'Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'Elegant, readable ... an impressive synthesis ... Not many historians could have done it' - Jonathan Sumption, Spectator'Tyerman's book is fascinating not just for what it has to tell us about the Crusades, but for the mirror it holds up to today's religious extremism' - Tom Holland, SpectatorT...

The story of the First Crusade, as witnessed by contemporary writers'O day so ardently desired! O time of times the most memorable! O deed before all other deeds!'The fall of Jerusalem in the summer of 1099 to an exhausted and starving army of western European soldiers was one of the most extraordinary events of the Middle Ages. It was both the climax of a great wave of visionary Christian fervour and the beginning of what proved to be a fu...

Crusading fervour gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is to stir deep cultural myths, as...

'Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'Elegant, readable ... an impressive synthesis ... Not many historians could have done it' - Jonathan Sumption, Spectator'Tyerman's book is fascinating not just for what it has to tell us about the Crusades, but for the mirror it holds up to today's religious extremism' - Tom Holland, SpectatorT...

Modern Hertford is one of Oxford's least famous colleges. Its chief claims to attention are its pioneering egalitarian reforms of its admissions system in the 1960s and 70s, its early embrace of co-residence in 1974, and its deliberate transformation from a poor, obscure, dilapidated, ill-favoured, and introspective conservative backwater to an open, outward-looking, financially secure, and academically sound partner in the collegiate university - such rapid transformations being somewhat ...

A lively reimagining of how the distant medieval world of war functioned, drawing on the objects used and made by crusadersThroughout the Middle Ages crusading was justified by religious ideology, but the resulting military campaigns were fueled by concrete objectives: land, resources, power, reputation. Crusaders amassed possessions of all sorts, from castles to reliquaries. Campaigns required material funds and equipment, while conquests produced bureaucracies, t...

The crusades influenced western European society in the middle ages far beyond the military campaigns themselves. Reactions and involvement did not always follow the assumptions of ideology or supporters, medieval or modern. In this wide ranging collection of articles spanning thirty years, Christopher Tyerman explores the relationships between action and perception, ambition and practice, propaganda and support. One section concentrates on the role the crusade played in the politics and e...

David Hume, the eighteenth century philosopher, famously declared that ‘the crusades engrossed the attention of Europe and have ever since engaged the curiosity of man kind’. This is the first book length study of how succeeding generations from the First Crusade in 1099 to the present day have understood, refashioned, moulded and manipulated accounts of these medieval wars of religion to suit changing contemporary circumstances and interests. The crusades have attracted some of the leadin...

Crusading fervor gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is tostir deep cultural myth...