Medieval History
For a thousand years the idea of the crusade has defined nations and empires, justified wars and acts of terrorism and inspired everyone from medieval minstrels to Ridley Scott. But is all that potency built on a misunderstanding? New historical research suggests that the campaign that became known as the First Crusade was not a religious war, was not started by the Pope, was not really about regaining Jerusalem and was actually a direct result of a little local difficulty in modern day Turkey.
According to Harvard University Press, a forthcoming book by the British historian Peter Frankopan is "countering nearly a millennium of scholarship" by emphasising the overlooked eastern origins of the Crusades.
Dr Frankopan, the director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at the University of Oxford, told The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival yesterday that "something is not quite right" with the traditional version. This has maintained, with remarkable consistency, that the First Crusade was a product of the Council of Clermont in central France in 1095, where Pope Urban II called on the faithful to free Jerusalem from occupation by Muslim Turks. The Pope's evangelism was prompted by "disturbing news" received from Jerusalem and Constantinople of atrocities committed against Christians by the Turks. The speech electrified Europe and helped to raise an army of between 80,000 and 90,000 men, 30 times larger than the Norman force that had conquered England a generation earlier.
Click here to read this article from The Australian
- Book Review: The First Crusade: The Call From The East, By Peter Frankopan
?Deus vult!? ? God wills it! ? was the battle cry of the First Crusade, in which armies of Europe, at the very end of the 11th century, marched off to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem and conquer the infidel Turks, who were then sweeping all before...
- Interview With Jay Rubenstein - Armies Of Heaven: The First Crusade And The Quest For Apocalypse
When he began looking at the First Crusade (1095-1099 ), Jay Rubenstein was expecting to write an academic paper or two demonstrating that the European Christians who answered the call of Pope Urban II to liberate Jerusalem from its Muslim rulers were...
- Crusaders Massacre Of Jerusalem Was Done In Cold-blood, Not Religious Frenzy, Historian Argues
A leading historian of the Crusades believes that 1099 massacre of Jerusalem?s inhabitants by the army of the First Crusade was not the result of religious fervour, but rather, ?the cold-blooded implementation of??ethnic cleansing?.? In his recent article,...
- Revisiting The Crusades (with Or Without A Degree)
So, bear with me here. This is going to be a long post, but I think it's going somewhere... On 12/10/08, in The Roanoke Times, a local resident (in response to Gov. Tim Kaine's tacit support of the Virginia State Police superindendant's decision...
- Medieval Europe Part 3: Of Kings And Killers Pt. 3-- Ignition Of The First Crusade
My other blogs are:http://religion-by-kyle.blogspot.comhttp://astronomy-by-kyle.blogspot.comChristians torturing Muslims and Jews by slicing open their stomachs while hanging upside down alive???Sons of Duke Eustace II of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine,...
Medieval History
Historian Peter Frankopan is challenging a millennium of scholarship in his view of the First Crusade
According to Harvard University Press, a forthcoming book by the British historian Peter Frankopan is "countering nearly a millennium of scholarship" by emphasising the overlooked eastern origins of the Crusades.
Dr Frankopan, the director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at the University of Oxford, told The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival yesterday that "something is not quite right" with the traditional version. This has maintained, with remarkable consistency, that the First Crusade was a product of the Council of Clermont in central France in 1095, where Pope Urban II called on the faithful to free Jerusalem from occupation by Muslim Turks. The Pope's evangelism was prompted by "disturbing news" received from Jerusalem and Constantinople of atrocities committed against Christians by the Turks. The speech electrified Europe and helped to raise an army of between 80,000 and 90,000 men, 30 times larger than the Norman force that had conquered England a generation earlier.
Click here to read this article from The Australian
- Book Review: The First Crusade: The Call From The East, By Peter Frankopan
?Deus vult!? ? God wills it! ? was the battle cry of the First Crusade, in which armies of Europe, at the very end of the 11th century, marched off to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem and conquer the infidel Turks, who were then sweeping all before...
- Interview With Jay Rubenstein - Armies Of Heaven: The First Crusade And The Quest For Apocalypse
When he began looking at the First Crusade (1095-1099 ), Jay Rubenstein was expecting to write an academic paper or two demonstrating that the European Christians who answered the call of Pope Urban II to liberate Jerusalem from its Muslim rulers were...
- Crusaders Massacre Of Jerusalem Was Done In Cold-blood, Not Religious Frenzy, Historian Argues
A leading historian of the Crusades believes that 1099 massacre of Jerusalem?s inhabitants by the army of the First Crusade was not the result of religious fervour, but rather, ?the cold-blooded implementation of??ethnic cleansing?.? In his recent article,...
- Revisiting The Crusades (with Or Without A Degree)
So, bear with me here. This is going to be a long post, but I think it's going somewhere... On 12/10/08, in The Roanoke Times, a local resident (in response to Gov. Tim Kaine's tacit support of the Virginia State Police superindendant's decision...
- Medieval Europe Part 3: Of Kings And Killers Pt. 3-- Ignition Of The First Crusade
My other blogs are:http://religion-by-kyle.blogspot.comhttp://astronomy-by-kyle.blogspot.comChristians torturing Muslims and Jews by slicing open their stomachs while hanging upside down alive???Sons of Duke Eustace II of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine,...