Should we stop talking about The Crusades? | William Purkis | University of Birmingham

Over the past fifty years scholarly understanding of The Crusades has changed dramatically, especially in terms of where, when and why medieval Latin Christians “took the cross” to engage in acts of devotional violence. Yet in spite of these significant historiographical developments, grand narratives of the crusading past - especially those that are presented to wider audiences or feature in educational curricula - often rely on frameworks and paradigms that were first formulated centuries ago and should now be regarded as more limiting than helpful.
In this lecture, William will argue that some of the most familiar aspects of the narrative and conceptual scaffolding for histories of The Crusades - including the idea of “The Crusades” itself - might fruitfully be dismantled and set aside, to clear the ground for a fresh and more holistic understanding of an innovative medieval devotional practice that might simply be called “crossing”.

[@vanessaking1066]

Thank you for a very thought-provoking lecture which will revolutionised my introductory session on my course The Crusades in which I will invite students to consider a new title 'The Crossings'.

[@stevemuhlberger]

This lecture and its distribution on the web is a service to scholars and non-scholars alike. I have recently read The Chronicle of Livonia by Henry of Livonia (roughly modern Latvia). Because "the Livonian front" was a minor aspect of one of the most active crusading periods (roughly Innocent III's papacy) some things stand out in Henry's account. A reader cannot doubt Henry's commitment to "crossing" he focuses a lot of attention on the acquisition of the Crusaders (including clergy like Henty himself) of lordships. The "crucesignati" became a new aristocracy imposed on conquered pagan tribes. Henry's attitude toward these pagans seems to be almost affectionate, but towards the end of the chronicle he refers to the "stupid Estonians" a unique slur attached to the one pagan group who had so far resisted Christian conquest.