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historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...
of the
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
is the study of history-writing and the written history, especially as an academic discipline, regarding the military expeditions initially undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, or 13thcenturies to the
Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
. This scope was later this extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church. The subject has involved competing and evolving interpretations since the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 until the present day. The religious idealism, use of martial force and pragmatic compromises made by those involved in crusading were controversial, both at the time and subsequently. Crusading was integral to Western European culture, with the ideas that shaped behaviour in the
Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...
retaining currency beyond the 15thcentury in attitude rather than action. From the 17thcentury historians began rejecting the religious motivations applied to crusading and instead examined the secular. The building of nation states led to the application of interpretations in support of this and fundamentally discrete from the religious sphere. This presented a challenge in reconciling the idealistic and the materialistic motives of the protagonists. The internationalism of crusading remained an obstacle to those historians wishing to project both the idea of crusading and the Crusades themselves as nationalistic precedents. Enlightenment thinkers considered the crusaders culturally inferior to themselves and
Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
considered them morally so. By the 19thcentury the development of nationalism, colonial politics, and critical history increased interest in the subject for the purposes of entertainment and moralising. In the early 20thcentury a focus developed on the part crusades played as drivers of medieval conquest, economics, and the legacy they left. Crusading historiography continues to evolve and covers a wide range of issues.


Terminology

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ''historiography'' as firstly ''The writing of history; written history.'' and secondly ''The study of history-writing, especially as an academic discipline''. The term "crusade" first referred to a military expedition undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, or 13thcenturies to the
Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
. The conflicts to which the term was applied were later extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church against
pagans Pagans may refer to: * Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire * Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices * Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series * Pagan's M ...
and
heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
or for other alleged religious ends. From the first papal decree in 1095, these differed from other Christian religious wars in that they were considered a penitential exercise rewarding the participants with forgiveness for all confessed sins.
Pope Urban II Pope Urban II ( la, Urbanus II;  – 29 July 1099), otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening th ...
was recorded to have said, as translated by Robert Somerville, "whoever for devotion alone not to obtain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute the journey for all penance". The usage of the term "crusade" can create a misleading impression of coherence, particularly regarding the early Crusades, and the definition is a matter of historiographical debate among contemporary historians. At the time of the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...
, , "journey", and , "pilgrimage" were used as the descriptions of the campaign. Crusader terminology remained largely indistinguishable from that of Christian pilgrimage during the 12thcentury. Only at the end of the century was a specific language of crusading adopted in the form of "one signed by the cross"for a crusader. This led to the French the way of the cross. By the mid-13thcentury the cross became the major descriptor of the crusades with "the cross overseas"used for crusades across the Mediterranean Sea, and "the cross this side of the sea"for those in Europe. Riley-Smith, a dominant and influential figure in academic crusade studies, defined a 'Crusade' as an expedition undertaken on papal authority. This definition excludes the Spanish
Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the N ...
, even though participants were granted Papal
indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of ...
s, which conferred the same privileges. Historian
Giles Constable Giles Constable (1 June 1929 – 17 January 2021) was a historian of the Middle Ages. Constable was mainly interested in the religion and culture of the 11th and 12th centuries, in particular the abbey of Cluny and its abbot Peter the Vener ...
identified four specific areas of focus for contemporary crusade studies; their political or geographical objectives, how they were organised, how far they were an expression of popular support, or the religious reasons behind them.


First Crusades

The
Crusader states The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political i ...
established in the
Eastern Mediterranean Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to commun ...
in 1098 persisted in some form for over two centuries, and relied on a constant flow of men and money from the West. Knights either travelled to the Holy Land as individuals, or as one of the military orders, including the
Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...
,
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
and the
Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
. The church granted them immunity from lawsuits, forgiveness of debt, and general protection for individual property and family. This meant the crusading experience and ideology was far more pervasive than the 'Crusades', which were major expeditions launched with Papal support. French Catholic lawyer
Étienne Pasquier Étienne Pasquier (7 June 15291 September 1615) was a French lawyer and man of letters. By his own account he was born in Paris on 7 June 1529, but according to others he was born in 1528. He was called to the Paris bar in 1549. In 1558 he bec ...
(1529–1615) is thought to be the first historian to attempt the numbering of each crusade in the Holy Land. He suggested there were six. 18thcentury historians narrowed the chronological and geographical scope to the Levant and the Outremer between 1095 and 1291. Some such as Georg Christoph Muller onlt counted the five large expeditions that reached the eastern Mediterranean1096–1099, 1147–1149, 1189–1192, 1217–1229 and 1248–1254. In 1820 Charles Mills counted nine distinct crusades. Numbering conventions are retained, mainly for convenience and tradition, but are somewhat arbitrary systems for what some historians now consider to be seven major and numerous lesser campaigns. The crusades to the Holy Land provided a template for other campaigns conducted in the interest of the Latin Church: *The Spanish Christian kingdoms overcame Muslim
Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
in the 12th and 13thcentury; *Between the 12th to 15thcentury German
expansion Expansion may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''L'Expansion'', a French monthly business magazine * ''Expansion'' (album), by American jazz pianist Dave Burrell, released in 2004 * ''Expansions'' (McCoy Tyner album), 1970 * ''Expansio ...
into the pagan
Baltic region The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. ...
; *Non-conformity was suppressed, particularly in
Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...
during what has become called the
Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crow ...
; *The assertion of Papal temporal ambitions in Italy and Germany that are now known as political crusades. In addition the 13th and 14th centuries saw unsanctioned, but related popular uprisings to recover Jerusalem known variously as Shepherds' or Children's crusades.


Medieval

When the Crusades began, most western primary sources were written in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and this remained the case for official documents until the end of the Middle Ages. However, from the late 12thcentury, individual eyewitness narratives were often captured in vernacular languages, including
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, Occitan,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, and
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
. Considerable information on the
Crusading movement The First Crusade inspired the crusading movement, which became an important part of late medieval western culture. The movement influenced the Church, politics, the economy, society and created a distinct ideology that described, regulated, a ...
is recorded in general histories, or those devoted to specific cities and regions, while there are in addition large numbers of chronicles, histories, and biographies specifically devoted to crusading. The First Crusade produced elaborate and engaging narratives written by participants conscious of their involvement in an unprecedented event whose success or failure was derived from divine intervention. The relative failure of subsequent expeditions led to considerable variations in coverage and quality of those relating to later crusades.


Western sources of the First Crusade and the Crusade of 1101

The description and interpretation of crusading began soon after the taking of Jerusalem in 1099 and the decade of consolidation that followed. New campaigns in the 12thcentury utilised the images and morality of the first expedition for propaganda purposes. Travelling with different contingents and therefore offering different perspectives, three participating clerics wrote in Latin about the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...
and the Crusade of 1101: the anonymous author of ''
Gesta Francorum The ''Gesta Francorum'' (Deeds of the Franks), or ''Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum'' (Deeds of the Franks and the other pilgrims to Jerusalem), is a Latin chronicle of the First Crusade by an anonymous author connected with Bohemon ...
'',
Raymond of Aguilers Raymond of Aguilers was a participant in and chronicler of the First Crusade (1096–1099). During the campaign he became the chaplain of Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, the leader of the Provençal army of crusaders., vol. IV, p. 1009. His chronicl ...
, and
Fulcher of Chartres Fulcher of Chartres (c. 1059 in or near Chartres – after 1128) was a priest who participated in the First Crusade. He served Baldwin I of Jerusalem for many years and wrote a Latin chronicle of the Crusade. Life Fulcher was born c. 1059. His app ...
. There is some connectivity, Raymond and Fulcher both appear to refer to ''Gesta Francorum''. Additionally,
Peter Tudebode Peter Tudebode ( la, Petrus Tudebodus) was a Poitevin priest who was part of the First Crusade as part of the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles. He wrote an account of the crusade, ''Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere'', including an eye-witness ac ...
and reworked ''Gesta'' and it was completely rewritten in three versions by French Benedictine monks in the early 12thcentury: *
Guibert of Nogent Guibert de Nogent (c. 1055 – 1124) was a Benedictine historian, theologian and author of autobiographical memoirs. Guibert was relatively unknown in his own time, going virtually unmentioned by his contemporaries. He has only recently caught the ...
retitled his work offering some unique information. *
Baldric of Dol Baldric of Dol ( 10507 January 1130) was prior and then abbot of Bourgueil from 1077 to 1106, then made bishop of Dol-en-Bretagne in 1107 and archbishop in 1108 until his death. He fulfilled his monastic duties by travelling to attend Church counci ...
provided stylistic change and is the source for the accounts given by the
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...
monk
Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...
who provides details from oral sources and biographical detail about Norman participants. *
Robert the Monk The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, ho ...
from Rheims, was a conservative adapter but widely influential and copied. The original Latin version exists in more than 120 manuscripts, and more than four German translations from the later Middle Ages. Its influence can be seen in the works of
Henry of Huntingdon Henry of Huntingdon ( la, Henricus Huntindoniensis; 1088 – AD 1157), the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th-century English historian and the author of ''Historia Anglorum'' (Medieval Latin for "History of the English"), ...
and Gilo of Paris. Other chroniclers wrote accounts early in the century, such as the German
Ekkehard of Aura Ekkehard of Aura ( la, Ekkehardus Uraugiensis; died 1126) was the Abbot of Aura (a monastery founded by Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, on the Franconian Saale river, near Bad Kissingen, Bavaria) from 1108. A Benedictine monk and chronicler, he made upda ...
and Genoese Caffaro, both who were in the Outremer by 1101.
Ralph of Caen Ralph of Caen (also known as Radulphus Cadomensis) (c. 1080 – c. 1120) was a Norman chaplain and author of the '' Gesta Tancredi in expeditione Hierosolymitana'' (The Deeds of Tancred in the Crusade). Biography Ralph was born before 1080 to an ...
who arrived in 1108, wrote the , extant in a single manuscript and written in idiosyncratic Latin about the exploits of
Tancred, Prince of Galilee Tancred (1075 – December 5 or December 12, 1112) was an Italo- Norman leader of the First Crusade who later became Prince of Galilee and regent of the Principality of Antioch. Tancred came from the house of Hauteville and was the great-grands ...
. Texts such as presented a view of crusading written from a French,
Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...
and Papalist perspective which emphasised the importance of military might and attributed success and failure to God's will. The German cleric
Albert of Aachen Albert of Aix(-la-Chapelle) or Albert of Aachen; la, Albericus Aquensis; ''fl.'' c. 1100) was a historian of the First Crusade and the early Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was born during the later part of the 11th century, and afterwards became canon (p ...
wrote the longest and most detailed account of the First Crusade and of the following twenty years, without travelling to Outremer. One advantage of his work, is that it informs on the instigation and preaching of the crusade in the
Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...
, the preacher Peter the Hermit, the
People's Crusade The People's Crusade was the beginning phase of the First Crusade whose objective was to retake the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, from Islamic rule. After in 1095 the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faith ...
and the massacres of the Jews in the Rhineland cities. This work provided the only significant challenge to the Papalist, northern French tradition and gained increasing importance before the end of the century, when the cosmopolitan Jerusalemite
William of Tyre William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...
expanded on Albert's writing. William's ''Chronicon'' was written in Outremer using a wealth of earlier materials and became the standard historical account of the Crusades for several centuries, until being questioned by historians in the 19thcentury. The challenge presented by the sources is illustrated by two vernacular accounts of the First Crusade: *
Zimmern Chronicle The Zimmern Chronicle (German: ''Zimmerische Chronik'' or ''Chronik der Grafen von Zimmern'') is a family chronicle describing the lineage and history of the noble family of Zimmern, based in Meßkirch, Germany. It was written in a Swabian variety ...
is now thought to be a 16thcentury fake. *, although composed at the end of the 12thcentury contains later additions that cannot be differentiated. The First Crusade is also evidenced in a small collection of letters from participants to the west including the Laodikeia Letter sent by the leaders of the crusade to the pope in the Autumn of 1099, from Anselm IV, archbishop of Milan, and
Stephen of Blois Stephen (1092 or 1096 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne ''jure uxoris'' from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 unti ...


Sources from the Outremer

Fulcher missed the culminating events of the First Crusade because he accompanied Baldwin of Boulogne to Edessa. When Baldwin became king of Jerusalem in 1100, Fulcher joined him and for the next twenty-seven years wrote the best-informed account of the kingdom. Between 1114 and 1122 Walter the Chancellor documented of the wars fought by
Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ� ...
against the Turks of northern Syria in . Both texts were used by William of Tyre, whose Chronicon deals with the history of the region from
Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...
Heraclius Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revol ...
until 1184. William was translated into French and continuators' accounts are important for the end of the first kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1187) and the 13th century. These include: * Eracles written in France in Old French, this is an interrelated collection. * written in the Outremer The
Battle of Hattin The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of ...
and
Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...
's conquest are covered by the short but detailed , and two works by
Peter of Blois Peter of Blois ( la, Petrus Blesensis; French: ''Pierre de Blois''; ) was a French cleric, theologian, poet and diplomat. He is particularly noted for his corpus of Latin letters. Early life and education Peter of Blois was born about 1130. Ear ...
and , alongside more general works. Archives were lost with the loss of territory to Saladin in 1187 and the final collapse of Outremer in 1291. The travel tales by pilgrims such as John of Würzburg, Saewulf, and Nikulás of Munkethverá provide details of topography and society,
Assizes of Jerusalem The Assizes of Jerusalem are a collection of numerous medieval legal treatises written in Old French containing the law of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Kingdom of Cyprus. They were compiled in the thirteenth century, and are the largest ...
give information on the legal system and provides family histories and relationships although its accuracy is questioned for the early 12th century. Gestes des Chiprois is the only surviving eyewitness account of the end of the
Crusader States The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political i ...
. It forms the basis of an account by Marino Sanuto the Elder. Other accounts, such as the anonymous
Thaddeus of Naples Thaddeus of Naples () was an Italian author who wrote the ''History of the Desolation and Treading Down of the City of Acre and of the Whole Holy Land'', an account of the fall of Acre in May 1291. Thaddeus was probably born around the middle of ...
's accuse the Acre garrison of cowardice. Little written evidence survives from the county of Edessa but much more from the kings of Jerusalem, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tripol and the lordship of
Joscelin III of Courtenay Joscelin III of Edessa (1139 – after 1190) was the titular Count of Edessa, who during his lifetime managed to amass enough land to establish the '' Seigneurie of Joscelin.'' Early life He was the son of Joscelin II and his wife Beatrice ...
. The military orders; the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hy, Սուրբ Հարության տաճար, la, Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri, am, የቅዱስ መቃብር ቤተክርስቲያን, he, כנסיית הקבר, ar, كنيسة القيامة is a church i ...
; and the Abbey of Saint Mary of the Valley of Jehosaphat provide surviving documents and letters that survive. Most are not yet available in full-text versions and the reliance is still on the digest provided by
Reinhold Röhricht Gustav Reinhold Röhricht (18 November 1842 – 2 May 1905) was a German historian of the Crusades. Biography He was born in Bunzlau in Silesia (now Bolesławiec, Poland), the third son of a miller. He studied at the Gymnasium in Sagan (now ...
in his at the end of the 19thcentury.


Later 12th Century

The Second Crusade's failure resulted in fewer sources. Three narratives exists:
Odo of Deuil Odo of Deuil (1110 – 18 April 1162), his first name also spelled Odon, Eude or Eudes, was a French historian of and participant in the Second Crusade (1147–1149). Born at Deuil to a modest family, he became a monk and was a confidant of Suger ...
’s ,
Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...
’s Life of
Louis VII Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger, or the Young (french: link=no, le Jeune), was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet "the Young") and married Duchess ...
, and
Otto of Freising Otto of Freising ( la, Otto Frisingensis; c. 1114 – 22 September 1158) was a German churchman of the Cistercian order and chronicled at least two texts which carries valuable information on the political history of his own time. He was Otto I ...
’s . William of Tyre was absent from the Levant, but sought information to explain the failure. Historians now consider that, during this period, crusading expanded to include fighting the
pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...
Slavs in northern Europe, and the Moors in the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
which is recorded in and the work known variously as the''Teutonic Source'' or ''Lisbon Letter''. The papal master-plan against Slavs east of the river Elbe has
Helmold of Bosau Helmold of Bosau (ca. 1120 – after 1177) was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus (died 1154) and Gerold (died 1163), who did much to ...
's account. The Third Crusade is more celebrated because of the involvement of
Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Aquitaine and Duchy of Gascony, Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Co ...
and its relative success. has a contested relationship with the "Latin Continuation" of William of Tyre.
Ambroise Ambroise, sometimes Ambroise of Normandy,This form appeared first in (flourished ) was a Norman poet and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called ', which describes in rhyming Old French verse the adventures of as a crusader. T ...
claimed to be an eyewitness leaving long poem in Old French. Informative Anglo-Norman writers include: *
Roger of Howden Roger of Howden or Hoveden (died 1202) was a 12th-century English chronicler, diplomat and head of the minster of Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Roger and Howden minster Roger was born to a clerical family linked to the ancient minste ...
who was with the fleet to Outremer and returned in 1191. *
Richard of Devizes Richard of Devizes (fl. late 12th century), English chronicler, was a monk of St Swithin's house at Winchester. His birthplace is probably indicated by his surname, Devizes in Wiltshire, but not much is known about his life. He is credited by Ba ...
had a source who journeyed as far as Sicily. *
Ralph de Diceto Ralph de Diceto (or Ralph of Diss; c. 1120c. 1202) was archdeacon of Middlesex, dean of St Paul's Cathedral (from c. 1180), and author of two chronicles, the ''Abbreviationes chronicorum'' and the ''Ymagines historiarum''. Early career Ralph is ...
had a chaplain on the expedition. *
Ralph of Coggeshall Ralph of Coggeshall (died after 1227), English chronicler, was at first a monk and afterwards sixth abbot (1207–1218) of Coggeshall Abbey, an Essex foundation of the Cistercian order. Chronicon Anglicanum Ralph himself tells us these facts; ...
names his informants. *
William of Newburgh William of Newburgh or Newbury ( la, Guilelmus Neubrigensis, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon de ...
, was well-informed, but may have used the "Latin Continuation." Only of
Rigord Rigord (Rigordus) ( 1150 – c. 1209) was a French chronicler. He was probably born near Alais in Languedoc, and became a physician. After becoming a monk he entered the monastery of Argenteuil, and then that of Saint-Denis, and described himsel ...
provides the French perspective. German chroniclers recorded the journey of Emperor Frederick I until his death including the supposedly by
Ansbert Ansbert (died c. 695), sometimes called Ansbert of Chaussy, was a Frankish monk, abbot and bishop of Rouen, today regarded as a saint in the Catholic Church. Early life Ansbert was born at Chaussy-sur-Epte, a village in the Norman historical ...
. A monk from the Norwegian monastery of
Tønsberg Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative c ...
records the voyage of a Danish- Norwegian fleet in . describes the foundation of the German hospital at Acre that became the
Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
.


13th to 15th Centuries

Geoffrey of Villehardouin’s is an authoritative, detailed and firsthand "top-down" account of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and Frankish Greece.
Robert of Clari Robert de Clari (or Cléry, the modern name of the place, on the commune of Pernois) was a knight from Picardy. He participated in the Fourth Crusade with his lord, Count Peter of Amiens, and his brother, Aleaumes de Clari, and left a chronicle o ...
’s similarly titled work adds a counterpoint from the lower orders but it is partial and unreliable while being occasionally a useful correction. These two works are complemented by the anonymous probably Rhineland illustrating the disillusionment of poorer crusaders. The triumphal return of crusaders and their loot is covered in three sources: *
Gunther of Pairis Gunther of Pairis otherwise Günther von Pairis, Gunther der Dichter, Guntherus Parisiensis, Guntherus Poeta, Guntherus Cisterciensis (c. 1150 – c. 1220) was a German Cistercian monk and author, writing in Latin. His best-known work is his ''H ...
’s apologia for his patron Abbot Martin. * The Anonymous of
Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bomb ...
’s defence of his bishop
Conrad of Krosigk Conrad of Krosigk (c. 1162 – 21 June 1225) was a German prelate, crusader and monk. He served as the bishop of Halberstadt from 1201 until 1208 and took part in the Fourth Crusade in 1202–1204. He resigned his see to become a Cistercian monk a ...
. * The Anonymous of
Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital o ...
’s account of relics brought to his church is an uncritical biography of the pope. Accounts of the Latin settlement in the Empire of Constantinople and Frankish Greece are limited. Villehardouin’s account was continued by
Henry of Valenciennes Henry of Valenciennes was an early 13th-century French writer, historian and chronicler of the Latin Empire. Biography Henry of Valenciennes was a chronicler under Henry of Flanders who left for the Fourth Crusade with the army of his patron. I ...
. The Chronicle of the Morea is the key source for Frankish central and southern Greece in the 13th and the 14thfourteenth centuries and evidence legal systems. Three works document the Albigensian Crusade, from 1209 until 1219, against the
Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...
of southern France: * Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, nephew of the
bishop of Carcassonne The Diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne (Latin: ''Dioecesis Carcassonensis et Narbonensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Carcassonne et Narbonne'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese co ...
, witnessed many of the events he details in . The work presents the view of the crusaders and effectively ends on the death of
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester {{Infobox noble , name = Simon de Montfort , title = 5th Earl of Leicester , image = File:Simon4demontfort.gif , caption = Seal of Simon de Montfort, depicting him riding a horse and blowing a h ...
*
Song of the Albigensian Crusade The ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'' is an Old Occitan epic poem narrating events of the Albigensian Crusade from March 1208 to June 1219. Modelled on the Old French '' chanson de geste'', it was composed in two distinct parts: William of Tud ...
or from 1218 and written in vernacular French by
William of Tudela William of Tudela (in Occitan, Guilhem de Tudela; in French, Guillaume de Tudèle; fl. 1199-1214) was the author of the first part of the '' Canso de la Crozada'' or ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'', an epic poem in Old Occitan giving a contempo ...
who supported the papacy and an anonymous writer was wholeheartedly did not. It is an entertainment but matches Peter’s work when describing the same events except in that Simon of Montfort is depivted as a villain. * The Chronica of
Guillaume de Puylaurens Guillaume de Puylaurens (in Occitan, Guilhèm de Puèglaurenç; in Latin, Guillelmus de Podio Laurenti; in English, William of Puylaurens) is a 13th-century Latin chronicler, author of a history of Catharism and of the Albigensian Crusade. He was b ...
, a southerner and notary for the
Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
includes brief coverage while covering the period between 1146 and 1272. The largely poor and uneducated participants in popular expeditions such as the 1212 Children’s Crusade and the 1251 and 1320 Shepherds’ Crusades did not produce specific records, although there are some sketchy and elliptical narrative sources.
Oliver of Paderborn Oliver of Paderborn, also known as Thomas Olivier, Oliver the Saxon or Oliver of Cologne ( 1170 – 11 September 1227), was a German cleric, crusader and chronicler. He was the bishop of Paderborn from 1223 until 1225, when Pope Honorius III made hi ...
’s is the most useful account of the Fifth Crusade. There are other good sources such as the letters of James of Vitry and
Alberic of Troisfontaines Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (french: Aubri or ''Aubry de Trois-Fontaines''; la, Albericus Trium Fontium) (died 1252) was a medieval Cistercian chronicler who wrote in Latin. He was a monk of Trois-Fontaines Abbey in the diocese of Châlons-sur-Ma ...
universal chronicle. The latter also informs on the Fourth and Albigensian Crusades.
John of Joinville Jean de Joinville (, c. 1 May 1224 – 24 December 1317) was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France. He is most famous for writing the ''Life of Saint Louis'', a biography of Louis IX of France that chronicled the Seventh Crusade.' ...
’s life of
Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the d ...
is well informed on the crusade to the East in which John was a participant but less so on the crusade to Tunis in which he was not.
Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death t ...
’s verse history is the main source for the 1365 capture of the city of Alexandria in Egypt by
Peter I of Cyprus Peter I (9 October 1328 – 17 January 1369) was King of Cyprus and titular King of Jerusalem from his father's abdication on 24 November 1358 until his death in 1369. He was invested as titular Count of Tripoli in 1346. As King of Cyprus ...
. Chivalric biographies of
Louis II, Duke of Bourbon Louis de Bourbon, called the Good (4 February 1337 – 10 August 1410), son of Peter de Bourbon and Isabella de Valois (the sister of French King Philip VI), was the third Duke of Bourbon. Louis inherited the duchy after his father Duke Pe ...
and of
Jean II Le Maingre Jean II Le Maingre (Old French: Jehan le Meingre), also known as Boucicaut (28 August 1366 – 21 June 1421), was a French knight and military leader. Renowned for his military skill and embodiment of chivalry, he was made a marshal of France. ...
by ’s and an anonymous author provide information on the 1390 Mahdia Crusade, the 1396 Crusade of Nikopolis and expeditions to Prussia in 1384 and 1385. The chronicler
Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...
describes Danish crusades in the Baltic region, but Henry of Livonia is the most important
source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
for the conflict in Livonia. Most narrative sources dealing with the Baltic Crusades were in
High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...
or
Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...
from associates of the
Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
: * The
Livonian Rhymed Chronicle The ''Livonian Rhymed Chronicle'' (german: Livländische Reimchronik) is a chronicle written in Middle High German by an anonymous author. It covers the period 1180 – 1343 and contains a wealth of detail about Livonia — modern South Estonia a ...
) * , * Chronicles of Nicolaus von Jeroschin, Hermann von Wartberge, Wigand von Marburg, and Johann von Posilge, Another Latin narrative is the chronicle of a Teutonic Order priest Peter von Dusburg Additionally, there are unique source types from the military campaigns including records of payments to mercenaries and some 100 different describing campaign routes against Lithuania, compiled from scouts and local informants. Other documents for both Prussia and Livonia, some only partly published, exist in the collection of the
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (german: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; SPK) is a German federal government body that oversees 27 museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, Germany. Its purview includes all of Berlin's ...
or in Berlin. At the end of the fifteenth century, a substantial chronicle on the Teutonic Order and the crusades in the Holy Land was written in Dutch: the ''
Jüngere Hochmeisterchronik The ''Jüngere Hochmeisterchronik'', ''Croniken van der Duytscher Oirden'', or ''Utrecht Chronicle of the Teutonic Order'' is a Middle Dutch chronicle of the Teutonic Order. It was written in or around the city of Utrecht in the Low Countries in se ...
'' or ''Utrecht Chronicle of the Teutonic Order''.


Recovery Texts

After the loss of Syria and Palestine to the
Mamluks Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
and the fall of Acre in 1291, the writing Latin crusade histories decreased, and a new genre of recovery texts developed. These were treatises or memoranda extolling projects and strategy for the recovery of the Holy Land or . Writers such as Fidenzio of Padua,
Marino Sanudo Torsello Marino Sanuto (or Sanudo) Torsello (c. 1270–1343) was a Venetian statesman and geographer. He is best known for his lifelong attempts to revive the crusading spirit and movement; with this objective he wrote his '' Liber Secretorum Fidelium Cru ...
’s ,
Philippe de Mézières Philippe de Mézières (c. 1327 – May 29, 1405), a French soldier and author, was born at the chateau of Mézières in Picardy. Period of soldiering (1344–1358) Philippe belonged to the poorer nobility. At first, he served under Luchino Vi ...
,
Bertrandon de la Broquière Bertrandon de la Bro(c)quière ( 1400 – 9 May 1459) was a Burgundian spy and pilgrim to the Middle East in 1432–33. The book of his travels, ''Le Voyage d'Outre-Mer'', is a detailed and lively account of the political situations and ...
,
Ramon Llull Ramon Llull (; c. 1232 – c. 1315/16) was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, and Christian apologist from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art'', conceived as a type of universal logic to pro ...
, and Pierre Dubois wrote and circulated such works in large numbers but varied widely in practicality and influence. Sanudo's sources included the 13thcentury by Dominican friar
Vincent of Beauvais Vincent of Beauvais ( la, Vincentius Bellovacensis or ''Vincentius Burgundus''; c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his ''Speculum Maius'' (''Great mirror''), a major work ...
. In the 14th and 15thcentury the increasing threat from the Ottomans and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 prompted renewed interest in the crusades of the high Middle Ages from Renaissance humanists. Humanist historiography used refined rhetoric, idealising the First Crusade as an exemplar in propaganda favouring a European alliance against barbarous enemies.
Flavio Biondo Flavio Biondo (Latin Flavius Blondus) (1392 – June 4, 1463) was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was one of the first historians to use a three-period division of history (Ancient, Medieval, Modern) and is known as one of the f ...
explicitly associated the loss of Constantinople with the Council of Clermont in the respected and popular . Florentine chancellor
Benedetto Accolti the Elder Benedetto Accolti (1415 in Arezzo26 September 1464 in Florence) was an Italian jurist, humanist and historian. He was born at Arezzo in Tuscany, of a prominent family, several members of which were distinguished like himself for their attainments ...
’s on the First Crusade was closely linked with
Pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 Augu ...
’s preparations for war. The First Crusade was refashioned into a figure of pride and nationalism in works based on Robert of Rheims and William of Tyre such as by Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus and the by Paolo Emilio which was dedicated to
Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...
.


Reformation

Attitudes toward the Crusades during the Reformation were shaped by confessional debates and the Ottoman expansion. In his 1566 work, ''History of the Turks'', Protestant
martyrologist A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by ...
John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the s ...
blamed the sins of the Catholic Church for the failure of the Crusades. He also condemned the use of the Crusades against those he considered had maintained the faith, such as the Albigensians and
Waldensians The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...
. Lutheran scholar Matthew Dresser (1536–1607) extended this view. The crusaders were lauded for their faith but Urban II's motivation was seen as part of his conflict with
Emperor Henry IV Henry IV (german: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son ...
. On this view, the Crusades were flawed and the idea of restoring the physical Holy Places was "detestable superstition". Étienne Pasquier highlighted the failures of the crusades and the damage that religious conflict had inflicted on France and the church. It lists victims of papal aggression, sale of indulgences, church abuses, corruption, and conflicts at home. In the early 17th century, reformist Catholic theologians like
Alberico Gentili Alberico Gentili (14 January 155219 June 1608) was an Italian-English jurist, a tutor of Queen Elizabeth I, and a standing advocate to the Spanish Embassy in London, who served as the Regius professor of civil law at the University of Oxfor ...
and Dutch humanist
Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
argued only wars fought for secular motives, such as the defence of rightfully-held land, could be defined as "just"; those undertaken to convert others were inherently "unjust". They recast the Crusades as being undertaken in defence of Christendom, rather than demonstrations of faith; by avoiding the traditional focus on indulgences provided by the Catholic church, it created a perspective that could be shared by all Christians, both
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
and Catholic. Divisions caused by the
French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mil ...
meant both Protestant and Catholic scholars like
Jacques Bongars Jacques Bongars (155429 July 1612) was a French scholar and diplomat. Life Bongars was born at Orléans, and was brought up in the Reformed faith. He obtained his early education at Marburg and Jena, and returning to France continued his studies ...
and Catholic Pasquier used the Crusades as a symbol of French unity. They presented them as primarily a French experience, rather than an alliance between European Christians, and praised the role of individuals while dismissing the Crusades themselves as immoral.


Enlightenment

Enlightenment writers such as
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment ph ...
,
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...
, and
Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...
used crusading as a conceptual tool to critique religion, civilisation, and cultural mores. They argued its only positive impact was ending feudalism and thus promoting
rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...
; negatives included depopulation, economic ruin, abuse of papal authority, irresponsibility and barbarism. These opinions were later criticised in the 19thcentury as being unnecessarily hostile to, and ignorant of, the crusades. Alternatively,
Claude Fleury Claude Fleury (6 December 1640, Paris – 14 July 1723, Paris), was a French priest, jurist, and ecclesiastical historian. Destined for the bar, he was educated at the elite, Jesuit College de Clermont (now that of Louis-le-Grand) in Paris. In ...
and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ...
proposed that the crusades were one stage in the improvement of European civilisation; that paradigm was further developed by
rationalists In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosoph ...
. In France the idea that the crusades were an important part of national history and identity continued to evolve. In scholarly literature, the term "holy war" was replaced by the neutral German ''kreuzzug'' and French ''croisade''. In 1671 while working for the
Elector of Mainz The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Arch ...
, Leibniz wrote a proposal to
Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
for a French conquest of Egypt along the lines of the crusaders' Egypt strategy. The strategic intent was maybe to distract French aggression but the argument was France's role in the crusades aligned to its destiny, it would be for the benefit of Christendom, the Ottomans were decadent, and it would support French colonisation in the
Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
. The proposal wasn't accepted, in the words of the French ambassador to Mainz ''I say nothing about the schemes for a holy war: but you know that they have ceased to be since Saint Louis.'' However, the proposal was rediscovered and Leibniz's ideas regained currency in the run up to
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
's
French campaign in Egypt and Syria The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the p ...
at the end of the 18thcentury. Gibbon followed
Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...
in dismissing the concept that the crusades were a legitimate defence on the grounds that they were disproportionate to the threat presented. Palestine was an objective, not because of reason but because of fanaticism and superstition. William Robertson expanded on Fleury in a new, empirical, objective approach; placing crusading in a narrative on the road to modernity. The cultural consequences of progress, growth in trade and the rise of the Italian cities are elaborated in his work. In this he influenced his student
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
.


The 19th Century

Much of the popular understanding of the Crusades derives from the 19thcentury novels of Scott and the histories of Michaud. Scott published four Crusades-based novels between 1819 and 1831 viewing the Crusades as incursions of glamorous but uneducated western Europeans into a superior civilisation. Michaud published his influential ''Histoire des croisades'' between 1812 and 1822 depicting the Crusades as glorious instruments of French nationalism and proto-imperialism. These incompatible views agreed only on the idea that a crusade was defined by its opposition to Islam. Scott's description of an inferior culture attacking a more sophisticated one mixed with Michaud's proto-colonialist conviction. By the 1950s this established a neo-imperialistic and materialistic orthodoxy that remains the popular perceptions. The Romantics and conservative adherents of the European ''anciens régimes'' appropriated crusading imagery for their own political goals, downplaying religion to fit within a modern, secular context and presenting crusades as a counterpoint to liberal ideas of nationalism. Future
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation ...
showed a deep interest in crusading, touring the Near East in 1831 and writing a crusade novel in 1847, called both ''
Tancred Tancred or Tankred is a masculine given name of Germanic origin that comes from ''thank-'' (thought) and ''-rath'' (counsel), meaning "well-thought advice". It was used in the High Middle Ages mainly by the Normans (see French Tancrède) and espe ...
'' or ''The New Crusade''. Western historians have traditionally argued that the Muslim world showed little interest in the Crusades until the mid-19th century. Carole Hillenbrand suggests they were a marginal issue compared to the collapse of the
Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
, while Arab writers often took a Western viewpoint in opposition to the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...
, which suppressed Arab nationalism. In 1841, the first of 15 volumes of ''
Recueil des historiens des croisades {{italic title The ''Recueil des historiens des croisades'' (trans: ''Collection of the Historians of the Crusades'') is a major collection of several thousand medieval documents written during the Crusades. The documents were collected and publis ...
'' was published, based on original sources collected by the
Maurist The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congregation of French Benedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship. The congregation and its members were named after Saint Maurus (died 565), ...
s prior to the
Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. Louis-Philippe opened the ''
Salle des Croisades The ''Salles des Croisades'' ("Hall of Crusades") is a set of rooms located in the north wing of the Palace of Versailles. The rooms were created in the mid-19th century by king Louis-Philippe for his museum of French history, and opened in 184 ...
'' at
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
in 1843, with over 120 specially commissioned paintings related to the Crusades.


Modern

French historians This is a list of French historians limited to those with a biographical entry in either English or French Wikipedia. Major chroniclers, annalists, philosophers, or other writers are included, if they have important historical output. Names are lis ...
such as
Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey Baron Alban Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (28 May 1837 – 4 April 1916) was a French archaeologist, topographer and orientalist. He is known for his historical works on Crusader states and on military fortifications in the Near East. He is considered by ...
,
Louis Madelin Louis Emile Marie Madelin (8 May 1871 – 18 August 1956) was a French historian (specialising in the French Revolution and First French Empire) and a Republican Federation deputy for Vosges from 1924 to 1928. He is buried at the Cimetière de G ...
and
René Grousset Biography Grousset was born in Aubais, Gard in 1885. Having graduated from the University of Montpellier with a degree in history, he began his distinguished career soon afterward. He served in the French army during World War I. In 1925, ...
expanded on the thinking of Michaud, espoused propaganda of the country's Mediterranean colonies, and provided a source of popular models that were criticised and dismantled when empires ceased to hold academic approval. Early modern period and
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...
-era Spain presented a special case where nationalism and national identity could be projected onto the Crusades. The Spanish Catholic Church baptised declared crusade against
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
and
atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
and in the following thirty-six years of
National Catholicism National Catholicism ( Spanish: ''nacionalcatolicismo'') was part of the ideological identity of Francoism, the political system through which the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco governed the Spanish State between 1939 and 1975. Its most vi ...
idea of Reconquista as a foundation of historical memory, celebration and Spanish national identity became entrenched in conservative circles. It lost historiographical hegemony when democracy was restored in 1978, but remains fundamental within conservative sectors of Spanish academia, politics, and the media when analysing the medieval period because of the strong ideological connotations. British historians took a less ideological approach compared with Spain, France, Germany and Italy.
Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negativ ...
's literary three-volume work ''
A History of the Crusades ''A History of the Crusades'' by Steven Runciman, published in three volumes during 1951–1954 (vol. I - ''The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem''; vol. II - ''The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187' ...
'', published between 1951 and 1954, had the most significant impact on Crusades' historiography since Michaud. One reason is the elegance of the writing;
Jonathan Riley-Smith Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith (27 June 1938 – 13 September 2016) was a historian of the Crusades, and, between 1994 and 2005, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. P ...
quotes Runciman as saying he was a writer of literature, rather than an historian. As a historian of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, his approach reflected the 19th century concept of a clash of civilisations. Historian
Thomas F. Madden Thomas F. Madden (born 10 June 1960) is an American historian, a former Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. A spe ...
considers that Runciman single-handedly crafted the current popular concept of the crusades, while many other academics now consider his work dated, sometimes inaccurate and open to challenge. The work is largely based on
Ferdinand Chalandon Ferdinand Chalandon (February 10, 1875 – October 31, 1921) was a French medievalist and Byzantinist. Chalandon's work remains the most substantial study of the Normans in Italy and though the details of what he wrote a hundred years ago have in ...
's , , William of Tyre, Byzantines such as
Nicetas Choniates Niketas or Nicetas Choniates ( el, Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek government official and historian – like his brother Michael Akominatos, wh ...
, and Grousset. In the 1940s,
Claude Cahen Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French Marxist orientalist and historian. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic Middle Ages, Muslim sources about the Crusades, and social history of the medieval Isla ...
's ''Northern Syria at the time of the Crusades'' established the study of the Outremer as a feature of Near Eastern history removed from the West. By re-examining legal practices and institutions, Israeli
Joshua Prawer Joshua Prawer ( he, יהושע פרַאוֶור; November 22, 1917 – April 30, 1990) was a notable Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem. His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner t ...
and French historian Jean Richard reshaped the historiography of the Latin East. A fresh constitutional history supplanted paradigms of the Latin East as a model feudal world. The 1970s revisited the Latin settlements in the East being and the idea of them being proto colonies. In ''The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages'' Prawer argued that Frankish settlement was too limited to be permanent and the Franks did not engage with the local culture or environment; it was therefore unlike the state of Israel. This agreed with R.C. Smail's influential 1956 work on crusader warfare. This directly challenged Madelin and Grousset and in turn Ronnie Ellenblum's 1998 ''Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' modifies Prawar's model with more extensive rural Latin settlement. Instigated by John La Monte of
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
, and later edited by
Kenneth Setton Kenneth Meyer Setton (June 17, 1914 in New Bedford, Massachusetts – February 18, 1995 in Princeton, New Jersey) was an American historian and an expert on the history of medieval Europe, particularly the Crusades. Early life, education and aw ...
, in the mid-20thcentury, the multi-volume and collaborative Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades attempted to fill gaps in crusade knowledge with a great weight of useful material, maps, nomenclature, bibliographies and glosseries. However, its collaborative approach led to a long gestation between 1955 and 1989, a lack of coherence and contributions to the debates on the crusades that quickly became dated in the light of new research. In a 2001 article''The Historiography of the Crusades''Giles Constable attempted to categorise what is meant by ''Crusade'' into four areas of contemporary crusade study. His view was that ''Traditionalists'' such as Hans Eberhard Mayer are concerned with where the crusades were aimed, ''Pluralists'' such as Riley-Smith concentrate on how the crusades were organised, ''Popularists'' including Paul Alphandery and Etienne Delaruelle focus on the popular groundswells of religious fervour and ''Generalists'' such as Ernst-Dieter Hehl focus on the phenomenon of Latin holy wars. The definition of the crusade remains contentious. Prior to the late 20thcentury it was assumed that what was meant by "crusade" and its scope was Christian attempts to recover Jerusalem. From the beginning of the Early Modern Period little reflection was given to the inclusion of other theatres of war. The German historian
Carl Erdmann Carl Erdmann (17 November 1898 – 5 March 1945) was a German historian who specialized in medieval political and intellectual history. He is noted in particular for his study of the origins of the idea of crusading in medieval Latin Christendom ...
presented a significant challenge, theorising that crusading was a political ideology within Western society rather than a glamourised frontier conflict. In 1965 Hans Eberhard Mayer's ''History of the Crusades'' raised questions of the definition of crusading. Riley-Smith straddled two schools on the actions and motives of early crusaders. By 1977 he was a dominant influential figure in academic crusade studies and proposed a wider definition. The key to definition rested with papal authority. Riley-Smith's view that ''everyone accepted that the crusades to the East were the most prestigious and provided the scale against which the others were measure'' is largely accepted. But there is disagreement on whether only those campaigns launched to recover or protect Jerusalem that are proper crusades e.g., Mayer and Jean Flori. or whether all those wars to which popes applied equivalent temporal and spiritual were equally legitimate e.g., Riley-Smith and
Norman Housley Norman Housley is a professor of History at the University of Leicester. Educated at the University of Cambridge, Housley was a research student of Jonathan Riley-Smith. He was research fellow in history at Girton College in 1979 and came to the ...
. These arguments fail to place what only became a coherent paradigm around 1200 into a context of Medieval Christian holy war argued by John Gilchrist e.g. Crusading was the result ecclesiastical initiative, but the church submitted to secular militarism in the early 13thcentury. Today, Crusade historians study the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Near East, even the Atlantic, and crusading's position in, and derivation, from host and victim societies. Chronological horizons have crusades existing into the early modern world e.g. the survival of the Order of St. John on Malta until 1798. In recent decades historians have deployed new approaches borrowed from gender studies and literary theory to examine the validity of narrative sources, developing insight on the experiences and representation of women within the context of the Crusades.


Arabic and Muslim Historiography

Many Arabic sources have been lost, remain untranslated or are extant only in manuscript making it difficult to research without a knowledge of the language. The motivations of the authors must be considered as well as acknowledging the Christian concept of crusade was alien to medieval Muslims, who often viewed the crusaders as motivated by avarice. Few Muslim works consider the crusading phenomenon and crusades are often documented in larger narratives of events, mentioned occasionally and lacking detail. Mainly Muslim, mostly Classical, Arabic writing produced several genres during the crusading period, but there are also Arabic works written by Christians and Jews. Some sources from the Jewish communities of the time used Arabic written in Hebrew characters known as Judeo-Arabic such as the
Cairo Genizah The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the '' genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, ...
found in the late 19thcentury at the
Ben Ezra Synagogue The Ben Ezra Synagogue ( he, בית כנסת בן עזרא; ar, معبد بن عزرا), sometimes referred to as the El-Geniza Synagogue () or the Synagogue of the Levantines (al-Shamiyin), is situated in the Fustat part of Old Cairo, Egypt. Ac ...
,
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...
. The genres include: * Universal chroniclesthe best known or
The Complete History ''The Complete History'' (, ''al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh)'', is a classic Islamic history book written by Ali ibn al-Athir. Composed in ca. 1231AD/628AH, it is one of the most important Islamic historical works. Ibn al-Athir was a contemporary and memb ...
by
Ali ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian ...
. Local histories were similar, but about particular cities or countries.
Ibn al-Qalanisi Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī ( ar, ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus. Biography Abu Ya‘la ('fathe ...
wrote ''The Continuation of the History of Damascus'' in the 12thcentury and
Ibn al-Jawzi ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Abu 'l-Faras̲h̲ b. al-Jawzī, often referred to as Ibn al-Jawzī (Arabic: ابن الجوزي, ''Ibn al-Jawzī''; ca. 1116 – 16 June 1201) for short, or reverentially as ''Imam Ibn al-Jawzī'' by ...
''The History of Aleppo''. Al-Athir also wrote a history of the
Zengid dynasty The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripol ...
, ''The Dazzling History of the State of the Atabegs''. Jamāl al-Din Muhammad ibn Wasil wrote of the
Ayyubid dynasty The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...
. Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqdisī covered both dynasties. Information on the patriarchs of the Coptic church of Egypt is related in ''Biographies of the Holy Patriarchs'' by unknown authors after
Severus ibn al-Muqaffa Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ ( ar, ساويرس بن المقفع) or Severus of El Ashmunein () (died 987) was a Coptic Orthodox Bishop, author and historian. In Arabic, his name is spelled Sawires ساويرس. Severus is sometimes confused with th ...
. * Biographies and Autobiographies, * Religious Texts, * Geographical Works and Travel Literature, * Popular Folk Literature, * Legal Texts and Treaties, * Suffixed curses. The Muslim world exhibited little interest in the Crusades as they were not considered significant events until the middle of the 19thcentury. One explanation is that they were considered a more marginal issue compared to the collapse of the
Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
through the
Mongol invasions The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastation ...
and the replacement of
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
rule by the Turkish
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...
, who suppressed Arab nationalism for the following seven centuries. Carole Hillenbrand argued that Arab historians have often taken a Western viewpoint because they have historically been opposed to Turkish control of their homelands. Arabic-speaking Syrian Christians began translating French histories into Arabic, leading to the replacement of the term "wars of the "Frankswith "wars of the Cross". The Ottoman Turk
Namık Kemal Namık Kemal (21 December 1840 – 2 December 1888) was an Ottoman democrat, writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for go ...
published the first modern Saladin biography in 1872. Kaiser Wilhelm's Jerusalem visit in 1898 prompted further interest, with the Egyptian Sayyid Ali al-Hariri producing the first Arabic history of the Crusades. Modern studies were driven by political purposes in the hope of learning from the Muslim forces' triumph over their enemies. Before Wilhelm's visit,
Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...
's Western reputation for chivalry was not reflected in the Muslim world. He had had been largely forgotten and eclipsed by more successful figures such as
Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari ( ar, الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري, ''al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī'') (1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), of Turkic Kipchak ...
of Egypt. The visit and anti-imperialist sentiment led to the reinvention of his reputation by nationalist Arabs as a hero of the struggle against the West. Modern Arab states have sought to commemorate Saladin through various measures, often based on the image created of him in the 19th-century west. Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of
political Islam Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic pri ...
encouraging ideas of a modern jihad and long struggle while secular
Arab nationalism Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language ...
highlights the role of Western imperialism. Muslim thinkers, politicians, and historians have drawn parallels between the Crusades and modern political developments such as the establishment of
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
in 1948. Right-wing circles in the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
have drawn opposing parallels by considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the Crusades. Crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric is presented as an appropriate response, even if only for
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
purposes. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy. Madden argued that modern tensions are the result of a constructed view of the Crusades created by colonial powers in the 19thcentury and transmitted into Arab nationalism. For him the crusades are a medieval phenomenon in which the crusaders were engaged in a
defensive war A defensive war (german: Verteidigungskrieg) is one of the causes that justify war by the criteria of the Just War tradition. It means a war where at least one nation is mainly trying to defend itself from another, as opposed to a war where both ...
on behalf of their co-religionists.


Primary Sources

In 1841, German historian Heinrich von Sybel published his ''History of the Crusades'', a critical study of then current Western sources. This initiated a series of similar works, such as those published by
Heinrich Hagenmeyer Heinrich Hagenmeyer (1834–1915) was a German Protestant pastor and historian, specializing in writing and editing texts from the beginning of the Crusades. Closely associated with fellow German Reinhold Röhricht, their contribution to the histor ...
between 1877 and 1913. As a result, the Western texts edited for the series have now been supplanted by superior editions. Documentary sources include charters, diplomas, letters, privileges, and similar texts. Charters recording legal transactions such as sale or gift of property, or concession of rights are the most common documentary source from the Middle Ages. A sizeable number remain that were issued by crusaders. These include records of fund-raising transactions and pious donations. As such they inform historians on the financing of crusades, the motivations, and states of mind as well as family crusading traditions. They are of fundamental importance in the study of Crusading in the Outremer, Greece, and the Baltic region. Particularly the collections of charters related to military orders and ecclesiastical institutions. Although many letter do not survive, they are referred to in the narrative sources. Correspondence includes diplomatic and private missives, papal bulls proclaiming and regulating crusades including the crusaders' spiritual and temporal privileges and appeals for military assistance. Examples of treaties and contracts such as the 1190 treaty of Adrianople between
Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt ...
and Byzantium during the
Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity ( Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
, the
Treaty of Venice The Treaty or Peace of Venice, 1177, was a peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, the north Italian city-states of the Lombard League, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily also took part in negotiations and ...
and the
Treaty of Christburg The Treaty of Christburg (modern Dzierzgoń in Poland) was a peace treaty signed on 2 February 1249 between the pagan Prussian clans, represented by a papal legate, and the Teutonic Knights. It is often cited as the end of the First Prussian Upri ...
provide information on the organisation and outcomes of many crusades. In addition, historians utilise sermons, law codes, genealogies, financial records, the rules and customs of military orders, and inscriptions. Crusading narrative sources are widely available in good editions, but other sources are much less accessible.


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* * * * {{refend
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...