Professor Peter Edbury 

Contact Details

Cardiff School of History and Archaeology
Cardiff University
Humanities Building
Colum Road
Cardiff CF10 3EU

Email: edbury@cf.ac.uk

Background

When and where did you initially develop an interest in the history of the crusades and/or the Latin East?

As a 1st year undergraduate at St Andrews University.

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm for the subject?

Reading Runciman and lectures from Jonathan Riley-Smith.

Education

Please provide details of your Higher Education, including dates, institution(s) and the name(s) of your research supervisors.

St Andrews 1966-70 (MA Medieval History – 1st class hons)
St Andrews 1966-73 PhD - Supervisor: de iure Lionel Butler; de facto Jonathan Riley-Smith
PhD examined and awarded 1974

Career History

Please provide details of your academic career history, including confirmation of your current institutional affiliation and contact details.

1973-77 – Research lecturer, Christ Church Oxford
1977 – present Cardiff University (personal chair since 2000)

Influences and Methodologies

What ideas and/or methodologies have informed your approach to your research?

I have always been more interested in the sources themselves and how to approach them than in the views of other modern scholars.

In so far as I have any idealogically based approaches, I suppose I was influenced by the approaches to history espoused by AJ Ayer and his disciples that were fashionable in the late 1960s.

Research Outlook

What do you consider to be the most important avenues for future research in the field of crusader studies?

Preparing new editions of the sources and seeing what ‘spin offs’ such enquiry produces.  (So well done Sue Edgington!!)

Bridging the gaps between what are often seen as separate disciples: history and archaeology (eg the work of Denys Pringle); history and literary studies (eg the work of Helen Nicholson).

Investigation of sources not in western languages (chiefly Arabic but also Armenian etc);  I am worried by the dearth of younger scholars in the UK who are interested in the crusades and who have a sufficient knowledge of Arabic.

There are too many textbooks and general histories.  Can we have a moratorium for the next 20 years?

Research Output

Please provide details of your research output, including publications and other media as appropriate.

Books
  • John of Ibelin, Le Livre des Assises, ed by Peter Edbury (Leiden: Brill, 2003), xii + 854 pp
  • Editor (with Jonathan Phillips): The Experience of Crusading. 2: Defining the Crusader Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, 2003), xvi + 311 pp  
  • Guillaume de Machaut, The Capture of Alexandria, translated by Janet Shirley. Introduction and notes by Peter Edbury (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), x + 218 pp  
  • Kingdoms of the Crusaders: from Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Variorum Collected Studies, 1999), 350 pp  
  • John of Ibelin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), xviii + 222 pp  
  • The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996), x + 196 pp (paperback edition 1999) 
  • The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374 (Cambridge University Press, 1991), xviii + 241 pp (paperback edition 1993) (Greek translation by Angel Nicolaou-Konnari. Athens: Papademas, 2003. 533 pp ).
  • William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East (Cambridge University Press, 1988), x + 187 pp (paperback edition 1991) (with JG Rowe, University of Western Ontario)
  • Editor: Crusade and Settlement: Papers read at the First Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East and presented to RC Smail (University College Cardiff Press, 1985), xii + 281 pp  
  • Editor (with DM Metcalf): Coinage in the Latin East: the Fourth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 77, 1980), iv + 148 pp
Chapters commissioned for Collaborative Works
  • 'Franks’, in A Nicolaou-Konnari and C Schabel (eds), Cyprus, Society and Culture, 1191-1374 (Leiden, Brill, 2005), 63-101.
  • 'The Crusades' in Crusades: Myth and Realities, ed Y Toumazis et al (Nicosia 2004), pp 47-57.
  • 'Christians and Muslims in the Eastern Mediterranean', in MCE Jones (ed), The New Cambridge Medieval History vol 6, c 1300 - c 1415 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp 864-84. 
  • 'The Crusader States', in DSH Abulafia (ed), The New Cambridge Medieval History vol 5, c 1198 - c 1300 (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp 590-606. 
  • 'Crusading Warfare', in MH Keen (ed), Medieval Warfare: A History. (Oxford: OUP, 1999), pp 89-112 (papberback edition, 2001). 
  • 'Cyprus at the Crossroads: Crusaders and Pilgrims' and 'The Medieval Kingdom of Cyprus', in D Papanikola-Bakirtzis and M Iacovou (eds), Vizantini Mesaioniki Kypros (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus, 1997), pp 27-44 (In Greek). English edition entitled Byzantine Medieval Cyprus (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus 1998). 
  • 'The Latin East, 1291-1669', in J Riley-Smith (ed), The Oxford History of the Crusades (Oxford University Press, 1995), pp 294-325. 
  • 'The Political History of the Medieval Kingdom from the reign of King Hugh IV to the reign of King Janus (1324-1432)' and 'The Later Lusignans, 1432-1489', in Th Papadopoullos (ed), History of Cyprus (Nicosia: Archbishop Makarios III Foundation, 1995), vol 4(a), pp 51-158, 177-258. (In Greek) 
  • 'Cypriot Society under Lusignan Rule', in D and I Hunt (eds), Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (London: Trigraph, 1989), pp 17-34.

Articles

  • 'Women and the Customs of the High Court of Jerusalem according to John of Ibelin', in D Coulon, C Otten-Froux, P Pagès and D Valérian (eds), Chemins d'Outre-mer: études d'histoire sur la Méditerranée médiévale offertes à Michel Balard (Paris, 2004), pp 285-92.
  • ‘Reading John of Jaffa' in The Experience of Crusading 2: Defining the Crusader Kingdom, edited by Peter Edbury and Jonathan Phillips (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp 135-57. 
  • 'Fiefs and Vassals in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: from the Twelfth Century to the Thirteenth', Crusades, 1 (2002), pp 49-62. 
  • 'Latins and Greeks on Crusader Cyprus', in Nora Berend and DSH Abulafia (eds), Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp 133-42.
  • 'The Military Orders in Cyprus in the Light of Recent Scholarship', in Z Hunyadi and J Laszlovsky (eds), The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Latin Christianity (Budapest: Central European University, 2001), pp 101-7. 
  • 'Philip of Novara and the Livre de forme de plait ', in A Papageorgiou (ed), Praktika tou tritou diethnous kyprologikou sunedriou (Lefkosia, 16-20 Apriliou 1966), 2 (Nicosia: Etaireia Kupriakou Spoudou, 2001), pp 555-69. 
  • 'Redating the death of King Henry I of Cyprus?', in M Balard, BZ Kedar, J Riley-Smith (eds), Dei Gesta Per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédeées à Jean Richard (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp 339-48. 
  • 'The De Montforts in the Latin East', in M Prestwich, R Britnell, R Frame (eds), Thirteenth Century England, 8 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2001), pp 23-31. 
  • 'Cyprus in the 19th century: perceptions and politics' in V Tatton-Brown (ed), Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction (Oxford: Oxbow, 2001), pp 13-20. 
  • 'Some Cultural Implications of the Latin Conquest of Cyprus', in J Kouloumides (ed), Cyprus: The Legacy. Historic Landmarks that Influenced the Art of Cyprus: Late Bronze Age to AD 1600 (U Maryland Press, 1999), pp 99-110'. 
  • 'Castles, towns and rural settlements in the Crusader kingdom', Medieval Archaeology, 42 (1999), pp 191-3. 
  • 'The State of Research: Cyprus under the Lusignans and Venetians, 1991-1998', Journal of Medieval History, 25 (1999), pp 57-65. 
  • 'The Knights of Saint John and Warfare in the Latin East, c 1130-1291', St John Historical Society Proceedings, 10 (1998), pp 19-30. 
  • 'Fiefs, vassaux et servise militaire dans le royaume latin de Jérusalem', in M Balard and A Ducellier (eds), Le Partage du Monde: échanges et colonisation dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Paris: Sorbonne, 1998), pp 141-50. 
  • 'The Livre des Assises by John of Jaffa: the Development and Transmission of the Text', in J France and WG Zajac (eds), The Crusades and their Sources: Essays presented to Bernard Hamilton (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp 164-174. 
  • 'John of Jaffa and the Kingdom of Cyprus', Epeterida tou Kentrou Epistimonikon Erevnon, 19 (1997), pp 15-26. 
  • 'Famagusta Society ca 1300 from the Registers of Lamberto di Sambuceto', in HE Mayer (ed), Die Kreuzfahrerstaaten als multikulturelle Gesellschaft. Die Rolle der Einwanderer in Kirche, Staat, Verwaltung, Wirtschaft und Kultur (Munich: R Oldenbourg Verlag, 1997), pp 87-95. 
  • 'The Lyon Eracles and the Old French Continuations of William of Tyre', in BZ Kedar, J Riley-Smith and R Hiestand (eds), Montjoie: Studies in the Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer (Aldershot: Variorum, 1997), pp 139-53. 
  • 'The Genoese Community in Famagusta around the year 1300: a historical vignette', in L Balletto (ed), Oriente e Occidente tra Medioevo ed Etaà Moderna: Studi in orore di Geo Pistarino (Genoa: Glauco Brigati, 1997), pp 235-44.
  • 'Preaching the Crusade in Wales', in A Haverkamp and H Vollrath (eds), England and Germany in the High Middle Ages (Oxford University Press for the German Historical Institute, 1996), pp 221-33. 
  • 'Law and Custom in the Latin East: Les Letres dou Sepulcre', in B Arbel (ed), Intercultural Contacts in the Medieval Mediterranean: Studies in Honour of David Jacoby (London: Frank Cass, 1996), pp 71-9. 
  • 'Le régime des Lusignan en Chypre et la population locale', in A Ducellier and M Balard (eds), Coloniser au Moyen Age (Paris: Armand Colin, 1995), pp 354-8, 364-5.
  • 'Famagusta in 1300', in N Coureas and J Riley-Smith (eds), Cyprus and the Crusades (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 1995), pp 337-53. 
  • 'The Aftermath of Defeat: Lusignan Cyprus and the Genoese, 1374-1382', in Les Lusignans et l'Outre Mer (Poitiers: Conseill Regional Poitou-Charentes and the Université de Poitiers, 1995), pp 132-40. 
  • 'The Templars in Cyprus', in M Barber (ed), The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, (Aldershot: Variorum, 1994), pp 189-95. 
  • 'Two Thirteenth-century Manuscripts of Crusader Legal Texts from Saint-Jean d'Acre', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 57 (1994), pp 243-54 and plates 31-3. (with Professor Jaroslav Folda, University of N Carolina at Chapel Hill). 
  • The Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus and its Muslim Neighbours (Nicosia, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 1993), 26 pp Reissued in Kupros apo tin proistoria stous neoterous chronous (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 1995), pp 223-42. 
  • 'Propaganda and Faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin', in M Shatzmiller (ed), Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria (Leiden: EJ Brill, 1993), pp 173-89. 
  • 'Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century English Perspectives', in M Gervers (ed), The Second Crusade and the Cistercians (New York: St Martin's Press, 1992), pp 163-9. 
  • 'The Medieval Kingdom of Cyprus', Medieval History, 2 (1992), pp 86-91. 
  • 'The "Livre" of Geoffrey le Tor and the "Assises" of Jerusalem' in MJ Peláez (ed), Historia administrativa y ciencia de la administración comparada. Trabajos en homenaje a Ferran Valls i Taberner, vol 15 (Barcelona: Promociones Publicaciones Universitarias, 1990), pp 4291-98. 
  • 'La classe des propriétaires terriens franco-chypriotes et l'exploitation des ressources rurales de l'île de Chypre', in M Balard (ed), Etat et colonisation au Moyen Age (Lyon: La Manufacture, 1989), pp 145-52. 
  • 'Chronicles of the Crusade: William of Tyre', History Today, 38 (1988), pp 24-8. 
  • 'William of Tyre: a Historian of the Crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (c 1130-84)', Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, 35 (1987), pp 43-52.
  • 'Cyprus and Genoa: the Origins of the War of 1373-4', in Th Papadopoullos and B Englezakis (eds), Praktika tou Deuterou Diethnous Kupriologikou Sunedriou, 2 (Nicosia: Etaireia Kupriakou Spoudou, 1986), pp 109-26. 
  • 'John of Ibelin's Title to the County of Jaffa and Ascalon', English Historical Review, 98 (1983), pp 115-33. 
  • 'The Murder of King Peter I of Cyprus (1359-1369)', Journal of Medieval History, 6 (1980), pp 219-33. 
  • 'The Baronial Coinage of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem' and 'A Note on the Repayment of Loans in Mid Thirteenth-century Acre', in p W Edbury and DM Metcalf (eds), Coinage in the Latin East (Oxford, 1980), pp 59-72, 123-6. 
  • 'The Disputed Regency of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1264/6 and 1268', Camden Miscellany, 27 (1979) (= Camden 4th series, vol 22), pp 1-47. 
  • 'William of Tyre and the Patriarchal Election of 1180', English Historical Review, 93 (1978), pp 1-25. (with JG Rowe). 
  • 'The "Cartulaire de Manosque": a Grant to the Templars in Latin Syria and a Charter of King Hugh I of Cyprus', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 51 (1978), pp 174-81. 
  • 'Latin Dioceses and Peristerona: a Contribution to the Topography of Lusignan Cyprus', Epeteris tou Kentrou Epistimonikon Erevnon, 8 (Nicosia, 1978), pp 45-51. 
  • 'The Crusading Policy of King Peter I of Cyprus', in PM Holt (ed), The Eastern Mediterranean Lands in the Period of Crusades (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1977), pp 90-105. 
  • 'Feudal Obligations in the Latin East', Byzantion, 47 (1977), pp 328-56.
  • 'The Ibelin Counts of Jaffa: a Previously Unknown Passage from the "Lignages d'Outremer"', English Historical Review, 89 (1974), pp 604-10.

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