The Fifth Crusade In Context

The Fifth Crusade represented a cardinal event in early thirteenth-century history, occurring during what was probably the most intensive period of crusading in both Europe and the Holy Land. Following the controversial outcome of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, Pope Innocent III's reform agenda was set to give momentum to a new crusading effort. Despite the untimely death of Innocent III in 1216, the elaborate organisation and firm crusading framework made it possible for Pope Honorius III to launch and oversee the expedition. The Fifth Crusade marked the last time that a medieval pope would succeed in mounting a full-scale, genuinely international crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, yet, despite its significance, it has largely been neglected in the historiography. The crusade was much more than just a military campaign, and the present book locates it in the contemporary context for the first time. The Fifth Crusade in Context is of crucial importance not only to better understand the organization and execution of the expedition itself, but also to appreciate its place in the longer history of crusading, as well as the significance of its impact on the medieval world.

The Fifth Crusade represented a cardinal event in early thirteenth-century history, occurring during what was probably the most intensive period of crusading in both Europe and the Holy Land. Following the controversial outcome of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, Pope Innocent III's reform agenda was set to give momentum to a new crusading effort. Despite the untimely death of Innocent III in 1216, the elaborate organisation and firm crusading framework made it possible for Pope Honorius III to launch and oversee the expedition. The Fifth Crusade marked the last time that a medieval pope would succeed in mounting a full-scale, genuinely international crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, yet, despite its significance, it has largely been neglected in the historiography. The crusade was much more than just a military campaign, and the present book locates it in the contemporary context for the first time. The Fifth Crusade in Context is of crucial importance not only to better understand the organization and execution of the expedition itself, but also to appreciate its place in the longer history of crusading, as well as the significance of its impact on the medieval world.

In this book, Megan Cassidy-Welch challenges the notion that using memories of war to articulate and communicate collective identity is exclusively a modern phenomenon. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade explores how and why remembering war came to be culturally meaningful during the early thirteenth century. By the 1200s, discourses of crusading were deeply steeped in the language of memory: crusaders understood themselves to be acting in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice and following in the footsteps of their ancestors. At the same time, the foundational narratives of the First Crusade began to be transformed by vernacular histories and the advent of crusading romance. Examining how the Fifth Crusade was remembered and commemorated during its triumphs and immediately after its disastrous conclusion, Cassidy-Welch brings a nuanced perspective to the prevailing historiography on war memory, showing that remembering war was significant and meaningful centuries before the advent of the nation-state. This thoughtful and novel study of the Fifth Crusade shows it to be a key moment in the history of remembering war and provides new insights into medieval communication. It will be invaluable reading for scholars interested in the Fifth Crusade, medieval war memory, and the use of war memory.

Crusading was a religious movement involving papal authorization, the incentive of remission of sins, pious motivation on behalf of the individual, and the justification of holy war. Much recent historiography in this area has focused on resolving the questions of what a crusade was, and why people went on them. But crusading became a cultural and social phenomenon that changed across time and geographical space. In turn, crusading was shaped by the ways specific crusades and their participants were remembered in specific historical contexts. Moreover, crusade memory had profound effects on the cultivation of family lineage, kinship ties, national and regional identity, and religious orthodoxy. Integrating memory into crusades scholarship thus offers new ways of exploring the aftermath of war, the construction of cultural and social memory, the role of women and families in this process, and the crusading movement itself. This book explores memory as a methodological means of understanding the crusades. It engages with theories of communicative memory, social and cultural memory, war commemoration, and historical processes of remembering. Contributions explore the variety of cultural forms used in cultivating crusade memory. Material, visual, liturgical and textual objects are all reflective of crusade culture and the process of crafting its memory, and the analysis of such sources is of particular interest. This publication furthers new trends in crusade scholarship which understand the crusades as a broad religious movement that called upon and developed within a wider cultural framework than previously acknowledged. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History.

Remembering the Crusades and Crusading examines the diverse contexts in which crusading was memorialised and commemorated in the medieval world and beyond. The collection not only shows how the crusades were commemorated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but also considers the longer-term remembrance of the crusades into the modern era. This collection is divided into three sections, the first of which deals with the textual, material and visual sources used to remember. Each contributor introduces a particular body of source material and presents case studies using those sources in their own research. The second section contains four chapters examining specific communities active in commemorating the crusades, including religious communities, family groups and royal courts. Finally, the third section examines the cultural memory of crusading in the Byzantine, Iberian and Baltic regions beyond the early years, as well as the trajectory of crusading memory in the Muslim Middle East. This book draws together and extends the current debates in the history of the crusades and the history of memory and in so doing offers a fresh synthesis of material in both fields. It will be essential reading for students of the crusades and memory.

The Uses of the Bible in Crusader Sources seeks to understand the ideology and spirituality of crusading by exploring the biblical imagery and exegetical interpretations that were woven together to form its philosophical basis.

A compilation of facts, figures, maps, family trees, summaries of the major crusades and their historiography, the Routledge Companion to the Crusades spans a broad chronological range from the eleventh to the eighteenth century, and gives a chronological framework and context for modern research on the crusading movement. Not just a history of the Crusades, but an overview of the logistical, economic, social and biographical history, this is a core text for students of history and religious studies.

Dan Jones narrates in his inimitably vivid and authoritative fashion the remarkable story of the Knights Templar. 'Exhilarating, epic, sword-swinging history' TLS 'Jones is certainly an entertainer, but also a fine historian who knows how to render serious scholarship into accessible prose' The Times 'Another triumphant tale from a historian who writes as addictively as any page-turning novelist' Observer 'When it comes to rip-roaring medieval narratives, Jones has few peers, and in the Templars he finds the perfect subject' Sunday Times The Knights Templar were the wealthiest, most powerful – and most secretive – of the military orders that flourished in the crusading era. Their story – encompassing as it does the greatest international conflict of the Middle Ages, a network of international finance, a swift rise in wealth and influence followed by a bloody and humiliating fall – has left a comet's tail of mystery that continues to fascinate and inspire historians, novelists and conspiracy theorists.