The Miraculous and the Writing of Crusade Narrative by Beth C. Spacey (review)

The field of crusade studies remains one of the most prolific, and at times also one of the most vibrant, fields of modern medieval historiography. Perhaps one of its most important developments of late, pioneered most obviously by Marcus Bull, is the adoption of analytical techniques related to the “literary turn” and, in particular, narrative theory. Through this, scholars have built on the foundations of theorists like Hayden White—with varying degrees of religious observance—to better treat the textual sources for the crusades as cultural artefacts: as windows onto the authors and audiences by, and for whom, they were created. It is in the context of this that we should view the book under consideration here, Beth C. Spacey’s insightful and important The Miraculous and the Writing of Crusade Narrative.

As Spacey notes, this book is not concerned with reality, or even with the question of whether authors believed what they were writing was true; rather, it treats various aspects of the miraculous as “narrative ingredients”—components of a wider literary arsenal through which an author could provide meaning (pp. 9–10). Here, Spacey is aligning herself with other recent works with a specific literary focus, like Stephen J. Spencer’s Emotions in a Crusading Context, c. 1095–c. 1291 (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019). The book itself covers narratives written c. 1099–c. 1250, albeit within this timeframe there is discussion only of sources relating to events between the First and Fourth Crusades (1096–1204). It is divided into three parts, each containing two chapters. Part I explores two interrelated—if still demonstrably differentiated—narrative themes: “Miracles and Marvels.” Chapter 1 demonstrates how each contributed to authorial explanations for divine agency on crusade, especially the First Crusade, which is said to have witnessed such miraculous events as a heavenly host intervening at the Battle of Antioch in June 1098. Chapter 2, by contrast, turns to how the divine could intersect with moments of failure. For texts relating to the disastrous Second Crusade, for example, they helped communicate that the manifold dead had at least ascended to heaven. Part II, “Visions and Dreams,” begins with chapter 3, which is dedicated largely to the stories that surrounded the two visionaries whose experiences led, in the case of Peter Bartholomew, to the finding of a relic of the Holy Lance at Antioch in June 1098, and, in the case of Stephen of Valence, to the expectation of divine assistance in the aforementioned battle outside that same city. Chapter 4 pushes further into the themes of intercession and insurance, wherein it is shown how moments of saintly appearance were used by authors as validating mechanisms for certain expeditions—and the actions of their leaders. Part III, “Signs and Augury,” leads with chapter 5’s examination of, among other things, the representation of the use of so-called superstitious practices to both define the religious “other” and explain their defeat. Finally, chapter 6 turns to signs of divine approval and disapproval, and how celestial phenomena helped to lend a further legitimising gloss to victorious events (again, seen most especially in the sources for the First Crusade) or to presage disaster, like the 1186 planetary conjunction that occurred just a year before Jerusalem fell to the Sultan Saladin in 1187. Intrepid readers will also find a helpful appendix offering further details on many of the narratives discussed.

This is a valuable contribution not just for those in crusade studies, but for anyone interested in medieval European literary and religious cultures. The slightly top-heavy nature of the book’s temporal focus—that is, the extent to which the First Crusade is discussed compared with the other campaigns—is clear, but also to be expected: few events attracted quite the same level of literary output or created the canvas onto which authors could paint such vivid miraculous images. Indeed, what...