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Crusades in Christendom, 1179-1588: Context

Module description

The crusades are usually associated with armed pilgrimages of Latin European Christians against Turkish and Egyptian Muslims aimed at recovering or defending the Holy City of Jerusalem. While this image retained its force throughout the Middle Ages, the turn of the thirteenth century witnessed the emergence of indulgences associated with expeditions under the sign of the cross directed against schismatic, heretical, and excommunicate Christians. These attempts to realise or protect the Christian republic through sanctified violence produced campaigns in Sicily, Greece, Asia Minor, the Balkans, southern France, Germany, England, Italy, Bohemia, and Flanders, and their legacy continues to shape western society and politics today. This module will introduce you to the debates surrounding this mutation of the crusading idea as Christendom was brought within the theatre of holy war.
No knowledge of a foreign language is required.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Together with its co-requisite, the module aims to

• Introduce you to the overlapping histories of crusades against Christians and encourage a critical engagement with these histories by applying comparative and transnational perspectives.
• Study the evolution of crusades against Christians, motivations for crusaders, resistance by those Christians targeted, justification and criticism of the concept, and the relationship between crusades in Christendom and those to the Holy Land.
• Introduce new interpretations and approaches from the historiographies of the crusades, Byzantium, heresy, imperial Germany, and the Reformation, including the ‘myth of religious violence’, definitions of the crusade, and a ‘persecuting society’.
• Develop research, analytical, interpretative and communication skills that can be applied in further academic studies or in graduate careers through engaging with the complex historiographies and controversies over different aspects of crusades against Christians from the thirteenth century through the Reformation.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Identify and analyse the different complex themes in the history of crusades against Christians from a comparative and transnational perspective
• 2. Understand and explain the key developments within the evolution of the crusade within Christendom from the thirteenth century through the Reformation

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Analyse the key developments within a particular historical environment
• 4. Comprehend and explain complex historical issues
• 5. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible and sophisticated manner

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and/or oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 7. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
• 8. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

The module focusses on the expansion of crusade ideas, rituals, and practices from the thirteenth century to include various expeditions directed not against Muslims and pagans, but against Christians considered schismatic, heretical, or excommunicate in order to create a united and purified Christian republic throughout Europe. While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The evolution and manipulation of the idea of the crusade to encompass new enemies perceived as threatening the integrity of Christendom
• The spiritual, cultural, and political relationships between Greek and Latin Christianity
• The emergence, classification, and persecution of heretics in southern France and Bohemia
• The political question of papal independence and imperial power, particularly in the shadow of the kingdom of Sicily
• The use of military campaigns to pursue spiritual ends
• The implantation of foreign crusading dynasties in lands conquered by such crusades and the cultural exchange between ruler and ruled
• Responses and resistance to crusades against Christians
• The legacy of sanctified violence within western culture

Some of you will already have studied aspects of the history of the crusades; others will not. The introductory sessions will therefore be important in offering a broad overview within which you can place your subsequent work and will challenge our theories about ‘religious violence’. The co-requisite module will also provide close focus on the historical sources available for the study of the crusades in Christendom from a transnational and comparative perspective, so complementing this module. The seminars will focus on the central issues in the history of crusades against Christians from a transnational and comparative perspective, allowing you to develop your skills and knowledge more fully. You will be expected to prepare for seminars by reading and evaluating the respective sources in advance, and will discuss the issues raised by them in the seminars.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Buc, Philippe, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West, ca. 70 C.E. to the Iraq War (Philadelphia, 2015).
• Cavanaugh, William T., The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Oxford, 2009).
• Chrissis, Nikolaos G., Crusading in Frankish Greece: A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204-1282 (Turnhout, 2012).
• Dunbabin, Jean, The French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 1266-1305 (Cambridge, 2011).
• Given, James, State and Society in Medieval Europe (Ithaca, N.Y., 1990).
• Housley, Norman, The Italian Crusades: The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades against Christian Lay Powers, 1254-1343 (Oxford, 1982).
• Housley, Norman, ‘Crusades against Christians: Their Origins and Early Development, c. 1000-1216’, in Peter W. Edbury, ed., Crusade and Settlement (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 17-36.
• Jones Andrew Willard, Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX (Steubenville, Oh., 2017).
• Lloyd, Simon D., ‘“Political Crusades” in England, c. 1215-17 and c. 1263-5’, in Peter W. Edbury, ed., Crusade and Settlement (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 113-20.
• Lock, Peter, The Franks in the Aegean, 1204-1500 (London, 1995).
• Moore, R.I., The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250, second edition (Oxford, 2007).
• Pegg, Mark Gregory, A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom (Oxford, 2008).
• Power, Daniel, ‘Who Went on the Albigensian Crusade?’, The English Historical Review 128 (2013), pp. 1047-85.
• Queller, Donald E. and Thomas F. Madden, The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 2nd edn (Philadelphia, 1997).
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The Crusades: A History, 2nd edn (London, 2005).
• Rist, Rebecca, The Papacy and Crusading in Europe, 1198-1245 (London, 2009).
• Russell, Frederick H., The Just War in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1975).
• Siberry, Elizabeth, Criticism of Crusading, 1095-1274 (Oxford, 1985).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11352
• The Genesis of Inquisition Procedures and the Truth-Claims of Inquisition Records: The Inquisition Registers of Languedoc, 1235-1244: https://www.york.ac.uk/res/doat/
• French of Italy: https://frenchofitaly.ace.fordham.edu/
• A History of the Crusades, ed. Kenneth M. Setton (Madison, Wisc., 6 vols, 1969-89): https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/history/histcrusades/

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Exeter Electronic Library resources include: ProQuest Theses and Dissertations
• Key journals for the module are available via JSTOR, Project Muse, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge Journals Online, Oxford Journals

Key words search

Crusades, Holy War, Albigensians, Heretics, Holy Roman Empire, Sicily, Byzantine Empire, France, Mediterranean