Focusing particularly on the characters that drove this extraordinary campaign, and what drove them in turn, Tom Asbridge re-creates this fascinating period of history in a stunning narrative. Using the First Crusade as paradigm he then moves on to explore a range of themes and to challenge a number of assumptions -- among them the myth of well-armed crusader knights dominating the battlefield: in reality, poverty and starvation forced the knights of the First Crusade to chew dried pieces of leather and drink goats' blood for sustenance, while riding in to battle on oxen and donkeys. Compelling and enlightening in equal measure, and drawing on new research which has radically remoulded our understanding of the movement, THE FIRST CRUSADE is a major work by an outstanding young historian.