Geoffroy de Thoisy

Geoffroy de Thoisy, "chevalier seigneur de Mimeure", was a Burgundian naval commander and Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece involved in Philip the Good’s Crusade endeavors in the 1440s.

He commanded a Burgundian flotilla organized by Philip III the Good, Duke of Burgundy (r. 1419-1467) in May 1441 at the request from the Knights Hospitaller to help defend Rhodes against the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. The duke went in person to Sluis to see off his flotilla. Throughout 1442, de Thoisy’s force was based at Rhodes, harassing the Muslim shipping and coastline. Having refitted at Villefranche, it was again in action off the North African coast and Rhodes in 1444. When a second Mamluk fleet assailed the island, the Burgundians helped the Hospitallers beat off the siege of the town of Rhodes which lasted for forty days. [Nicholson, Helen J. (2001), "The Knights Hospitaller", pp. 57-8. Boydell & Brewer, ISBN 0851158455.]

Soon, Philip responded to the Byzantine appeal for help against the Ottoman advance and instructed de Thoisy to lead his squadron, reinforced with several ships built or hired at Nice and Venice, to join Pope Eugene IVs planned Crusade. Then de Thoisy sailed to winter at Constantinople and was joined by Waleran de Wavrin's four galleys which had failed to stop Murad II's Ottoman army crossing the Bosphorus. In the spring of 1445, de Wavrin sailed to the Danube to join the Hungarians in the Crusade of Varna and de Thoisy took his ships along the south coast of the Black Sea.

He engaged in piracy there, plundering both ships and coastal settlements, covering the expenses for the re-equipment of his ships at Trebizond with five slave-women, worth in all 164 ducats. Then, de Thoisy decided to continue to the coast of Georgia, hoping to capture vessels carrying silk. Although the Emperor of Trebizond warned him that the people of Georgia were Christians, de Thoisy went ahead with his campaign, claiming that his orders were to fight all schismatics who did not obey the Holy Father. However, some Greeks from Trebizond informed Georgians who, when they saw the galley coming, took up arms and waited in ambush. As soon as Thoisy landed at the port of Vaty (Batumi), the ambushers attacked, killing many of his men and taking him captive. The ones who managed to escape fled to the Genoese port of Caffa (modern Feodosia, Ukraine) and reported to de Wavrin who dispatched the Knight Hospitaller Sir Regnault de Confide to ask the Emperor of Trebizond to mediate Thoisy’s release. The Emperor was quick to send to Georgia and, by these means, Sir Goffrey was set free. He was put safely on board the galley and sailed to Caffa, capturing on the way two Greek vessels with cargoes of fish. Eventually, de Thoisy's piracy led to a protest from the government of Genoa to the Duke of Burgundy. This forced de Thoisy to return to Constantinople where he was invited by de Wavrin to join the forthcoming expedition with the Hungarians and Vlachs. He preferred to return with his ships to Nice and Villefranche, however. [Imber, Colin (2006), "The Crusade of Varna", pp. 33-4, 137-8. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0754601447.] Later, in the 1450s, de Thoisy wrote memoranda of advice to the new Crusade endeavor planned (but never materialized) by Philip III. [Housley, Norman (1992), "The Later Crusades", pp. 92-3, 108. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198221363.]

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