Conquests,family traditions and the First Crusade

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the family backgrounds of aristocratic participants in the First Crusade. Through an examination of these it explores the ways in which their decision to join the crusade was influenced by the examples of the previous generation of conquerors, the participants in the invasion of Sicily in 1061, the expeditions to England in 1066 and the conflicts on the Iberian peninsula. In this way it opens a discussion about the motives and expectation of the First Crusaders. It argues that dreams of conquest and the desire to match an older generation’s martial and political achievements may have been as important a factor in motivating crusaders as religious ideals.     

Ritual,what else? Papal letters,sermons and the making of crusaders

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the importance of papal letters and crusade sermons for the process of recruiting crusaders and analyses different communicative aspects which were at play during events recruiting for the crusade. It argues that both papal letters and sermons were vital elements for effective crusade propaganda but that they fulfilled distinct functions. While letters emanating from the papal curia set the strategic, organisational and legal goalposts for crusade propaganda, crusade sermons were central to the successful recruitment of crusaders. The article highlights the performative aspects of crusade preaching by Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095 and Abbot Martin of Pairis at Basel in 1200 and shows that ritualised communication played an important role during recruitment events.     

Crucesignatus: its origins and early usage

At the beginning of the crusade movement, two groups of official terms appeared that designated and defined crusaders. One group of terms reflected the pilgrimage while the other reflected the symbolism of the cross. The terminology that employed the symbolism of the cross increased in frequency of use and culminated in the clearest of medieval terms for crusaders, crucesignatus. The way in which various popes applied, and refrained from applying, clear crusade terms to actual military conflicts suggests a way to sort out which conflicts they meant to be genuine crusades. This sorting out also tells us something about the changes in papal conceptions of the crusade.     

Women on the Third Crusade

Historians remain undecided over whether or not women actually took up arms during crusading expeditions. Opinions vary widely, from denying that women could ever be true crucesignati to concluding that they took an active role in the fighting, This study focuses on the Third Crusade, for which the chronicle evidence is particularly full. Some of the narrative accounts of the crusade never mention women or even deny that they took part, while others describe their assisting crusaders in constructing siege works or performing menial tasks. The Muslim sources for the Third Crusade, however, depict Christian women taking part in the fighting, armed as knights. The study discusses the reasons behind these divergent depictions of women in the Third Crusade. It examines the evidence for women taking an active part in military activity in Europe, and concludes that women could certainly have taken an active military role in the Third Crusade. Yet, as the European sources are silent on the subject, it is unlikely that women did play a significant military role, although it is possible that some fought in particularly desperate battles.     

Women on the Third Crusade

Historians remain undecided over whether or not women actually took up arms during crusading expeditions. Opinions vary widely, from denying that women could ever be true crucesignati to concluding that they took an active role in the fighting, This study focuses on the Third Crusade, for which the chronicle evidence is particularly full. Some of the narrative accounts of the crusade never mention women or even deny that they took part, while others describe their assisting crusaders in constructing siege works or performing menial tasks. The Muslim sources for the Third Crusade, however, depict Christian women taking part in the fighting, armed as knights. The study discusses the reasons behind these divergent depictions of women in the Third Crusade. It examines the evidence for women taking an active part in military activity in Europe, and concludes that women could certainly have taken an active military role in the Third Crusade. Yet, as the European sources are silent on the subject, it is unlikely that women did play a significant military role, although it is possible that some fought in particularly desperate battles.     

New books: Books received

In early January 1203, the majority of the leading barons of the Fourth Crusade concluded the Treaty of Zara with Prince Alexios, son of Isaak II, the deposed Byzantine Emperor, thereby agreeing to divert the crusade to Constantinople in order to place the young prince on the throne of Byzantium. The treaty was ratified, despite fierce general opposition and dissension within the crusade, which led hundreds to leave the crusading army either to make their own way to Palestine or to return home. In April 1204, a year after the crusading fleet sailed from Zara to the Byzantine Empire on the pretext of defending the ‘rights’ of the ‘legitimate heir’ to the throne of Constantinople, the crusaders attacked and conquered the Byzantine imperial capital for themselves. Through a new and close examination of the primary evidence, this paper reconsiders the motives of the crusader leaders for their decision to conclude the treaty and then to conquer Constantinople. Although the crusaders proclaimed a range of high-minded motives, which have been largely accepted by modern historians, the real reason for the diversion to the Byzantine capital in 1203 by the Venetians and the French, and their subsequent attack on the city in 1204 was a simpler and, in the crusaders' minds, increasingly pressing concern: the payment of outstanding debts.     

Angli cum multis aliis alienigenis: crusade settlers in Tortosa (second half of the twelfth century)

In the spring of 1147 Anglo-Norman and Flemish crusaders set out from Dartmouth in the direction of the Holy Land to take part in the Second Crusade. On their way they participated in the siege of Lisbon (October 1147) and the campaign against Tortosa which finished with the surrender of the city on the last day of 1148. A significant number of crusaders from the British Isles settled in Tortosa and its environs after the successful campaign, appearing in the documents as Angli, Anglici and Angles. The article describes the archival information for the role of these Anglo-Norman crusaders in the settlement of the region. They received grants from Count Ramon Berenguer IV, transferred real property, entered into credit and loan agreements, and established patrimonies. Many of the English settlers became part of the ruling oligarchy in the early years of feudal Tortosa, entering into transactions with the leading ecclesiastical and lay powers.     

A shared imitation: Cistercian convents and crusader families in thirteenth-century Champagne

This article examines the relationship between Cistercian nunneries and the crusade movement and considers the role of gender in light of the new emphasis on penitential piety and suffering prevalent during the thirteenth century. Focused on evidence from the region of Champagne in northern France, it argues that female family members of male crusaders adopted Cistercian spirituality as a means of participating in the experience of suffering and the pursuit of the imitation of Christ that had come to be associated with the act of crusading. The connection between Cistercian nuns and crusaders was further strengthened during this period as the Cistercian order expanded its liturgy to include specific rounds of prayers for success in the east and in southern France, for Jerusalem, and for the well-being of crusaders. Many crusader families in Champagne founded Cistercian nunneries to function as family necropolises, further sharpening the connections between crusaders, memory, and suffering as experienced in female Cistercian houses.     

Signs in the heavens in Groningen and Friesland in 1214: Oliver of Cologne and crusading propaganda

The Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) was preceded by a widespread campaign of preaching. In the ecclesiastical province of Cologne the most prominent crusade preacher was the cathedral scholaster Oliver. When he preached the crusade in Frisia in 1214 crosses appeared in the sky in three different places. One reads often about such like apparitions in the sources of the period, but, exceptionally, the crucified Christ was also seen on one of these occasions. Was this observed by everyone present, including the learned preacher himself? An analysis of the sources at hand shows otherwise. Still, Oliver quickly publicised his account of this wonder, not only in the province of Cologne but likewise in France, in order to promote the international crusading campaign. When the crusade got under way, the story lost its direct propaganda value but, alongside two other accounts of apparitions of crosses, it rapidly found its way into the historical and edificatory literature of the middle ages.     

Crucesignatus: its origins and early usage

At the beginning of the crusade movement, two groups of official terms appeared that designated and defined crusaders. One group of terms reflected the pilgrimage while the other reflected the symbolism of the cross. The terminology that employed the symbolism of the cross increased in frequency of use and culminated in the clearest of medieval terms for crusaders, crucesignatus. The way in which various popes applied, and refrained from applying, clear crusade terms to actual military conflicts suggests a way to sort out which conflicts they meant to be genuine crusades. This sorting out also tells us something about the changes in papal conceptions of the crusade.     

The Mural Paintings of Berzé-la-Ville in the Context of the First Crusade and the Reconquista

The programme of mural paintings in the Cluniac chapel of Berzé-la-Ville in Burgundy has a highly peculiar iconography. The present article argues that Abbot Hugh of Cluny (1049-1109) designed the programme, and makes the case that many of the unusual iconographical choices were due to his desire to make a particular statement about the First Crusade and the Reconquista. The question of Cluniac attitudes towards Christian-Muslim warfare has been the subject of numerous discussions, but remains murky due to shortage of evidence. The present article attempts to interpret the programme of Berzé-la-Ville as a new source to shed light on the matter. The paintings are not a typical example of crusader propaganda in that they do not argue in favour of the crusading movement, but underscore those aspects of Christian belief that it appeared to discount or discard, particularly the need to evangelise non-Christians and the superiority of monastic profession over any other. The article attempts to demonstrate that the programme functions as a self-affirmation of Cluny in the face of rapid changes and implicit challenges, not only from crusaders and their supporters, but also from the reforming papacy.     

JOSEPH BRAMLEY OF EAST STOKE,NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: A LATE VICTIM OF CRUSADE AGAINST OUTDOOR RELIEF

Abstract

Joseph Bramley, of East Stoke in Nottinghamshire, fell on hard times during the closing stages of the ‘crusade against outdoor relief’. The Crusade roughly spanned the last three decades of the 19^th century. In those poor law unions where the Crusade was adopted, a new and unforgiving environment was established in which pauperism was to be managed rigorously, ruthlessly and heartlessly. Moreover, the Crusade seriously affected the lives of many people who did not live in Crusading unions. This new ideology inspired and influenced a wider geographic as can be seen through a reading of the statistical returns of the time. This article seeks to explore the workings of the late 19^th century poor law through the death of Joseph Bramley. He died a pauper after living the vast majority of his fifty-two years outside of the poor law. He was a pauper for only five days.     

The ‘Feast of the Liberation of Jerusalem’: remembering and reconstructing the First Crusade in the Holy City, 1099–1187

Every year on 15 July the Latin inhabitants of twelfth-century Jerusalem celebrated a feast in remembrance of the capture of the Holy City by the forces of the First Crusade on that day in 1099. This article explores how the inhabitants of Jerusalem interpreted that day – the culminating events of the crusade – in the context of celebrating this 15 July feast. It examines the events which took place in Jerusalem as the city fell on 15 July 1099 and traces the establishment of the feast, showing that it was founded within a few years of 1099. It then considers the development of the feast over the course of the twelfth century and examines the ritual processions prescribed in one liturgical programme used in Latin Jerusalem. It argues that the route of these processions had two functions: firstly, it mirrored the actions of the First Crusaders in Jerusalem on 15 July 1099; and, secondly, it visibly aligned Latin Jerusalem with sites which were associated with the Old and New Testaments. The route of these processions in Jerusalem was intended to convey an interpretation of the First Crusade as the continuation of biblical history.     

Richard Lionheart: bad king, bad crusader?

This paper analyzes the impact of King Richard Lionheart of England during his tenure as leader of the Third Crusade. It examines crusade policy and the significance of Richard's decisions to deviate from it. The lack of control which both the Church and normative crusading precedents had over him becomes apparent. Richard's failure to take Jerusalem leads to the conclusion that his self-centred, puerile interests in personal adventures destroyed the chance for success of the Third Crusade, and thus prolonged warfare. Most wars have some sort of peace as the ultimate goal. The Third Crusade is no exception, but Richard subverted the goal of peace by turning away from a siege of Jerusalem and toward various other adventures, for example, attacks on Egyptian holdings, border skirmishes, the conquest of Cyprus from the Byzantines. Still, the Lionheart's legend persists from his day to our own to extol chivalrous virtues and courageous action. This paper presents the other side of the coin in the hope of approaching a more balanced, accurate portrayal of Richard's crusade leadership and of the ends of crusade ideology which he undermined.     

Orderic Vitalis and the First Crusade

This article examines the narrative of the First Crusade written by the Norman monk and historian Orderic Vitalis, which spans Book IX of his Historia ecclesiastica. Though hitherto little-studied, Orderic's account of the First Crusade, which was probably written in 1135, occupies an important place in the Historia and reveals much about his wider historical method. The significance of Orderic's editorial interaction with Baldric of Bourgueil's Historia Ierosolimitana, through the omission and addition of material, forms the focus of the study. By making only a small number of insertions into the story of the First Crusade which he had inherited from Baldric, Orderic transformed its meaning so that it became suitable for incorporation into the Historia as a whole, linking the First Crusade to the history of his monastery, Saint-Evroult.     

The roles of women in the crusade movement: a survey

This article gives a survey of the roles women played within the medieval crusade movement. Apart from considering the evidence for women joining crusade expeditions as pilgrims, fighters or camp followers, attention is given to the vast area of women’s contributions away from the battlefields and the impact women had on the propaganda, recruitment, financing and organising of crusades and their roles in looking after families and properties as well as providing liturgical support at home for crusaders on campaign. The aim is to map out the gender boundaries, their genesis and development, which defined women’s roles both within crusade armies and in the wider crusade movement in the 12th and 13th centuries and beyond. The article surveys available studies and also introduces, as particularly illustrative examples, the experiences of two prominent female exponents, Margaret of Beverley, who went on crusade in the 1180s, and Catherine of Siena, an ardent and outspoken promoter of the crusade in the 1370s.