by Steven Runciman
ISBN: 978-0-141-98550-3
First published 1951
270 pages
Cover illustration: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Publisher: Penguin Random House, UK
5/5 Stars
A drama and narrative that reads like fiction but is based on closely researched historical fact. Runciman brings to life the major players with detailed character analyses; Baldwin I of Boulogne, Raymond Count of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond I of Taranto, Peter the Hermit, and, watching over all of the first crusade Alexius Comnenus I – Byzantine Emperor and founder of the late Byzantine revival.
Young men are described longing to find fortune and fame. Young men with rivalries, and petty squabbles, with high ideals along with low means. Unnecessary suffering received and given, but acts of mercy too. Massacres of Christians and massacres of Muslims and massacres of Jews.
Many towns in the region had mixed populations and lived peacefully and prosperously. In the near middle east, towns could have Muslim rulers and Christian populations or Christian rulers and Muslim populations. Each lived in shifting harmony….until disturbed by the greater political forces engulfing Europe and the middle east.
Many knights joined because of the rule of ‘primogeniture’, only the first born could inherit the estate of the father. This meant that any other sons, sons of rich dukes, counts, lords and earls (other than the first born) could only gain their own fortune – through conquest…..
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