Giovanni da Capistrano and the Crusade of 1456

Abstract

Few events in the history of the crusades were as remarkable as the relief of Belgrade in the summer of 1456. It was extraordinary primarily because a Turkish army commanded by the sultan in person and equipped with formidable siege guns was repelled by an ad hoc force made up of John Hunyadi’s soldiers, Belgrade’s garrison and inhabitants, and above all the crusaders recruited and led by Giovanni da Capistrano. More broadly, both Capistrano’s success in recruiting an army of crusaders, and that army’s heterogeneous but predominantly non-noble nature, fly in the face of trends in crusading in the fifteenth century. Debate has raged about what happened in July 1456: was Belgrade saved by Hunyadi or Capistrano? 1 Whether or not he saved Belgrade, however, the achievement of this 70-year-old friar in mobilizing enthusiasm for a crusade against the Turks was in itself daunting. Does the explanation lie in the crisis which Hungary faced in 1456, or in Capistrano’s own personality, experience and skill as a preacher? To place these issues in context I shall first establish the framework of Capistrano’s preaching and his own itinerary. I shall then analyse, in so far as the sources permit, the themes of his preaching and the devotional atmosphere which it generated in the crusading host. Finally, I shall explore some of the later echoes of the 1456 campaign. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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