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WOMEN CRUSADERS 1095-1195
By Graham McLennan
SYNOPSIS
Women of all ranks were active participants in the Crusades, despite being forbidden to join. Peasant women thronged to Peter the Hermit's disastrous Peoples' Crusade. Noble women suffered beside their men in the successful Knights' Crusade, which won Jerusalem. After the conquest, more European women migrated East, as pilgrims, labourers, merchants, religious, criminals and rulers.
Contact resulting from the Crusades infused Europe with the ideas and materials of the East. This dramatically and permanently changed the lives of European women. The Crusades hastened the opening of trade routes, helping to revitalise Europe's moribund economies. Medicines, spices, cuisine, entertainments, fabrics and fashions had demonstrable effects on women's lives in the West. Eastern influences on architecture - domestic, military and religious - and on social customs such as marriages are also detectable.
Women were key figures in the later Crusades, either as leaders, politicians or combatants. Thus, Eleanor of Aquitaine helped organise the Second Crusade and subsequently took the blame for its failure. In her old age, she advised Richard I during his Third Crusade (in which she joined briefly) and kept his deserted kingdom running during his absence. Eleanor's story is remarkable, but she is still merely one of thousands of women who helped shape the Crusades.
If you want to find out more, click on:
Introduction
The First Crusade
Settlement
The Second Crusade
The Third Crusade
The Queens of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Please note: The following page numbers refer to the printed text and not to this Net version.
Contents
Introduction: Unfinished Being 1
Part 1: The First Crusades
Chapter 1: "Behind It Goes Dona Ximenes" 3
Chapter 2: Women's Faces 8
Chapter 3: The Spoils of War 18
Chapter 4: "Oh God, Come To Our Aid 24
Chapter 5: An Undivine Madness 30
Chapter 6: Bearing The Burden 38
Part 2: Settlement
Chapter 7: Outremer: "This Royal City" 45
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