Religious warfare has been a recurrent feature of European history. In this intelligent and readable study, the distinguished Crusade historian Norman Housley describes and analyses the principal expressions of holy war in the period from the Hussite wars to the first generation of the Reformation. The context was one of both challenge and expansion. The Ottoman Turks posed an unprecedented external threat to the 'Christian republic', while doctrinal dissent, constant warfare between states, and rebellion eroded it from within. Professor Housley shows how in these circumstances the propensity to sanctify warfare took radically different forms. At times warfare between national communities was shaped by convictions of 'sacred patriotism', either in defending God-given native land or in the pursuit of messianic programmes abroad. Insurrectionary activity, especially when driven by apocalyptic expectations, was a second important type of religious war. In the 1420s and early 1430s the Hussites waged war successfully in defence of what they believed to be 'God's Law'. And some frontier communities depicted their struggle against non-believers as religious war by reference to crusading ideas and habits of thought. Professor Housley pinpoints what these conflicts had in common in the ways the combatants perceived their own role, their demonization of their opponents, and the ongoing critique of religious war in all its forms. This is a major contribution to both Crusade history and the study of the Wars of Religion of the early modern period. Professor Housley explores the interaction between Crusade and religious war in the broader sense, and argues that the religious violence of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was organic, in the sense that it sprang from deeply rooted proclivities within European society.
Reviews
Review from previous edition 'magisterial study of the late medieval crusades ... Housley's study will undoubtedly fuel debate and further research into this much neglected area of history.' * History *
This is a stimulating even brilliant book that deserves careful reading and will surely influence future interpretations of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century religious wars. Highly recommended. * Thomas Renna, Church History *
'Housley, who is clearly steeped in his subject, brings to the work the necessary tools, precise prose, and nuanced thought. This is an extremely useful book . . . Those wishing a survey of this subject cannot do better.' * History *
'This book enlarges understanding of the crusades at many points, and it will surely long hold the field as the classic on its subject.' * Times Higher Education Supplement *
'Covering a vast canvas and drawing upon an impressive corpus of up-to-date scholarship, The Later Crusades never degenerates into a dry narrative of projects and campaigns... he has produced a fine book that will remain the standard work, and the basis for further research, for many years ahead.' * Ecclesiastical History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199552283
Author Norman Housley
Format Paperback
Page Count 250
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 404g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 157mm * 14mm