During the First Crusade launched in 1095, thousands of Europeans fought to liberate Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks. By 1099, they had succeeded, and in the decades that followed, Franks settled in the newly conquered territory, creating a rich intellectual and cultural life. They wrote poetry and histories of their experiences, erected churches and castles, and commissioned illuminated manuscripts, frescoes, sculpture, and more. The majority of the crusaders and settlers were French, so the art and culture of France were of abiding importance to them. But the settlers did not merely...