Overview

In November of 1095, Pope Urban II launched a holy war against the infidel. In 1464, a demented pontiff led an imaginary band of crusaders as far as an Adriatic port. Between these dates, Europe was infected by a strangely persistent fever of mass idealism. Though outward zeal often cloaked the most cynical of motives, this universal spirit seized upon thousands - noblemen and peasants, warriors and scholars, ascetics and lechers, vagabonds and kings. Written by a prolific author of numerous histories, novels, drama, criticisms and verse, The Crusades provides a lively and authentic account of two hundred years of war, sacred journeys and the quest for riches. Henry Treece reanimates many renowned figures of the period---Charlemagne, Haroun-al-Raschid, Peter the Hermit, Richard the Lion-Heart, Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond, Saladin, Mourschid, Henry Dandolo, Frederick II, Louis the Oious and Genghis Khan---as well as providing an illuminating narrative of one of Christianity's darkest periods.