An accessible and authoritativei history of the crusading knights, in ancient palestine and on the European Crusades: the lands they lost and won, the kingdoms they established, the inspiration and religious fervour that motivated them, and the controversies that sill surround them. An unparalleled visual account of the time of the crusades, a unique movement that had a lasting impact on the social structure of medieval Europe, and the Islamic world. Features the larger-than-life knights of the first crusades, such as Bohemond of Taranto, Robert of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred Prince of Galilee, Frederick II, and Richard the Lionheart. Gives special attention to the rise and fall of the religious orders of the knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, and how they developed from warrior monks into powerful military forces.