Between Warrior and Priest: The Creation of a New Masculine Identity during the Crusades

Abstract

That multiple notions of masculinity existed in medieval Europe can be demonstrated from Bernard of Clairvaux’s early twelfth-century treatise promoting the Knights Templar.¹ Indeed, Bernard highlighted competing constructs of masculinity even within Europe’s warrior class, as seen in his curious distinctions between the ‘new knighthood’ and secular knights. Bernard found it especially troublesome that secular knights, once the backbone of Europe’s warrior class, had by his time grown to love ‘effeminate tresses’ and silk clothing decorated with silver, gold and precious stones that were impractical for combat. This was in stark contrast, Bernard noted, to the unwashed Templars, who wore their hair dirty and short and always maintained what, for Bernard, was the proper rugged appearance of the true warrior. Indeed, Bernard even took a jab at the highly prized traditional masculine persona of secular knights when, regarding their flamboyant apparel, he asked, ‘Are these the trappings of a warrior or are they not rather the trinkets of a woman?’²