Crusading Couple

One dynamic of the Crusades that is often overlooked is the couple. Spouses were frequently separated when husbands "took the cross" and marched for Palestine. The wives were left with a choice; join their Crucinatius (Crusader) husbands or remain behind to tend to their lands. Some women joined in the arduous journey and put themselves at great peril to remain with their husbands. Others fearing the failure of the expeditions to the East stayed and waited with great longing for their beloved's return. In the painting I've chosen for this post you can see a two fold expression. First there is the Crusader, the brash youth offering his sword to the Lord and looking at the altar with awe in his eyes. In contrast his wife is solemn and her lids convey a heaviness of heart; that in her prayers she petitions the Almighty to bring her beloved safely home. Crusading was very much a man's movement. It brought great prestige to knights who came from humble origins. The Crusade was a pious pilgrimage that changed chevaliers from corrupt causes into Christ's milites.

The knight featured in the romantic painting stirs us. We all seek to show great devotion to our Lord and Savior. However, the face of the maiden should not be ignored. Each choice we make has echoes and ripples that impact the entire social sea around us. Crusaders were right to fight for their Greek brethren and to route the invasion of the Turk, but it would come at a cost. Some Crucinati returned in one piece. They reunited with their brides and resumed their life as it had been before the Pope's Bull. The Crusader returns from his adventure to find his family and the comforts of home. Yet the Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) is not the same. He has waged war in the arid desert and assailed foes who do not resemble the men of Europe. The Crucinatius has changed and his wife in waiting will know it. She has been preparing for another man to sit at the table, a stranger to sleep in her bed. She knows that the brash and zealous young man she knew will be replaced by older and more hardened husband. Their love will not have grown cold, but these two souls will have to learn about each other and accept the changes.

Crusading is a very romantic image, a knight in mail with a brazen cross on his breastplate and his vow to fight the enemy in foreign lands. It can stir up emotions and make us aspire to greatness. However, that is merely one side of the cross. The other is sacrifice. The maiden in the painting shows that sacrifice; she must mourn the hours that will separate her from her love. In like turn the knight will be tested on the battlefield, proving if his piety holds true when the sowing of colorful cloth and shining metal is over. He will be thrust into a conflict, where blood, bone, and bile will taint the white of his tunic. The romance ends when the lance bends and blood descends. In times of peace I'm sure this Crusader thought he could return to his home and kiss the pale cheek of his princess. However, the attire of this knight denotes that he may have become a Templar Knight and thus forsaken his life and wife back home. Perhaps that is why the woman's eyes seem heavy, her love has become a warrior monk.