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"Chronicles of the Crusades" is composed of two individual narratives by soldiers who participated first-hand in the violent two hundred year struggle for possession of the holy land. The first is "Conquest of Constantinople" by Geffroy de Villehardouin which describes the controversial Fourth Crusade of 1204. Villehardouin, who was appointed marshal of Champagne, France, and Romania, recounts the brutal fight for control of Constantinople between the Christians of the West and the Christians of the East. Villehardouin's work is remarkable for being one of the earliest works of prose in French, rather than being written in Latin which was traditional for the time. In the second account, "Lif...
This book features two eyewitness accounts of the Crusades: Villehardouin's Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople and Joinville's Chronicle of the Crusade of St. Lewis. A pair of engrossing narratives by actual participants, these are among the most authoritative accounts available of the medieval Holy Wars. They recount terrifying scenes from the battlefields that recapture the horror of warfare, and offer invaluable insights into the religious and political fervor that sparked the two hundred-year campaign. The first reliable history of the Crusades, Villehardouin's work spans the era of the Fourth Crusade, from 1199–1207. It traces the path of a small army of crusaders who despite overwhelming odds captured the city of Constantinople. Joinville's chronicle focuses on the years 1248–1254, the time of the Seventh Crusade. Written by a prominent aid to King Louis of France, it offers personal perspectives on the pious monarch and his battles in the Holy Lands. Both of these highly readable histories provide rare glimpses of medieval social, economic, and cultural life in the context of the crusaders' quest for honor, piety, and glory.
Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople were written by knight and historian Villehardouin. It is one of the few primary sources of the Fourth Crusade.
The medieval court historian Jean Froissart is famous today for writing the ‘Chronicles’, a voluminous and detailed account of the fourteenth century, which concerns the “honourable adventures and feats of arms” of the Hundred Years’ War. As a scholar, Froissart lived among the nobility of several European courts and he travelled widely. His ‘Chronicles’ remains the most important document of feudal times in Europe and the best contemporary exposition of chivalric and courtly ideals. Delphi’s Medieval Library provides eReaders with rare and precious works of the Middle Ages, with noted English translations and the original texts. This eBook presents Froissart’s ‘Chronicle...
Composed by soldiers who fought in the Holy Wars, these two famous French chronicles are among the most important portrayals of both the dark and light side of the two hundred year struggle for possession of Jerusalem. The first trustworthy and fully informed history of the Crusades, Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople describes the era of the Fourth Crusade - the period between 1199 and 1207, during which a planned battle with Moslem forces ironically culminated in war against Eastern Christians that led to the sacking of Constantinople. The Life of Saint Louis, by Joinville, was inspired by the author's close attachment to the pious King Louis, and focuses on the years between 1226 and 1270. It provides a powerful, personal insight into the brutal battles and the fascinating travels of one nobleman, fighting in the Sixth and Seventh Crusades.
In April 1204, the armies of Western Christendom wrote another bloodstained chapter in the history of holy war. Two years earlier, aflame with religious zeal, the Fourth Crusade set out to free Jerusalem from the grip of Islam. But after a dramatic series of events, the crusaders turned their weapons against the Christian city of Constantinople, the heart of the Byzantine Empire and the greatest metropolis in the known world. The crusaders spared no one in their savagery: they murdered and raped old and young - they desecrated churches, plundered treasuries and much of the city was put to the torch. Some contemporaries were delighted: God had approved this punishment of the effeminate, treacherous Greeks; others expressed shock and disgust at this perversion of the crusading ideal. History has judged this as the crusade that went wrong. In this remarkable new assessment of the Fourth Crusade, Jonathan Phillips follows the fortunes of the leading players and explores the conflicting motives that drove the expedition to commit the most infamous massacre of the crusading movement.
Queering the Medieval Mediterranean analyzes the forgotten exchange of sexualities that was brought forth through the Mediterranean and its bordering landmasses. It highlights the importance of queerness and sexuality developed on the Mediterranean trade routes.
The story of the First Crusade, as witnessed by contemporary writers 'O day so ardently desired! O time of times the most memorable! O deed before all other deeds!' The fall of Jerusalem in the summer of 1099 to an exhausted and starving army of western European soldiers was one of the most extraordinary events of the Middle Ages. It was both the climax of a great wave of visionary Christian fervour and the beginning of what proved to be a futile and abortive attempt to implant a new European kingdom of heaven in an overwhelmingly Muslim world. This remarkable collection brings together a wide variety of contemporary accounts of the First Crusade, including Pope Urban II's initial call to arms of 1095, as well as the first-hand writings of priests, knights, a Jewish pilgrim, a destitute noblewoman, an Iraqi poet and the historian Anna Comnena. Together they provide a vivid and nuanced picture of the First Crusade and the people who were swept up in it. Edited with an introduction and notes by Christopher Tyerman
'God's War' tells the powerful and horrifying story of the Crusades - an explosive mixture of religious quest and greed for treasure that led enormous Christian armies to invade the Islamic world.