Engaging the Crusades is a series of volumes which offer windows into a newly emerging field of historical study: the memory and legacy of the crusades. Together these volumes examine the reasons behind the enduring resonance of the crusades and present the memory of crusading in the modern period as a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation.

This new volume explores the ways in which significant crusading figures have been employed as heroes and villains, and by whom. Each chapter analyses a case study relating to a key historical figure including the First Crusader Tancred; 'villains' Reynald of Chatillon and Conrad of Montferrat; the oft-overlooked Queen Melisende of Jerusalem; the entangled memories of Richard 'the Lionheart' and Saladin; and the appropriation of St Louis IX by the British. Through fresh approaches, such as a new translation of the inscriptions on the wreath laid on Saladin's tomb by Kaiser Wilhelm II, this book represents a significant cutting-edge intervention in thinking about memory, crusader medievalism, and the processes of making heroes and villains.

The Making of Crusading Heroes and Villains is the perfect tool for scholars and students of the crusades, and for historians concerned with the development of reputations and memory.

About the Author

Mike Horswell completed his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the author of The Rise and Fall of British Crusader Medievalism, c.1825-1945 (2018). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is currently researching, teaching, and writing about the memory and use of the crusades in the modern era.

Kristin Skottki is Junior Professor of Medieval History at the University of Bayreuth. She has published on the medieval and modern historiography of the First Crusade, as in her monograph Christen, Muslime und der Erste Kreuzzug (2015). Her current research focuses on late medieval piety and medievalism.

Book Information
ISBN 9780367264444
Author Mike Horswell
Format Hardback
Page Count 132
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 740g