Notes

Introduction -- The fourth, fifth and sixth crusades (Fighting for Venice: Crusaders divert to attack Zara ; On to Constantinople: Crusaders agree to restore deposed emperor to throne ; The sack of Constantinople: rape, murder and looting as crusaders shame the cross ; A new view of crusading: crusading reforms and innovations of Pope Innocent III ; The Children's Crusades: spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm for holy war ; The fifth crusade: Crusaders humiliated in Egypt ; Jerusalem regained: the sixth crusade of 1228-29 ; Kingdom of Jerusalem regained: but racked by bitter disputes) -- The last crusades in the East (Crusade in Egypt: King Louis IX calls the seventh crusade ; A king's ransom: the crusade fails and King Louis is captured ; The eighth crusade: King Louis's final endeavour ; The ninth crusade: Prince Edward [later Edward I of England] in Acre ; The fall of Tripoli and Acre: the end of Outremer ; The attack on Alexandria: crusades of the 14th century ; Peter I of Cyprus: the Crusader king ; Crusade to Mahdia: attack on Tunisia unites warring Christians, 1390 ; Defeat at Nicopolis: the rise of the Ottomans ; The end of Byzantium: Crusaders fail to save Constantinople ; The conqueror: Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II ; The miracle of Belgrade: Crusaders save Hungary, 1456) -- The warrior monks (Knights of St. John: foundation and early years of the Hospitallers ; Hospitallers save Rhodes: Knights of St. John defeat Mehmet the Conqueror ; Suleyman takes Rhodes: but the Hospitallers hold Malta ; Knights of the Temple of Solomon: foundation of the Knights Templar ; Knights Templar in the field: brave but often reckless ; Templar builders: castles and churches ; Downfall of the Templars: accused of heresy and disbanded ; Teutonic knights: Germanic brotherhood ; Warriors of the Spanish Reconquista: Spanish and Portuguese orders of knighthood ; Knights of St. Thomas: the Hospitallers of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Acre ; The Order of St. Lazarus: and other minor chivalric orders) -- The European Crusades (The Reconquista: the struggle in Spain ; The Spanish Crusade of 1212: and other 13th century crusades in Spain and Portugal ; The conquest of Granada: final stage of the Reconquista ; The Albigensian [Cathar] crusade: war on heresy ; Massacre of the Cathars: twenty years of brutal war, 1209-1229 ; The Cathar Inquisition: the faithful besieged - with secret treasure? ; The Baltic crusades: holy war against northern pagans ; In Prussia and Lithuania: European crusades of the Teutonic knights ; Crusades against the Hussites: Bohemia under attack ; The end of the crusades: Italian crusades in the papal interest) "This ... book details the ... later crusades, which were fought between 1200 and 1588. These began with the attempts to regain the city of Jerusalem, held by the Christians for two generations but lost to Saladin in 1187. Unlike the relatively simple first to third crusades, the later struggles in Palestine were complicated by feuding between both opposing forces, with kings defying [popes], crusading armies attacking Christian cities, and the lords of Outremer fighting amongst themselves. Conflict spread to Egypt, Spain and Italy, and then beyond, as the [pope] used his call to arms to invoke campaigns against European pagans and Christian heretics. The book contains ... information on the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula, the extraordinary sixth crusade of the twice-excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and the rise and fall of the Knights Templar. Charles Phillips [maps] this complex period of history and [explains] how the crusades impacted on the relogious, social, and political aspects of life in that time, but also how the conflict still resonates in Europe and the Middle East today."--Book flap