The Crusades (review)

Reviews 161 Mdtland, F.W., Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England, new ed., foreward by J.C. Holt, Cambridge, C U P . , 1987; pp.xxvii, 527; paperback, R.RP. A U S $46.50. 'The task of reconstructing ancient ideas is hazardous, and can only be accomplished little by little. If we are in a huny to get to the beginning we shdl miss the path'. But 'there is every reason why the explorers of ancient English history should be hopeful ... By slow degrees the thought of our forefathers, their common thoughts about common things, will have become thinkable once more'. More than any other English medievdist Frederick WiUiam Mdtland has retdned a golden reputation for his prescience over a century of enormous historiographicd change. Of dl his works, the monumentd History ofEnglish Law before the Time ofEdward I and his three essays, by-blows of the legd history, entitled Domesday Book and Beyond, stand out as enduring creations of genius. Twenty years ago Cambridge University Press reissued the History of English Law with a major new introduction by Professor Milsom. N o w the press has rendered a similar service to scholarship by a photographicreprintof the origind 1897 publication of Domesday Book and Beyond, with a concise and judicious introduction by J.C. Holt, professor of medievd history at Cambridge. The introduction demonstrates succinctly how relevant Mdtland's andysis of Domesday Book and Anglo-Saxon society still is today, while showing dso what new insights, especidly into the nature of the great census, have been achieved by historians, geographers, diplomatists and demographers. Mdtland is not just part of historiography. He is still an interpretative force to be reckoned with and in his felicity of witty expression he remdns the best exemplar for every contributortoParergon. R. Ian Jack Department of History University of Sydney Mayer, HE., The Crusades, trans. J. GilUngham, 2nd. edition, Oxford, O.U.P., 1988; pp.xii, 354; 3 maps; R.RP. A U S $34.00. This welcome second edition of Professor Mayer's The Crusades is no mere re-issue. As stated in the Preface to the Second Edition: The alterations are very substantid, ranging from nuances reflecting new shades of opinion to whole sections which have been added or completely rewritten. Chapters 4, 6, 8 and 14 incorporate the greatest changes. Chapter 15 has been deleted, dthough some of its most vivid passages survive in Chapter 14 (e.g. 162 Reviews p.287 on the mourning robes of the women of Cyprus). The maps remdn the same but are more usefully regrouped, while the bibUography has been updated. Best of dl are the 33 pages of notes which replace the 17 pages of the eartier edition. These clearly reflect new directions of research and emphasis in the fifteen years since the first English edition (eg. p.296 n.22 on oaths of fedty). For this done the second edition is essential reading for all students of the Crusades! While this review is not intended as a panegyric, it is stimulating to find such advances in a second edition from a leading scholar. Due to certain tangentid views thefirstedition had difficulties as a teaching tool, despite its avowed purpose to be for 'university students ... (and) members of the general pubtic'. Historians with forcefd opinions are always more interesting to read. In opening up the debate, as such, by referring to a variety of discussion in both his text and notes, Mayer adds greater breadth to this work (e.g. on the vexed question of Urban II and 'Jerusdem'). Subtle changes to the section on the origins of the MiUtary Orders, for example, reflect new emphases. It would be possible to continue in simtiar vein on many other issues. The translation by John Gillingham is masterly, dthough there are a few obscure passages such as that on James of Vitry and heretics or Bddwin m and MeUsende's efforts 'to compose a maritd discord'. Overall this second edition is a chaUenging addition to Crusade literature in the EngUsh language and the only barrier to its place on the bookshelves of dl students of the Crusades is its high cost in...