Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: New Series) [Paperback]

 

 

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This book was first published in 1956. More than five decades latter, it is still the reference on crusading warfare during the first century or so of Outremer. I bought this book over nine ago and I still regularly dip into it every time I need to check something on criusader warfare. I've also read it at least three times from cover to cover. Some reviewers (on Amazom.com) have complained that this is a scholarly book, not "popular history", or have presented it as a good tool for research.

Well, let's make no mistake, it certainly IS a scholarly book and always was intended to be so. However, this should by no means imply that ONLY scholars can read it or use it as a research tool. In fact, it is MUCH more than simply a tool (or rather a starting point) for research because Smail was among the first (and, in many cases, the very first) to lay down some essential truths about the States of Outremer. Here are some of the main ones:

- One is that the Crusader States were, and had to be, since their very foundation, organized for war. One of the implications was that feudal society, when compared to what was taking place in Europe at the same time, had to be modified accordingly. Military service could not be limited to a mere 40 days but could be due when needed and for as much as 6 months. Another consequence, partly linked with the shortage of military manpower, was the usage of money fiefs instead of land grants, to maintain knights. This was particularly the case at the beginning of htre Kingdom of Jerusalem, when most of the Kingdom still had to be conquered, and at the end, when it was reduced to a handfull of heavily fortified coastal cities and forteresses.

- Another was that Catholic Christians from the West were always a minority within each of the four (and then three) States, and all of these states were always short of soldiers. Following in Smail's footsteps, historians have shown that even in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the population that originated from Western Europe is unlikely to have exceeded 20% of the total and that most of these "Franks" lives in the towns and cities or in castles and fortified habitations. The further North you went and the fewer "Franks" you could find. In the County of Edessa, for instance, they were only a handfull, with most of the rest of the population being either Armenians or Moslems.

- The shortage in military manpower had a number of consequences, in military terms:

1) One was that, to relieve a fortress under siege, the various states had to strip most ofv their other strongpoints of their troops to come up with an army that they could not really afford to lose. Hence their optimal strategy would be to harass the moslem besiegers and deny them supplies until they were forced to lift the siege and return home. It was NOT to offer a large scale battle.

2) Another was that they heavily relied on their fortresses, castles and fortified towns to block the advance of any moslem army and give them the time to gather their forces from all other fortresses.

3) A third was that they depended heavily on a steady stream of reinforcements coming from the West every year during the sailing season (March to October) both as pilgrims and as longer-term settlers. This was also true for horses and for leaders whose life expectancy tended to be short (through a combination of the climate and fighting). So the coastal cities were essentially the lifeline of Outremer.

4) The last (or at least the last I will mention in this review) was that the various principalities, the Kingdom and all of the lords and barons had to be, if not constantly at war, at least contantly on a war footing. This meant that they were often short of money and, in the case of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at least, often close to bankcrutcy.

Given these constraints, and as Smail makes out quite clearly, it is therefore not surprising that the Military Orders expanded so rapidly and that their help could not be anything else than wellcomed.

In addition to the laying out clearly the strategic context, Smail's book contains detailed analysis on troop types, numbers, and the various campaigns and engagements. It is completed by its companion book by Marshall, which covers the second century to the FAll of Acre in 1291 and is just as brilliant. Both books are "MUST READ" for anyone interesting in the Crusades and crusading warfare.

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