page_title: Savoyard crusade
section_title: Vows
hierarchical_section_title: Savoyard crusade / Preparations / Vows
caption_attribution_description: English: Second Bulgarian Empire after 1371 Български: Второто българско царство след 1371 г. Based on map "Феодална разпокъсаност на България и падането и под турска власт (1280-1396)" in the atlas "Атлас по история на България за средните училища", Картография, София, 1990 г.
context_page_description: The Savoyard crusade was a crusading expedition to the Balkans in 1366–67. It was born out of the same planning that led to the Alexandrian Crusade and was the brainchild of Pope Urban V. It was led by Count Amadeus VI of Savoy and directed against the growing Ottoman Empire in eastern Europe. Although intended as a collaboration with the Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire, the crusade was diverted from its main purpose to attack the Second Bulgarian Empire. There the crusaders made small gains that they handed over to the Byzantines. It did take back some territory the Ottomans in the vicinity of Constantinople and on Gallipoli.
  Noting the greater attention paid to Bulgaria than to the Turks, historian Nicolae Iorga argued "it was not the same thing as a crusade, this expedition that better resembled an escapade." Still, the taking of Gallipoli, according to Oskar Halecki, was "the first success achieved by the Christians in their struggle for the defense of Europe, and at the same time the last great Christian victory [over the Turks] during all the fourteenth century."
context_section_description: On 31 March 1363, Good Friday, at Papal Avignon, the kings of France and Cyprus, John II and Peter I, took crusading vows to go to the Holy Land and received from Pope Urban V the sign of the cross (signum crucis) to sew on their garments as a sign of their vow. This was the beginning of the Savoyard crusade, although John II would never fulfill his vow personally and Peter I did not ultimately cooperate with the count of Savoy in the venture. The latter did not make his crusading vow, also before Urban V, until probably 19 January 1364, when a council of regional magnates was held at Avignon to form a league (colligatio) against the marauding free companies. This was certainly the occasion when the pope bestowed on Amadeus the Golden Rose, and the count founded the chivalric Order of the Collar to replace his earlier, and probably defunct, Order of the Black Swan. The original members of the Order of the Collar were devoted followers, and often relatives, of Amadeus and all were probably pledged to accompany him on crusade. In the event, all but two who could not go for reasons of health, travelled east. The Order, like the crusade, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The deadline established for the departure of the crusade was 1 March 1365, although the pope expected both Peter of Cyprus and Amadeus of Savoy to depart earlier. The deadline was met by nobody, although on 27 June the king of Cyprus left Venice on the Alexandrian Crusade.
  In May 1363, Urban had made an appeal to Louis I of Hungary for a crusade against the Turks, and the king spent the winter of 1364–65 preparing an army for a major offensive designed to push the Turks out of Europe. In January 1365, as reported at Venice, ten galleys were being gathered in Provence for Louis's use, and Louis had issued a call for support in Zadar (Zara) and Dalmatia. In the spring he invaded, not Turkish Europe (Rumelia), but rather the north of Bulgaria, then ruled by the tsar's second son, Sratsimir. He conquered and occupied Vidin, and took Sratsimir captive back to Hungary. His expedition was thus completed in time for him to cooperate with Amadeus in a joint attack on the Turks in the spring of 1366.
caption: Map of the divisions of Bulgaria at the time of the crusade
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