History: Crusader Studies

Core Modules

• Research Development

  All students pursuing the MA in Medieval Studies and the MA in Crusader Studies take this module, and so it creates and fosters an intellectual community of medievalists during your time on the degree. The module aims to make you aware of the issues and topics associated with the study of the Middle Ages on a wide and interdisciplinary basis, give you the skills that you need to undertake research in the field of Medieval Studies, and provide opportunities for you to engage in and practise academic dismodule, particularly in an oral context.

• Dissertation on a Medieval Topic

  1.     Using the skills learned during the taught parts of your MA, you will carry out your own independent research project. You will write a thesis of around 15,000 words on a topic of your choice which critically reflects upon established scholarship and provides original insight and independent judgements.

• Academic Integrity

  This module will describe the key principles of academic integrity, focusing on university assignments. Plagiarism, collusion and commissioning will be described as activities that undermine academic integrity, and the possible consequences of engaging in such activities will be described. Activities, with feedback, will provide you with opportunities to reflect and develop your understanding of academic integrity principles.

   

Optional Modules

There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.

Crusading and Medieval Options

In any year, a selection from the following list will be available. Note that not all options will be available in every year.

• Women, the Crusades, and Frontier Society

  The crusading movement arose at a time of significant change for women. This module considers the role of noble women in providing political stability through regency and marriage after the First Crusade in the Latin society established in the East, including the dramatic reign of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, and the effects of crusading on women who remained in the West. You will examine how medieval historians used gendered language and moral tales to express their disapproval of women who took the cross, and the role of women in supporting crusader battles, often becoming the casualties of warfare.

• Byzantium and The First Crusade

  This module traces the response of the rulers of the Byzantine Empire to the First Crusade, which passed through their territory in 1096-7. The events of the First Crusade - its preaching by Urban II in 1095, its arrival at Constantinople in 1096-7, its progress through Byzantine territory to Antioch, the ‘third wave’ of 1101 – will all be discussed in this context through a range of Byzantine and Western source material in translation.

• Byzantium and the Fourth Crusade

  This module takes a long-term view of the crusade which captured and sacked Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine empire, in April 1204. Starting in around 1192, it places events in the context of relations between the Byzantines and previous crusades, of the internal situation of the empire and of the position in the Latin east in the aftermath of the Third Crusade. It then examines how the Fourth Crusade was preached and planned, how it was diverted first to Zara and then to Constantinople, and how it came to attack and pillage the city.

• The Memory and Legacy of the Crusades in the Modern Age

  In this unique and ground-breaking module you will develop an understanding of the memory, impact and legacy of the crusades in the West and Muslim world since the medieval period. You will look at the evolution and mutation of the crusading idea over (especially) the last 200 years, examining how and why the European colonial and imperial powers adopted crusading during the nineteenth century, and how the idea was used in World War 1 and by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. We will also consider how the idea has taken on, in the West, a more secular meaning. You will analyse how crusade and jihad have been treated in the Muslim Near East, tracing cultural developments in theatre and poetry, as well as politics and religion, from the nineteenth to the present day, with particular emphasis on the figure of Saladin, the hero of the Muslim world for recovering Jerusalem from the crusaders. We will see how his image, and the memory of the crusades has been used by Islamists such as Osama bin Laden and Arab Nationalists such as Nasser of Egypt, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Hafez al-Asad of Syria and Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians.

• Louis IX, Mamluks and Mongols

  This module investigates the origins of the Seventh Crusade; the progress and outcome of the campaign; the presence of Louis IX in the East, 1250-54; the writing of John of Joinville; the end of the Ayyubid dynasty and the emergence of the Mamluks; the emergence of the Mongols into the consciousness of western Europe; how the papacy tried to understand and react to this; the aims and motives of the missionary journeys of the 1240s and 1250s; their outcomes and the reasons therein.

• Pilgrimage in the Medieval World

  This module explores the significance of pilgrimage in the medieval world through a combination of contextual study of the ideals and practices associated with this dimension of medieval piety, and specific study of contemporary pilgrimage accounts from the fourth to fifteenth centuries. You will explore a wide range of topics including the practice of pilgrimage in religious traditions from Late Antiquity onwards, Saints' cults and sacred space, specific pilgrimage destinations, pilgrims' writings, gender, class, and material culture.

• Arthurian Literature and Tradition in England

  This module examines the development of Arthurian literature and legend across four centuries and three languages. Beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, it focuses on the different ways in which Arthur’s reign was represented and understood in the Middle Ages.

• Medieval Narratives

  This interdisciplinary module explores the traditions and forms and varieties of medieval story-telling, through an in-depth study of two major works of literature. These may be texts in Old or Middle English, French, Latin, and Italian; all texts are read in translation, with opportunities to explore the original languages too.

• Old English Riddles

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the Old English poetic tradition, particularly as exemplified by the Exeter Book Riddles. You will look at unusual perspectives on Anglo-Saxon culture and literature, and examine topics such as military, religious and everyday worlds, the wonders of creation, animals, sources and analogues, sexuality and runic riddles.

• Literature of Medieval London

  This module examines a wide range of prose and poetry written in and about medieval London. You will explore the way that London, its inhabitants and its institutions are represented in medieval literature, and consider the city as a place where texts were composed and books were made.