How to Plan a Crusade

This erudite and readable study is not only an impressive work of scholarship but also an accessible introduction to the history of the crusades. Although the practicalities of organising a crusade are fascinating to students and the general public, scholars of the crusades tend to focus on only limited aspects of the process, such as the justification and preaching of the crusades. Yet crusade planning required much more than this: not only establishing a case for war, publicising the expedition and recruiting for it, but also financial planning, arranging transport for the warriors and their supplies, and working out a plan of campaign that fitted into an overall strategy. Discussing each of these aspects in turn, Christopher Tyerman builds up a picture of well-organised, effective administrative systems which (for instance) enabled western European rulers in the late twelfth century to put large armies into the field and maintain them on active service for up to three years, during the Third Crusade

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