The Cardiff Centre for the Crusades was established in 2000 to encourage and develop Cardiff University as a focus for research collaboration, conferences and publications in the field of crusading history.

It is based in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion.

The Centre’s interests embrace the history and ideology of the crusading movement, the history and archaeology of the lands conquered by the crusaders, the impact of the crusades on those lands and peoples against which expeditions were directed and from which expeditions were launched, and the history of the Military Orders.

All theatres of crusading activity and any crusade from the end of the eleventh century onwards are included.

Projects

Major research projects undertaken by members of the centre include the Walls of Medieval Ascalon project, directed by Denys Pringle in association with the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon (directors: Professor Lawrence Stager, University of Harvard, and Professor Daniel Master, Wheaton College) and the Council for British Research in the Levant, and also involving Frances Healy.

Peter Edbury

Peter Edbury led an AHRC-funded project to investigate the manuscript traditions and produce new editions of the Old French Continuations of William of Tyre and the related text known as La chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier. These narratives are fundamental for our understanding of the history of the Latin East in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

He has also completed a major project (in collaboration with Dr Nicholas Coureas of the Cyprus Research Centre, Nicosia) to produce an English translation with commentary of the so-called Chronique d’Amadi. This was published by the Cyprus  Research Centre in 2015.

Helen Nicholson

Helen Nicholson is researching the estates of the Knights Templar in England and Wales during the period 1308-1313, when they were being administered by royal officials. She has transcribed and analysed the records held in the National Archives: Public Record Office at Kew.

She is also engaged in research on the life of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (ruled 1186-1190) for a book in Routledge’s ‘Rulers of the Latin East’ series, and is writing a book on women in crusading, to be published by Oxford University Press.

Denys Pringle

Denys Pringle has completed the final report on the archaeological assessment of ‘Aqaba Castle that he conducted with the late Professor John De Meulemeester (University of Ghent) in 2001-04. He has also edited a volume of historical, archaeological and architectural studies on the Palestinian town of Ramla in the medieval and Ottoman periods with Andrew Petersen (University of Wales Trinity St Davids).