first, 1096-1099

Cartoons and facts combine to describe the experiences of European knights fighting in the Crusades, covering the reasons men became Crusaders, how they prepared to leave home, what kind of armor and weapons they used, what the Turks were like and what they were fighting for, and how battles were fought.

Brief text, sidebars, labeled illustrations, and humorous cartoons describe the life and duties of a young Christian knight.

Story of a French nobleman who leaves all behind in order to participate in a holy crusade during which he is plagued by guilt for abandoning his wife and participating in a mission marked by betrayal, deceit, and greed.

Murdo Ranulfson, left at home to guard his family's interests while his father and brothers go off to fight in the Crusades in 1095, is forced to embark on a dangerous pilgrimage of his own when his family's land is seized by a greedy king and corrupt clergy.

Ursula, condemned as a witch because of her knowledge of healing, escapes being burned to death when she joins her father and thousands of others who follow Peter the Hermit on the first Crusade from Cologne to Jerusalem in 1096.

Presents chronologically arranged primary and secondary source articles that examine some of the major political, social, and cultural events of the eleventh century.

In 1096, Anna, a German Catholic girl, and Leah, a German Jewish girl, strike up a remarkable friendship and make surprising discoveries about each other.

In 1097 Troyes, France, fourteen-year-old Elvina reaches out to a shunned family of German Jews, eventually drawing her grandfather, Bible and Talmud scholar Solomon ben Isaac, into helping her new friend's cousin Ephraim, whose memories of the Crusaders' cruelty have driven him mad.

Richard the Lionheart rides off on a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem from the infidels, leaving his country vulnerable to an unknown power that has brought down the wall between worlds and threatens to destroy all of England.