The Inhabitants of the British Isles on the First Crusade: Medieval Perceptions and the Invention of a Pan-Angevin Crusading Heritage

Abstract

This article critically examines the Latin and vernacular evidence for participation from the British Isles in the expeditions associated with the First Crusade (1096–99), bringing together for the first time the full array of relevant medieval material which suggests such involvement. Although contemporary accounts of the crusade emphasise the universality of Pope Urban II’s appeal within Western Europe, there is very little reliable evidence that England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland contributed any sizeable force to the Christian armies travelling overland to the East, demonstrating that the early crusading recruitment was often culturally and geographically restricted. This article adds to the narrow corpus of material depicting insular contribution to the crusade the testimony of the Siège d’Antioche, a lengthy epic Anglo-Norman poem, which retrospectively inscribed the involvement of peoples from the British Isles onto the narrative of the First Crusade. It suggests furthermore, based on thematic and stylistic evidence, as well as direct textual references, that at least one stage in the development of this extant narrative should be associated with the Angevin literary milieu during the rule of Henry II (1154–89) and his sons. Its portrayal of crusaders from Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England shows that, in the late twelfth-century Angevin realms, the crusade, retrospectively viewed as a central site of Christian heritage and memory and a crucible for the formation of knightly and heroic values, could not be envisaged without the involvement of the wider Angevin world.