This Special Subject focuses on the rich corpus of primary source material available for studying the First Crusade (1095-99). By any reckoning, the First Crusade was a seminal event in world history. It inaugurated the brand of Christian Holy War known as the crusades, and resulted in the establishment of a Latin presence in the Holy Land that lasted for two centuries. The success of the First Crusade astounded medieval observers, and a wealth of sources relating to the expedition were produced by contemporaries and near-contemporaries. Students who take this Special Subject will carry out a close reading of a range of primary sources; these will include letters sent by popes and participants in the crusade, charters drawn up by crusaders as they prepared to depart, and narrative histories of the expedition, including several written by participants. Particular focus will be paid to the anonymous Gesta Francorum (‘The Deeds of the Franks’), the earliest and most influential chronicle account of the First Crusade.