The Later Crusades: From Lyons to Alcazar 1274-1580

The expulsion of the Christians from the Holy Land in 1291 was far from being the end of the crusading movement. Crusades continued for three centuries over a vast area stretching from Morocco to Russia and played an important role in the politics and society of late medieval Europe. The first study to focus in depth on the later crusades, this book explores with clarity and insight developments in all the areas touched by crusading activity. Housley examines the evolution of the international military orders and the Christian "frontier states" associated with crusading, focusing especially on Greece and Cyprus. Illuminating the massive range and energy of the crusading movement in the late middle ages, he reveals the formidable problems which, as the period progressed, increasingly doomed crusades to failure, and shows how practical crusading was in a condition of decay before the Reformation destroyed the religious framework in which it had once flourished.