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Causes of the Crusades – Slide 7
Near Clermont in southern France, a crowd of nobles and churchmen gazed upward at Pope
Urban II as he addressed them from a wooden platform. His voice boomed forth:
“From the confines of Jerusalem and from Constantinople, a grievous report has gone forth that
an accursed race has violently invaded the lands of these Christians, and has depopulated them
by pillage and fire.”
The year was 1095. The ‘accursed race’ was the Seljuk Turks who had recently stormed
Baghdad, taken Jerusalem and conquered all of Asia Minor from the Byzantine Greeks. When
they threatened the capital city of Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I called on
Pope Urban II in Rome for help. He appealed to the pope by reporting that Christian pilgrims to
Palestine had been persecuted by the Turks, the Byzantine emperor’s appeal met with a warm
reception.
Urban was eager to regain the Holy Land from the Turks so in 1095 he called a meeting of
church leaders and feudal lords. They met in Clermont, France where Urban asked the lords to
stop fighting among themselves and join in a great war to win back the Holy Land. Thus began
the Crusades, a series of military expeditions to regain the Holy Land. At least 10,0000
Europeans took up the cause. They sewed a cross of cloth on their clothes and were called
crusaders. Crusaders joined the cause for different reasons. Religious zeal and other factors
motivated the crusaders. Some went to save their souls. They believed that if they died on
crusade then they would go straight to heaven. Some knights hoped to gain land and wealth in
Palestine and southwest Asia. Some crusaders sought to escape troubles at home. Others yearned
for adventure. Thus the Crusades appealed to a love of adventure and the promise of rewards,
both spiritual and material.
The pope also had mixed motives for his support of the Crusades. Urban hoped to increase his
power in Europe and perhaps heal to split between the Roman and Byzantine churches. He also
hoped that the Crusades would set Christian knights to fighting Muslims instead of one another.
The First Crusade – Slide 8
By 1096, thousands of knights were on their way to the Holy Land. As the crusading spirit swept
through Western Europe, armies of ordinary men and women inspired by fiery preachers left for
the Holy Land too. Although, few returned.
The First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099 and it was the only crusade that came close to
achieving its goals. French and Italian lords led several armies of crusaders from Europe to
Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor, glad for help from the West against the Turks, was
nonetheless suspicious of the crusaders. Seeing the crusader armies approach his city, the
emperor feared they might capture and plunder the Byzantine capital city. After much discussion
the emperor allowed the crusaders to pass through Constantinople.
The crusaders were well prepared for battle. However, they were woefully unprepared for the
trek over the desert to Jerusalem. In their wool and leather garments and heavy armor, the
armies suffered severely from the heat. They lacked enough food and water because they had
few pack animals to carry supplies. For two years, they suffered from heat, thirst, hunger and
fever. Despite such difficulties, the crusaders forged on to capture the city of Antioch.
They also mustered enough strength to capture several other cities along their route. Although
many of their victories were made possible by the fact that the Muslims were fighting amongst
themselves, Arab against Turk. Finally, a bedraggled troop of about 12,000 knights, less than one
fourth of the original army, approached Jerusalem. The Turks, quarreling among themselves,
were disunited and therefore unable to prevent the crusaders from surrounding the city. The
crusaders besieged the city for a month until on July 15, 1099 they captured the city.
Upon capturing the city a terrible massacre ensued in which the crusaders slaughtered the
Muslim and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem. Arab historians described the crusaders’ actions
after their conquest of Jerusalem. According to them: “The population was put to the sword by
the Franks, who pillaged for a week… the Franks slaughtered more than 70,000 people, among
them a large number of Imams and Muslim scholars who had left their homelands to live in the
pious seclusion of the Holy Place.” “The Jews had gathered in their synagogue and the Franks
burn them alive. They also destroyed monuments of saints and the tomb of Abraham, may peace
be upon him.”
The crusaders capture of Jerusalem brought much of the Holy Land under European control. As
a result, European customs and institutions were put into place in parts of southwest Asia and the
Holy Land. The crusaders set up four small states. They introduced the idea of European
feudalism and subdivided the land into fiefs and with lords and vassals. Trade between Europe
and the Holy Land began with Italian ships carrying most of the trade goods.
Changes happened to the European occupiers during this time as well. The Christians and
Muslims lived along-side each other and grew to respect each other. Many Europeans adopted
Eastern customs and began to wear Eastern clothes and eat Eastern foods.
The Crusades continued, off and on, for over 200 years. For almost 100 years, European
Christians held onto Palestine. Little by little, however, the Turks won back their lost lands as
they repeatedly sought to destroy the Christian kingdoms. Popes and European rulers tried to
stop them during three more major crusades.
The Second Crusade – Slide 9
By 1146 the Turks had united their forces. They started taking back cities that the crusaders had
captured. In 1147 the Second Crusade began. King Louis VII of France and German king Conrad
III led separate armies across Europe. At the city of Damascus, the two armies joined forces. The
combined forces failed to recapture the city, however held by the Turks. In 1149 the crusaders
returned to Europe in disgrace.
The Third Crusade – Slide 10
In 1187 the Muslim leader Saladin gained control of Jerusalem. Three European rulers – the
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Philip II of France, and King Richard I of
England – led separate armies in the Third Crusade. The crusade lasted from 1189 to 1192. It,
too, failed. When Barbarossa drowned on the way to the Holy Land, his army turned back. Philip
and Richard quarreled so often that Philip took his army back home to seize English lands in
France. Richard and the forces under his command remained in the Holy Land, but they could
not recapture Jerusalem. In the process of fighting, King Richard discovered that his foe, Saladin,
could be as chivalrous as himself. Hearing that Richard was ill, Saladin sent his own personal
physician and a refreshing gift of snow and peaches. So, the two leaders came to respect each
other and in 1192 Richard settled for a three year truce with Saladin. Through the truce,
Jerusalem remained under Muslim control but the crusaders received control of some towns
along the Palestinian coast. The truce also allowed Christians to enter Jerusalem freely.
The Fourth Crusade – Slide 11
Pope Innocent III gathered a group of French knights for the Fourth Crusade. In 1202 they left on
ships provided by the Italian city-state of Venice. The Venetians persuaded the crusaders to
attack Zadar – a trade rival to Venice – as they moved down the Adriatic coast. Because Zadar
was a Christian city, however, the crusaders who attacked it were later excommunicated by
Innocent III.
Then in 1204, the crusaders attacked and looted Constantinople, another Christian city. When the
crusaders entered the city, they went on a savage spree of looting. They stole the relics from the
Hagia Sophia and set fires that burned much of the city, including libraries with priceless ancient
manuscripts. The Venetians gained control of Byzantine trade and the city of Constantinople
remained under western European control for about 60 years. The Byzantines eventually
regained the city, but they never regained their strength. The once-mighty empire collapsed when
the Turks seized Constantinople in 1453.
Other Crusades – Slide 12
Europeans mounted crusades against other Muslim lands, especially in North Africa. All of
which ended in defeat.
In 1212 the short lived and unfortunate Children’s Crusade took place. Young people from
across Europe decided to march to the Holy Land and regain it for Christian Europe. The young
crusaders lacked adequate training, equipment and supplies. By the time they reached the
Mediterranean coast, the army of children was little more than a hungry and disorganized mob.
The pope sent some of them back home. Some of the children reached southern France, where
they were tricked into boarding ships that carried them off into slavery instead of to the Holy
Land. Several thousand children, most from Germany and France, were lost in the course of this
tragedy.
For many years, European crusaders tried to recapture the Holy Land. The Crusades continued
until 1291, when the Muslims captured the city of Acre. As in Jerusalem, 200 years earlier, the
victors massacred their defeated enemies. This time, the victims were Christian. Acre was the
last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land and with its fall, the Crusades ended.
Results of the Crusades – Slide 13
The goal of the Crusades was to take the Holy Land from the Turks. All the Crusades except the
first failed to reach that goal. By the end of the Crusades, the Muslims again controlled Palestine.
In Europe, however, the Crusades helped bring about many changes.
The Crusades left a bitter legacy of religious hatred. In the Middle East, both Christians and
Muslims committed appalling atrocities in the name of religion. In Europe, crusaders sometimes
turned their religious fury against Jews, massacring entire communities.
Though the Crusades failed to conquer the Holy Land, they did have significant effect on life in
Europe. The wars helped to quicken the pace of changes already underway.
Economic Expansion – Slide 14
Even before the Crusades, Europeans had a taste for luxuries from the Byzantine Empire.
Crusaders introduced fabrics, spices, perfumes, and foods such as apricots, lemons, melons, rice
and sugar. So, the Crusades served to increased trade between the two regions.
The Italians served as trading intermediaries and the Italian cities became major trading enters.
Merchants in Venice and other northern Italian cities built large fleets to carry crusaders to the
Holy Land. They later used those fleets to carry on trade with the Middle East.
The Crusades also encouraged the growth of a money economy. To finance a journey to the Holy
Land, nobles needed money. To get this money they allowed peasants to pay rent in money
rather than in grain or labor, which helped undermine the feudal institution of serfdom.
Weapons and Warfare – Slide 15
During the Crusades, the weapon of choice for many European soldiers was the crossbow. This
weapon was a powerful bow that was held horizontally. It fired a short, heavy arrow called a bolt
with the pull of a trigger. The crossbow required far less skill to use than did the traditional bow.
Yet it was a deadly weapon that was capable of penetrating chain mail and plate armor. From the
Byzantines and Muslims, Europeans also discovered new ways to wage war. For example, they
learned how to undermine walls and use catapults to throw rocks. From the Muslims, they also
may have learned about gunpowder.
Political Changes – Slide 16
The Crusades helped to increase the power of feudal monarchs. To raise money to go on a
crusade, some lords had sold their land. Without land, they had no power in the feudal system.
Many nobles also died fighting in the Crusades. With fewer lords, the power of European kings
grew stronger. The kings won new rights to levy taxes in order to support the Crusades and they
led armies drawn from their entire country. Some rulers, including the French king Louis IX, led
crusades, which added greatly to their prestige.
The Church – Slide 17
During the Crusades, the Christian church became more powerful. Enthusiasm for the Crusades
brought papal power to its greatest height. As organizers of crusades, the popes took on more
importance. This was particularly true after the First Crusade. However, this period of enhanced
prestige was short-lived. The popes were soon involved in bitter clashes with feudal monarchs.
The Crusades did not end the split between the Roman and Byzantine churches as Pope Urban
had hoped. In fact, Byzantine resentment against the West hardened as a result of the Fourth
Crusade.
Ideas – Slide 18
Between 1096 and 1291, thousands of crusaders traveled through the Holy Land. They
exchanged ideas with crusaders from other parts of Europe. They also gained knowledge from
the Byzantines and Muslims whom they met. Contact with the Muslim world led Christians to
realize that millions of people lived in regions they had never known existed. Soon, a few
curious Europeans visited far-off places like India and China. The experiences of the crusaders
expanded European horizons. They brought Europe into a wider world from which it had been
cut off since the fall of Rome. By the 1400s, a desire to trade directly with India and China led
Europeans to a new age of exploration.