Rhetoric and Reality: Latin Christian Unity during the First Crusade

This thesis focuses on Latin Crusader unity, or the lack thereof, during the First Crusade.\ud Letters written during the First Crusade show that crusaders used rhetoric of unity to\ud affirm superiority over their enemy, to dissolve differences between one another, and to\ud justify the warfare. The reality of the First Crusade, however, consisted of disunity\ud between crusaders and amongst the leadership. This division developed after a drawn out\ud battle over the city of Antioch and the death of the religious leader and papal legate,\ud Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy. The emotional trauma in 1098, along with supply shortages\ud and survival mentality, altered crusader attitudes and motives during the last year of war.\ud Crusaders reclaimed Jerusalem in 1099 and used new territory to project political,\ud military, and cultural influence in the eastern Mediterranean region. This thesis argues\ud that the rhetoric of unity outlasted the disunity crusaders experienced and formed a new\ud identity by which Latin Christians would use to justify future Crusades. Over the course\ud of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Church would engage in over a dozen more\ud Crusades against cultural and political enemies