Widely researched from a wide spectrum of sources and broadly focused, Helen Nicholson's comprehensive study reveals the considerable and varied roles women played in the promotion, conduct, support and memorialisation of crusading and crusaders over more than four centuries. Using telling vignettes of participation, she shows how women of different social status and economic condition were integral to crusading culture and practice, not just marginal or ornamental.
Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190).