This volume is concerned, above all, with the legal background and the juristic issues behind the ideology and practice of the medieval Crusades. This is an area that the author was the first to investigate systematically, and there are two particular reasons for his approach: one, the conviction that the historical phenomenon of the Crusades can only be adequately understood within the context of the legal systems that permeated the age; the other, that so much of the documentary evidence " be it charters, decrees even chronicles " was produced by people whose perceptions had been shaped by the law. A number of articles focus on the roles of individual crusaders, or address ideological questions, including the very concept of Holy War. Others deal with practical issues and the nature of the obligations incurred by a crusader, and examine the consequences these had, both for the institutions of medieval Europe and for the crusader's own family relationships. Ce recueil s'attache avant tout au contexte l gal et aux questions juridiques qui se trouvent la base de l'id ologie et de la pratique des Croisades au Moyen Age. L 'auteur a t le premier entreprendre des recherches de fa on syst matique dans ce domaine; deux raisons pr cises sont l'origine de cette d marche premi rement, la conviction que seule la connaissance du contexte des syst mes l gaux dont l' poque tait impr gn e, permet de bien comprendre le ph nom ne historique des Croisades; deuxi mement, le fait que quantit de documents " temoins " chartes, d crets, ou encore chroniques " sont l'oeuvre de gens dont la perception tait grandement influenc e par la loi. Un nombre d' tudes se concentrent sur la r le individuel de certains crois s, ou s'adressent des questions d'id ologie, y compris le concept m ame de la Guerre Sainte. D'autre traitent de questions d'ordre pratique, ainsi que de la nature des engagements contract s par le crois ; ils en examinent le
