Queens of Jerusalem

Queens of Jerusalem PDF Author: Katherine Pangonis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643139258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The untold story of a trailblazing dynasty of royal women who ruled the Middle East and how they persevered through instability and seize greater power. In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants. Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the many books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent: the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood. In reality, women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged alliances, rebelled, and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters, and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing. Queens of Jerusalem is a stunning debut by a rising historian and a rich revisionist history of Medieval Palestine.

Queens of Jerusalem

Queens of Jerusalem PDF Author: Katherine Pangonis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643139258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
The untold story of a trailblazing dynasty of royal women who ruled the Middle East and how they persevered through instability and seize greater power. In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants. Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the many books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent: the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood. In reality, women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged alliances, rebelled, and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters, and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing. Queens of Jerusalem is a stunning debut by a rising historian and a rich revisionist history of Medieval Palestine.

Melisende of Jerusalem

Melisende of Jerusalem PDF Author: Margaret Tranovich
Publisher: East & West Publishing Limited
ISBN: 9781907318061
Category : Crusades
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Queen Melisende successfully ruled the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the twelfth century even as her own husband and son fought for control. As the eldest of four daughters, she was raised to rule by her father. In order to grasp the person and world of Queen Melisende, it is necessary to piece together the scant information available about her and explore the world she inhabited. This book examines the circumstances surrounding the First Crusade and the unique geographical, political and cultural position of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in which three rich artistic traditions met.

Defending the City of God

Defending the City of God PDF Author: Sharan Newman
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 113727865X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
"A fresh and highly accessible history of the Holy Lands during the Middle Ages, revealing a rich and diverse culture and the fight to save Jerusalem from the Crusaders"--

The Monstrous Regiment of Women

The Monstrous Regiment of Women PDF Author: S. Jansen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230602118
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
In The Monstrous Regiment of Women , Sharon Jansen explores the case for and against female rule by examining the arguments made by theorists from Sir John Fortescue (1461) through Bishop Bossuet (1680) interweaving their arguments with references to the most well-known early modern queens. The 'story' of early modern European political history looks very different if, instead of focusing on kings and their sons, we see successive generations of powerful women and the shifting political alliances of the period from a very different, and revealing, perspective.

Jerusalem, 1000–1400

Jerusalem, 1000–1400 PDF Author: Barbara Drake Boehm
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588395987
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Medieval Jerusalem was a vibrant international center, home to multiple cultures, faiths, and languages. Harmonious and dissonant voices from many lands, including Persians, Turks, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Georgians, Copts, Ethiopians, Indians, and Europeans, passed in the narrow streets of a city not much larger than midtown Manhattan. Patrons, artists, pilgrims, poets, and scholars from Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions focused their attention on the Holy City, endowing and enriching its sacred buildings, creating luxury goods for its residents, and praising its merits. This artistic fertility was particularly in evidence between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, notwithstanding often devastating circumstances—from the earthquake of 1033 to the fierce battles of the Crusades. So strong a magnet was Jerusalem that it drew out the creative imagination of even those separated from it by great distance, from as far north as Scandinavia to as far east as present-day China. This publication is the first to define these four centuries as a singularly creative moment in a singularly complex city. Through absorbing essays and incisive discussions of nearly 200 works of art, Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven explores not only the meaning of the city to its many faiths and its importance as a destination for tourists and pilgrims but also the aesthetic strands that enhanced and enlivened the medieval city that served as the crossroads of the known world.

Queen of Swords

Queen of Swords PDF Author: Judith Tarr
Publisher: Canelo
ISBN: 1788636198
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 892

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Book Description
An epic adventure telling the forgotten tale of the princess of the Crusades and matriarch of twelfth-century Jerusalem, by the author of The Eagle’s Daughter. Queen in all but name, one woman’s battle to rule her kingdom, from the Court of Jerusalem to the glorious city of Byzantium. . . . Melisende was the oldest daughter of Baldwin of Jerusalem, a princess of the Franks and, since she had no brothers, heir to the Crusader Kingdom. The crown would go to the man who married her, and after to her son. But Melisende was a strong woman; the law that forced her to marry instead of taking the crown in her own name was a thorn in her side. It was she who ruled the City and who juggled the politics of church and court. The knights of Jerusalem fought in her honor, many of the best sworn to her personal service. She would not submit easily to a husband’s rule, but must she to secure her kingdom? Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Chadwick and Conn Iggulden.

Holy Warriors

Holy Warriors PDF Author: Jonathan Phillips
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588369757
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
From an internationally renowned expert, here is an accessible and utterly fascinating one-volume history of the Crusades, thrillingly told through the experiences of its many players—knights and sultans, kings and poets, Christians and Muslims. Jonathan Phillips traces the origins, expansion, decline, and conclusion of the Crusades and comments on their contemporary echoes—from the mysteries of the Templars to the grim reality of al-Qaeda. Holy Warriors puts the past in a new perspective and brilliantly sheds light on the origins of today’s wars. Starting with Pope Urban II’s emotive, groundbreaking speech in November 1095, in which he called for the recovery of Jerusalem from Islam by the First Crusade, Phillips traces the centuries-long conflict between two of the world’s great faiths. Using songs, sermons, narratives, and letters of the period, he reveals how the success of the First Crusade inspired generations of kings to campaign for their own vainglory and set down a marker for the knights of Europe, men who increasingly blurred the boundaries between chivalry and crusading. In the Muslim world, early attempts to call a jihad fell upon deaf ears until the charisma of the Sultan Saladin brought the struggle to a climax. Yet the story that emerges has other dimensions—as never before, Phillips incorporates the holy wars within the story of medieval Christendom and Islam and shines new light on many truces, alliances, and diplomatic efforts that have been forgotten over the centuries. Holy Warriors also discusses how the term “crusade” survived into the modern era and how its redefinition through romantic literature and the drive for colonial empires during the nineteenth century gave it an energy and a resonance that persisted down to the alliance between Franco and the Church during the Spanish Civil War and right up to George W. Bush’s pious “war on terror.” Elegantly written, compulsively readable, and full of stunning new portraits of unforgettable real-life figures—from Richard the Lionhearted to Melisende, the formidable crusader queen of Jerusalem—Holy Warriors is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval Europe, as well as for those seeking to understand the history of religious conflict.

Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture (2 Vol. Set)

Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture (2 Vol. Set) PDF Author: Therese Martin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004185550
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 1185

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Book Description
The twenty-four studies in this volume propose a new approach to framing the debate around the history of medieval art and architecture to highlight the multiple roles played by women, moving beyond today's standard division of artist from patron.

The Making of Crusading Heroes and Villains

The Making of Crusading Heroes and Villains PDF Author: Mike Horswell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000084973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
Engaging the Crusades is a series of volumes which offer windows into a newly emerging field of historical study: the memory and legacy of the crusades. Together these volumes examine the reasons behind the enduring resonance of the crusades and present the memory of crusading in the modern period as a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation. This new volume explores the ways in which significant crusading figures have been employed as heroes and villains, and by whom. Each chapter analyses a case study relating to a key historical figure including the First Crusader Tancred; ‘villains’ Reynald of Châtillon and Conrad of Montferrat; the oft-overlooked Queen Melisende of Jerusalem; the entangled memories of Richard ‘the Lionheart’ and Saladin; and the appropriation of St Louis IX by the British. Through fresh approaches, such as a new translation of the inscriptions on the wreath laid on Saladin’s tomb by Kaiser Wilhelm II, this book represents a significant cutting-edge intervention in thinking about memory, crusader medievalism, and the processes of making heroes and villains. The Making of Crusading Heroes and Villains is the perfect tool for scholars and students of the crusades, and for historians concerned with the development of reputations and memory.

Fulk and Melisende

Fulk and Melisende PDF Author: Danielle Park
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781472473738
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Melisende and Fulk governed the Kingdom of Jerusalem during a period of significant change which coincided with the rise of Zengi and the subsequent union of Mosul and Aleppo under one ruler, the atabegâe(tm)s attempts to control Damascus, and the consolidation of a more coherent and cohesive anti-Frankish campaign from the Muslim forces. This book will provide an extensive survey of Fulk and Melisendeâe(tm)s reign, place their rule within the broader framework of kingship in the Crusader States, and consider the developments that took place under their governance. This volume will begin by addressing the coupleâe(tm)s âe~back-historyâe(tm) - Melisende's role as heiress, Fulk's political and military background in Anjou, and his experiences in the Holy Land before his second marriage - which must have shaped their approach to the government of the Latin East. Later chapters will investigate the dynamics of their political partnership, assess the decisions made in the kingdom of Jerusalem, determine their roles and impact in the internal and external politics and diplomacy, and detail the couple's working relationship through evaluation of their charters - which dealt with diverse matters such as law, donations and the endorsing of transactions. A final section of the book will focus on the memory of their reign and discuss the perceptions of both the king and queen as expressed during their lifetimes in contemporary letters and narrative accounts, and afterwards in later chronicles, charters, and manuscript illustrations down to the end of the thirteenth century. This will explore the gendered depictions of the pair and how well they fitted into the established patterns of gender and power, particularly in the light of Fulk acquiring his title through marriage rather than his own bloodline, and the impact of her husbandâe(tm)s death on expectations of Melisende.