Volume III focuses on the evolution of crusading beyond the Holy Land, the ways in which crusading impacted the people of Europe, and the cultural, political and religious legacies that were left behind. As a major cultural driver of the medieval age, it did much to shape religious thinking and practices, as well as influencing royal, knightly and civic ideology. Across twenty-one chapters, leading experts reveal the impact the Crusades had on women, Jews and emphasises the prominent presence of the Military Orders. Further essays show the rapid diversification of crusading to encompass enemies of the Catholic Church in Iberia, the Baltic and eastern Europe, the heretical Cathars, as well as the Ottoman Turks in the sixteenth century. It concludes with extensive coverage of the vast and diverse legacies of the Crusades, revealing the complexity and contemporary relevance of these contrasting memories in the West and the Muslim world.
