The Crusades

(Hardback)

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The Crusades of the Middle Ages were fought by western "Latin" Christians against peoples who they believed were threatening the existence of their Christian faith. Some of these campaigns were against Muslims, some were against other Christians, and some were against pagans. Thematic chapters provide an overview of the Crusades - why scholars believe they were fought, why they appealed to a broad cross-section of Europe's population, and what motivated crusaders to dedicate years of their lives to the martial cause of Christendom. Among other interesting facts, the book explains that to the Muslim states, the Christian Crusades were more of a distraction, as the Mongols from the East and schisms within occupied the bulk of their efforts, and that when it was convenient and advantageous - which was often - Christians and Muslims would ally with one another, or serve as mercenaries in each other's armies. Covering the classic crusades to the Holy Lands and the taking and defending of Jerusalem, Nicholson also gives equal treatment to the equally-important Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula, the subjugation and conversion of pagans in North-Western Europe, the Crusades against the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans, and the internal Crusades against the heretical Albigensians and Hussites. An annotated timeline provides readers with an easy-to-follow overview of the several centuries of Crusading, and maps provide rapid and easy to read geographical and political information on the most important campaigns. Seventeen biographical sketches of key Christian, Muslim, Balkan, Spanish, and pagan figures and a dozen annotated primary documents breath fresh life into the topic. A glossary is provided, along with an annotated bibliography and index

Reviews

[N]icholson discusses the many different types of crusades, including not only the expeditions to the Holy Land, but also those against heretics and pagans in Europe; the "reconquest" of Spain from the Muslims; and crusades against the Turks in the Balkans. She also discusses the different schools of thought among historians as to how to define crusades and why medieval Christians went on them....[w]ould be most suitable for students doing advanced-placement history classes. The appended biographies and glossary are well done, but even more useful are the relevant primary documents conveniently included.-School Library Journal
[W]ill prove an outstanding survey....A timeline and maps provide excellent overviews and make it easy for all to understand.-MBR Internet Bookwatch
Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.-Choice
"Nicholson discusses the many different types of crusades, including not only the expeditions to the Holy Land, but also those against heretics and pagans in Europe; the "reconquest" of Spain from the Muslims; and crusades against the Turks in the Balkans. She also discusses the different schools of thought among historians as to how to define crusades and why medieval Christians went on them....would be most suitable for students doing advanced-placement history classes. The appended biographies and glossary are well done, but even more useful are the relevant primary documents conveniently included."-School Library Journal
"Will prove an outstanding survey....A timeline and maps provide excellent overviews and make it easy for all to understand."-MBR Internet Bookwatch
"[W]ill prove an outstanding survey....A timeline and maps provide excellent overviews and make it easy for all to understand."-MBR Internet Bookwatch
"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students."-Choice
"[N]icholson discusses the many different types of crusades, including not only the expeditions to the Holy Land, but also those against heretics and pagans in Europe; the "reconquest" of Spain from the Muslims; and crusades against the Turks in the Balkans. She also discusses the different schools of thought among historians as to how to define crusades and why medieval Christians went on them....[w]ould be most suitable for students doing advanced-placement history classes. The appended biographies and glossary are well done, but even more useful are the relevant primary documents conveniently included."-School Library Journal

Author Bio

HELEN NICHOLSON is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Cardiff, Wales. She is the author of The Knights Hospitaller (2001), The Knights Templar: A New History (2001), Love, War and the Grail: Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights in Medieval Epic and Romance, 1150-1500 (2001), and a number of books and articles on the Military Orders and on the Crusades in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. In 1997 she published a translation of an early 13th-century account of the Third Crusade: Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi, and she edited the proceedings of the second international Clerkenwell conference on the Military Orders: The Military Orders, vol. 2: Welfare and Warfare (1998). She is currently researching the activities and reputation of the Knights Hospitaller in the British Isles in the 14th century.