In this podcast, Nick Holmes, suggests that the Crusades formed part of amedieval world war that stretched from Asia to Europe. At its centre was the ancient empire Byzantium. Nick Holmes links three great events that changed history: the fall of Byzantium in the eleventh century, the epic campaign of the First Crusade and the origins of modern Turkey.

Nick Holmes not only presents the First Crusade in a wider global context but he also puts forwards new interpretations of the original sources, suggesting that its success was in fact largely accidental, and that the central role of Byzantium in the Crusades has been underestimated.

1. Pressures on the Byzantine Empire from the Seljuk Turks.
2. The Rise of Romanus Diogenes.
3. The Battle of Manzikert, capture, civil war and catastrophe.
4. 1095: the Plea to the West and the First Crusade.
5. Development of the First Crusade.
6. Jerusalem and the Fatimid Caliphate.
7. The Legacy of the First Crusade.

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