According to tradition, the First Crusade began at the instigation of Pope Urban II and culminated in July 1099, when thousands of western European knights liberated Jerusalem from the rising menace of Islam. But what if the First Crusade s real catalyst lay far to the east of Rome? In this groundbreaking book, countering nearly a millennium of scholarship, Peter Frankopan reveals the untold history of the First Crusade.
Nearly all historians of the First Crusade focus on the papacy and its willing warriors in the West, along with innumerable popular tales of bravery, tragedy, and resilience. In sharp contrast, Frankopan examines events from the East, in particular from Constantinople, seat of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The result is revelatory. The true instigator of the First Crusade, we see, was the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who in 1095, with his realm under siege from the Turks and on the point of collapse, begged the pope for military support.
Basing his account on long-ignored eastern sources, Frankopan also gives a provocative and highly original explanation of the world-changing events that followed the First Crusade. The Vatican s victory cemented papal power, while Constantinople, the heart of the still-vital Byzantine Empire, never recovered. As a result, both Alexios and Byzantium were consigned to the margins of history. From Frankopan s revolutionary work, we gain a more faithful understanding of the way the taking of Jerusalem set the stage for western Europe s dominance up to the present day and shaped the modern world."
Peter Frankopan studied History at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was Foundation Scholar, Schiff Scholar and won the History Prize in 1993, when he took an outstanding first class degree. He did his D.Phil (Ph.D) at Corpus Christi College, where he was elected to a Senior Scholarship before moving to Worcester College as Junior Research Fellow in 1997. He has been Senior Research Fellow since 2000 and is Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Royal Asiatic Society.
Peter has held visiting Fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard) and Princeton, and has lectured at universities all over the world including Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Notre Dame, King's London and The Institute of Historical Research. He writes regularly for the national and international press about current affairs and about how history helps to explain the present. His work has been translated into twelve languages.
Peter chairs a collection of family businesses in the UK, France, Croatia and the Netherlands, including A Curious Group of Hotels which he set up with his wife Jessica in 1999.
He is actively involved with several charities, mainly in the areas of education, international development, gender studies and classical music. Both he and Jessica are Companions of the Guild of Benefactors at Cambridge University. He has been a Governor of Wellington College since 2006.
He chairs the Frankopan Fund, which has awarded more than a hundred scholarships and awards to outstanding young scholars from Croatia to study at leading academic institutions in the UK, USA and Europe.
A chorister at Westminster Cathedral as a boy, music scholar at school and choral scholar at Cambridge, he is an accomplished musician and has recorded many albums as a singer and instrumentalist.
A keen sportsman, Peter won blues at both Oxford and Cambridge for minor sports, and represented Croatia internationally at cricket. He plays for the Authors CC, a team of writers whose members has included PG Wodehouse and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In recent years, the team has toured India and Sri Lanka, and played against the Pope's 1st XI - St Peter's CC - in England and in Rome.
In the summer of 2013, Bloomsbury published The Authors XI. A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon. It was as one of The Guardian's Books the year, and was one of Hilary Mantel's Books of the Year in the Observer.
I have mixed feelings about this book, but I like more things about it than I dislike/have doubts about.
Mr. Frankopan does an excellent job dispelling some myths that have been around for a loooong time, but in making his case, I think he goes a little too far at times in the other direction. This is somewhat understandable as more than a few of his points go against the prevailing understanding of the events leading up to the Crusade. His dissection of the Byzantine political situation in Anatolia in the ~15 years leading up to the arrival of the first Crusade armies is an invaluable correction to many of his peers in the field of Crusade studies. It was interesting to see how both Alexios and Pope Urban II were in very parallel predicaments, Alexios having to deal with the attempted insurrection from Diogenes and Urban having to find a way to assert himself over the 'anti-Pope' Clement III.
It is obvious Mr. Frankopan knows his subject, and beyond that, he also shows his ability to connect dots which should have been connected a long time ago. For example, pretty much every book or paper I have read on the First Crusade talks about the mysterious ships coming in to provision the armies along the way, in Antioch through the port of St. Simeon, or at Arqa, or Jerusalem. The chroniclers of the Crusades are vague on where these ships came from or identify them solely by the nationality of the crew. Frankopan points out (what seems obvious in hindsight) how the Byzantine general who accompanied the army to Antioch, Taticius, had left only a few weeks prior to the ships arrival at Antioch, and promised to send help. Considering how many foreigners were in the service of the Byzantine emperor, it seems obvious these were ships sent by Alexios Komnenos or Taticius, probably from Cyprus. The Latin chroniclers essentially needed a scapegoat to cover for the selfish ambitions of men like Bohemond, who wished to ignore the oaths made to Alexios and keep cities they conquered on the way to Jerusalem for themselves, instead of returning them to Constantinople. So the exaggerated and outrageous claims (for example, Alexios arming the captured at Nicaea and sending them back out to attack the Franks) in the Latin chronicles heavily influenced Europe's view of the Eastern Roman Empire for centuries to come,and may even provide some insight as to how something as heinous as the sack of Constantinople in the 4th Crusade could have ever happened.
Ba? lepo provedeni vreli julski dani ?itaju?i o ?uvenom putovanju desetine hiljada vitezova da osvoje Jerusalim krajem 11. veka. Putovanje na granici fantazmagorije o ljudima koji su prodavali svoja imanja kako bi finansirali pute?estvije uz obe?enje o?i??enja, a onda na istom po?inili svaki mogu?i greh, sa sve turom koja je u pojedinim trenucima toliko lo?e i?la da su bili prisiljeni da kuvaju ?i?ak, jedu ljudsko meso, piju konjsku krv i blato. Ne zna se koliko je ljudi iz Evrope krenulo u Prvi krsta?kirat ali se procenjuje da ih je stiglo manje od tre?ine pred zidine Jerusalima. I dalje sam fasciniran kreativno??u srednjovekovnog ?oveka ?ta sve mo?e da se uradi sa odse?enom glavom neprijatelja.
Knjiga je dinami?na, o?igledno napisana sa rado??u prema predmetu istra?ivanja, ubrzana i sa?eta. Ono ?to je novina u odnosu na verovatno 1000 drugih knjiga napisanih o krsta?kom pohodu ?to Frankopan insistira da pravi pokreta? pohoda za osloba?anje Jerusalima nije bio papa Urban II i vateni govor u Klermonu, nego vizantijski imperator Aleksije I Komnin i da se njemu treba dodeliti centralno mesto u sagledavanju pohoda. Frankopan je ba? strastven u odbrani Aleksija od vi?evekovnih kleveta zapadne istoriografije, da bi ga sigurno u tome blagoslovila, da je imala priliku da pro?ita, i Ana Komnin, Aleksijeva ?erka i autorka ?Aleksijade¡°, bisera vizantijske knji?evnosti u kome je slavila vladavinu svog oca. Meni kao laiku, argumenti izgledaju validno, iako Frankopan ponekad upada u fanboying.
A ?Laguna¡° kao ?Laguna¡°, sada su odlu?ili da ne ?tampaju napomene i literaturu ve? da ?itaoca upute na njihov sajt.
Peter Frankopans relatively short History (coming in at 200 page, plus appendices) of the infamous First Crusade deals primly with the Byzantium aspect of it being called by Pope Urban II during the very late 11thC. This was unusual because of the religious schism between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire, however Alexios I Komnenos was facing revolts between the Turks and Steppe Nomads across his empire, and asked the Pope for help. Unprecedented. It reads more like dissertation than anything, but still informative and interesting, albeit a bit of a dry wade to get through. I much preferred his latest two books on the Silk Roads, which are reviewed here. This study does not cover Islam that much, or at least does not focus on what the success the First Crusade had throughout our History. 3 stars, ok, but wanted something more lighter to be honest.
This was a surprisingly short and interesting read regarding the First Crusade, a topic which has been discussed extensively since its occurrence almost a millennia ago. However, Peter Frankopan takes the reader along a different route than most. This book is Byzantine-centric, instead of the traditional focus on the Catholic Church and the Crusaders. Frankopen argues that the genesis for the First Crusade came from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komenos, who pleaded with Pope Urban II for help in restoring Asia Minor and other lost territories from the muslims. The Byzantine Empire was near collapse, having lost nearly all of its territory in the years prior. The prize of capturing Jerusalem interested the crusaders, and the Byzantines needed all of the help they could get. Interestingly enough, all of this occurred several decades following the Great Schism.
What ultimately happened was, against all of the odds, the reconquest of Jerusalem in 1098 and the restoration of many important cities and territories to Byzantine hands. Despite famine, disease, mistrust amongst the crusaders and Byzantines, and overwhelming odds, the Crusaders achieved their goal in taking back the holiest city in Christianity. The First Crusade led to several crusader states, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which would last for nearly 200 years. It also put the Pope as a central figure in European politics and power, a role that still lasts to some extent to the present day.
However, the First Crusade would lay the seeds for future catastrophes, culminating in the Fourth Crusade and sack of Constantinople in 1204, which is one of the most perplexing events in western history. Mistrust for the Byzantines grew with this crusade and the subsequent ones, and Emperor Alexios's legacy was tarnished for centuries by western writers, including even Edward Gibbon, as he was blamed for seemingly everything that went wrong for the western knights on their journey.
One has to think how would history be different had the eastern and western churches stayed together. Would the middle east be largely Christian today? Would modern day Greece span across Asia Minor? What would the descendants of the crusader states have looked like had they lasted? It's interesting to be brought back into a time where places like Antioch, Syria, and Asia Minor were largely Christian.
A concise (only 200 pages) account of the First Crusade which is both well argued/organised and engaging. The book¡¯s central hypothesis is to write a Byzantine-centric view of the Crusade, in particular concentrating on the figure of the Emperor Alexios and how circumstances in his empire dictated the timing and nature of the appeal made to the West as well as some of the subsequent course of events (but not all, given the unpredictability of the large force unleashed).
Accounts of the First Crusade have always tended to begin with Urban II's call at Clermont for Europe's knights to go on an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem...and forgotten about the Levantine background--- Byzantium, the Seljuk Turks, the Fatimids in Egypt, and the tangle of local politics and warfare. Frankopan's "The First Crusade: The Call from the East" addresses that lapse. He points out that the Crusade began with the collapse of the Byzantine position in Asia Minor in the early and mid-1090s, and emphasizes that it was the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos who first sought allies and Frankish cavalry not so much for Jerusalem as for Antioch and Nicaea and other Byzantine cities lost to the Turks. Frankopan highlights the story of how the Frankish leadership first agreed to turn over captured cities to imperial control and then slowly turned on Alexios, with Frankish and Norman lords and bishops treating Alexios as a hindrance both to the expedition to Jerusalem and to the growing territorial ambitions of men like Count Bohemond of Taranto, the Norman warlord who emerges as the villain of the tale, the man most responsible for the unravelling of the Crusade's original mission.
Frankopan is a fine writer, and "The First Crusade" is a straightforward, well-told tale. Now the book does assume a fair amount of knowledge on the part of readers--- about the Normans in Sicily, about the endless fractures inside the Muslim world, about papal politics around Urban II. It's not an account for beginners, and while Frankopan has a masterful grasp of primary sources, his account of the actual fighting on the route from Constantinople to Jerusalem could profit from more military analysis.
Still--- a book that does remind readers that the First Crusade didn't happen in a local vacuum, that the Frankish armies riding into the Levant came at a Byzantine call and rode into a set of local conditions that have been neglected by all too many accounts.
El libro est¨¢ escrito en una prosa muy f¨¢cil de entender, pese a la complejidad del tema y los muchos personajes y acontecimientos el autor logra que sea f¨¢cil seguir sus ideas, el texto es una nueva mirada de la primera cruzada vista m¨¢s desde el lado oriental bizantino que centr¨¢ndose en los caballeros occidentales.
En la introducci¨®n se nos habla acerca del llamado del papa Urbano II al llamado de cruzada, su gran oratoria y el uso de descripciones atroces que hac¨ªan supuestamente los trucos contra los cristianos orientales. Por su parte en el imperio bizantino tenemos a Alejo I que ten¨ªa una gran presi¨®n externa por parte de los turcos y dificultades internas debido a su subida al poder por un golpe de estado.
En un estado de la cuesti¨®n Frankopan habla que no se escrito mucho sobre los or¨ªgenes como tal que llevaron a la primera cruzada, para ello menciona que las fuentes de han distorsionado mucho debido al gran ¨¦nfasis que se hace en el papa y lo conocida y numerosas que son las fuentes latinas, en comparaci¨®n con la complejidad de las fuentes orientales.
El primer cap¨ªtulo es sobre la Europa en v¨ªsperas de la primera cruzada est¨¢ primera tuvo un gran impacto en el viejo continente en el poder del papa y la idea del caballero, en este territorio tenemos una gran fragmentaci¨®n y poca uni¨®n, por su parte el pap¨¢ se encontraba enfrentado a un rey muy poderoso como Enrique IV que apoyaba a otro "anti papa".
La iglesia occidental estaba en un gran cisma con la ortodoxa debido a sus diferencias, pero fue urbano II el que tendi¨® puentes con el emperador Alejo, que luego se vio ayudado con los rumores que corr¨ªan de la esposa de Enrique y el apoyo de su hijo a ¨¦l.
El segundo cap¨ªtulo sobre Constantinopla nos habla de las maravillas de esta ciudad, nos edificios, su defensas, su control sobre los precios y vendedores, una ciudad que Atria a muchas personas de todas Europa, ello la hac¨ªa ante todo una ciudad Cosmopolita. Pese al auge econ¨®mico de este lugar la presi¨®n de los perchegos y turcos era constante, la gran derrota en manzcikert muestra la debilidad bizantina.
La expansi¨®n turca llevo a una gran presi¨®n de la ciudad a causa de los refugiados, hab¨ªa as¨ª inflaci¨®n y crisis econ¨®mica que se agravaba por una escasez de alimentos debido a los campesinos que iban a la guerra. Luego de esto se nos cuenta c¨®mo Alejo I subi¨® al poder en un golpe con el que logr¨® hacerse del poder, donde elimino la oposici¨®n y puso a familiares en cargos importantes, aunque luego su gran ¨¦nfasis en lo militar llevo a un gran oposici¨®n violenta.
El tercer cap¨ªtulo es sobre la relaci¨®n turco bizantina que contrario a lo que se cree no era tan mala como muchos suponen por un gran tiempo fue cordial y alejo logro llegar a acuerdos con los turcos pero esto iba a llegar a su fin con la toma turca de Nicea, pero la ca¨ªda m¨¢s importante fue la de Antioqu¨ªa un lugar de gran importancia simb¨®lica, estrat¨¦gica y econ¨®mica. Los turcos siempre respetaron a los cristianos de all¨ª, la muerte de Suleiman hacia dif¨ªcil establecer acuerdos con varios l¨ªderes turcos deseoso de expandirse.
El siguiente cap¨ªtulo sigue ampliando el tema sobre el colapso de Asia menor, donde la muerte de otro sult¨¢n turco lleva a una guerra civil de dos a?os donde era dif¨ªcil llegar a acuerdos con varios jefes locales, los perchegos segu¨ªan presionando las fronteras lo cual era aprovechado por los turcos un gran p¨¦rdida fue la de Nicomedia, aunque luego fue recapturada los bizantinos no ten¨ªan mucha experiencia en los asedios.
El quinto cap¨ªtulo es sobre el intento de golpe de estado a Alejo, los principales actores que llevaron a cabo esto fueron sus miembros de su propia familia que estaban cansados de las derrotas de este en Asia menor, Alejo al subir los impuestos llevo a una gran presi¨®n que result¨® en la rebeli¨®n de Creta y Chipre, las amplias concesiones a los mercaderes venecianos enojo mucho a la ¨¦lite comercial, luego de intento de golpe de estado purgo lentamente a la ¨¦lite que lo rodeaba.
El sexto cap¨ªtulo es el llamado a la cruzada con el que Alejo siempre de mostr¨® abierto a los caballeros de occidente hab¨ªan incluso oficinas de reclutamiento en Inglaterra, las cartas enviadas por parte de Alejo a todas Europa ayudaron a difundir el maltrato que estaban sometidos ni?os cristianos en Oriente, los cuales muchas veces eran ciertos como se ve en los peregrinos que no pod¨ªan llegar a tierra Santa, Alejo uso sabiamente la carta de Jerusal¨¦n y el uso de objetos sagrados como la vera cruz. Pese a que antes hubieron llamados de cruzada este diferente debido a la situaci¨®n era m¨¢s precaria y el papa tenia m¨¢s en juego como el mostrarse como un hombre de uni¨®n.
La respuesta de occidente se aborda en este cap¨ªtulo en el que pap¨¢ hizo llevar el mensaje por varias partes de Europa donde los cl¨¦rigos expandieron a¨²n m¨¢s el mensaje del esp¨ªritu de cruzada, el uso de un documento sobre la atrocidades turcas ayud¨® mucho, los cruzados obtendr¨ªan perd¨®n y salvaci¨®n eterna si iban a tierra Santa, muchos de estos deb¨ªan ser guerreros, antes de ir buscaron hipotecar sus propiedades y buscar el perd¨®n bajo el s¨ªmbolo de la cruz partieron, no se dejaba ir a hombres problem¨¢ticos.
Alejo coordin¨® toda la log¨ªstica de la llegada de estos hombres, en el suministro de comida y suministros, este llamado a cruzada era distinto del que se hac¨ªa de Espa?a porque ac¨¢ estaba el tema de Jerusal¨¦n y la delicada situaci¨®n de oriente, las llegadas de ej¨¦rcitos occidentales pese a las esperanzas que supon¨ªa tambi¨¦n causaba miedo
En el octavo capitulo vemos le llegar¨¢ de la cruzada popular, una movilizaci¨®n de personas que no eran guerreros y que por su paso masacraron a jud¨ªos, robaron a los locales y supuso un problema, no esperaron a los dem¨¢s sino fueron rumbo a Nicea donde fueron masacrados por los turcos esto supuso un rev¨¦s para Alejo, a¨²n as¨ª con la llegada de los verdaderos cruzados recibi¨® de manera personal a los m¨¢s importantes de una manera informal y llena de regalos, pese algunos problemas la llegada no caus¨® tantos problemas lo que si gener¨® disgusto fue el juramento que deb¨ªan hacer a Alejo esto con el fin de salvaguardarse este y que le devolvieran las posesiones conquistadas.
El cap¨ªtulo noveno y decimos estamos ante la narraci¨®n de la toma de Nicea y Antioqu¨ªa por parte de los cruzados de la cual no fue nada f¨¢cil, est¨¢s estaban muy bien defendidas ayudo mucho la experiencia de los cruzados en asedios, la situaciones eran dif¨ªciles debido a la poca comida y suministros, los caballos era costosos de tener, hab¨ªa mucha hambre entra las filas, mismas que pudieron resistir a muchas batallas contra refuerzos musulmanes, todo ello mientras alejo dirig¨ªa la cruzada desde la distancia y manten¨ªa su confianza en Bohemundo
Aunque est¨¦ no siempre atend¨ªa al emperador, hab¨ªan muchas disputas sobre el control de Antioqu¨ªa sobre si deb¨ªan entregarla o no al emperador, estos igualmente supieron resistir ante la mala comunicaci¨®n turca, el rumbo ahora era hacia Jerusal¨¦n.
El cap¨ªtulo once es sobre la toma de Jerusal¨¦n en el que los cruzados estaban llenos de j¨²bilo por llegar all¨ª pero al ciudad est¨¢ muy bien defendida, y el problema ahora no era de comida sino se agua, hab¨ªa muy pocos pozos unos cercanos a las l¨ªneas enemigas y otros muy lejos llegando a cobrar por el agua, igualmente los cruzados estaban muy diezmados luego de varios intentos pudieron romper con las l¨ªneas enemigas, conllevando a una gran masacre sin precedentes, una vez terminado esto se nombr¨® un rey de Jerusal¨¦n, que tambi¨¦n tendi¨® lazos comerciales con genoveses y venecianos; no obstante, las posteriores batallas contra turcos terminaron matando a muchos cruzados importantes, era necesaria la ayuda bizantina.
El ¨²ltimo cap¨ªtulo nos habla sobre la llegada de cruzados a Europa en el que se enaltecieron gracias a muchas canciones y versos, Bohemundo por ejemplo fue muy bien recibido y se cas¨® con la mujer m¨¢s poderosa de Europa este dirigi¨® un tipo de cruzada contra Alejo, aunque est¨¢ termin¨® en fracaso por lo que debi¨® de devolver Antioqu¨ªa al emperador, este tuvo una mala imagen en occidente mostr¨¢ndolo como alguien traicionero, pero este siempre suministro v¨ªveres a los cruzados y nunca prometi¨® estar a a la cabeza de la cruzada.
El papa por su parte, en un primer momento no est¨¢n mencionado como causante de la cruzada ser¨ªa tiempo despu¨¦s que se le dar¨ªa m¨¢s importancia, alejo logro recuperar territorios en asia menor y volvi¨® a florecer la econom¨ªa bizantina, concluyendo as¨ª que de debe reevaluar la imagen de Alejo y de muchos sultanes turcos que fueron los causantes de la cruzada.
En conclusi¨®n un libro muy bueno, para alguien que no sab¨ªa mucho sobre la primera cruzada resulto f¨¢cil entender todos sobre ella.
An easily digestible account of the First Crusade from Frankopan, who is arguably more interested in the causes and aims of the crusade than the key players and events that have for so long defined the story.
Frankopan succeeds in recentering the crusade on key individuals such as Emperor Alexios and demonstrates conclusively that the impetus for crusade came from the east, not the west, and as such it¡¯s success must be judged differently.
Overall, an enjoyable read which served as a good reintroduction to the First Crusade from a different angle.
Uma nova hist¨®ria da primeira cruzada, centrada no papel do imperador bizantino. Bem escrita, bem fundamentada. Considero, contudo, que a descri??o do imp¨¦rio bizantino e suas numerosas intrigas e situa??o pol¨ªtica ocupa demasiado espa?o neste livro (quase metade), n?o me parecendo necess¨¢rio. A apresenta??o em imagem da genealogia dos imperadores bizantinos teria ajudado, mas est¨¢ em falta
Very interesting book, particularly on the contribution of the Bizantine emperor to the start of the Crusade against how the western chronicles depicted the story which has been passed on for generations.
Een goedgeschreven geschiedenis van een voor mij onbekende periode en gebied. Frankopan is een waardige woordvoerder van de Byzantijnse kant van het verhaal. Daarnaast echt goed vertaald.
This book is very unusual in that it provides a clear and defensible alternative view of important events that I thought I knew about. In this case, the subject is the set of events surrounding the First Crusade in the last decade of the eleventh century. Frankopan makes the argument that in order to understand the First Crusade, it is necessary to understand the role of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios (sp?) in calling the Crusade. Since high school, I had known about Pope Urban II calling on Western nobles to engage in the Crusade to win back the Holy Land. What was never clearly understood is a) what prompted the call to be issued and the crusade to occur when it did? and b) how did it happen with sufficient organization and planning that it could be such a success? -- an important question given the lack of central political authority in Europe at the time. The punchline is that it was the Byzantine Emperor who needed help and needed to obtain that help from the West, because his prior strategies for controlling Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean coast had failed. He provide the central control, planning, and logistical support. Pope Urban also could make use of the Crusade to not only pursue religious objectives but also to shore up his position as Pope versus a competitor. The nobles had their own reasons and the Pope fashioned a rich set of incentives to encourage participation.
The argument is easy to follow, once the book gets moving. It makes lots of sense (and much more sense that traditional explanations of the Crusades) and seems to fit the facts fairly well.
I love history books, but they more often than not add richness and nuance to my understanding of a subject area. This book changes how you look at the Crusades. That is not a bad accomplishment.
The style is a bit thick and there are lots of odd names, but it is worth the effort.
The Crusades have always tickled my historical curiosity. Knowing the event of the first Crusade took place over a 1000 years ago can mean modern historians taking licenses to "fill in the blanks". So to date I've been a bit underwhelmed by books on the Crusades. Actually, most were just dull as dishwater. This book is about the first Crusade but not as its central purpose for existing. This book is a defense of Alexios I (Emperor of Byzantium) and the role he played in bringing the Crusades to being a thing. I found all this very interesting, a new spin so to speak. While the author is not paying Alexios I homage so much, he's very fair, he is righting centuries of misunderstanding that the Pope was the central driving force. Everyone had their role, true to the historical narrative, but Alexios should not be relegated to the back ground or as a villain. Frankopan makes persuasive arguments that he is THE spark that lit the flame. He's the Franz Ferdinand of Crusade I. The rest of the book takes you through the expedition and how everything played out, I mean based on the title it better. At the end though I felt much the same to the whole affair that is was an utterly abhorrent event in history. Mainly due to slaughtering thousands because "God Wills It". You find very quickly that most of this had nothing to do with God's Will, but political power plays, wanton greed, and war crimes that would make the Nazis blush. This is a 200 page book. Therefore it doesn't have time to drip with details and cover things like logistics. But it is still a very well done book and never once did I walk away from it for very long.
All in all an interesting book albeit somewhat short. I think the biggest selling point of this book is the focus on Constantinople and Alexios Komnenos. All too often in Crusader books the emphasis is on Urban and the Western Princes and their... erm... escapades... on their way to Jerusalem but this book flips it to the point they are almost secondary characters. You hear about Urban calling on the princes to step up but it's very much on the why Urban was asked in the first place. Rather than 5 chapters on the fall of Antioch, it's more about what that meant for the Byzantines.
Probably not the book I'd reach for if I was asked for a recommendation on the First Crusade as an overarching narrative of events, but it adds a very nice flavour to the history and spends more time than other books I've read on what the immediate aftermath was of the more famous events. There's very little fat here so it's the type of book that might be best read after something a bit more comprehensive.
All in all very good. Frankopan knows his onions and it's apparent here.
Pri?a o Prvom krsta?kom ratu, ali iz malo druga?ijeg ugla. Akcenat je stavljen na vizantijskog cara Aleksija I Komnina i njegov odnos sa krsta?ima. Kako sam autor knjige i ka?e, u zapadnim istorijskim izvorima, car Aleksije je prikazan krajnje negativno i njegova uloga u krsta?kom ratu je svedena na minimum, ?to je je ostavilo posledice i na kasniju literaturu. U ovom svom delu, P. Frankopan prikazuje da je uloga cara Aleksija I Komnina bila znatno ve?a, kako kod samog pokretanja krsta?kog rata, tako i tokom njegovog trajanja. Tako?e, prikazan je i diplomatski odnos izme?u pape Urbana II i cara Aleksija I. Autorov zaklju?ak je da su krsta?i svu krivicu za svoj neuspeh svalili na Vizantiju i njenog cara. S obzirom ?ta sve Laguna objavljuje pod kategorijom "istorija" ovo delo je odli?no. Ali veliki minus ide Laguni zbog izbacivanja nau?nog aparata iz knjige. Mislim da je to sramota, a rekao bih i uvreda za ?itaoce. Mo?da bi i ocena knjige bila ve?a ako bih je pro?itao u njenom punom obimu, sa sve nau?nim aparatom. Glupost je da se za svaku fusnotu mora skrenuti pogled sa stranice i pretra?ivati je na telefonu/kompjuteru.
Peter Frankopan's book The First Crusade looks at the First Crusade from a purely Byzantine perspective. It revises the common narrative of "Byzantium asked for help, Western Europe instigated the First Crusade". Instead, Frankopan argues (convincingly, in my opinion) that Byzantium played a crucial role as the leader of the First Crusade and essentially frames it as a Byzantine campaign.
It's one of those books that balances the fine line between accessible and academic and a very easy read.
Great detail on the origins and run up to the crusade that you don't get from other books on the first crusade which only give brief mentions of Manzikert, Alexios' call for help and the Pope's speech at Clermont.
Excellent telling from a Byzantine perspective. The Crusades seem to fall into place and make much more sense understanding the origin and context. Hard not to like the imagery of the time in general. Good book.
This was very interesting. I can see how people give it 4 stars in that it spends half the book setting up the Byzantine element, and how it barely mentions what the Turkish side had to say about it all. Still, very informative and worth reading!
The First Crusade (1096-1099) has always been analyzed from the viewpoint of the Papacy and Latin Christendom. Surprising, since it was launched at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios in 1096. He has been given short shrift in most histories. Author re-looks at the First Crusade by putting him at the centre. Has specially used Greek sources emanating from the Byzantine empire, which is generally ignored, to conduct his research.
This has led Frankopan to make significant changes to the traditional narrative. He begins with the context and asks why the Crusade was launched in the first place, especially since the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church had an antagonistic relationship? The answer was the divided nature of the Papacy at the time. Pope Urban II was one of two popes, and the weaker one. Therefore, he cultivated friends everywhere, including Byzantine. He jumped at the chance to appear as the champion of all Christians and utilised the crusades to successfully consolidate his position.
Traditional histories believe that the empire in the 1090s had begun to recover its strength and launched the crusades to expand its territory. In reality, the Empire was on the brink of collapse. Frankopan shows how the Emperor Alexios' attempts to use local Turkish warlords to pacify the region collapsed with the death of his chief functionary, Sulayman. His treaty with the Seljuq's also collapsed with the death of the Sultan in 1092. There was a massive coup against him in 1095. The Crusade was a last roll of the dice for him. Frankopan details the massive efforts Alexios made to supply the Crusader army, the close-co-operation between Urban II and Alexios, and Alexios' attempts to extract oaths of fealty from the Crusader leaders to show Byzantine's efforts to keep the Crusader army under its auspices. It mostly succeeded. Though there were some elements which broke away and attempted to maneuver independently. The most prominent being Bohemund.
Politically, the Crusades were a resounding success for Alexios. The Crusades consolidated the control of Byzantine on Asia Minor, stabilised the Empire, gave a boost to trade and the economy blossomed, the tattered tax system was overhauled, and allowed Alexios to lay the foundation of a dynasty which lasted almost a century. However, Alexios¡¯ reputation suffered a massive blow because of the in-fighting amongst the Crusaders, who used him as a convenient scapegoat for their own ambitions, from which it never recovered. The first histories of the Crusades written by the Crusaders vilified him. Later, these accounts were used by church historians to paint an even more unflattering portrait, which has continued down to our age. While the role of the Papacy in conducting the crusade is well-known, Frankopan has shown how no true history of the First Crusade can be written without firmly putting Alexios at the centre.