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| Price: |
£144.95
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| Sale Price: |
No Price
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| Prod. Code: |
10303 |
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Chess Pieces: Ground stone and polyresin
King Height: 3.25" (83mm)
Complete with chess board:
- featuring a silk screen overlay surrounded by a varnished sheesham wood border
- square size: 40mm
- overall dimensions: 39.5cm x 39.5cm
- playing area: 33.5cm x 33.5cm
- depth: 2cm
This superbly detailed and hand decorated themed chess set depicts The Crusades - a series of Holy Wars launched by the Christian states of Europe against the Saracens or Muslims. The purpose was to rescue the holy places of Palestine from the hands of the Mohammedans. Beginning in 1095 at the instigation of Pope Claremont there were actually nine in total.
This themed chess set concentrates on the third Crusade led by King Richard I of England. In 1189 he joined King Philip II of France in an effort to recapture the holy city of Jerusalem which had been seized by the Muslim leader, Saladin, two years earlier. King Richard with 8000 troops seized Cyprus and some cities on the Palestinian Coast but failed to dislodge Saladin from Jerusalem. A truce was finally agreed between the two leaders and King Richard returned to England.
The period of the Crusades came to an end when Christian Europe in the 14th century was devastated by plague, famine and internal strife. The Hundred Years War between England and France flared up and Europe essentially became too weak and distracted by its own affairs to enter into further conflcit with the Muslims.
