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noctambulatebooks · 1 year

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Reading 2023

5-January-2023: Tanizaki, Junichirō, The Maids (1963, Japan)

13-January-2023: Tevis, Walter, Mockingbird (1980, USA)

22-January-2023: Snyder, Michael, James Purdy: Life of a Contrarian Writer (2022, USA)

29-January-2023: Pressburger, Emeric, The Glass Pearls (1966, England)

31-January-2023: Mac Orlan, Pierre, A Handbook for the Perfect Adventurer (1951, France)

5-February-2023: Runciman, Steven, The First Crusade (Vol I: A History of the Crusades) (1951, England)

11-February-2023: Babitz, Eve, I Used to be Charming (1975-1997, USA)

15-February-2023: Indiana, Gary, Rent Boy (1994, USA)

26-February-2023: Zola, Émile, The Sin of Abbé Mouret (1875, France)

2-March-2023: Bennett, Alice, Alarm (Object Lessons), (2023, USA)

9-March-2023: Wyndham, John, The Kraken Wakes (1953. England)

17-March-2023: Manchette, Jean-Patrick, The Prone Gunman (1981, France)

17-March-2023: Shawn, Wallace, Night Thoughts: An Essay (2017, USA)

19-March-2023: Runciman, Steven, The Kingdom of Jerusalem (Vol II: A History of the Crusades) (1953, England)

26-March-2023: Carr, David, Final Draft: The Collected Work of David Carr (2020, USA)

5-April-2023: Manzoni, Alessandro, The Betrothed (1840, Italy)

10-April-2023: Childs, Craig, Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession (2010, USA)

16-April-2023: Butler. Octavia, Kindred (1979, USA)

22-April-2023: Liming, Sheila, Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time (2023, USA)

24-April-2023: Manchette, Jean-Patrick, Three to Kill (1976, France)

30-April-2023: Keefe, Patrick Radden, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021, USA)

7-May-2023: Le Carré, John, Agent Running in the Field (2019, England)

10-May-2023: Dederer, Claire, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma (2023, USA)

13-May-2023: Mortimer, Penelope, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (1956, England)

26-May-2023: Morrison, Toni, Beloved (1987, USA)

30-May-2023: McCarthy, Cormac, The Passenger (2022, USA)

1-June-2023: Lewis, Herbert Clyde, Gentleman Overboard (1937, USA)

6-June-2023: Miéville, China, Embassytown (2011, England)

10-June-2023: McCarthy, Cormac, Stella Maris (2022, USA)

16-June-2023: Ambler, Eric, The Light of Day (1962, England)

23-June-2023: Ambler, Eric, Dirty Story (1967, England)

25-June-2023: Runciman, Steven, The Kingdom of Acre (Volume III, A History of the Crusades) (1954, England)

27-June-2023: Hartley, L.P., The Harness Room (1971, England)

4-July-2023: Motley, Willard, Knock on Any Door (1947, USA)

8-July-2023: Duras, Marguerite, The North China Lover (1991. France)

10-July-2023: Carr, J. L., A Month in the Country (1980, England)

14-July-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, Cape Cod (1865, USA)

18-July-2023: Modiano, Patrick, Missing Person (1978, France)

22-July-2023: Prime-Stevenson, Edward, Left to Themselves: The Ordeal of Philip and Gerald (1891, USA)

24-July-2023: Shakespeare, William, King Lear (1606, England)

6-August-2023: Whitehead, Colson, Crook Manifesto (2013, USA)

11-August-2023: Hampson, John, Last Night at the Greyhound (1931, England)

16-August-2023: Wyndham, John, The Midwich Cuckoos (1957, England)

19-August-2023: Ballard, J. G., The Drought (1965, England)

22-August-2023: Hines, Barry, A Kestrel for a Knave (1968, England)

31-August-2023: McPherson, William, Testing the Current (1984, USA)

10-September-2023: Pamuk, Orhan, Nights of Plague (2021, Turkey)

17-September-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, The Maine Woods (1864, USA)

20-September-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, A Plea for Captain John Brown (and other essays on abolition) (1859, USA)

24-September-2023: Kirino, Natsuo Real Life (2006, Japan)

30-September-2023: Renouard, Maël, Fragments of an Infinite Memory: My Life with the Internet (2016, France)

7-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Midnight Bell (1929, England)

12-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Siege of Pleasure (1932, England)

15-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Plains of Cement (1934, England)

21-October-2023: Kayama, Shigeru, Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again (1955, Japan)

25-October-2023: Malcolm, Janet, Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (2023, USA)

30-October-2023: Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969, USA)

5-November-2023: Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Lolly Willowes (1926, England)

26-November-2023: Ainsworth, William Harrison, The Lancashire Witches (1848, England)

2-December-2023: Ginzburg, Carlo, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (1989, Italy)

10-December-2023: Baum, Vicki, Grand Hotel (1929, Germany)

16-December-2023: Sinykin, Dan, Big Fiction: How Conglomerates Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature (2023, USA)

24-December-2023: Warner, Sylvia Townsend, T.H. White: A Biography (1967, England)

29-December-2023: Undset, Sigrid, Olav Audunssøn, Vol 4: Winter (1927, Norway)

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ltalaynareor · 2 months

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How historically accurate is Steven Ruciman crusades book?

Hey,

I will write in French, because my writing english is not that good.

Steven Runciman est une référence quand on parle des croisades, comme René Grousset, le fut à une époque en France. De formation, byzantiniste, il fut l'un des premiers à dépouiller des sources grecques, latines et arabes. Sans compter que le monsieur parlait ou en tout cas lisait le persan, l'hébreu, le français ancien (oc et aïl) et moderne, l'anglais ancien et moderne, le grec ancien, le latin, l'arabe et le syriaque. De ce fait, ses travaux sont encore une référence dans le monde entier, bien qu'ils aient été écrits entre 1951 et 1953, en trois tomes. Toutefois, certains travaux récents permettent d'approfondir son travail et de mettre en perspective des points flous ou de remettre en question certaines hypothèses qu'il a formulées.

I hope i answer your question. If you have another, don't' hesitate, i will be happy to respond.

#booklr #books #first crusade #crusades #ask response #answered

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eugaenia · 2 months

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This passage from Crysogonus Waddell's memories may be my new favourite quote regarding Bernard of Clairvaux. :')

I know, of course, that not everyone has a love for Saint Bernard. [...] I was [...] hurt by a general lecture given by the then recognized authority on the Crusades, Steven Runciman. Dr Runciman was speaking about a sensible trade agreement between the Byzantine emperor and the Egyptian caliphate—a trade agreement which Saint Bernard had deplored. Bernard? “. . . a bigoted cleric.” The audience roared with appreciative laughter and approval. For myself, I started thinking dark thoughts about Professor Runciman, “the bigoted Cambridge don.” Medievalists will always be grateful to Runciman for his pioneering work on the Crusades. But scholars refer to him less and less. Runciman has had his day. Meanwhile, Bernard, the bigoted cleric from Clairvaux, is with us still.

(Crysogonus Waddell, An Old Man's Tale, in: Brian Patrick McGuire, ed., A Companion to Bernard of Clairvaux, Leiden - Boston 2011, pp. 363-364)

#bernard of clairvaux #st. bernard #monkposting #medieval monks #church history #medieval history #humour #cistercians #academia

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suinhe · 3 years

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In his personal life, Runciman was an old-fashioned English eccentric, known, among other things, as an aesthete, raconteur, and enthusiast of the occult. According to Andrew Robinson, a history teacher at Eton, "he played piano duets with the last Emperor of China, told tarot cards for King Fuad of Egypt, narrowly missed being blown up by the Germans in the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul and twice hit the jackpot on slot machines in Las Vegas".

#Steven Runciman #lads

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ripplefactor · 5 years

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‘In his enormously long life, Steven Runciman managed not just to be a great historian of the Crusades and Byzantium, but Grand Orator of the Orthodox Church, a member of the Order of Whirling Dervishes, Greek Astronomer Royal and Laird of Eigg. His friendships, curiosities and intrigues entangled him in a huge array of different artistic movements, civil wars, Cold War betrayals and, above all, the rediscovery of the history of the Eastern Mediterranean. He was as happy living in a remote part of the Inner Hebrides as in the heart of Istanbul. He was obsessed with historical truth, but also with tarot, second sight, ghosts and the uncanny.

‘Outlandish Knight is a dazzling debut by a writer who has prodigious gifts, but who also has had the ability to spot one of the great biographical subjects. This is an extremely funny book about a man who attracted the strangest experiences, but also a very serious one. It is about the rigours of a life spent in the distant past, but also about the turbulent world of the twentieth century, where so much that Runciman studied and cherished would be destroyed.’

Runciman photographed at Cambridge by Cecil Beaton in 1925.

#Steven Runciman #Outlandish Knight #Minoo Dinshaw #Penguin Books #2016 #Cecil Beaton #1925 #Crusades #ripplefactor #rpf2

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vertigo1871 · 6 years

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Portrait of Steven Runciman by Cecil Beaton, 1925

"(...) he was reasoning with Bohemond at Antioch; or counselling Richard Coeur de Lion about his policy at Acre; or playing chess with Saladin, in his tent; then, a bit later, rallying Bessarion for accepting the filioque clause at the same time as a cardinal’s hat; consoling the eastern Comnenes for the loss of Trebizond; or, under Mount Taygetus, exchanging syllogisms with Gemistos Plethon as they strolled along the future Runciman Street. Later on still, we imagined him hobnobbing with Phanariot hospodars in the snows beyond the Danube … It was hard to stop."

(Patrick Leigh Fermor, Remembering Steven Runciman, The Spectator, 2001)

#steven runciman #patrick leigh fermor #cecil beaton #cambridge #byzantium

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robertsmithsonlibraryandbookclub · 6 years

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Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club [Runciman, Steven, Byzantine Civilization, 1956] Oil paint on carved wood, 2017

#HISTORY #STEVEN RUNCIMAN #RUNCIMAN #BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION #BYZANTINE #CIVILIZATION #PAPERBACK #1956 #AVAILABLE

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Crusaders and Zionists

By Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, September 02, 2017

A few days ago I found myself in Caesarea, sitting in a restaurant and looking out over the sea. The sunbeams were dancing on the little waves, the mysterious ruins of the ancient town arrayed behind me. It was hot, but not too hot, and I was thinking about the crusaders.

Caesarea was built by King Herod some 2000 years ago and named after his Roman master, Augustus Caesar. It once again became an important town under the Crusaders, who fortified it. These fortifications are what now makes the place a tourist attraction.

For some years in my life I was obsessed with the Crusaders. It started during the 1948 “War of Independence”, when I chanced to read a book about the crusaders and found that they had occupied the same locations opposite the Gaza strip which my battalion was occupying. It took the crusaders several decades to conquer the strip, which at the time extended to Ashkelon. Today it is still there in Muslim hands.

After the war, I read everything I could about these Crusaders. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. So much so, that I did something I have never done before or after: I wrote a letter to the author of the most authoritative book about the period, the British historian Steven Runciman.

To my surprise, I received a handwritten reply by return of post, inviting me to come and see him when I happened to be in London. I happened to be in London a few weeks later and called him up. He insisted I come over immediately.

Like almost everyone who fought against the British in Palestine, I was an anglophile. Runciman, a typical British aristocrat with all the quaint idiosyncrasies that go with it, was very likable.

We talked for hours, and continued the conversation when my wife and I visited him later in an ancient Scottish fortress on the border with England. Rachel, who was even more anglophile than I, almost fell in love with him.

What we talked about was a subject I brought up at the very start of our first meeting: “When you were writing your book, did you ever think about the similarities between the Crusaders and the modern Zionists?”

Runciman answered: “Actually, I hardly thought about anything else. I wanted to subtitle the book A Guidebook For the Zionist About How Not To Do It.” And after a short laugh: “But my Jewish friends advised me to abstain from doing so.”

Indeed, it is almost taboo in Israel to talk about the crusades. We do have some experts, but on the whole, the subject is avoided. I don’t remember ever having heard about the Crusades during the few years I spent at school.

Thus is not as astonishing as it may sound. Jewish history is ethnocentric, not geographical. It starts with our forefather, Abraham, and his chats with God, and continues until the defeat of the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans in 136 AD.

From then on our history takes leave from Palestine and dances around the world, concentrating on Jewish events, until the year 1882, when the first pre-Zionists set up some settlements in Ottoman Palestine. During all the time in between, Palestine was empty, nothing happened there.

That is what Israeli children learn today, too.

Actually, lots of things did happen during those 1746 years, more than in most other countries. The Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman and British empires followed each other until 1948. The crusaders’ kingdoms were an important chapter by themselves.

Most Israelis would be surprised to learn that the Crusaders resided in Palestine for almost 200 years--much longer than Zionist history until now. It was not a short, passing episode.

The similarity between the Crusaders and the Zionists strikes one at first glance. Both movements moved a large number of people from Europe to the Holy Land. (During the first half century of its existence, Zionism brought almost only European Jews to Palestine.) Since both of them came from the west, they were perceived by the local Muslim population as Western invaders.

Neither the Crusaders nor the Zionists had one day of peace during their entire existence. The perpetual sense of military danger shaped their entire history, their culture and their character.

The crusaders had some temporary armistices, especially with Syria, but we, too, now have two “peace agreements” in place--with Egypt and Jordan. Without any real feelings of peace and friendship with these peoples, our agreements do also resemble armistices rather than peace.

Then as now, the Crusaders’ lot was made easier by the fact that the Arabs were constantly quarreling among themselves. Until the great Salah-a-Din (“Saladin”), a Kurd, appeared on the scene, united the Arabs and vanquished the Crusaders in the battle at the Horns of Hattin, near Tiberias. After that, the Crusaders regrouped and hung on in Palestine for another four generations.

Both the Crusaders and the Zionists saw themselves, quite consciously, as “bridgeheads” of the West in a foreign and hostile region. The Crusaders, of course, came here as the army of the West, to regain the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, wrote in his book Der Judenstaat, the bible of Zionism, that in Palestine we shall serve as the outpost of (Western) culture against (Muslim) barbarism.

The Holy City, by the way, remains the focus of a daily battle. Just this week, two extreme-right Members of the Knesset were allowed by the Israeli authorities to enter the Temple Mount area, fortunately without inciting Jewish-Muslim riots as on previous such occasions.

Also last week, our Minister of Justice, (whom I have called “the devil in the guise of a beautiful woman”), accused the Israeli Supreme Court of putting human rights above the “values of Zionism” (whatever these are). She has already introduced a bill which makes it clear that those “Zionist values” are legally superior to “democratic values” and come first.

The similarity is most apparent when it comes to peace.

For the crusaders, of course, peace was unthinkable. Their whole enterprise was based on the aim of liberating Jerusalem and the entire Holy Land (“God Wills It!”) from Islam, the deadly enemy. This excludes a priori any peace with God’s enemies.

Zionists talk endlessly about peace. No week passes without Binyamin Netanyahu releasing some touching declaration about his craving for peace. But by now it is absolutely clear that he does not dream of giving up one inch of land west of the Jordan. Just a few days ago he again publicly confirmed that he will not “uproot” one single Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Under international law every one of these settlements is illegal.

There are, of course, huge differences between the two historical movements, as huge as the differences between the 11th and 21st centuries.

Can one imagine the Templar knights with atom bombs? Saladin with tanks? The journey of Hospitalers from Clermont to Jaffa by airplane?

At the time of the crusades, the idea of the modern “nation” was not yet born. The knights were French, English or German, but foremost they were Christian. Zionism was born of the will to turn the Jews of the world into a nation in the modern sense of the term.

Who were these Jews? In 19th century Europe, a continent of new nations, they were an unnatural exception, and therefore hated and feared. But they were really an unreformed relic of the Byzantine Empire, where the very identity of all communities was based on religion. Ethnic-religious communities were autonomous and legally under the jurisdiction of their religious leaders.

A Jewish man in Alexandria could marry a Jewish girl in Antioch, but not the Christian woman next door. A Latin woman in Damascus could marry a Latin man in Constantinople, but not the Greek-orthodox man across the street. This legal structure still exists in many ex-Byzantine countries, including--you’ll never guess--Israel.

But given all the differences of time, the comparison is still valid, and provides much food for thought--especially if you sit on the shore of Caesaria, the imposing Crusaders’ wall just behind you, a few kilometers from the port of Atlit, where the last Crusaders were literally thrown into the sea when it all came to an end, just 726 years ago.

To paraphrase Runciman, I hope we learn not to be like them in time.

#Israel #Crusaders #Steven Runciman #Uri Avnery

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bookloversofbath · 3 years

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The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence :: Steven Runciman

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tribeworldarchive · 3 years

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Exclusive Interview with Ryan Runciman (Ryan)

What is your favourite film? Billy Madison

What music do you like? Any, new and old, Offspring, Cat Stevens, Queen

When is your birthday? 22 November 1982

How would you describe your character? Staunch, caring and a little slow. He's easy going but can get worked up when he has to.

What are his strengths and weaknesses? Ryan tends to follow others, he sympathises easily and he is physically strong. He's not very academic.

Are you like Ryan in real life? Not really but I look out for my mates and family. I'll stick up for them when they are in trouble.

Have you travelled around - what is your favourte place or places? Yes, I've been to Britain and Australia a few times. Also been to Ireland and Spain and the USA. Edinburgh would have to be my favourite city.

What animals do you like - any favourite ones, any pets at home? My cat Annie and of course Bob the dog.

What is your favourite episode of the Tribe - and why? I really like the paint fight and the stunt fighting when Tribe Circus attacked the mall.

#The Tribe #Ryan #Ryan Runciman #Billy Madison #Offspring #Cat Stevens #Queen

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ltalaynareor · 4 months

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Pour bien commencer la journée, je vous propose une anecdote historique avec sources.

Lors de la première croisade, (1095-1099), Bohémond de Tarente, princeps de Tarente, le chef le plus rusé de la croisade, le normand rusé, le chevalier d'aventure comme dirait ce regretté Jean Flori, s'empara par ruse de la ville d'Antioche. Comment ?

Revenons un peu en arrière.

Les croisés font le siège de la magnifique mais imposante cité, alors aux mains des Turcs. Les chefs sont divisés sur la marche à suivre. Après la traversée du désert Anatolien, voir les plaines fertiles de l'Oronte les pousse à s'installer et à se restaurer. Toutefois, Raymond IV de Saint-Gilles, comte de Toulouse pense qu'au lieu de s'éparpiller, il conviendrait d'attaquer d'abord. Malheureusement, personne ne l'écoute et on s'installe pour faire un siège. Or, plusieurs problèmes se posent.

1: Les croisés ne sont pas assez nombreux pour faire le siège de l'intégralité de la ville et par conséquent les assiégés les attaquent ou continuent à s'approvisionner sans problème.

2: L'hiver arrive, avec ses pluies torrentielles et les croisés commencent à mourir de faim et à tomber malade.

3: Le moral baisse et les expéditions pour aller chercher de la nourriture se passent extrêmement mal. Les croisés ne connaissent pas le pays et sont attaqués en permanence et même s'ils arrivent à repousser les armées turques des émirs de Damas et d'Alep, ils ne s'éparpillent plus dans la campagne alentour de peur de faire face à une troupe trop nombreuse.

Quelques mois passent ainsi. Pour essayer d'améliorer leur situation, ils construisent plusieurs châteaux de bois et bloquent les portes de la ville mais que de difficultés.

Et puis, pour rajouter à leur horreur, ils apprennent que l'atabeg de Mossoul arrive avec son armée et les croisés prennent peur. Pour des hommes qui vont à la bataille à 500 contre 5000, l'armée turque devait être vraiment massive. Nous n'avons pas les chiffres.

Quoi qu'il en soit, d'un coup tous les conflits entre les chefs se règlent et d'un commun accord on veut prendre la ville. Comment faire ?

C'est là qu'arrive l'héroïque et rusé Bohémond de Tarente. Depuis quelque temps, il est en contact avec un Arménien, Firouz, qui garde une tour, celle des Deux-Soeurs. Comme Firouz et Yaghi-Siyan : l'émir d'Antioche, se sont disputés, (pour une sombre histoire de blé et de femmes,) Firouz promet d'ouvrir les portes de la ville. Bohémond soumet son plan aux autres chefs et leur demande, simplement, une promesse. Ils doivent promettre de lui remettre la ville à lui, Bohémond de Tarente.

Malheureusement, les conflits entre les chefs reprennent. Notamment entre Raymond IV de Saint Gilles qui insiste pour que la ville soit remise, conformément, à leur promesse, à l'empereur de Constantinople, Alexis Comnène. ( C'est une autre histoire mais rajoutons ici que Raymond de Saint-Gilles à d'autres motivations en tête que Jérusalem)

Cependant, les désertions s'enchaînent et même Etienne de Blois, l'un des chefs s'enfuit. L'atabeg se rapproche, alors, par désespoir, on cède à Bohémond.

Dans la journée du 2 juin 1098, l'armée croisée fait mine de partir affronter l'armée de l'atabeg mais alors que les habitants et les gardes d'Antioche poussent un soupir de soulagement, ils sont attaqués, de nuit, par les croisés.

En effet, durant la nuit, l'armée croisée à fait demi-tour et grâce à des échelles lancées depuis la tour de Firouz, s'est faufilée dans la ville et à ouvert les portes.

Un massacre suivit.

Cet épisode illustre la ruse du normand mais ce n'est pas finie :)

La suite si vous le voulez bien ?

Sources :

Alain Demurger, Croisades et croisés au Moyen Âge.

Jean Flori, Bohémond d'Antioche.

Jacques Heers, La première croisade.

Steven Runciman, Histoire des Croisades.

Pour les portraits :

Ils sont exposés dans la Salle des Croisades à Versailles.

#first crusade #Bohémond de Tarente #Raymond de Saint-Gilles #Antioche

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“…If the crusades were primarily military expeditions, and women were not expected to fight, we might first ask why they were present in significant numbers. What motivated their involvement? The answer to this question is not easily discernable since there were women from all classes of society present on crusade. Moreover, historians have no way of knowing for sure how many women and other non-combatants actually left with the crusading armies. The sheer length and size of many campaigns meant that for any medieval army to function effectively, it required many non-combatants – engineers, bakers, artisans, tailors, squires, prostitutes and so on – in addition to the presence of fighting men and their commanders.

Numerous women formed a part of this retinue; however, the vast majority of women were poor and, in comparison to the knights, foot soldiers and other male warriors who set out alongside them, militarily unsuited to the task of conquering the Holy Land. Many of these women came alone or unmarried, while others had left their homes to come on crusade with their whole family in search of a better life, no doubt influenced to some extent by the enthusiasm and excitement which greeted the whole concept of a holy war. Other factors probably also influenced their decisions to leave for with the crusade army. The fact that certain celestial phenomenon such as aurora and comet sightings around the time that the First Crusade was being preached auspiciously coincided with the end of a long French drought in 1096 may have prompted some women to leave with the crusade army, although it is hard to know for certain.

Moreover, there is also the possibility that, for those who wished to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the prospect of travelling with an armed force who could protect them all the way appealed to unarmed female (and male) pilgrims. One eyewitness to the preparations for the First Crusade, Bernold of Constance, even recorded that ‘innumerable’ numbers of women disguised themselves in men’s clothing, possibly because they wished to actually take up arms against the enemy. This suggestion is supported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which asserted that ‘women and children’ were amongst those who ‘wanted to war against heathen nations’. Furthermore, we cannot discount the spiritual incentive of simply going to the Holy Land, which undoubtedly would have also helped motivate the masses of men and women to leave on crusade.

In some cases noblewomen also left on crusade, usually in the company of their husbands or other male relatives. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie of Champagne, Marguerite of Provence and Eleanor of Castile are all well-known examples of women who followed their husbands on crusade to the Holy Land. Once again though, the motivations for noblewomen who went on crusade are not easily ascertained, although the length of the crusade expeditions (which could last for years) probably had something to do with it, especially for couples who wanted to stay together. Other women appear to have acted fairly independently: around the time of the First Crusade, Emerias of Altejas took the cross by herself, but was persuaded by the bishop of Toulouse to endow a monastery instead of leaving for Jerusalem.

Alice, countess of Brittany, took a crusade vow in the 1260s, and, after her husband died in 1279 without fulfilling his vows, left for the East – specifically the city of Acre – in the late 1280s. On a broader scale, Kedar has drawn attention to an extant passenger list of a crusader ship in the mid-thirteenth century that had 453 passengers on board, forty-two of which were women, and of these women twenty- two were travelling with no male companion. Whatever their motivation, the fact that certain lords and their wives had to consider such decisions at all helped differentiate the crusades from other, more localised military escapades fought on a smaller scale that did not involve the same prospect of spiritual reward or the same possibility for material gain (at least early on) in the form of land.

Clearly, then, there were women from a range of different backgrounds present on crusade, for a variety of different reasons. The support which they rendered to the fighting men, however, was primarily indirect and auxiliary regardless of their social rank, and included such tasks as washing, cleaning clothes, cooking, gathering supplies – even picking lice and fleas off the men’s bodies. They might also provide comfort to the men (through prostitution), or when new territory was conquered they could assist with and become a part of settlement plans within that territory. In another sense, however, women could provide spiritual support for the men, encouraging them whilst they fought and praying for God’s favour.

The medieval poet Baldric of Dol, for instance, in his account of the First Crusade, noted that women and other non-combatants were an integral part of the spiritual side of the crusade and prayed for the men whilst they were fighting. Although this may not sound like a particularly useful form of ‘support’ to those living in the twenty-first century, spiritual supplication was still important since the crusades were a holy war and it was believed that God was on their side. Prayer thus helped ensure God’s favour and consequently the likelihood of military success.

The provision of supplies to the fighting men, most notably water, was another basic but essential form of support women rendered to men on crusade. Describing the female presence at the battle of Dorylaeum, one anonymous chronicler at the scene notes how ‘[t]he women in our camp were a great help to us that day, for they brought up water for the fighting men to drink, and gallantly encouraged those who were fighting and defending them’. Likewise Margaret of Beverly, whose brother recorded her experiences in the Holy Land around the time of the Third Crusade, recounted how she put a pot on her head for protection and brought water to the men on the walls during Saladin’s siege of Jerusalem, being injured in the process by an enemy projectile.

Oliver of Paderborn, whose account of the Fifth Crusade is one of the most detailed and important sources available, also recalled a similar form of female support during the crusaders’ attack on Damietta in Egypt, when he mentions that ‘the women fearlessly brought water and stones, wine and bread to the warriors’. Not long afterwards, during a skirmish between crusaders and Saracens at a castle south of Damietta, he mentions women carrying and distributing water to clerics and foot-soldiers.

The Fifth Crusade also offers examples of how women might assist an army with other supplies besides water. Powell has documented how women were said to have helped grind corn for the Christian army whilst it was besieging Damietta, how they were in charge of the markets selling fish and vegetables to the crusaders, and how they helped attend to the sick and needy. Most notably, Powell notes that women even acted as guards in the crusade camp and were assigned with weapons to prevent desertions and maintain order while the army prepared for a fresh attack against the city.

Joinville too, in his chronicle of the Seventh Crusade, described women who ‘sold provisions’ raising a cry of alarm when the Count of Poitiers was captured at the battle of Mansourah (February 1250). These examples suggest that women could be of definite help on a military expedition, and whilst we should not generalise and assume that women fulfilled the same logistical roles in every crusade or medieval military campaign, it is important to be aware of the different ways they might have rendered basic support and provisions to armies on campaign.

At the same time, however, women sometimes did become much more involved with military actions and appear to have actually used weapons themselves on the enemy, though not specifically in hand-to-hand combat. During the second siege of Toulouse in 1218, for instance, women from within the city supposedly operated the mangonel or perrière (a stone-throwing device) that killed Simon de Montfort, leader of the Albigensian Crusade, just as a Frankish woman ‘shooting from the citadel’ with a mangonel was said to have destroyed the Muslims’ mangonel at Saladin’s siege of Burzay in 1188.

Acting in a similarly defensive manner were the women who helped repel the French attack during the siege of Hennebont in 1342 by throwing stones and pots of chalk from the walls onto the enemy at the urging of Jeanne de Montfort. Likewise, in 1358 women also played an important role in defending the French township of Senlis from an attack by French nobles during the short-lived but violent peasant uprising known as the ‘Jacquerie’. In this case, the townsfolk were forewarned of the attack and had their women stationed at windows ‘to pour great quantities of boiling water down upon the enemy’ while their men-folk fought off the attackers.

…Nevertheless, there are accounts of women who dressed in armour and who may have physically fought the enemy. In studying the evidence available, though, we must be very careful in accounting for possible bias in the sources, particularly in accounts where the author’s ulterior motive may have been to portray the enemy in an unfavourable light and especially when it comes to descriptions of actual female combatants. Hence we must treat as suspicious a passage by the Byzantine chronicler, Niketas Choniatēs, about mounted women bearing ‘lances and weapons’ and dressed in ‘masculine garb...more mannish than the Amazons’ on the Second Crusade. According to the modern translator, this passage was assumed by Steven Runciman to refer to Eleanor of Aquitaine and her retinue, despite the fact that her name was not specifically mentioned. While Eleanor was indeed present on this crusade, the passage makes more sense, however, if it is understood as an attempt to criticise the Franks as uncivilised and even barbaric compared to the Greeks, because they allowed their women to don armour and unnaturally fight as warriors.

In the same way, Muslim chroniclers’ descriptions of Frankish women who supposedly dressed up and rode into battle at the siege of Acre ‘as brave men though they were but tender women’, and who were subsequently ‘not recognised as women until they had been stripped of their arms’ – as well as another Muslim account of a Frankish noblewoman who allegedly fought at Acre alongside 500 of her own knights – must be treated with caution. As Nicholson has noted, for both Christians and Muslims ‘it was expected that good, virtuous women would not normally fight...in a civilised, godly society’. By depicting Frankish women as warriors, therefore, the Muslim chroniclers could illustrate the barbarous and heathen nature of Christian society and contrast it with the properly ordered Muslim society where women knew their place. Thus, while we cannot rule out the possibility that some women at Acre may have actually dressed up and fought, the Muslim accounts are certainly questionable.

Likewise, other accounts of female combatants and women in armour that do not appear to be influenced directly by religious bias must still be carefully evaluated. In France, Orderic Vitalis recorded how Isabel of Conches rode ‘armed as a knight among the knights’ during a conflict in 1090 between her husband, Ralph of Conches, and Count William of Évreux. Although Orderic remarked on her courage among the knights, he says nothing about her subsequent actions, and thus we have no way of knowing if she actually fought. In a similar vein, the English chronicler Jordan Fantosme, writing primarily of the rebellion against Henry II by his son Henry ‘the Young King’ in 1173-1174, asserted that the earl of Leicester had his wife, Petronella, countess of Leicester, dressed up in armour and given a shield and lance before the battle of Fornham in October 1173.

According to Fantosme, Petronella encouraged the earl to fight the English, but fled from the battle while it was in progress and then fell into a ditch where she nearly drowned. Fantosme, however, was the only chronicler to describe Petronella’s martial deeds, and Johns has argued that he was clearly trying to portray Petronella in an unsympathetic way in order to emphasise that women should not be involved in military affairs. Fantosme wrote to entertain, but also to instruct moral lessons and highlight divine law; Petronella thus served as an example against women’s involvement in war and the follies of accepting female advice. Nevertheless, Petronella must have been present or involved in some way since other sources do mention that she was captured after the battle along with the earl and that she was present with him on campaign in England.

Further afield, in the Holy Land, William of Tyre contended that in the first crusade army’s excitement at the imminent capture of Jerusalem ‘even women, regardless of their sex and natural weakness, dared to assume arms and fought manfully far beyond their strength’. His account, however, cannot be verified as no eyewitness accounts of this siege actually describe women acting in such a manner. Likewise, although the memoirs of the twelfth century Muslim nobleman Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh mention several female combatants – a female Muslim slave who rushed into battle ‘sword in hand’; a Frankish women who used a jar to try and help fend off an attack on Frankish pilgrims; a Muslim woman in Shayzar who captured and had killed three Frankish men – it is important to be aware that Usāmah was recalling these anecdotes sixty years after they supposedly took place.

…It is because of this need for more defenders that other accounts of female combatants may be considered more reliable. For, even though Muslim writers are our source for the story of a female archer at Acre who, in defending the city, ‘wounded many Muslims before she was overcome and killed’, it is quite possible that in the heat of battle, when manpower was necessary to fight off attackers, this woman was forced to draw a bow. Equally plausible are these same Muslim writers’ astonishment at finding women amongst the dead on the battlefield after a failed Christian attack on Saladin’s camp, though this revelation does not tell us that these women actually fought.

Then there is the case of Christian women who executed the crew of a captured Turkish ship at Acre. According to the Itinerarium Peregrinorum, ‘the women’s physical weakness prolonged the pain of death, because they cut their heads off with knives instead of swords’. Again, although the women were not actually fighting in battle, it is quite possible that this event did occur given that the men had been defeated already and the women were perhaps motivated by thoughts of revenge. As Evans points out, the passage still displays ‘a gendered approach to weaponry’ in that the Muslims’ death at the hands of women is emphasised as ‘humiliating’ and reference made to women’s weakness – implying that the women were acting in an unnatural way.”

- James Michael Illston, ‘An Entirely Masculine Activity’? Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered

#history #james michael illston #warfare #crusades #high middle ages #late middle ages #medieval

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