God's War by Christopher Tyerman
A Review of This New History of the Crusades
A review of God's War: A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman.
For over fifty years Sir Steven Runciman’s epic three volume A History of the Crusades was the authoritative source for those seeking to understand that tumultuous period of history but with the publication of God’s War the torch of crusader scholarship has been firmly passed to Oxford historian Christopher Tyerman.
The Crusades
Over the course of more than a thousand pages, Christopher Tyerman introduces and analyses the centuries of religious struggles which makes up the Crusades, a period which manages to be both one of the most infamous in history as well as one of the most misunderstood.
Although there had been decades of distrust between the predominantly Christian Europe and the mainly Muslim Middle East, the trigger factor for the launching of the First Crusade in 1095 was the plea for help against the invading Muslim armies from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I to Pope Urban II. There was great fear about the loss of lands to the Muslims and so the Church was more than ready to aid Emperor Alexios in the defence of Byzantium and Christendom and, ultimately, in the recapture of Christian lands starting with Jerusalem.
Although successive Popes did struggle with the validity of shedding blood in the name of God, they ultimately found in favour of justifiable violence and so the Crusades, in one form or another, continued right up until 1500.
A Complex Period
As Tyerman notes, the Crusades were far more than a series of battles, they mark a turning point in Medieval European society and had an impact on far more than just military development. Given the wide ranging implications of a society at Holy War for hundreds of years, as well as chronicling the Crusades themselves, God’s War also provides an illuminating insight into the social, economic, religious and political changes that were happening at the same time.
Since Tyerman seeks to examine why the Crusades happened as well as what actually took place, God’s War considers the lesser known Crusades that occurred in Muslim Spain and the Pagan Baltic as well as the persecution of the Jews that invariably happened along the Crusader routes.
Tyerman approaches his explanation of the Crusades from a European perspective, acknowledging that he cannot give adequate consideration to the Muslim history of the Crusades, which is the only slightly disappointing element of his narrative.
A Scholarly Account
God’s War is a wonderfully meticulous account of the Crusades and the personalities and factors behind them. Tyerman is a masterful researcher and has referenced a quite phenomenal number of primary and secondary sources. Although highly readable and eminently informative, God’s War is quite a heavy work that might be better suited to readers who already have a basic understanding of the Crusades and wish to broaden their knowledge rather than those who are looking for an introduction to the subject. Nevertheless, God’s War is a brilliant piece of historical scholarship and a hugely rewarding reading experience.
God’s War by Christopher Tyerman
ISBN 978-0140269802, Penguin Books Ltd, 2007, £12.99, pp1040
