise to capture Nicopolis Minor which occurred in fact in 1395 I aminclined to think that the sources are not to be mistaken in the dating of a success of such agreat significance and Artois did in fact lead his campaign that year.152 Nevertheless, it is alsoprobable that a minor crusading contingent, also involving knights of the household of theconntable of France did fight the Turks in 1393 as well, just after the earl of Derby reportedof the situation of the confines of Hungary and the advance of Sultan Bayezid in 1392-93.153

This force in 1393 must have most probably included several of the crusaders of the Earl ofDerby, who detached from the retinue travelling to the Holy Land, and stayed for a campaign

144 Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys, contenant le rgne de Charles VI, de 1380 a 1422, ed. LouisBellaguet, 6 vols. Paris: De lImprimerie de Crapelet, 1839-52. Vol. II, pp. 122-24.; Chronique des quatrepremiers valois, 1327-1393, ed. Simeon Luce, Paris: Socit de lhistoire de France Jules Renouard, 1862. p.326.; p. 335.145 Tyerman, England and the Crusades, p. 300.; Vaughan, Philip the Bold, pp. 6364.; Ludwig Kupelwieser,Die Kmpfe Ungarns mit dem Osmanen bis zur Sclacht bei Mohcs, 1526, WienLeipzig, 1899. p. 14.146 Kintzinger, Westbindungen, p. 239., p. 253.147 Vaughan, Philip the Bold, p. 61.148 Housley, Boucicaut marsall, 595.149 It is based on the reference of the Annales Mellicensis. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores in Folio.Chronica et annales aevi Salici. Vol. IX. Hannover: Gesellschaft fr ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde,Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1851. ed. G. H. Pertz et al. p. 514.150 Cited in Josef Aschbach, Geschichte Kaiser Sigmunds, 4 vols. Hamburg, 1835-45. (Reprint: Aalen, 1964.)Vol. I, p. 96.151 A Magyarorszg s Szerbia kztti sszekttetsek oklevltra 1198-1526 [Collection of charters referring tothe contacts between Hungary and Serbia], eds. Thallczy, Lajos and ldsy, Antal, Budapest: MagyarTudomnyos Akadmia, 1907. p. 41. (Codex diplomaticus partium regno Hungariae adnexarum: Magyarorszgmellktartomnyainak oklevltra, 2; Magyar trtnelmi emlkek. Monumenta Hungariae Historica.Diplomataria. Els osztly: Okmnytrak, 33)152 Also held by Sznt, Az angolmagyar kapcsolatok, p. 521.153 It is known that a Burgundian knight from the Nicopolis retinue of the Duke of Nevers, Reynaud/Renault deRoye fought in Hungary in 1393. Norman Housley, Documents on the Later Crusades, 12741580, Basingstoke:Macmillan, 1996. (Macmillan documents in history) p. 100.

in Hungary.154 Derbys Englishmen might have joined Sigismunds army that went oncampaign into Serbia in December 1392, and, coming back, supplemented with the Frencharriving in the spring of 1393 took part in Gyrgy Lackfis, banus of Macs/Mavaintervention which set out to fight the Turks along the Bosnian border in the early months of1393.155

It is one of the greatest achievements of Sigismund that most of the crusaderfraternities and companies organized for chivalrous ventures from Prussia to the Barbary inthe 1380s-90s kept together and enrolled for service again in 1393-96. The King was to callupon not only the flowers of chivalry but also the greatest captains and military leaders of theage, well experienced in warfare, for the cause of Christendom. The king of Hungary wasstriving to gain the personages of the valiant heroes of the late 14th century chivalrous societywho would in fact attract knights of renown from all around Europe. A good initiative was towin the most influential crusader confraternity of the Militia Passionis Jhesu Christi. The coreof the fraternity was the retinue of Marshal Boucicaut, as related in his Livre de fais.156 Thestarting point of this joint Anglo-French-Burgundian crusader association was the tournamentof St. Inglebert, near Calais, in 1390 partly organized by Marshal Boucicaut.157 The fightingbattalions took an oath and stayed together for subsequent enterprises, first for the voiage deBarbarie led by Louis II of Bourbon to Al-Mahdiya in 1390.158 Most of the St. Inglebertbrotherhood-in-arms were related to take part at the battle of Nicopolis. This motleyassemblage of Western chivalry were to fight side by side like the Knights of the RoundTable.159 Some of the members of the Barbary-voyage went to Prussia and joined the earl ofDerbys venture.160 English, French and Burgundian contingents had a joint camp and werefighting in a common unit in the years 1391-93 in Prussia.161

The friendship in the spirit of a huge joint Christian enterprise did also date back totheir acquaintances from Prussia. The ground for these crusader associations was definitelyPrussia. The Reyse became a kind of a regular necessary part of chivalrous status-consciousness for the Western nobility. There was a real flow of French- and Englishmen inLithuania-Prussia, where they were frequently staying for years and get united in warbandswith Flemish, German, Silesian etc. and, occasionally gathered together for the time ofanother crusade. This international co-operation was what Sigismund masterfully made use ofand turned to his advantage.162 In an