Communicating the Crusading Activity of the Kings of Navarre in the 14th and 15th Centuries

Abstract

The mediaeval historiographical memory of the Crusades in the Kingdom of Navarre is unique precisely because two of its monarchs, the Counts of Champagne—Theobald I and II—actively participated in the Crusader campaigns during 1239–1241 and in 1270, respectively. Despite the importance of the Crusades which, starting from the early twelfth century, also encompassed the connection of this kingdom with Jerusalem’s paradigms of the warrior and religious pilgrimage, it can be asserted that there are scarcely any traces of narrative communication in Navarre about the Crusades, either politically or ideologically. This paper analyses the question of documentation and communication about the Crusades from the study of the chronicles of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Late Middle Ages. The purpose is to identify the characteristics and keys of the texts, dissimilar to the welcoming impact of the Crusades in Hispanic and European political, cultural and religious spheres.