Book Review | Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Obviously, right?

And no, I do not give all of Dan's (we are still BFFs, after all) books five stars just because he is my fave. I give them five stars because they are worth it, because he is a historian who does not act and think like the historians of old, who safeguarded their knowledge so that only the elite could access it. Jones does not do that, and I have said before - and will say again in the future for the next book and the next book and the next book - he writes in a way that is fully engaging without dumbing anything down.

I have read my share of history books on a huge range of topics. In fact, I have probably read a lot of peoples' shares of history books. It takes a lot to bore me, but also takes a lot to wow me, and Jones manages to do that with each new offering. It began with my reading of The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who made England (where I met my girl Eleanor of Aquitaine for the first time, and subsequently gave that name to my baby girl who was born about a month or so later). From that for introduction aboard the White Ship, I was hooked. Jones weaves together stunning and spellbinding stories and soon you've read your way through the entire book in a few hours, wondering how that just happened.

I will admit, I mainly wanted to read this one first and foremost to see what thoughts Jones would put forth about Eleanor's time on Crusade with her first husband, Louis. This will neither surprise nor offend Dan. He knows I am obsessed with her. Here is a picture of us discussing Eleanor in St. Louis in 2017:

I was happy with the attention she received, but when those sections were over, I was never tempted to put the book down, because I was still interested in the content. I truly thought this one would probably be the hardest for me to maintain an interest in, ONLY because I struggle in general with military history of any kind. I do not care to read about it, regardless of the war, or who is involved.

Given the fact that we're talking a couple centuries' worth of fighting and bloodshed over the Holy Lands, it was a tall order for Jones to deliver on in less than 500 pages. In the hands of a lesser author, this would have been a clusterfuck. So many names and dates to remember, yet the text is not overwhelming because Jones has a tendency to know just what would be most captivating to readers, while remaining highly important to the narrative, and what he can spend less time on. We get all the information we need, know the names and dates we need to know, and still come away feeling as though we had a conversation about a subject we are interested in, not a subject we were lectured at about for hours.

As you might have guessed from the title, this book is not about the Crusades. It is not a detailed blow-by-blow account of every single battle that took place, nor is it confined to those battles only taking place in the Holy Lands. Instead, Jones focuses on the people, the Crusaders - those who were, for better or worse, the reasons the Crusades happened, succeeded, or failed (all subjective terms of course, depending on your viewpoint). After Eleanor of Aquitaine (of course) I was most interested in what I learned of Anna Komnene. Hers is a name I was familiar with, having read other books about the various crusades, and her family's empire, but here Jones gives her the attention she deserves. She is best known for her written work on the life of her father, Alexios, and it is from this record that we get so much information about the events in her lifetime, and in her father's. She is definitely another medieval figure who I am greatly interested in learning more about.

Presenting the history in this way, by focusing in on various individuals within their larger roles as leaders, rulers, pilgrims, soldiers, makes this such an important offering. The centuries in which the Crusades occurred were tumultuous, dangerous, chaotic, and complicated. It would be easy to get tangled up in the web that connects all of these people, places, and events together and that is why this approach works so well. You still learn about the various Crusades, but the people Jones presents make it all the more real.

I am kind of embarrassed to admit that there were some Crusades that I knew nothing about - those that had nothing to do with Jerusalem, Antioch, Acre, and the like. I learned so much more about the time in Egypt, but those that were spread out across much of the known world - Sicily, Spain, the Baltic, and so on.

I don't think it will surprise anyone that I highly recommend this latest from Dan Jones. He writes in an engaging style and there is always that well-timed dash of humor he uses so well. Jones has proven once again why he is one of the best historians writing today, given his extensive knowledge and commitment to doing the research necessary in order to take on such a complex span of time.

First Line Friday: Crusader Edition

Heyo, it's that time again!

Last week was the debut of First Line Friday being hosted by Hoarding Books and I think this will work out so much better. If you are unfamiliar with how things work now, Hoarding Books was created by the original four members of First Line Friday - we've now grown to nearly 30 regular, active posters. It makes sense to start using a link-up so we are all connected in one place instead of trying to remember to add each new person to each of our individual posts. If you are a Top Ten Tuesday-er then the format will be very familiar to you. If not, check our The Broke and the Bookish for another cool way to connect with other bloggers and find new books to enjoy.

This week my first line is from one of the texts I am using for my research and writing on Eleanor of Aquitaine.

"Nine hundred years ago the Christians of Europe waged a series of holy wars, or crusades, against the Muslim world, battling for dominion of a region sacred to both faiths - the Holy Land. This bloody struggle raged for two centuries, reshaping the history of Islam and the West."

You might be wondering how any of the crusades could possibly relate to Eleanor and why a book about such topics would be useful to my own book. Please allow me the very briefest of explanations:

Eleanor and her first husband Louis VII of France lead the Second Crusade to the Holy Land. It was a dismal failure and Eleanor nearly succeeded in gaining an annulment from Louis right there in Antioch, with her uncle Raymond's encouragement. He was the prince of Antioch and had left Aquitaine when Eleanor was very young. As the youngest son in the family, he had no prospects by remaining in Poitiers so he made his fortune elsewhere, first in England in the service of Henry I and later in Antioch. Unfortunately he was killed in battle after Louis had forced Eleanor to leave with his army to head for Jerusalem.

Then of course there is Richard the Lion Heart, Eleanor's most beloved son who headed up the Third Crusade while he was king of England. He was captured and imprisoned by former crusader allies whom he had managed to piss off, and they were working in conjunction with John to keep Richard from getting home. Eleanor naturally put a stop to that nonsense in typical mama bear fashion, collected the huge sums needed for Richard's ransom, and hand-delivered it to Duke Leopold of Austria in exchange for her son's freedom.

So, yeah, the crusades are kind of a major factor in Eleanor's life.

What are you reading this week? Leave a comment below with your own line, or thoughts on mine, or both! Then head over to Hoarding Books to see what other First Liners have this week.

Happy Reading!

Sarah

The Templars: The Rise and Fall of God's Holy Warriors

I know, I know. I said I was going to wait until closer to the publication date. Patience has never been my strong suit.

Before we get started, let's take a moment and admire that cover, shall we?

UK Edition

US Edition

As I have said before, I personally prefer the UK edition over the US edition. But I also understand the need to change it, as here in the US we unfortunately have morons running around wearing white hoods and co-opting this symbol and altering it to spread their message of hate, which I will not show as a comparison because I will not bother to give them any more attention than they have already received in the last week. Anyone who glances quickly at the UK cover might mistake a book about the Templars for a book about the KKK. I don't know for sure if that is the reason for the cover change, as covers are most often different from the UK to the US, this is just my own personal observation. If I am right, awesome. If not, awesome too.

Full disclosure: I received my digital copy of the US edition via NetGalley after I had mentioned on Jones' Facebook page that I requested it but was denied. He was gracious enough to listen to my complaining and asked Viking to get me a copy. I was content with that and devoured the book quickly. By the way, if you have not yet checked out one of his Facebook Live chats, where he gives away books and vents about various reactions he gets in regards to his hairstyles and colors, I highly recommend doing so. He's hilarious and that library of his is To. Die. For.

What happened next is even more awesome. The UK publisher, Head of Zeus, held a giveaway for five autographed copies of a limited edition proof of the UK edition. I was lucky enough to win one and I pretty much have not stopped smiling since.

See how pretty it is?

All this being said, the following review is my honest opinion and was in no way swayed by my receiving not one, but two copies of a book I had pretty much been dying to get my hands on since it was announced.

Now, on with the show!

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Rating: 5 Stars

I know what many of you might be thinking; there is no way I can be objective about a book by my very most favorite historian and this will basically be one long blathering-on about how the book is awesome and amazing and I that heart Dan Jones.

Part of that is true. I am going to tell you that this book is awesome and amazing. But not because I fangirl so much over Jones that he will probably have a restraining order by the time his St Louis tour date rolls around and I will only be able to shout at him from outside the bookstore fifty feet away, but because he is an incredibly talented writer. I challenge anyone to pick up one of his books and tell me it is not thoroughly researched, as well as written in a way that keeps you fully engaged as though it were a novel. Non-fiction is hard for a lot of people and I get it. I know I am kind of an anomaly in the blogger world in that I read non-fiction almost exclusively (at least in the part of the blogger world that I currently inhabit). For a lot of people non-fiction books, and history in particular, appear daunting because people think they are simply boring regurgitations of dates and places, with central figures often having the same name so that they are only distinguishable by I, II, III, and so on. The fantastic thing about the way Jones writes is that he conveys all of that same information, but he is a gifted storyteller. He brings to life each Henry or Edward, for example, in such a way that you can't help but remember their best and worst because he has made them stand out, each in their own unique way. This latest book is no different than his first four and I look forward to the projects he will work on in the future. (PLEASE please please do something specifically on Eleanor of Aquitaine, whether it is a traditional documentary or short docu-series in the vein of Elizabeth that you and Dr. Lipscomb worked on. PLEASE!)

My own knowledge of Templar history is a bit spotty, as is my knowledge of any of the Crusades besides II and III. Even then, my area of expertise involves Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard I on their respective journeys, unrelated to the various holy orders who called the Holy Land home. I have read books that mention the Templars and seen a documentary here and there, but my knowledge was largely confined to their devastating end.

It would be easy to be overwhelmed by this book as it plots in quite a detailed way the humble beginnings of the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem - easy to see why the name was shortened to the Knights Templar, eh? - to the height of their power and then swift fall. To avoid such overwhelm-ishness, the book is divided into four sections, presenting the various ways in which the order evolved. First, we see them as pilgrims in the first four decades of their existence from 1102 to 1144. Gradually that role then shifts to that of soldiers in the next section - though they were always prepared to shed blood for Christ. This specific section relays the following forty years, from 1144 to 1187. The third section recalls the Templars evolution into a third role, that of bankers and wealth managers to kings and aristocratic crusaders from all over their known world as the Templar fortune grew beyond what anyone could have ever dreamed. The role of world bankers grew between 1189 and 1260, eventually leading to their destruction. We see this all happen in the final section titled 'Heretics', which covers the final fifty years of the order's existence, from 1260 to 1311. It is quite a roller coaster ride that we are treated to and the journey is well worth it.

I appreciate the epilogue that Jones included, specifically addressing the issue of the Holy Grail in relation to the Order. He notes that through fictional work from the period, "The Templars had been transformed for the first time from a crusader militia into the guardians of the mythical Holy Grail" (page 405, UK proof). This is accompanied by a footnote that the Grail was in fact a medieval invention in relation to various Arthurian romances and not an actual object from the Last Supper. Sorry, Indiana Jones. I'm bummed too.

In addition to this wealth of information of the Templar story, we also get supplemental material to help complete the picture. This includes maps, notes on names, brief bios of major players of the time (Hey Eleanor!), the popes (no antipopes) through those centuries, the kings and queens of Jerusalem, and finally the names of every Master of the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem. As one would expect from Jones, the notes section and bibliography are extensive and light the way for anyone looking to further read up on the subject.

I have purposely been a bit sparse on details from the book, as we are still roughly a month out from the book being available for public consumption. I don't want to give away a lot of these fascinating details because I do hope you will discover them for yourselves. If you care to see the notes I took as I was reading, you can see them on Goodreads. I also hope that any silliness that sometimes accompanies my discussion of Jones and his work does not deter you from picking up this book, or any of his others (yes, I do understand in reality that we are not BFFs. Yet.) The story alone is worth it, as their rise and fall was spectacular indeed (to steal from the subtitle of the US edition.) But the way in which Jones' writes will keep your attention the whole way through. Highly recommended.

UK Pub Date: September 7th

US Pub Date: September 19th