Las Cruzadas, Tomo II

The History of the Crusades #2

by Joseph-François Michaud, Gustave Doré (Illustrator)

Las grandes obras de la literatura universal merecen un tratamiento respetuoso, digno e incluso amoroso por parte de todos los que intervienen en su producción y difusión. En la Baja Edad Media, las invasiones y el feudalismo hicieron desaparecer casi por completo la vida urbana del escenario europeo. Las ciudades que sobrevivieron a la época romana se convirtieron en meras residencias de obispos o de señores feudales, escasamente vinculadas con su entorno agrario o con otras ciudades. Los intereses económicos junto con el ideal de defensa de los "santos lugares" conquistados por los musulmanes, permitieron a los estados medievales de Occidente poner en práctica una de las mayores empresas de la cristiandad medieval: la cruzada, que sirvió para ensanchar los límites del poder europeo, para desarrollar el comercio en el Mediterráneo y para aliviar la presión musulmana sobre el imperio bizantino. A fines del siglo XI, el papa Urbano II autorizó la primera cruzada, cuyo resultado fue la conquista de Jerusalén a manos de los expedicionarios. A lo largo de los siglos XII y XIII, se llevaron a cabo nuevas cruzadas y se fundaron diversos reinos cristianos en el cercano Oriente. Sin embargo, todos ellos cayeron en manos de los turcos otomanos. Dentro del fenómeno de expansión territorial de Europa, cabe destacar la colonización de los alemanes en el Este del continente y el avance de la "reconquista" en España. Todas estas empresas, inculcadas de un fuerte sentimiento religioso, propiciaron el surgimiento de las órdenes de la caballería.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Michaud was born at Albens, Savoie, educated at Bourg-en-Bresse, and afterwards engaged in literary work at Lyon, where the French Revolution first aroused the strong dislike of revolutionary principles which manifested itself throughout the rest of his life. In 1791 he went to Paris, where, at great risk to his own safety, he took part in editing several royalist journals. In 1796 he became editor of La Quotidienne, for which he was arrested after the 13th of Vendémiaire; he evaded his captors, but was sentenced to death in absentia by the military council. Having resumed the editorship of his newspaper on the establishment of the Directory, he was again proscribed on the 18th of Fructidor, but after two years returned to Paris, when the Consulate had superseded the Directory.

His Bourbon sympathies led to a brief imprisonment in 1800, and on his release he temporarily abandoned journalism, and began to write and edit books. In 1806, with his brother Louis Gabriel Michaud and two colleagues, he published Biographie moderne ou dictionnaire des hommes qui se sont fait un nom en Europe, depuis 1789, the earliest work of its kind. In 1811 published the first volume of his Histoire des Croisades (History of the Crusades) and also the first volume of his Biographie Universelle. In 1813 he was elected Academician, taking up the vacancy left by the death of Jean-François Cailhava de L'Estandoux. In 1814 he resumed the editorship of La Quotidienne. His brochure Histoire des quinze semaines ou le dernier règne de Bonaparte (1815) met with extraordinary success, passing through twenty-seven editions within a very short time.

His political services were now rewarded with the cross of an officer in the Legion of Honour and the modest post of king's reader, of which last he was deprived in 1827 for having opposed Peyronnet's "Loi d'Amour" against the freedom of the Press. In 1830-1831 he travelled in Syria and Egypt for the purpose of collecting additional materials for the Histoire des Croisades; his correspondence with a fellow explorer, Jean Joseph François Poujoulat, consisting practically of discussions and elucidations of various points in that work, was afterwards published (Correspondance d'Orient, 7 vols., 1833-1835). Like the Histoire, it is more interesting than exact. The Bibliothèque des croisades, in four volumes more, contained the "Pièces justificatives" of the Histoire. Michaud died at Passy, where his home had been since 1832.
Michaud's Histoire des croisades was published in its final form in six volumes in 1840 under the editorship of his friend Poujoulat (9th ed., with appendix, by Huillard-Bréholles, 1856). Michaud, along with Poujoulat, also edited Nouvelle collection des mémoires pour servir de l'histoire de France (32 vols., 1836-1844). See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. vii.

In 1875, the famous illustrator Gustave Dore produced 100 pictures for a 2 volume medium folio edition of the Histoire which was published by Hachette and Company.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second volume of Michaud's takes from the time of Richard II (where volume I left off) up through Louis IX's first crusade and his stay in Palestine. The recounting of events remains relatively straightforward and we can see the author's pro-Catholic and pro-Crusade leanings without. Amusingly, the English translator adds some footnotes of his own (more so than in volume I) where he comments on both the history and the author's own editorial biases. This interplay is enjoyable on its own and adds to the book. I look forward to volume III.

[Orgadena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revolt

War, House of War, Crusaders.
Queen Blanche.
Emperor.
Second murder.
Virgin, of Tears.
Jerusalem, family throne.

Run – Memories, of – A masterpiece, Church.

Cups, Kings.
His adversary.
The Church.
Mussulmans.
A dove.

The general mind – The Alter – St. Helena.

A, religious affair.
Frederick II.
St. Louis.
Crusaders.

Leader – Louis IX – Not, deceived.

Tables.
Wisdom.
Answers.

Christian army.

Of, Christiandom – The People’s, Hope – The Tartars.

Strong, Pilgrims.
The Crusade, of Louis IX.
Divine.
In, despair.
Fable.
Asia, Russia.
Obscure.
Crusade.
Bad fortune.
Of Antioch.
Towers & Rampants.

Constantinople.
The Frenchman.
City, of …
Syria.
Northern Crusaders.
Conquerers.
To, Glory.
Contest.
The Transfiguration.
Damietta.
Sanguinary.
The Walls.
Damascus.
“Christians, Christians.”
Crowds.
Man.
Life, withing limit.
Of, Conquest.
Pastorial.
Centuries, of …
Apostles.
Ambition, Changes.
Of, Marble.
Venetian.
His course.
Revolt.
Venice.
Himself.
Nation.
Crowded.
Soldiers.
Succession, of …
Mêlée.
Believe.

●

Power.
Saladin.
The Cross.
Land, of France, of Germany.
St. Sophia.
Of, Isaac.
The Nile, Keys.

Openeth gates – The Cross – Power.

Ptolemaïs.

Barrier City – The Fortress – Prince.

●

Of, Christ.
Constantinople.
~

[Mads Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best account of the crusades.

[Bernardo Arcos Álvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

La escritura de Michaud no tiene el rigor de un estudio histórico, y tampoco la estética de una novela; sin embargo, las ilustraciones de Doré son obras inmortales, hasta la última de ellas. Me sorprende el contexto de la caída de Constantinopla, donde la capacidad guerrera europea resultó muy inferior a la otomana, a tal grado que causó el miedo generalizado a un próximo fin del cristianismo, probablemente fue el último momento en que el poder musulmán fue superior al de Europa. Los siglos siguientes verían abusos y matanzas europeos en medio oriente sin que hubiera una fuerza capaz de oponerse a ellos. ¡La Historia es una fuente infinita de placer!