IMC 2024: Sessions

The history of the crusades shows many different aspects of crisis and transition. Crisis phenomena show up again and again in different constellations: the mobilisation and recruitment of crusaders could run into unforeseen difficulties; financial problems could delay departure; participation in crusading might be delayed or prevented by the need to secure land holdings, or by political objectives. A crusade could also trigger crises in the crusaders‘ region of origin: rights and lands might be claimed by rivals; episcopal property could be contested during a bishop‘s absence; the death of a crusader could plunge his family‘s rule into crisis. The course and aims of entire crusades might be also be threatened by internal disputes, unexpected defeats or setbacks, as with the defeat of the popular expeditions of 1096 or the diversion of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople. Finally, the very character of the crusade movement could be affected by wider political and religious events, such as the fall of Acre in 1291, the suppression of the Templars, the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans, or the Protestant Reformation. In this series of sessions we wish to discuss the phenomena of crisis and significant turning points in the organisation, planning, recruitment and execution of crusades, as well as major phases of transition and change in the wider character of crusading.