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Leeds International Medieval Congress
July 2024

The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades sponsored 5 sessions at this year's International Medieval Congress.

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Session: 245

Title: SPOILS OF WAR, I: RAIDING AND RANSOM

Date/Time: Monday 1st July 14.15-15.45

Sponsor: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades / Manchester Metropolitan University / Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Organisers: Connor Wilson, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University and Paulo Alexandre Mesquita Dias, Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Moderator: Kelly DeVries, Department of History, Loyola University Maryland / United States Air Force Academy, Colorado

245-a: To Ransom or Not: The Case of Late Medieval Portugal (Language: English)

João Rafael Nisa, Centro de História da Sociedade e da Cultura, Universidade de Coimbra

245-b: Raiding and Ravaging Warfare in Western and Southern Rus’ in the 13th Century: Concepts, Practices, and Purposes (Language: English)

Wolodymyr Hucul, Department of Archeology, Ethnology & Culture Studies, Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine

245-c: Rescuing Captives in the Name of the King: The Alfaqueque (Language: English)

Rui Pedro Neves, Centro de História da Sociedade e da Cultura, Universidade de Coimbra

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Session: 345

Title: SPOILS OF WAR, II: THE CRUSADES

Date/Time: Monday 1st July 16.30-18.00

Sponsor: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades / Manchester Metropolitan University / Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Organisers: Connor Wilson, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University and Paulo Alexandre Mesquita Dias, Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Moderator: Connor Wilson, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University

345-a: Looting and the Importance of Spoils of War for the Military Orders in the Holy Land (Language: English)

Benjámin Borbás, Department of Medieval & Early Modern European History, Eötvös Loránd University

Recipient of a 2024 Templar Heritage Trust Bursary

345-b: Northern European Raiding on the Portuguese Coasts: Movable Wealth as Part of Crusading (Language: English)

Lucas Villegas-Aristizabal, Bader College, Queen's University, East Sussex

345-c: How Did the Lack of Loot Trigger Kerbogha's Campaign Failure against the First Crusade, March-June 1098? (Language: English)

Thomas Brosset, Department of History, Lancaster University

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Session: 445

Title: SPOILS OF WAR, III: A ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

Date/Time: Monday 1st July 19.00-20.00

Sponsor: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades / Manchester Metropolitan University / Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Organisers: Connor Wilson, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University and Paulo Alexandre Mesquita Dias, Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Moderator: Matthew Bennett, School of History & Archaeology, University of Winchester

When is it permissible for soldiers to seize the resources of their opponents, either for survival or to deny them to the enemy? Does it matter how those resources are obtained or used? Can such concerns be separated from the moral or spiritual values of combatants? The interplay of extreme violence and extreme piety, characteristic of medieval conflict, remains a challenge to modern understanding and continues to feed into distorted images of the medieval world. Taking spoils of war, be it victuals and livestock, treasures or captives for ransom, formed a central dynamic element of medieval conflict. Unlike lands and titles, movable wealth occupied a unique place in medieval warfare and society, demarcated by its immediacy and mobility. Spoils flowed from frontiers and battlefields to the centres of secular and religious authority. Traversing national and international boundaries as well as diverse geographies, war spoils communicate histories of cross-cultural contact. Bringing into focus challenges both practical and ideological, the issue of spoils will be discussed with a view towards illuminating new avenues into understanding medieval warfare, justice, and faith.

Participants include John France (University of Swansea), Daniel Franke (Richard Bland College of William & Mary, Virginia), John Hosler (Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) and Connor Wilson (Manchester Metropolitan University).

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Session: 1024

Title: CRISIS AND TRANSITION IN THE LATER CRUSADES, 13TH-16TH CENTURIES, I: GRAND STRATEGIES IN TIMES OF CRISIS

Date/Time: Wednesday 3rd July 09.00-10.30

Sponsor: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades

Organiser: Stefan Tebruck, Historisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Moderator: Alan V. Murray, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

1024-a: Follow the Money: Frankish Strategic Efforts (Ultimately Unsuccessful) to Find Sufficient Resources to Meet Muslim

Military Challenges in the Levant - and Muslim Responses (Language: English)

Reuven Amitai, Institute for Asian & African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

1024-b: In Constant Crisis: The Latin Empire of Constantinople in the Context of Post-1204 Romania (Language: English)

Francesco Dall'Aglio, Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia

1024-c: 1291 and the Epistemic Crisis of Crusade Planning (Language: English)

Gion Wallmeyer, Abteilung Geschichtswissenschaft, Universität Bielefeld

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Session: 1124

Title: CRISIS AND TRANSITION IN THE LATER CRUSADES, 13TH-16TH CENTURIES, II: IDEOLOGY, HISTORIOGRAPHY, AND MEMORIALISATION

Date/Time: Wednesday 3rd July 11.15-12.45

Sponsor: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades

Organiser: Stefan Tebruck, Historisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Moderator: Jessalynn Bird, Department of Humanistic Studies, Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana

1124-a: Crusading Crises, History-Writing, and Manuscript Culture (Language: English)

Thomas W. Smith, Rugby School

1124-b: The Crusade and Apocalyptic Crisis: The Recovery of the Holy Land in the Joachimite Tradition (Language: English)

Marco Giardini, Section des Sciences Religieuses, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris

1124-c: How to Reflect the Loss of the Holy Land in the 15th Century: The Case of an Unknown Manuscript of the Historia Orientalis

(Language: English)

Jaroslav Svátek, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Karlova, Praha

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