The New Crusaders: Images Of The Crusades In The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries

254 Pages·2000·4.955 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Siberry

The New Crusaders

The New Crusaders
Images of the Crusades in the Nineteenth
and Early Twentieth Centuries
ELIZABETH SIBERRY
Ashgate
Aldershot • Burlington USA • Singapore • Sydney
© Elizabeth Siberry, 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without prior pemission of the publisher.
The author has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this woik.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House 131 Main Street
Croft Road Burlington
Aldershot Vermont, 05401-5600
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Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Siberry, Elizabeth
The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusades in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth
Centuries - (Nineteenth Century Series).
1. Crusades. 2. Crusades - Public Opinion - History - 19th Century. 3. Crusades -
Public Opinion - History - 20th Century. 4. Crusades in Literature,
i. Title
909*.07
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Siberry, Elizabeth
The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusades in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth
Centuries / Elizabeth Siberry.
p. cm. - (The Nineteenth Century Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Crusades - Historiography. I. Title. II. Nineteenth Century (Aldershot, England)
D156.58.S53 2000
909.07-dc21 99-049698
CIP
ISBN 1 85928 333 0
Typeset in Times by Password, Norwich, UK.
This book is printed on acid free paper.
Printed and bound by Athenaeum Press, Ltd.,
Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.
Contents
General Editors’ Preface vii
Introduction ix
1 Crusade historiography 1
2 The crusade ancestor and hero 39
3 Travellers and plenipotentiaries 64
4 Crusading warfare 73
5 First world war 87
6 A Crusade miscellany 104
7 Scott and the crusades 112
8 Literature and the crusades 131
9 Popular historical fiction and tales for children 150
10 Art and the crusades 161
11 Music and the crusades 175
Conclusion 188
Appendix
A Wiffen’s List of English Crusaders 190
B Sir William Hillary’s Crusade Pamphlet 203
C List of works in the Salles des Croisades at Versailles 208
Select Bibliography 212
Index 221

The Nineteenth Century
General Editors’ Preface
The aim of this series is to reflect, develop and extend the great burgeon­
ing of interest in the nineteenth century that has been an inevitable feature
of recent decades, as that former epoch has come more sharply into focus
as a locus for our understanding, not only of the past but of the contours of
our modernity. Though it is dedicated principally to the publication of origi­
nal monographs and symposia in literature, history, cultural analysis and
associated fields, there will be a salient role for reprints of significant texts
from, or about, the period. Our overarching policy is to address the widest
scope in chronology, approach and range of concern. This, we believe,
distinguishes our project from comparable ones, and means, for example,
that in the relevant areas of scholarship we both recognise and cut
innovatively across such perimeters as those suggested by the designa­
tions ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’. We welcome new ideas, while valuing
tradition. It is hoped that the world which predates yet so forcibly predicts
and engages our own will emerge in parts, as a whole, and in the lively
currents of debate and change that are so manifest an aspect of its intellec­
tual, artistic and social landscape.
Vincent Newey
Joanne Shattock
University of Leicester
vii

Introduction
Recent writing on the crusades has underlined the fact that the crusading
movement did not end with the fall of Acre in 1291. In addition to the
series of expeditions to the eastern Mediterranean in the later Middle Ages,
there were major encounters between Christian and Moslem forces in the
early modem period, for example the Hapsburg victory at Lepanto in 1571
and the defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683. In fact.
there is ample evidence that crusade schemes were discussed well into the
nineteenth century and the term and image are still widely used today.
This continuity of crusading was outlined in Paul Rousset’s Histoire d'une
idéologie, La Croisade, published in 1983 and it is very much the theme of
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, edited by Jonathan Riley-
Smith and published in 1995, which treats the crusading movement as a
continuum, from its origins in eleventh century Europe to the present day.
It also provides the framework for Christopher Tyerman’s recent book, The
Invention of the Crusades (1998).
My contribution to the Oxford volume was a chapter entitled ‘Images of
the Crusades in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.’ My interest in
this subject has evolved over a number of years and has now overtaken my
earlier research on the expeditions themselves and criticism of crusading,
although it is interesting to see the continuity of several themes of criti­
cism in crusade historiography over the centuries. Within the confines of
a chapter in a general history, I could only provide an introduction to the
subject. I am grateful to Alec McAulay and Ashgate Publishing for offer­
ing me an opportunity to tackle the subject, which as far as I am aware has
not been considered in any detail elsewhere, in more depth.
I have taken as my timeframe the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
but obviously attitudes towards the crusades did not change dramatically on 1
January 1800. Inevitably some of the trends which are a feature of the nine­
teenth century, such as the romanticization of the Middle Ages can be traced
back to the previous century. For example, Horace Walpole’s Gothic novella
The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764, purported to be a translation of an
Italian story set in the time of the crusades and, as will be discussed later,
Walpole took a close interest in his alleged crusading ancestors. Equally, not
all observers and writers in the nineteenth century saw the past through
a rosy haze and there are some examples of a more critical approach interspersed
throughout the period. At the other end of the timeframe, the conclusion
of the First World War is a more appropriate cut off point than 1900.
X INTRODUCTION
There are many different ways in which an image can be portrayed and
promoted. There are the facts of the crusades set out in histories of the
movement, both scholarly and designed for the general reader; edited or
translated primary source material; and manuals or histories of chivalry.
An analysis of crusading historiography in this period therefore forms the
first chapter of this book. In Chapter Two, I discuss the part played by the
crusades in creating a national historical perspective and more specifically
the advantage to be gained from a crusading ancestor or hero, in helping to
establish or confirm medieval credentials. In the course of the nineteenth
century, travel to the Middle East became much easier and, to the extent
that they mention the crusades, the accounts of travellers and government
representatives form the subject of Chapter Three. Chapters Four and Five
look at some specific schemes to mount new crusades for the Christian
reoccupation of the Holy Land and the development of crusade imagery in
the context of contemporary conflicts such as the Crimean War, culminat­
ing in the First World War. And Chapter Six outlines the wider use of the
crusade term and image in connection with a range of contemporary politi­
cal, religious and social campaigns.
I will argue, however, that for most in the nineteenth century, the image
of the crusades is likely to have come from popular culture in a variety of
forms, ranging from the novels of Sir Walter Scott, to Romantic and Pre-
Raphaelite poetry and from children’s literature to art and music (in all its
forms). Whilst each artist brought a different perspective to his or her
work, one can identify certain basic sources of crusade imagery and there
are a number of common themes or favourite subjects developed in the
various artistic mediums. This varied use of the crusade image forms the
subject for the remaining five chapters of this book.
With the exception of Chapter One, I have decided to adopt a thematic
rather than a chronological approach, but one obvious question which I try
to address is whether there is any clear linkage between contemporary poli­
tics or events in the Middle East and artistic interest in the subject of the
crusades. My subject is inevitably very broadly based and in order to draw
out examples of crusade imagery, I will touch on complex political issues
such as the Eastern Question, which are major and controversial subjects
in their own right, meriting their own monographs and bibliographies. I
will also be skating across the cultural history of the period in all its mani­
festations. Here again there is a vast corpus of scholarship on which to
draw, as well as the works themselves in numerous galleries, museums,
private collections and libraries and all I have sought to do is to provide a
selection of examples to illustrate my argument.
There are two ways of approaching nineteenth century and later
medievalism; as a medievalist and crusade historian with a knowledge of
the original sources or from the perspective of a modern historian firmly