Maybe your stamps are on the table next to the birthday card you forgot to send.

Or in that random drawer full of pens, pennies and paperclips.

Or stuck to your fridge behind a do-list and a magnet from Malaga.

Or maybe just maybe, then neatly placed in a completely sensible spot.

After the 31st of January 2023, regular stamps without a barcode will no longer be valid.

So if you know where your old ones are, this is your last chance to use them up.

Or you can swap them.

For more info visit RoyalMail.com slash barcodeitstamps.

Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium Episode 257.

What could be more trustworthy than a brother?

Our last two episodes followed the events of the third crusade.

For those not on Patreon, the third crusade was a modest success.

King Richard of England helped the Latins take the ports of Acre and Jaffa, opening up a

foothold for future expansion.

By Byzantium as ever came off badly in reports of the campaign.

The difficulties which Frederick Barbarossa encountered in the Balkans would not be tolerated

again, and plans were already afoot for a fourth crusade.

Richard the Lionheart had also captured Cyprus on his way to the Holy Land.

He'd sold it to his allies who now refused to give it back to the Romans.

This was a harbinger of things to come.

The Latins were broadly in agreement that if the Byzantines didn't do more to aid

the crusading movement, then they couldn't be trusted with strategically valuable provinces

...