David Hume, the eighteenth century philosopher, famously declared that 'the crusades engrossed the attention of Europe and have ever since engaged the curiosity of man kind'. This is the first book length study of how succeeding generations from the First Crusade in 1099 to the present day have understood, refashioned, moulded and manipulated accounts of these medieval wars of religion to suit changing contemporary circumstances and interests. The crusades have attracted some of the leading historical writers, scholars and controversialists from John Foxe (of Book of Martyrs fame), to the...

David Hume, the eighteenth century philosopher, famously declared that 'the crusades engrossed the attention of Europe and have ever since engaged the curiosity of man kind'. This is the first book length study of how succeeding generations from the First Crusade in 1099 to the present day have understood, refashioned, moulded and manipulated accounts of these medieval wars of religion to suit changing contemporary circumstances and interests. The crusades have attracted some of the leading historical writers, scholars and controversialists from John Foxe (of Book of Martyrs fame), to the...

Extensively revised and updated, this new edition of The Debate on the English Reformation combines a discussion of successive historical approaches to the English Reformation of the mid-sixteenth-century with a critical review of recent debates in the area, offering a major contribution to modern historiography as well as to Reformation studies.
This book explores the way in which successive generations have found the Reformation relevant to their own times and have in the process rediscovered, redefined and rewritten its story. It shows that not only historians but also politicians,...