The Crusades in English Reformational Thought

To this day, England bears the colors that were worn by knights during the Medieval Crusades. Crusading has been a big part of English heritage with legends about Saint George and the Dragon reflecting the tales of chivalry and courage. The Crusades were not simply a historical movement from the High Middle Ages though. These expeditions impacted all areas of culture: art, literature, etc. Indeed, literature has flourished for centuries about expeditions of knights on crusades.
 Unfortunately many Christians today are ignorant of the history of the crusades movement. Those that are aware and knowledgeable of it {whether they be for or against it} tend to especially overlook the literature of the sixteenth century which concerned the crusades. Having studied and written about the crusades for years, I just recently discovered the role of the crusades in English Literature during the Protestant Reformation. Today, many Roman Catholics see the crusades as an embarrassment of their church's ''Dark Ages,'' and many Evangelicals find in the crusades all room to simply criticize the Roman Catholic Church for all of its supposed great persecutions of people down throughout the ages. Of course, many evangelicals while being so quick to judge and criticize the pre-reformation church often overlook the killings of witches or accused heretics from the Puritans. This discussion here though, will not be to justify the medieval crusades as I have done that elsewhere. Rather, here, I will simply speak of how the Medieval Crusades were glorified by some of the Protestant writers during the Protestant Reformation.
The historical background behind the portrayal of the crusades must be understood   Shortly before the Protestant Reformation, knighthood had been in decay. The world was changing with the emergence of developed canons, the printing press, more successful navigation, and more knowledge of the Greek language (especially from the twelfth century on). Likewise, more knowledge of Aristotle's Philosophy and Arabic Math had flourished in Europe during the crusades. All of these brought western Europe into the early stages of what we now call the ''Twelfth-Century Renaissance.'' 

 It is interesting to note that there was actually a positive view towards the medieval crusades in much of post-Reformational English Literature. Yes, English Literature not simply before the Protestant Reformation but even afterward tended to glorify the crusades movement. Some of the protestants who looked upon the Medieval Crusades with admiration in their literary works will be discussed here.

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen glorified the Crusades movement. In Book I, the Redcrosse Knight slays dragons and giants. In Book II of the Fairie Queen, readers will encounter Guy of Warwick. Guy of Warwick was a legendary figure in English and French literature for centuries that appeared in various different stories doing different work such as being a pilgrim to the Holy Land. In Book II of Spenser's most famous work, Guy of Warwick is known as Sir Guyon, a character from Arthurian legends. In the story, Guyon faces many temptations as the sorceress Archimago temps him into fighting the Redcrosse Knight.

Spenser though was not the only English writer to express admiration towards the crusades. King James I of England celebrated the Christian victory over the Muslims at the sixteenth-century Battle of Lepanto in his poem ''Lepanto.'' Likewise, Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great dealt with some Muslim-Christian relations. In this play, the Koran is burnt. For these reasons, Marlowe's play is currently controversial. For more on Spenser's support of the crusades see Narrating the Crusades: Loss and Recovery in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature by Lee Manion.
While certainly not explicit, some scholars have found Othello to reflect the Medieval Crusading Spirit. To some, the success of Islam in Othello shows that Shakespeare was intending Christians to see unity as essential in fighting against the Muslims.
Guy of Warwick is also mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry VIII. The lines below are from Act Five, Scene Three:

Porter: You did nothing, sir.
Man: I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Cobrand,
To Mow em 'down before me: but if I spared any
That head ahead to hit, either young or old,
He or she, cuckold or cuckol;maker,
Let me ne'er hope to see a chine again;
And that I would not for a cow, God save her!
[within]Do you here, master porter?

Richard Knolles was a sixteenth-century English historian that was explicitly supportive of the Crusades in his General History of the Turke. Knolles's prose was admired by later English writers including Samuel Johnson and Lord Byron.
Seventeenth-century Baptist minister John Bunyan, got the name for one of his books about Christian allegory called ''Holy War,'' from works by Thomas Fuller, an Anglican theologian. Fuller had a complicated view about the crusades that in part supported the old medieval movements of England's former days despite Fuller's disagreements with other issues in the church at the time of the Crusades. On the way hand, he sees the crusades as a violent movement in which the papacy used England for its agenda, but on the other hand, he supports defending Christians defending Christendom against the Turk.
As has been shown above, English Literature in the years of the Protestant Reformation were generally supportive of the Crusades movement. In a future post, I would like to expound on Spenser's understanding of the crusades. 
Finally, over the years, the crusades attained glorification in other famous literary works such as Ivanhoe and The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott, as well as Winning His Spurs by G. A. Henty, and The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. The sixteenth-century battle of Lepanto would also be glorified in Lepanto by G. K. Chesterton.

Further Sources: The Legend of Guy of Warwick by Velma Bourgeois Richmond, Narrating the Crusades: Loss and Recovery in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature by Lee Manion.