MEDIEVALISTS.NET MEDIEVAL STUDIES MAGAZINE

Medieval Issue 6 March 9, 2015

Venetian Prisons in the Middle Ages

Lady in the Lead CoffinRevealed

Tower of London:Ceremony of the Keys

Margaret Beaufort: Motherof King Henry VII

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The

The Crusades: A Very Brief History

Magazine

The Medievalverse March 9, 2015

Venetian Prisons in the MiddleAges

Taking a look at how a Venetian prisonon the island of Crete operated.

A mysterious lead coffin found close tothe site of Richard III's hastily dug graveat the Grey Friars friary has been openedand studied by experts from theUniversity of Leicester.

Lady in the Lead Coffin Revealed

The Crusades

Andrew Latham traces the contours ofthe specific types of violent religiousconflict always immanent within thehistorical structure of medieval war.

Historical fiction was just beginning asliterary genre in the 19th century, but soonauthors found success in writing aboutstories set in the Middle Ages.

Medieval Historical Fiction: TenNovels from the 19th century

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Table of Contents Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Seventh-Century? Medieval Mass Grave Discovered n Paris Venetian Prisons in the Middle Ages Knight buried at Hereford Cathedral may have had jousting injuries,archaeologists find Lady in the Lead Coffin revealed Medieval Articles Tower of London – The Ceremony of the Keys The Crusades: A Very Brief History, 1095-1500 The Mazims of Francesco Guicciardini The Beginning of Medieval Historical Fiction: Ten Novels from the 19thcentury Margaret Beaufort, Mother of King Henry VII Medieval Videos

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Cover: Crusaders stormJerusalem, from The Hague,

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The Medievalverse The weekly digital magazine from Medievalists.net Edited by Peter Konieczny and Sandra Alvarez

How Well Do You Knowthe Seventh Century?

1.This Anglo-Saxon helmet, which dates from the early 7th century, wasfound at which archaeological site? 2. Pope Agatho (678-681) spent much of his reign dealing with whichheresy (he was able to convince a council chaired by the Byzantine emperorto be condemned)? 3. Who were the first four Caliphs of Islam, also known as the 'Rightly GuideCaliphs? 4. This Anglo-Saxon saint died in 687. He was a monk, bishop and hermit,has his tomb at Durham Cathedral, and is regarded as the patron saint ofnorthern England. Who is he?

5. Which event, that took place in the year 664, helped to decide the properdate for Easter and how monks should be tonsured, in Anglo-Saxon England? 6. Which group besieged Constantinople in 626? 7. What is the The Ladder of Divine Ascent? 8. Etymologiae is a 7th-century version of an encyclopaedia - it touches onhundreds of topics ranging from the names of God, the terminology of thelaw, the technologies of fabrics, ships, and agriculture, to the names ofcities and rivers, the theatrical arts, and cooking utensils - and it was widelyused throughout the Middle Ages. Who compiled it? 9. After capturing and beheading Phocas, this Byzantine emperor wouldrule for nearly 31 years. Who was he? 10. Which dynasty began its rule over China in the 618 AD, and would lastfor nearly 300 years?

Answers on Page 10

Medieval Mass GraveDiscovered in Paris

Archaeologists in the French capital have discovered more than 200skeletons on what was once the site of a medieval hospital. It is believedthat the remains date between the 14th and 16th centuries.

The discovery was made in the basement of aMonoprix supermarket located on RueSebastopol. The archaeologists have found eightseparate mass grave so far. Seven of them havebetween five and twenty individuals, buried twoto five deep. The eighth grave has at least 150dead. They were deposited carefully and show adeposit method very organized: at least two rowsof individuals are filed “head to tail”, a third rowseeming to grow beyond the limits of theexcavation. The bodies are buried five to six deep. “We expected it to have a few bones to the extentthat it had been a cemetery but not find massgraves,” store manager Pascal Roy told AgenceFrance Presse. This very large mass grave appears to correspondto a mortality crisis whose cause is currentlyunknown. Adults (women and men of all ages)and children are represented. The skeletalremains do not show damage to immediatelyidentify the cause of the mass death. Paris wasstruck by the Black Death in the 14th century,and suffered other plagues in followingcenturies.

“What is surprising is that the bodies were notthrown into the graves but placed there with care.The individuals – men, women and children – wereplaced head to toe no doubt to save space,” saidarchaeologist Isabelle Abadie, who is leading thedig. The site was once home to l’hôpital de la Trinité,which was built in 1202. Located just outside themedieval walls of Paris, the hospital providedcare for pilgrims and the poor. By the 16th centurythe site had become an orphanage and itsbuildings were torn down in 1817. France’s National Institute for PreventiveArchaeological Research (INRAP) plan to carry outextensive research on the site. They note thatmany aspects of funeral practices associated withmedieval and early modern hospitals remainunknown in France, with less than a dozen sitesin the country have been the subject ofarchaeological studies. They will soon carry outDNA testing in order to learn more about thepeople who were buried here.

Images from the archaeological site underneath a Paris supermarket - photosby © Denis Gliksman / INRAP

Venetian Prisons in the Middle Ages

Prisons. A grim topic now and even more grim when we look at incarceration in thepast. Much has been written about the medieval prison but little has been said aboutprison life on the fringes of Latin Christendom. What were medieval prisons like inCrete? In his article entitled, Prisons and Incarceration in Fourteenth-Century VenetianCrete, Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis examines the history behind the Venetian prisonsystem.

Prisons today function to punish individuals forcriminal activity. Simply put: you do the crime,you do the time, justice served. When we lookback at medieval prisons, however, they didn'toperate in the same way. People weren't kept injail to serve time, they were in jail for some ofthe following reasons: 1.) Prisons were a sort of holding tank until thepowers that be could decide what they wantedto do with the criminal, i.e., they were awaitingtrial. 2.) Preparing to meet their maker (execution). 3.) Force an individual to pay a fine or faces severeconsequences.

Towards the late Middle Ages, especially in Italy,prisons began to change towards punishmentmodel due to several developments: 1.) The advent of the Inquisition (who frequentlyemployed punitive measures), 2.) The development of Communes - the futureCity States - which were powerful politicalentities independent of feudal lords and themonarchy, 3.) Lastly, the renewed interest in Roman Law. As Venice expanded as a City State and powerfulmaritime empire, it colonised Crete and Cyprus.Crete was under Latin Control but not atechnically part of Western Europe. There were

By Sandra Alvarez

A 16th-century map of Crete

hostilities when the Latin Church was imposedupon a largely Orthodox population. Venetian civil law appears to have been used tocoerce rather than punish criminals. For example,a debtor would be held by the court while hiscreditors took his possessions. Venetian law didnot incarcerate for violent crime. If youcommitted a violent crime, you were either fined,punished promptly by mutilation or death orexiled. There is a curious exception to this rule:Rapists. A rapist was held for 8 days until he couldpay the victim a sum equal to her dowry. If therapist couldn't come up with the money, he wasblinded. The rapists wasn't jailed for the rape, hewas jailed to be coerced to pay the victim or jaileduntil his alternative punishment was meted out.Incarceration with pending punishment wasnever long in Venetian Crete. So when did the Venetians use incarcerations asactual punishment in Crete? This occurredmainly when the punishment fell to thediscretion of judges. When a criminal was foundnot guilty, but the judge still suspected guilt, hecould over ride and sentence the criminal,"according to their own conscience". Crete hadonly so many set punishments in the law codes,anything that fell outside of them was eitherdecided by past custom or left for the judge todecide. In many cases, this 'outside the codes'punishment included incarceration. It still wasn'tthe "go-to" answer for all crimes. Jail time wasstill mainly used to force payment, as a holdingtank for trials and pending corporal punishment.That slowly changed in the 14th century. Show Me the Money!: Prison Conditions Venetian prisons in Crete weren't great but, theVenetians did occasionally pay for theincarcerated unlike most other prisons of thistime period. In Crete, the prisoner was expectedto cover some of the cost of their prison stay.Unlike today's modern jailhouses, where thefood, shelter and wellbeing of the criminal arepaid for by the government via taxation, in theMiddle Ages, prison stays varied depending onthe wealth of the offender, i.e., you paid yourown way. The more money you had, and thehigher your social status in the world, the betteryour prison time - you got better food, potentialfreedom to move about and better

accommodations. Generally speaking, you weregiven two meals per day, allowed visitation fromfamily and friends (provided you bribed theguards - more on that later), and for the most part,you were able to walk about the halls during theday. Fourteenth century Crete had 4 prisons, onebeing a women's prison founded in 1314. The Usual Suspects: Who Was Imprisoned? Those awaiting trial: These prisoners were neverheld very long; the longest time span being twoyears. Debtors: There was no set minimum as to thethreshold before you wound up in jail for yourdebt. Meaning, you could owe very little and endup in jail, so many debtors in Crete ended upincarcerated for tiny amounts. This became aburden on the jails and threatened Crete's creditreliant economy. Many debtors fled Crete toavoid jail. Venetian legislators stepped in andtried to resolve the issue on several occasions byoffering better repayment programmes for thosewho wanted to pay but had fallen on difficulttimes. Falling on hard times was relatively easyto do for an investor considering Crete's seriousproblems with the Plague in 1348, frequent wars,and constant colonial rebellion. Incarcerationduring the 14th century increased but it wasn'talways the best solution. Fine Evaders: Some laws came into effect thatstipulated jail time for failure to pay such as onelaw in 1320 where if a nobleman was involvedwith a dispute with a member of the clergy, hecould be fined 100 hyperpera (the Byzantinecoinage reissued during the rule of Alexios IKomnenos, 1081-1118) or, a year of jail time.The punishments were generally (but not always)the following: 50 hyperpera or more resulted ina 6 month detention for failure to pay, 100hyperpera equalled one year, and 200 hyperpera,two years. Low-level violent offenders also fellinto this category - they either had to pay thevictim restitution or do time. Judges favouredthis last option for assaults where the jail timewas in addition to the fine. Exiles: An Alternative/or in Addition to Exile: Exilewas a popular means of dealing with particularlyviolent criminals. They could spend a year in jailand then be exiled, or be exiled and the threat of

particularly violent criminals. They could spenda year in jail and then be exiled, or be exiled andthe threat of imprisonment used if they daredreturn. Corrupt Officials and Trouble Makers (Threats tothe State/Subversive Behaviour): Corruption wastaken very seriously by the Venetians. In the mid15th century, several prominent governmentofficials were thrown into jail and forced to doleout extremely high fines. In terms of threats toVenetian interests, we have situations like theGreek clergy who were incarcerated forsubverting venetian authority by taking inescaped slaves as monks. Did You Know?: Fun Facts There was no segregation of different religiousgroups or ethnic minorities in Venetian prisons.Greeks, Latins and Jews shared the same livingquarters. In fact, Tsougarakis mentions therewere several instances where prisoners from all3 backgrounds helped each other escape! Another interesting fact was that because it wasso easy to end up in prison for minor offencessuch as unpaid debt, being jailed did not carrythe same stigma it does today. While it wasn't abadge of honour, it was certainly considered 'afact of life' and didn't affect one's social standing.The 14th century saw many people bequeathingmoney to debtors as a form of charity. This showsthat people knew their legal system wasn'talways fair and anyone could end up in jail for aminor infraction. Prison breaks were common. The guards werenotoriously bad at keeping people inside prison

walls. Between 1317 - 1352 there were 17breakouts. At some point, it got so bad that prisonbreaks occurred almost daily! Of all the breakouts - this one takes the cake: In June 1338, 4men broke out of jail along with their guard! Hewas eventually put on the fugitive list when theyrealised he was bribed and went along with hisformer charges. You know things are getting badwhen even the guards won't stay! There were different levels in prison - the lowerlevel was not a place you wanted to be. Thesecells, known as le camerete, were shared withother prisoners and time spent here was reservedfor the only the most heinous offences. The worst part of prison? Not the food, not lice,not the smell...nope. It appears to have been theguards! Cretan poet, Stephanos Sachlikes wrotean account of his time in a Venetian jail in 1370.He complained that the guards mistreatedprisoners to get them to offer bribes. They wouldgo so far as to refuse access by visiting familymembers to the jailed person until the guardswere adequately paid off. The poet alsocomplained that the guard ate most of his food! By the 14th century, Crete was transitioningtowards a more humane treatment of prisonersby replacing stiff corporal punishments with jailtime. Byzantine influence remained on the islandbut in terms of doling out punishment, Venetianlaw was firmly entrenched and practiced on a dayto day basis. The article 'Prisons and Incarceration inFourteenth-Century Venetian Crete' byNickiphoros I. Tsougarakis, appears inMediterranean Historical Review, Vol.29:1 (2014)

Answers to our Seventh-Century Quiz

1. Sutton Hoo2. Monothelitism3. Abu Bakr, Umar, Utham ibn Affan and Ali4. Cuthbert5. Synod of Whitby6. Avars7. A book about monasticism8. Isidore of Seville9. Heraclius10. Tang Dynasty

Knight buried at Hereford Cathedral may havehad jousting injuries, archaeologists find

The remains of over 700 individuals were discovered at the graveyard of England’sHereford Cathedral between 2009 and 2011. Archaeologists are now revealing moredetails about some of the people that were buried here during the Middle Ages.

Built in the early 12th century it is believed thatHereford Cathedral replaced an earlier building onthe site and archaeologists investigating the sitehave also uncovered information about thedevelopment of Saxon Hereford as well asexcavating and recording c. 2500 burials as part ofthe landscaping project. Headland Archaeology conducted a detailed studyof over 700 individuals from these excavations(undertaken between 2009 – 2011) for HerefordCathedral, produced exciting glimpses into life,disease, accident and injury from the NormanConquest through to the 19th century. However, some individuals stood out more thanothers – one such being the burial of a leper, andthe other a lady with a severed hand. One of themost remarkable stories is of an individualbelieved to be a Knight. The interpretation is basedon a number of disparate bits of scientificobservation. Firstly, he has very numerous fractures, all to ribsand the shoulder on the right side. Some of thesehad healed others hadn’t, showing they weresuffered at different times and also indicating thatat death he hadn’t recovered from his latestwounds. He also had an unusual twisting break tohis left lower leg and these wounds are allconsistent with injuries that can be sustainedthrough tourney or jousting. Analysis of his teeth that the man was likely to havebeen brought up in Normandy and moved toHereford later in life. Andy Boucher, who managed the post excavationwork, remarked, “Obviously we can never be surehow people came about their wounds, but in thiscase there is a considerable amount of evidencesuggesting this man was involved in some form ofviolent activity and the locations of his injuries domatch quite closely what might be expected fromtaking part in mock battles.

Remains of a medieval indiviual discovered atHereford Cathedral, believed to be a knight -

photo by Headland Archaelolgy / Twitter

“The fact that he was still doing this after he was45 suggests he must have been very tough.” A book about the discoveries, Death in the Close –A Medieval Mystery, is due to be published in 2015

Lady in the Lead Coffin revealedA mysterious lead coffin found close to the site of Richard III’s hastily duggrave at the Grey Friars friary has been opened and studied by expertsfrom the University of Leicester.

The coffin was discovered inside a much largerlimestone sarcophagus during a secondexcavation of the site, in August 2013 – one yearafter the remains of the former King of Englandwere unearthed. Richard III will be reinterred atLeicester Cathedral this month after his mortalremains are taken from the University ofLeicester on Sunday 22 March. Inside the lead coffin, archaeologists found theskeleton of an elderly woman, who academicsbelieve could have been an early benefactor ofthe friary – as radiocarbon dating shows shemight have been buried not long after the churchwas completed in 1250 (although analysis showsher death could have taken place as late as 1400). The high status female was in one of 10 graves

discovered in the grounds of the medievalcomplex, including that of Richard III, six of whichwere left undisturbed. Those that were examinedwere all found to have female remains. Grey Friars site director Mathew Morris, who ledthe dig said: “Although it might seem unusualthat Richard III is the only male skeleton foundinside the Grey Friars church, the other fourskeletons all being female, it must beremembered that we have only excavated five often identified graves in the church’s chancel withthe potential for hundreds more burialselsewhere inside the church, the other friarybuildings and outside in the cemetery.Excavations of other monastic cemeteries havefound ratios ranging from 1:3 to 1:20 woman tomen buried, with urban monastic cemeteries

The Inner Lead Casket of the Greyfriars Medieval Stone Coffin Revealed For TheFirst Time in 600 Years – University of Leicester

men buried, with urban monastic cemeteriestypically having greater numbers of womenburied in them than rural sites. “In Leicester, ULAS’s excavation of the medievalparish church of St Peter (today situated beneaththe John Lewis store in Leicester’s Highcrossretail quarter) found that the burial of men andwomen inside the church was broadly equal.Statistically, the sample is too small to draw anyconclusions to the significance of so manywomen at Grey Friars. After all, if we carried outmore excavations it is possible that we could findthat these are the only four women buried in thechurch. Richard III would certainly not have beenthe only male buried here during the friary’s 300year history and historic records list at least threeother men buried in the church. What stands outmore is the contrast between the care andattention taken with these burials – large, neatlydug graves with coffins – and the crudeness ofRichard III’s grave. The more we examine it, theclearer it becomes how atypical Richard III’sburial really was.” The lead coffin, with an inlaid crucifix, thelocation of her burial in presbytery of the friary’schurch (possibly close to the high altar) meantthat she had a special significance to the holyCatholic order. The discovery is the first example of an intact

medieval stone coffin to be unearthed inLeicester during modern excavations. Mathew Morris comments: “The stonesarcophagus was a tapered box carved from asingle block of limestone. Inside, the wider endwas curved, creating a broad head niche.Unfortunately, the stone lid did not properly fitthe coffin allowing water to get inside, and itsimmense weight had badly cracked thesarcophagus, meaning it could not be liftedintact. However, inside the inner lead coffin wasundamaged except for a hole at the foot end ofthe casket where the lead had decayed andcollapsed inward exposing the skeleton’s feet.This is the first stone coffin in Leicester to beexcavated using modern archaeologicalpractices. This makes it a unique discovery whichwill provide important new insights into the livesof the people of medieval Leicester.” Of the other nine sets of remains found at theGrey Friars, during the second excavation, threemore were exhumed by Universityarchaeologists, and six left undisturbed. Two graves inside the choir – where Richard IIIwas found – contained wooden coffins and insidewere two females aged between 40 and 50-years-old. Radiocarbon dating shows there is a95 per cent probability that they died between1270 and 1400.

Osteological examinations found that one of thewomen had a possible congenital hip dislocationwhich forced her to walk with a crutch. The otherwas found to have lived a life of hard physicallabour – regularly using her arms and legs to liftheavy weights. And she was not alone. A fourthfemale skeleton, which had been disturbed, wasalso thought to have believed to had led a lifeof hard physical work. She is believed to have died in her early tomid-20s. Analysis of the three intact sets offemale remains – including the lady in the leadcoffin – show that all of the women had a highly-varied, protein-rich diet including large amountsof sea fish. A diverse diet like this would indicate that theywould have been wealthy, and were able toconsume expensive foods like game, meat andfish. “Analysis of Skeleton 4 shows that she had a lifeof hard physical work, frequently using her armsand legs to lift and support weight. It isinteresting then that she is buried in an area ofthe church which would have typically beenreserved for wealthy benefactors and people ofelevated social status. Her presence in this areamight suggest that the friary’s main source ofdonations came from the town’s middle-classes,merchants and tradespeople who were probably

of more modest means, and worked for a living.” There is a small clue as to who is buried at thesite, which is in Leicester city centre, just a fewyards from Leicester Cathedral where Richard IIIwill be reinterred in March. But not enoughinformation remains to say with any accuracywhether the records relate to any of the femaleskeletons found by Mathew and the team. Documents dating back to the time of the burials –about 700-years – name a lady called Emma, whowas married to John of Holt. In September of thatyear, 1290, the Bishop of Lincoln issued anindulgence granting 20-days off Purgatory foranyone who would say ‘a Pater and a Ave for thesoul of Emma, wife of John of Holt, whose bodyis buried in the Franciscan church in Leicester’.However, little is known about her, includingwhat she looked like, her age at death or wherein the friary church she was buried. Mathew added, “We know little about her and alack of fundamental information, such as her ageat death, what she did for a living, what she lookedlike or where in the church she was buried,coupled with no known descendants who canprovide a DNA sample, make it impossible to sayfor certain whether one of these skeletons is thatof Emma, or indeed anyone else. Sadly, they willforever remain anonymous.”

Archaeologists Open the Stone Coffin at the Greyfriars Archaeological Dig July 2013 –photo courtesy University of Leicester

Medieval ArticlesThe Papacy and Christian Mercenaries of Thirteenth-Century North Africa By Michael Lower Speculum, Vol. 89:3 (2014) In the medieval period, Muslim rulers frequently hired Christian mercenary soldiers to defend theirpersons and bolster their armies. Nowhere was this practice more common than in North Africa, aregion, then as now, linked to Europe through migration, diplomacy, and trade. From the twelfthcentury to the sixteenth, North African regimes of all types found it useful to recruit Europeanfighters to their sides. Some of these mercenaries were former prisoners of war, while others wereprominent political exiles. Most, though, were of humbler origin, fighting men who found a livelymarket for their services in the decentralized, fiercely competitive political environment of the latemedieval Maghrib.

Click here to read this article from Academia.edu

Women’s role in politics in the medieval Muslim world By Yasmin Hilloowala Masters Thesis, University of Arizona, 1993 The objective of this paper will be to demonstrate in what ways medieval women (the upper-classwomen) of the Middle East made themselves visible and wielded influence or power over affairsof the state. Because of the limiting aspect of the thesis, the area that I will discuss will be limitedboth in geography and time. This paper will concentrate on the eastern area of the Islamic worldfrom approximately the eighth century to the thirteenth century. The main body of the paper willdeal with this time period. However, first, I will need to discuss the situation of women before Islam,Islam’s rise and the changes it brought to women in the early years of its existence. And then I willcover Islam’s spread into other areas, how it changed there, and thus how women were able to exerttheir influence within the framework of these changes.

Click here to resd this thesis from the University of Arizona

What Women Want: Female readers of Virgil’s Aeneid in the Middle Ages By Claire Harrill eSharp, Vol.21 (2011) In this article I will consider the influence of female readers of Virgil’s Aeneid on two medievaladaptations of Virgil’s text, namely, the C11th Latin Encomium Emmae Reginae, and the C12th OldFrench Roman d’Enéas. In these two texts female readership of Virgil is manifested in two ways;the Roman is tailored to a female audience and the Encomium is tailored for a female patron.

Click here to read this article from eSharpl

Tower of London: Ceremony of the Keys

Here’s a riddle for you: What’s the longestrunning, yet shortest, military tradition in theworld? Give up? It’s the Tower of London’sCeremony of the Keys. Normally, when people visit the Tower of London,they visit during the day. Hordes of tourists fromall over the globe cram into the Tower groundsevery day to get a glimpse of London’s medievalpast. Then, there are a few of us diehards whohave done the Tower of London Twilight Tour .It’s brilliant and I highly recommend going to seethe Tower when everyone has gone, and only theYeoman Warders and spooky spirits are out. Butthat isn’t all there is to the Tower, there is the700 year old Ceremony of the Keys. It’s thelongest running (and shortest) military ceremonyin the world. Every night, at 9:53pm on the dot,the Warders begin their 7 minute lock upceremony, rain, wind, snow or shine. They lockthe Tower in the same manner since the 12thcentury. The first recorded mention of theceremony is in 1380, but the locking of the Towercan be traced further back to the reign of HenryII (March 5, 1133- June 6, 1189). He dislikedhaving the gates open so he insisted they belocked from sundown to sunrise every night. Nowyou’re saying hang on, this ceremony is at 10 o’clock at night, well past sunset. Yes, thanks to theDuke of Wellington (May 1, 1769 – September14, 1852) who in 1826, had 1,000 antsy soldiersstationed at the Tower and felt it would be bestto give them a more lenient curfew to carouseand enjoy all that London has to offer lest he havea mutiny on his hands. He reset the curfew to10pm and it’s been that way ever since. To itscredit, the ceremony has only been late once inits 700 year history; on September 7, 1940,Germany bombed London and the ceremony wasdelayed by 7 minutes. But the show went on!Amidst bombs, and extreme danger, the Warderheading the ceremony insisted, (in spite of beinggravely injured) that they finished what they hadstarted. Sadly, that Warder died as a result ofthose injuries 3 years later, making him the oldest

running Warder in history (1908 – 1943). Englishtenacity at its best. While the time may have changed, the actualceremony hasn’t. When I watched the ceremony,it gave me the goosebumps. It was like steppingback in time, but really stepping back. The eventsunfolding before you have been repeated daily,in the same fashion for over 700 years. AnyWarder at the Tower can conduct the ceremony.The soldiers involved in the Tower’s Ceremonyof the Keys are young servicemen. The Warders,as always, are fountains knowledge as well asstellar ambassadors to the Tower. They areabsolute gems; they are witty, funny, andextremely professional. They take this ceremonyand their duties at the Tower very seriously; theyare not mere tour guides. All Warders come fromthe military, having seen 22 years of servicebefore being able to join the esteemed ranks ofthe Yeoman Warders. The best part of this: it’s FREE! (There is a £1booking fee to cover admin costs but the ticketis free). A visit to the Tower during the day costsabout £22 so it’s nice to get in and see a piece ofhistory without paying an arm and a leg. This isalso why it’s booked up so far in advance. A few words of warning: 1.) Don’t be late. This event is very popular, andat the time of this writing, it is booked solid untilAugust 2015. Your name is on a list, and if youmiss it, you can’t come in and you will have towait months for another shot. Come early withyour ID and ticket ready. 2.) No cameras, no recording devices, no mobilephones. All of it off. You’re permitted to takepictures after the event of the Tower, and TowerBridge is lovely at night from the Tower, butduring the ceremony, absolutely no photos orvideos are permitted. It’s an incredible traditionand over in 7 minutes so it’s best if you listen and

By Sandra Alvarez

during the ceremony, absolutely no photos orvideos are permitted. It’s an incredible traditionand over in 7 minutes so it’s best if you listenand immerse yourself in the moment rather thantexting your mates or the fiddling with yourcamera. 3.) Dress warmly. I did this in early March. I’mCanadian, I can take standing outside in near zerotemps for a while and not bat an eyelash,

however, some of you may not be so inclined.You have to get to the Tower well before theevent, stand in a queue and wait outside. Sounless you’re doing this in the summer, I suggestyour bring a jacket to keep warm. You’re notwalking far or moving about very much onceyou’re inside the walls, and the entire ceremonytakes place outside so dress accordingly. Also,this is England – bring an umbrella just in case.

The Crusades: A Very Brief History,1095-1500

By Andrew Latham

The Crusades: A Very Brief History,1095-1500

Between the mid-11th and late-15th centuries, an historically specificconfiguration of material and ideational factors gave rise to a constellation ofreligious wars that have come to be known as “the crusades”. This constellationincluded Church-organized wars in the Holy Land, Iberia and along the Balticfrontier as well as within Latin Christendom itself.[1] The Crusades to the HolyLand were “wars of liberation” initially launched by the Church to restoreJerusalem to Christian rule. Following the First Crusade and the establishmentof the crusader principalities (the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch,the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem – collectively known asOutremer), these expeditions were conducted primarily to defend the Holy Placesagainst Muslim attempts at reconquest or, following its loss in 1187 and again in1244, to recover Jerusalem for Latin Christendom. While authorized by, andfought on behalf of, the Church these wars were prosecuted by princes, noblesand knights from every corner of Latin Christendom as well as by so-called “para-crusaders” (milites ad terminum), and members of military orders such as theTemplars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights.[2] They were fought primarilyagainst a range of Muslim powers, although the Fourth Crusade ended up beingwaged largely against adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite. Although the ideaof launching additional expeditions to liberate Jerusalem persisted for aconsiderable time, the Crusades to the Holy Land effectively came to an end withthe fall of the last Christian stronghold in Palestine – Acre – in 1291.[3]

Map of the world entitled, 'Totius Orbis Habitabilis Brevis Descriptio' -Image from British Library - Harley 7182

The Iberian crusades were a series of militarycampaigns launched by the Church to liberateChristians from Muslim rule in what are nowSpain and Portugal.[4] While undertaken againstthe backdrop of the Reconquista, they are neitherreducible to, nor synonymous with, this muchbroader and more complex geopoliticalphenomenon. Although it came to be seen as asanctified enterprise, the Reconquista was inlarge measure a “political” process of conquest,conversion and colonization that unfolded overseveral centuries. The Iberian crusades, on theother hand, were a series of discrete papallyauthorized, religiously motivated militarycampaigns that punctuated that centuries-longprocess.[5] The Reconquista was not, in otherwords, an “eternal” or “perpetual” crusade suchas would emerge in the Baltic region.[6] To besure, these two phenomena clearly exercised areciprocal influence one another; just as clearly,however, they remained distinct expressions ofthe historical structure of medieval war. Unlike the crusades in the Holy Land and Iberia,which were understood to be elements of theChurch’s eschatological struggle against Islam,the Northern Crusades were “indirect missionarywars” launched by the Church to create theconditions necessary for the subsequentevangelization of the pagan Baltic region.[7] Aswith their Iberian counterparts, these crusadeswere part of a broader phenomenon of territorialconquest and colonization – in this case, themedieval German Ostsiedlung or “settlement ofthe East” – but were not reducible to it. Althoughin this case there was a dimension of “perpetualcrusade” that was not found in Spain, theNorthern Crusades were nevertheless discretecampaigns punctuating the three-centuries longprocess of conquest and colonization thatGermanized and Christianized the Baltic region.As Peter Lock has characterized argued, thisprocess unfolded in five partly overlappingphases: the Wendish Crusades (1147-85), theLivonian and Estonian Crusades (1198-1290),the Prussian Crusades (1230-83), the LithuanianCrusades (1280-1435), and the NovgorodCrusades (1243-15th century).[8] Whileauthorized by, and fought on behalf of, theChurch these wars were prosecuted by Danish,Saxon, and Swedish princes as well as by militaryorders such as the Sword Brothers and theTeutonic Knights. They were fought primarily

against a range of pagan adversaries – Wends,Livonians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Suomi, andPrussians – although some were also wagedagainst Russian Christian schismatics (i.e.adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite). By theearly 16th century, these ecclesiastical wars –always only one element of broader process ofthe expansion of medieval Europe – hadcontributed significantly to extension of thenortheastern frontier of Latin Christendom andthe transformation of the Baltic from a paganmare incognita into a Latin Christian lake. The final expression or form of religious war,however, was not directed outward againstMuslims or pagans, but inward against Christianswithin Latin Christendom.[9] These “internalcrusades” were of two types. The first involvedChurch-organized wars against schismatics andheretics such as the Cathars, Hussites andWaldensians. These heterodox religiousmovements were seen a “a threat to Christendom,a threat, as Hostiensis put it, to Catholic unitywhich was in fact more dangerous than to theHoly Land.”[10] This type of crusade was thusseen as a defensive war fought against those whothreatened the Church’s spiritual authority. Thesecond type of internal crusade involved warslaunched by the papacy against temporal powersit believed threatened the Church’s politicalauthority. Examples include Pope Innocent II’s1135 crusade against the South Italian Normans“for the liberation of the Church” and PopeInnocent III’s 1199 crusade Markward of Anweilerwho, the pope charged, was impeding the FourthCrusade. As Riley-Smith notes, these internalcrusades were always framed as being necessaryfor the defense of the Catholic faith and/or theliberty of the Church.[11] Reflecting the very different “political”conditions encountered in these distinctcontexts, each of these types of religious wardeveloped its own distinctive character. But eachwas also powerfully conditioned – indeed, madepossible – by a common institutional and legalframework (the idea of the “crusade” as codifiedin canon law and theology), a common politico-military infrastructure (the crusader army, themilitary religious orders), and a common moralpurpose (the defence of the Church andChristendom, the redress of injustice). Putslightly differently, each was a manifestation of

Christendom, the redress of injustice). Putslightly differently, each was a manifestation ofa common historical structure of war. In thischapter, I trace the contours of the specific typesof violent religious conflict always immanentwithin the historical structure of medieval war. The crusades, on this account, were artifacts ofneither the timeless logic of anarchy nor thefeudal mode of production/exploitation. Norwere they simply the geopolitical derivatives ofsocially constructed religious mentalitéscollectives. Nor, significantly, were they afunction of the logic of the late medieval state-system. Rather, they were organic expressionsof the historical structure of medieval religiouswar. This structure comprised three elements.The first of these was the development of adistinctive war-making capability on the part ofthe post-Gregorian Church. The second was thecrystallization of a socially constructed identity-interest complex that placed this Church in astructurally antagonistic relationship with arange of other social forces both within andbeyond Latin Christendom. And the third was theevolution of the social institution of “crusade” –an institution that both legitimized war as an

instrument of ecclesiastical statecraft and re-constructed the armed nobility that provided thecore of Latin Christendom’s war-fighting capacityas “soldiers of Christ” willing and able to fight onbehalf of the Church and its interests. Thishistorical structure did not “cause” the crusades –at least not directly. Rather, it established theessential conditions-of-possibility for each ofthe specific crusades that took place during thelater medieval era. Once it had crystallized,ecclesiastical war became an always-immanentfeature of the geopolitical relations of LatinChristendom; once it had passed from thehistorical scene, crusading – while formallypersisting for centuries – became little more thana vestigial remnant of a bygone era, increasinglyout of place in the post-medieval world order ofEarly Modern Europe.[12]

The Crusades to the Holy Land As Riley-Smith has argued, following the “birth”of the crusading movement and the First Crusade,the history of the crusades to the Holy Land canbe organized into several discrete phases.

Crusaders capture Antioch – The Hague, KB, KA 20 fol. 255r

phases. The first of these, c. 1102-87, hedescribes as that of “crusading inadolescence”.[13] During this phase, the Churchand crusader principalities were forceddecisively on to the defensive by an increasinglyunified Islamic polity committed to thereconquest of Jerusalem and the extirpation ofthe Christian presence in Syria and Palestine.The success of the First Crusade was largely afunction of disunity and internecine conflict inthe Islamic world. This was also true of the periodin which the Crusader States were established –disunity among the contiguous Muslim polities(Rum, Aleppo and Mosul, Damascus, Egypt,Seijar, Hama, Homs) meant that the Christianprinces could play them off against one anotherto great strategic effect. Almost immediatelyafter the liberation of Jerusalem, however,Muslim opposition began to coalesce: Egyptianforces, for example, attempted to retakeJerusalem as early as 1099, as did those of the

sultanate of Iraq beginning in 1110.[14]Ominously from the Church’s perspective, anincreasingly unified Muslim state centered onMosul and Aleppo began to coalesce in the1120s. When a new governor, ‘Imad as-Din Zengi,was appointed in 1128, he led this newly unifiedemirate on a series of campaigns intended tofurther extend what had become his personaldomain at the expense of both his Christian andMuslim neighbours. When in 1144 the count ofEdessa entered into a defensive alliance withone of Zengi’s Muslim adversaries, Zengi sensedan opportunity and attacked the county. Edessa,the capital of the first crusader principality anda cornerstone of the strategic defenses ofJerusalem, fell to Zengi’s forces on Christmas1144. Almost as soon as they had taken Jerusalem in1099, the crusader leadership realized that if theHoly Land were to be made secure it would be

Louis IX sailing off on the Second Crusade. - Image from British Library Royal 16 G VI

be necessary to create a kind of defensive bufferaround Jerusalem. In addition to an “inner ring”formed by the principalities founded during theFirst Crusade, this would also require an “outerring” comprising the key strategic towns ofAscalon, Aleppo, Damascus and theMediterranean ports, all of which could providestaging areas for any future Muslimcounteroffensive against the Kingdom ofJerusalem. With the fall of Edessa, this strategywas seriously compromised. On 1 December1145 Pope Eugenius III reacted to thisunwelcome development by issuing a generalletter entitled Quantum praedecessores, whichcalled for a second crusade to fight in defenceof the Holy Land. Following a poor initialresponse, the encyclical was reissued on 1 March1146 and Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux wascharged with preaching the crusade in Franceand Germany. Quantum praedecessores wasaugmented by a second encyclical issued inOctober of that year – Divini dispensatione –addressed specifically to the Italian clergy. Inaddition to calling on the armed laity to take thecross and come to the aid of their besiegedbrethren in Outremer, both of these lettersoffered those who took the cross remission ofsins, protection of property and other privileges.The former also outlined the motives behind thiscall to crusade: on the one hand, the need to rightthe injustices perpetrated by the Muslims (theunlawful seizure of one of the oldest of allChristian cities; the spoliation of the local Churchand its relics; and the murder of the localarchbishop and his clergy); and, on the other, theneed to deal with the threat to the Church andall Christendom posed by the loss of the city. Thelatter extended the crusade to Iberia and theBaltic frontier, in effect authorizing a three-frontcampaign to defend and expand LatinChristendom.[15] The response to the call was an extraordinarymobilization of the armed laity of the Latin world.In 1147, two massive armies – one under theleadership of King Louis VII of France; the otherunder Conrad III of Germany – embarked in quicksuccession on the overland route throughByzantine Greece and Anatolia to Syria. Despitethe tremendous enthusiasm generated by theventure, however, the sad reality (from theChurch’s perspective) was that these crusaderarmies were simply not up to the task of takingon the Muslims threatening Outremer. Against

the backdrop of political maneuvering amongstthe French, German and Byzantine leaders, theSeljuk Turks inflicted crushing defeats onConrad’s army at Dorylaeum and Louis’ army atLaodicea, both in Asia Minor. Despite the cleardanger posed by the unification of Egypt and Syriaunder Saladin in 1174, the resultingdemoralization and disillusionment mooted thepossibility of a major crusade to the East for thebetter part of a generation. [16] The second phase in the history of the crusadesto the Holy Land, that of their “coming of age”,began with the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in1187 and ended with its restoration to LatinChristendom in 1229.[17] Above all else, thisphase was characterized by a profound changein geopolitical purpose: during this period, thecrusades were no longer prosecuted in defenceof Jerusalem, but for its recovery. After the failureof the Second Crusade, the jihad against theChristian principalities provided both a commongoal and a unifying religious focal point for theMuslim polities in the region. Building on this,Zengi’s son and successor, Nur al-Din, firstcreated a unified Syrian emirate and then enteredinto an alliance with Egypt for the purpose ofputting pressure on the Christians. On his death,the vizier of Egypt, Saladin, invaded Syria,creating for the first time a truly unified Muslimpolity surrounding Outremer. Once he hadconsolidated his hold over this “empire”, Saladinresumed the jihad against the crusaderprincipalities. After a somewhat chequeredperiod marked by a few notable victories andseveral serious defeats, and at a point when “theChristians were exceptionally weak and divided”,Saladin’s army attacked Tiberias.[18] When theChristian army marched to relieve the besiegedcitadel, Saladin caught them in a highlyunfavourable position and inflicted a devastatingdefeat upon them at the Battle of Hattin. Themajority of the massive Christian host was killedor captured, including the King of Jerusalem, theMaster of the Temple and many other importantleaders. The True Cross, recovered during theFirst Crusade and typically carried into battle bythe King of Jerusalem, was captured and paradedupside down through the streets of Damascus bythe victorious Muslims. With the principalitiesdenuded of their best fighting men, Jerusalemfell to Saladin’s forces on October 2,1187. By thetime Saladin was finished his campaign,Outremer had been reduced to little more than

On October 29, 1187 Pope Gregory VIIIresponded to these catastrophic developmentsby issuing an encyclical – Audita tremendi – thatcalled upon the princes, nobles and knights ofLatin Christendom to launch an expedition toliberate Jerusalem once again from theMuslims.[19] The encyclical began bycharacterizing the disastrous fall of Jerusalemas punishment for the collective sinfulness of allChristendom; the city had been lost, so the popeargued, because of the sins of Christianseverywhere. This being the case, the encyclicalcontinued, the redemption and liberation of theHoly Sites necessarily required penitentialsacrifice by Christians everywhere.[20] In effect,the pope called on Latin Christendom to redeemitself through acts of contrition, piety andpurification, including participation in anexpedition to liberate Jerusalem. In practicalterms, the encyclical also sought to facilitatesuch an expedition by imposing a seven-yeartruce throughout Latin Christendom and bymobilizing the princes and nobles of LatinChristendom by offering them the now-usualindulgences, privileges and protections inexchange for their penitent participation in anarmed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.[21] The response to Gregory’s call was “the largestmilitary enterprise in the middle ages”.[22]Richard I (Lionheart) of England, Phillip II(Augustus) of France and Frederick I (Barbarossa)of the Holy Roman Empire all led vast armies tothe Holy Land. Once again, however, thecampaign was to prove ill-fated. Frederickdrowned en route, leaving only a rump forceunder the command of Duke Leopold IV of Austriato press on to Palestine. Divisions among thethree temporal crusade leaders subsequentlyled to the departure of Leopold and Phillip fromthe Holy Land in 1191. This left only Richard tocontinue the campaign, which he did ably andwith some notable military successes againstSaladin. When he began his campaign, the Latinkingdom comprised little more than a handful ofcoastal cities and a few isolated inlandfortresses; when he was finished, it consisted ofthe whole coast from Tyre to Jaffa. However,while Richard had effectively reversed most ofSaladin’s gains since the Battle of Hattin, he wasable neither to break the sultan’s army nor forcehim to abandon Jerusalem. The best he couldmanage was a negotiated settlement thatguaranteed unarmed Christian pilgrims access

to the holy sites, but that left the Holy City inMuslim hands. Having achieved this – and createdthe geopolitical conditions necessary for theKingdom of Jerusalem to survive for anothercentury – Richard quit the Holy Land for good in1192. While Richard’s campaign against Saladin was insome ways remarkably successful, from theChurch’s perspective it manifestly failed toachieve the goals articulated in Audita tremendi.To be certain, the crusader principalities had beenrestored and their strategic position greatlyenhanced. But, as Madden puts it, “the purposeof these states was the protection of the holysites; they were not an end in themselves”. Tothe papacy and many of Latin Christendom’stemporal leaders, Richard’s inability to liberateJerusalem from Saladin’s grip was a crushingsetback – one that needed to be reversed at theearliest possible opportunity. The failure torealize this crucial objective thus set the stagefor three more major crusades, all intended torestore the holy sites to Latin Christendom. In1198, Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) issued theencyclical Post miserable, launching the FourthCrusade (1202-1204). The avowed objective ofthis campaign was “the liberation of Jerusalemby an attack on Egypt”.[23] It was, however, soondiverted into an attack on the Byzantine capital,largely as a result of the strategic calculation that“a Constantinople in reliable western handsmight be deemed as much of an asset for theliberation of Jerusalem as the conquest ofAlexandria”.[24] While it succeeded inestablishing the Latin Kingdom ofConstantinople, this crusade too manifestlyfailed to realize its declared goal of liberatingJerusalem. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221), alsolaunched by Innocent, was similarly intended toharness the “full economic, military and spiritualmight” of Latin Christendom to the task ofliberating Jerusalem, this time under even tighterChurch leadership. The proximate objective ofthe crusade was again Egypt – the Nile port ofDamietta was to be captured and used as a basefor an attack on Cairo which was in turn to beused as a base for the liberation of Jerusalem.Following extensive preparations, Damietta wasattacked and captured in 1219. In August 1221,however, the crusader army found itselfsurrounded by Muslim forces near El Mansuraand was forced to withdraw from Egypt. For allits efforts, this crusade achieved little more than

Mansura and was forced to withdraw from Egypt.For all its efforts, this crusade achieved littlemore than an eight-year truce and a (neverfulfilled) promise that the relic of the True Cross –lost to Christendom at the Battle of Hattin in1187 – would be returned. The Sixth Crusade(1228-1229) was to prove considerably moresuccessful, though more due to skilful diplomacythan marital prowess.[25] Under pressure firstfrom Pope Honorius III and later from GregoryIX, the Holy Roman Emperor and King ofJerusalem, Frederick II, finally embarked on hislong-promised crusade in 1228. He launched hisexpedition, however, without papal approvalbecause, having failed for so long to fulfill hiscrusader vow, he was under sanction ofexcommunication. While his status as anexcommunicate caused him considerablepolitical difficulty – he was not afforded crusaderprotections and privileges; he was opposed bythe military orders – Frederick was neverthelessable to force the sultan of Egypt, al-Kamil, to thebargaining table. Against the backdrop of al-Kamil’s efforts to consolidate control over hisown newly acquired Syrian territories, Frederickwas then able to pressure him into signing atreaty that effectively surrendered Jerusalem tothe Christians. While the treaty itself no longersurvives, its terms were widely reported incontemporary accounts. On the one hand, inreturn for a much-needed ten-year truce, al-

Kamil agreed that the Kingdom of Jerusalemwould extend from Beirut to Jaffa and wouldinclude Bethlehem, Nazareth, Belfort andMontfort and the city of Jerusalem (which wouldbe demilitarized). On the other, Frederick agreedthat the Muslim inhabitants would retain controlover their holy sites (the Dome of the Rock andthe Temple of Solomon), remain in possession oftheir property, and administer their own systemof justice. He also agreed that the Kingdom ofJerusalem would stay neutral in any futureconflict between the sultanate and the Christianprincipalities of Tripoli and Antioch. Whilecondemned by many at the time for the“humiliating” nature of its outcome, ingeopolitical terms the crusade was clearly asuccess: the city of Jerusalem was restored toLatin Christendom and the Kingdom of Jerusalemrebuilt as its defensive glacis. The third phase of crusading in the Holy Land –that of its “maturity” – began with the expirationof Frederick’s truce in 1239 and ended with thefall of the last remnant of Outremer, the city ofAcre, in 1291.[26] Its opening act involved theoccupation of the defenceless city of Jerusalemby the forces of the Muslim emir of Kerak in 1239.Against the backdrop of internecine conflict inthe Muslim world, over the next two years minorcrusader armies were able to play Muslimfactions of against each other, thereby securing

Attack on Damietta - image from British Library Royal 16 G VI

securing the return of the city of Jerusalem andgreatly extending the frontiers of the Kingdomof Jerusalem. But the regional balance of forcessoon shifted again and the Muslims retook thedefenceless city in 1244, subsequentlymassacring its Christian inhabitants and torchingthe Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This set thestage for the final three acts of this phase of thecrusades to the East. The Seventh Crusade(1248-54), led by King Louis IX of France, was adirect response to the loss of the Holy City. Louisled a massive army to Egypt, occupying Damiettaalmost without resistance and then advancingon Cairo. Stiffening Muslim resistance and anoutbreak of dysentery within the crusader army,however, turned the tide and Louis was forcedto withdraw toward his operational base atDamietta. Additional Muslim successes soonrendered the crusader army’s position untenableand Louis’ first bid to liberate Jerusalem endedwith him surrendering to the sultan of Egypt onApril 6, 1250. The Eighth Crusade (1270) wasKing Louis’ second attempt to liberate the holysites. This time he adopted a three-step strategy:first, attack Tunis; second, advance along thenorth African coast and take Egypt; and, third,liberate Jerusalem. At first, the expedition wentwell: Carthage fell to Louis in July 1270 and aSicilian fleet led by Charles of Anjou was nearingthe port with reinforcements that would allowthe king to exploit this initial victory. On August25, however, Louis died of dysentery; the crusadewas abandoned shortly thereafter. Finally, in theimmediate aftermath of the failed EighthCrusade, Prince Edward of England led anexpedition to the Holy Land to help defendTripoli and the rump Kingdom of Jerusalem. Thiswas the Ninth Crusade (1271-2), conventionallyconsidered to be the last major crusade to theHoly Land. It ended when a treaty was signedbetween Egypt and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Upon the death of his father, King Henry III,Edward returned home to assume the Englishthrone. As this necessarily schematic sketch clearlyindicates, the crusades to the Holy Land were apowerful expression of the historical structureof war of later medieval Latin Christendom: theyreflected the distinctive war-making capacity ofthe Church (the crusader army and the militaryreligious orders); they expressed the sociallyconstructed interests of the reform papacy (theliberation and defence of Jerusalem); and they

were made possible by the institution of thecrusade (constituting the Church as a legitimatewar-making unit and the “crusader” as arecognizable form of actor with a definedportfolio of religious interests). Of course,crusading was not the only form of war conductedby Christian powers in the Holy Land. Thedynamics of public war were clearly at workthroughout the two-centuries long Latin politicalpresence in Syria and Palestine. Nevertheless,any serious account of medieval geopolitics mustrecognize and take into account thedistinctiveness of these ecclesiastical wars.While often intertwined with other forms ofviolent conflict, the crusades were not reducibleto them; nor were they motivated by the sameunderlying constellation of war-making units,structural antagonisms and institutions that gaverise to these other forms of war. Rather, they werea distinctive form of organized violence – onethat would quickly find expression in other partsof Latin Christendom. The Iberian Crusades The pre-history of the Iberian Crusades can betraced to the disintegration of UmayyadCaliphate of Córdoba in 1031 and the subsequentemergence of a constellation of weak successorkingdoms – Badajoz, Seville, Grenada, Málaga,Toledo, Valencia, Denia, the Balearic Islands,Zaragosa and Lérida – known as taifas. Locked inintense internecine competition, these emiratessoon began to seek the “protection” of themilitarily stronger Christian kingdoms of León,Castille, Navarre, Aragón and Catalonia. In turn,these Christian kingdoms began to vie with oneanother for the tributary payments (parias) paidby the taifas for protection. In this complexregional system, the geopolitical fault-lines werenot always drawn along religious or civilizationallines: as O’Callaghan puts it, “[j]ust as Muslimkings concluded that it was prudent to becomevassals of their Christian neighbors, payingtribute and joining in attacks on their fellowMuslims, so too, when it suited their purpose,Christian princes did not hesitate to makealliances with Muslims”.[27] Nor were theystable: alliances and tributary arrangementschanged as perceptions of advantage orinsecurity shifted.[28] And while territorialexpansion at the expense of the taifas wascertainly part of the dynamic of this system

was certainly part of the dynamic of this system(witness Fernando I’s conquest of the town ofCoimbra from the taifa of Badajoz in 1064), itwas not its defining characteristic. Rather, thedominant logic of Iberian geopolitics during thisperiod was maneuvering for advantage amongthe taifa statelets coupled with competition overthe parias (which had both proprietorial andstate-building dimensions) among the now-dominant Christian principalities.[29] It was against this backdrop that in 1063 PopeAlexander II encouraged Christian knights fromwithin and beyond Iberia to wage war on thetaifas. Reflecting his worldview as one of theearly reform popes, Alexander was greatly

concerned by the general military threat posedto Christendom by Islam. Indeed, in common withGregory VII and Urban II, Alexander “consideredthe military threat posed to Christianity by Islam,and its eschatological context, at least as muchin terms of the struggle in Iberia as in that of warsoccurring in the Middle East”.[30] Sensing anopportunity to liberate at least some of the once-Christian lands of the peninsula from Muslim rule,Alexander responded to an appeal for assistancefrom the Christian king of Aragón by issuing abull – Clero Vultutnensi – that offered relief frompenance and remission of sin to any and allChristian warriors participating in his plannedexpedition against the taifa of Zaragosa.[31] Inresponse, a largen Iberia journeyed to Aragón to

A 12th-century painting of Alfonso VI at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

large number of knights from Burgundy,Normandy, Aquitaine, Italy, and all over ChristianIberia journeyed to Aragón to take part in thecampaign. The fort at Barbastro – a strategicallyimportant site about sixty miles north of the townof Zaragosa – was subsequently taken this armyand held until recaptured by Muslim forces in late1065. Following several lesser actions in which PopeGregory VII may have offered similar religiousinducements to fight,[32] in 1089 another majorproto-crusade was launched by Pope Urban II.The geopolitical context within which thiscampaign was undertaken was quite differentfrom that prevailing in the 1060s. In 1085, King

Alfonso VI of Castile captured Toledo, convincingthe emirs of the taifa statelets that they faced anincreasingly lethal threat to their existence. Theysubsequently appealed to the Almoravids – apuritanical Sunni sect that had recentlysubjugated Morocco – to help them resist theChristian campaign of reconquest. Responding tothis appeal, but also acting on their belief that thetaifas were decadent and in need of theirparticular brand of religious reinvigoration, theAlmoravids crossed the Straits of Gibraltar andentered Iberia in force. In 1087, they routed KingAlfonso’s army at the battle of Sagrajas nearBadajoz, thereby stemming the Christianadvance, ending the parias system and sosimultaneously dealing a severe geopolitical and

Battle with Saracens - Image from the British Library Royal 15 E VI

economic blow to the Christian principalities.Over the next two decades or so, the Almoravidsthen proceeded to incorporate the remainingtaifas into their empire. These developmentsgravely concerned Church officials, who saw inthem not only a reversal of the re-conquest, buta growing threat to Christian Spain, southernFrance and, ultimately, all of Christendom.[33]In a bid to “create a wall and bastion against theSaracens”,[34] the pope offered remission of sinsto those Catalan nobles who undertook toliberate and restore a number of importantmetropolitan sees under Muslim control (Braga,Mérida, Seville and Tarragona). While notyielding immediate successes, the callnevertheless resulted in the mobilization ofconsiderable number of knights committed tothe goal of liberating Tarragona. In some waysanticipating the future evolution of the MilitaryOrders (Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights,etc.), it even led to the creation of novel form of“military confraternity” – comprising knightsliving communally in frontier fortresses –dedicated to liberating and restoring the See inreturn for the remission of their sins.[35] These early campaigns, clear expressions of thehistorical structure of medieval war as it hadbegun to crystallize in the 11th century, aresignificant for two reasons. First, theycontributed to the evolution of the crusadeproper as a defining element of the geopoliticalsystem of medieval Latin Christendom. Duringthese campaigns, many of the elements that werelater to coalesce into the institution of thecrusade were first developed: the use of papalbulls to mobilize the armed laity, the remissionof sins in return for service, the invocation of thePeace of God in order to secure the internaltranquility necessary for campaigning againstthe Muslims,[36] and the trans-local nature ofthe forces responding to the call all anticipatedthe character of crusading proper. While thereis no denying that some of the institution’sdefining elements – such as the vow and thesense of pilgrimage – were not present in thesepre-1095 campaigns, there is also no denyingthat these experiments laid the institutionalgroundwork for the First Crusade to the HolyLand. Second, these campaigns initiated aprocess of transformation that radically alteredthe overall character of the Reconquista. Spacelimitations preclude a detailed account of thisbroader process. Suffice it to say, however, that

whereas prior to the 1060s the re-conquest wasdriven by the inter-twined logics of lordlypolitical accumulation and princely state-building, after the Barbastro campaign it wasincreasingly driven by the logic of religiousdefense and expansion (defensio and dilatio) aswell. To be sure, the more mundane dynamics ofthe Reconquista never disappeared: it was alwaysin some substantial measure about theconfiguration, wealth and power of thepeninsula’s Christian kingdoms and lesserprincipalities. After 1063, however, a significantnew religious dimension was introduced thatprofoundly transformed the causes, characterand correlates of war in the region. If notcompletely reconfiguring the Reconquista into asort of perpetual crusade – as O’Callaghan seemsto argue – this development clearly reshaped thebasic patterns of violent political conflict in thepeninsula for centuries to come. The next phase of Iberian crusading – runningfrom 1095-1123 – was a period of bricolage andexperimentation during which the constitutiveideal of the crusade – forged decisively duringthe successful expedition to Jerusalem in 1099 –was purposefully introduced to Iberia. As withthe experiments before 1095, the impulse tointroduce crusading proper to the peninsula wasprovided primarily by developments in theIslamic world – specifically, by the continuingsuccesses of the Almoravids in both weakeningthe Christian kingdoms and consolidating theirown. By 1110, this process was completed withthe incorporation of the last remaining taifa –Zaragosa – into their empire. With internalconsolidation complete, the Almoravids werefree to intensify their pressure on the Christiankingdoms of Léon-Castile and Aragón , promptingthe rulers of these kingdoms in turn to appeal tothe papacy for assistance. The reform popes of the period – Urban II, PaschalII, Gelasius II, Calixtus II – viewing the threat inIberia in its broader eschatological context,responded to this appeal by mobilizing the onlymilitary instrument then available to them: thecrusader army. Drawing on the constitutive idealof the successful 1095 expedition to Jerusalem,the papacy almost immediately began tointroduce the formal apparatus of crusading –bull, preaching, vow, indulgence, privilege,signing with the cross – to the Iberian region inorder to mobilize the martial resources of

indulgence, privilege, signing with the cross – tothe Iberian region in order to mobilize the martialresources of Christendom against theAlmoravids. This resulted in two crusadesbetween 1113-8. The first of these, authorizedby Pope Paschal in 1113, was a joint Pisan-French-Catalan expedition to liberate Christiancaptives being held in the Balearic Islands;[37]the second, proclaimed in 1118 and led by KingAlfonso I of Aragón-Navarre, was a campaign tocapture Zaragosa.[38] While there is somedebate as to whether they were full-fledgedcrusades or merely a type of Iberian proto-crusade,[39] these two campaigns clearlyreflected the Church’s new-found desire notmerely to sanctify and encourage theReconquista, but to use its recently acquired anddistinctive war-making capacity to advance itsown socially constructed interests in the region. The final stage, from 1123 onwards, was that ofIberian crusading in maturity. As argued above,crusading in Iberia prior to 1123 involved eitherinnovations that anticipated the First Crusade of1095 or, after 1099, piecemeal applications ofcrusading practices that had crystallized as aresult of that campaign. In 1123, however, theFirst Lateran Council decisively ruled that theIberian crusades were of a piece with those tothe Holy Land.[40] From this point on, thecrusades in Iberia were seen as part of a widerconflict against Islam – usually as a kind of“second front”, though sometimes as analternate route to the East and steps were oftentaken to coordinate (or at least “de-conflict”)crusades in the two theaters. As importantly, withthe full application of the increasingly well-defined crusade institution in Iberia, crusaderarmies could be more readily mobilized by theChurch to advance its interests in the peninsula.Taking advantage of this new capacity, thepapacy authorized a number of Iberiancampaigns – one conducted by Alfonso VII ofCastile against Almería on the southern coast ofGranada 1147;[41] another, conducted by a jointCatalan-Genoese force, against Tortosa at themouth of the Ebro in 1148 – in support of theSecond Crusade (1145-9).[42] Popes EugeniusIII and Anastasius IV also authorized a crusadeby Count Ramon Berenguer IV to consolidatecontrol of the Ebro valley between 1152 and1154, and one by King Alfonso VII to captureAndújar in 1155. [43]From the mid-1100s onward, however, the

Church was increasingly concerned with thethreat to Christendom posed by the Almohads, afundamentalist Islamic sect originating inMorocco that had begun displacing theAlmoravids as rulers of Muslim Iberia. Against thebackdrop of continuing rivalry among theChristian principalities, for several decades thisnew empire reversed the geopolitical dynamicin the peninsula, winning several importantbattles, and retaking territory that had been lostin the later years of the Almoravid regime. In1172, the Almohads seized the last Almoravidemirate in Iberia. The period of Almohadexpansion was not to last for long, however.Faced with the grave threat to Christian Iberiaposed by the resurgent Muslim forces, theChristian princes (with papal encouragement)began to employ a number of religious militaryorders as a bulwark against further Almohadadvances. As Houlsey observes, thisphenomenon had both a local and translocaldimension.[44] On the one hand, each of theChristian kingdoms (except Navarre) created itsown orders. These included the larger and morelong-lived orders such as Alcántara, Calatrava,and Santiago, as well as more ephemeral onessuch as Le Merced, Monte Gaudio, San Jorge deAlfama, and Trujillo. On the other hand, theTemplars and the Hospitallers, both iconictranslocal orders, had a significant presence inthe peninsula, especially in Aragón andCatalonia.[45] Taken together, these ordersprovided a permanent defensive carapace alongthe frontier – a carapace that contributedsubstantially to the frustration of the Almohadadvance in the latter part of the 12th century. Not content with merely stabilizing the frontierin Iberia, during this period successive popesoffered remission of sins and other spiritualinducements to those fighting to drive theMuslims out of Iberia. In 1175, Pope AlexanderIII used the promise of the same indulgence givento crusaders to the Holy Land to encourageChristian rulers of Léon, Castile and Aragón to goon the offensive against the Almohads. In aneffort to prevent any large-scale departure ofpenitential warriors from Spain to the Holy Landfollowing the proclamation of the Third Crusade(to liberate Jerusalem, which fallen in 1187),Pope Clement III extended the scope of thatcrusade to include Iberia. In response, AlfonsoVIII went on the offensive south of the GuadianaRiver and, more importantly, non-Iberian

VIII went on the offensive south of the GuadianaRiver and, more importantly, non-Iberiancrusaders on their way to the Holy Land engagedin a joint venture with Sancho I of Portugal tocapture the town of Silves (the Crusade of Silves,1189). Also encouraged by the extension of theCrusade bull to Iberia, Alfonso VIII embarkedupon the ill-fated Crusade of Alarcos (1193).Against the backdrop of successful and crucialpapal efforts to end the internecine strugglesamong the peninsula’s Christian princes, theCrusade of Las Navas de Tolosa was launched in1212. Culminating in a decisive Christian victory,the campaign effectively broke the back of theAlmohad empire and constituted a tipping pointof sorts in the long conflict in Iberia. Thepreceding century or so had been one ofgeopolitical stalemate, with the frontier whip-sawing back and forth according the always-shifting balance of forces between the Muslimand Christian powers. After Las Navas, however,the Almohads never again managed to recovertheir footing, and their empire entered into aperiod of terminal decline. Four decades (andseveral crusades) later, al-Andalus had been allbut extinguished and almost all of Iberia hadbeen permanently reincorporated into the LatinChristian world order. Perhaps not surprisingly, over the course ofseveral centuries the Iberian Crusadesdeveloped their own distinctive character:“pilgrimage” was far less important than in thecrusades to the Holy Land; they were closelycontrolled by Iberian monarchies (especiallyLéon-Castile); they were more successful thanthose in the East (especially after the Battle ofLas Navas in 1212); they were more reliant onboth regional and trans-regional military orders;and the Iberian “crusader states” – unlike thosein the Holy Land – developed strong fiscal andadministrative bases from which to launch bothpolitical wars and crusades.[46] But they werenevertheless also clear expressions of anhistorical structure of war that transcended theIberian sub-system: they reflected thedistinctive war-making capacity of the Church(the crusader army and the military religiousorders); they expressed the socially constructedinterests of the reform papacy (the restorationof once-Christian lands in Spain to the LatinChristian fold); and they were made possible bythe institution of the crusade (constituting theChurch as a legitimate war-making unit and the

“crusader” as a recognizable form of agent witha defined portfolio of religious interests). Ofcourse, this does not explain the totality of thehistorical process known as the Reconquista. Itdoes, however, highlight the distinctivelyecclesiastical or religious dimension of theprocess – a dimension that was organic to thehistorical structure of war in later medieval LatinChristendom. The Northern Crusades As Peter Lock has characterized them, theNorthern Crusades were conducted in five partlyoverlapping phases: the Wendish Crusades(1147-85), the Livonian and Estonian Crusades(1198-1290), the Prussian Crusades (1230-83),the Lithuanian Crusades (1280-1435), and theNovgorod Crusades (1243-15th century).[47]While authorized by, and fought on behalf of, theChurch these wars were prosecuted by Danish,Saxon, and Swedish princes as well as by militaryorders such as the Sword Brothers and theTeutonic Knights. They were fought primarilyagainst a range of pagan adversaries – Wends,Livonians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Suomi, andPrussians – although some were also wagedagainst Russian Christian schismatics (i.e.adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite). By theearly 16th century, these ecclesiastical wars –always only one element of broader process ofthe expansion of medieval Europe – hadcontributed significantly to extension of thenortheastern frontier of Latin Christendom andthe transformation of the Baltic from a paganmare incognita into a Latin Christian lake. The pre-history of the Northern Crusades can betraced to the so-called Magdeburg Charter of1107/8 – a document that explicitly called for anexpedition to be undertaken against the Balticpagans. Although there are a number of debatesabout the provenance and purpose of thisdocument,[48] it is important for the purposes ofthis study in that it constitutes the earliest knowntext in which the crusading idea is grafted on topre-existing ideas about the dangers andopportunities confronting the Church on thenortheastern frontier of Latin Christendom – i.e.the earliest translation of the idea of the crusadeto the Baltic region. Several themes runningthrough the document are particularlysignificant. To begin with, it depicts the pagan

significant. To begin with, it depicts the paganSlavs in terms redolent of depictions of Muslimsin accounts of the First Crusade – i.e. as“oppressors” guilty of committing grievous“injuries” against the Church and its members.Second, it portrays the pagan lands as “ourJerusalem”, a land of milk and honey lost to theheathen because of sinfulness of the Christiansin the region. Third, it calls on the “soldiers ofChrist” to liberate this Jerusalem, implying thatdoing so will create conditions favourable notonly for settlement but for evangelization aswell.[49] While the charter’s call to arms came tonothing at the time, it expressed ideas that were

circulating widely among the clerics in the regionand that over time would come to exercise anincreasingly powerful grip on the collectiveimagination of the highest levels of ecclesiasticalleadership. The formal introduction of the crusade tonorthern Europe can be attributed to PopeEugenius III’s 1147 encyclical Divinidispensatione, which extended the scope of theSecond Crusade to include not just the Holy Land,but Iberia and the Wendish (West Slavic) landsadjoining Saxony as well. The explicit objectivesof the expedition were to subject the pagans to

Baltic countries on the 16th century Carta Marina

adjoining Saxony as well. The explicit objectivesof the expedition were to subject the pagans tothe Christian faith – a goal that came close tocontradicting canon law prohibiting forcedconversions. Reflecting many of the themes ofthe Magdeburg Charter, however, senior Churchofficials – including, significantly, Pope Eugeniusand Bernard of Clairvaux, the chief ideologist ofthe Second Crusade – almost certainly regardedthis expedition as a just war fought primarily todefend Christian missionaries and converts fromharassment at the hands of the pagan Wends andto create a political context conducive to thepeaceful expansion of Christendom throughmissionary work. As Hans-Deitrich Kahl hasargued, these core eschatological motives werealso at least inflected by a powerful belief thatthe second coming of Christ was imminent (withall that this implied for the prospect of massconversion).[50] Proceeding hand-in-hand withterritorial expansion on the part of the Saxons,the region had seen extensive missionaryactivity in the preceding decades. Notsurprisingly, the Wends had resisted both ofthese activities, on the one hand mountingmilitary campaigns against the Saxons, on theother destroying missions, martyringmissionaries and menacing local converts intoapostasy. When the crusade encyclical Quantumpraedecessores was proclaimed following thefall of Edessa in 1144, the state of affairs on theWendish frontier was such that the Saxonnobility responded only half-heartedly to theChurch’s call, asking instead to be allowed tocampaign against the pagan Wends with whomthey were already embroiled in conflict. This wassupported by local clergy, who argued thatChristians converts – and thus the future ofevangelization in the region – could only be madesecure if the Wends were brought underChristian rule. Given the centrality ofevangelization to the core ontological narrativeof the Church – as well, perhaps, as the generalenthusiasm generated by the proclamation ofthe Second Crusade – Eugenius not surprisinglyresponded positively to this request. Hesubsequently appointed Bishop Anselm ofHavelburg as papal legate, authorized anexpedition to subject the Wends to Saxonlordship (thereby creating the conditions withinwhich the permanent evangelization of theirterritory could take place), and promised thosecrusading in the North the same indulgence (andmany of the same privileges) as had been granted

by Urban II to those fighting in the First Crusade. Responding to the papal proclamation, in 1147a crusader army comprising Saxon, Polish andDanish contingents invaded the Wendish lands.While this army enjoyed some successes on thebattlefield, however, it ultimately failed in toachieve its primary goal: the destruction ofpaganism in the Wends’ territories and theirdecisive incorporation into Latin Christendom.As Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt has shown, thisprompted the Church to reconsider the wholeenterprise of crusading in the Baltic.[51] Forseveral decades after 1147, the papacydemonstrated a considerable lack of enthusiasmfor any further crusading in the North and neitherlocal ecclesiastical nor lay authorities petitionedfor one. Wars continued to be fought in the regionin the aftermath of the Wendish crusade, ofcourse, but “they were fought without benefit ofpapal authorization, or any of the apparatus ofthe crusade; there was no vow, no ad hoc legatine commission, no special preaching or promises ofcrusade privileges”.[52] Indeed, it was not until1171 that Pope Alexander III (1159-81) issued anew crusading bull for the region (Non parumanimus noster), and even then he recast theseexpeditions as “penitential wars” – similar tocrusades to the Holy Land, but offering fewerspiritual rewards, privileges and protections andenjoying a somewhat lower status.[53] The warsagainst the Wends continued, however, led bymen such as Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony(1142-95) and King Valdemar the Great ofDenmark (1157-82). As Christiansen puts it, thesecampaigns were “wars carried on successfully inthe shadow of the unsuccessful 1147crusade”.[54] After decades of brutal conflict, by1185 the Wends had been effectively pacified,their pagan regime destroyed, and political andecclesiastical structures more conducive toChristianization erected in their place. When Alexander issued his bull of 1171 he notonly re-introduced the institution of the crusade –or at least a diluted version of it in the form of“penitential war” – to Northern Christendom; ina marked departure from past practice,[55] healso outlined a papal vision for the evangelizationof the entire East Baltic region. This vision hadtwo key elements. First, it entailed a commitmentto the armed defence of the Christian Church andits missions in the region. Alexander had receivedtroubling reports that the mission in Estonia was

This vision had two key elements. First, it entaileda commitment to the armed defence of theChristian Church and its missions in the region.Alexander had received troubling reports thatthe mission in Estonia was subject to repeatedpagan attacks – attacks that he viewed as bothunjust (contrary to the ius gentium) and a seriousthreat to the Church’s core mission ofevangelization. Accordingly, he authorized theuse of armed force in the defence of the Estonianmission and granted limited indulgences to thosefighting in this just cause.[56] Second, Alexanderenvisioned a significant expansion of thenorthern frontiers of Latin Christendom toinclude, at a minimum, Estonia and Livonia. Thislatter part of the vision, Alexander argued, was

to be accomplished through peaceful missionarywork if at all possible, but through the use ofarmed force if necessary. By combining the goalsof both defensio and dilatio, Alexander’s 1171bull established the basic approach to crusadingin the North: in Erdmann’s terms, “indirectmissionary war”. In the future, peaceful missionswould be established in pagan territory; whenthese incurred local hostility, they and theiractivities would be defended by penitentialwarriors; and finally, when circumstancesseemed propitious, the pagan “problem” in thatparticular region would be resolved by forciblyincorporating the catchment area of theendangered mission into Latin Christendomthrough crusade.

Laurits Tuxen (1853-1927): Danish Bishop Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Arkona in 1169 during the Wendish Crusades

The mission of Bishop Meinhard to the paganLivonians powerfully illustrates thisexpansionary dynamic. With the support of boththe Archbishop of the missionary see ofHamburg-Bremen and the papacy, Meinhardestablished a mission in the Dvina River basinaround 1180. Sensing an opportunity for large-scale conversion, Meinhard offered the Livoniansa bargain: in return for their agreement toundergo baptism he would build twofortifications on islands in Dvina River (Üxkülland Holm) to protect them from their enemiesamong the other pagan peoples of the region.According to the chronicler Henry of Livonia, theLivonians freely accepted this offer.[57] Whenthey realized that all those who converted werealso going to be held financially responsible forthe upkeep of these fortifications, however, theLivonians balked: few among them actuallyaccepted baptism or placed themselves underthe authority of the bishop. Viewed fromMeinhard’s perspective, this constituted a gravebreach of the Livonians’ promise to convert. Italso presented him with a serious problem. Notonly was he not attracting many converts, butthose few Livonians whom he did baptise (theonly people Meinhard actually had any authorityover) simply did not constitute a tax-basecapable of supporting the mission’s castles andtheir garrisons. Meinhard realized that if he couldnot maintain these forces he would not be ableto provide the protection he had promised,fatally undermining his entire strategy forevangelizing the region. The Bishop’s problemwas compounded by the fact that the relativelyhigh taxes he was forced to levy on his small flockof converts actually provided a strong financialincentive to apostasy – he was losing souls fasterthan he was gaining them. Meinhard’s solution:expand the tax base by compelling the Livonianpeople to keep what he believed to be theirpromise to convert.[58] When persuasion andthreats failed to compel the Livonians to comein, the bishop appealed to Rome for the militaryforces needed to implement this strategy. Gravely concerned by the Livonians’ apostasyand their collective failure to honour the termsof their agreement with Meinhard, in 1195 PopeCelestine III responded positively to the Bishop’sappeal, granting limited remission of sins tothose agreeing to take the cross to fight in Livonia.An expedition was subsequently launched under

the leadership of the Duke of Sweden, but failedto achieve much before Duke returned home withthe majority of the crusader army. FollowingMeinhard’s death in 1196, his successor – theCistercian Bishop Berthold – led anotherexpedition against the Livonians, explicitlyjustifying the campaign in terms of restoring theapostates to the faith.[59] When Berthold waskilled in 1198, Pope Innocent III authorized yetanother Livonian crusade, this one led by thenewly elected Bishop Albert of Buxhövden. Thisand subsequent crusades – all explicitly justifiedin terms of defending the Church from paganharassment, restoring apostates to the faith, and/or creating conditions propitious forevangelization – were far more successful,ultimately resulting in the destruction of theLivonians’ war-making capacity and with it theirability to resist incorporation into LatinChristendom. By the time of Albert’s death in1229, Livonia been made an imperial fief andmost Livonians had been converted to LatinChristianity.[60] Thus ended the early phase of Northerncrusading. The crusades that took place duringthe subsequent high phase – specifically, thePrussian Crusades (1230-83), the LithuanianCrusades (1280-1435), and the NovgorodCrusades (1243-16th century) – all shared thesame basic structural character as the indirectmissionary wars against the Livonians, but weredifferentiated from them in significant ways.First, from the earliest decades of the 13thcentury on, the Baltic wars were distinguishedfrom earlier expeditions by their elevation from“penitential wars” to full-blown “crusades”. AsFonnesberg-Schmidt has convincinglydemonstrated, crusading in the Baltic prior to1230 involved piecemeal applications ofcrusading ideas and practices developedprimarily in the context of the Church’s crusadeexperience in the Holy Land. As a result, itacquired the character of what she calls“penitential war” – a form of ecclesiastical warconferring fewer spiritual rewards and lessprestige than the crusades to the East. Under PopeHonorius III (1216-27), however, papal policychanged in this respect: largely due to growingpapal involvement in the missionary project,during his pontificate the ecclesiastical wars inthe Baltic region were decisively elevated to fullcrusade status with all the same indulgences,

Pope excommunicating the Albigensians, while on the right, the AlbigensianCrusade is launched- image from British Library Royal 16 G VI .

indulgences, privileges and protections as thoseto the Holy Land. Prior to the pontificate ofInnocent III (Honorius’ predecessor), missionshad effectively fallen within the purview of thefrontier bishops, kings and princes. During thepontificates of Innocent and Honorius, however,the papacy arrogated to itself greaterresponsibility for initiating and directing large-scale missions among both heretics and pagans –largely as a result of the post-Gregorian papacy’ssocially constructed identity and its entailed coreinterest in active preaching and evangelization(i.e. living the “apostolic life”).[61] Notsurprisingly, as the missions became anincreasingly important papal priority so too didtheir defence against those social forces thatwould violently oppose their evangelizing work. In practical terms, this had the effect creating twonew models for Baltic crusading. During the earlyphase, expeditions were initiated by localbishops or princes who sought and receivedpapal authorization, but essentially retainedcontrol over planning, preaching, financing andother practical matters. As Fonnesberg-Schmidtdemonstrates, while this pattern continuedthroughout the later Middle Ages, it wassupplemented from the early 13th centuryonward by two new forms of crusade. The first ofthese involved a partnership between theDominicans and the Teutonic Order in which theformer preached and recruited for the crusade

and the latter financed and conducted it. TheTeutonic Order had been introduced to the regionin the 1220s and had subsequently secured fromPope Innocent IV the right to launch expeditionsand issue indulgences to those fighting in its rankswithout additional papal authorization.[62] Ineffect, this created a permanent crusade underthe leadership of the knights who proceeded toconquer Prussia and Lithuania and establish theOrder State of the Teutonic Knights. The secondnew model involved a more active leadership rolefor the papal curia. In this type, the initiative forthe crusade came from the pope, while itspreaching and direction was made theresponsibility of a papal legate. The crusade inLivonia proclaimed by Pope Gregory in his 1236encyclical Ne Terra Vastae is a prime example ofthis sort of expedition. In both cases, the rationaleremained the defence of the missions and theirnewly converted flocks; the “liberation” ofChristians from pagan oppression and pagansfrom ignorance; and the vindication of injuriesdone to Christ and His Church .[63] From the early13th century onward, however, the way in whichthe Church mobilized its martial resourcesbecame more differentiated. It used to be believed that the Northern Crusadeswere simply an unremarkable element of thebroader historical process of conquest andcolonization that has come to be known as the

Ostseidlung. On this view, the ecclesiastical warsin the Baltic region were little more than a seriesof essentially mundane campaigns to acquirefish, fur, and land – campaigns cloaked in a thinreligious veil to be sure, but ultimately reducibleto the all-too-worldly pursuit of wealth andpower. As Housley points out, however, recentresearch has begun to move in a somewhatdifferent direction. Rather than focusingnarrowly on the socio-political determinants ofthese crusades, researchers have now begun toexplore more fully the religious causes andcharacter of these wars.[64] The emergingconsensus seems to be that the causes andcharacter of the crusades around the Baltic wereinformed by the convergence of socio-politicaland socio-religious factors. On the one hand,there is little doubt that many Christian marcherlords were powerfully motivated to wage war ontheir pagan neighbours for reasons that had littleto do with religion – specifically, the desire toacquire productive land and peasants through aprocess of violent political accumulation.Similarly, there can be little doubt that thedynamics of state-building were also at play inmany of these expeditions. On the other, it isincreasingly clear that the key Church officialsbehind the Northern crusades were motivatedprimarily by religious concerns and interests,including most importantly the perceived needto create a political context conducive to thepeaceful expansion of Christendom throughmissionary work. It is also clear that manyChristian warriors were motivated to wage warnot on the basis of worldly concerns, but as aresult of their deeply held religious convictions. Crusades against Christians Thus far, we have looked at three expressions ofreligious war along Latin Christendom’s longfrontier with the non-Christian world: thecrusades to the Holy Land, those in Iberia andthose taking place along the Baltic coastline. Thefinal expression or form of religious war,however, was not directed outward againstMuslims or pagans, but inward against Christianswithin Catholic Christendom.[65] The most notable example of an ecclesiasticalwar waged against a heretical social movementwas that waged against the Cathars orAlbigensians in the Languedoc region in what is

now southwestern France.[66] The Cathars werea dualist or Manichean sect which rejected almostevery element of Latin dogma, liturgical practiceand ecclesiastical structure.[67] By the earlythirteenth century, the movement had taken holdin areas such as the Rhineland and northern Italy,but was especially pervasive in the Languedocwhere it had found favour not only amongstpeasants and burghers, but amongst a number ofthe region’s more influential nobles as well. Thereasons for its popularity in this region arecomplex, but a crucially important factor was thelack of effective political authority in the region.For centuries, the Church had relied on the secularauthorities to create the political context withinwhich the Church could carry out its core mission.This included suppressing unorthodox religiousmovements when they posed a threat to thismission. For most of the preceding nine hundredyears, this had not been a particularly pressingproblem as most such movements had comprisedlittle more than individual preachers and ahandful of followers. In Languedoc, however,Catharism was an increasingly pervasive andinstitutionalized mass movement – one thatthreatened to displace Christianity in throughoutthe region and so inflict grievous injury on boththe Church and the respublica Christiana. It wasalso viewed as an expression of the kind ofcollective sinfulness that had contributed to thedisasters in the Holy Land in 1187 – that is, as amanifestation of the spiritual disorder plaguingChristendom that God had punished by layinglow the crusader principalities. It is perhaps notsurprising, then, that the Church turned to thetemporal authorities – including both CountRaymond VI of Toulouse, the nominal prince ofthe region, and King Philip of France – to suppressthis movement. It was only when it found thesepowers unable or unwilling to deal with theCathar threat that it sought alternative remedies. Catharism had been an issue in the region at leastsince 1178 when Count Raymond V appealed tothe temporal and spiritual authorities forassistance in dealing with the emerging heresyin his domain. The initial response, a Cistercianpreaching mission to the region, failed to stemthe rising Cathar tide, as did a subsequent militaryexpedition against Roger Trencavel II who wasbelieved to be abetting the heretics.

When Innocent III became pope in 1198, he wasdetermined to enforce orthodoxy in the region.Reflecting his own identity as a reform pope, hebegan his campaign by sending preachers to theregion and by taking steps to reform the localChurch. When these efforts again failed to yieldthe hoped-for results, however, Innocent cameto the conclusion that he had no option but tosuppress Catharism by force. In 1204 he calledon Philip of France to come to the aid the Church,promising indulgences to all of the king’ssubjects who did their duty to suppress hereticalmovements. At first, Philip declined to providethe requested aid, largely because he wasconcerned that King John of England wouldexploit the opportunity and attempt to recoverterritories recently lost to France. Innocentrepeated his appeal for aid in 1205 and 1207,sweetening the offer by promising all who tookthe cross the privileges and protections typically

associated with a crusade (although none had yetbeen proclaimed). Philip, however, againdeclined to act. Frustrated by the failure of thetemporal powers to discharge what he perceivedto be their duty to aid the Church, Innocenteventually came round to the view that he wouldhave to mobilize his own war-making capabilitiesto deal with the Cathars. He was able to do nothingmilitarily, however, until one of his legates, Peterof Castelnau, was murdered in 1208 afterexcommunicating Raymond VI for failing to takesteps to suppress the heresy. Upon hearing ofPeter’s death (which he suspected was atRaymond’s hand), Innocent seized theopportunity to mobilize the armed laity of LatinChristendom against the Cathars and those, likeRaymond, whom he believed abetted them, byproclaiming a crusade. The response to the callamong the nobles of France was “enthusiastic,even fervent” and a large crusader army was

Expulsion of the inhabitants from Carcassone in 1209. Image from British LibraryCotton Nero E II Pt2

failing to take steps to suppress the heresy. Uponhearing of Peter’s death (which he suspected wasat Raymond’s hand), Innocent seized theopportunity to mobilize the armed laity of LatinChristendom against the Cathars and those, likeRaymond, whom he believed abetted them, byproclaiming a crusade. The response to the callamong the nobles of France was “enthusiastic,even fervent” and a large crusader army wasquickly dispatched to attack the lands of

Raymond Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Béziersand Carcassonne, a suspected Catharsympathizer.[68] Thus began a brutal two-decades long war in the region – a war thatultimately destroyed the power of the temporallords who had protected the heretics, leaving thenewly created Inquisition a free hand toextinguish Catharism as a threat to LatinChristendom once and for all.

End Notes [1] Given the focus of the existing constructivistliterature on the crusades, Appendix 1 ofTheorizing Medieval Geopolitics: War and WorldOrder in the Age of the Crusades provides anaccount of these religious wars organized aroundthe framework developed here. [2] Para-crusaders, or milites ad terminum,served for a fixed amount of time as an act ofdevotion. See Riley-Smith, The Crusades: AHistory, 103. [3] Key contemporary secondary sources relatedto the Crusades to the Holy Land include Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History; Helen Nicholson,The Crusades, Cambridge: Hackett PublishingCompany, 2004; Thomas F. Madden, A ConciseHistory of the Crusades, New York: Rowman &Littlefield, 1999; France, The Crusades and theExpansion of Catholic Christendom; Lock,Companion to the Crusades; ChristopherTyerman, God’s War: A New History of theCrusades, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 2006. [4] Christopher Tyerman, God’s War, 660. Theauthoritative study of the Iberian Crusades inEnglish is Joseph F. O’Callaghan, Reconquest andCrusade in Medieval Spain. Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. See alsoJean Flori, La guerre saint: La formation de l’idéede croisade dans l’Occident chrétien, Paris: Aubier,2001. 277-91. For a good overview of theevolution of the historiography of these

crusades see Housley, Contesting the Crusades,100-109. [5] O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, 21. [6] Tyerman, God’s War, 655; Lock, Companion tothe Crusades, 211. [7]See William Urban, The Baltic Crusade, 2nd ed.,Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center,1994; Eric Christiansen, The Northern Crusades,2nd ed., London: Macmillan, 1997; Alan V. Murray,(ed.), Crusade and Conversion on the BalticFrontier 1150-1500, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001;Sven Ekdahl, “Crusades and Colonization in theBaltic,” in Helen J. Nicholson (ed.), PalgraveAdvances in the Crusades (Houndmills: PalgraveMacmillan, 2005); and Fonnesberg-Schmidt, ThePopes and the Baltic Crusades. [8] See Christiansen, The Northern Crusades for adifferent historical schema. [9] Although scholars once overwhelminglyviewed this type of war as a distortion orperversion of the institution of the crusade, inrecent years it has come to be seen instead asperfectly legitimate extension of thatinstitution – little different, in fact, from itsapplication in Iberia or the Baltic. See Housley,Contesting the Crusades, 115-121. [10] Riley-Smith, What Were the Crusades?, 20. [11] Ibid., 22.

Andrew A. Latham is a Professor and Chair, Political Science Department,Macalester College. He is the author of Theorizing Medieval Geopolitics:War and World Order in the Age of the Crusades and the fictional novelThe Holy Lance. You can visit his website at www.aalatham.com

[11] Ibid., 22. [12] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 297-8. [13] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 2nd ed.,New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005,112-36. For an alternative periodization seeHelen Nicholson, The Crusades, Cambridge:Hackett Publishing Company, 2004, 1-20. [14] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 104. [15] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 124. [16] More detailed summaries of the SecondCrusade include Thomas F. Madden, A ConciseHistory of the Crusades, New York: Rowman &Littlefield, 1999, 57-63; John France, TheCrusades and the Expansion of CatholicChristendom, 1000-1714, New York, NY:Routledge, 2005, 130-139; and Riley-Smith, TheCrusades: A History, 121-133. [17] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 137-82. [18] Ibid., 107. [19] More detailed summaries of the ThirdCrusade include Madden, A Concise History of theCrusades, 65-98; and Riley-Smith, The Crusades:A History, 137-45. [20] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 137. [21] Lock, The Routledge Companion to theCrusades, London: Routledge, 2006, 152. [22] Madden, A Concise History of the Crusades,81. [23] Lock, Companion to the Crusades, 156. [24] Ibid., 158. [25] For summary accounts see Lock, Companionto the Crusades, 169-170 and Madden, A ConciseHistory of the Crusades, 155-165. [26] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History,183-214. [27] O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, Philadelphia: University of

Pennsylvania Press, 2003, 23. [28] France, The Crusades and the Expansion ofCatholic Christendom, 29. [29] Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of theCrusades. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 2006, 658. [30] Housley, Contesting the Crusades, Malden,MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006, 101. [31] While some, such as Riley-Smith, havequestioned the claim that this was a précroisade,O’Callaghan makes a convincing case that it was.See O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, 24-7. [32] Ibid., 27-9. [33] O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, 31. [34] Tyerman, God’s War, 662. [35] Lawrence J. McCrank, Medieval FrontierHistory in New Catalonia. No. III, Aldershot:Variorum, 1996 as cited in O’Callghan,Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain, 32. [36] Lock, Companion to the Crusades, 206, 307. [37] O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, 35-6. [38] Ibid., 36-8. [39] Housley, Contesting the Crusades, 103. [40] Ibid., 102-3. [41] O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade inMedieval Spain, 44-6. [42] Tyerman, God’s War, 667. [43] This latter crusade was preceded by thepromulgation of a Peace and Truce of God in orderto ensure the internal tranquility necessary for asuccessful campaign against the Muslims.O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade in MedievalSpain, 47.

[44] Housley, Contesting the Crusades, 105. [45] For a discussion of the military religiousorders in Iberia, see O’Callaghan, Reconquest andCrusade in Medieval Spain, 55-8 and Tyerman,God’s War, 667-8. [46] Tyerman, God’s War, 668; Housley,Contesting the Crusades, 105. [47] See Eric Christiansen, The Northern Crusades.2nd ed., London; Macmillan, 1997 for a differenthistorical schema. [48] Giles Constable, Crusaders and Crusading inthe Twelfth Century , Burlington, VT: AshgatePublishing, 2008, 197-204. [49] For a translation of this Charter, see Ibid.,211-4. [50] Hans-Deitrich Kahl, “Crusade Eschatologyas Seen by Saint Bernard in the Years1146-1148”, as cited in Housley, Contesting theCrusades, 111, fn. 53. Regarding the so-calledSybelline prophesies, see also Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and the Baltic Crusades,1147-1254. Boston: Brill, 2007, 28. [51] Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades. [52] Christiansen, The Northern Crusades, 65. [53] Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades. [54] Christiansen, The Northern Crusades, 65. [55] Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades. [56] One year’s remission of sin rather than theplenary indulgences granted by Eugenius in1147 and typical of the crusades to the Holy Land.Probably in order to make crusades to the HolyLand more appealing, Alexander also offerednone of the related privileges and protections.See Fonnesberg-Schmidt,The Popes and theBaltic Crusades, 56-65. [57] Urban, The Baltic Crusade, 2nd ed., Chicago:Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 1994,

25-6. [58] Ibid., 27-8. [59] Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades, 72. [60] Lock, Companion to the Crusades, 220. [61] See Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades, 183-6. [62] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 197-8. [63] Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and theBaltic Crusades, 193. [64] Housley, Contesting the Crusades, 115. [65] Although scholars once overwhelminglyviewed this type of war as a distortion orperversion of the institution of the crusade, inrecent years it has come to be seen instead asperfectly legitimate extension of thatinstitution – little different, in fact, from itsapplication in Iberia or the Baltic. See Housley,Contesting the Crusades, 115-121. [66] Other crusades against heretics include theso-called “Hussite Crusade”, 1420 to c. 1434 andthe Waldensian crusade in the Dauphine, 1487-8.See, respectively, Lock Routledge Companion tothe Crusades, 201-2 and 204-5. [67] For an extended discussion of the nature ofCatharism, see Malcom Barber, The Cathars:Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High MiddleAges, Harlow: Longman, 2000. For an alternativeperspective, see Mark Gregory Pegg, A Most HolyWar: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle forChristendom, Oxford: Oxford University Press,2008. [68] Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 167.

The Maxims of Francesco Guicciardini

Francesco Guicciardini (1487-1540) was an Italian statesman and writer.During his lifetime he created 221 maxims which ranged from living a betterlife to military matters. Here are some of our favourites:12. One finds almost all the same or similarproverbs, though in different words, in everycountry, and the reason is that proverbs are bornof experience or observation of things which areeverywhere alike. 14. Nothing is more precious than friends,therefore waste no opportunity of acquiringthem, for men are perpetually in contact with oneanother, and friends may help and enemies harmat quite unexpected times and places. 22. How often one hears it said: if only one hador had not done such a thing, someone else wouldor would not have happened. If it were possibleto compare what did happen with what mighthave happened, the falsehood of this notionwould be apparent. 32. Ambition is not to be condemned, nor shouldone revile the ambitious man's desires to attainglory by honourable and worthy means. Suchmen as these do great and outstanding things,and anyone who lacks this urge is a cold spiritand inclined rather to idleness than to effort.Ambition is pernicious and detestable when itssole end is power. This is usually true of thoseprinces who, when they set it up as an idol toachieve what will lead them to power, set asideconscience, honour, humanity, and all else. 55. Do not spend money against yourexpectations of future earnings, for they oftendo not materialize or they turn out to be less thanyou hoped. On the other hand, the expenses areconstantly mounting. This is the fallacy whichcauses so many merchants to go bankrupt whenthey borrow money at interest to make greaterprofits. Every time these either fail or are delayed,they fall into danger of being overwhelmed byan interest on their debts which never stop ordiminish but continually grow and have to be fed.69. If you look closely you will see that from age

to age not only do words and men's way ofspeaking change, but their clothes, buildingmethods, agriculture, and such things; what ismore, even tastes change, so that a food which isprized in one age is often thought less of inanother. 70. The real test of men's courage is when asudden danger comes upon them; the man whocan stand up to this - and there are very few whocan - may really be called brave and fearless. 72. There is nothing that men ought to desiremore on this earth and that can be a source ofgreater pride than to see their enemy prostrateon the ground and at mercy. This glory is greatlyincreased by its proper use, that is, by showingmercy and letting it suffice to have conquered. 101. To save oneself from a bestial and crueltyrant there is no effective rule or sure specific,except what one does for the plague - flee as farand as soon as possible. 112. Messer Antonio da Venafro used to say withgreat truth: "Put six or eight clever men togetherand they become as many madmen." For theycannot agree, and so place everything in questionrather than revolve their problems. 123. I find it easy to believe that in every agemany things have been regarded as miracles,which were nothing of the sort. Yet this much iscertain, every religion has had its miracles, so thatmiracles are but a feeble proof of the truth of onereligion rather than another. Possibly miracles dodemonstrate God's power but no more that of theGentile's God than that of the Christian's God.Indeed it may not be blasphemous to say thatmiracles, like prophecies, are secrets of nature,that causes of which man's intellect is incapableof reaching.

147. Those who believe that victory in campaignsdepends on their being just or unjust are quitewrong, for every day we see the opposite provedtrue. For not right, but prudence, strength, andgood fortune win military victory. It is very truethat those who are in the right gain a certainconfidence based on the belief God gives victoryto just causes. This makes men bold andobstinate, and from these two qualities victoryis sometimes born. Hence having a just causemay indirectly help, but it is false to say that itdoes so directly. 159. I do not censure fasting, prayer, and suchpious works which are ordained by the church orrecommended by the friars. But the best ofvirtues is - and by comparison all others are oflittle weight - not to harm anyone, to help othersto best of one's ability. 161. When I think of how many accidents anddangers of infirmity, chance, and violence, in aninfinite variety of ways, man's life is exposed,how many things must combine in the year tomake a harvest a good one, there is nothing which

surprises me more than to see an old man, a fertileyear. 198. Believe me, in the conduct of all affairs,public and private, success depends on findingthe right approach. So in one and the same affairmanaging it one way or another means thedifference between success and failure. 202. Little and good says the proverb. It isimpossible that a man who talks or writes a greatdeal, will not put in much that is padding, but afew things can be well considered and concise.Hence it might have been better to choose thebest of these axioms than to accumulate so muchmaterial. The Ricordi by Francesco Guicciardini has beentranslated several times – these were taken fromFrancesco Guicciardini: Selected Writings, byMargaret Grayson (Oxford University Press,1965). You can also read an 1890 edition –Counsels and Reflections of FrancescoGuicciardini, translated by Ninian Hill Thomson,which is available through Archive.org

The Beginning of Medieval Historical Fiction: Ten Novels from the Nineteenth-Century

Historical fiction was just beginning as literary genre in the 19th century,but soon authors found success in writing about stories set in the MiddleAges. Here are ten of the most famous medieval novels published in the19th century, which you can download or read for free via Archive.org

Ivanhoe: A Romance By Sir Walter Scott It is said that this novel began people’s interestin the Middle Ages. Scott had already writtenseveral historical novels when he publishedIvanhoe in 1820, but it was this work which wasperhaps his most successful. Set during the reignof Richard I, it revolves around the lingeringenmity between the Normans and Saxons. https://archive.org/stream/ivanhoe06scotgoog A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’sCourt By Mark Twain One of the earliest examples of time travel inliterature, Mark Twain’s 1889 novel tells the storyof Hank Morgan, a 19th century citizen ofHartford, Connecticut, who is transported backto early medieval England and has adventures inKing Arthur’s court. It is a satire of the romanticview of the Middle Ages created by Sir WalterScott and others, and portrays medieval peopleas superstitious fools. By the end of the story thebody-count starts to pile up as modern warfarecomes to Arthurian England. https://archive.org/stream/connecticutyanke1­889twai Romola

By George Eliot Extensively researched, this novel was firstpublished in a serial format between 1862 and1863. It is set in Florence at the end of the 15thcentury, when Savonarola controlling the city.While some love this novel, and others believeit is Eliot’s worst book, the writer herself calledit her best work, saying “I could swear by everysentence as having been written with my bestblood, such as it is, and with the most ardent carefor veracity of which my nature is capable”. https://archive.org/stream/romola12eliogoog The Hunchback of Notre-Dame By Victor Hugo It is this 1831 novel that introduces us toEsmeralda, Quasimodo and the Cathedral ofNotre Dame. Set in Paris in the year 1482, it hasbeen praised for its masterful depiction ofmedieval Paris, its intricately ordered narrative,and its memorable portraits of such stockromantic characters as the gentle monster, theevil cleric, and the beautiful, orphaned heroine.You may have seen one of the many of the moviesor plays based on this book, but this 19th centurynovel is also worth a read. https://archive.org/stream/hunchbackofnotre1hugo

The Beginning of Medieval Historical Fiction: Ten Novels from the Nineteenth-Century

Hereward the Wake: Last of theEnglish By Charles Kingsley It was thanks to this 1866 novel that the 11thcentury Anglo-Saxon rebel Hereward became anational symbol in England. In this story,Hereward is the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia,and Lady Godiva, but a rebellious youth. After aseries of adventures, including fighting a polarbear, he become the leader of the Englishresistance against William the Conqueror. https://archive.org/stream/herewardwakelas1­1kinggoog

The Saga of Eric Brighteyes By H. Rider Haggard After a trip to Iceland, the popular Victorianadventure writer H. Rider Haggard wrote thisbook in 1890. One of the first novels set in theViking Age, it was designed to be like amodernized form of an Icelandic saga. https://archive.org/stream/ericbrighteyeswi0­0hagguoft The Merry Adventures of Robin Hoodof Great Renown in Nottinghamshire By Howard Pyle It was in 1883 when Pyle published his collectionof tales that made the English rogue in a medievalicon. This novel was aimed at children, so Pylechanged many of the earlier legends to makeRobin Hood more of a hero. https://archive.org/stream/merryadventureso­00pyle2

The White Company By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Although he was more famous for his storiesabout Sherlock Holmes, Doyle was more proudof historical fiction, including The WhiteCompany, which tells the story of AlleyneEdricson, a young man who joins a mercenarycompany as an archer and takes part in the battlesof the Hundred Years War. https://archive.org/stream/whitecompany00doyluoft Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden ofthe Mist By Sir Walter Scott Following the success of Ivanhoe, Scott pennedseveral more novels set in the Middle Ages,including Anne of Geierstein in 1829. This novelgoes from England in the Wars of the Roses toSwitzerland in the midst of their struggles withDuke Charles the Bold. https://archive.org/stream/annegeiersteino03­scotgoog The Cloister and the Hearth By Charles Reade First published in 1861. this novel has beenlauded as one of the greatest historical novels inEnglish for it meticulous recreation of 15th-century European life. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,called this novel "in my eyes, the wisest and themost beautiful I have ever read.” https://archive.org/stream/cloisterandhear08­readgoog

Margaret Beaufort, Motherof King Henry VII

Lady Margaret Beaufort was the matriarch of theTudor dynasty of Kings in England. Her life wasgreatly influenced by the turning of the Wheelof Fortune. That she managed to survive thevagaries of the War of Roses in England issomething at which to be marveled. We have thememories of her confessor, John Fisher, Bishopof Rochester and Margaret gave him permissionto share these memories after her death. Fishersaw the emotional Margaret but most people sawthe steely, self-controlled Margaret of politics.She had great presence and a forcefulpersonality. She was skilled and effective andcould be ruthless. Margaret was born on May 31, 1443 at Bletso inBedfordshire. She was the daughter of John, Earl

of Somerset. Somerset was a grandson of Johnof Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster who was the thirdsurviving son of King Edward III and Gaunt’smistress and later wife, Katherine Swynford. Thechildren of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynfordwere legitimized after their marriage but theywere unable to inherit the throne of England.Margaret’s mother was Margaret Beauchamp, thedaughter and heiress of Sir John Beauchamp ofthe gentry. Margaret Beauchamp had beenpreviously married to Sir Oliver St. John by whomshe had seven children. As an aristocrat, John Beaufort was to be thelongest held English prisoner in France of theHundred Years’ War. When King Henry VI finallyarranged his release, he was bitter and financially

By Susan Abernethy

Portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort from the National Portrait Gallery, London

Hundred Years’ War. When King Henry VI finallyarranged his release, he was bitter and financiallystrapped. The King gave him lands and officesand the title of Duke of Somerset and sent himback to France to fight and make as much moneyas possible. But Somerset caused trouble inFrance and the King was furious. When Somersetreturned to England, the King refused to meetwith him and he faced charges of treason. It isbelieved he committed suicide just a few daysshort of Margaret’s first birthday. Upon his deathMargaret became one of the greatest heiressesin England. King Henry granted Margaret’s wardship to oneof his favorite councilors, William de la Pole, Earlof Suffolk. There is little on record of Margaret’supbringing but she remained in her mother’scustody and she appears to have beenaffectionate with her mother and her St. Johnhalf-siblings. She also received a decenteducation. The Earl of Suffolk arranged a marriage betweenhis eight year old son John de la Pole andMargaret when she was six years old. There mayhave been a marriage ceremony but Margaretwas returned to her mother and the marriage wasnever consummated. When Suffolk wasdisgraced in April of 1450, the marriage betweenMargaret and John de la Pole was voided.Margaret never referred to John de la Pole as herfirst husband. In 1453, King Henry VI granted the wardship ofMargaret to his half-brothers Edmund and JasperTudor. Presumably, King Henry intendedMargaret to marry one of the Tudors and he mayhave considered Margaret to be a prospectiveheir to the throne as a surviving member of theHouse of Lancaster. In 1455, Margaret wasmarried to the elder of the two brothers, twenty-two year old Edmund, 1st Earl of Richmond. Edmund was sent to Wales by the King and tookMargaret with him. Although Margaret was of alegal age to be married, she was petite and stillvery much a child. Edmund, in an effort to havean heir and gain the rights to Margaret’s fortune,consummated the marriage. She becamepregnant in the early part of 1456. Unfortunatelyin August of 1456, Edmund was captured by anally of the Duke of York. Edmund was imprisoned

and later released but died of plague in earlyNovember at Carmarthen Castle. Margaret waspregnant, only thirteen and a widow. She putherself under the protection of her brother-in-law Jasper in Pembroke Castle and her son HenryTudor was born there on January 28, 1457. The birth of Henry had been very hard onMargaret but both mother and child survived.Margaret may have suffered permanent physicaldamage in the childbirth as there is no record sheever had another pregnancy or child. She spentabout a year at Pembroke with her son to whomshe became very devoted. She then sought, withthe help of her brother-in-law, a new marriagealliance before the King forced another husbandon her. An agreement was made betweenMargaret and the Duke of Buckingham’s secondson, Henry Stafford in April of 1457 and themarriage was celebrated in January of 1458. Thisappears to have been a happy marriage.Margaret’s son Henry remained in the custody ofhis uncle Jasper in Pembroke and Margaret andher husband visited him there regularly. In 1461, after Edward IV became King, HenryTudor’s wardship was sold to Lord Herbert for£1000. Lord Herbert and his wife Anne Devereuxsupervised his upbringing in a kind andconsiderate way. Margaret made arrangementsallowing for visits with her son and she sentregular messengers to the Herbert’s inquiring fornews. In 1466, King Edward granted the manor atWoking to Margaret and her husband. Margaretwas proficient in running her household andestates and enjoyed dressing in rich clothes. In1468, the Stafford’s entertained King Edward atWoking. In October 1470, Henry joined hismother in a visit to King Henry VI who had justbeen returned to the throne. Henry then returnedto Pembroke. Not long after this visit, Edward IVreturned with an army to reclaim the throne. On April 18, 1471, Edward defeated theLancastrian forces under the Earl of Warwick atthe Battle of Barnet. Margaret’s husband Henrywas severely wounded in the battle and returnedhome. After the defeat of King Henry VI’s wifeMargaret of Anjou at the Battle of Tewkesbury,and the death of her son Edward of Lancaster,King Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of

King Henry VI was murdered in the Tower ofLondon. This left Margaret Beaufort and her sonHenry with the best claim to be the heirs of theHouse of Lancaster. Jasper and Henry Tudor triedto flee to France but were blown off course andlanded in Brittany. Margaret’s husband HenryStafford died, mostly likely from his battlewounds on October 4, 1471. Margaret’s political situation was perilous andshe immediately sought a new protector. In Juneof 1472, Margaret married Thomas, Lord Stanley.Stanley was a major landowner in England andhe managed to never lead his troops into battlefor either the House of Lancaster or York. Thismarriage was most likely a business arrangementwith Margaret getting protection for her landholdings and her wealth and Stanley getting theprestige of her name and her wealth. Stanley was in King Edward’s circle and Margaretdid attend court. Her marriage to Stanley wasprobably agreeable in the beginning. Margaretbegan working to get her son returned to favorin England. Jasper and Henry had gone to thecourt of Francis II, Duke of Brittany where theywere treated with courtesy but essentiallyprisoners. Margaret didn’t see her son between1471 and 1485 but she was in constant contactwith him. In 1476, Margaret was in sufficient favor with theYorkist court of King Edward that she attendedQueen Elizabeth Woodville during the reburialceremony of Edward’s father the Duke of York atthe church in Fotheringhay. During thechristening of Edward’s youngest child Bridgetin 1482, Margaret was given the honor of holdingthe infant. Margaret eventually persuadedEdward to allow her son to return to England. InJune of 1482, there was a draft pardon drawn upand discussion of Henry marrying Edward’seldest daughter Elizabeth of York. But before allthese arrangements could be finalized, KingEdward died on April 9, 1483, leaving his twelveyear old son Edward as his heir. With the death of King Edward IV, leaving a childas his heir, another period of political unrestensued and the War of the Roses resumed.Margaret was caught up in the crossfire of thestruggle that ensued as well as contributing tothe instability by fighting to put her own son onthe throne. King Edward’s brother Richard, Duke

of Gloucester had Edward’s children declaredillegitimate, put aside young King Edward V andParliament declared the Duke King. He wascrowned King as Richard III. King Edward V andhis young brother Richard, Duke of York wereheld in the Tower of London and after some timehad passed they disappeared. The new King was not sure of Margaret’shusband’s loyalty and for a short time had himimprisoned. But Stanley declared his support forRichard and was released, keeping all of hisoffices. Lord Stanley and Margaret played a rolein the coronation of King Richard III and his wifeAnne Neville. Margaret was magnificentlydressed and carried the train of the new Queen.She also sat to the left of the Queen during theceremony and sat near the Queen at the banquetafterwards. There is some scant evidence that Margaret wasalready working on a plan to bring her son backto England at the very least; and wanted to havehim named as the heir to the House of Lancasterand eventually made King at most. Margaret wasnot alone in working to oppose the new King.There is not much detail about these plans butwhen some men were discovered plotting againstthe King, they were caught and executed. Margaret solicited the help of her nephew theDuke of Buckingham and of Edward IV’s QueenElizabeth Woodville in her scheme. Part of theplot was the marriage of Margaret’s son to theformer Queen’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth ofYork. She sent word to Henry in Brittany and hebegan preparations to return to England withtroops. King Richard was apprised of the rebellion andtook his army to fight against Buckingham. Therenever was a battle due to bad weather butBuckingham was caught and executed. Margaretwas attainted for treason by Parliament butbecause her husband remained loyal to Richard,the death sentence for treason was commuted tolife in prison and her goods and lands wereconfiscated. Margaret’s imprisonment wasserved in the home of her husband. Lord Stanleygave Margaret quite a bit of freedom, allowingher to keep in contact with her son. Over the next eighteen months, Margaret workedto get her son on the throne. Henry, in

Over the next eighteen months, Margaret workedto get her son on the throne. Henry, in France,gathered supporters and troops and in thesummer of 1485, he landed in England andengaged the forces of King Richard III at BosworthField. King Richard fought bravely but died onthe battlefield and Margaret’s son Henry was nowKing as Henry VII. He couldn’t have done it withouthis mother’s help. Margaret was immediately released from herimprisonment and traveled south for a reunionwith her son in London after fourteen years.Henry gave his step-father the title of the Earl ofDerby and Margaret was now known as theCountess of Richmond and Derby and “the King’smother”. She witnessed Henry’s coronation onOctober 30, 1485 and his marriage to Elizabethof York on January 18, 1486. Margaret had a special place in her son’sgovernment from the first day, providing him withtrusted political advice. He entrusted her withmany offices, titles, ceremonies and specialcommissions. She managed to legally andspiritually obtain independence from herhusband so she owned everything in her ownright. Henry gave her a home at Coldharbour nearLondon and she made this her main home therealong with another residence in the countrycalled Collyweston. She basically acted as Queen,overshadowing her daughter-in-law. Margaret delighted in the births of her manygrandchildren. Prince Arthur married the Spanishprincess Catherine of Aragon in 1501 but diedsoon after of the sweating sickness. She saw hereldest grand-daughter and namesake MargaretTudor married to King James IV of Scotland in1503. Her most beautiful grand-daughter Marywould become Queen of France after Margaret’sdeath. In her later years Margaret made significantreligious, educational and literary contributions.She became a patron and benefactor of twocolleges at Cambridge University. Shecommissioned William Caxton to print a Frenchromance book. She translated several devotional

works from French into English and had themprinted. Her personal chapel became animportant center for the composition ofpolyphonic music. Margaret’s beloved son King Henry VII died inApril of 1509. Margaret lived long enough to seeher grandson King Henry VIII marry Catherine ofAragon and witnessed their coronation on June24th. Perhaps all the celebrations were too muchfor her as her health was failing. She died fivedays later at Westminster at the age of sixty-six.Her confessor, John Fisher, gave a eulogydescribing her life about a month later. The Wheelof Fortune had finally stopped turning forMargaret. Further Reading: Margaret Beaufort: Mother of theTudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton, section onMargaret Beaufort from The Women of the Cousins’War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King’s Mother by Michael Jones, Blood Sisters: The Hidden Livesof the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses bySarah Gristwood, entry on Margaret Beaufort inthe Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by M.Jones and M. Underwood

Susan Abernethy is the writer of The Freelance History Writer and acontributor to Saints, Sisters, and Sluts. You can follow on Facebook or onTwitter @SusanAbernethy2

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