When and Where did the Word ‘Crusade’ Appear in the Middle Ages? And Why?

Weber, Benjamin

doi:10.1484/m.outremer-eb.5.124043

Cited by 1 publication

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“…This demonstrates the difference in occurrence and usage between the concept of crusade and that of crusader. The former is virtually absent from medieval texts whereas the latter is employed in a regular fashion (Maier 2021;Weber 2021). To refer to the movement towards the holy places and the people associated to it, a variety of expressions were used, generally relating to the concept of journey, pilgrimage and an army wearing the cross.…”

Section: Pontifical Written Recordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering the most recent historiographical achievements on how to characterise these concepts, it is prudent to rethink such associations. Concerning the concept of the crusade, many contributions have been brought to the discussion, and the approaches to crusade narratives are of much interest to historians (Markowski 1984;Cosgrove 2010;Ayala Martínez 2013;Ayala Martínez et al 2016;Maier 2021;Weber 2021;Buck and Smith 2022). The meaning of the word crusade has changed over time, and only in the seventeenth century did the word itself become used to tell the history of the crusades (Weber 2011;Maier 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crusade: The Arising of a Concept Based on Portuguese Written Records of Three Military Campaigns (1147–1217)

Costa

Lencart

2023

Religions

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The historiography of the crusade and reconquest in the Iberian Peninsula, and Portugal in particular, dates from the beginning of the twentieth century. Since the 1920s, it has been assumed that the reconquest was an output of the crusade in the Iberian West due to the so-called “Bull of Crusade” given to Portugal. The “idea of the Crusade” in Portugal was enhanced by Carl Erdmann in the 1930s and 1940s. This interpretation has been endorsed by the very context in which the Kingdom of Portugal emerged and developed throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. From the 1980s onwards, the launching of systematic research on the military orders also reinforced this perspective. The deep affinity between the military orders and the crusades in the context of the reconquest is reflected in this historiography. These concepts—military orders, crusade, reconquest—have been studied without distinction being made between them, adding to the complexity of this analysis. Considering the historiographical achievements regarding the crusade, it is pertinent to rethink the associations between reconquest, crusade and military orders. Reading certain historical narratives is crucial for this analysis, although the written records do not fully deplete the subject. To reinforce the relevance of this approach, we will also consider royal and pontifical diplomas. Tracing the terminology used in these documents and identifying how these historical realities were referred to are the two main goals of this paper. For that purpose, three key moments of the Portuguese reconquest have been chosen: the conquests of Lisbon (1147), Silves (1189), and Alcácer do Sal (1217). These have one feature in common: the presence of crusaders travelling to the Holy Land, which supports the terminological analysis of those discourses. Different perspectives are embodied in these conquest narratives when compared with royal and papal diplomas on the same issue and of a similar chronology. Historiography on Reconquest, crusade, and the military orders is often conditioned by ideology, occasionally revealing a tendency to repeat ideas without debating them. This paper’s analysis is based on the aforementioned written records and is undertaken in order to verify when the word crusade/crusader appeared in Portugal, to assess to what extent the war of conquest in Portuguese territory followed the example of the holy war and to evaluate the commitment of the crown and the Holy See in this complex process.

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Section: Pontifical Written Recordsmentioning

confidence: 99%