The Crusades

sknox

sknox

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Sequels are tough.
Toc - Second Crusade

Here's my essay on the Second Crusade, often overlooked, falling as it does between the Successful One and the Romantic One. But it has its own adventures and tragedies.
 
The Third Crusade is now live
Third Crusade
This the best-known crusade besides the First. It's got Richard of England, the famous sultan Saladin, assassins and kidnapping and daring rescues. I have yet to read a good novelization of the events, but of course Runciman's recounting is pretty dramatic.

I'm just going to keep on the the crusading stuff for a while. There are the main crusades but I also have essays that trace each Crusader Kingdom individually, plus essays on things like the Albigensian Crusade, and even the fourteenth and fifteenth century crusades. At some point I'll add the Virtual Pilgrimage (whose title feels awfully dated now). So it's going to be some time before I get back to the more general European history stuff.
 
You've really condensed it to almost study notes. It's good (2nd Crusade) but academic.
 
Academic is exactly right; you say that like it was a bad thing. :)

I wasn't trying to dramatize. It would make a good subject for novelization, but fiction writers always seem to go for the First or the Third.
 
sknox said:
Academic is exactly right; you say that like it was a bad thing. :)

I wasn't trying to dramatize. It would make a good subject for novelization, but fiction writers always seem to go for the First or the Third.
Click to expand...
Oh no, I didn't mean it as a bad thing. Just academic. I'm working my way through my brother's 348 page Art PhD thesis. So I do academic as well as fiction, lol :)

EDIT: Your 2nd Crusade essay is well written and clear and avoids obscure words and terms. I learned a lot from it and I look forward to Richard, Saladin etc, in your new essay.
 
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Thanks. I wasn't being defensive; I'm as harsh a critic as anyone on dull writing. I was joshing around.
 
Another installment in my continuing series of historical essays. This one is on the Fourth Crusade, one of the strangest, most complex (you'll note I did not say Byzantine), and most widely condemned of all the crusades.
Fourth Crusade, home

And here is a link to the table of contents for all the other articles
History by Ellis L. Knox

Let me know what you think, and feel free to ask questions!
 
Don't have the time to check it out now, but will be reading it with interest.

The Fourth Crusade is arguably the most stupid 'Western' foreign policy mistake in history. Kudos to Enrico Dandolo for his persuasive power (and vigour, given he was a blind ninetysomething), but the long term consequences were less than great from a European/Christian perspective.
 
From your point of view, what were those long-term consequences?
 
Totally ended any realistic hope of the Eastern Empire surviving (let alone prospering) against the Ottoman Turks. To be fair, a few more generations of Angeli misrule may've achieved the same, but the Catholic/Orthodox schism, Latin/Greek suspicion, and the ensuing Fourth Crusade was a godsend (ahem) for the Turks. Not that they were going backwards anyway, but it certainly helped.
 
A new article on the crusades is now live. This one is on the Fifth Crusade,
Fifth Crusade
Each crusade is a strange, complicated event in itself, so it's a bit redundant to say this one is strange and complicated. Perhaps its distinguishing characteristic is that it's the closest any of the crusades came to being led by the Church.

If you are interested in previous articles, here is a link to the table of contents.
History by Ellis L. Knox

Let me know what you think, and feel free to ask questions!
 
After a long delay called Finishing the Novel, I'm back to publishing my history essays. This one is on the Sixth Crusade, which was one of the strangest of them all.

Sixth Crusade home

My intent is to publish a new essay every three weeks or so. Not all are on the Crusades, but the next several will be.
 
The Seventh Crusade! Seventh and last, except it wasn't really the last and sometimes historians count eight and anyway that doesn't include a bunch of other crusades and ... well, it gets complicated. Before we moderns got obsessed with numbers, the crusades were named after their leaders, so let's be old-fashioned and call this one King Louis' Crusade.

Seventh Crusade, home

Home page for an essay on the Seventh Crusade by Skip Knox
europeanmiddleages.info
 
I'm reading these with interest. Right now I'm at the fourth crusade, there's a bit more detail about the background than I've come across before.
 
I keep forgetting to post a link to the table of contents. As you probably saw, I've got other crusade essays in addition to the main seven. Herewith, the ToC link.

History by Ellis L. Knox

Ellis (Skip) Knox has over a hundred essays on various aspects of European history. These are the best of them.
europeanmiddleages.info
I'm glad you're finding the essays useful ... and even interesting!
 
And I just realized you're also the author of those interesting articles on Mythic Scribes.
 
Yep & thx. Scribes and SFF are my two favorite hangouts.
 
Now that the crusades are over, I bet you thought the essays were done. Not at all! I've just put up an essay on the County of Edessa, a brief history of the first of the Crusader States--and the first to fall.

Knox, Edessa during the Crusades

The County of Edessa during the time of the Crusades, by E.L. Skip Knox
europeanmiddleages.info

For all my history essays, consult the Table of Contents.

History by Ellis L. Knox

Ellis (Skip) Knox has over a hundred essays on various aspects of European history. These are the best of them.
europeanmiddleages.info
 
I have just published another in my historical series. This one is about the Principality of Antioch.

Antioch during the Crusades

The Principality of Antioch from 1097 to 1291. Table of contents. By Thomas Joyce and Skip Knox
europeanmiddleages.info

If you have questions, feel free to ask!

For all the history essays, here is the Table of Contents.

History by Ellis L. Knox

Ellis (Skip) Knox has over a hundred essays on various aspects of European history. These are the best of them.
europeanmiddleages.info
 
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