Katherine Pangonis

After the western soldiers of the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem in 1099, the city and surrounding territories were ruled by western European leaders for almost 100 years. Several of those leaders, unusually for the time, were women. The stories of these women are fascinating; they were powerful, strong willed women who at times managed to make their own marks in a very masculine society. The book is also interesting as a history of an exotic time and place which is rarely discussed in detail, with the focus on western Europen efforts to dominate. A good read.… (meer)