General Conclusion

Abstract The Chronicle of Morea recounts the events of the Fourth Crusade and of the ensuing conquest and occupation of the Byzantine Empire. At the centre of the work is the story of the formation of the Principality of Morea in Southern Greece and the Peloponnese. As a repository of fact, the account cannot be relied upon, for the depiction of ‘reality’ which it offers is never innocent. Yet, the very nature of the Chronicleas historiography—a locus of textual strategies that can be analysed and deconstructed—means that it affords us an invaluable insight into the thought-world of the late Middle Ages. This study has compared the various extant versions of the Chronicle, identified the resources and pressures that contributed to the development of the work, and shed light on the nature of the lost archetype which lies behind the surviving manuscripts. In seeing how the author and subsequent redactors interpreted and transformed their material, we gain a sense of the aspirations and anxieties of the societies in which the work was composed, transmitted and received.