Crusades
The term "crusade" used in modern historiography at first referred to the wars in the Holy Land beginning in 1095, but the range of events to which the term has been applied has been greatly extended, so that its use can create a misleading impression of coherence, particularly regarding the early Crusades. The term used for the campaign of the First Crusade was "iter" "journey" or "peregrinatio" "pilgrimage". The terminology of crusading remained largely indistinguishable from that of pilgrimage during the 12th century, reflecting the reality of the first century of crusading where not all armed pilgrims fought, and not all who fought had taken the cross. It was not until the late 12th to early 13th centuries that a more specific "language of crusading" emerged. Pope Innocent III used the term "negotium crucis" "affair of the cross" for the Eastern Mediterranean crusade, but was reluctant to apply crusading terminology to the Albigensian crusade. The "Song of the Albigensian Crusade" from about 1213 contains the first recorded vernacular use of the Occitan "crozada". This term was later adopted into French as "croisade" and in English as "crusade". The modern spelling "crusade" dates to c. 1760. Sinibaldo Fieschi (the future pope Innocent IV) used the terms "crux transmarina" for crusades in Outremer against Muslims and "crux cismarina" for crusades in Europe against other enemies of the church. Medieval Armenian term for Crusades — xacˇ‘e˘nkalk‘.
Historiography of the Crusades
The historiography of the crusades has been a controversial topic since at least the Protestant Reformation.
The term "croisades" was first used to refer to the entire period from the First Crusade until the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in French historiography of the 17th century.
The 18th-century Enlightenment ideology as represented by Edward Gibbon and Voltaire held up the crusades as an example of medieval barbarism, while 19th-century Romantic nationalism tended to paint them in a heroic light, surrounding the crusades with an aura of romance and grandeur, of chivalry and courage. In the second half of the 20th century, western historiography again tended to be more critical of the crusades, following Steven Runciman (1951–4).
Popular opinion, influenced by general trends of decolonisation and critical theory tended to portray the crusades with a sense of "western guilt".
In early 21st literature, a "pluralist" view has become common which tends to generalize the concept of the crusades
to include other medieval military campaigns authorized by the church, such as the Northern Crusades, the Albigensian Crusade or the Reconquista.