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God's War: A New History Of The Crusades (2006)

God's War: A New History of the Crusades (2006)

Book Info

Rating
3.91 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0674023870 (ISBN13: 9780674023871)
Language
English
Publisher
belknap press

About book God's War: A New History Of The Crusades (2006)

God's WarChristopher TyermanRead it in a thick and cumbersome paper back weighing in at 1023 pages.Diving deep into the rabbit hole with an engrossing, detailed, events, causes, and outcomes of the premier activity in regards to and concerning the theatres of the Levant, Modern Spain, and Modern Eastern Europe/Western Russia from 1080AD to the death throws and eventual end of the Crusades loosely around 1500AD. Tyerman is considered a British Medieval Historian and a fellow of both Hertford College and Oxford University. He is most qualified to write this, with about eight publications already on the subject, a handful more on assorted medieval history, and other erroneous history gems. To say that the Crusades was solely about religious domination and control of Holy Land is a gross misunderstanding of the political nature and motives of Europe and other regions during this time frame. Tyerman delves exhaustively into these motives, customs, history, supplies, logistics, mood and interaction of the papacy, and men of the times, to shed light on the events that would be generally known as the Crusades, in which Tyerman has broken down as (and I have tried to summarize here):The First Crusade - Comprising the initial efforts from the papacy for pursuit of the Holy Land. Encompassing some of the most notorious wild tales of Peter the hermit, the lance, and the bloody capture of Jerusalem."On 14 June Peter and twelve others dug around the floor of the cathedral until, as evening fell, Peter himself discovered what he and his fellow diggers took to be the point of the Lance sticking out of the ground at the bottom of the excavations. The discovery transformed the army's mood from terrified inertia to awed encouragement…"Frankish Outremer - The precarious position of the Frankish monarchy in Outremer beset by enemies on all sides and with an internal political climate equally as deadly."Infuriated by his son's cowardice in the face of an attack from Antolia, Joscelin, seriously ill and bed ridden, insisted on leading out his troops borne on a litter. Seeing this, the invaders hurriedly withdrew, On receiving the news, Joscelin, ordering his litter to be put down on the road, died giving thanks to God."The Second Crusade - The attempt to strengthen Frankish Outremer by Lords and Kings making the pilgrimage to the holy city and the creation of the knightly orders. In addition, Alfonso's initial papal approval of a crusade against the Muslims on the Iberian peninsula. "All were united in acknowledgement of the personal human cost, thrown more sharply into relief by the lack of any wider material gain."The Third Crusade - The rise of Saladin and the Ayyubids forced the Frankish Kingdom in Outremer into decline as well as the expedition of the third Crusade to retake Jerusalem helmed by such famous Kings as Richard I, Frederick I, and Phillip II."The last weeks if the siege were dominated by the contest of the Christian siege engines, catapults, sappers and scaling ladders against the defenders…Each Christian commander possessed his own great stone-throwers…Phillip II had many, his best, called 'Malvoisine' or 'Bad Neighbor', constantly needed repair as it was a prime target of enemy bombardment."The Fourth Crusade - The German Crusade of 1195-1198, the sack of Constantinople, thereby removing Byzantium as an active buffer between Western Christendom and the Turks."William Trussel left his English lands on Crusade in 1190. Six weeks later his wife was murdered by his bastard half-brother and her body flung into a nearby marl pit."The Expansion of Crusading - The Albigensian Crusades, the destruction of the Cathars, and the conquest of Languedoc. Including the fifth Crusade also known as the famed Children's Crusade, expansion of Crusading in Spain and in the Baltic. In short, expanding the boarders of Western Christendom from boarder threats, encroachment, and against Christianity factions within the Catholic kingdom."The crusaders' decision to spare Carcassonne the destruction of Beziers was prompted not by humanity but by a realization that whoever was to inherit the lordship of the area needed to rule more than ruins and smouldering charnel houses."The Defense of Outremer - The precarious perch of Outremere in the 13th century, its defense and fall as well as Louis IX efforts in Egypt."Rhetoric did not win wars. Money, men and ships could."The Later Crusades - Follows some of the more unfortunate efforts as well as Tyerman's summarization, conclusion, etc."Over subsequent generations, the failure to mount a large, still less effective, western European military campaign against the Mamluks or, later, the Ottoman Turks, shifted the emphasis of wars of the cross while transforming their nature." This is not intended for the casual reader, and even the casual historic reader. Due to the very complex nature of the papacy, feudalism and the regional identities and conflicts it produced; a reader should be very familiar with these ideals before attempting God's War or else allow themselves to be lost in the bulk of the tomb with no light. While Tyerman does a fantastic and scholarly job , it's exactly that, scholarly.Heavily enjoyed.

Christopher Tyerman's God"s War has the stated goal rehabilitating the Catholic Crusaders of the the Middle Ages who for most of the last 200 years have been the object of much scorn and derision. Tyerman is particularly anxious to present a more nuanced view of the Crusades than that found in Steven Runciman's history of the Crusades published between 1951 and 1954 which denounced the Crusades in the most uncompromising terms as being an exercise in unwarranted and tremendously destructive aggression against the people of the Middle East. The reality is that there is really too much wrong with the Crusaders for them to be ever be completely exonerated. The most notorious outrage in the eyes of Europeans was the Infamous Sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade which occurred due to a highly unfortunate sequence of events. The crusaders were stranded in Italy without enough money to pay for their sea trip to the Holy Land. The Republic of Venice offered to provide the sea transportation to the Holy Land if the Crusaders would conduct a punitive raid against the Constantinople which was Venice's great rival for control of trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. The propriety of this agreement was questionable at best given that Constantinople was Greek and the capital of Orthodox Christianity. Nonetheless attack they did and with extraordinary brutality. After capturing the city, the Crusaders went on a three day rampage of rape, murder and theft that to this day poisons the relations between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.Outrages of similar magnitude to the Sack of Constantinople were conducted against the Muslims in the Middle East that have acquired similarly legendary status. Tyerman does not actually ignore any of the malfeasance he simply chooses to describe it in more muted tones than does Runciman which is his privilege.To me the great strength of Tyerman's book is that he also covers the Crusades in the Baltic, Spain and Southern France something which Runciman and most other historians choose not to do. This is part of a broader effort on the part of Tyerman to show how the Crusades should not be viewed as forerunner to the the European Imperialism in the Middle East which occurred during the great nineteenth century scramble for colonies. Rather Tyerman presents the Crusades as an inherent feature of Europe's catholic culture in the Middle Ages. The Crusaders left for the Middle Ages to serve God, to win a place in Heaven and very frequently to atone for sins. Wars between noble families were common throughout the middle ages as were wars between nobles and their kings. The medieval code chivalry meant that the victors could not punish the losers. However, the losers could be persuaded to leave on a Crusade to redeem themselves. During their lengthy absences the king could assure the complete pacification of the area where the revolt had occurred.Tyerman's book thus not only delivers a great narrative of the Crusades but it also provides tremendous insight into the culture and politics of medieval Europe.

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Extremely detailed, and uneasy to read at times due to the details of surrounding events. One is almost certain to forget quite a few details by the end of this monumental piece of research. Of course writing about five centuries of various tribulations and intermittent wars accompanying the Crusades is quite difficult. Tyerman managed to create a clear, understandable yet undiluted and unaligned description of the most complex and arguably most misunderstood series of events, formative to the psychology and philosophy of the European nations.
—Ivan

Christopher Tyerman is scholar on the Crusades only matched and surpassed by Jonathan Riley-Smith. Tyerman's God's War is exhaustive and holistic account of the Holy Wars (Crusades) waged from 1095-1600. Tyerman focus is the politics and motives during the Crusades. The Oxford Historian spends his time examining meticulously the details of political environment of Outremer, Europe, Byzantium, and the Baltic. To quote a reviewer from Amazon, "once you've read this, you will feel like you've been on crusade." I concur absolutely with the Amazon reviewer's sentiments. God's War is not for the faint of heart, I recommend it only to those are interested in delving deeper into the history of the Latin East.
—Jeff Gassler

If you want to keep your preconceived notions of the Crusades as a simple clash of cultures, of a silly and senseless war of religions, then don't read this book. In a little over 900 pages, Mr. Tyerman narrates this peculiar series of wars through the prisim of Western European politics, culture and history, while giving equal weight the the Muslim forces of the period. In it, he reveals the crusades as "Inspirational idealism; utopianism armed with myopia;...elaborate, sincere intolerance;[and] diversity and complexity of motive and performance." While this is an excellent history, it should not be read by the average reader. It is a heavy tome and has a lot of minute details, not to mention a vocabulary that will tax even the most well read (suggestion: look up the word "sybaritic" before reading this). It can also be very confusing to follow characters as so few had last names during this era, nor are all of their backgrounds fully explained. Also, surprisingly for an Oxford man, there are many simple grammatical mistakes (missing conjunctions, added letters, etc.) that add up after a while. Lastly, during the first 100 pages, Mr. Tyerman seems more intent on winning an argument than telling a story and the last 100 pages, while interesting, could have been left out entirely. But, if you are genuinely interested in knowing more about the Crusades and have the discipline of mind to make it through 900 pages, then this is a must read.
—Christopher

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