h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You think you know about a subject and then you read through all this and realise you don't at all.

Thanks again for a wonderful set of mediaeval histories from this part of the world.


So any plans to do the 2nd and 3rd Crusades? I guess you've already done the 4th in your Byzantium series. After that they get a bit silly really (although I'm sure they weren't seen like that at the time).

By the way, I particularly liked the bit about the battering ram at Jerusalem's walls.

You couldn't write a better farce than that scene you paint.

The Second Crusade hardly deserves a full entry. They walked to Syria. Most of them died on the way. The ones that made it decided to besiege Damascus. After five days they gave up and came home.

The Third Crusade was really interesting, but I'd have to do a good bit more reading before I'd be ready to write it up. It featured Frederick Barbarossa, Philip of France, Richard the Lion Heart and Saladin.

The Fifth Crusade, the Frederick the Second Crusade and the Louis IX Crusade could probably make an entry between them.

Yes the 3rd is the main one I was thinking of. It might give a few people a different perspective on Richard at least.

If you've heard Lars Brownworth's podcasts on Byzantium there is a great deal on at least the Byzantine perspective of that - a perspective that was considerable as Barbarossa was a great enemy of their's and marched a *huge* army through Anatolia which many felt would as soon march on Byzantium as Palestine.

I didn't realise the second was so pathetic to be honest.

Very enjoyable reading! It whets the appetite for more information about the subject matter, like no other guide entry i can remember reading. Well done! Very well written.

Thanks.