Lionheart

or the whole cross, on which Christ was crucified at Calvary, these were said to be housed in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Around 1009, Christians in Jerusalem hid part of the cross and it remained hidden until the city was taken by the European knights of the First Crusade. Arnulf of Chocques, the first Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, had the Greek Orthodox priests who were in possession of the cross tortured in order to reveal its position. The relic that Arnulf discovered was a small fragment of wood embedded in a golden cross, and it became the most sacred relic of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was housed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre under the protection of the Latin Patriarch, who marched with it ahead of the army before every battle.

It was captured by Saladin during the Battle of Hattin, in 1187. While some Christian rulers, including Richard the Lionheart, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus and Tamar, Queen of Georgia, sought to ransom it from Saladin, the cross was not returned and subsequently disappeared from historical records. However, several fragments of the cross are claimed to be genuine in many Christian places of worship – so much so that, at the end of the Middle Ages, the radical theologian John Calvin said that if all the pieces of the True Cross were to be added together, a ship could be made from the timber.

TURCOPOLES

From the Greek, meaning ‘sons of Turks’, they were locally recruited mounted archers employed by the Christian states of the Eastern Mediterranean. The crusaders first encountered Turcopoles in the Byzantine army during the First Crusade. These auxiliaries were the children of mixed Greek and Turkish parentage and were at least nominally Christian, although some may have been practising Muslims. The Turcopoles served as light cavalry providing skirmishers, scouts and mounted archers, and sometimes rode as a second line in a charge, to back up the Frankish knights and sergeants.

UMAYYAD CALIPHATE

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was based on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca.

VARANGIAN GUARD

The elite bodyguard of the emperors of Byzantium for several hundred years. They were well-paid mercenaries who also shared in the booty of the Emperor’s victories, thus the Guard could attract the finest warriors. Most were drawn from Scandinavia and were often referred to as the ‘Axemen of the North’. Their loyalty was legendary, as was their ferocity. It is thought many of Harold of England’s surviving housecarls joined the Guard after the Battle of Senlac Ridge, in 1066.

VELLUM

Vellum is derived from the Latin word vitulinum, meaning ‘made from calf’, leading to the Old French velin (calfskin). Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is a near-synonym of the word ‘parchment’, but ‘vellum’ tends to be the term used for finer-quality parchment.

VENTAIL

See ‘hauberk’.

VILLEIN

Villein was a term used in the feudal era to denote a peasant (tenant farmer) who was legally tied to a lord of the manor. Villeins thus occupied the social space between a free peasant (freeman) and a slave. The majority of medieval European peasants were villeins. An alternative term is ‘serf’, from the Latin servus (slave). A villein could not leave the land without the landowner’s consent. The term derives from Late Latin villanus, meaning a man employed at a Roman villa or large agricultural estate

WIMPLE

A wimple is a garment worn around the neck and chin, which usually covers the head. Its use developed among women in early medieval Europe. At many stages of medieval culture it was thought to be unseemly for a married woman to show her hair. A wimple might be elaborately starched, creased and folded in prescribed ways, or supported on a wire or wicker frame (cornette).

Genealogies

HOUSE OF WESSEX The English Monarchy from the House of Wessex to the Plantagenets

THE ELEVENTH- AND TWELFTH-CENTURY EMPERORS OF BYZANTIUM

Comnenian Dynasty

1081–1118: Alexius I Comnenus

1118–1143: John II Comnenus (the Beautiful)

1143–1180: Manuel I Comnenus (the Great)

1180–1183: Alexius II Comnenus

1183–1185: Andronicus I Comnenus

Angelus Dynasty

1185–1195: Isaac II Angelus

1195–1203: Alexius III

THE TWELFTH-CENTURY PRINCES OF ANTIOCH

1098–1111: Bohemond I (Tancred, Prince of Galilee, regent, 1100–1103; 1105–1112)

1111–1130: Bohemond II (Roger of Salerno, regent, 1112–1119) (Baldwin II of Jerusalem, regent, 1119– 1126; 1130–1131)

1130–1136: Constance (Fulk of Jerusalem, regent, 1131–1136)

1136–1149: Raymond of Poitiers (by marriage)

1153–1160: Raynald of Chatillon (by marriage)

1163–1201: Bohemond III (Raymond of Tripoli, regent, 1193–1194)

THE TWELFTH-CENTURY KINGS OF JERUSALEM

1099–1100: Godfrey (Protector of the Holy Sepulchre)

1100–1118: Baldwin I

1118–1131: Baldwin II

1131–1153: Melisende (with Fulk of Anjou until 1143; with Baldwin III from 1143)

1131–1143: Fulk of Anjou (with Melisende)