First Crusade Independant Study

I am doing my A2 Personal Study on the differing causes of the First Crusade, and after reading the other threads that have relevance to this i was just wondering if anyone knows of any school's of thought that relate to the First Crusade, as i think it would be good to add in.

Failing that is anyone else doing it on a similar question, and what have they included?

cheers for the help

Ashley

Reply 1

Poica

Hiya - I'm currently writing my undergraduate dissertation on this period - fantastic choice!

Important causes - the obvious one is the suggested request for aid by Emperor Alexius I to Urban II, might be worth briefly considering the rocky relationship between East and Western Christendom and the reasons as to why Urban was so willing to call up the West to pilgrimage.
The militant nature and attitude of the West is quite an interesting idea - the thought that because Europeans were raised to be combative it was better to send them off to fight the heretics than let them fight amongst themselves.
The reformed papacy - increased power of the church.
The Crusade leaders themselves - an excellent book by Ralph Johannes-Lilie called 'Byzantium and the Crusader States: 1096-1204' suggests that while some crusade leaders went to the Holy Land just to fight for the Holy Places, others went with the specific aim to get themselves a nice little kingdom. If you look at "A Geste of Robyn Hood" - a 13th Century ballad about Robin Hood - a destitute knight discusses being forced to go to the Holy Land to try and find his fortune. Jerusalem was the place to go and find your fortune - much like America is today.
General religious tensions - before the First crusade left there were a number of massacres of Jews; at Worms or Mainz for example. This suggests a general religious tension against non-Christians in the West at the time.

I LOVE this period, so if you'd like any advice, reading lists or discussion about ideas please PM me. I'd love to discuss it with you. I suspect I may give you more info than you need for your independent study project, but otherwise I hope I can help! :smile:

Reply 2

Ashley Paul

thanks for that was a lot of help, and yer i agree it is one of the best periods of history.

no doubt ill PM you some time between now and mid April when its got to be in, ive just finished making notes on the 6 books im using, so just the write up now....... :smile:

cheers again

Ashley

Reply 3

J_hawk171

hi,
Im just starting my personal study on the first crusade i am really fascinated by this period but dont really know much about it as ive never had the chance to study it at school so i was wondering if you could give me a good reading list that you have used to answer your question as i am also looking into the same question

thanks for your help if u can
Joe

Reply 4

JetLeechan

Secondary Sources:
- The best book for introduction is imo "A history of the crusades" by Hans Eberhard Meyer.
- The best and the second best monographs on the first Crusade, with a different direction each, are "The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading" and "The First Crusaders, 1095-1131" both by Jonathan Riley-Smith.

With Meyer and Riley-Smith you'll have the two major scolars of recent crusade studies, oh well, maybe not that recent, but their works are the most important.

For the history of the crusades iand canon law:
- Brundage, James: "Medieval canon law and the crusader."

Primary Source:
There is a series of translated chronicles called "Crusade texts in translation"
The first Crusade is featuerd in:

- "The Gesta Tancredi Of Ralph Of Caen: A History Of The Normans On The First Crusade"

- "Robert the Monk's History of the First Crusade: Historia Iherosolimitana"

From the muslim point of view:
- "The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh." 3 parts.

- Gabrieli Francesco: "Arab historians of the Crusades".... or somthing along those lines

Im sorry but Im not at home so I cant give u full references, but it should be enough to find the books in you library.

So far I've wrote two works on the economic histroy of the crusades. The frist was about "the Economy of Western Europe and the Financing of the First Crusade". the second about the economic policy of the Ayyubids in Egypt.
If you are really interested in this topic I recommened reading charters of sales and contracts the Crusaders did before departing. If possible in the original language which is Latin to 99%. They provide you with deep insight on the motivation and problems of the would-be Crusaders (not everyone willing, ended up Crusading).
If possible, you should also read an introduction to medieval economic history as well as one into the history of the roman-catholic church, especially the spread of monestaries.

For additional primary and secondary sources look here:
http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/primaryandsecondary.html

Seems like I wrote a bit much, but it is one of my favourite topics :p:

First Crusade Independant Study

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