The Seventh Crusade, 1244 - 1254: Sources and Documents selected and translated by Peter Jackson is volume 16 of the Crusade Texts in Translation series. The series is systematically preparing new translations of key narrative and documentary sources for the Crusades. When it is done, one may have to look at archaeology, numismatics, genetic studies or some new science for further information on the movement. Peter Jackson is well known for his studies of the Mongols, the Timurids, and medieval Iran and India. This seemingly tangential focus serves him well here as he brings a distinctly "Eastern" perspective to the project. Not the least important aspect of this work is its explication of the interaction of Christians and Muslims in the Near East with the Mongols in Iran and elsewhere. It also provides the fine selection of Arabic texts translated here.
Most students with any knowledge of Crusade history are aware of the general course of the Seventh Crusade, usually gleaned from an assigned reading of Jean lord of Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis which tells how King Louis of France in 1244, having survived a serious illness, resolved to go on crusade not to the Holy Land but to Egypt. His well-equipped expedition got underway in 1249, took Damietta in the Nile delta with surprising ease and pushed forward towards Cairo. From that point everything seemed to go wrong for the French crusaders. Cut off and starving, Louis and what was left of his army were eventually forced to surrender to the victorious Mamluks. Louis himself had to be ransomed for a huge sum. Although Louis thereafter remained in Acre seeking to rebuild the crusader states, his money ran out and he returned to France in 1154. The Seventh Crusade had been a complete failure.
Since the principal western narrative sources, such as Joinville's life of King Louis and the so-called "Rothelin Chronicle," have now been published in readily available translations, Jackson concentrates on a judicious selection of documentary sources. The highest value here is in bringing together these varied sources in translation, which can help overcome the novice's fixation on Joinville's work, with its mesmerizing immediacy and detail. Presented here are contemporary or near contemporary documents and letters. Papal correspondence is a major source and Jackson includes a selection of relevant letters from the register of Innocent IV and other sources. These deal with fund-raising, recruitment, the payment of subsidies, and diplomatic efforts to smooth the path for King Louis' expedition. In total these documents reveal the necessary preparation for a major crusading effort in all its complexity and detail. It also hints at what we have lost, and should be aware of, from earlier and less well- documented crusades.
Jackson's documents cover many other sources, some from individual crusaders, such as an eyewitness account some twenty years earlier than Joinville's, the testimony of Louis' brother and fellow crusader Charles of Anjou. In addition, because the published translations of Matthew Paris are not complete, Jackson has translated all relevant documents from his collection of supporting documents, however unreliable they may be.
Perhaps of singular importance to the value of this volume are the Arabic sources Jackson has translated, consulting the best manuscripts available. As the translator points out, they provide relatively little information about the Crusade or the crusaders, but "throw invaluable light, again, on developments within the Islamic Near East." Indeed, one wonders what other Islamic sources may exist, awaiting the discovery, description and analysis that Western sources have been subjected to for over two centuries. Jackson and others may have only scratched the surface here.
The entire collection is rounded out with documents that illustrate the impact on Western Europe of the failure of the Seventh Crusade. Here the coverage of the "Crusade of the Shepherds" is included as a direct reaction to King Louis' fiasco in Egypt.
As one scans through the rich sources here the following subjects are further illuminated: 1) the complexity and breadth of concerns of the many players in the expedition, 2) the sometimes complex international negotiations that were needed to gather support for the crusade, 3) the viewpoint of the Muslims who had other issues at hand and saw the failure of the French only in terms of these interests, 4) the threat and promise of relations with the Tartars, 5) the conflicts other projected Crusades caused for Louis' plans as the resources were gathered. On this last point, the papal correspondence makes it readily apparent how distracting and damaging Pope Innocent's single minded feud with the Emperor Frederick II was to the Seventh Crusade. Jackson takes pains to provide brief but lucid introductions to each section of this work that discuss the chronology, sources, and major issues involved.
This series, and Peter Jackson's contribution in particular, are of immense importance to Crusade studies. While a serious scholar specializing in any one aspect of the Seventh Crusade will insist on examining most documents in the original, this volume offers a superb entrepot to that level of scholarship. It is a convenient way to survey a vast documentation in all its multifaceted complexity, useful for the expert, the near expert, and the student alike. I personally would recommend a thorough examination of this volume for anyone studying the First or Second Crusades. The sweep of the documents available to Peter Jackson hints at what was once available but is now lost for the earlier periods. The awareness of the invisible lacunae in our sources should always be in the forefront of our minds. The vicissitudes of survival, institutional care or neglect, deliberate or chance preservation have shaped our image of the Crusades as much as what we have actually before our eyes. This touches on an unavoidable difficulty for collections of documents such as this, whether in translation or not. What else has survived, and is it accessible? Jackson has done his best to deal with these questions, but it is an inherent problem researchers must remain aware of.
Taken as a whole this is a splendid addition to the series on Crusader Texts in Translation.