The year is 1095. The most prominent leaders of the Christian world have assembled in a meadow in France near Clermont. Pope Urban appeals for the liberation of Jerusalem & cries out Deus lo volt!, God Wills It! The cry is taken up, echoes forth & is carried on. Wave upon wave of Christian pilgrims rush to assault the growing power of Muslims in the Holy Land & will do so for the next two hundred years. Most able men become soldiers of the Cross, & when a man is prevented by old age or ill health, he sends his son. Women, too, go to fight alongside the men. It is a time of great adventure, of great exploration & cultural change. Uniting Christian Europe in a common cause, the crusades defined forever the spirit of the West.A magisterial recounting of this great & terrible campaign, Deus lo Volt! tells with stunning immediacy one soldier's first-hand experience of the defining war of Christendom.