Dan Jones: Crusaders (1147)

Travels Through Time launches season two with a blockbuster journey through the Crusades with New York Times bestselling historian Dan Jones.

Dan draws on his latest book Crusaders, an epic history of the wars for the Holy Land and broader Christendom, to guide us back to 1147 and the launch of the Second Crusade.

We discover how, contrary to popular myth, the Crusades drew hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life and all parts of Medieval Europe, into a religious conflict spanning five centuries and three continents. 

‘When it comes to rip-roaring Medieval narratives, Jones has few peers’ The Sunday Times

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Scene One: June 1147: Amid great pageantry Louis VII of France and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine set out from Paris towards the Holy Land.

Scene Two: July 1147: A month later in Mecklenburg - modern Germany - another crusading army marches in its entirety against the Slavic tribespeople known as the Wends.

Scene Three: October 1147: As Louis closes on Constantinople and the first assaults on the Wends wind down for the winter, in Lisbon another crusading army is about to score a major victory.

Memento: A shard of the True Cross.

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Dan Jones

Producer: Maria Nolan

Titles: Jon O.

Editorial: Artemis Irvine

Digital Production: John Hillman

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