Between the mid-twelfth and late thirteenth centuries, the flow of political and military intelligence between the Latin West and the wider Orient underwent a profound structural transformation, from ad hoc forgeries and isolated embassies to regularised, institutionally embedded diplomatic networks spanning three continents. This intelligence was not neutral: it was systematically shaped by its transmitters to serve strategic ends. Were the Crusades ultimately won or lost on the battlefield, or in the intelligence gap between what the West was told and what was actually true? Some examples.
