Knight with Armour

by Alfred Duggan

Book Overview

Follow a young knight into the First Crusades-and up to the citadel of Jerusalem itself--with the best historical novel to tackle that epic story. Impoverished and naive, during the three-year journey... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0304362204
• ISBN13: 9780304362202
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Cassell
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Gritty Portrayal of the First Crusade

Duggan's novel tracks the development of the second son of a minor Norman noble on the First Crusade from his home in England to the walls of Jerusalem. The hero is not trained as a knight, and his education at the hands of fellow Crusaders and his enemies. The perspective of tracking the crusade from the viewpoint of a landless second son provides Duggan with two advantages. First, he's able to flesh out the details of life on the First Crusade that really don't come out in most books about the time. His portrayal appears entirely accurate to my amateur eye. Second, the young age of the knight enables him to structure the tale around the development of the knight. He matures from a young man who has no real appreciation for the impact of his feudal oath to a more mature figure who not only appreciates the cost of the oath but actively chooses to uphold the oath despite that cost.

Accurate crusader historical fiction

Really only four stars but there is so little competition for historically accurate crusader fiction. Be aware, I read this book over a year ago. The only reason I'm reviewing it is that no one else has. Knight with Armor is a fictitious chronicle of an idealistic, low ranking, second born knight who "takes up the cross" (i.e. goes on crusade) for the first crusade. The disadvantage of this tactic: at times the book does drag but it's really the inevitable consequence of focusing on a knight rather than a noble: parts of the three year trek were boring. However, I applaud that focus since it's more representative of what more people on the crusade experienced. All too often, authors focus on the leaders of an era which prevents readers from discovering what life was like for the masses. I'm quite the crusader buff and have read a great deal of the historical texts (even some translated primary texts) but didn't get my degree in crusader history. Having said that, I consider the text quite historically accurate: there are no painfully glaring errors and Duggan even includes several details less emphasized in most texts: the importance of San Simeon during the siege of Antioch, etc. Focusing on a lesser knight brings a more common (not commoner) perspective but risks missing the factions within the crusaders. Duggan uses two ploys to overcome this. First, the protagonist takes an ambitious noble wife who's original husband dies during the crusades: enter the higher level ranks of society and the realities of attrition and women. Second, the protagonist's cousin a Norman under Bohemond. Duggan is able to cover the political factions of the first crusade while not focusing on the nobles themselves. The ending is rather abrupt. SPOILER: Being rather familiar with the history, I was confused: I was nearing the end of the book and could tell Duggan didn't have enough time left to finish the conquest of Jerusalem... you figure it out.