Susan B. Edgington

First published in 1999, this edition of Walter the Chancellor’s account of the wars of the Antiochenes against the Muslims in the early twelfth century is a vivid first-hand account of a dramatic yet less well-known period in the history of the northern Crusader states, and an important balance to the more usual focus on Jerusalem. As a highly-placed Antiochene official, Walter was able to write the most authoritative account of the principality's fortunes and internal workings, and his book also sheds light on the relationship between Latin settlement in the Levant and contemporary Western perceptions of Islam and Eastern Christianity. Here it has for the first time been translated into English (from the Latin edition of H. Hagenmeyer). It is prefaced by a substantial introduction, discussing the author and his work in the context of the history and historiography of the Latin settlement, and is followed by a selection of comparative sources. Walter the Chancellor’s history will be of interest both to students of the Crusades and to a wider readership for its perspective on life in a medieval frontier society.

A Translation and Commentary

Walter the Chancellor’s The Antiochene Wars

Helen J. Nicholson

This volume celebrates Peter Edbury’s career by bringing together seventeen essays by colleagues, former students and friends which focus on three of his major research interests: the great historian of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, William of Tyre, and his Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum and its continuations; medieval Cyprus, in particular under the Lusignans; and the Military Orders in the Middle Ages. All based on original research, the contributions to this volume include new work on manuscripts, ranging from a Hospitaller rental document of the twelfth century to a seventeenth-century manuscript of Cypriot interest; studies of language and terminology in William of Tyre’s chronicle and its continuations; thematic surveys; legal and commercial investigations pertaining to Cyprus; aspects of memorialization, and biographical studies. These contributions are bracketed by a foreword written by Peter Edbury’s PhD supervisor, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and an appreciation of Peter’s own publications by Christopher Tyerman.

Essays on William of Tyre, Cyprus and the Military Orders presented to Peter Edbury

Deeds Done Beyond the Sea

Baldwin of Boulogne was born the youngest of three sons and marked out for a clerical career, yet in turn he became a First Crusader, first Latin count of Edessa and the founder of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, remarkably, he has never been the subject of a full-length biography. This study examines in detail the stages of Baldwin’s career, returning to the contemporary evidence to discover the qualities that enabled him not only to succeed his brother as ruler in 1100 but to maintain and expand the new kingdom of Jerusalem through the next eighteen years in the face of aggression from Muslim enemies and rivalry from fellow crusaders.

Susan B. Edgington

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