The Accursed Tower
by Roger Crowley,
Yale, 256pp, £20/$28
The press release that accompanied this attractive hardback asked whether this book might be the last word on the Crusades. Bearing in mind that Acre was the final major Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land to fall and that Roger Crowley has covered the subject with his customary professionalism and thoroughness, this may be a reasonable question.
The “accursed tower” of the title was positioned at one of the most vulnerable points in Acre’s fortifications – at a right angle (or eastern apex) of a triangle whose base was the sea. It was protected by the King’s Tower and a barbican. The original tower had been demolished in 1191 by Richard “the Lionheart” when he was besieging the Muslim garrison under Saladin and a replacement had since been constructed to make it even stronger than before. A visitor to Acre in 1211 mused upon the tower’s name as either reflecting a curse by Jesus Christ as he wandered in the area, or deriving from its being so strongly built and defended; the latter explanation obviously being more likely.
