Diplomatic Activity between Byzantium and the West/Papacy on the Eve of the Crusade of Vladislav III Jagello and Jan Hunyadi in 1443 – 1444

Abstract

The article traces the diplomatic contacts between Byzantium and the West/Papacy in the period after the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1439) until the Battle of Varna in 1444. The crusading initiatives of Pope Eugenius IV (in the person of Cristoforo Garatone, Giovanni Torcello, Ciriaco of Ancona) and of the embassies from the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaeologus to the Pope and the missions of the Byzantine diplomats in Venice, in the courts of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good and King Alfonso V of Aragon (Andronicus Iagaris, Giovanni Torcello, Theodore Karystinos). On the basis of papal bull and letters, Byzantine documents, letters of Western European rulers are presented, on the one hand, the efforts of Byzantine ambassadors to secure Western aid and crusader ships for the defense of Constantinople and, on the other hand, the attempts of the West to organize a crusade to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans. The actions of some diplomats with dual loyalty who were both Byzantine envoys and papal ambassadors are analyzed.