Kathryn Hurlock & Paul Oldfield 
Crusading and Pilgrimage in the Norman World 

An examination into two of the most important activities undertaken by the Normans.


The reputation of the Normans is rooted in warfare, faith and mobility. They were simultaneously famed as warriors, noted for their religious devotion, and celebrated as fearless travellers. In the Middle Ages few activities offered a better conduit to combine warfare, religiosity, and movement than crusading and pilgrimage. However, while scholarship is abundant on many facets of the Norman world, it is a surprise that the Norman relationship with crusading and pilgrimage, so central in many ways to Norman identity, has hitherto not received extensive treatment.

The collection here seeks to fill this gap. It aims to identify what was unique or different about the Normans andtheir relationship with crusading and pilgrimage, as well as how and why crusade and pilgrimage were important to the Normans. Particular focus is given to Norman participation in the First Crusade, to Norman interaction in latercrusading initiatives, to the significance of pilgrimage in diverse parts of the Norman world, and finally to the ways in which crusading and pilgrimage were recorded in Norman narrative. Ultimately, this volume aims to assess, insome cases to confirm, and in others to revise the established paradigm of the Normans as crusaders
par excellence and as opportunists who used religion to serve other agendas.


Dr Kathryn Hurlock is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Manchester Metropolitan University; Dr Paul Oldfield is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Manchester.


Contributors: Andrew Abram, William M. Aird, Emily Albu, Joanna Drell, Leonie Hicks, Natasha Hodgson, Kathryn Hurlock, Alan V. Murray, Paul Oldfield, David S. Spear, Lucas Villegas-Aristizábal.

Table of Content

Introduction – Kathryn Hurlock and Paul Oldfield

‘Many others, whose names I do not know, fled with them’: Norman Courage and Cowardice on the First Crusade – William M. Aird

The Enemy Within: Bohemond, Byzantium and the Subversion of the First Crusade – Alan Murray / The Editor

Norman Italy and the Crusades: Thoughts on the ‘Homefront’ – Joanna Drell

The Norman Influence on Crusading from England and Wales – Kathryn Hurlock

The Secular Clergy of Normandy and the Crusades – David S Spear

Norman and Anglo-Norman Intervention in the Iberian Wars of Reconquest Before and After the First Crusade – Lucas Villegas-Aristizábal

The Pilgrimage and Crusading activities of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester – Andrew Abram

The Use and Abuse of Pilgrims in Norman Italy – Paul Oldfield

Antioch and the Normans – Emily Albu

The Landscape of Pilgrimage and Miracles in Norman Narrative Sources – Leonie V. Hicks

Normans and Competing Masculinities on Crusade – Natasha R. Hodgson

Select Bibliography

About the author

LEONIE V. HICKS is Reader in Medieval Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK.