Session1028
TitleMaterialities and the Crusades
Date/TimeWednesday 3 July 2019: 09.00-10.30
 
SponsorNorthern Network for the Study of the Crusades
 
OrganiserJason T. Roche, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University
 
Moderator/ChairJoanna Phillips, School of History, University of Leeds
 
Paper 1028-a Touching, Seeing, and Believing in Raymond of Aguilers's History of the First Crusade
(Language: English)
Beth Spacey, School of Historical & Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland
Index Terms: Crusades; Religious Life
Paper 1028-b Urban Unrest and Social Structures in the Latin East
(Language: English)
Anna Gutgarts, University of Haifa
Index Terms: Archaeology - Sites; Crusades; Geography and Settlement Studies; Social History
Paper 1028-c Indulge Me: Spiritual Rewards and English Women's Material Support for Crusaders, c. 1217-1221
(Language: English)
Gordon Reynolds, Independent Scholar, Edinburgh
Index Terms: Crusades; Lay Piety
 
AbstractBeth Spacey examines Raymond of Aguilers's Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem in which revelatory experiences are physical affairs, investigating his representation of the relationship between touch, vision and verisimilitude. She argues that witnessing revelations could be seen to include an important material dimension, both in terms of the physical (or otherwise) instruments of seeing, and the significance of touch as an indicator of authenticity.

Based on the close examination of both textual and archaeological evidence, Anna Gutgarts addresses urban conflict within the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, revealing its social components and political and institutional background, as well as its impact on the cityscape.
Gordon Reynolds examines a range of charters, court records, letters, and writs to uncover the ways in which women in England supported their would-be crusader spouses and males relatives. He argues that through analysis of female attitudes to their material backing of crusaders, a better understanding of the ways homebound women might benefit from the crusading movement is to be discerned.