This chronicle of the First Crusade, featuring the hero Guillaume de Thorenc, evokes the epic where the declared goal quickly strayed from its objectives with massacres, pillaging, nothing very faithful to the declarations of Pope Urban II in 1095.
Max Gallo, with his talent as both a historian and a writer, tells us the story, the not-so-Christian adventures, and the questions of this young Provençal lord, a 16-year-old boy indoctrinated by Peter the Hermit. Where is the Faith? What are the reasons for this crusade?
This is what this young lord tries to answer amidst the crowd of pilgrims whenever his conscience asks him this question: Why these massacres, these murders? Only one answer: God wills it! A bit easy, not really, because there is the oath of chivalry, the commitment to serve, to liberate Jerusalem.
Guillaume de Thorenc is torn by all these ethical questions, he cannot answer them, trapped by his oath, only one answer to soothe his conscience: God wills it! We follow him from his departure to this holy land where the infidel must be driven out and the tomb of Christ reconquered. A book that reads like a novel, with history as the backdrop.
Thierry Jan, writer
