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By Steven Runciman
Sir Steven Runciman's 3 quantity A background of the Crusades, one of many nice classics of English old writing, is being reissued. This quantity bargains thoroughly with the 1st campaign and the root of the dominion of Jerusalem. As Runciman says in his preface: 'Whether we regard the Crusades because the such a lot great and such a lot romantic of Christian adventures, or because the final of the barbarian invasions, they shape a vital truth in medieval background. sooner than their inception the centre of our civilization was once positioned in Byzantium and within the lands of the Arab caliphate. ahead of they light out the hegemony in civilization had handed to western Europe. Out of this transference glossy historical past used to be born.'
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Additional resources for A History of the Crusades: Volume 1, The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Example text
John was arrested and burnt at the stake by the furious population) John's hopes were premature. In 967 and 968 Nicephorus was busy on his northern frontier. But in 969 he led his army southward again, right into the heart of Syria. He marched up the Orontes valley, capturing and sacking, one after the other, the great towns of Shaizar, Hama and Horns, and crossing to the coast to the suburbs of Tripoli. He then returned northward, leaving Tortosa, Jabala and Lattakieh in flames behind him, while his lieutenants besieged Antioch and Aleppo.
W, trans. by J. R. Macpherson. Eighth- and Ninth-Century Pilgrims of Rue in Picardy, or Bercaire of Montier-en-Der in Burgundy and his friend Waimer. 1 But their stories showed that only rough and enterprising men could hope to reach Jerusalem. No women seem to have ventured on the pilgrimage. During the eighth century the number of pilgrims increased. Some even came from England; of whom the most famous was Willibald, who died in 781 as Bishop of Eichstadt in Bavaria. ~ Towards the end ofthe century there seems to have been an attempt to organize pilgrimages, under the patronage of Charles the Great.
The Varangians soon acquired the habit of spending a leave on a journey to Jerusalem. The first of whom we have a record was a certain Kolskeggr, who was in Palestine in 992. a, most famous of the Varangians, was there in 1034. During the eleventh century there were many Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes who spent five or more years in the imperial service, then made the pilgrimage before they returned, rich with their savings, to their homes in the north. Stimulated by their tales their friends would come south merely to make the pilgrimage.