INTEREST IN THE DIOCESES OF WINCHESTER AND CHICHESTER OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE HOLY LAND, BYZANTIUM AND THE CRUSADE DURING THE LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

This thesis is a regional study of evidence of interest in the Dioceses of Winchester and Chichester of the Kingdom of England for the support of the Holy Land, Byzantium and the Crusade during the Late Medieval Period using primarily bishops’ registers, together with the supportive use of a selection of cartularies, English chronicles, Byzantine chronicles and histories, patent rolls and close rolls of the English Crown and some sources from the Latin East and the Islamic world. This work builds on earlier studies of English Crusading at the national and regional levels as well as studies focusing on the later Medieval Crusades and connections between England and Byzantium. I focus on the Crusading-related interest shown by the bishops and their staff in the aforementioned dioceses in the affairs of the Holy Land and the Byzantine Empire, as well as other Levantine sites and even a Western European location. In particular, this thesis explores the involvement of these dioceses in the support of the Christian Near East, especially in the aftermath of the Fall of Acre (1291), the last significant vestige of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291), even with the declining fortunes of the Templar Order, and furthermore identifies that there was significant interest in the welfare of Palaiologan Byzantium (1261-1453) when it became clear that the Eastern Roman Empire, one of the last bastions of Christianity in the Levant, could fall to the Ottoman Turks. The thesis also considers the evidence pertaining to diocesan support of the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes during their struggles against the Ottoman Empire as well as efforts made towards a new Crusade against the Ottomans at the very end of the Middle Ages. Furthermore this thesis examines the interest demonstrated by the Diocese of Winchester in a holy war in the Medieval West which pitted Christians against other Christians, an action known as the Crusade of Henry le Despenser (1382-83).