Few historical episodes are so evocative as the Crusades. From 1095 to 1291 and beyond, the combination of religious fervour and bloody conquest inspired vivid writing, gorgeous art and soaring architecture at the time, and have captivated historians ever since. We will explore the many meanings that crusading had, and continues to have, down to the present day.
The crusades are often presented as a simple series of expeditions to Jerusalem, but they had deeper roots in Christian holy war, and crusading was carried out all over the known world, from Iberia to the Baltic, and even at the heart of Latin Christendom itself. Around the armies of pilgrims sprouted a crusading industry and institutions. Such institutions supported not only recruitment, financing and logistics, but also the development of philosophical foundations to justify and promote new movements like the military orders of “fighting monks”.
We will chart the main events of the Crusades; we will also ask how they came about, and why they continue to exert such fascination. Each generation has used the Crusades as a mirror for its own concerns: recent historians, for example, have tried to view them through a “postcolonial” lens, focusing particularly on Islamic perspectives, or have inquired how the raw masculinity of the crusades affected participants and those caught up in violence, including women. And the idea of a crusade has entered our language; its use, whether positive or negative, has taken on particular power in recent years.
We will examine the Crusades and their legacy through written sources, archaeology, art and architecture. Whether you have long been gripped by these events, or have never studied them before, there is always something more to ask about the Crusades.
Learning outcomes
- Know the main events of the Crusades, 1095-1291;
- Understand the broad reach of crusading throughout medieval European culture;
- Be able to apply an understanding of crusading to critically assess the use of crusading within modern discourses.