Women and the Crusades

Description

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration... This book surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Cover WOMEN AND THE CRUSADES Copyright Preface Acknowledgements Contents A Note on Names Maps 1: Locating Women in the Crusades: Definitions and Evidence Women’s roles in crusading Definitions of crusading What was a crusade? Crusade or pilgrimage? Some problems with evidence Motivation 2: Initializing Crusades Beginnings The Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula and beyond The Crusader States and the eastern Mediterranean Family connections Recruiting for crusades 3: Crusade Campaigns Women’s roles in crusades: plans and practice Accompanying husbands Caring for the sick Diplomacy and intelligence Women acting alone Making a living Military action Victims and prisoners of crusades 4: The Home Front: Supporting the Crusade The costs of crusading for those left behind Administering estates After the crusade Financing crusaders Spiritual support: prayer, holy women, and saints 5: After the Crusade: Memory and Imagination Memorials and foundations Liturgy and ritual Written record Cultural patronage Summing Up Chronology of the Crusades List of Popes Family Trees Abbreviations used Endnotes Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Summing Up Bibliography Primary sources Secondary works Index