7 h 19 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does courage demand in a world where faith, loyalty, and the sword shape a young hero’s path?
In The Boy Crusaders, John G. Edgar takes you into the thirteenth-century world of Louis IX of France. Kings, knights, and ordinary families take the cross and set out for the Holy Land. Chivalry offers young heroes a code, while the crusading world brings hardship, danger, and demands on their loyalty.
Edgar writes to teach as well as thrill. His adventure presents the medieval past through Victorian eyes, with faith and character at its heart. You enter an age of knightly training and armed pilgrimage, while seeing how a writer for young readers turns history into a lesson about conduct.
What you’ll discover
- A code to follow Explore the chivalric values that give the story’s young heroes a standard to live by.
- Faith beside the sword Enter a crusading world where religious devotion stands alongside armed conflict and hardship.
- The age of Louis IX Discover the setting of a French king known for piety, justice, and devotion to crusading.
- Adventure with a purpose Follow Edgar’s earnest blend of danger and instruction, where history becomes a school of character.
- A Victorian view backward See the medieval past through an outlook that reveals its own era’s ideals and limits.
Who will love it
Readers who love castles, knights and sieges, and anyone who likes real history told as an adventure with brave friends, daring rescues, and far-off cities such as Acre and Baghdad.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Wark Castle trains two young squires
- Two brothers-in-arms and a lost brother
- King Louis takes the cross
- Cyprus, storms, and a woman in the sea
- Damietta falls and the camp decays
- French and English quarrel on the Nile
- Mansourah: rashness and slaughter
- Famine, retreat, and the king in chains
- Queen Margaret, Acre, and the road to Baghdad
- What the book is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Walter EspecA serious young squire of an old Northumbrian family who sails east to search for his brother Osbert, lost among the child pilgrims.
- Guy MuschampWalter's sworn brother-in-arms, a cheerful, fearless squire who laughs at danger and longs to see the wonders of the East.
- BissetA blunt, reckless English knight in King Louis's service who warns of disaster and fights like a lion with his battle-axe.
- King Louis IXThe plain, devout king of France who leads the crusade and bears defeat and captivity with patience.
- Adeline de BrienneA young noblewoman of royal kin whom Walter saves from the sea and later from raiders.
- William LongswordEarl of Salisbury, a proud English leader who defies King Henry to join the crusade and resents French insults.
- Bibars BendocdarThe ambitious chief of the Mamelukes, a skilled and ruthless commander who wants the sultan's throne.
- Lord of JoinvilleA French nobleman and chronicler, loyal to the king, whose memoir supplies many scenes of the crusade.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 19 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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I giovani crociati
by John G. Edgar · 1865
Two squires from Wark Castle sail with Louis IX toward Egypt, one hoping to find a brother lost in the East.
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In short
The Boy Crusaders is a historical adventure novel by John G. Edgar, an English writer who died in 1864.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Wark Castle trains two young squires
The story opens in the age of mail and tournaments, when Henry III reigns in England and Louis of France prepares to sail east. At the edge of Northumberland stands Wark Castle, a strong fortress on a hill above the River Tweed. Its lord is Robert de Roos, whose father stood among the barons at Runnymede.
Wark is also a school of chivalry. Sons of nobles learn to strike a tree stump called the pel, then to charge the quintain, a wooden Saracen on a pivot that swings round and thumps a careless rider in the back. They joust with blunted lances, ride at the ring, and practice fighting at the barriers.
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What is The Boy Crusaders about?
It follows two young English squires, Walter Espec and Guy Muschamp, who join King Louis IX of France on the Seventh Crusade to Egypt and Syria, facing battles, captivity and a search for Walter's lost brother.
Is The Boy Crusaders a true story?
The crusade, the king, Joinville, Salisbury and Bibars are real history, drawn from chronicles. Walter, Guy, Bisset and Adeline are invented characters, and the author wrote the book in the nineteenth century.
Who are Walter Espec and Guy Muschamp?
They are squires trained at Wark Castle in Northumberland. Walter is thoughtful and haunted by his missing brother, while Guy is cheerful and bold. They are sworn brothers-in-arms who stay loyal through every danger.
The author
John G. Edgar
1834–1864 · Scottish historical writer
John George Edgar (1834–1864) was a British writer born in Hutton, Berwickshire, Scotland. He wrote books for young readers, including The Boyhood of Great Men, published in 1853. He died in London in 1864. His historical story The Boy Crusaders was published after his death, in 1865.
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