A Mission to the Medieval Middle East - The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquiere to Jerusalem and Constantinople (Hardcover, New)

In the years 1432-3 Bertandon de la Brocquiere, fifteenth-century gentleman and confidante to the Duke of Burgundy, undertook a pilgrimage to the Middle East and beyond. Though posing as a pilgrim de la Brocquiere was in fact a spy. He travelled to Ghent, Venice, Palestine and Damascus, eventually reaching as far as Constantinople at the important time leading up to the destruction of the city and the final fall of the Byzantine Empire. He met with both the Pope and with the Byzantine Emperor and his court. His account remains an excellent source on politics, leading figures and customs of the Mamluk and Ottoman lands, the early use of gunpowder by the Mamluks, and provides a careful analysis of Turkish military tactics. Written at the behest of the Duke of Burgundy, for the purpose of facilitating a new crusade, it also remains one of the key documents for the history of the Crusades in the late Middle Ages.