Crusades: Holy War, Piety and Politics in Christendom from the First Crusade to the Reconquista

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims that lasted for over 200 years. The motivations for the Crusades are still debated, with some believing that they were purely spiritual rewards and others suggesting that greed played a part. This book explores the mindset of crusading knights, the politics of Western Europe, the Papacy, Byzantium, and the Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East, and how the Crusades were financed, organized, and lost. It also examines how the Crusades were reflected in art and had an impact on Mediterranean trade and banking.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 14 July 2021
Publisher: Amber Books Ltd

Crusading fervor gripped Europe for over two centuries, and yet, almost a millennium later, we continue to question the crusaders' motivation: was it purely spiritual reward or did greed play a part? What did knights from Western Europe have to gain from a hugely risky and expensive mission to the Holy Land?

The Crusades takes the reader into the mindset of crusading knights, exploring on the one hand the role played by pilgrimage, penance, and piety in Christian life and, on the other, the politics of Western Europe, the Papacy, Byzantium, and the Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East. Encompassing both the crusades to the Holy Land, Iberia, and the Baltic as well as popular crusades, the book explores how crusades were financed, how the crusader principalities functioned, and how they were lost by the end of the 13th century. Looking more broadly at the era, the book reveals how the crusades were reflected in art and the influence they had in reviving Mediterranean trade and in the development of banking.

From Christian holy war to Muslim jihad, from the Templars to the Teutonic Knights, from warring monarchs to popular preachers, from pogroms against Jews to crusades against heretics, the book tells the crusading story from the 11th century through to the completion of the Reconquista of Spain in the 15th. Illustrated with 160 photographs, paintings, artworks, and maps, The Crusades is a fascinating and accessible history.

Weight: 602g
Dimension: 186 x 245 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781838861445