Crusaders and Crusading in the Twelfth Century (review)

Of Giles Constable’s many books this is the first one solely and entirely devoted to the history of the crusades. For a long time the history of the crusades took a back seat among this eminent medievalist’s other scholarly interests. Still, one of Constable’s first publications was his extremely influential article on “The Second Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries” in Traditio in 1952. Looking at it from over half a century later, this article turned out to be a milestone for the history not only of the Second Crusade but also of the crusade movement as a whole, foreshadowing many themes and approaches that have dominated crusade historians’ endeavors in recent decades. The present book unites this article with Constable’s other key work on twelfth-century crusading, both published and unpublished. In contrast to Ashgate’s Collected Studies series, however, the pieces previously published elsewhere have been thoroughly revised by the author and include updated footnotes and bibliographical references. Out of the thirteen chapters and two appendices four are published here for the first time while some of the revised chapters have been substantially enlarged. They are followed by a comprehensive general index as well as two very useful indices of biblical citations and papal documents.

Owing to the origin of the individual articles, Crusaders and Crusading in the Twelfth Century does not present a coherent argument on one particular theme or line of investigation. The book is best read as a commentary on the history of twelfth-century crusading, opening individual windows on particular aspects that have been central in developing a modern view of the first century of the crusade movement. The articles are framed by two historiographical contributions. By way of an introduction, Constable offers a revised and enlarged version of his well-known article on “The Historiography of the Crusades” first published in 2001. In appendix B there is a short commentary on the often confusing way in which modern historians have been numbering the crusades to the Holy Land of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Four of the articles closely focus on the Second Crusade; one is about the Fourth Crusade of 1204. The remaining chapters treat topics such as the financing of crusades, the military orders, charters as sources for the history of twelfth-century crusading, and the representation and self-image of crusaders in various types of sources including art. Throughout the book, Constable stresses the fact that the crusade of the twelfth century was an institution in the making, and he investigates the single elements that, throughout the first century of crusading, contributed toward forming a more coherent movement when entering the thirteenth century. Of the previously unpublished material, chapter 2 on “The Cross of the Crusaders” and the short appendix A on “The Terminology of Crusading” arguably are the most original contributions of the volume. Both investigate the question of how twelfth-century contemporaries conceptualized crusaders and crusading. Constable stresses that, although there was no uniform terminology for crusaders or crusading, the most significant symbol used by writers and artists was that of the crusader’s cross with its spiritual connotations of penance, redemption, and following Christ. The difficulty of understanding what crusading in the twelfth century was all about and whether or not the crusade as an institution already existed at the time will continue to occupy historians of the crusade. Constable’s crucial contributions toward these debates are given renewed force and importance by this collection of articles.