“Deus vult!” — God wills it! — was the battle cry of the First Crusade, in which armies of Europe, at the very end of the 11th century, marched off to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem and conquer ...

Is there a historical episode less understood by the general public and more urgently in need of clarification than the Crusades? To some on the right, the Crusades prefigured the modern wars that ...

Stained glass window in Brussels cathedral depicting First Crusade commander Godfrey of Bouillon. Shutterstock Ask pretty much anyone – whether terrorists, politicians (of all camps), dinner party ...

In 1095, Pope Urban II preached a fiery sermon that changed the course of Western history: he urged Christian warriors to take up the sword and defend their brothers in the East who had been defeated ...

It was at a speech made outside Clermont Ferrand that Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to claim the holy city of Jerusalem for Christianity, and wrest it from Islamic control. This was the start of ...