Asking for forgiveness as an aspect of crusade

Analyses of medieval crusade have highlighted the ways in which participants expressed multifaceted martial, ecclesiastical, regional and gendered expressions of identity. Much of contemporaries’ consideration and display of ‘crusading identity’ took place far away from the battlefield. This paper examines an element of crusading identity manifest in the Kingdom of Scotland – a region that produced numerous crusaders and benefactors of the Military Orders, and yet has seldom featured as a centre-point for crusade studies. This article focuses on crusaders’ practice of settling disputes and displaying their magnanimity within their community, ahead of their departure. Using Earl Patrick II of Dunbar (d 1248) and Robert de Brus (d 1295) as case studies, the article argues that their preparations for holy war are indicative of a strong awareness of the subtleties of wider Latin Christian crusading culture among Scotland’s nobility.