Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 301, the Fifth Crusade with Nicholas Morton.

As part of this very brief pause in the narrative. I thought it was worth checking in with the

crusading movement since it's had such a dramatic impact on Roman history. Having covered

the first four major crusades and some of the minor efforts as well,

I was curious about the fifth crusade and what it achieved.

Thankfully, Professor Nicholas Morton, author of the Mongol Storm, offered to tell me, and you, all about it.

This latest Latin effort did actually make it to Egypt, as you can imagine the going was tough.

There's some fascinating stuff in this story about religious faith and the impact

of the Mongols on people's imaginations, as well as your usual dramatic

battle scenes.

To find out more about this campaign,

check out Professor Morton's book, The Mongol Storm,

Making and Breaking Empires in the medieval near east,

also available on audible.

For now, here's the story of the Fifth Crusade.

Dr. Nicholas Morton, welcome back to the podcast.

Thank you very much. It's great to be back.

It's great to have you, and it's very enjoyable for me because I haven't had to pour over all

the sources for the Fifth Crusade to set up today's episode where you're going to do all

the heavy lifting for me. I am very grateful.

The Fifth Crusade actually came up during our conversation about the Mongols and you actually cover it in the mongle store so this is a good

tie-in we can recommend listeners if they've liked anything they've heard in the

...