The Pope's Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force that Defended the Vatican | 
 enlarge | Author: Charles A. Coulombe
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 547948
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0230600581
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.00945609034
EAN: 9780230600584
ASIN: 0230600581
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
With Arthurian grandeur the Papal Zouaves marched into Italy in the mid-nineteenth century, summoned by the Pope under siege as the Wars of the Risorgimento raged. Motivated by wanderlust, a sense of duty and the call of faith, some 20,000 Catholic men from around the world rallied to Vatican City to defend her gates against Sardinian marauders. Volunteers came from France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Austria, and many other countries, including the United States. The battles that ensued lasted over 10 years, among a shifting array of allies and enemies and are among history’s most fascinating yet largely overlooked episodes. Napoleon, Pius IX, and Bismarck all make appearances in the story, but at the center were the Zouaves--steeped in a knightly code of honor, and unflinching in battle as any modern warrior--as the Church they vowed to defend to the death teetered at the brink of destruction.
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 Soldiers of a lost age on the steps of the modern world, the story of the last Crusaders intrigues and inspires November 9, 2008
"The Pope's Legion" is a truly fascinating account, and one of the few in English, of the international corps of the Pontifical Zouaves. In the 1860s thousands of men of diverse classes and origins left their homes and embarked on a hopeless, romantic adventure to defend the doomed temporal possessions of the Pope against the Italian nationalists of the Risorgimento. Peasant farmers and expatriate soldiers from every corner of the globe marched alongside princes and sons of the great noble houses of Europe, bound togather by the chivalrous spirit of a bygone age and a filial devotion to their spiritual father, the highly controversial yet unquestionably strong character of Pope Pius IX.
Charles Coulombe skillfully moves between detailed descriptions of the victories and defeats of the Zouaves and accounts of the events in the world at large which shaped the battle for the Papal States. Throughout are inspiring portraits of the men who filled the ranks of the papal army- Christophe Louis Juchault de Lamoricere, Athanse Charles Marie Charette, Henri de Cathelineau, Eugene Allet, just to name a few- names seldom recalled today, but belonging to soldiers of immense heroism and worthy to be called the last of the crusaders. Included are photographs, the songs of the zouaves, and a list of monuments, museums and sites in their honor.
In reading "The Pope's Legion" one is brought face to face with not only another time, but in many ways another world, so different from our own, where there exists passion and zeal, and causes worth fighting and dying for. Here is a history which possesses all the romanticism and passion and controversy of the Crusades, yet from the threshold of our own time. A story of villains and heroes, the heights and depths of man, and the struggle between an old world and the new. This book sheds light on the long-overlooked faces of men who, by their spirit and style, might have been fashioned on the tongues of the mediaeval chansonniers or sprung from the pages and mind of Tolkien, but who lived and breathed and fought not so long ago.
From the author of "Vicars of Christ: A History of the Popes", comes a book which guaranteed to fascinate military aficiados, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and anyone interested in history, religion and the struggle between the old order and modern thought.
Vive Lamoricere!
Repetons tous en choeur
Son noble cri de guerre:
Pedre la vie, saver l'honneur.
En avant! Marchons,
Zouaves du Pape, a l'avant garde
En avant! Marchons,
Le Pape nous regarde
En avant bataillon!
 a unique book October 21, 2008
a very interesting and documented story, important for all Catholic people in the U.S. and in the involved European countries
I am biased... September 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
...because I wrote it! But it was a thrill to write an account of these men whose bravery and daring have been almost forgotten. It is the first book-length account in English since 1900!
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