Elite diplomacy could forge alliances that popular anti-Muslim sentiment undermined.

Evidence

At the highest level, as between monarchs, Anglo-Moroccan diplomatic relations between royal courts might be possible, but at the popular level the basis of trust essential was simply not present. English public opinion might not accept such an alliance, even if England’s leaders conceived of this as a way to strike against England’s principal foe, Spain. The common folk in England, in naive enactments executed by their Morris (Moorish) dancers on village greens all up and down the land, were used to cheering on Saint George as he fought the Turkish (i.e., Muslim) knight (as they still do nowadays, although they may have forgotten quite why). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1615

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the tension between elite statecraft and popular bigotry seen in Elizabethan England’s willingness to ally with Morocco while its merchants refused to carry Morisco envoys to the Levant; connects to the broader theme of rulers using infidel allies against Catholic Spain. — connects to: Merely negotiating with Muslim rulers could brand a crusader as a traitor
• CANDY: The Morris dancers cheering Saint George against a Muslim knight is a delightfully incongruous image of living folk tradition preserving a forgotten geopolitical stance.