The Crusades

Bibliography: p. [628]-632

Medieval man -- The Latin West and Byzantium -- The First Crusade (1096-1099) -- The pioneers of Frankish Syria (1099-1102) -- The formation of the Frankish states of Syria (1102-1112) -- The kingdom and its neighbors (1112-1131) -- The Franks between Byzantium and Islam : Aleppa, Damascus, and Cairo (1131-1174) -- The fall of the Frankish Kingdom (1174-1188) -- The Crusade of the kings (1188-1192) -- Frankish Syria, a doomed kingdom -- Frankish Syria as an eastern province -- Eastern Christendom -- The reckoning -- Conclusion -- Geneological tables -- Chronology

It was a great adventure, motivated by more than simply religion or pure aggression: the Crusades resulted from an emotional climate that led people from all walks of life to leave their homes and follow the unattainable ideal of a heavenly Jerusalem here on Earth. A prize-winning author paints a portrait of the whole of feudal society, evoking its exceptional vitality and the ingenuity of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem--one of the more sophisticated achievements of the Middle Ages--and personalities such as Tancred, Peter the Hermit, Richard the Lionhearted, and Saladin