I'm reading an historical fiction novel about the crusades in Livonia. The book repeatedly talks about the crusaders use of carrier pigeons to communicate between castles. Did people during the crusades actually use birds to carry messages or is this just imaginative thinking?
hi! I'll leave it for someone else to confirm whether crusaders used carrier pigeons, but yes, carrier pidgeons were and are a real thing. Check out the FAQ:
Communications * scroll down to the section Carrier Pigeons
While I don't specialize in the Crusades, I've read quite a bit about the Third Crusade as a hobby. During the Third Crusade, Richard the Lion Heart's army captured a bird carrying a message to Saladin's army, and substituted a fake message in order to throw the enemy off. Besides that, I am not familiar with other uses of messenger birds during the Crusades.