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The Crusades: A History of Holy War
A broad overview of the crusading movement, from Pope Urban II's call in 1095 through the loss of Acre in 1291 and the later campaigns against the Ottomans.
Empires and Wars
The Crusades
Causes, campaigns and consequences of the crusading movement.
The Crusades: A Historical Analysis of the Wars
How the major crusades were actually fought: routes, leaders, sieges and the reasons some expeditions succeeded while others collapsed.
The Crusades: A Historical Analysis of their Causes and Consequences
Why the first crusades began, with religious, political, economic and social causes, and what they left behind in Europe and the Near East.
The Crusades: A History of Holy War and Conquest
How religious justification and ambition for land mixed in the crusades, from the Fourth Crusade at Constantinople to campaigns in France, Iberia and the Baltic.
The Crusades: A Military Campaign or a Holy War?
An overview of the scholarly debate about whether the crusades were chiefly religious or military ventures, and what historians still disagree about.
The Crusades: A Series of Military Campaigns in the Holy Land
A look at the fighting in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, from Antioch and Jerusalem through Saladin and the later expeditions to the fall of Acre in 1291.
The Crusades: A Study of their Impact on Medieval Society
How crusading changed life at home in Europe: how it was paid for, taxes, knightly families, church authority, and contact with Muslim and Byzantine worlds.
The History of the Crusades in the Holy Land
The practical side of crusading: how armies reached the East by land and sea, what they ate, how disease and hardship shaped the march, and what the journey was like.
The History of the Crusades: A Holy War
How the crusader vow worked: papal preaching, the cross as a badge, indulgences, legal protections, and the ordinary men and women who answered the call.
The Holy Land: A Medieval Destination
The Holy Land as seen by pilgrims and crusaders: the main sites, how people reached them, what they saw and the dangers of the road and the sea.
The Impact of the Crusades on Medieval Society
The lasting legacy of the crusades in Europe: Italian trade, papal power, the knightly class, and the harsh effects on Jews and on relations with Muslims.
The Medieval Concept of the Holy Land
What the Holy Land meant to medieval Christians: sacred geography, Jerusalem as the center of the world, and how belief fed pilgrimage and crusading.
The Medieval Period of the Crusades
A timeline of the crusading era from the late eleventh century to the late Middle Ages, with the main expeditions and turning points placed in order.
The Rise of the Crusades: A Historical Analysis
The build-up to the First Crusade: the Byzantine appeal for help, church reform, pilgrimage, and the preaching at Clermont in 1095 that set the movement going.
The Role of the Crusades in Shaping Medieval European Culture
How crusading left its mark on European culture: songs and epics, art and church building, relics, and the limited ways contact with Islamic learning mattered.
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