Unlike most historical works on criticism of crusading, which focus on the 13th century, this detailed study traces the subject from the time of the First Crusade to the Second Council of Lyons. Drawing on a wide range of Latin and vernacular sources, Siberry argues that most critics were actually more concerned with abuses of crusading ideals and practices than with their justification, and even made suggestions for improvement. Each chapter covers a different type of criticism--from bitter criticism of those who were capable of fighting but failed to fulfill their vows to complaints about the behavior of the crusading armies--and assesses its significance. Siberry refutes many scholarly misconceptions about the nature and extent of the critics' protests, and concludes that there was still much popular enthusiasm for crusading in 1274.

Written by a team of leading scholars, this fascinating book presents an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Crusades, from the preaching of the First Crusade in 1095 to the legacy of crusading ideas and imagery today. Reflecting the recent developments in crusade historiography, it covers crusading in many different theatres of war. The concepts of apologists, propagandists, song-writers, and poets, and the perceptions and motives of the crusaders themselves are described, as are the emotional and intellectual reactions of the Muslims to Christian holy war. The institutional developments - legal, financial, and structural - which were necessary to the movement's survival - are analysed. Several chapters are devoted to the western settlements established in the eastern Mediterranean region in the wake of the crusades, to the remarkable art and architecture associated with them, and to the military orders. The subject of the later crusades, including the history of the military orders from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, is given the attention it deserves. And the first steps are taken on to a field that is as yet hardly explored - the survival of the ideas and images of crusading into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This volume offers a literary and cultural history of the idea of crusading over the last millennium.

Available for the first time in paperback, this essential resource presents a systematic introduction to Dante's life and works, his cultural context and intellectual legacy. The only such work available in English, this Encyclopedia: brings together contemporary theories on Dante, summarizing them in clear and vivid prose provides in-depth discussions of the Divine Comedy, looking at title and form, moral structure, allegory and realism, manuscript tradition, and also taking account of the various editions of the work over the centuries contains numerous entries on Dante's other important writings and on the major subjects covered within them addresses connections between Dante and philosophy, theology, poetics, art, psychology, science, and music as well as critical perspective across the ages, from Dante's first critics to the present.

This original study, focussing on the impact of the crusading movement in medieval Wales, considers both the enthusiasm of the Welsh and those living in Wales and its borders for the crusades, as well as the domestic impact of the movement on warfare, literature, politics and patronage. The location of Wales on the periphery of mainstream Europe, and its perceived status as religiously and culturally underdeveloped did not make it the most obvious candidate for crusading involvement, but this study demonstrates that both native and settler took part in the crusades, supported the military orders, and wrote about events in the Holy Land. Efforts were made to recruit the Welsh in 1188, suggesting contemporary appreciation for Welsh fighting skills, even though crusaders from Wales have been overlooked in modern studies. By looking at patterns of participation this study shows how domestic warfare influenced the desire and willingness to join the crusade, and the effect of such absences on the properties of those who did go. The difference between north and south Wales, Marcher lord and native prince, Flemish noble and minor landholder are considered to show how crusading affected a broad spread of society. Finally, the political role of crusading participation as a way to remove potential troublemakers and cement English control over Wales is considered as the close of the peak years of crusading coincided with the final conquest of Wales in 1282.

Twelve medieval scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including law, literature, and religion address the question: What did it mean to possess a voice - or to be without one - during the Middle Ages? This collection reveals how the philosophy, theology, and aesthetics of the voice inhabit some of the most canonical texts of the Middle Ages.

By analysing cases of Polish involvement in the crusades and collecting traces of the crusading ideology and preaching in Polish sources from the 12th and 13th century, the book makes a valuable contribution to the discussion about the place of Central Europe in medieval Western Civilization.

Nearly nine centuries after their first appearance, caring for pilgrims in hospices and protecting them from attack on the road, Military Orders continue to play a variety of social and charitable roles today. This collection of thirty-three papers from the second international conference on the Military Orders, contributed by scholars from Europe, the Middle East and the United States, reflects a variety of concerns, but the focus is very much on the beginnings of the Military Orders and their heyday at the time of the Crusades.The subject matter reflects the Military Ordersa (TM) wide-ranging activities, dealing with topics such as medieval hospital care, crusading in the Middle East, warfare in Lithuania, piracy in the Mediterranean, castles in Bohemia, the Reformation in Switzerland and 17th-century European diplomacy. This volume complements the Proceedings of the very successful first conference, The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, edited by Malcolm Barber (1994) and now out of print.

This collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.The period between the First Crusade and the collapse of the "crusader states" in the eastern Mediterranean was a crucial one for medieval historical writing. From the departure of the earliest crusading armies in 1096 to the Mamlūk conquest of the Latin states in the late thirteenth century, crusading activity, and the settlements it established and aimed to protect, generated a vast textual output, offering rich insights into the historiographical cultures of the Latin West and Latin East. However, modern scholarship on the crusades and the "crusader states" has tended to draw an artificial boundary between the two, even though medieval writers treated their histories as virtually indistinguishable. This volume places these spheres into dialogue with each other, looking at how individual crusading campaigns and the Frankish settlements in the eastern Mediterranean were depicted and remembered in the central Middle Ages. Its essays cover a geographical range that incorporates England, France, Germany, southern Italy and the Holy Land, and address such topics as gender, emotion, the natural world, crusading as an institution, origin myths, textual reception, forms of storytelling and historical genre. Bringing to the foreground neglected sources, methodologies, events and regions of textual production, the collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.nean were depicted and remembered in the central Middle Ages. Its essays cover a geographical range that incorporates England, France, Germany, southern Italy and the Holy Land, and address such topics as gender, emotion, the natural world, crusading as an institution, origin myths, textual reception, forms of storytelling and historical genre. Bringing to the foreground neglected sources, methodologies, events and regions of textual production, the collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.nean were depicted and remembered in the central Middle Ages. Its essays cover a geographical range that incorporates England, France, Germany, southern Italy and the Holy Land, and address such topics as gender, emotion, the natural world, crusading as an institution, origin myths, textual reception, forms of storytelling and historical genre. Bringing to the foreground neglected sources, methodologies, events and regions of textual production, the collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.nean were depicted and remembered in the central Middle Ages. Its essays cover a geographical range that incorporates England, France, Germany, southern Italy and the Holy Land, and address such topics as gender, emotion, the natural world, crusading as an institution, origin myths, textual reception, forms of storytelling and historical genre. Bringing to the foreground neglected sources, methodologies, events and regions of textual production, the collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.ual production, the collection offers a holistic understanding of the impact of both crusading and settlement on the literary cultures of Latin Christendom.