7 h 19 minAudiobook6 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 enjoys 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
- 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
- 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.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Boy Crusaders
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
Can a great army be lost through pride alone? In The Boy Crusaders, John G. Edgar sends two young squires from a Northumberland castle east with King Louis IX of France.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Wark Castle trains two young squires
At Wark Castle in Northumberland, sons of nobles learn the craft of war. They strike a tree stump called the pel and charge the quintain, a wooden Saracen that thumps a careless rider in the back. Walter masters the feat of Richard the Lionheart and is made a squire.
Guy Muschamp is cheerful and dreams of camels, palm trees and the East. Walter Espec is quiet and sad.
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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. 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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