REMEMBRANCE, RELICS AND TROPHIES: NOTES ON THE COMMEMORATIVE “CULTS” OF SOME OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE’S LEADERS
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2025, N 1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.62761/645.EB.LXI1.10
Kalin YORDANOV 
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The commemoration of the Crusader / Crusading ruler and lord, whose image occupied a specific place in the collective memory of the Latin world had a particular privileged position in the celebration of the remembrance of the heroes and the “holy martyrs” of the Crusades. The physical remains of the slayed crusader heroes were often left on the battlefields in the East and were sometimes used as war trophies by their enemies. Their tragic deaths nourished the local folklore and satisfied people’s instinctive enthusiasm for gossip, rumors and bizarre legends. Back home their Christian sacrifice raised local community commemoration and recognition, family remembrance and domestic devotion. The Western European princes who led the armies of the Fourth Crusade and who perished in battles with Bulgarians, Cumans and Turks in the Balkans have worthily entered this centuries-old crusading tradition and soon became a legend, both in the West and in the East, thus laying the foundations of new “cults” of commemoration.
Keywords: The Fourth Crusade, Commemoration, Martyrdom, Relics, Trophies