The Papal Fleet

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It’s POPE NAVY time! When Church leaders gathered at the Council of Vienne in 1311, King Henry II of Cyprus promised Pope Clement V a fleet of ships which would have the purpose of enforcing trade embargoes the papacy had enacted. These trade embargoes aimed to prevent Latin Christians from engaging in trade with Muslims and certain non-Latin Christians. While not built until later in the fourteenth century, the papal fleet appeared in many crusade proposals in the first few decades of that century. Come sail the heretical sea on this voyage of Footnoting History.

Host: Josh

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Further Reading

Carr, Mike. Merchant Crusaders in the Aegean, 1291-1352, Boydell Press, (2015).

Stantchev, Stefan. Spiritual Rationality: Papal Embargo as Cultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2014).

A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry by Bret Devereaux.

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​​​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)