ABSTRACT
To take the cross involved committing oneself to an expensive and dangerous enterprise, but the decision cannot have been made in isolation from all kinds of pressure, including the expectations of a family that traditionally supported the crusading movement. Such traditions of commitment built up very quickly, and their strength was recognized by Pope Eugenius III when, proclaiming the Second Crusade, he called on sons to emulate their fathers. The story of Adela of England, who persuaded her husband Stephen of Blois to take the cross in 1101 after he had deserted the second wave of the First Crusade, is well known, but it is unusual. The evidence from the genealogies is that some women transmitted an enthusiasm for crusading to the families into which they married. This helps to account for the concentrations of crusaders in certain kindred.
