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Fact and Fiction: Children and the Crusades

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Elizabeth Siberry
Elizabeth Siberry*
Affiliation:
London
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Extract

In addition to those who could bear arms, the crusade armies included numerous camp-followers. They came in a variety of forms—the old and infirm, women (who posed a different set of problems), the clergy, and children. It is the latter who are the subject of this paper. In the first part I will examine the evidence for children on the crusades in contemporary sources— histories of individual expeditions written by participants or drawing upon eyewitness accounts. I will then go on to examine how the image of children on the crusades has been passed on to subsequent generations. I do not intend here to offer a comprehensive survey of children’s literature about the crusades. I will merely try to highlight some themes, in particular, from British historical novels and adventure stories written in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 31: The Church and Childhood , 1994 , pp. 417 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1994

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References

1 See Siberry, J. E., Criticism of Crusading, 1095-1274 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 25–46.Google Scholar

2 Albert of Aachen, Historia Hierosolymitana, Recueil des Historiens des croisades, Historiens Occidentaux [hereafter RHC occ], 5 vols (Paris, 1844-95), 4, p. 358.

3 de Joinville, Jean, Histoire de Saint Louis, ed. de Wailly, N. (Paris, 1868), pp. 141–2, 212.Google Scholar

4 For example, Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, ed. H. Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg, 1914), pp. 162-3; Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem, ed. V. G. Berry (New York, 1948), p. 8. See also Siberry, J. E., ‘Troubadours, trouvères, minnesingers and the crusades’, Studi medievali, ser. 3, 19 (1988), pp. 21–3.Google Scholar

5 Fulcher of Chartres, Historia, p. 183; Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos, RHC occ. 4, p. 142.

6 James of Vitry, Lettres, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Leiden, 1960), p. 77; John of Tulbia, ‘De Domino Iohanne rege Ierusalem’, ed. R. Röhricht, Quinti belli sacri scriptones (Geneva, 1879), p. 139.

7 Joinville, Histoire, pp. 14-15, 223, 225-6.

8 Fulcher of Chartres, Historia, pp. 196, 225.

9 Guibert of Nogent, Cesta Dei, p. 241.

10 Joinville, Histoire, pp. 117, 145.

11 The traditional interpretation is epitomized by Alphandèry, P., La Chrétienté et l’idée de croisade, 2 vols (Paris, 1954-9)Google Scholar. For an alternative interpretation, see P. Raedts, ‘The Children’s Crusade of 1212’, JMH, 3 (1977), pp. 279-333. See also Powell, J. M., Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-21 (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 8–11.Google Scholar

12 See Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (repr. New York, 1968)Google Scholar; McGarry, D. D. and White, S. H., World Historical Fiction Guide (Metuchen, New Jersey, 1973)Google Scholar; Townsend, J. R., Written For Children (repr. London, 1990)Google Scholar; Carpenter, H. and Prichard, M., Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature (Oxford, 1984)Google Scholar.

13 Coolidge, S., What Katy Did (London 1872), p. 33.Google Scholar

14 Henty, G.A., Winning His Spurs (London, 1882), p. 57.Google Scholar

15 Hollis, G., Between Two Crusades (London, 1908), p. 247.Google Scholar

16 Stables, G., For Cross and Crescent (London, 1897), p. 112 Google Scholar.

17 Haggard, R., The Brethren (London, 1904)Google Scholar, Preface.

18 Henty, , Winning His Spurs, pp. 47, 64–5.Google Scholar

19 Stables, , Cross and Crescent, pp. 150–1 Google Scholar.

20 Hollis, , Between Two Crusades, pp. 35–6 Google Scholar. See also Henty, , Winning His Spurs, p. 131.Google Scholar

21 Stables, , Cross and Crescent, pp. 135, 152, 216.Google Scholar

22 Haggard, . The Brethren, p. 244.Google Scholar

23 Henty, , Winning His Spurs, p. 48Google Scholar.

24 SirScott, Walter, Essay on Chivalry (1818)Google Scholar, written for the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

25 For example, Stevens, Sheppard, The Sign of Triumph: A Romance of the Children’s Crusade (London 1904)Google Scholar; Green, E. Everett, The Children’s Crusade: A Story of Adventure (London, 1904)Google Scholar; Durrant, W. Scott, Cross and Dagger. The Crusade of Children (London, 1910)Google Scholar.

26 For example, Butcher, C. H., The Oriflamme in Egypt (London, 1904)Google Scholar; Edgar, J. G., The Boy Crusaders—a Story of the Days of Louis IX (London, 1865)Google Scholar.

27 Yonge, C. M., The Prince and the Page (London, 1866), pp. 139, 320.Google Scholar