In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

6 The Appeal to Peter of Brittany: Crusaders and Jews in Western France GREGORY IX's ATTEMPTS TO PERSUADE Bela of Hungary and Thibaut of Champagne to defend Constantinople had met with no success, but for a time it looked as if his luck was changing with Peter of Brittany. Peter not only agreed to fight schismatics and heretics threatening the Latin empire, he agreed on terms so ambitious that Gregory's main problem was procuring sufficient funds for his army. As we have seen, vow redemption and commutation were designed to allow such flexibility . In western France these mechanisms should have worked particularly well because the response to the initial preaching of the cross had been enthusiastic there. In the event, they proved difficult to control. Administrative mix-ups, sales of indulgences by unlicensed traffickers, and resistance to the idea of crusading in Latin Greece instead of the Holy Land left Peter short of the money and men he wanted for the campaign. In the end he changed his mind and left for the Holy Land. The end result for relations with the non-Catholics in Latin Greece was thus ultimately the same for Peter as it had been for Bela and Thibaut: no crusade, despite the papal efforts. The result for the nonChristians in western France, however, was different again. Whereas Bela had used negotiations over the Latin empire to reduce papal pressure on Hungarian minorities, and whereas Thibaut had taken money from Champenois Jews and burned accused heretics, the situation in Brittany was far more volatile. The initial preaching of the Holy Land crusade was accompanied by a massacre of thousands of Jews. Whereas in Champagne Thibaut had worked with the papacy, however uneasily, to suppress heresy, in western France the massacre was directly contrary to papal teachings. The Jews who were not killed or driven out of the region by this violence were instead removed by law. While the crusade was in the Holy Land, all remaining Jews were expelled from the duchy. The Appeal to Peter of Brittany 117 In Brittany, the pope's crusade appeal achieved devastatingly unexpected results. By the early autumn of1236 the pope was deep in negotiations with Thibaut's longtime rival and occasional collaborator Peter ofBrittany. On 23 October the chancery announced that Peter had volunteered to lead an expedition in defense of the Latin empire.1 His reasons for doing so are difficult to reconstruct. By that time Peter's career in northern French politics had almost run its course. A rebellion with Thibaut of .Champagne against the French crown the previous spring had ended in submission to royal authority; a truce between the kingdoms of England and France prevented him from resorting to an alliance with Henry III as he had in the past; and in the coming year (1237) his eldest son John was due to reach his majority and succeed to the duchy ofBrittany, which Peter possessed only in his son's name.2 Besides needing an occupation , Peter probably owed the pope a favor in the autumn of 1236. Gregory had taken Peter's children John and Isabella under papal protection prior to the rebellion, a favor which, because Peter held little land of his own, had limited his exposure to royal punishment.3 Peter would also have appreciated the privilege that only the pope could place him under excommunication or interdict.4 His struggles with the Breton church, which earned him the sobriquet "scourge of the clergy;' continued unabated at this time.5 Finally, we also know that Peter was a committed crusader, participating not only in the Barons' Crusade but also in Louis IX's first expedition. Peter certainly hatched an ambitious plan for his Constantinople campaign. After persuading his brother John, count of Macon, and the royal counselor John ofNesle, count of Soissons, to join the venture, he told the pope they would recruit 2000 knights and IO,ooo foot soldiers to take to the Latin empire.6 Even Gregory thought this might be overdoing it a little: he proposed that Peter bring fewer ttoops-1500 knights and 6ooo foot soldiers-but more money. Imperial envoys had informed the pope that mercenaries were in plentiful supply in Constantinople, so Peter could purchase soldiers there for less than it would cost to recruit them in France.7 This was a sensible economizing measure, but even if Peter adopted it the cost ofthe expedition would still be well beyond his private means. A venture...

Share