Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Responses to the Crusading Movements, 1137-1336

Description

The crusading movements provoked a vast and diverse mass of reactions in the medieval West. While Latin sources provide official versions of its preaching, organisation and events, the vernacular lyrics of the troubadours and trouvères present a secular perspective, through a cornucopia of on-the-spot responses in France, Occitania, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Cyprus, Syria and Greece. This book constitutes the first comprehensive, modern analysis of Old French and Occitan lyric texts relating to the crusades. It brings out their full range, from propaganda for the crusades, to criticisms of crusading and crusaders through vituperation, humour or cynicism, to their use as a pretext for political or personal wrangling. It also shows how they shed light on many aspects of medieval life, among them chivalric and courtly values (often in tension with clerical ones), regional politics, sexual behaviour, personal experiences of crusading and captivity, the complex interaction of Christians, Greeks and Muslims, and bafflement in the face of failure and God's imponderable purposes. Frontcover Contents List of Maps Acknowledgements Abbreviations Author’s Note Introduction 1. Early Expeditions 2. After Damascus: Reconquest, Settlement and Pilgrimage 3. The Third Crusade (1187–1192) 4. The Aftermath of the Third Crusade 5. The Fourth Crusade and its Aftermath 6. The Fifth Crusade, of Damietta, and the Albigensian Crusade 7. Frederick II and the Sixth Crusade 8. The ‘False Crusade’: the Albigensian war of 1224–1233 9. The Barons’ Crusade, or the crusade of Thibaut de Champagne 10. The Seventh Crusade, or the First Crusade of Saint Louis 11. The Eighth Crusade, or the Second Crusade of Saint Louis 12. After Saint Louis Conclusion Appendix A. The Words To Say It: The Crusading Rhetoric of the Troubadours and Trouvères Appendix B. Chronology of events and texts Appendix C. Melodies attested in the MSS Bibliography Index