For most of history, religion and war have been the most powerful social instincts of mankind and its chief collective activities. In the crusades, they combined to create a movement of great emotional power, which convulsed Europe in the 12th century and retained its appeal to the military classes until the end of the Middle Ages.
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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £20 Tel: 08430 600033. Jonathan Sumption is a justice of the Supreme Court, and is writing a history of the Hundred Years War, volume four of which was reviewed in our 29 August issue.
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