Middle Ages - Church History, Crusades - History

Documents on Later Cursades

Name: Documents on Later Cursades
Author: Norman Housley
ISBN: 9780312161781

by Norman Housley

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Overview

In this book Norman Housley, the leading British specialist on the later crusades, has brought together and translated 62 texts which illustrate the key themes and developments within the movement between the collapse of the crusader states in the Holy Land and the age of the Counter-Reformation. The documents have been carefully selected to provide a commentary on three aspects in particular of the later crusades. First, the extraordinary range and variety of the crusading experience are communicated through texts which relate to military activity in the eastern Mediterranean, Iberia and North Africa, the Baltic region, and a number of countries within the heart of Catholic Europe. Secondly, the 'nuts and bolts' of crusading are examined in the shape of the resources whose mobilisation made crusading possible, and the mechanisms used to harness them. Thirdly, the broad spectrum of contemporary responses to the crusading ideal is explored. The most important of these were enthusiastic acceptance, condemnatory rejection, and the assimilation of crusading zeal into expressions of national feeling. In his Introduction, Norman Housley demonstrates how the texts he has chosen cast light on these aspects of the later crusades.

Synopsis

"In this book Norman Housley, the leading British specialist on the later crusades, has brought together and translated 62 texts which illustrate the key themes and developments within the movement between the collapse of the crusader states in the Holy Land and the age of the Counter-Reformation." "The documents have been carefully selected to provide a commentary on three aspects in particular of the later crusades. First, the extraordinary range and variety of the crusading experience are communicated through texts which relate to military activity in the eastern Mediterranean, Iberia and North Africa, the Baltic region, and a number of countries within the heart of Catholic Europe. Secondly, the 'nuts and bolts' of crusading are examined in the shape of the resources whose mobilisation made crusading possible, and the mechanisms used to harness them. Thirdly, the broad spectrum of contemporary responses to the crusading ideal is explored. The most important of these were enthusiastic acceptance, condemnatory rejection, and the assimilation of crusading zeal into expressions of national feeling. In his Introduction, Norman Housley demonstrates how the texts he has chosen cast light on these aspects of the later crusades."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Booknews

Most of the 65 documents are excerpts from longer works, selected to document the widely varied experience of crusaders in different areas of conflict, the resources available and the means by which they were mobilized for the effort, and the broad spectrum of contemporary responses to the crusading ideal. Housley provides introductions to each chronological chapter outlining the characteristics of the period, and bibliographic references and historical notes for each entry. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.