First published 2021
In November 1095, Pope Urban II delivers a momentous speech that sets Western Christianity ablaze with religious fervor. Eastern Christians suffer terrible violence, Jerusalem remains in Muslim hands after centuries, and the Pope declares it must be reclaimed. Thousands respond to Urban's call to arms, from knights to the dispossessed, creating the largest military mobilization since the Roman Empire's fall. Thus begins the First Crusade. Medieval historian Thomas Asbridge chronicles this colossal undertaking that drove Western Christians across the known world, propelled by both devotion and ambition. The crusading army travels through exotic, wealthy Constantinople, endures the siege of Nicea, survives harsh desert summers and winters, and fights the decisive battle at Antioch before reaching their unexpected fate in the Holy City. Drawing on extensive knowledge of primary sources and the Near East, Asbridge combines a novelist's narrative drive with scholarly expertise to deliver an adventure filled with miraculous victories, greedy princes, unbridled passions, and massive brutality that forever transformed relations between East and West.
Genres: history, war, non-fiction, military-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: epic
Setting: Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioch
Period: 11th Century
448 pages · Hardcover · Ático de los Libros
Content warnings: violence