I read The High Crusade about 50 years ago and again recently. Nothing changed. I still love it!
It’s a testimony to the enduring fun and seriously interesting The High Crusade is that it is still available on Amazon, and is one of the better selling science fiction/fantasy novels.
Synopsis
The basic story is fun: Alien Wersgorix come to earth in 1345 intending to set up a base to exploit the planet and run into Englishmen led by Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville. Sir Roger is on his way to the French wars under Edward III, so more than ready to fight. Luckily he has his wife and family and the families of many others with him. The Wersgorix never knew what hit them.
Of course Sir Roger then leads his merry band of knights and fighting men to take over the rest of the Wersgorix, starting by liberating unhappy vassal planets and making allies with the other servant races.
Sir Roger’s once loyal knight, Sir Owain, sees a great chance to take the Wergorix advanced weapons back to conquer the Earth (or at least Europe) himself. During the fracas Sir Roger’s wife Catherine shoots Owain and the records he holds of how to go back home. Sir Roger and Catherine win through but at the cost of not knowing how to get back to Earth.
The very last chapter jumps forward 800 years or so. The English spread over many systems, establishing Christianity and modernized feudalism and English customs and ceremonies and attracting other peoples -even Wersgor – to their banners. Finally Earth expedition travels far enough to find the thriving, English-speaking empire.
Similar Stories
I don’t know whether The High Crusade inspired other writers but other novels used similar plot devices. In The Excalibur Alternative by David Weber, aliens kidnap a band of English knights and their families to use as slave soldiers to subdue restive natives and fight off competing companies. The English manage to escape and build a powerful empire that later saves Earth. (Weber’s novel grew out of a novella he wrote for the Ranks of Bronze series.)
Characters and Back Story
Poul Anderson wrote fun, fast-reading novels that all had interesting premises and characters lurking behind the sparkling plots. Sir Roger and his side kick Brother Parvus are shrewd and smart, first defeating the Wersgorix then the traitorous Sir Owain all while retaining their honor and Christian principles. Wersgor Branithar is a worthy villain, plotting to give the English their comeuppance
The people are set up so well that the story is believable.
The back story is sketched in as a basic fact and we don’t have our noses rubbed in any political diatribes. However the premises are that the Wersgorix are weakened by their extreme dispersal and lack of any unifying factors. The other vassal people are perfectly happy getting the Wersgorix off their backs and (at first) don’t care what the English do. The final chapter alludes to some of the other ex-vassals realizing too late that Sir Roger outwitted them. They weren’t required to become vassals of the English, but they found their power and influence and ability to thrive and grow severely curtailed by Sir Roger’s vibrant civilization.
All in all I recommend The High Crusade to adults and teens. It’s a fun book that you’ll likely want to read again.
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