The crusades played a significant part in the history of later medieval Europe, yet the nature of the relationship between the crusading movement and the societies that sponsored it remains fragmented. This ambitious study provides unparalleled insight into the impact of the movement on one such society, late 13th-century England, analyzing the effect of the crusading call upon people of the time, and assessing the factors and influences that conditioned their response. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Lloyd surveys the ways in which the crusade was promoted, preached, organized, and financed, and considers these processes in their social and political context.

What were the 'Crusades'? Were the great Christian expeditions to invade the Holy Land in fact 'Crusades' at all? In this radical and compelling new treatment, Christopher Tyerman questions the very nature of our belief in the Crusades, showing how historians writing more than a century after the First Crusade retrospectively invented the idea of the 'Crusade'. Using these much later sources, all subsequent historians up to the present day have fallen into the same trap of following propaganda from a much later period to explain events that were understood quite differently by contemporaries.

The story of the wars and conquests initiated by the First Crusade and its successors is itself so compelling that most accounts move quickly from describing the Pope's calls to arms to the battlefield. In this highly original and enjoyable new book, Christopher Tyerman focuses on something obvious but overlooked: the massive, all-encompassing, and hugely costly business of actually preparing a crusade. The efforts of many thousands of men and women, who left their lands and families in Western Europe, and marched off to a highly uncertain future in the Holy Land and elsewhere have never been sufficiently understood. Their actions raise a host of compelling questions about the nature of medieval society.How to Plan a Crusade is remarkably illuminating on the diplomacy, communications, propaganda, use of mass media, medical care, equipment, voyages, money, weapons, wills, ransoms, animals, and the power of prayer during this dynamic era. It brings to life an extraordinary period of history in a new and surprising way.

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.

Born at Christmas 1249 to Richard, Edmund of Cornwall was nephew to Henry III and cousin to Edward I. His eventful childhood took him to Germany when his father was elected king there. He was captured at the battle of Lewes and imprisoned for more than a year. Returning from crusade, he witnessed the brutal murder of his half-brother, which left him as heir to his father, the richest man in the kingdom. Throughout his life, Edmund played a crucial role in medieval England. As Regent of England, Earl of Cornwall and the richest man in the land, he was a leading force of the late-thirteenth century. This book considers Edmund’s life, his use of his wealth to lend to the king and others and to be a major benefactor of religious houses. His piety saw him found two new religious houses, rebuild another and bring the Holy Blood relic from Germany to Hailes abbey. His record as Regent of England for three years is assessed. The wide spread of his lands, which included 13castles and more than 800 places in 27 counties, and his tenants are set out as is his place in the local community. The basis of his wealth and its sources, including money from his lands but also from tin mining and marine dues in Cornwall, is explored and his knightly affinity and his close associates and officials are considered. On a personal level, the book examines his unsuccessful, childless marriage with the sister of the Earl of Gloucester. Edmund was a key figure throughout Edward I's rein and the late-thirteenth century. In this insightful account, the man behind England's 'greatest king' is at long last brought to the fore.

First full-length study of Pope Gregory X in relation to Crusade, demonstrating his significant impact.

Claiming that many in the West lack a thorough understanding of crusading, Jonathan Riley-Smith explains why and where the Crusades were fought, identifies their architects, and shows how deeply their language and imagery were embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life.

This book explores the ways in which discourses of religious, racial, and national identity blur and engage each other in the medieval West. Specifically, the book studies depictions of Muslims in England during the 1330s and argues that these depictions, although historically inaccurate, served to enhance and advance assertions of English national identity at this time. The book examines Saracen characters in a manuscript renowned for the variety of its texts, and discusses hagiographic legends, elaborations of chronicle entries, and popular romances about Charlemagne, Arthur, and various English knights. In these texts, Saracens engage issues such as the demarcation of communal borders, the place of gender norms and religion in communities' self-definitions, and the roles of violence and history in assertions of group identity. Texts involving Saracens thus serve both to assert an English identity, and to explore the challenges involved in making such an assertion in the early fourteenth century when the English language was regaining its cultural prestige, when the English people were increasingly at odds with their French cousins, and when English, Welsh, and Scottish sovereignty were pressing matters.

Proceedings of a conference on a theme, the 34 essays by specialists from 15 countries prevent various facets of the struggles waged for the possession of the Holy Land between the 10th and 13th centuries, and of the activities of the military orders elsewhere in Europe.

This is the first comprehensive study of the use, abuse and development of the crusade image in popular and high culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing upon a diverse range of sources, mainly from the British Isles, but with parallels from Western Europe and North America, the author shows the different approaches to the history of the crusading movement and crusade images taken by the historian, composer, artist and author.