page_title: Savoyard crusade
section_title: Vicinity of Constantinople
hierarchical_section_title: Savoyard crusade / Campaigns / Vicinity of Constantinople
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped version of File:Statua al Conte Verde.jpg
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: Late in January or early in February, the citizens of Emona rebelled. On 15 March, probably after the emperor had left for Constantinople, having promised to defray the cost of Amadeus's expedition to Bulgaria in return for receiving the cities he had conquered, the count went to Nesebar to oversee final preparations for his departure, including the ransom of all his men who by then were still held captive in Bulgarian prisons. By 9 April all had been accomplished and the crusaders were back in Constantinople, where, in the words of the Savoyard chroniclers, "the emperor, in order to receive his cousin the count more highly and honorably, made ready the priests, colleges, and all orders of religion, gentlemen, citizens, merchants, people, women, and children, and [they all] went to the seaside to meet the count, crying 'Long live the count of Savoy, who has delivered Greece from the Turks and the Emperor, our lord, from the hands of the Emperor of Bulgaria'." At Constantinople, John V finally agreed to pay 15,000 florins of the costs of the Bulgarian expedition, although ultimately only about 10,000 were ever received.
  Amadeus still intended to wage war against the Turk, but his means to do so had decreased since the capture of Gallipoli. Nevertheless, on 14 May he took the Turkish castle of Eneacossia on the northern shore of the Marmora, which the Greek historian John Kantakouzenos informs us was the "fortress near Rhegium", modern Küçükçekmece. One of the Savoyard soldiers was rewarded for planting the Savoyard banner atop the tower during the fray. In that same month Amadeus had to rush north to defend Sozopolis from a Turkish assault.  On or near 24 May, his men set fire to the Turkish fortress called Caloneyro, probably represented by the Byzantine ruins at Büyükçekmece. Throughout April–May the prime concern of the crusade was paying off the shipowners and raising funds for the return voyage.
caption: Statue of Amadeus slaying a Turk by Pelagio Palagi, which stands in Turin
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