Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Villeins and Slaves
As I work on my research paper, I have noticed that some historical authors, especially ones from before the mid-twentieth century, tend to define the role of native peoples under crusader rule as being one of "villeins and slaves." Some even state "villains and slaves." At first I thought villein meant something similar to the modern word "villain." I was surprised, however, to learn that a villein was a type of serf, the most numerous type of serf to be exact. Aside from freemen, villeins had the most rights of any serf group. It was only when former serfs began to migrate to the growing urban centers of Europe that the term "villain" received its modern connotation. Also, villeinage had existed centuries before the crusades, indicating that it was not some new system solely designed to oppress the Muslims and other groups living in Palestine. Most of the sources that write the phrase as "villains and slaves" are openly anti-crusader and some are even anti-Christian (http://www.ftarchives.net/foote/crimes/c9.htm). I suppose it just shows how cautious one must be in taking sources' impartiality for granted.
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I checked out the link Joe posted and it's definitely a very emotional, slanted view of the Crusades. I feel that a lot of sources are going to be biased one way or another-- sometimes as blatantly as this, though that probably occurs more with primary sources-- and others that are a little more subtle in their prejudice. For example, the Madden book on the Crusades primarily focuses on the Crusades from the Christian perspective, which is perfectly fine. However, I feel as if the title, instead of being "The New Concise History of the Crusades" should be something like "The New Concise History of the Crusades from the Christian Point of View." Obviously that title is a little long, but my point is that the book should somewhere acknowledge (or, perhaps, acknowledge a little more clearly) that what it is describing is only one side of the saga.
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