Scholarly interest in the crusades has exploded over the course of the past several decades, and there appears to be no end in sight. As of this writing, the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, a professional organization devoted to crusade studies, has 467 members in 41 countries. The amount of scholarly literature produced each year is staggering. For that reason, I have limited myself in this bibliography to mentioning only the most important works published in the recent past. The footnotes and bibliographies in these books will lead interested readers to older or more specialized studies.
General histories of the crusades have proliferated at a rapid rate. The best known of these is Sir Steven Runciman’s three-volume A History of the Crusades (Cambridge University Press, 1951–54). Runciman provides a compelling and beautifully written narration of the crusading movement from the Council of Clermont to the fall of Acre. In an epilogue, he also mentions crusades up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Throughout his history, Runciman sees Byzantium in the best possible light. Despite its age, this work still remains widely available and influential. It is, however, riddled with errors of fact and a great many assertions that can no longer be maintained. Runciman is read today for the beauty of his prose, not the accuracy of his narrative. Hans Eberhard Mayer’s The Crusades, 2nd ed., trans. John Gillingham (Oxford University Press, 1988), is a well-written synthesis of the crusades within the traditional chronological framework. Mayer puts special emphasis on the history of the Latin East. Jean Richard’s The Crusades (Cambridge University Press, 1999) also approaches the crusades from the traditional emphasis on expeditions to the East before 1291. Richard’s prose is wonderful, even in English translation. The more expansive view of the crusading movement is presented by Jonathan Riley-Smith in The Crusades: A History (Yale University Press, 2005). Riley-Smith manages to touch on almost every aspect of crusading within the space of a single volume. Eschewing the traditional organization of crusade history into major expeditions, he tackles the subject by describing the birth, maturity, and death of the movement. Much shorter is Bernard Hamilton’s The Crusades (Sutton, 1998), which sums up the entire history of the crusades in less than one hundred pages. Other good histories are Christopher Tyerman’s God’s War (Belknap Press, 2006), Jonathan Phillips’s Holy Warriors (Random House, 2009), Jill Claster’s Sacred Violence (University of Toronto Press, 2009), and Thomas Asbridge’s The Crusades (Ecco, 2010). There are two general books produced by a collaboration of crusade historians: The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Riley-Smith (Oxford University Press, 2001) is organized thematically, and Crusades: The Illustrated History, ed. Thomas F. Madden (University of Michigan Press, 2004) provides a chronological narrative. The largest collection of crusade scholarship can be found in A History of the Crusades, 6 vols., ed. Kenneth M. Setton (University of Wisconsin Press, 1958–89). This compendium has chapters on almost every subject discussed in this book. Because the chapters are written by various authors, they are necessarily of uneven quality; some are excellent, others forgettable. A two-volume collection of the best scholarship to date will appear in The Cambridge History of the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Phillips, Thomas F. Madden, Marcus Bull, and Andrew Jotischky (Cambridge University Press, expected 2015).
The starting point for all studies on the idea of the crusade is Carl Erdmann’s Origins of the Idea of the Crusade (orig. pub., W. Kohlhammer, 1935; English trans., Princeton University Press, 1977). Erdmann looked to monastic and ecclesiastic reform in the eleventh century as the fertile ground in which the crusades were planted and grew. Although the “Erdmann thesis” is the subject of debate, it remains the foundation for subsequent discussion. While Erdmann attempted to understand what factors led to the development of the crusading idea, Paul Alphandéry, in La chrétienté et l’idée de croisade, 2 vols. (Albin Michel, 1954–59), examined the development of the idea within the context of medieval Christianity, particularly the concepts of the humanity of Christ and the expectation of the Last Judgment. Alphandéry stresses the uniquely medieval nature of the crusades and scorns the imposition of modern stereotypes on people of the past. Jean Flori has produced several studies that argue that the crusades should be seen as holy war rather than armed pilgrimage. These include La guerre sainte: La formation de l’idée de croisade dans l’Occident chrétien (Aubier, 2001) and Guerre sainte, jihad, croisade: Violence et religion dans le christinisme et l’islam (Éditions du Seuil, 2002).
James A. Brundage examines the crusade’s legal underpinnings, including the crusader’s vow, obligations, and privileges, in Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (University of Wisconsin Press, 1969). Jonathan Riley-Smith emphasizes the pious idealism that lay behind crusader motivations in his informative little book, What Were the Crusades? (Ignatius Press, 2002). In a seminal article, “Crusading as an Act of Love,” History 65 (1980): 177–92, Riley-Smith delves into the crusade propaganda behind the pious idealism, noting that it stressed Christian charity and fraternal love while omitting reference to the love of one’s enemies. Crusade preaching is described by Penny J. Cole in The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095–1270 (Medieval Academy of America, 1991) and by Christoph T. Maier in Preaching the Crusade: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Two works examine other aspects of crusader motivations: Paul Rousset’s Histoire d’une idéologie: La croisade (L’age d’homme, 1983) and Benjamin Z. Kedar’s Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the Muslims(Princeton University Press, 1984). Kedar’s study is particularly interesting, for it seeks to understand the relationship between the crusades and missions of conversion. Elizabeth Siberry’s Criticism of Crusading, 1095–1274 (Clarendon, 1985) looks at Europe’s favorable and unfavorable reactions to the crusades. Finally, William Purkis’s Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia (Boydell, 2008) expertly sets the crusading movement into the larger reform movements of medieval Europe.
Scholarship on medieval Spain and the Reconquista is vibrant. The best and most recent comprehensive work on the subject is Joseph F. O’Callaghan’s Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), which argues that the reform papacy beginning with Gregory VII transformed the Reconquista into a crusade. The Spanish then subsequently embraced this crusade ideology. Also useful is Derek W. Lomax’s The Reconquest of Spain (Longman, 1978). Robert I. Burns has written a number of studies on local portions of the religious wars. Among the best is The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia, 2 vols. (Harvard University Press, 1967). Similarly of importance are Bernard F. Reilly’s The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031–1157(Blackwell, 1992) and Damian J. Smith’s Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon (Ashgate, 2005).
No crusade has been studied more than the First Crusade. There are hundreds of books on the campaign, the participants, and the implications of the expedition. Among the best is Jonathan Riley-Smith’s The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986). This excellent short study emphasizes the motivations of the various crusaders and the conditions they experienced during the campaign. It is by no means, however, a military history. For that, one should consult the first-rate work by John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Robert Chazan’s In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews (Jewish Publication Society, 1996) zeroes in on the motivations, extent, and aftermath of the anti-Jewish massacres in the wake of the “People’s Crusade.” Marcus Bull argues in Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade: Limousin and Gascony, c. 970–c.1130 (Clarendon, 1993) that lay piety and the close relationship between the laity and religious orders at the local level help to explain the surprising response to the call of Urban II. Jonathan Riley-Smith, in The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 (Cambridge University Press, 1997), brings the fruits of his many years of cartulary studies to bear on fundamental questions about the identity and character of those who took the cross. Popular works by professional historians include Thomas Asbridge’s The First Crusade: A New History (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Jay Rubenstein’s Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse (Basic, 2011).
There exist many excellent histories of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The old but still useful standard is D. C. Munro’s The Kingdom of the Crusaders (D. Appleton-Century, 1935). Another excellent introduction is Jean Richard’s The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, trans. Janet Shirley (North Holland, 1979). Also of importance are Bernard Hamilton’s The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Adrian J. Boas’s Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades (Routledge, 2001), and Ronnie Ellenblum’s Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
A number of studies have examined the relationship of the crusader states to outside powers. Joshua Prawer, in The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972), approaches the Franks from the perspective of their relations with the Muslim majority. Ralph-Johannes Lilie, in Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096–1204, trans. J. C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings (Clarendon, 1993), uncovers the importance of the crusaders’ relationship with Constantinople. Jonathan Phillips, in Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations between the Latin East and the West, 1119–1187 (Clarendon, 1996), looks at contacts between the Latin East and western Europe while also touching on their relationship with Byzantium. Christopher MacEvitt, in The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), examines the relationship between Latin rulers and non-Latin Christians in the region during the period of the kingdom.
Military histories of the Latin East can be found in the classic study by R. C. Smail, Crusading Warfare, 1097–1193, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1995), as well as Christopher Marshall’s Warfare in the Latin East, 1192–1291 (Cambridge University Press, 1992), which deals with the second century of the kingdom’s history. There are a number of important essays in Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, ed. John H. Pryor (Ashgate, 2006). Hugh Kennedy, in Crusader Castles (Cambridge University Press, 1994), expertly describes the role of massive strongholds in the East and describes the citadels themselves. In Crusader Castles and Modern Histories (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Ronnie Ellenblum sets crusader fortifications into the larger concepts of frontiers and borders during the period. Jaroslav Folda’s beautiful volume, Crusader Art: The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1099–1291 (Lund Humphries, 2008), explores the artistic component of this unique society.
An enormous number of books have been written on the Knights Templar, but only a few are good. The best history of the order is Malcolm Barber’s The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Peter Partner, in The Murdered Magicians: The Templars and Their Myth (Oxford University Press, 1982), provides a much more concise history of the order; he is more concerned with the growth of Templar legends. Unlike Barber, Partner discounts the idea that Philip IV moved against the Templars for their money. Helen Nicholson, inThe Knights Templar: A New History (Sutton, 2001), provides an approachable narrative for a general audience. The best history of the medieval Hospitallers is Jonathan Riley-Smith’s The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050–1310 (St. Martin’s, 1967). For the activities of the Teutonic Knights in the Holy Land, see Nicholas Morton’s The Teutonic Knights in the Holy Land, 1190–1291 (Boydell Press, 2009). For their activities in northern Europe, see Eric Christiansen, The Northern Crusades: the Baltic and Catholic Frontier, 1100–1525, 2nd ed. (Penguin, 1997) and Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and the Baltic Crusades (Ashgate, 2006).
On the Second Crusade, see Jonathan Phillips’s The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom (Yale University Press, 2008). Older, but still useful, is Giles Constable’s important article, “The Second Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries,” Traditio9 (1953): 213–79. Two good collections of essays on the subject are The Second Crusade and the Cistercians, ed. Michael Gervers (St. Martin’s, 1992) and The Second Crusade: Scope and Consequences, ed. Jonathan Phillips and Martin Hoch (Manchester University Press, 2001).
Given the prolific nature of crusade studies, it is particularly surprising that there is still no monograph on the Third Crusade. The history of the expedition must be pieced together from biographies of the leaders. Peter Munz, in Frederick Barbarossa: A Study in Medieval Politics (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1969), provides a good overview of the German contribution to the crusade. Malcolm Cameron Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson, in Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War (Cambridge University Press, 1982), approach it from the Muslim side. Biographies of Richard I naturally devote considerable attention to his primary role in the crusade. The best is John Gillingham’s Richard I (Yale University Press, 1999).
Because of the oddity of the event and its controversial nature, the Fourth Crusade has always enjoyed a great deal of scholarly interest. The standard treatment is by Donald E. Queller and Thomas F. Madden, The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 2nd ed. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997). Michael Angold does a superb job of placing the crusade within its larger historical context in The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context (Longman, 2003). My book, Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), places the crusade within the context of Venetian history. The standard histories of the Latin Empire of Constantinople are Jean Longnon’s L’empire latin de Constantinople et la principauté de Morée (Payot, 1949) and Freddy Thiriet’s La Romanie vénitienne au moyen âge (E. de Boccard, 1959). There is a great need for new studies on Frankish Greece.
The Albigensian Crusade has received a great deal of attention in the past decade. The best monograph, however, remains Joseph R. Strayer’s The Albigensian Crusades, with a new epilogue by Carol Lansing (University of Michigan Press, 1992). More controversial is Mark Gregory Pegg’s A Most Holy War (Oxford University Press, 2009). Laurence Marvin provides an excellent military history of the crusade in The Occitan War (Cambridge University Press, 2009). The standard book on the Children’s Crusade is Gary Dickson’s The Children’s Crusade (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
The political crusades of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are described by Norman J. Housley in The Italian Crusades: The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades against Christian Lay Powers, 1254–1343 (Oxford University Press, 1982).
The standard work on the Fifth Crusade is by James M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213–1221 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986). In a brilliant statistical analysis, Powell sheds light on the fluid and often precarious nature of the army at Damietta. Older, but still useful, is Joseph P. Donovan’s Pelagius and the Fifth Crusade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950). The so-called Baron’s Crusade is carefully examined by Michael Lower in his The Baron’s Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).The Crusade of Frederick II is treated in biographies of the emperor. Ernst Kantorowicz’s Frederick II (orig. pub 1931; English trans., 1957) is the foundation for all studies of Frederick. Thomas C. Van Cleve, in The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Immutator Mundi (Oxford University Press, 1972), provides a well-researched narrative of the emperor’s journey to the East. David Abulafia’s Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor (Oxford University Press, 1988) does the same, although it views Frederick in a consistently positive light.
Our understanding of the central role of the crusade in the life and reign of Louis IX of France was greatly enhanced by William Chester Jordan’s Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (Princeton University Press, 1979). Another excellent study is Jean Richard’s Saint Louis: Crusader King of France, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge University Press, 1992). Jacques Le Goff’s Saint Louis (Gallimard, 1996) provides an exhaustive treatment of Louis’s reign. Le Goff agrees with the importance of the crusade to the king but questions whether it was the cause or the result of Louis’s reforms. Focusing more closely on the crusades themselves is Caroline Smith’s Crusading in the Age of Joinville (Ashgate, 2006). M. Cecilia Gaposchkin’s masterful The Making of Saint Louis: Kingship, Sanctity, and Crusade in the Late Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 2008) examines the ways in which Louis’s crusade efforts figured into medieval ideas of sacred kingship and sanctity during the canonization process.
The single best resource for the later crusades is Kenneth M. Setton’s The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), 4 vols. (American Philosophical Society, 1978–1985). Setton brought a lifetime of archival and library research to bear on the pope’s efforts to bring peace to Europe and to organize an effective defense against the Muslims. It is an amazing piece of scholarship. Many of the footnotes could be articles in their own right. Much more concise, but extremely useful, is Norman Housley’s The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar (Oxford University Press, 1992). Housley’s The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378 (Clarendon, 1986) is indispensable for understanding the crusades of the fourteenth century. Sylvia Schein, Fideles crucis: The Papacy, the West, and the Recovery of the Holy Land, 1274–1314 (Clarendon, 1991) does a superb job of making sense of the flurry of crusade plans that were circulating in Europe as the crusader kingdom declined and disappeared. The role of Cyprus and the campaigns of Peter I are briefly described by Peter W. Edbury in The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191–1374 (Cambridge University Press, 1991). Finally, Housley examines the ways in which crusading ideas were translated into later inter-Christian warfare in his important book, Religious Warfare in Europe, 1400–1536 (Oxford University Press, 2002).
There are several excellent studies on the ways the crusades have been remembered across the centuries. For the Western perspective, one should see Giles Constable, “The Historiography of the Crusades,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (Dumbarton Oaks, 2001), 1–22, as well as the last chapter of Christopher Tyreman’s The Invention of the Crusades (University of Toronto Press, 1998). More recent depictions of the crusades are explored by Elizabeth Siberry’s The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusades in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (Ashgate, 2000). The perception and memory of the crusades in the Muslim world is expertly examined by Carole Hillenbrand’s groundbreaking work, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh University Press, 1999). An excellent summary of views from both worlds can be found in Jonathan Riley-Smith’s “Islam and the Crusades in History and Imagination, 8 November 1898–11 September 2001,”Crusades 2 (2003): 151–67.