Children's Crusade Medieval History, Modern Mythistory

The Children's Crusade was possibly the most extraordinary episode in the history of the crusades. The pueri (children, youngsters) of 1212 set out to recover Jerusalem and the True Cross in medieval Europe's first youth movement. Over the centuries their unarmed crusade has been imagined and re-imagined. The first full-length modern study in English of this memorable popular crusade sheds new light on its history and offers new perspectives on its supposedly dismal outcome. Its richly re-imagined history and mythistory is explored from the thirteenth century to the late-twentieth century. Its mythistorians include: Matthew Paris, Voltaire, D'Annunzio, Brecht, Runciman, Andrzejewski, Bernard Thomas, Kurt Vonnegut and Agatha Christie.

GARY DICKSON is Honorary Fellow in History at the University of Ediburgh.

Introduction (The 60's) * PART I: HISTORY * The Pope and the Pueri * Birthpangs of the Children's Crusade * On the Road * The Sense of an Ending * PART II: MYTHISTORY * Mythistorical Motifs (Holy Innocents--Jesus at 12, etc.) * Eminent Mythistorians * Magic, Prophecy, Apocalypticism * PART III: MEMORY * Later Medieval and Early Modern Writers * The Enlightenment and Romantic Medievalism * 19th Century Popular Fiction and Children's Literature * 20th Century History and Fiction * The Persistence of Social Memory Introduction (The 60's) * PART I: HISTORY * The Pope and the Pueri * Birthpangs of the Children's Crusade * On the Road * The Sense of an Ending * PART II: MYTHISTORY * Mythistorical Motifs (Holy Innocents--Jesus at 12, etc.) * Eminent Mythistorians * Magic, Prophecy, Apocalypticism * PART III: MEMORY * Later Medieval and Early Modern Writers * The Enlightenment and Romantic Medievalism * 19th Century Popular Fiction and Children's Literature * 20th Century History and Fiction * The Persistence of Social Memory