The Experience of Sickness and Health During Crusader Campaigns to the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095–1274 Joanna Elizabeth Phillips Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds, Institute for Medieval Studies January 2017 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his/her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Joanna Elizabeth Phillips to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2017 The University of Leeds and Joanna Elizabeth Phillips iii Acknowledgements My foremost thanks are due to my supervisors, Iona McCleery and Alan V. Murray, to whom I owe a great deal. Their supportive guidance, high standards, wisdom, and expertise have tempered this work from beginning to end. Their helpful suggestions can not be quantified, and any errors herein are entirely my own. This work was made possible by funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for which I am very grateful. The Institute for Medieval Studies and the School of History at the University of Leeds have been my home for the past ten years, and I would like to pay credit to the generations of medievalists who have passed through and left their contribution to the department. In my own time, I have benefited immeasurably from the dynamic and inspirational community of the Institute and School, both staff and students, as well as the members of the Health, Medicine, and Society research cluster, who have broadened my outlook (and my reading). I cannot name all those I ought to, but my gratitude is due to them nonetheless. I am especially grateful to Rose Sawyer, Sunny Harrison, Amy Devenney, and Marta Cobb, for their friendship, support, and stimulating lunchtime conversations throughout my time as a PhD student. Special thanks must also be paid to Sophie Harwood, Francesca Petrizzo, and Vanessa Wright, who generously lent me their linguistic ability with Old French and Italian, and Trevor Smith whose detailed knowledge of MHRA and Zotero made the final stages of proof-reading and editing relatively painless. Beyond Leeds I have been lucky enough to make the acquaintance of many scholars who were kind enough to take an interest in my work. My thanks to Susan Edgington, Jonathan Phillips, William Purkis and Jochen Schenk for inviting me to present at the IHR Crusades and the Latin East seminar in 2015, and to all those I have met through this welcoming community who have provided helpful feedback on my work at various other conferences. The Society for the Social History of Medicine has provided a forum for me to meet medical historians from all periods, of whom special thanks must go to Elma Brenner for her encouragement in the early days, and assisting with fact-checking in the last. I am also grateful for the travel bursaries awarded to me by the SSHM and the Royal Historical Society. My family and friends have been a constant throughout, and I can only express gratitude for their company, support, food, drink and laughter. Chris Jones must receive specific mention for twice providing laptops when mine failed me and Katherine Phillips for accommodating me during numerous conferences and library visits, and making last- minute visits to the British Library on my behalf. Finally, to my husband Daniel, who has been with me every step of the way, shoring me up through the difficult times and rejoicing in the good ones. This thesis is dedicated to him, and to our good friend Father Michael Krychiwskyj (1957–2016), from whom we and many others gained so much. iv v Abstract This thesis proposes the reading of medieval chronicles, specifically those of the crusades, for their medical content. The crusades left a mark on the historical record in the form of dozens of narrative sources, but texts such as these are rarely considered as sources for medical history. Chapter 1 suggests how chronicles can be used to discover how medical knowledge permeated the literate society of the Middle Ages, and at the same time, by reading the crusader chronicles in a medical mode, to learn more about the lived experience of crusaders and the narrative art of crusader chroniclers. Chapter 2 responds to Roy Porter’s highly-influential concept of ‘the patient’s view’ by engaging with critiques of this concept and developing a method to apply it to medieval sources, ‘the chronicler’s-eye view’, demonstrated through a linguistic survey of the identity of sick crusaders and crusaders who offered medical care. The next three chapters take the ‘chroniclers’-eye view’ of the experience of sick crusaders in three spatial and military contexts. Chapter 3 shows how the crusader march could engender poor health by exposing the travelling crusader to different environments, while Chapter 4 explores conditions for crusaders in port and at sea. Chapter 5 is a detailed examination of the health of crusaders during siege engagements. Finally, chapter 6 shows how the health of a particular facet of crusading society, the crusader leader, had significance for the leader himself and those who followed him. Throughout the key focus is on how the health of crusaders was represented by contemporary chronicles and what narrative significance is revealed by reading these texts for their medical content. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ iii Abstract ............................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................... viii List of Tables ....................................................................................................... x List of Figures ..................................................................................................... xi Note on Referencing and Styles ......................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Understanding Health at the Time of the Crusades ...................................... 2 1.2 A Medical Reading of Chronicles of the Crusades ...................................... 15 1.3 Scope and Outline ......................................................................................... 36 Chapter 2: Sick Crusaders and the Crusader Sick ................................................ 39 2.1 Being Sick on Crusade: Sick Crusaders ........................................................ 45 2.2 Being Sick on Crusade: The Crusader Sick .................................................. 53 2.3 Crusader ‘Patients’: The Sick as Recipients of Care and Crusaders as Carers ........................................................................................................... 66 2.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 77 Chapter 3: Marches: The Journey Overland ........................................................ 79 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 79 3.2 The Logistical Approach ................................................................................. 83 3.3 Ecology and Crusader Environments ......................................................... 104 3.3.1 Italy and the Balkans ....................................................................... 110 3.3.2 Greek Borderlands .......................................................................... 117 3.3.3 Asia Minor ....................................................................................... 121 3.3.4 The Holy Land ................................................................................ 123 3.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 126 Chapter 4: Motion and Stasis: Ports and Sea Travel ........................................... 129 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 129 4.2 Muster and Embarkation: The Port as a Locus of (Ill-) Health .................. 134 4.2.1 The ‘Crusading Mediterranean’ ..................................................... 139 4.3 Crusaders at Sea ........................................................................................... 163 vii 4.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 173 Chapter 5: Sieges ..............................................................................................175 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 175 5.2 Crusader Sieges and Crusader Health ........................................................ 180 5.2.1 Mortality and Responses to Disease at a Crusader Siege: Acre, 1189–92 ...........................................................................................