HST 310: The First Crusade 1095-1102

Taught
Level 3: semester 1

Pre-requisites

A pass in at least two history modules from HST200 - HST299.

Module Summary

After nine centuries the First Crusade remains one of the pivotal experiences of European and Mediterranean civilisation. An expedition that was both a holy war and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it captured the imagination of the western European aristocracy and populace and the Roman Church as no other ideal could. Although most of their achievements in the Levant were reversed within 90 years of the expedition, the crusaders' ideological legacy was huge (and hugely destructive), permanently poisoning relations between Latin Christians and Muslims and between Western and Eastern Christendom. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of crusading studies, not least because of numerous novocentenary commemorations between 1995 and 1999. Recent events in the Middle East have demonstrated that the concept and history of the Crusades continue to have a strong impact upon Christian-Muslim relations.

This module will examine the origins, history and consequences of the First Crusade. It will first consider the roots of the idea of crusade in the impact of the Church Reform movement upon post-Carolingian Europe. It will then examine the varied motives of crusaders and the history of the three main expeditions that comprised the First Crusade: the 'People's Crusade' led by Peter the Hermit in 1096, the main expedition of 1096 that took Jerusalem in 1099, and the 'Crusade of 1101'. The module will conclude by considering the legacy of the expeditions for the history of both the Near East and of western Europe.

Module Content

This module will be taught through one lecture and one seminar per week, as follows:

Introduction: Europe and the Near East in the 11th century
The Reform of the Roman Church
Ideals and ideologies: holy war, pilgrimage and Jerusalem
The Council of Clermont (1095): the fusion of holy war and pilgrimage?
The milites Christi: the aristocracy of Western Europe
The Crusaders in Byzantium (1096-7)
The two sieges of Antioch (1097-8)
The foundation of the first 'Crusader states'
Success: The capture of Jerusalem (1099) and the kingdom of Jerusalem
Failure: The Crusade of 1101
The legacy of the First Crusade

Selected Reading

Mayer, H.E., The Crusades, trans. J. Gillingham (1988)

Phillips, J., The Crusades, 1095-1197, (2002)

Richard, J., The Crusades, c. 1071 - c. 1291, trans. J. Birrell (1999)

France, J., Victory in the East: a Military History of the First Crusade, (1994)

Phillips, J. (ed.), The First Crusade: Origins and Impact (1997)

Riley‑Smith, J., The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, (1986)

Runciman, S., History of the Crusades (3 vols, 1951-4), vol. I

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students completing this module will have acquired the ability to:

Identify and evaluate a wide variety of narrative sources in translation, including Western, Byzantine and Muslim texts, as well as documentary evidence such as charters.
To apply these skills in the context of a gobbet exercise, working under the pressure of time.
Be able to locate the crusading phenomenon within the context of eleventh-century Latin Christian society and religion as well as the political history of the Near East.
Distinguish between different schools of interpretation and historical debate concerning the origins of the crusades.
Develop a scholarly understanding of the early crusades, coming to independent conclusions on salient issues of interpretation.
Discuss these issues in an informed manner in seminars with the course tutor and other students.
Write informed and cogent essays.
Use the International Medieval Bibliography electronic database as a tool for identifying relevant bibliographical material.
Use the TLTP program The Papacy, Religious Change and Church Reform, 1049-1125 as a means of locating a number of primary sources not available in print form.