Starred Blue Ink Review for Rebels Against Tyranny

 

BLUE INK STARRED REVIEW

Rebels Against Tyranny: Civil War in the Crusader States Helena P. Schrader WheatMark, 430 pages, (paperback) $20.95, 9781627876247 (Reviewed: September 2018) 

The lovely 13th century-inspired cover of Helena Schrader’s Rebels Against Tyranny suggests the promise of a well-wrought yarn set in the Middle Ages. Indeed, the author delivers a robust and irresistible tale brimming with historical accuracy. 

Schrader’s story takes place in the early 1200s, just beyond the major Crusades in what is sometimes referred to as the “bloodless Crusade.” It focuses on a cast of characters in Cyprus, other areas of the Levant in and around Jerusalem, and Sicily.  

Dashing Balian d’Ibelin is the oldest son and heir of upstanding John d’Ibelin, Lord of Beirut and a key protector of teenaged Henry, King of Cyprus. Fiendish Amaury Barlais has a grievance with the Ibelin family and consistently schemes against them, even worming his way into the graces of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II Hohenstaufen, who has plans to conquer the Holy Land and selfish reasons for opposing the Ibelins. Eventually a clash is inevitable.  

The story surrounds the efforts of the Ibelins and their compatriots to oppose the despotic emperor Frederick and his followers in a classic good versus evil tale. Not all is swordplay, however, as the story also follows the budding romance between noted ladies’ man Balian and the brave Lady Eschiva de Montbéliard.   

Although the cast of characters is mammoth, Shchrader provides a thorough cast list and meticulous family tree. Readers will particularly appreciate Eschiva’s three-dimensional characterization, as women in similar narratives tend to be little more than cardboard props. In fact, the author brings the qualities of each main character to life: the wide-eyed innocence of young Henry; the cringe-worthy activities of Barlais. Together, the dialogue, plot, and descriptive language make this a compulsive page-turner.  

Schrader has done diligent research, and it shows in her historical accuracy, welcome glossary of medieval terms, and extensive set of historical notes. Those who enjoy stories of the period— and even readers with only a passing interest in the era—will relish this tale. 

Also available as an ebook.

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Dr. Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.
She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.
She is an award-winning novelist and author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction. Her three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin won a total of 14 literary accolades. Her most recent release is a novel about the founding of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus. You can find out more at: http://crusaderkingdoms.com 

REVIEW: "How to Plan a Crusade" by Christopher Tyerman

At the start of each month + Real Crusades History + brings you a review of a book relevant to the crusades or the crusader states. Today Dr. Schrader looks at a work that focuses on the important - but often overlooked - aspect of crusading: 
logistics and public relations.

This book came highly recommended and provides a wealth of valuable information for anyone interested in understanding the society that produced the crusades. Organized by topic rather than chronologically, it examines topics all too often ignored in more conventional histories from finance to health, safety and supply. Most important, it documents the immense amount of planning, coordination, organization and expense that went into mounting a massive military campaign across vast distances in the age of horse and sailing ships. After reading this book, no one can be in any doubt about how sophisticated, literate and well-organized medieval society was during the centuries in which crusading was undertaken. The book systematically and meticulously debunks notions of “spontaneous” movements by wild-eyed religious fanatics. It also highlights that in many ways crusader organization puts modern planning, blessed with all the advantages of digital technology, to shame.

The weakness of the book is that it never fully transcends the academic milieu from which it originated. Tyerman meticulously documents his opinions, citing “chapter and verse” of what feels like each and every single example that supports his argument. The result is that what he is saying often gets lost in the supporting documentation. In short, the book bogs down in details and rapidly became a slog through facts rather than providing stimulating new insight.  The book would have benefited from more rigorous editing that placed much of the supporting evidence in the foot- or end-notes and focused on the gist of the arguments. 

Dr. Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.

She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.

She is an award-winning novelist and author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction. Her three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin won a total of 14 literary accolades. Her most recent release is a novel about the founding of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus. You can find out more at: http://crusaderkingdoms.com

REVIEW: "The Crusader States" by Malcolm Barber

At the start of each month + Real Crusades History + brings you a review of a book relevant to the crusades or the crusader states. Today Dr. Schrader recommends the seminal work by Professor Malcolm Barber.

Far more has been written about the crusades than the states they established and supported.  Yet it was the threat to the Christian states that justified every crusade after the First. Furthermore, the crusader states were catalysts for a number of key developments in Western Europe from dramatic improvements in shipping to the exchange of goods, technology and ideas with Constantinople and the Arab/Turkish world.  Indeed, historian Claude Reignier Condor wrote at the end of the 19^th Century that: “…the result of the Crusades was the Renaissance.” (The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1291 AD, The Committee of Palestine Exploration Fund, 1897, p. 163.)

Professor Malcolm Barber is a distinguished scholar who has already produced seminal works about the Templars and Cathers. In this long overdue work Barber provides a comprehensive history of the crusader states rather than the sporadic crusades. It is meticulously researched and documented, as one would expect from a professor of history, and as such is an invaluable reference work for anyone interested in the period and indeed in the West’s presence in the Near East.

Whereas histories of the crusades invariably focus on military campaigns and so on “aggression,” Barber reminds us that the crusader states themselves were builders rather than destroyers. Barber concludes his comprehensive history by noting that: the crusaders “pragmatic approach to the challenge of providing for defense, administration and economic development produced political entities which resist stereotyping…and predetermined models.” He furthermore stresses that their accomplishments cannot be reduced to military conquests but also “entailed the rebuilding and embellishment of the holy shrines” and notes that they “ultimately produced their own independent and vibrant culture.”

Barber draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in Latin, Arabic, French, and German, and his bibliography alone is a treasure trove for the historian.  However, the very detail of his account tends to slow the pace and complicate the flow of the narrative. This is more a reference or a research resource than a good read. 

Dr. Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.

She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.

She is an award-winning novelist and author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction. Her three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin won a total of 14 literary accolades. Her most recent release is a novel about the founding of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus. You can find out more at: http://crusaderkingdoms.com

Review: "The Templars – Knights of Christ" by Régine Pernoud

"Knightfall," a TV series aired by the History Channel, is fictional drama filled with inaccuracies and misinformation. + Real Crusades History + is running a "counter series" in the form of ten blog posts -- Ten True Tales of the Knights Templar -- which appear the day after each episode of "Knightfall."

Today, however, Rand Brown II highlights one of the best books about the Knights Templar available.

Trans. by Henry Taylor

Ignatius Press, 2009

“History is a novel that has been lived” the French literary aficionado Edmond de Goncourt once wrote.  For sure, the historical narrative offers a staggeringly rich selection of the very best drama, tragedy, intrigue, and even horror to be found – provided one bothers to look for it.  However, there are not a few stories in which fiction has thoroughly eclipsed the truth – so much so that it is nearly impossible to encounter those stories without being overwhelmed by centuries-worth of misconception and outright fantasy.  So it is with the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, more widely known in both their day and our own as the Knights Templar. 

Founded in 1118AD by a poor knight-pilgrim from Champagne for the sole purpose of defending the pilgrim routes in and out of the Holy Land freshly claimed by the Latin crusaders, the Order would experience a swift rise and fall in fortunes rarely seen in human history.  Attracting thousands of knights to its cause, the Templars would become one of the most elite military forces in Latin Outremer due to the potent combination of a strict rule of discipline often not seen in standard medieval armies, a tightly-knit organizational structure, and an operational independence from any other party’s command other than the Pope himself.  In addition, their counterparts back in Europe established a financial support network that quickly became the first supranational banking system in the West.  At the height of their operations, the Templar Order served as the custodians of entire royal treasuries deposited within their commanderies. 

However, after not even two centuries of existence, the Order was beset upon from all sides by both secular rulers (one in particular) and the very Church it had so faithfully served.  In 1312, the last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris on spurious charges of heresy and the Knights Templar vanished almost as quickly as they appeared.

           

Human nature has an inherent attraction to the mysterious and the fantastical and the embers of de Molay’s pyre had not even gone cold before all sorts of conspiracy theories and esoteric myths about the doomed Templars began to circulate.  This phenomenon only gained momentum as the centuries went on – by the time of the so-called Enlightenment, the Templars were the at the center of all sorts of bizarre and ahistorical mythologies, all bent on uncovering gnostic “secrets” and treasures wholly fabricated by the very cultists peddling them.  In our own times, the grotesque esoteric nonsense surrounding the Knights Templar continues seemingly unabated as seen in various Masonic pseudo-occultism, best-selling fiction novels, the film industry, and even popular video game series.  In all this pathetic fiction, the serious student of history may be tempted to despair that there is anyone who can push aside the fantasy so that the real Knights Templar can indeed stand up.  Fortunately, such a person did exist.

           

Régine Pernoud (d. 1998) was perhaps one the foremost medievalists both in her native France and far beyond.  She wrote on a wide variety of medieval topics, including St. Jeanne d’Arc, the role of women in medieval society, and the Crusades - usually with the stated goal of clearing up modern misconceptions regarding them.  In 1974, she sought to confront head-on the gross misconceptions surrounding the Templar Order and to historically rehabilitate them as the impactful organization that they truly were. 

In doing so, Pernoud sticks strictly to the historical facts drawn from primary source materials, of which she was a master of in her life.  She covers in detail the origins, rule, and daily operations of the Order – shedding light on the dually religious and military life these knightly monks led, unique even in their own time.  In recounting their service in Frankish Outremer, Pernoud helps the reader see the Templar through the eyes of both their fellow Latin Christians and their Islamic foes – both of whom simultaneously feared and admired the Order’s impressive reputation on and off the field of battle.  She also uncovers the fascinating details of the Templar’s banking activities back in Europe and the how various powers in Christendom, both secular and clerical, became financially beholden to the Order in one way or another – something that would play a major role in their downfall.

Pernoud ends her richly detailed, but concisely worded work with a masterful analysis of the Order’s sudden collapse at the dawn of the 14^th Century.  In a narrative that reads almost like a crime thriller, Pernoud reveals the deliberate coup against the Templars orchestrated by King Philip IV of France and his even more dispicable apparatchiks.  These were the devious Keeper of the Seals, Guillaume de Nogaret, who harbored an obvious hatred for the Order and possibly the Church as a whole,  and the Machiavellian chamberlain, Enguerrand de Marigny, who shared his king’s neo-statist desire for consolidated royal power.  The independent and powerful Templars were viewed a sincere threat.  There was the additional allure of the Order’s vast financial holdings – a tempting acquisition King Philip, mired in several costly and indecisive wars with England and Flanders, simply couldn’t resist. 

Throughout the ordeal, the Church was outmaneuvered and outright dominated by French royal power-politics. Ultimately, the Pope shamefully abandoned the very knight-brothers who had so faithfully served the Church for nearly two hundred years. 

Pernoud’s excellent assessment of the Templar’s fate and the injustice behind it was later vindicated by the discovery and translation of the Chinon Parchment in 2007 that prompted Pope Benedict XVI to formally absolve the Templar Order of the charges levied against it exactly eight hundred years prior.  No matter how long the truth is obscured by obscene myth and misconception, eventually, the truth will pierce the veil.  Régine Pernoud accomplishes just that and her work is a must-read for anyone who wishes to speak with authority on the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple.

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