Part II

Summary

As the first five chapters have shown, the English sources provide ample evidence of continuing personal commitment to fourteenth-century crusading. For many in knightly society, it could be the avenue to military prestige, public honour and spiritual gain. Not all cheated the dangers of campaigning. The humble William Toli, to give one example, had to endure the rest of his days nursing terrible wounds after escaping the battered crusade camp at Smyrna. Many others fared worse. But crusading’s magnetic appeals and rewards remained forceful, despite the apparent languishing of the traditional Holy Land cause. In fact, as attested by the high levels of military investment, its prominence in English chivalry makes a case for a widening, rather than a diminishing, cultural role, at least among the upper ranks. The popularity of the theme across romance literature, in noble self-representation and knightly piety, and across many other facets of military culture enabled active participants to draw on various funds of moral support, and on the all-important respect of their peers. This very wide shadow cast by the crusade is no less significant a dimension than actual patterns of recruitment and military achievements, despite not often finding much discussion in conventional histories. The second part of this book therefore explores some of the issues of culture, motivation and ethos that helped define crusading in the later middle ages, and sets the pattern of English military commitment analysed above within its proper cultural context.