ABSTRACT
The term crusade was applied to a range of social and military campaigns in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain. This paper looks at its usage in a less familiar context, namely the war against revolutionary France and Napoleon, some of which was fought on the same soil as the crusades in Egypt, Malta, Spain, and Acre. The analysis draws on a variety of sources, from political debate to poems, novels, and letters, a number of which were written by female authors who had family members serving in the British army. This crusade theme can be traced from the early days of the Revolution to the battle and victory at Waterloo. It was also not just a British phenomenon, so a brief reference will also be made to the use of crusading language by Britain's adversary – France – and later ally – Germany. Not all, of course, accepted that this was an appropriate use of crusading language, but the critics recognised the power of the crusading parallel, and they provide further evidence of the way in which the crusades were part of Britain's national memory bank. All were also writing at a time when histories of the crusades were becoming more widely available, and these works were reviewed and discussed in popular periodicals.
