The World of the Crusades Read online

  113. The Tour Cabaret and Tour Regine, near Lastours. © Odile Noel / Bridgeman Images.

  114. Torture scene, illumination from the Commentaire des coutumes de Toulouse, 1296. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, France / Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Images.

  115. Heretics thrown to the fire, illumination from the Commentaire des coutumes de Toulouse, 1296. Tallandier / Bridgeman Images.

  116. A duel between Charles of Anjou and Manfred, thirteenth century. De Agostini Picture Library / G. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman Images.

  117. Procession of the True Cross by Gentile Bellini, 1496. Gallerie dell’Academia.

  118. Hussite war, from Eberhard Windeck, The Life and Times of the Emperor Sigismund, c. 1450. Photo Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Scala, Florence.

  119. Hulagu captures Baghdad in 1258, thirteenth century. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images.

  120. Baibars and his court. Pictures from History / Bridgeman Images.

  121. The fall of Tripoli in 1289, from Treatise on the Vices, fourteenth century. © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images.

  122. Artillery, archery and assault in the thirteenth century, from the Crusader Bible, 1240s. Pierpoint Morgan Library (MS M.638, fol. 23v).

  123. Archbishop John of Cilicia wearing a robe decorated with a Chinese dragon in 1287. Pictures from History / Bridgeman Images.

  124. The burning of James of Molay, fourteenth century. © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images.

  125. The destruction of the Templar Order, from Treatise of the Vices by Cocharelli of Genoa, late fourteenth century. © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images.

  126. A plan for a crusade siege tower by Guy of Vigevano.

  127. Hereford Mappa Mundi, c. 1290. Hereford Cathedral, Herefordshire, UK / Bridgeman Images.

  128. Pietro Vesconte’s portolan for Marino Sanudo’s 1320s crusade advice. Bodleian Library (MS Tanner 190 fol. 204v–205r).

  129. The siege of Jerusalem in 1099, from William of Tyre’s Historia, fourteenth century. Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo.

  130. Armed galleys and the planned passagium particulare. Bodleian Library (MS Tanner 190 fol. 20).

  131. The play of the siege of Jerusalem, Paris 1378. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, France (MS Français 2813 fol. 473).

  132. Turks defeating Christians, from Sercambi’s Luccan Chronicle, late fourteenth century. White Images / Scala, Florence.

  133. A Janissary officer recruiting devsirme for Ottoman service, from the Suleymanname, 1558. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey / Bridgeman Images.

  134. The Tunis crusade under sail, from Chronicles by Jean Froissart, fourteenth century. Lebrecht History / Bridgeman Images.

  135. Bayezid I routs the infidels at Nicopolis, from the Hunernama, sixteenth century. Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA / Jerome Wheelock Fund / Bridgeman Images.

  136. Bessarion’s Epistolae et orationes, 1471. Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura.

  137. Moravian fresco showing the siege of Belgrade, Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, Olomouc, 1468. Photo by Michal Mañas.

  138. The Alum Mines at Tolfa by Pietro da Cortona, c. 1630. Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy / Photo © Stefano Baldini / Bridgeman Images.

  139. The Turkish forces preparing for battle outside the walls of Rhodes in 1480, from A History of the Siege of Rhodes by William of Caoursin, 1483. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images.

  140. Suleiman the Magnificent at the battle of Mohacs in 1526, from the Book of Excellence by Lokman, 1588. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey / Bridgeman Images.

  141. The battle of Lepanto, late sixteenth century. Pictures from History / Bridgeman Images.

  142. The siege of Nice in 1545, from the Suleymanname, 1545. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey / Dost Yayinlari / Bridgeman Images.

  143. Money being assembled to pay for indulgences. Universal History Archive/UIG / Bridgeman Images.

  144. A letter of indulgence printed by Gutenberg, 27 February 1455. The University of Manchester Library Incunable (17250.1).

  145. The siege of Rhodes, woodcut engraving from Prof. Dr. J. von Pfluck-Harttung’s Weltgeschichte: Mittelalter, 1909. Lebrecht History / Bridgeman Images.

  146. Columbus in Hispaniola, after Theodore de Bry, sixteenth century. Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.

  147. The badge of Five Wounds of Christ worn during the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536. His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle / Bridgeman Images.

  148. English Ships and the Spanish Armada, August 1588. Universal History Archive/ UIG / Bridgeman Images.

  149. An English Knave of Hearts playing card depicting the pope paying for the Spanish Armada. Granger / Bridgeman Images.

  150. The Adoration of the Name of Jesus by El Greco, c. 1578. Monasterio de El Escorial, Spain / Bridgeman Images.

  151. Rinaldo and Arminda by Nicholas Poussin, 1628–30. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK / Bridgeman Images.

  152. King Louis Philippe and family visiting the Salle des Croisades at Versailles, 1844. De Agostini Picture Library / Scala, Florence.

  153. Surrender of Ptolemais [Acre] to King Philip II Augustus of France and Richard Lionheart on 13th July 1191 by Merry-Joseph Blondel, 1840. Château de Versailles, France / Bridgeman Images.

  154. The army of Louis IX departing from Aigues-Mortes escorted by angels by Gustave Doré, 1888. Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy / De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman Images.

  155. Front page of L’Epoque, 10 June 1945. L’Epoque / Photo © Collection Gregoire / Bridgeman Images.

  156. The ruins of Königsberg Castle, 1944. © SZ Photo / Scherl / Bridgeman Images.

  157. The death of Brian de Bois-Gilbert in Scott’s Ivanhoe, by J.A. Atkinson, nineteenth century. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK / Bridgeman Images.

  158. Statue of Godfrey of Bouillon, Brussels. De Agostini Picture Library / W. Buss / Bridgeman Images.

  159. ‘Pershings Crusaders’, poster for an official US First World War film. Private Collection / Peter Newark Pictures / Bridgeman Images.

  160. Equestrian statue of Saladin, Damascus. De Agostini Picture Library / Scala, Florence.

  161. Saladin enters Jerusalem in 1187. De Agostini Picture Library / G. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman Images.

  FIGURES

  1. Rulers of Jerusalem, 1099–1192.

  2. Kings and Queens of Jerusalem, 1192–1291.

  3. Montferrat Family.

  MAPS

  1. The Mediterranean powers in the eleventh century.

  2. The routes of the First Crusade and that of 1101, with Urban II’s preaching tour of 1095–6.

  3. Crusade attacks on Jews, 1096–1146.

  4. The siege of Jerusalem, June–July 1099.

  5. Political map of Outremer in the twelfth century.

  6. Jacob’s Ford.

  7. The crusades of 1122–48 and the Second Crusade.

  8. The Third Crusade.

  9. The siege of Acre.

  10. The Palestine campaigns and the battle of Arsuf.

  11. Eastern crusades of the thirteenth century.

  12. The Children’s Crusade.

  13. The Spanish Reconquista.

  14. The Baltic crusades.

  15. Languedoc and the Albigensian Crusade.

  16. Crusades against Christians in Europe, fourteenth–sixteenth centuries.

  17. The Ottoman advance in Asia Minor and the Balkans.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  It is a pleasure as well as duty to thank those who have smoothed the path of this book. The idea for it emerged in conversation with Heather McCallum who has thereafter deftly shepherded the project to completion. The team at Yale, Marika Lysandrou, Rachael Lonsdale and Clarissa Sutherland, have guided production with conscientious accommodating efficiency. As ever, my agent, Simon Lloyd, has proved an effective ally and ad
vocate. Sara Ayad undertook with tenacity and enthusiasm the initial labour of realising the images I had chosen, and Percie Edgeler kindly completed the task. Richard Mason, in copyediting, and Martin Brown, in drawing the maps, supplied vital structural support. The press’s three anonymous readers generously took pains to note deficiencies and suggest improvements, saving me from blunders and greatly improving the whole. The remaining errors and misconceptions are mine alone. Any general study exposes its author’s limitations perched atop a pyramid of others’ scholarship. To the alert and interested my own debts will be apparent throughout the text and the notes. The Principal and Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford allowed me important sabbatical research leave at an early stage of preparation. The Ludwig Fund for the Humanities at New College, Oxford generously offered a grant towards the sourcing of pictures. These two colleges have provided enriching academic havens over many years. During the writing of the book, unlucky coincidence saw the deaths of a number of close personal and academic friends and mentors. To the memory of one, for half a century the most generous, effervescent co-conspirator in the human comedy, it is dedicated.

  C.J.T., October 2018

  PREFACE

  The medieval crusades are both well known and much misunderstood. For almost a thousand years, the startling narratives of disruptive ideological commitment, military conflict and international conquest have excited, disturbed, intrigued and repelled. In mobilising, over many generations, hundreds of thousands of recruits to fight for causes physically distant and emotionally transcendent, the crusades appear extraordinary while simultaneously exposing in sharp relief the psychological and material resources of the distant societies from which they sprang and on which they preyed. With violence in the name of religion no longer appearing as outdated, eccentric or alien as it did only half a generation ago, the crusades persist in giving pause for thought. Yet they were of their time not ours. Modern fascination with the motivating force of religion has tended to simplify the crusades as ‘wars of faith’. This misleads most obviously in two ways. It imposes a false binary cohesion on the identities and incentives of the warring parties, as in ‘Christians versus Muslims’, when the reality was more confused, cooperative as well as coercive, a matter of contact as well as competition. It also discounts the realities of warfare. Like religion, public violence is social and cultural. Crusaders’ involvement varied from the devout to the forced, from free choice to the demands of employment, from enthusiasm to indifference to resentment. The crusades were wars fought under the banner of religious belief and are inexplicable without recognising that. However, they were also both more and less than that: more, in that they fitted wider general patterns of cultural and territorial aggression; less, in that, as wars, they were fought like any other, a matter of money and men, tactics and technology, castles and carpentry.

  A third misconception is to see the crusades only in the context of a unique concern with the Holy Land. A useful and often effective means to recruit, fund and justify military enterprises across half a millennium of Eurasian history, the crusades operated as part of a material, political and cultural expansion of medieval western Europe, a path of connection and contact as well as alienation and conflict. The crusades did not initiate contacts with the Islamic world, for these had been growing in the decades before the First Crusade through pilgrimages; shared frontiers and conquests in Iberia and Sicily; and, especially, increased commerce, particularly with north Africa. While the original incentive to control Jerusalem and the Holy Land remained the defining inspiration, crusades, as proclaimed by church authorities, were not confined to wars and conquests in the Near East. They contributed to the political re-ordering of Iberia and the radical cultural transformation of the Baltic. Just one aspect of the penetration by western Europeans into the eastern Mediterranean, they played a part in the creation of an idea of distinctive European identity. The ideological legacy extended into the Atlantic and to the Americas while, at home, helping to sharpen intolerance towards social and religious minorities and dissidents. Despite an intrinsic supranational dimension, the crusading mentality of providential exceptionalism and divine favour bled into emerging national identities, sometimes, as with the Danish national flag, visibly so. The crusaders’ reach straddled continents. Victims included Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Balts, Livs, Spanish Moors, Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Russians, Finns, Bosnians, west German peasants, English rebels, Bohemian nationalists, political enemies of popes in Germany, Italy and Aragon, French and Savoyard dissenters, and Jews. However, the special influence of crusading can be exaggerated. In almost all cases, the crusades formed part of wider processes of engagement, competition and conflict, a makeweight not the pivot. Even the iconic First Crusade to Jerusalem owed its inception to existing western involvement in the Mediterranean and developments in the politics of Asia Minor and the Levant.

  Crusades were wars; not all were fought by earnest idealists or for altruistic ideals, or, for that matter, by cynical opportunists. For most involved, their intentions, ambitions and choices were mixed and inevitably constrained by social and economic circumstances, not dictated by unfettered enthusiasm. The world of the crusades was the world of non-crusaders. The gloss of clerical idealism covers much of the surviving evidence with a distractingly coherent sheen. One aim of this book is to peer behind the constructed contemporary images to explore how the ideas and practice of the wars of the cross reflected and influenced the society that produced them. Much continued interest in the crusades has been sustained by the inclination to project current concerns – from the allure of religious or ideological warfare to the political fate of Palestine – onto the crusading past, paradoxically viewed as simultaneously alien and instructive, a habit that has been around since the Renaissance. The crusades even find themselves corralled into the self-serving unhistorical polemical myth of an immutable clash of civilisations. Yet the crusades do not hold up a mirror to the modern world so much as a window into remote past experience. What follows, therefore, seeks to examine crusading in its own muddied and muddling political, social, economic and cultural setting, not as a dimension of some inevitable cosmic struggle.

  In recent decades, particularly in anglophone scholarship, there has been a renewed emphasis on the ideological dimension of crusading and the piety of participants. This came in reaction to previous economic and social interpretations that tended to relegate faith claims as cover for more temporal incentives and causes. Concentration on religious motives attempts to understand medieval crusaders – or, perhaps more accurately, those who wrote about them – on their own terms, through empathy not judgement. Material and visual evidence help ground the exploration of the subject. Tangible objects can be as eloquent of beliefs as written texts. The crusades were neither aberrations nor universal obsessions. They depended on material and physical resources as much as on popular and elite mentalities. People create objects – clothing, armour, weapons, utensils, buildings, ships – which then condition their creators. Crusaders may have been motivated by idealism or compulsion; but their actions rested on things not slogans. These are what will be illustrated.

  The physicality of crusading did not deny its religiosity. It has been said that religion in medieval Christianity represented the physical body of believers rather than, since the Reformation, an abstract body of doctrine. While, as in all periods, individual conviction varied in degree from devotion to indifference to scepticism, faith, in medieval Christian communities, was openly enacted and performed, a matter of demonstrative acts, deeds not words. Faith acts included modes of living: celibacy, chastity, or entering enclosed communities; ritual behaviour such as participation in the Christian liturgy, observing church festivals, attending sermons, joining church processions, attending confession, fasting, performing public penance or going on pilgrimages; and charitable gestures such as alms giving and ecclesiastical donations. Performance, ritual and charity: crusading drew on all three. In th
eory, crusaders offered their lives to help fellow Christians in a penitential exercise during which they were expected to lead exemplary lives. The reality may have been less ideal. Crusading existed in public, from taking the cross to the conventions of leave-taking to the celebrations of return. Crusading was defined by physical trappings. Ideological in justification and publicised incentive, its objectives were concrete: conquest and defence of territory or people, accompanied by the customary detritus of war – armour, weapons, banners, tents, horses, mules, carts, wagons, ships, rations, siege machines, castles. Crusaders relied on provisions and pay. Their defining symbol was a physical cross worn on their clothes. Conquests required economic exploitation and governing through written bureaucracy; laws; commercial regulations; coinage; secular, ecclesiastical and military buildings. Individual crusaders travelled with possessions, which, for noble crusaders, could be lavish and luxurious. Campaigns necessarily generated plunder, booty, tribute, trade and gifts – between allies, patrons and comrades or in diplomatic exchange. Remembrance was constructed in glass, stone, paint and manuscript. In material terms, crusading created little original or exclusive to it, endowing familiar objects and activities with especial relevance or resonance. This book is partly about how the ordinary became extraordinary.

  1. The crusader knight, from a thirteenth-century English manuscript.

  THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

  With the help of local tradition, the alleged site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem was identified by Christian Roman authorities in 325/6, encouraged by the Christian emperor Constantine (306–37), who had just united the eastern as well as western Roman Empire under his rule. Around an excavated rock-cut tomb, a pilgrim church was constructed, the Martyrion, consecrated in 335. The site of the Crucifixion and the supposed burial place of Adam were also conveniently included in its complex. The tomb itself was incorporated into a small building known as the Edicule. The creation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre coincided with the gradual emergence of Christian reverence for holy places and relics in general, a devotional development that made Jerusalem a major goal for wealthy pilgrims from across the Christian world, some of whose accounts of their visits became widely circulated. The physical image of the site was disseminated through such pilgrim descriptions and by visual representations in mosaics, manuscripts and commemorative religious artefacts. With the seventh-century Arab conquest, pilgrimage from western Europe became more difficult, expensive and rare, adding to the sense already implicit in the status of its holy sites that the Jerusalem pilgrimage possessed uniquely great penitential value. Understanding of the mystical importance of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre was sustained through the prominence of the Holy Places in familiar scripture and repeated liturgy as the scenes of man’s Redemption and of the coming Apocalypse, at once terrestrial and celestial, the empty tomb divine territory and a metaphor for a Christian life and God’s promise of salvation.