A New Book

I managed to get my hands on the Crusades: 1095-1197 by Jonathan Phillips. In this, he gives an overall summary of each of the crusades within his title's period. They are quite in-depth and certainly confirm the knowledge I previously had through my AS study of history, however there are some key facts I will likely refer to such as: Richard having killed 3,000 Muslim soldiers (in contrast to Saladin's generosity albeit he did kill knights after the battle of Hattin) or how Conrad was assassinated and many blamed Richard.

In short, this is a usefully concise book that even has a segment dedicated to a short conclusion of the Third Crusade - assessing the validity of claiming it to be a failure. The belief I hold is that it succeeded in some areas despite failing its ultimate goal of retaking Jerusalem; certainly it was a success compared to the other later Crusades - one of which consisted of women and children!

Reading Asbridge

Asbridge's Work:

Decided to borrow a book from a friend about the Crusades, mainly looking for interesting stories or information that might engage the students. Information like how Conrad - a prominent figure in the Second Crusade - took part in the First Crusade's Third Wave, led by Stephen of Blois. Stephen was defeated in battle and Conrad was allowed to leave the battle alive as he fought valiantly (these figures being important to the First and Second Crusades).

The book is titled the Crusade:  the war for the holy land by Thomas Asbridge. He is widely regarded as an excellent source and even my former teacher approved of this particular book, offering it many times for revision. This is my first time looking throughout the book and noticeably there are some key photographs I can refer to: the images of the maps and routes of the Crusaders will likely feature in my video, meanwhile the pictures of artwork depicting Saladin and Richard and other key figures will certainly be worthwhile for reference.

Certain facts that appear interesting within the Third Crusade:

• Saladin allegedly send fruit and snow to Richard when the King was ill with fever, the snow coming from the mountain and was to be melted into water. Additionally, Saladin had allegedly sent some of his men to deliver a horse to Richard - after seeing the Crusading King has lost his in battle. These actions were bred out of Muslim beliefs (the idea of helping those in need), however many like to believe it was also out of a profound respect between the two leaders. Saladin's chivalry and good character often being brought into Western writing; he even began to build  hospitals in areas he conquered such as Egypt, even denying his men the (then) convention of plundering and pillaging cities he captured. There are some out there that believe he used this as a means of spying on the Crusaders and, in fact, Saladin did discover Richard's forces had dwindled to 2,000 fit soldiers and 50 fit knights to use in battle (according to some research I did). Richard would not have been able to take Jerusalem with this number of men.
• While marching from Acre to Haifa, Richard decided to join the rear of his forces in an attempt to maintain morale and supervise equipment and other means of care and health. This followed after the Crusading forces had split into three, one division under Hugh of Burgundy - as appointed by Philip. A small force of Saracens had attacked the vanguard and word quickly spread to the back where Richard was; accounts claim he galloped to the frontlines like a "lightning bolt" to which morale was boosted.

There are likely more facts that might be interesting like these, however these will likely suffice. I will certainly include reference to Asbridge's work however the narrative presented in his work is too detailed for my video; I will be providing a concise overview of the chronological events however focusing on an ultimate question might be more beneficial to my work, allowing for a clear focus. Below is a picture of Asbridge:

Crusader Appearances

The Crusaders:

I attempted to gain a better understanding of medieval armour by looking at historical illustrations depicting the Crusades and various battles. One such image comes from looking into the Battle of Nicopolis, while it isn't the Third Crusade I am sure the armour will at least be somewhat similar. Additionally, I have noted that these images are not likely going to be accurate due to the art style at the time often being out of proportion or not based within reality.

Some of the patterns in coifs and the size of certain objects in regards to the people depicted raise some questions. Additionally, the likelihood of these images truly encapsulating what the battles looked like is not high; most of these artworks were produced years after the events and not necessarily by people who were there.

With this in mind, I have noticed a trend in that many use nasal helms and a variety of coifs - mail armour being the most common. Tunics are typically worn over the crusaders as to distinguish them however there does appear to be some use of plate armour; it is unlikely all would have used plate armour but certainly gambesons and mail would have been more common. Now these facts mainly apply to the Christians and so I looked to the Muslim side.

The Muslims:

Muslims at the time typically wore (according to a website I found)

Head

Turbans are often wound around presumably conical helmets. Other headgear worn included fluted helmets, low or tall conical helmets without turbans, mail coifs, and brimmed hats or war hats (Nicolle, 327 and 806).

Torso

Muslims also used mail hauberks as their primary defense in hand to hand combat, and for their heavy cavalry. It seems, however, that the bulk of the Muslim army consisted of light cavalry which may have worn only a padded overcoat instead of the mail hauberk (Nicolle xix, Hurley 141).

Arms and Legs

Large riding boots or overshoes were worn by the Islamic cavalry. These were loose enough to fit a small weapon inside. They were often worn in conjunction with the Saq, the Islamic version of the chausses. Cavalry wore additional leggings above the boot known as Ran, a piece of armour comparable to the European cuisses. These were tied to the waist-belt and could be made of iron as well as other materials (Nicolle, 618-619).

Shields

Shields were predominantly round in shape with a boss in the middle.

Logstics of Drawing

Digital drawing of the frames for the animatic would certainly be great, making the visuals really pop-out. Additionally, these digital drawings could be colour-filled and save time with colouring frames being easier; the colouring of images would certainly make the video more engaging and better distinguish characters from one another. In fact, I have the correct software to draw up these illustrations and colour them - either using Photoshop, Flash or Illustrator.

With this in mind, I do have to acknowledge the time constraints I am presented with. I do not have a drawing tablet and so drawing by mouse would take much longer (as it is difficult). One method of overcoming such an issue might be to draw all of the frames by hand and scan them digitally - or photograph them. Essentially this would allow for faster drawing of certain cells but the scanning requires the use of the school library, something that might be an issue due to the times it is open not necessarily coinciding with my frees; scanning in bulk might be a better option although if need be I will just photograph the illustrations and upload them digitally (despite the lowered quality of this method).
An issue this would present is that I cannot digitally colour these frames, it would require me to draw over and trace the frames digitally. This would certainly be easier given the issue of drawing with a mouse, as I would be given a guideline to follow in each frame. The issue here would again be the time constraints. However, by uploading hand-drawn illustrations, I can at least provide a provisional final product - improving with the digital tracing if I have time.