IMC 2024: Sessions

Session 1524: Crusade and Crisis, I: Crime, Crisis, and Crusade in the Medieval Mediterranean

Thursday 4 July 2024, 09:00-10:30

Sponsor:	Royal Holloway University of London / Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, St Louis University, Missouri
Organiser:	Andrew T. Jotischky, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Jonathan Phillips, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 1524-a	Corsairs for Christ: Crusading and Maritime Theft in the Mediterranean, 1099-1291 (Language: English) Thomas P. Morin, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University, Missouri Index terms: Crusades and Maritime and Naval Studies
Paper 1524-b	Creating a Crusading Crimewave: Climate Change and Demography (Language: English) Steve Tibble, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Crusades, Demography and Military History
Paper 1524-c	The Legal Status of the Hospitallers in 14th-Century Venice (Language: English) George Summers, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University, Missouri Index terms: Crusades, Demography and Military History
Abstract	Travellers to and inhabitants of the Frankish-ruled territories in the Eastern Mediterranean frequently commented on the levels of lawlessness and disorder in crusader society. This was driven partly by the numbers of younger men with a propensity for violence congregated in a region perpetually mobilised for war, and partly by the availability of apparently easy prey for theft and piracy. The establishment of the Military Orders, moreover, concentrated large groups of unattached fighting men in close proximity. At the same time, the effects of climate change across the Near East precipitated mobility and demographic instability in the broader region. These papers will explore the phenomenon of criminality and violence in the crusading Mediterranean.