The Genealogy of the Crusaders

The Genealogy of the Crusaders Book Description

This book takes a decidedly different look at the crusades in that the focus is upon the crusaders and not upon the political or religious causes of the crusades. I concentrate on the men and women themselves, some of whom sacrificed family, lands, titles, wealth, and their lives to go forth for what they believed was a holy cause. Admittedly, some sought those very things and that was their motivation. Some were great. Others had greatness thrust upon them. Some were failures.This is not a book about the rise and fall of kingdoms, colonization, societal changes, the Great Schism, but a book of the lives of the people who sacrificed much to gain either eternal or worldly riches, glory, or found dynasties.The purpose of this book is to breathe some life into the people who went on crusade. Their motivations varied, but included a quest for heaven, earthly glory, plunder, or to simply escape overbearing in-laws. Over the course of these pages, I will present biographies of approximately five hundred crusaders that I have identified. Longer biographies will be presented for those who are most famous (or infamous) while others will only have a paragraph or two and are people who have been generally lost in the mists of time over the six to nine centuries since they lived and died. A full biography of the most famous is beyond the scope of this work, but will hopefully motivate further, detailed study.The crusades lasted from the middle of the twelfth century to the sixteenth century. The crusades to the Holy Land are known to almost all people. Many of the places that are in the news in 2010-2020 are the same ones that haunted Europe from 1050 to 1350. However, the crusades were not limited to the Holy Land. The Albigensian Crusade in the area known as Languedoc where southwestern France and northeastern Spain join on the Mediterranean coast saw significant campaigns, not against the Saracens, but against the Cathars who were considered heretics.Even before the First Crusade to the Holy Land was called for Christians in the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula had been fighting against Moslem invaders for over two hundred years. Though not considered a crusade, the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D. stopped the advance of Islam into the heart of France and Europe. However, much of what is modern Spain had been overrun and the small Christian kingdoms there were limited to a narrow strip of land on the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The Reconquest or "La Reconquista" of the Iberian Peninsula is known to students of medieval history. However, the Northern Crusades are little known in the English-speaking world. This book will touch on them. During the crusading period, the fight against pagans that were much closer than the Holy Land gained the same papal indulgence, sanctions, and sanctifications as those waging Holy War in Palestine. I have been a student of history my entire life. Even as a little boy my imagination was filled with dreams and images of knights in shining armor. There are many books and sources which cover the campaigns, politics, and the religious fervor on both sides of this conflict. I will touch on these subjects only briefly to give some background to the times in which these men and women crusaders fought.Any errors in this work are entirely my fault and not the fault of the reference books I have consulted.I hope you find these people as interesting and exciting as I do. Source documentation is presented for each person listed.