Elite Participation in the Third Crusade

465 Pages·2021·5.529 MB·English

by  Stephen Bennett

ELITE

PARTICIPATION
in the THIRD CRUSADE
.
..
STEPHEN BENNETT
warfare in history
Elite Participation
in the Third Crusade
Warfare in History
ISSN 1358-779X
Series editors
Matthew Bennett, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK
Anne Curry, University of Southampton, UK
Stephen Morillo, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, USA
This series aims to provide a wide-ranging and scholarly
approach to military history, offering both individual studies
of topics or wars, and volumes giving a selection of contem-
porary and later accounts of particular battles; its scope ranges
from the early medieval to the early modern period.
New proposals for the series are welcomed; they should be
sent to the publisher at the address below.
Boydell & Brewer Limited, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk
IP12 3DF
Previously published titles in this series are listed at the back of
this volume
Elite Participation
in the Third Crusade
Stephen Bennett

the boydell press
© Stephen Bennett 2021
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
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The right of Stephen Bennett to be identified as
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sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2021
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978-1-78327-578-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-80010-058-9 ePDF
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
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remain, accurate or appropriate
Cover image: Ms 10. Bible de Manerius, fn du XIIe siècle, fol. 3v. Guerres
de David, reproduced by permission of Bibliothéque Sainte-Geneviéve,

Paris, cliché IRHT
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations x
Notes on Sources, Names, and Coinage xiii
Introduction 1
1. Faith and Finance: Religious Foundations, Ecclesiastical Leaders,
and Fraternity 29
2. Family and Heritage: Lineage, Kinship, and Tradition 90
3. Locality and Fellowship: Territory, Trade, and Tournaments 121
4. The Household of King Richard I at the Time of the Third
Crusade 159
Conclusion: Personal, Spiritual, and Communal Influences on
Participation in the Third Crusade 213
Appendices
1. The Noble Network: Crusaders from North-Western Europe,
1187–92 220
2. King Richard I’s Household, 1189–92 353
Bibliography 397
Index 437
Illustrations
Maps
1. North-Western Europe xiv
2. Routes to the Holy Land xv
3. The Holy Land xvi
Figures
1. Nodes and Ties 17
2. Dyads and Triads 18
3. Bridges and Centrality 19
Tables
1. Connections by Religious Affiliation and Notable Events 17
2. Numbers of Known Crusaders from North-Western Europe
Associated with Religious Houses that Participated in the Third
Crusade 50
3. Family Heritage and Participation in the Third Crusade 103
4. Kinship and Participation in the Third Crusade 108
5. The Geographical Composition of Richard’s Mesnie 1189–1194 185

6. The Social Composition of Richard’s Mesnie 1189–1194 187
7. The Background of Richard’s Mesnie 1189–1194 190
Preface and Acknowledgements
Despite being more akin to a cultural history or perhaps even a genealogy
of the Third Crusade than a traditional military history, this book grew
out of my interest in unit cohesion, or the bonding together of warriors
in a military organisation to sustain them in combat. In particular, it was
inspired by Jan-Frans Verbruggen’s view that the Règle du Temple was in
part an attempt to replicate the bonds found in lay military households,
which were arguably based on established social bonds – on family and
locality.1 However, the base assumption on the composition of lay house-
holds required, in my view, more investigation before it could be safely used
to consider this question.
Recent debate on unit cohesion has featured a distinction between the
components of social cohesion and task cohesion – the commitment to
working together on a shared goal.2 Since some studies have concluded that
unit effectiveness is determined more by task cohesion than social cohesion,
I thought it important to focus on a period in which various households
from across Christendom were brought together for a common goal, such
as in the attempted reconquest of the kingdom of Jerusalem.3
Like any such endeavour, researching and writing this book has benefited
from the support of various bodies, as well as the goodwill and generous
help of my own kinship and friendship network. Though it is impossible to
repay many of the debts incurred, it is my pleasure to recognise them and to
publicly offer my thanks for the help I was given during this project. Among
the many debts of gratitude to individuals that I have incurred over the years
whilst researching and writing this book the first is due to Tom Asbridge,
who throughout the whole time has been an unfailing source of wisdom and

support. Without his diligent guidance and unceasing encouragement, this

1 See J.F. Verbruggen, The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages,
2nd edition, trans. (Woodbridge, 1997), p. 65.
2 See, for example, G. van Epps, ‘Relooking Military Cohesion: A Sensemaking
Approach’, Military Review (November/December, 2008), 102–10.
3 This debate about the relative importance, or even need for, social cohesion and task
cohesion is exemplified by an exchange between Anthony King and Guy Siebold in
Armed Forces and Society in 2006–2007: A. King, ‘The Word of Command: Communi-
cation and Cohesion in the Military’, Armed Forces and Society, 32/4 (2006), 493–512 and

‘The Existence of Group Cohesion in the Armed Forces: A Response to Guy Siebold’,
Armed Forces and Society, 33/4 (2007), 638–45; G.L. Siebold, ‘The Essence of Military
Group Cohesion’, Armed Forces and Society, 33/2 (2007), 286–95.
viii preface and acknowledgements
may have stalled early on. I wish to express my profound thanks to Matthew
Bennett for his keen insights and encouragement throughout the process.
Similarly, I am also grateful to Caroline Palmer, Judith Everard, and Nick
Bingham for their patience and support.
I am grateful to those many friends and colleagues who offered guidance
and support at important junctures in my research: Nicholas Vincent for
generously sharing King Richard’s acta; Benjamin Kedar, Helen Nicholson,
Jonathan Phillips, and Kelly DeVries who offered fruitful criticism and
helpful suggestions to my work on the battle of Arsuf; the stalwart members
of the Antioch Dining Club, Martin Hall, Ian Wilson, Gary Ramsell, and
Ahmet Hilmi; Stuart Buxton and Richard Dagnall.
I am especially indebted to Carsten Selch Jensen for reading through the
manuscript and providing many useful comments and observations, causing
me to hone my arguments and providing much-needed encouragement
through the final stages of writing and revision. Other people who have
offered advice and corrections on substantial portions of this work include:
Mike Carr, Stephen Church, Bernard Hamilton, John D. Hosler, Andrew
Jotischky, Jochen Schenk, and Kat Tracy. Likewise, my thanks go to the
team at Queen Mary’s: Andrew Buck, Belinda Guthrie, Stephen Spencer,
and especially Peter Denley; to Ane L. Bysted, Janus Møller Jensen, Kurt
Villads Jensen, Palle Rasmussen, Thomas Heebøll-Holm, Torben K. Nielsen
and to the medieval societies at Aarhus University and at the University of
Southern Denmark for welcoming me into their scholarly communities.
I am deeply indebted to the Queen Mary Fund and St John Historical
Society for endowments to support my research, as well as the generous
assistance of a grant from Isobel Thornley’s Bequest to the University of
London to produce this book. I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of
the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Archives Nationales of France in Paris,
the National Archives in Kew, the British Library and, of course, Senate
House and the Institute of Historical Research.
My greatest debt of gratitude is to my parents and to my sister, who have
provided me with strong roots and countered my occasional desperation

with love, understanding, and good humour, to my children and, especially,

to my beautiful wife, who has never stopped believing in me and has been
my inspiration and joy, as well as my fiercest reader. All mistakes, naturally,
remain my own.
Stephen Bennett
Odiham, 2020
This book is produced with the generous assistance of a grant from
Isobel Thornley’s Bequest to the University of London