Contextualising the Fifth Crusade
The Crusading Movement in the First Half of the 13th Century
University of Kent, Canterbury 13-14 April 2012
CONFERENCE GUIDE
‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
Contextualising the Fifth Crusade The Crusading Movement in the First Half of the 13th Century
University of Kent, Canterbury 13-14 April 2012
The Fifth Crusade was undoubtedly an important episode in history, occurring during what was probably the most intensive period of crusading in both Europe and the Holy Land. But this event was much more than a military campaign. To contribute to the recent new directions in crusades studies, this colloquium brings together an international group of scholars from a wide range of historical disciplines who are researching different aspects of the crusading movement around the time of the Fifth Crusade.
With this conference, we aim to establish a long-term research network on every aspect of crusading in the first half of the 13th century, and especially on the Fifth Crusade. Through our website updates will be posted on the aftermath of the conference, future events and the forthcoming volume of proceedings.
www.contextualisingthe5thcrusade.wordpress.com Contact: [email protected]
We would like to thank our sponsors, all the people who helped organising this event and all the participants. We wish you a great stay in Canterbury and we hope you enjoy the conference.
The organising committee:
Liz Mylod (University of Leeds) Dr Guy Perry (University of Leeds) Thomas Smith (Royal Holloway, University of London) Jan Vandeburie (University of Kent)
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
The conference is made possible with the generous support of:
University of Leeds Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of History University of Kent, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH); School of History and Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Ashgate Publishing Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East Royal Historical Society
Cathedral Gate Hotel Canterbury Visitor Centre
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
Venue: University of Kent (Canterbury Campus), Keynes College Lecture Theatre 5 (KLT 5) and Foyer
Please use the main entrance of Keynes College, proceed to your right towards the reception and again to the right. Turn left and take the stairs next to the cafeteria entrance to the first floor. Elevators are also available.
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
Practical Information:
Colloquium contact number: (0044) 751 60 44 777 Contact number for accommodation issues: (0044) 1227 828000 Campus Watch (only for emergencies): (0044) 1227 823300
Taxi: Cab Co: 01227 455455 City Cars: 01227 454445 Dad’s: 01227 456888 Longleys: 01227 710777 Phoenix: 01227 788888 Tudor: 01227 451451
Bus: Unibus every 15 minutes between the city centre and Keynes College.
Trains: To Dover from Canterbury East Station: every ½ hour (takes c. 20 minutes) To London Victoria from Canterbury East Station: every ½ hour (takes c. 1,5 hour) To London St Pancras from Canterbury West (high speed): every hour (takes c. 1 hour)
Please use the Parking permit provided in your conference pack.
Speakers: Your conference pack and the key to your room will be available from the reception in Keynes College. If you arrive after 20:00 please use the buzzer/phone located near the reception to contact Campus Watch Security, who will give you your key. Room Check-in is from 14:00 and check-out is by 10:00. Luggage can be stored near the conference room on Saturday. Breakfast is served between 8 and 9 am in Rutherford Dining Hall.
A group is leaving to the city centre at 19.00 on Thursday from the main entrance of Keynes College.
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
Thursday 12 April 2012
19.30 : Pre-conference Drinks
‘The Old Buttermarket’ 39 Burgate, Canterbury, CT1 2HW
‘Step in to discover a traditional pub of unique character, revered for its eclectic range of real ales and its quality pub food, which are served, as they should be, with a generous measure of famous British hospitality. There has been a public house on this site for over 500 years; a coaching inn called the Black Boy, stood here from the 1600s until 1908. A butter market used to be held in the square outside our pub, and the site is quite historic. Flint pieces in the cellars indicate it may stand on Roman remains and we know that we used to be connected by tunnels to Canterbury Cathedral.’
Friday 13 April 2012 (Registration from 8.30)
9.30: Welcome by Dr Alixe Bovey and Dr Barbara Bombi (MEMS, University of Kent)
Dr Alixe Bovey is director of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent.
Contact: [email protected]
Dr Barbara Bombi studied at the Catholic University in Milan, where she completed her PhD in 2000. In 2001 she was a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome. Between 2002 and 2004 she had a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Padua before moving to Oxford where she took up the post of Lyell Research Fellow in Latin Palaeography at Corpus Christi College.
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ In 2006 she moved to Canterbury after being appointed as a lecturer in the School of History at the University of Kent. Her research interests cover ecclesiastical and religious history in the High Middle Ages (1200-1450). She also specialises in the medieval papacy and canon law. Dr Bombi has also worked on the Crusades in the early 13th century, writing a monograph on mission and Crusade in the Baltic area during the pontificate of Pope Innocent III. She has also researched the history of the Military Orders, especially the Teutonic Knights in the Fourteenth Century. In the past few years Dr Bombi has edited the register of the representative at the papal curia of Edward II and Edward III and she has started to compile a catalogue of the manuscripts of the Liber Extra (Decretals of Gregory IX), which are preserved in the British Libraries.
Contact: [email protected]
9.45: Keynote 1 - Dr Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds “The Place of Egypt in the Strategic Thinking of the Crusades, 1099-1227”
Abstract: The launching of crusades against Egypt in 1201 (abortively), in 1217 and later was the result of major changes in the geopolitics of the Near East, the grand strategy of crusading, and technological developments available to Western forces. This lecture surveys the place of Egypt in the strategic thinking of crusaders and the Franks of Outremer from 1099 to 1221. While a march against Egypt was briefly considered by the crusade leaders in 1099 it was declined and the Franks were overawed by major assaults launched against the kingdom of Jerusalem by the Fatimids in the years up to 1123. It was only the decline and attenuation of the Fatimid regime in the 1160s/1170s that drew the Franks and their Byzantine allies into an attempt to extend their power into Egypt, a process that paradoxically hastened the extinction of the Fatimid regime and the incorporation of Egypt by Saladin into a new Ayyubid empire, which was militarily stronger and more firmly rooted. Thereafter Egypt was recognised as the economic powerhouse of the Muslim world and thus an attractive and exploitable target for crusading; yet its geographical position and distance from Western Europe coincided with a move away from land-based crusades to naval expeditions, which brought with them new military and logistical challenges.
Dr Alan V. Murray is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. He has researched extensively on the crusades in the 12th century (especially those involving Germany and the Low Countries) and the history of the Frankish principalities in Syria and Palestine. He is the author of The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Dynastic History 1099-1125 (2000) and editor of the 4-volume reference work The Crusades: An Encyclopedia (2006). More recently he has worked on the finance and logistics of crusading and crusade and mission in the Baltic region.
Contact: [email protected]
10.45: *Tea/Coffee and Refreshments*
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
11.00: Session 1 - Papal Influence (Chair : Liz Mylod)
Paper 1.A. : Dr Hab. Pierre-Vincent Claverie, Assemblée Nationale, Paris, France “’Totius populi Christiani negotium’ ou la conception de la croisade chez Honorius III (1216- 1221)”
Abstract: Nul n’ignore que le pape Honorius III définit, à la fin du mois de juillet 1216, la libération de la Terre sainte comme la priorité absolue de son pontificat. La présente communication a pour objectif de cerner les motivations religieuses de l’ancien camérier Cencio, en étudiant le providentialisme qui affleure dans sa correspondance diplomatique durant la cinquième croisade. Honorius III est en effet un ecclésiastique du XIIe siècle qui envisage son pontificat sous le signe d’une médiation entre Dieu et les hommes, héritée du judaïsme antique. Cette conception du pouvoir mérite d’être analysée dans la durée de façon à saisir les influences de la capitulation de Barāmūn sur la pensée du pape. Il convient pour cela de mettre en évidence l’attachement viscéral du cardinal Cencio à la défense de la Terre sainte avant son élection pontificale à l’été 1216. C’est ainsi que nous apprécierons la nature des liens mystiques tissés par Honorius III avec la Terre sainte et la cité de Jérusalem, où doit survenir la Parousie à la fin des temps. Cet arrière-plan idéologique permettra de mettre en évidence la phraséologie employée par le pape dans ses échanges épistolaires, en l’inscrivant dans la tradition de son prédécesseur Innocent III.
Dr Hab. Pierre-Vincent Claverie is a Historian of the Latin East who has published, during fifteen years, 40 studies, including his PhD thesis about L’ordre du Temple en Terre sainte et à Chypre au XIIIe siècle (Nicosia, 2005, 3 vols.). His fieldwork deals with the military orders, the Latin church and the relations with the Mongols during the Crusades. He defended in 2010 a habilitation thesis about Honorius III et la question d’Orient (1216-1227), which will be published soon in the Netherlands. His current projects concern the composition of the Latin clergy in the East and the history of medieval Catalonia.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 1.B. : Danielle Park, Royal Holloway, University of London “Third Time’s the Charm? Papal Protection under Eugenius III, Innocent III and Honorius III”
Abstract: After Urban II, Innocent III has been lauded as the pope most committed to crusading and notably to elucidating the crusade privileges. It has been argued that after his promulgation of Ad Liberandum no pope relied on any other model when dispensing these same privileges. It is the purpose of this paper to consider how far this was the case in terms of the protection privilege over the crusaders’ wives, families and possessions left behind. Did Innocent determine the direction of that privilege this comprehensively? What was Honorius III’s contribution? Traditionally Honorius has been perceived as the old man following the young innovator. Based on such an interpretation
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ we might expect that Innocent’s privilege would be repeated verbatim. The paper will focus on specific letters detailing protection to determine the additions and omissions in Honorius’ version of the privilege. Honorius ignored Innocent’s innovations and issued pledges steeped in the language of Eugenius III. His preference resulted in a marked return to the language of the Second Crusade. I will suggest that rather than a devout adherent of Innocent III’s policies, Honorius was capable of reinstating an earlier formula of papal protection even at the expense of his more famous predecessor.
Danielle Park is at Royal Holloway completing her AHRC funded PhD thesis entitled: ‘Under the protection of the Apostolic See and Their Own’- Papal and Secular Protection of the Families and Properties the Crusaders Left Behind, c. 1095-1254’, supervised by Professor Jonathan Phillips. Her main research interests include: the Crusades, papal privileges, the counties of Flanders and Champagne and the kingdom of France. She has presented at the Leeds IMC in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Additionally, in 2011 Danielle participated in the Crusades, Islam and Byzantium Workshop and gave a paper at the Crusades and the Latin East Seminar (IHR).
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 1.C. : Thomas Smith, Royal Holloway, University of London “The Role of Pope Honorius III in the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: The Fifth Crusade is perceived to be the epitome of a ‘papal crusade’ in the historiography, and was supposedly the expedition that was under the tightest papal control of the entire crusade movement. Yet study of the unpublished manuscripts of Pope Honorius III’s papal registers, contextualised with contemporary chronicle sources, brings into question how far Honorius III actually intervened in the Fifth Crusade expedition to determine its course. Whilst Honorius undoubtedly played a crucial role in organising and administering the crusade in Europe, he only despatched a handful of letters to the papal legate Pelagius and the crusade army that sought to direct the military expedition itself. This paper seeks to unpack the term ‘papal crusade’ used in the historiography and put forward a more nuanced view of Honorius III’s role in the Fifth Crusade. The paper will ask what Honorius’s role in the Fifth Crusade was and how far his control of the crusade expedition extended - was Honorius really the Fifth Crusade’s director?
Thomas Smith was educated at the University of Kent, where he earned a BA (Hons) in History and an MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. He is currently a third-year PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London, working on a thesis entitled ‘Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusade 1216-1227: A Study in Papal Government’. Thomas has an article on the papacy’s institutional memory and the Holy Land crusade under Honorius III forthcoming in Studies in Church History vol. 49 (2013).
Contact: [email protected]
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
12.15: Session 2 - The Role of Egypt (Chair: Dr Guy Perry)
Paper 2.A. : Prof. Mahmoud Said Omran, Alexandria University, Egypt “The Fortification of Damietta during the Fifth and Seventh Crusades”
Abstract: Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, asked aid from the West to pope Urban II against the Seljuq Turks, who had taken nearly all of Asia Minor. At the council of Clermont in 1095, pope Urban II addressed a great crowd and urged all to help the Byzantines in order to recover Palestine from Muslim hands. The pope said that if anyone desired to follow his lord zealously, with a pure heart and mind, and wished faithfully to bear the cross after him, he would no longer hesitate to take up the way to the holy Sepulchre. After the third Crusade, the Crusaders discovered that the way of the Holy Land had to pass through Egypt. They planned to attack it in the forth Crusade but the plan failed. Therefore, pope Innocent III announced the Fifth Crusade. The troops of the fifth Crusade landed in Egypt on the western bank of the river Nile against Damietta on 29 May 1218 and they succeeded on 31 August to capture the tower which was located in the Nile, in the West of the city. In spite of the victory of the Moslem's army, Sultan al-Kamel offered peace to the leaders of the Crusade, but this was refused for various reasons. At last, the Crusaders succeeded to enter the city on the 5th of November 1219 after about one year and six months. In the seventh Crusade, Louis IX King of France succeeded to enter the city on the same day of landing on the shore opposite Damietta on 5 June 1249. Why? The city was well fortified by three walls and by twenty eight towers. There was a chain to be stretched, across the river not below the northern edge of the city, to the rower, to block the only navigable channel, and a bridge of boots lay in south of the chain. The main problem for the researchers is the location of the Nile tower which was located in the water. No historian have been able to give us the correct location of the tower. During my paper, I will show some maps and indicate the probable place of it.
Prof. Omran , Mahmoud Said is Professor emeritus of History and Civilization of the Middle Ages and he was formerly the Head of history department and the Dean of the faculty of Arts at Beirut Arab University. He is member of various local, regional and global associations including SSCLE and Society for The Medieval mediterranean. He participated in conferences in America, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Russia, Hungary, and Turkey. He supervised 33 theses (MAs and PhDs). He arbitrated 56 papers in the last five years. He was awarded prices by Alexandria University to encourage scientific research (1986) and for distinguished research in Humanities (2000). Among his publications, there are 21 books regarding the Middle Ages; his last book is ‘Money in Europe in the Middle Ages’ (2011).
Contact: [email protected]
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
Paper 2.B. : Prof. François-Olivier Touati, Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France “De la Plaine du Pô au Delta du Nil: La création d’une commune Bolonaise à Damiette en 1220”
Abstract: The early place held by the Italian maritime cities (Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa, Venice) in the Crusades and their trade relations with the Middle East has long drawn the attention of historians. But face it, other republics less naturally oriented towards the sea and long-distance trade, have increasingly sought to participate independently in these expeditions. This common goal to the Holy Land refers to the specific situation of participants in the West: their rivalry, emulation, stimulation, opportunities, levels of information and development. The case of Bologna during the Fifth Crusade is illuminated by an exceptional documentary record, constituted not only by chronics, but also by acts of practice (contracts, wills). First, it shows the process of decision, the preparation of the expedition, its materials, and its actors. It describes the terms of ownership and sharing of urban land made upon arrival at Damietta. It informs about the distribution of space and on the topography of this place. Finally, it details the creation of an urban common by the troops and other crusaders from Bologna: its organisation and operation. This institutional and policy framework needs to be compared with other forms of Italian or French settlements in the Mediterranean area: in Constantinople, Alexandria, Jaffa or Acre. None are known as accurately. Planning for this institution demonstrates the ambition of a permanent settlement in Egypt and premeditated intentions: in addition to military aspects, political and religious, commercial realities and the emergence of new economic forces appear inseparable in the strategic choices made here.
François-Olivier Touati est professeur d’Histoire médiévale, directeur du Département d’Histoire et d’Archéologie à l'Université de Tours. Il est Bulletin Editor de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and Latin East (SSCLE) et Responsable du Groupe sur l’Orient Latin à l’Université de Paris I-Sorbonne. Il a notamment publié Maladie et société au Moyen Âge, Bruxelles, 1998 ; Archéologie et architecture hospitalières de l'Antiquité tardive à l'aube des Temps modernes, Paris, 2004). À coté de l’historiographie contemporaine (Marc Bloch et l'Angleterre, Paris, 2007), ses recherches centrées sur Saint-Lazare de Jérusalem portent sur l'histoire de la Terre sainte et ses échanges avec l'Occident.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 2.C. : Liz Mylod, University of Leeds “Pilgrim Descriptions of the Holy Land and the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: Northern Egypt, the focus of the Fifth Crusade, was not just a military destination; the area had long had associations of holiness, being linked to both the Old Testament (with the exile and return of the Israelites from Egypt) and the New Testament (with the flight of the Holy Family from Herod). Prior to the Muslim conquest, the region had been the birthplace of many new types
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ of Christian asceticism, and the desert in particular was associated with many early saints, such as St Anthony. The twelfth-century crusades are widely considered to have stimulated interest in pilgrimage to Palestine; this paper will discuss whether we can see a resurrection of interest in Egypt as a result of the Fifth Crusade.
Liz Mylod is a part-time PhD student at the University of Leeds, focusing on thirteenth-century pilgrimage in the Holy Land. She has a broad interest in ecclesiastical history and the Latin East, and is a member of both the SSCLE and EHS. She helped to run the International Medieval Congress, Leeds for four years, but is currently concentrating on finalising her thesis.
Contact: [email protected]
13.30: *Lunch Buffet*
14.30: Keynote 2 - Prof. Peter Edbury, Cardiff University “Ernoul, Eracles and the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: The French vernacular texts that are known as La Chronique d'Ernoul and L'Estoire de Eracles are among the more informative narratives for the events of the Fifth Crusade once it reached the East, featuring as they do the major players: John of Brienne, Cardinal Pelagius, Jacques de Vitry and St Francis. This communication will address the questions of where, when and for whom they were composed in the hope that the answers to these questions may shed light on the larger question of why these accounts tell the story in the way they do. It will also address the issue of the relationship between these texts and the way in which they developed.
Professor Peter Edbury is a specialist on the history and institutions of the Latin East and Cyprus between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries and on Latin Syrian legal literature. Publications include: Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Ashgate, 1999); John of Ibelin and Kingdom of Jerusalem (Boydell, 1997); The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade (Scolar, 1996); The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374 (Cambridge, 1991); and, jointly with the late Professor J.G. Rowe of the University of Western Ontario, William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East (Cambridge, 1988). His recent projects include a Translation of the Chronique d’Amadi (in collaboration with Nicholas Coureas) and a new edition of the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (AHRC funded project). He is also member of the Research Group at Cardiff Centre for the Crusades.
Contact: [email protected]
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’
15.30: Session 3 - Textual Traditions (Chair: Prof. Peter Edbury)
Paper 3.A. : Dr Nicholas Coureas, Cyprus Research Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus “The Events of the Fifth Crusade According to the Cypriot Chronicle of ‘Amadi’”
Abstract: The ‘Amadi’ Chronicle, the only Cypriot Chronicle recounting the events of the Fifth crusade in some detail was written in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century but uses lost French sources of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In narrating the Fifth Crusade it uses chiefly the Colbert-Fontainebleau version of the Eracles Chonicle, yet the anonymous chronicler occasionally omits, summarizes or garbles parts of this source and switches to another source when recounting the Latins’ defeat and surrender of Damietta. It will be argued here that some of the omissions are due to the bad relations between King John of Brienne of Jerusalem and King Hugh I of Cyprus and also because the chronicler or the sources at his disposal were pro-clerical and so avoided blaming cardinal Pelagius the papal legate for the Crusaders’ failure, unlike most of the Continuations of the Chronicle of William of Tyre as well as the Provencal troubadours and other writers in Western Europe.
Dr Nicholas Coureas is a Senior Researcher at the Cyprus Research Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus and he has written various articles and produced several books on the history of Lusignan Cyprus (1191- 1473). Included among his books are the conference proceedings Cyprus and the Crusades, co-ed. with Jonathan Riley-Smith (Nicosia, 1995), translations of Greek source materials from Lusignan Cyprus and the two monographs The Latin Church in Cyprus 1195-1312 (Ashgate, 1997) and The Latin Church in Cyprus 1313-1378 (Nicosia, 2010).
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 3.B. : Dr Valentin L. Portnykh, Novosibirsk State University, Russia “The Use of the Bible in the Sources of the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: The Bible was very often used to justify the crusades during all the period of their existence, beginning from the First Crusade. In particular, it can deal with some parallels between the crusaders and the Jews from the Old Testament or the necessity of taking the cross and following the Christ like the apostles did. Unfortunately, there is no any special study on the use of the Bible in the sources of the Fifth crusade: the idea of crusade have been almost studied from the sources of the first crusades. To make some conclusions on the use of the Bible in the sources of the Fifth crusade I am going to use some sources of different type: chronicles (Historia Damiatiana, Gesta obsidionis Damiete, etc), correspondence (letters by James of Vitry, papal letters), papal bulls, preaching materials (some model sermons of James of Vitry), etc. For example, in the letters of James of Vitry, the Bible is used to make a parallel between the occupation of the Holy Land by
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ Saracens and by Assyrians; one of the battles against Saracens is compared to the God’s intervention to save the Jews while crossing the Red sea.
Dr Valentin Portnykh has recently completed his PhD thesis entitled “Le Traité d'Humbert de Romans, O.P., De la prédication de la sainte croix contre les Sarrasins (XIIIe siècle). Analyse historique et édition du texte”. He studied at the University of Lyons (France) and at the University of Novosibirsk (Russia). He is one of the two authors of the Russian edition of the chronicle Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum. His main research interests are the study of ideological aspects of the crusades and the translation of sources related to the crusades. He is a member of the SSCLE.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 3.C. : Matthieu Rajohnson, Université Paris Ouest, France “’Rome, vos estes refroidie d’aidier la terre de Surie’ Originality and Reception of Huon of Saint-Quentin’s Critical Discourse”
Abstract: Right after the Fifth Crusade’s end, the French poet Huon of Saint-Quentin, both in his Complainte de Jérusalem contre Rome and in his song Jérusalem se plaint et li païs, denounces the attitude of the papacy, pointing out the actions of the legate Pelagius in Egypt as well as the development of vows redemptions as encouraged by the clergy, which leads many Crusaders to “se décroiser” – to abandon the fight. Marked by a real warlike spirit and a strong rejection of the very presence of the Church in the Crusades, his texts, while criticizing the way the Crusade was led, nonetheless call for the organization of a new military expedition towards the Holy Land, a necessity in the salvation plan, but also a matter of true revenge. These works aroused clear interest throughout the 13th century, being copied and sometimes coming with a notable iconography, especially in the manuscript 76F5 from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Through these illuminations and the manuscript tradition of Huon’s works the reception of his discourse can be grasped, and shows the persistence and adaptation of this original perception of the Crusade’s failure long after its immediate aftermath.
Matthieu Rajohnson is a member of the CHISCO and is currently working towards a PhD at the Université Paris Ouest. He works on the image of Jerusalem in the West from 1187 to the 14th century.
Contact: [email protected]
16.45: *Tea/Coffee and Refreshments*
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17.00: Session 4 - The Teutonic Order and the North (Chair: Dr Alan V. Murray)
Paper 4.A. : Dr Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University “The Fifth Crusade and the Rise of the Teutonic Knights”
Abstract: There were few within the Christian camp who benefitted from the Fifth Crusade. The expedition itself was a fiasco which ended in disaster on the banks of the Nile, while news of defeat dulled crusading enthusiasm across Christendom for many years. Even so, for the Teutonic Knights, this event marked a fundamental stage in their rise to prominence. Under their energetic master, Hermann von Salza, the brethren laboured relentlessly throughout the campaign: supporting pilgrim knights, fighting in its many encounters, participating in major councils and gathering support around Christendom. Their deeds did not pass unnoticed and despite the crusade’s failure, many participants and magnates in the west declared themselves to be deeply impressed by the order. Indeed, the atmosphere of disappointment that followed the campaign may have made it all the more important to find someone to praise. Consequently, in the years that followed, the scale of donations made to the Knights increased significantly, giving them the financial strength first to secure their position in the Holy Land and later to contemplate ventures in Prussia and Livonia. This paper will explore the role played by the Fifth Crusade in the rise of the Teutonic Knights, exploring how the order showcased its abilities during the campaign, attracting patronage and praise. This will then be compared to parallel events which drove the rise of other military orders. Thus this study will discuss how the military order used tales of their deeds on the frontier to provide material that could then help generate support within Western Christendom
Dr Nicholas Morton is currently a lecturer in History at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of a number of studies on crusading and the military orders including The Teutonic Knights in the Holy Land, 1190-1291 (2009). He is currently completing a textbook on the military orders which should be published towards the end of 2012.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 4.B. : Dr Karol Polejowski, Gdansk University, Poland “The Teutonic Knights during the Fifth Crusade and its Rise in Western Europe – The French Case Study (1218-1258)”
Abstract: For the first 20 years of its existence (1198-1218), the knightly Order of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was a small organization whose future was uncertain. At that time the popularity of the Order was limited to Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, which in comparison to popularity of the Templars and Hospitallers in Europe, was a cause of a concern to the Grand Master Hermann von Salza (1209-1239). In fact, down to the time of the Fifth Crusade (1218-1221) the Teutonic Order did not have the opportunity to prove its worth in battle with the
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ infidels in the Outremer. A change in this system was brought about thanks to the expedition to Egypt - the Order and its deeds charmed many of the other crusaders from Western Europe, especially from the Kingdom of France. This had far-reaching effects after the year 1221 - almost the next 40 years the popularity of the Order in France (especially in Champagne and Burgundy), grew enormously, despite the fact that Templars and Hospitallers had a very strong position here. In my paper, I would like to present the deeds of the Teutonic Knights during the Fifth Crusade, and to identify those events that resulted in the increase of the popularity of the Order in France, especially among the French chivalry. This increased popularity resulted in a lot of donations, that over the next decades helped to build a network of estates belonging to the Teutonic Order not only in France, but also in Rhinelnad and Partes Inferiores (partly French-speaking regions). However, it is clear from the surviving sources for these grants, that it was not only the military aspect of the activities of the Order during the siege of Damietta, but also their hospitaller and religious activities which played a significant role in the growth in popularity of the Order. In addition, donations of the French chivalry in Egypt, and later in France, as in other regions of Western Europe, had very often the family character. For example, during the crusade in Egypt (1218-1219), six donations were made by the French knights, who were closely related. The same situation can be identified in the kingdom of France after 1221: many of the donors were relatives of the Cruseders, or were their direct vassals. The crisis of this great period came in the 1250's, when the Teutonic Knights gave up the plans to build its own bailiwick in the Kingdom of France.
Dr Karol Polejowski completed his PhD at University of Gdansk (Poland), Institut of History. He has published extensively on the history of the Teutonic Order in France in the Middle Ages. Currently, aside from the history of the Teutonic Order, his research interests are concerned with the activity of de Brienne family in the 13th and 14th centuries, both in the Mediterranean region and in France. His monograph concerning the activity of the Brienne family during the later crusades (c. 13th) will be published in 2012.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 4.C. : Pål Berg Svenungsen, University of Bergen, Norway "Norway and the Fifth Crusade: The Crusade Movement on the Outskirts of Europe"
Abstract: The paper wishes to examine the impact of the Fifth Crusade on the periphery of Catholic Europe, as well as the impact of the periphery on the crusade movement in general, using the kingdom of Norway as an example. A quick survey of Norwegian historiography concerning the Fifth Crusade and its impact on Norwegian society would not amount to a lot of literature. The same can also be said of the attention modern international crusade studies have paid to the Norwegian involvement. Does this mean that Pope Innocent III’s call for crusade failed to reach the northern shores of Europe? The source material indicates otherwise. One of the interesting aspects of the Norwegian crusading involvement is that it in some ways follows the wider political dimension, where crusade preaching in general emphasized the resolution of conflict. That may be the underlying reason for the leading initiative for the crusade taken by the Norwegian Church and,
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ especially, Archbishop Guthormr of Nidaros (r.1215-1224). One aspect, however, that seems to set the Norwegian crusade initiative in some ways apart is the strong royal involvement. However, due to the king’s untimely death more common themes like crisis in leadership and fragmentation were the end result of the Norwegian crusade participation.
Pål Berg Svenungsen graduated Master of History from the University of Bergen in 2010. He is currently working as a Ph.D candidate at the same institution in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion. His Ph.D. project concerns the relationship between the European Crusade Movement and state formation in medieval Norway.
Contact: [email protected]
18.30: Wine Reception Sponsored by Ashgate Publishing
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20.00: Conference Dinner
‘The Parrot Pub’ 1-9 Church Lane, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2AG
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Saturday 14 April 2012 (Registration from 8.30)
9.30: Session 5 - Southwest and Southeast (Chair: Jan Vandeburie)
Paper 5.A. : Dr José Manuel Rodríguez García, UNED Madrid, Spain “The Castilian and Leonese Context (1213-1225). Crusades and Crusaders in Iberia and Abroad”
Abstract: In 1213 the Pope Innocent III issued the Bull Quia Major stopping the crusade preaching against the Moors in Spain and the Cathars. Was this the end of the Spanish crusades? If that was the case, what did the people from the Iberian Kingdoms do to support the fifth crusade, leaving aside the episode of the conquest of Alcaçer do Sal, Portugal (not to be tackled in this paper)? What was the role of Papal Legate Archbishop Ximenez de Rada in all this affair? What was the situation in the Iberian frontier? Was there peace? If not, what did the kings of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre do in that context? In fact, were they ready to support a new crusade taking into account that both the Castilian and Aragonese kings were only small children, and that the Leonese King had been excommunicated few years before the preaching of the crusade? With a chronological framework between 1213-1223, this paper will try to answer all those questions and, thanks to this, it will put forward the role of the Iberian kingdoms in the Crusade as well as the papal, royal and ecclesiastical –both churchmen and members of the military orders- policies. Were all of them the same, or did they have different aims and ways of achieving their goals?
Dr José Manuel Rodríguez García holds a degree in Medieval History by the University of Salamanca (1992) and he did his postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh (1991, 1993). He has a Phd in Medieval History by the University of Salamanca. He is currently a part-time lecturer of Medieval History at the Universidad Nacional de educacion a distancia (Madrid. Spain), he is a Member of the SSCLE and he has archaeological experience in various medieval sites in Spain. He is the author of La cruzada en tiempos de Alfonso X el Sabio (Silex, Madrid, 2012 in press) and La cruzada en el siglo XIII. Una perspectiva desde el sur (Madrid, forthcoming). He is also a contributor in the Dictionaire des ordres militaires au Moyen Age (2009) and in the The Oxford encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and military technology (2010)
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 5.B. : Dr Hrvoje Kekez, Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia “Croats and the Fifth Crusade: Did the Two Members of the Babonići Noble Family Accompany King Andrew II of Hungary on his Crusade?”
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ Abstract: King Andrew II of Hungary was one of the key figures of the Fifth Crusade. He led his army composed of knights, magnates and prelates of Kingdom of Hungary, in which were included the two Kingdoms at those time inhabited by Croats – Croatia-Dalmatia and Slavonia. But there is no mention of any Croatian noblemen in any preserved written narrative of the western origin. Nevertheless, after his return from the Crusade king Andrew II issued several charters to the Hungarian and Croatian noblemen in which he granted some estates in order to acknowledge them for participating on his Crusade. Among them were the two members of the Babonići noble family from the central areas of medieval Slavonia. The charter about that, issued in the year 1218, had been taken as unquestionable evidence by all Croatian historians from the late 19th up to the middle of 20th century that members of the Babonići family went on the Fifth Crusade. Due to the fact that that charter is preserved as transumptum in the later charter form 14th century, it was Nada Klaić who first questioned this interpretation of historical events. Nevertheless, there are new evidences and interpretations that actually confirm the possibility that the two members of the Babonići noble family had accompanied King Andrew II of Hungary on his Crusade in the year 1217.
Dr Hrvoje Kekez was born on April 3rd 1980 in Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied history and archival science on the University of Zagreb. He defended his MA-thesis (Coats of Arms of Croatian and Slavonian nobility issued by emperor Leopold I) in the year 2004. At the same university he has defended his PhD-thesis (The noble Babonići kindred until the end of fourteenth century) in January 2012. So far he has published two books in Croatian (Coat of Arms of the Cities in Republic of Croatia, 2009 and Battles as the Turnovers of Croatian History, 2010) and more than 15 scientific papers in Croatian and English. His interests are: Croatian and Slavonian nobility in high Middle Ages, noble castles in Slavonia, medieval military history, Croatian heraldry.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 5.C. : Dr Miha Kosi, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia “Crusading in the Southeast of the Holy Roman Empire in the First Decades of the 13th Century – The Fifth Crusade and its Aftermath”
Abstract: The Fifth Crusade was a major event of the Crusading movement in the Southeast of Medieval Holy Roman Empire (Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Istria). The princes of this area and king Andrew II. of Hungary, with strong kinship ties, featured prominently in the first phase of the crusading enterprise in 1217–1218. The participation of nobility from this area was also the highest of all major crusades (according to extant sources). After this Crusade the problem of unfulfilled crusading wow of emperor Frederick II. generated a lively activity in the third decade of the 13th century. The major princes from Eastern Alpine provinces were actively involved in the diplomatic activity concerning the relations between the pope and the emperor and it was six of them actually responsible for the final agreement of San Germano in 1230. The crusading fervor for Holy Land rapidly faded after the emperor's crusade of 1228–1229 and new areas were gradually becoming popular (Prussia as a crusading goal first noticed in 1244; crusading in Bosnia against the
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ pataren/cathar heresy etc.). The paper will shed light on the Crusading movement in the decades following the fifth crusade in a rather neglected, but nevertheless important area.
Dr Miha Kosi, born in 1965, has studied History and Geography at the University of Ljubljana. He graduated in 1996, and he obtained his PhD in 2000. Since 1996 works as a researcher at the Historical institute of the Slovenian Academy. He is also lecturer on the Faculty of Humanities at the University in Nova Gorica (since 2007). As a specialist for medieval history, his main field of research lies in medieval urban history, history of transport and communications, historical-geography and the Crusades. He published several books (about medieval roads and transport; about the early development of medieval towns) and he was one of five authors of Slovenian Historical Atlas (published 2011).
Contact: [email protected]
10.45: *Tea/Coffee and Refreshments*
11.00: Session 6 – Preaching (Chair: Dr Barbara Bombi)
Paper 6.A. : Dr Christian Grasso, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France “Les prédicateurs de la croisade pendant le pontificat d’Honorius III (1216-1227)”
Abstract: L’objet principal de cet exposé est l’analyse de la politique adoptée par le pape Honorius III en relation au problème de la promotion de la cinquième croisade. Sur la base de l’étude des registres de la chancellerie pontificale, l’exposé essaiera de mettre en évidence le deux principaux moyens utilisés par la Papauté à cette fin. En premier lieu, l’envoie de lettres dans la Chrétienté pour coordonner l’organisation de l’expédition militaire. En deuxième lieu, la nomination des prédicateurs délégués à la promotion de la croisade. Honorius III a, en effet, développé une véritable stratégie pour la propagande de la croisade qui été fondé sur la revendication du contrôle pontificale de la prédication. En conséquence, les personnalités délègues par le pape à l’annonce du verbum crucis étaient placés sous l’autorité de la Papauté et ils étaient envoyés en mission dans les diocèses européens. De ces prédicateurs l’exposé veut dévoiler l’identité et montrer comment ils prêchaient et quel type de technique ils utilisent pour diffuser le message relatif à la croisade. De cette façon, il sera possible d’évaluer l’importance et la signification de la prédication pour l’histoire de la cinquième croisade et, plus en générale, pour l’histoire du pontificat d’Honorius III qui est encore aujourd’hui peu connu du point de vue historiographique.
Dr Christian Grasso holds a Ph.D in Medieval History (University of Florence, Thesis title: “The preaching of the crusade during Innocent III’s pontificate, 1198-1216”). He is a specialist in the history of preaching and of the history of medieval Papacy. Currently he is preparing a research about “The Papacy and the Crusade between the Fourth Council of the Lateran and the First Council of Lyon (1215-1245)” (EPHE, Paris). He has collaborated to the digital edition of the papal registers
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ of the thirteenth century (Ut per litteras apostolicas, Brepols Publishers) and he has published different essays about the problem of the preaching of the crusade (“Ars Praedicandi e crociata nella predicazione dei magistri parigini”, In: “Come l'orco della fiaba: studi per Franco Cardini”, Firenze 2010; “Folco di Neuilly sacerdos et predicator crucis”, In: «Nuova Rivista Storica», XCIV/III, 2010).
Contact : [email protected]
Paper 6.B. : Jan Vandeburie, University of Kent “Jacques de Vitry’s Historia Orientalis and the Renewed Crusading Movement after the Fourth Lateran Council”
Abstract: Jacques de Vitry’s life and work have previously been looked at mostly from the perspective of his preaching activities in Europe. However, his appointment as Bishop of Acre after 1215, his consequent travels throughout the Latin East and his participation in the Fifth Crusade all have to be seen in the light of the Fourth Lateran Council. Especially de Vitry’s Historia Orientalis clearly shows this double agenda of both reform and crusading. This paper will look at the intended message and audience of the Historia Orientalis and argue that this encyclopedia of the East was composed of both material collected before 1215, to support the decision making of the Council, as well as of material collected by de Vitry during his stay in the Latin East. The work not only provided Rome with an extensive report on the Crusades and the situation in the Holy Land to use in the policy making towards the renewed Crusade movement, but it also provided fellow reformers, preachers and papal legates with propaganda material for the reform movement of Innocent III and Honorius III.
Jan Vandeburie holds an MA in Medieval History from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds. He was awarded a PhD Scholarship from the University of Kent and is currently in his 2nd year. His thesis under the supervision of Dr Barbara Bombi focuses on Jacques de Vitry’s Historia Orientalis and its use and perception in the 13th century by examining the contents and source material of the work and the numerous manuscripts throughout Europe. Jan Vandeburie is also a contributor in the AHRC funded Research Network: ‘Remembered Places and Invented Traditions: Thinking about the Holy Land in the Late Medieval West’ coordinated by Dr Anthony Bale.
Contact: [email protected]
12.15: Keynote 3 - Prof. Bernard Hamilton, SSCLE President, University of Nottingham “The Impact of Prester John on the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: From the beginning of the crusade movement, crusades to the Holy Land were seen as part of a divine plan for human society which would ultimately reach a climax in the Second Coming
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ of Christ. Some Western churchmen searched for guidance about such crusades in prophetical works. These included not only the Bible, but also later Christian speculative writings about the future which were often cast in the form of prophecies. There was therefore nothing unusual in the willingness of senior clergy serving with the Fifth Crusade to take seriously allegedly prophetic works presented to them by eastern Christians, notably the Prophecy of Hanan, and the Book of Clement. What did prove dangerous was the willingness of those clergy to interpret news which reached them about events in the lands beyond the Aiyubid Empire as a fulfillment of those profecies. This was dangerous because very little was known by Western Europeans at that time about the lands of Africa and Asia beyond the Islamic lands. Their cosmographical knowledge of more distant regions was either very out-of-date, derived from reports of scholars in the ancient world, or it was based on legendary materials. Belief in the existence of the Empire of Prester John was part of that mythical cosmography. This combination of a reliance on supposedly divine guidance found in prophetical writings, and the acceptance of mythological accounts of the societies of Asia and Africa proved lethal when used to interpret the reports of contemporary political and military events in lands to the east and south of the Aiyubid Empire. It finally led the religious leaders of the crusade to persuade the lay commanders to make disastrous decisions about the conduct of the campaign.
Prof. Bernard Hamilton is Professor Emeritus of Crusading History of the University of Nottingham, England, and since 2008 he have been President of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. His chief research interests are twofold: first, the Latin Church in the Crusader States, and secondly, the Albigensian Crusade and the beliefs and evolution of Catharism. He became interested in the Prester John legend when he contributed to and co-edited with Charles Beckingham a volume of essays, Prester John, the Mongols and the Ten Lost Tribes (Variorum, 1996).
Contact: [email protected]
13.15: *Lunch Buffet*
14.15: Session 7 - Frederick II (Chair: Thomas Smith)
Paper 7.A. : Dr Marcello Pacifico, Università di Palermo, Italy "The Crusade of Frederick II and Crusading after 1221"
Abstract: In the first half of the 13th century, at the time of Frederick II, four cruisades leave from Europe to fulfill the season of peace. Christians and Muslims, beyond the rhetoric of the holy war, work together in a multicultural and multireligious society that can be found in every area of contact between the two civilizations in the Euro-Mediterranean area. Jerusalem becomes the centre of the world under the government of the new King Solomon. The messianic journey of the Stupor Mundi (“The Astonishment of the World”) from the Kingdom of Sicily to the Holy Places joins
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‘Contextualising the Fifth Crusade’ the East and the West together, in a dialogue now stopped, but that can re-start beyond the particularities and ideological prejudices, thanks to the study of the Frederick practice of power.
Dr Marcello Pacifico received Les Félicitations du Jury in 2006 for his doctoral thesis held at the University of Palermo in partnership with the University of Paris X-Nanterre on 'Frederick II and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.' He is a former grant holder of the École Française de Rome, of the Centro Studi Normanno-svevi, and a researcher of the Department of History and Art Studies at the University of Palermo. He was an assistant lecturer (professore a contratto) of Italian Language and Culture, Didactic of History and Medieval History respectively at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, and the University of Palermo. He is a member of several international centres of studies of the Medieval Thought, Crusades and Society. His monograph on "Frederick II and Jerusalem at the Time of the Crusades. Relationship between Christianity and Islam in Medieval Euro-Mediterranean Area, 1215-1250” , published by Sciascia (Caltanissetta), will be shortly issued.
Contact: [email protected]
Paper 7.B. : Dr Guy Perry, University of Leeds “From John, King of Jerusalem, to the Emperor-Elect Frederick II: a Hitherto-Neglected Letter from the Fifth Crusade”
Abstract: In this paper, I propose to discuss an exciting discovery: a ‘new’ crusade letter from John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, to the emperor-elect Frederick II. This letter belongs in a quite specific context: that is, as part of the disputes that broke out soon after the capture of Damietta, as to who should have the lordship of the city and the spoils within it. This ‘new’ letter tells us much about John’s relationships with his leading allies in the crusader host, and even more about their relationships with the pertinent Western powers. It has long been surmisable that, during the expedition, there could well have been a link between John, the crusade’s leader-on-the-spot, and the absent, ‘real’ commander-in-chief, Frederick II. Only now, though, is it possible to confidently discuss both the nature of such contact, and how it worked, as well as its very existence. This paper will substantially re-shape discussion about the Fifth Crusade’s ‘leadership question’, as well as serving as a timely reminder that French archives still have much to tell us about the Crusades.
Dr Guy Perry did his first degree, Masters and doctorate at Lincoln College, Oxford. He did a great deal of teaching there in his capacity as a college warden, and he also taught briefly at Royal Holloway, University of London. Since September 2011, he has been a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Leeds.
Contact: [email protected]
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15.30: Conclusions
Round Table Discussion: ‘Crusading in the 13th Century’ and concluding talk by Prof. Bernard Hamilton
16.30: Guided Tour of Medieval Canterbury
Visit of the Eastbridge Pilgrims Hospital, Greyfriars Chapel and the Franciscan Gardens, the Norman Castle and Canterbury Cathedral.
For participants leaving early on Saturday: The Norman Castle and the precincts of the Cathedral are available to visit at any time during your stay. You will find a ticket and a guidebook for the Eastbridge Hospital in your conference pack. Please mention that you are a participant of the conference. The guides at the reception of the Hospital will be very happy to answer any questions you may have on the history of Canterbury.
Canterbury, once a thriving Roman city, was Christianised in 597 AD by St Augustine who founded the UNESCO world heritage site of St Augustine’s Abbey. After suffering attacks from Danish invaders between the 9th and the 11th century, Canterbury was conquered by the Normans in 1066 and a castle was built. After Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170, the Cathedral was rebuilt and Canterbury became one of the most important towns in Northwest Europe, as pilgrims from all over Europe came to visit his shrine. This pilgrimage is the background of Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales.
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The late 14th-century city walls with Roman foundations and the Westgate, one of the largest surviving Medieval city gates in England and said to have been the first gate modified to resist canon fire.
The Eastbridge Hospital and undercroft.
The Greyfriars Chapel and the Norman Castle.
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Places of Interest
Canterbury Cathedral
Open weekdays from 9.00 to 17.30. An entry charge is payable to visit inside the cathedral except when attending a service. The precincts are freely accessible after the Cathedral is closed.
Dover Castle
c. ½ hour from Canterbury by train/car/bus. Open daily from 10.00 to 18.00.
Franciscan International Study Centre
On campus. Very extensive collections on Franciscan history and the Crusades. The library is open to external readers and borrowers between the hours of 10.30am and 4pm Monday to Friday. If the staff is away you may find yourself unable to access the library. It is recommend to phone or email in advance of any intended visit: +44 1227 769349 / [email protected]
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