From the inception of the crusades, organizers and papal letters sought to discourage certain groups from joining expeditions because they presented logistical challenges, including the aged, children, those both poor and infirm, and most women. However, many non-combatants nonetheless joined crusading armies, while most of Latin Christendom viewed 'crusading' as an activity intertwined with chivalry, dynastic memory, moral reform, and devotion. By the thirteenth century, reformers and popes alike stressed that every Latin Christian, including women, ought theoretically to contribute to the crusade effort, and spiritual rewards were offered to those involved in crusade recruiting and organization, in financing crusaders (either family members or proxies), and in the liturgies, prayers and processions mustered in support of crusading. Women and other non-combatants also played key roles as regents and guardians, as members of military or religious orders, and as financial backers of living crusaders and commemorators of those who participated in and potentially earned glory or martyrdom on a crusade campaign.

Drawing on evidence largely from elite women who possessed the financial resources to engage in these forms of crusading and most importantly, left material or written traces of their activities, Guy Reynolds raises several crucial questions. Did the departure of menfolk on crusade enable women to act as regents and wield power or were elite women already doing this anyway (and were therefore considered trustworthy and competent guardians)? Did crusading render women more vulnerable despite the legal privileges promised to those taking the cross and to their families? For example, court records reveal cases of violence and/or litigation involving those remaining at home and the problems posed by the disappearance, death or unexpected return of male crusaders. Reynolds' book reasserts the agency of women 'living in medieval England' who supported various crusades, while investigating their 'motivations, actions and perceptions'.

Reynolds first delineates the ubiquity of 'crusading culture' in daily life and material, written, and oral culture. Travellers, stories, poems, and songs commemorated the deeds of crusaders and made the image of the crusader departing from his loved ones a familiar one. The capture of Jerusalem by the first crusaders was celebrated by the construction, throughout England, of churches mirroring the physical form of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, while the exploits of famous biblical warriors such as the Maccabees and of previous crusaders were commemorated in wall paintings, tiles (including those at Chertsey), and tapestries. More tangible mementos of journeys to the East circulated in the form of seals, silks, relics, and battle souvenirs.

Following chapters explore the ways in which some popes, including Innocent III, enabled (or recognized) female participation in crusading by explicitly offering indulgences for those making donations and participating in processions and prayers. Somewhat controversially, Innocent III also waived the necessity of spousal consent for men wishing to take the cross. By the time of Innocent IV, the commonly held belief that the benefits of the crusader indulgence were transferable to other family members enabling the crusader's participation was officially confirmed: Ela, countess of Salisbury, believed her son's martyrdom on crusade benefitted not only him, but her, as his financial backer and spiritual mentor (57). While previous works on crusade sermons have stressed the depiction of women as potential obstacles to crusading, Reynolds points to Gerald of Wales and other authors who praised mothers and spouses who urged male relatives to participate in crusading or personally participated themselves. As the practice of enabling the redemption of one's crusade vow became more widespread (this entailed substituting works of devotion and financial contributions for the physical labor implied in joining a crusade expedition), written evidence for women taking the cross became more common. The question remains if women (and other categories traditionally discouraged from joining crusading armies) had been taking the cross all along, and the systematization of vow redemptions simply meant that more records of individuals commuting or redeeming their vows were kept.

As Reynolds stresses, the emphasis placed on papal letters and crusade sermons tends to obscure other perhaps more prevalent forms of recruitment, including the influence of peers, allies, and kin. Crusading was a costly business, and male participants mortgaged or sold lands, privileges, and rents to raise funds. Although some wives might have been threatened or coerced into alienating dower lands meant to support them if they were widowed, others appear to have consented to this as a form of spiritual investment or sometimes in return for compensation or additional securities. Some women joined crusade expeditions (or military orders) themselves or offered gifts of cash or land to male relatives or used the property or assets of an absent or deceased male relative to pay off their debts. Women proved resourceful enablers, acquiring property to provide liquid assets to fund others, taking out loans in order to circumvent the no-interest clauses that prevented some crusaders from raising travel funds, and facilitating dispute settlements.

Reynolds posits that these forms of assistance were probably motivated by a heady mix of spiritual rewards, family traditions, and personal prestige and salvation. Many elite families gifted lands to religious houses as lay patrons and requested prayers for departing crusaders and their female relatives. At least one woman, Annora, appears to have funded a couple to go to the Holy Land as proxy crusaders, then when only the non-combatant wife went on pilgrimage, worried that she might not receive the crusade indulgence offered to those funding fighters joining a crusade expedition (122-3). Crusading could also be a way for women to demonstrate largesse, and earn prestige and influence; some noble women, for example, subsidized male crusaders who were not their own kin.

Through gifts to religious houses, women ensured that both they and deceased crusaders were commemorated and spiritually benefitted through prayers and anniversary masses, revealing anxieties over the spiritual state of crusaders (155). Some women entered nunneries or hospitals not only as a form of social security and provision for retirement, but as a way of actively pursuing the imitation of Christ through care for the sick and poor and participating in the prayer believed essential for individual salvation and the success of any crusade campaign. Noble women also sponsored and consumed crusading literature, poetry, and illuminated Apocalypses (160-1). Family chapels and tombs visually embodied families' investment in crusading and preserved the memory of crusaders.

In short, Reynolds' book provides a powerful argument for viewing crusading as a cultural activity shared by noncombatants and combatants alike and it should force students and established scholars alike to reassess what crusading meant to those who participated in its many manifestations.

Jessalynn Bird