The historiography of the Crusades is the study of history-writing and the written history, especially as an academic discipline, regarding the military expeditions initially undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, or 13thcenturies to the Holy Land. This scope was later extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church. The subject has involved competing and evolving interpretations since the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 until the present day. The religious idealism, use of martial force and pragmatic compromises made by those involved in crusading were controversial, both at the time and subsequently. Crusading was integral to Western European culture, with the ideas that shaped behaviour in the Late Middle Ages retaining currency beyond the 15thcentury in attitude rather than action.
From the 17thcentury historians began rejecting the religious motivations applied to crusading and instead examined the secular. The building of nation states led to the application of interpretations in support of this and fundamentally discrete from the religious sphere. This presented a challenge in reconciling the idealistic and the materialistic motives of the protagonists. The internationalism of crusading remained an obstacle to those historians wishing to project both the idea of crusading and the Crusades themselves as nationalistic precedents. Enlightenment thinkers considered the crusaders culturally inferior to themselves and Protestants considered them morally so.
By the 19thcentury the development of nationalism, colonial politics, and critical history increased interest in the subject for the purposes of entertainment and moralising. In the early 20thcentury a focus developed on the part crusades played as drivers of medieval conquest, economics, and the legacy they left. Crusading historiography continues to evolve and covers a wide range of issues.
Terminology
The Oxford English Dictionary defines historiography as firstly The writing of history; written history. and secondly The study of history-writing, especially as an academic discipline. The term "crusade" first referred to a military expedition undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, or 13thcenturies to the Holy Land. The conflicts to which the term was applied were later extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church against pagans and heretics or for other alleged religious ends. From the first papal decree in 1095, these differed from other Christian religious wars in that they were considered a penitential exercise rewarding the participants with forgiveness for all confessed sins. Pope Urban II was recorded to have said, as translated by Robert Somerville, "whoever for devotion alone not to obtain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute the journey for all penance".
The usage of the term "crusade" can create a misleading impression of coherence, particularly regarding the early Crusades, and the definition is a matter of historiographical debate among contemporary historians. At the time of the First Crusade, , "journey", and , "pilgrimage" were used as the descriptions of the campaign. Crusader terminology remained largely indistinguishable from that of Christian pilgrimage during the 12thcentury. Only at the end of the century was a specific language of crusading adopted in the form of "one signed by the cross"for a crusader. This led to the French the way of the cross. By the mid-13thcentury the cross became the major descriptor of the crusades with "the cross overseas"used for crusades across the Mediterranean Sea, and "the cross this side of the sea"for those in Europe.
Riley-Smith, a dominant and influential figure in academic crusade studies, defined a 'Crusade' as an expedition undertaken on papal authority. This definition excludes the Spanish Reconquista, even though participants were granted Papal indulgences, which conferred the same privileges. Historian Giles Constable identified four specific areas of focus for contemporary crusade studies; their political or geographical objectives, how they were organised, how far they were an expression of popular support, or the religious reasons behind them.
Chronological and geographical frameworks
The Crusader states established in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1098 persisted in some form for over two centuries, and relied on a constant flow of men and money from the West. Knights either travelled to the Holy Land as individuals, or as one of the military orders, including the Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Order. The church granted them immunity from lawsuits, forgiveness of debt, and general protection for individual property and family. This meant the crusading experience and ideology was far more pervasive than the 'Crusades', which were major expeditions launched with Papal support. French Catholic lawyer Étienne Pasquier (1529–1615) is thought to be the first historian to attempt the numbering of each crusade in the Holy Land. He suggested there were six. 18thcentury historians narrowed the chronological and geographical scope to the Levant and the Outremer between 1095 and 1291. Some such as Georg Christoph Muller only counted the five large expeditions that reached the eastern Mediterranean1096–1099, 1147–1149, 1189–1192, 1217–1229 and 1248–1254. In 1820 Charles Mills counted nine distinct crusades. Numbering conventions are retained, mainly for convenience and tradition, but are somewhat arbitrary systems for what some historians now consider to be seven major and numerous lesser campaigns.
The crusades to the Holy Land provided a template for other campaigns conducted in the interest of the Latin Church: The Spanish Christian kingdoms overcame Muslim Al-Andalus in the 12th and 13thcentury; Between the 12th to 15thcentury German expansion into the pagan Baltic region; Non-conformity was suppressed, particularly in Languedoc during what has become called the Albigensian Crusade; The assertion of Papal temporal ambitions in Italy and Germany that are now known as political crusades. In addition the 13th and 14th centuries saw unsanctioned, but related popular uprisings to recover Jerusalem known variously as Shepherds' or Children's crusades.
Studies of primary sources In 1841, German historian Heinrich von Sybel published his History of the Crusades, a critical study of then-current Western sources. This initiated a series of similar works, such as those published by Heinrich Hagenmeyer between 1877 and 1913. As a result, the Western texts edited for the series have now been supplanted by superior editions.
Documentary sources include charters, diplomas, letters, privileges, and similar texts. Charters recording legal transactions such as sale or gift of property, or concession of rights are the most common documentary source from the Middle Ages. A sizeable number remain that were issued by crusaders. These include records of fund-raising transactions and pious donations. As such they inform historians on the financing of crusades, the motivations, and states of mind as well as family crusading traditions. They are of fundamental importance in the study of Crusading in the Outremer, Greece, and the Baltic region. Particularly the collections of charters related to military orders and ecclesiastical institutions. Although many letter do not survive, they are referred to in the narrative sources. Correspondence includes diplomatic and private missives, papal bulls proclaiming and regulating crusades including the crusaders' spiritual and temporal privileges and appeals for military assistance. Examples of treaties and contracts such as the 1190 treaty of Adrianople between Frederick Barbarossa and Byzantium during the Third Crusade, the Treaty of Venice and the Treaty of Christburg provide information on the organisation and outcomes of many crusades. In addition, historians utilise sermons, law codes, genealogies, financial records, the rules and customs of military orders, and inscriptions. Crusading narrative sources are widely available in good editions, but other sources are much less accessible.
Medieval Western sources
When the Crusades began, most western primary sources were written in Latin and this remained the case for official documents until the end of the Middle Ages. However, from the late 12thcentury, individual eyewitness narratives were often captured in vernacular languages, including French, Occitan, English, German, and Dutch. Considerable information on the Crusading movement is recorded in general histories, or those devoted to specific cities and regions, while there are in addition large numbers of chronicles, histories, and biographies specifically devoted to crusading. The First Crusade produced elaborate and engaging narratives written by participants conscious of their involvement in an unprecedented event whose success or failure was derived from divine intervention. The relative failure of subsequent expeditions led to considerable variations in coverage and quality of those relating to later crusades.
Western sources of the First Crusade and the Crusade of 1101 The description and interpretation of crusading began soon after the taking of Jerusalem in 1099 and the decade of consolidation that followed. New campaigns in the 12thcentury utilised the images and morality of the first expedition for propaganda purposes. Travelling with different contingents and therefore offering different perspectives, three participating clerics wrote in Latin about the First Crusade and the Crusade of 1101: the anonymous author of Gesta Francorum, Raymond of Aguilers, and Fulcher of Chartres. There is some connectivity, Raymond and Fulcher both appear to refer to Gesta Francorum. Additionally, Peter Tudebode and reworked Gesta and it was completely rewritten in three versions by French Benedictine monks in the early 12thcentury: Guibert of Nogent retitled his work offering some unique information. Baldric of Dol provided stylistic change and is the source for the accounts given by the Anglo-Norman monk Orderic Vitalis who provides details from oral sources and biographical detail about Norman participants. Robert the Monk from Rheims, was a conservative adapter but widely influential and copied. The original Latin version exists in more than 120 manuscripts, and more than four German translations from the later Middle Ages. Its influence can be seen in the works of Henry of Huntingdon and Gilo of Paris.