Premier’s Westfield History Scholarship
Crusades: Authors and audiences
Anthony Dale
Inverell High School
Sponsored by
The focus of my study tour, which I undertook to England and France in May–June
2006, was to:
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Conduct video interviews with six to ten leading contemporary traditionalist,
revisionist and feminist crusades historians and explore the forces that have shaped
their perspectives on the origins of the crusades and the motivations of individual
crusaders;
Collect primary sources and visual material from these historians, from museums and
from other historical sites to enliven the classroom learning experience of the
crusades;
Critically evaluate the process adopted by historians, museum curators, local
government authorities and tour guides in constructing history of the crusades and
Middle Ages for a variety of audiences, both academic and popular.
Video interviews
The central focus of the study tour was extraordinarily successful. Nine historians were
interviewed, with a further two (Thomas Asbridge and William Purkis) being unavailable
at the last minute. This was particularly disappointing as Asbridge is the current guru of
popular crusading history and a TV celebrity in his own right, while Purkis has just
completed his PhD at Cambridge and is one of the new generation of crusader scholars
just starting to make their mark.
All participants were most welcoming and extremely informative. The range of
approaches to history displayed among this group was most instructive: from those
firmly founded on traditional British empiricism to others heavily influenced by the
cultural studies movement and postmodernism.
It was interesting to survey the influence of Jonathan Riley-Smith on crusades
historiography, since so many of the interviewees (Marcus Bull, Sarah Lambert, Jonathan
Phillips, Norman Housley and Rebecca Rist as well as Tom Asbridge and William Purkis)
had been his PhD students over a number of generations. What was particularly
fascinating was how the Jonathan Riley-Smith legacy was manifest in each historian: an
overriding commitment to a disciplined treatment of primary sources and yet vast
differences in how an understanding of the past should be enunciated for a variety of
audiences. Similarly, the self-awareness of the historians varied considerably, from the
theoretical perceptiveness of Marcus Bull and Sarah Lambert to a reluctance to recognise
any theory-driven influence on their work from John France or Jonathan Phillips.
The organisation for each interview was thorough and without hiccup. Each interview
was videoed (60 minutes), but digital audio recordings lasting the complete length of the
interviews, generally between 62 to 84 minutes, were also made. The audio was a backup
should problems arise with the video camera. The capacity of the digital recorder was
only 180 minutes, which meant that after every couple of interviews, the recording had to
be downloaded to make room for subsequent interviews.
That need proved problematic at times. HappySnaps FastFotos in Cambridge had the
computer technology to provide the downloading service; however, on the second
occasion I used their services, a young technician botched the download, so the audio
recording of the John France and Christopher Tyerman interviews was lost. This was
particularly disastrous as Tyerman did not allow a video recording to be made of his
interview for reasons that that he did not share with me; as a result, all record of this
absolutely crucial interview was lost, bar a few pages of rough notes I had taken.
Otherwise, all went well technically with that aspect of the project.
The video interviews have been are now in DVD format for distribution in the new year
to schools studying the crusades option for the HSC. They will also receive the
companion CD of the complete interviews. I have also painstakingly transcribed each
interview, totalling almost 30,000 words; this hopefully will serve as a useful entrée into
relevant sections of each interview for classroom purposes.
A seminar for Option 10 will be organised for Term 1, 2007, in Armidale. Below is an
appraisal of the main insights provided by each historian.
Susan Edgington, BA, PhD (RHUL)
Susan Edgington, BA, PhD (RHUL), is a lecturer in Crusading Studies at Queen Mary
University of London. She has a strong interest in social history of crusading, especially
medicine. She has also pursued an interest in feminist history of the crusades. Perhaps
her most enduring legacy to crusading historiography has been her translation of primary
sources and her commitment to making vital sources more accessible to new generations
of historians who do not have the language background that historians of her vintage
possess. She is also keenly aware of the more theoretical dimensions of history writing.
In addition, she has made significant contributions to recent popular history, especially
Terry Jones’s BBC series and Tom Asbridge’s recent bestseller on the First Crusade.
Sarah Lambert
Sarah Lambert, BA, MA (RHUL) is a lecturer in History at Goldsmiths University of
London. She has developed a keen interest in cultural studies as the most appropriate
vehicle for exploring the crusading movement. Her feminist approach is deeply rooted in
discovering not just evidence of women’s involvement in crusades but also exploring
wider gender issues, especially looking at socio-political gender mindsets evident in
primary sources. There is also a strong postmodernist underpinning of much of her
approach to sources, especially in establishing meaning within the context of medieval
Europe. While critical of the limitations of the traditional empiricist approach, she has
nevertheless maintained a superbly disciplined methodology that is the legacy of her
scholarship under Jonathan Riley-Smith.
Jonathan Phillips
Jonathan Phillips, BA (Keele), PhD (RHUL), is a professor of Crusading History at the
Royal Holloway University of London. His approach to crusading historiography is
firmly rooted in traditional British empiricism. He has inherited his strongly disciplined
approach to sources derived from his supervisor, Jonathan Riley-Smith. He is also keenly
aware of the demands of adjusting one’s writing to meet the needs of varying audiences.
Jonathan is one the new breed of academics who has reached out to popular audiences
through his work on the Fourth Crusade and also via his significant contributions to
recent BBC and History Channel crusades documentaries. He sees the crossover
between academic and popular history as becoming increasingly blurred. A strong sense
of place and an increase in the importance of description are features of his attempts to
cater for contemporary audiences who are increasingly driven by visual stimuli and with
increased access to international travel; thus, he contends that the sense of ‘being there’ is
crucial in establishing empathy with people in the past.
Rebecca Rist
Rebecca Rist, BA (Oxon), MPhil, PhD (Cantab), is a junior research fellow at St
Edmund’s College, Cambridge. She has just secured her first academic posting after
completing her PhD under Jonathan Riley-Smith. Her special area of interest is papal
policy and internal crusading, in particular, the expansion of crusading ideology against
the Cathars in southern France, known as the Albigensian Crusade. She has also explored
Papal–Jewish relations in the Middle Ages.
Of all historians interviewed, Rebecca clings most doggedly to the traditional empiricist
approach to history. Her highly disciplined attention to mining primary sources bears
testimony to conventional Jonathan Riley-Smith methodology. She is a firm critic of the
infiltration of any vestige of postmodernist theory into the writing of history. In addition,
she has reverted to a rather outdated approach to history by insisting that only subjects
who hold genuine power in their particular context are worthy of study. Therefore, she
serves as a very useful foil to the approach to history enunciated by Sarah Lambert and
Marcus Bull.
Norman Housley
Norman Housley, BA, PhD (Cantab), is a professor of History at the University of
Leicester. He has a very broad understanding of crusader historiography as evidenced in
his very recent book, Contesting the Crusades, which is fast proving to be the seminal text
for HSC crusades students. Norman is the leading supporter of the Jonathan Riley-Smith
pluralist approach to crusading studies and yet, quite recently, has lead the movement
seeking further refinement of what has become orthodoxy since the late 1970s.
He has made a significant contribution to translation and commentary on crucial primary
sources. In particular, he has served a leading role in opening up crusading studies to
include expeditions in Italy, Spain, the Baltic and southern France. He has played a
significant role in making the controversial insights of leading French historian Jean Flori
accessible to non-French speaking students. Firmly rooted in traditional British
empiricism, he nonetheless acknowledges the value of multiple perspectives in
contemporary historiography, and he was most instructive in his analysis of the forces at
work driving recent shifts in perspective, approach and methodology in crusading
studies.
Marcus Bull
Marcus Bull, BA, PhD (RHUL), is a senior lecturer in Medieval History at the University
of Bristol. He is a brilliant thinker and commentator on the origins and motivations of
crusaders. He was in high praise of the legacy of Jonathan Riley-Smith in his
methodology but, due to the interdisciplinary demands of Bristol University and the
influence of his art historian wife, his focus has shifted significantly from mere
reconstructions of the past into the more fascinating exploration of cultural history—the
values, attitudes and beliefs that shape one’s construction of the world, both in the past
by those participating in the crusading experience and as a contemporary historian
reconstructing a version of that past. Thus, his recent book, Thinking Medieval, is an
essential vehicle for understanding this very interesting reflection on the nature of history
and the role of the historian of the Middle Ages. There are strong resonances with Sarah
Lambert’s approach to crusading historiography. Marcus’s most valuable insights lay in
his explanations for shifts in contemporary perspectives, approaches and methodologies
of history.
John France
John France, BA (Nottingham), PhD, is a professor of Medieval History at the
University of Wales Swansea. His main expertise is the military history of the crusades
campaigns; weaponry, technology, strategies, and logistics, as well as the repercussions of
the wider crusading movement. While acknowledging some place for the penitential and
spiritual dimension of crusader intentions, he is a firm advocate of the materialist
approach to crusader motivation, and is the leading counterweight to Jonathan Riley-
Smith and Marcus Bull’s newly titled ‘sentient empathy’ approach. He has made a
significant contribution to recent popular TV series on crusades, especially the History
Channel’s The Cross & the Crescent. His most important methodological contribution to
crusading historiography has been his development of a database on The Lives of the
Saints until 1100.
Chris Tyerman
Chris Tyerman, MA (Oxon), DPhil (St Andrew’s), is a lecturer in Medieval History at
Hertford College & New College, Oxford. His most important contribution to crusader
studies has been as the permanent ‘enfant terrible’ in combat with current orthodoxies.
Idiosyncratic in his approach, Christopher has shifted his position in a most enigmatic
fashion among the plethora of fixed positions in the contemporary crusades
historiographical debate. Highly critical of the pluralistic approach, he nonetheless
produced three recent books for a variety of audiences which nevertheless adopted that
very approach. The most exciting aspect of Christopher’s scholarship is that it challenges
the comfortable security of accepted wisdom and provides a perspective from left field
that often mesmerises the reader with its brilliance, complexity and imagination.
Jonathan Riley-Smith
Jonathan Riley-Smith, BA, MA, PhD, LittD (Cantab), is Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical
History at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He has dominated crusading historiography
since the 1970s and has shaped the way we view crusades almost single-handedly. His
brilliant scholarship covers most aspects of medieval history, from canon law and church
practice to the crusader settlements in the Latin East to the military orders. The most
important role he has played in the last three decades has been the seismic shift in
perceptions of crusader motivations: from simple materialistic greed to one which
acknowledges the underlying spirituality of medieval crusaders.
In addition, he was responsible for expanding the net of crusader experiences by arguing
the case for a pluralist approach to the vital definitional question which has dominated
crusades studies for decades. This year, in his most recent scholarships, he has created
the term ‘sentient empathists’ to describe those historians who are conscious of the need
to explore the medieval psyche in their quest to uncover the values and attitudes
underpinning crusader behaviour. Perhaps his most important contribution, however,
has been in passing on the disciplined methodology with regards to sources and the
writing of history so inherent in his own work to generations of historians who have
benefited from his tutelage.
Visual source material
A highlight of the study tour was to be able to actually visit many of the places which
feature in the story of medieval society and crusading that constitute Option 10 of the
Extension History course. There is also a significant lap-over with the content of the
Year 7 Ancient/Medieval Societies topics in the junior History syllabus. These personal
photographs contained in this report represent but a tiny proportion of the images
collected during the project. Many additional images will be scanned from other visual
and book material purchased overseas during the course of the tour, material that is not
available in Australia. A CD kit of much of this visual material will also be included in the
package to be disseminated to schools undertaking the Crusades option for the HSC.
Bodiam Castle, East Sussex
The prime focus of the collection of visual sources was to capture the essential elements
of medieval life as part of the process of placing the crusades in context. Bodiam Castle
represents the combative nature of medieval existence, in which castles constituted not
only a place of residence but also a fortified space to protect against both external and
internal enemies.
Canterbury, Kent
This shot of the medieval quarter in Canterbury highlights important related issues. Many
buildings underwent Georgian makeovers several centuries ago and only now is there a
(above) Bodiam Castle, East Sussex.
(right) Canterbury, Kent.
systematic process in place to restore the medieval nature of much of central
Canterbury’s streetscape.
Warwick Castle, Warwick
Dungeons, torture and the rack are just some of the features of the ‘otherness’ of
medieval life imaginatively presented at Warwick Castle. Those cruel devices provide an
excellent entrée into classroom consideration on dissent, heresy, the Inquisition, and
power and authority in medieval society and obvious links with the medieval church and
the Albigensian Crusade.
Fête Médiévale, Montferrand
Each year, this internationally recognised medieval festival recreates medieval music,
dance, folkloric traditions, crafts, costumes, street theatre and performance for tens of
thousands of locals and tourists. It is accompanied by serious academic lectures and
workshops on aspects of medieval history and culture. It serves a purpose of reasserting
the medieval heritage of this major industrial city in an
entertaining fashion.
Cathédrale de Notre Dame
and Musée Cluny, Paris
The inherent religiosity of medieval society is captured
in a range of primary sources, from the grand spaces of
a Gothic cathedral and its instructive statues and bas
reliefs to the myriad of sculptures, artifacts and art
pieces housed in the former medieval Benedictine
Abbey near the Sorbonne.
Carcassonne
Within the medieval walled city of Carcassone in Languedoc in the south of France lie
reminders of the extent to which violence and intolerance underpinned the medieval
mindset. Muslims and heretics were targeted in centuries of crusades against both
external and external enemies.
Paris.
Carcassonne.
Cathédrale de Notre Dame,
The basilica at Vézelay.
Clermont and Vézelay
These two towns have important connections with both medieval pilgrimages and
crusades. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at Clermont. Similarly, St
Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Crusade at Vézelay. The basilica became a
centre of pilgrimage following the installation of the relics of Mary Magdalene; but it also
played a central role as way-station on the main route to the shrine of St James at
Compostella in Spain.
Constructing history
Material was collected for a number of case studies on the reconstruction of history for
contemporary audiences. A best English example is a comparison between the
approaches to history underpinning the presentations at Bodiam Castle in Kent and
Warwick Castle. The approach evident in the National Trust property in Kent is pure
empiricism in practice, reconstructing the story of the past using artefacts of the vehicle
for narrating the chronologically driven succession of people and building development.
On the other hand, since Madame Tussaud’s purchase of Warwick Castle, imaginative
recreations, audience interaction and an extensive program of realistic simulations have
served to deliver a view of the past that meets the demands of contemporary audiences.
While substantial time was spent in Languedoc exploring representations of the past, in
particular the Albigensian Crusade, the contrast with the English representations could
not have been more obvious. There were few attempts to present the past in imaginative
ways, nor to move beyond a simple narrative about change dominated by chronology, let
alone embrace any theoretical underpinning these representations. The only exception
was the Catharama multi-media centre at Limoux near Carcassonne but this failed to
meet the expectations generated by the online promotions.
A school group visiting Warwick Castle,
Warwickshire.
A Madame Tussaud reconstruction in the
Kingmaker exhibit at Warwick Castle.
Recommendations
There is still a substantial group of very important crusades historians in British and
French universities whom I have become aware of in the last few months who would
make excellent subjects for further interviews. These include Caroline Smith, Alan
Murray, Jean Flori, Carol Hillenbrand, Christoph Maier, Gary Dickson, Malcolm Barber
and Peter Edbury as well as Tom Asbridge and William Purkis.
With regard to the Albigensian Crusade, there is room for considerably more work on
crusader activity in Languedoc, in particular Cathar castles. Moreover, Rebecca Rist,
whom I interviewed, is doing groundbreaking new work on the Albigensian crusade.
These would constitute fertile ground for further research work for an interested teacher
of Option 10 of the Extension course.
Thank You
I would like to thank Westfield and the NSW Department of Education & Training, for
this unique opportunity to further my teaching and passion for history.
Resources purchased
Books
Anon., Warwick Castle (2002), Warwick Castle Ltd.
Anon., Saint-Cecile Basilica Albi (1997), As de Coeur Collection, ISBN 2-907380-78-8.
Anon., Albi et Les Albigeois (2003), Editions Grand Sud, ISBN 2-908778-43-2.
Anon., The Popes’ Palace (2006) Editions Gaud
ISBN 2-84080-064-0
Michèle Aué, Cathar Country (2004), MSM, ISBN 2-911515-76-5.
The Templars (2004), MSM, ISBN 2-911515-83-8.
Michel-Edouard Bellet, The City of Aigues-Mortes (2001) monum, Editions du patrimoine,
ISBN 2-85822-536-2.
Jane Bulmer, Tintern Abbey (2001), Jarold.
Barry Cunliffe, The Roman Baths at Bath (1993), Bath Archaeological Trust, ISBN 095061-802-0.
Marc Déceneux, Les Abbayes Médiévales en France (2005), Editions Ouest-France, ISBN 27373-3483-7.
Alain Demurger, A Brief History of Religious Military Orders (1997), Fragile, ISBN 2-91068517-9.
John Goodall, Bodiam Castle (2001), National Trust, ISBN 1-84359-074-3.
Christopher Harper-Bill, Saint Thomas Becket (1990), Cathedral Enterprises, ISBN 0906211-30-1.
Claude Lebédel, Les Croisades: origines et conséquences (2004), Editions Ouest-France, ISBN
2-7373-2610-9.
Pierre Mazataud, à la découverte de Clermont et de ses environs (2002), editions du miroir, ISBN
2-911268-31-8.
Patrice Milleron, The Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalen—Vezelay (2004), Premier Chapitre.
Jean-Pierre Panouillé, The City of Carcassonne (2003) monum, Editions de patrimoine,
ISBN 2-85822-541-9.
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades (2006) CTS, ISBN 1-86082-378-5.
Jean-Denis Salvèque, The Abbey of Cluny (2005) monum, Editions du patrimoine, ISBN 285822-391-2.
David Thackray, Bodiam Castle (2004), National Trust, ISBN 1-84359-090-5.
Damien Vorreux, Vezelay (1997), Editions Ouest-France, ISBN 2-7373-2229-4.
Audiovisual
Loïe Jourdain (dir), L’Abbaye de Cluny (2004) monum, Editions Montparnasse.
Christian Salès (dir), Secrets et Légendes du Pays Cathare (2005), Collection Souvenir.