IMC 2024: Sessions

In the wake of Jerusalem’s capture in July 1099, Latin Christians could hardly have envisaged the crises that would damage, and eventually contribute to the downfall of, the idea of crusading and crusading settlements over the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This session explores how medieval authors of narratives pertaining to the crusader states, as well as the Third and Fifth Crusades, set about narrating and explaining crises, with some even using the crusading past to comment on the crises of their own time. Paper a) considers the extent to which historians can trace echoes of the crises facing the contemporary Latin East in William of Tyre’s Chronicon. Paper b) examines literary responses to the myriad crises encountered by the Third Crusaders, demonstrating that several moments of crisis emerged as key episodes of contestation that were vital in the creation of contested memories of the expedition. Paper c) interrogates Oliver of Paderborn’s account of the capture and loss of Damietta to assess the role of miracles and signs in a crusade text which pivots so dramatically from a narrative of conquest to one of crisis.