The period from the Mamlūk reconquest of Acre (1291) to the Ottoman siege of Constantinople (1453) witnessed the production of a substantial corpus of Middle English crusade romances. Marcel Elias places these romances in dialogue with multifarious European writings to offer a novel account of late medieval crusade culture: as ambivalent and self-critical, animated by tensions and debates, and fraught with anxiety. These romances uphold ideals of holy war while expressing anxieties about issues as diverse as God's endorsement of the crusading enterprise, the conversion of Christians to Islam, the sinfulness of crusaders, and the morality of violence. Reinvigorating debates in medieval postcolonialism, drawing on emotion studies, and excavating a rich multilingual archive, this book is a major contribution to the cultural history of the crusades. This title is part of the Flip it Open programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Winner, 2026 Best First Book, Swiss Association of Medieval and Early Modern English Studies

Winner, 2026 Best First Monograph on a topic dealing with late-medieval literature, New Chaucer Society

‘A powerful intervention … English Literature and the Crusades clearly positions Elias as one of the leading voices in the current second wave of crusade literature scholarship’

Robert Rouse Source: Studies in the Age of Chaucer

‘There is much to praise here. Elias demonstrates a close and thoughtful sensitivity to [his] sources, centred on a clear intent to listen to what these authors are saying … Most importantly, Elias’ overall thesis is plausible. He is very persuasive in his contention that during the period 1291–1453 the culture of crusading in the kingdom of England can be characterised by ‘anxiety’, albeit expressed in various different forms and played out along a range of vectors … In short, this is a very important contribution to a rich topic’

Nicholas Morton Source: Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture

‘Meticulously researched and convincingly written … An important intervention in debates on crusading literature’

Emily Dolmans Source: Modern Language Review

‘… offers a rich, innovative analysis of European crusade discourse … will be of interest to both literary scholars and historians’

Siobhain Bly Calkin Source: Journal of Religious History

‘[A] perceptive, nuanced book [that] establishes Elias as one of the foremost scholars on the subject’

Lee Manion - Journal of English and Germanic Philology

‘Elegant [and] packed with insights’

Andrew Jotischky Source: Medium Aevum

‘Based on a secure understanding of wider events in the world of crusading …, making good use of the wider debates about crusading strategy that were being stirred across Europe [and] firmly rooted in the evidence from the texts …[this book] pays welcome attention to the anxieties … expressed about the legitimacy of violence at a time when crusaders were rarely achieving their objectives’

David Abulafia Source: Times Literary Supplement

‘Scholars working on crusade history would do well to thoughtfully ponder the arguments presented in this book’

Thomas A. Fudge Source: Parergon

‘… will interest medievalists working on race, affect, and English crusade literature, and its capacious linguistic range of meticulously researched manuscripts and texts will also appeal more broadly to European historians of cultural encounter. It also dialogues with scholars working on postcolonial literature, decoloniality, and the longer histories of emotions, and will open up new avenues for nuanced transdisciplinary conversation’

Christine Chism Source: Modern Philology

‘Recommended.’

A. L. Kaufman Source: Choice

‘[This book] challenges a common tendency in medieval postcolonial criticism, which has often treated crusade literature primarily as an ideological instrument that naturalizes Christian superiority and authorizes violence against Islam. Elias does not dispute that these functions are present; he argues, however, that they coexist with pressures shaped by historical experience, above all military defeat and territorial loss … English Literature and the Crusades invites a reassessment of late medieval English romance as a genre shaped by unease and self-questioning, rather than by confidence and ideological assurance. The book also reframes how crusade literature is approached: it presents a corpus in which the limits of Christian identity and authority are repeatedly tested and shown to be unstable. For scholars of medieval Orientalism, crusade history, and the study of emotion, Elias offers excellent interpretative tools that can be applied beyond the texts discussed here.’

Omar Khalaf Source: SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature

‘The author’s major contribution is marked by the consistency of the lens he applies to familiar materials, more than by the novelty of the individual texts he discusses. Reverse Orientalism and anxiety together provide a framework that accounts for contradiction without forcing resolution. Elias’s central question is not whether medieval literature is Orientalist or tolerant, propagandistic or critical; it is how these romances register the pressures of historical failure and moral uncertainty. English Literature and the Crusades invites a reassessment of late medieval English romance as a genre shaped by unease and self-questioning, rather than by confidence and ideological assurance. The book also reframes how crusade literature is approached: it presents a corpus in which the limits of Christian identity and authority are repeatedly tested and shown to be unstable. For scholars of medieval Orientalism, crusade history, and the study of emotion, Elias offers excellent interpretative tools that can be applied beyond the texts discussed here.’

Omar Khalaf Source: The Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (SELIM)