The First Crusade A New History

by Asbridge, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780195189056
• ISBN10: 0195189051
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Noted historian Thomas Asbridge offers a gripping account of a titanic three-year adventure filled with miraculous victories, greedy princes, and barbarity on a vast scale. Beginning with the electrifying speech delivered by Pope Urban II in 1095, readers will follow the 100,000 men, women, and children who took up his call. The siege of Nicaea and the pivotal battle for Antioch, the single most important military engagement of the entire expedition, are featured here in vivid detail. Asbridge also describes the horrific Jerusalem massacre of 1099 when the crusaders, driven on by an intense religious devotion, unleashed an unholy wave of brutality, slaughtering thousands of Muslims, all in the name of Christianity.

Author Biography

Thomas Asbridge is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
List of Maps	xiii
Cast of Characters	xv
Holy War Proclaimed	1	(39)
Afire with Crusading Fever	40	(43)
The Journey to Byzantium	83	(34)
The First Storm of War	117	(36)
Before the Walls of Antioch	153	(35)
Tightening the Screw	188	(25)
To the Edge of Annihilation	213	(28)
Descent into Discord	241	(30)
The Faltering Path	271	(24)
The Holy City	295	(25)
Aftermath	320	(14)
Conclusion	334	(7)
Glossary	341	(1)
Chronology	342	(3)
Notes	345	(35)
Bibliography	380	(17)
Index	397