Stephen Bennett. Elite Participation in the Third Crusade. Warfare in History Series. Melton: Boydell & Brewer, 2021. 506 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-78327-578-6.
Reviewed by Jacob Doss (University of Texas at Austin)
Published on H-War (April, 2023)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University)
Both popular and scholarly interpretations of the Third Crusade have been dominated by the figures of Richard I, the “Lionheart,” and Saladin.[1] However, to state the obvious, they did not go it alone. Stephen Bennett’s monograph, Elite Participation in the Third Crusade, represents a wave of scholarship over the last decade or so that has sought to decenter the most well-known actors of the Third Crusade, like Richard, Saladin, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa.[2] Using prosopography and employing insights from social network analysis, Bennett reconstructs the social networks of the aristocrats who supported, supplied, and fought on the campaign, especially those from northwestern Europe. In doing so, he finds that there existed various social connections that influenced whether or not someone joined the Third Crusade. Among these connections were ties to particular religious houses, especially the newer orders, like the Cistercians and Premonstratensians, and links to crusading families, a family crusading heritage, or artisans within the circle of the royal houses. In this Bennett claims that, rather than a Crusade composed of younger, dispossessed sons, those on the campaign traveled and fought with their families, both immediate and those within the broader framework of the aristocratic household. Bennett’s methodology has allowed him to parse the various relationships among those who took the Cross and the ways they financed the expedition, while gesturing at their motivations, thus nuancing our understanding of who participated and why.
The book includes three thematic chapters and a case study that applies his methodology to the household of Richard the Lionheart. He ends with two extensive appendices that showcase his prosopographic work on known crusaders from northwestern Europe and Richard’s household respectively. In chapter 1, “Faith and Finance,” Bennett argues that spiritual devotion remained a significant motivating factor for those who embarked on the Third Crusade, just as in preceding Crusades. Beginning by arguing for the continued centrality of the concept of imitatio Christi as an inspiration for the crusading aristocracy, Bennett then outlines the roles of new monastic orders, such as the Cistercians, Premonstratensians, and the military orders, in promoting the Crusade. This undergirds the heart of the chapter, which examines both the influence of these religious institutions on those who took the Cross and the role these institutions played in financing aristocratic crusaders. Importantly, Bennett also shows the importance of the Saladin tithe to financing the Third Crusade and argues that it allowed aristocrats in areas with a robust collection of the tithe to avoid mortgaging their property to fund their expedition. Bennett finds a significant correlation between elite crusading and associations with new religious institutions.
Chapter 2, “Family and Heritage,” examines how kinship networks and family crusading heritage influenced individuals’ choices to embark on the Crusade. This chapter nuances our understanding of who went on the Third Crusade. For example, rather than being a Crusade of landless youngers sons, the Third Crusade, Bennett finds, was marked by a significant proportion of crusaders embarking with other members of their family, including first-born sons, fathers, and extended family members. Similarly, those with a crusading heritage also participated in higher numbers than those without a crusading ancestor.
Just as kinship networks and crusading lineage motivated crusaders, locality, friendship, and economic networks also exercised significant influence on individuals’ choices to go on the Crusade. In chapter 3, “Locality and Fellowship,” Bennett examines the sway that communities, both local and imagined, held over those who chose to go on the Crusade. Bennett argues that the increasingly dispersed landholding of the aristocracy, combined with the rising popularity of tournaments, created a far-reaching aristocratic community through which “crusading as a behavioral and martial expectation” could spread (p. 155). The resulting networks, reinforced through economic ties and wargames, proved fundamental for inspiring crusaders.
In the last chapter, Bennett presents a case study of the household of Richard the Lionheart in which he analyzes how Richard built his sizable crusading contingent without destabilizing his realm. Through this chapter the reader sees the social dynamics Bennett identifies in the previous chapters at work as Richard’s officials unified and supplied a geographically diverse army on campaign. Bennett also shows that Richard governed pragmatically by, for example, employing effective administrators from his father’s reign (many of whom he had fought against) and relying on local aristocrats rather than foreign-born royal appointees as his officials. Through all of this, Bennett demonstrates the dynamics through which a crusading king united and motivated his army.
Elite Participation in the Third Crusade does a service for Crusade studies. Bennett provides the first significant work of prosopography on those from northwestern Europe who embarked on the Third Crusade. Furthermore, Bennett’s appendices are a real treat for researchers. He has amassed prosopographical data on 583 participants in the Third Crusade and for Richard’s household. Though Bennett draws on social network analysis, he employs it lightly, leaving the potential significance and originality of his methodology unrealized. What Bennett has given us, however, is an important addition to the historiography of the Third Crusade that provides vital insights into who took the journey east and why. Specialists in Crusade studies, along with those interested in medieval administration, and military culture will find Bennett’s monograph especially useful.
Notes
[1]. For a historiographical overview of the Third Crusade in general, including works that focus on Richard and Saladin, see Stephen J. Spencer, “The Third Crusade in Historiographical Perspective,” History Compass 19, no. 7 (2021): 1-14, esp. 2-4, DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12662.
[2]. Spencer, “Third Crusade,” 6.
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Citation:
Jacob Doss. Review of Bennett, Stephen, Elite Participation in the Third Crusade.
H-War, H-Net Reviews.
April, 2023.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57238
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