Nicholas L. Paul

A useful set of essays—mostly clearly written, timely and interesting—which should go over well in the college classroom.

The subject is peripheral to the norms of Crusader scholarship, but it is an interesting idea. Concentrating on the pressures on Henry II of England, and Alfonso II, king of Aragon, some interesting facts can be found in common. While neither man actually went on a crusade to Outremere, both men had children who did so. The sorting of the ways in which familial tradition and clerical pressures through ancestor veneration, were very serious. The prose is competent, and you get an Aragonese show more family tree. show less