A wonderful, fully illustrated, retelling of the stories of the First, Third, and Eighth Crusades, narrated by a fictional "wandering Jew" (cursed to live until the Second Coming of Christ), this classic work takes the reader on an epic rollercoaster ride of the triumphs, tribulations, and ultimate defeat of the European counterattack against the rampant Muslim aggression which had seized the Christian lands in the Middle East.The author explains how the Islamic military conquest of huge areas of the Byzantine Empire sparked off the call to Crusade, and then weaves the story of some of the most famous characters and events of the Crusades. From the dizzying successes of the First Crusade-the siege and fall of Antioch and the fall of Jerusalem-to the recapture of Jerusalem by the Muslims, the reader will meet and understand the major characters of the time: Richard Lionheart, Duke Godfrey (the Norman warrior and first king of Jerusalem), Saladin and King Louis of France. The reader will also discover the full tragedy of the ill-fated "Children's Crusade" and much more in this enthralling book.