University home | Studying | Research | Business and community | Working here | Alumni and supporters | Our departments | Visiting us | About us

• Intranet Home
• About the Faculty
• Studying
  • The College Taught Handbook
  • Undergraduates
    • Programmes
    • Modules
  • Postgraduate taught
  • Postgraduate research
• Careers
• Year Abroad
• Information about staff
• Information for staff only
• Back to College website

HIH1505 - The First Crusade

2013/4 Module description

Staff	Dr Alun Williams - Convenor
Credit Value	15
ECTS Value	7.5
NQF Level	4
Pre-requisites	n/a
Co-requisites	n/a
Duration of Module	Term 1: 11 weeks;

Module aims

This module aims to acquaint students with some of the key problems arising from the use of various sources for the history of the First Crusade and the evidence they provide about a wider range of issues. At the Council of Clermont (1095) Pope Urban II called on the people of western Europe to go to the aid of their fellow Christians in the East against the forces of Islam. Whether he had in mind a small army of mercenaries to aid the Byzatines or the huge popular movement of perhaps 100, 000 people which emerged, and which led to the establishment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, is a matter of considerable debate, as are the motives of those involved in the Crusade. Contemporary texts will allow us to study the Crusade from the point of view of the Pope, the Crusaders themselves, and those they encountered en route: the Jews in the Rhineland, the Byzantine Christians and the Moslems. These texts will themselves be analysed with the aim of demonstrating to students problems of the reliability and bias of historical sources.

ILO: Module-specific skills

• 1. Ability to assess the reasons for the success of the First Crusade.
• 2. Ability to assess how the idea of the crusade developed.
• 3. Ability to work critically with a range of sources for the history of the First Crusade written from a variety of perspectives.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

• 4. Ability to identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. bias, reliability, etc., and to compare the validity of different types of source, e.g. chronicles, letters and charters.
• 5. Ability to answer a question briefly and concisely.
• 6. Ability to present work orally, to respond to questions orally, and to think quickly of questions to ask other students.

ILO: Personal and key skills

• 7. Independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning.
• 8. Ability to digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment.
• 9. Ability to work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group.
• 10. Ability to write to a very tight word-length.

Syllabus plan

Week 1 Introductory lecture

Week 2 Calling the Crusade

Week 3 The Response to the Crusade

Week 4 The ‘People’s Crusade’

Week 5 Jewish reactions to the crusaders

Week 6 Reading week: no class Week 12 General review

Week 7 Byzantine perceptions of the crusaders

Week 8 Fighting the Turks

Week 9 Dissent amongst crusaders reflected in chronicles

Week 10 The crusade through Moslem eyes

Week 11 The Crusade ideal

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	2	Introduction to module
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	20	10 x 2 hour seminars. At a meeting of the whole class generally a different group of 3-4 students will give a presentation to the whole class, followed by class discussion and working through the sources for that week carefully. Additional sources may be issued in the class and the lecturer will also use the time to set up issues for the following week.
Guided Independent Study	128	Students prepare for the session through reading and research; writing a weekly source essay and preparing one group presentation in the course of the term.

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Group presentation (3-4 students)	10-15 minutes	1-4, 6-9	Oral

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Portfolio of seven essays	77 (11% per essay)	400-500 words per essay	1-5, 8, 10	Mark and written comments
Essay	23	1000 words	1-5, 8, 10	Mark and written comments

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Portfolio of seven essays	Portfolio of seven essays	1-5, 8, 10	Refer/defer period
1000-word essay	1000-word essay	1-5, 8, 10	Refer/defer period

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1988)
Kenneth M. Setton and Marshall W. Baldwin, (eds), A History of the Crusades I: the First Hundred Years (Madison, Wisc.,1969)
Steven Runciman, A history of the Crusades, vol I: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem,
(Cambridge, 1951)
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 (Cambridge, 1997)
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (London, 1986)
John France, Victory in the East : a Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994)
Jonathan Philips (ed.), The First Crusade (Manchester, 1997)

Module has an active ELE page?

Yes

Available as distance learning?

No

Last revision date

23/08/2013