The Crusades

The crusades have been remembered and commemorated in many ways, from the late eleventh century until today. Soon after the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the fate of the First Crusade inspired literary, historiographical and artistic traditions. Participants in the subsequent crusades would look to the first Crusade for inspiration and spiritual guidance, while playing out their own ideas of crusading. Since then the crusades have been put to use in very diversex ways and for different purposes. This volume explores how the crusades have been remembered, revered and ridiculed by those who participated in them and by those who in later periods made use of the crusades as an historical phenomenon. The volume thus traces the memory and legacy of the crusades by putting together essays that focus on the specific ways in which the crusades have been memorized, evoked and exploited from the eleventh century until today.