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Jonathan Berke
Ms.Shook
World History E
6/8/11
The Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religiously sanctioned military campaigns waged
by much of Western Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy
Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were
fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. There are several
reasons for the Crusades, the search for wealth, glory, and the right to die defending the
Christian faith.
In the Middle Ages, Christians considered Palestine the Holy Land because it was
where Jesus had lived and taught. The Arabs had conquered Palestine in the 600s. Most
Arabs were Muslims, but they usually tolerated other religions. Jews and Christians who
paid their taxes and observed other regulations were free to live in Palestine and practice
their own religion. The Arab rulers didn’t usually interfere with Christian pilgrims
visiting Palestine, and European traders could generally do business there. During the
1000s the Seljuk Turks, people from central Asia who had adopted the Muslim faith,
conquered Palestine and attacked Asia Minor, which was part of the Byzantine Empire.
When the Turks threatened the capital city of Constantinople, the Byzantine
emperor appealed to the pope in Rome. Because Christian pilgrims going to Palestine
came home with reports of persecution from the Turks, the Byzantine emperor’s appeal
for help found a reception in Europe. Pope Urban I wanted to regain the Holy Land from
the Muslims. He called a great meeting of church leaders and French nobles at Clermont
France in 1095. At the meeting he encouraged the powerful feudal nobles to stop fighting
with each other, and to join in one big war against the Muslims.
From Clermont people traveled through France preaching the cause. The people
who joined the expeditions sewed a cloth cross on their clothes. People joined the
Crusades, the expeditions to regain the Holy Land, for many different reasons. Most
knights joined the crusades for the land and plunder in the rich Middle East. Merchants
saw a chance to make money. The pope promised both heavenly and earthly rewards.
Those who died on a Crusade were said to go strait to heaven. The pope also guaranteed
church protection of the crusader’s property and family during his absence. Debtors who
joined a Crusade had their debts canceled. Criminals were relieved of punishment. The
Crusades appealed to both a love of adventure and the promise of reward the desire to
escape debts or punishment. French and Italian nobles led the First Crusade that lasted
from 1096 to 1099. In three organized armies, they marched across Europe to
Constantinople.
The crusaders received a hostile reception in Constantinople. The Byzantine
emperor had asked for some assistance, but now, seeing three armies approaching the
city, he feared they might capture and plunder the capitol. After much discussion the
Byzantines allowed the crusaders to pass through Constantinople to begin their long, hot
march across Asia Minor toward Palestine. In their wool and leather clothing and their
heavy armor, the crusaders suffered severely from the heat. Because they had few pack
animals, a shortage of food and water plagued them. Despite these difficulties, however,
the crusaders forged on to capture the city of Antioch. Then they marched toward
Jerusalem.
Conditions improved as the crusaders marched down the seacoast toward
Palestine. Fleets of ships from the Italian cities of Genoa and Pisa brought reinforcements
and supplies. The crusaders captured Jerusalem after a short battle and slaughtered the
Muslim inhabitants. One leader wrote to the pope that his horse’s legs had been
bloodstained to the knees from riding among the bodies of the dead Muslims. In the
Middle East the crusaders set up four small states: the County of Edessa, the Principality
of Antioch, the County of Tripole, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They introduced
European feudalism and subdivided the land into fiefs controlled by vassals and lords.
For almost a century, the Europeans occupied these lands.
The Second Crusade began in 1147, after the Turks had recaptured the important
city of Edessa and threatened the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In this Crusade, King Louis VII
of France and the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad III led their armies across Europe to the
Holy Land. They were fighting separately, and didn’t join forces until they got to
Damascus, which was held by the Turks. Luis and Conrad couldn’t capture the city and
returned to Europe disgracefully in two years. In 1187 the Muslim leader Saladin
recaptured Jerusalem.
Two years later the Third Crusade, the “Crusade of the Three Kings” began and
lasted until 1192. King Richard of England, King Philip Augustus of France, and
Emperor Frederick Barboarossa of the Holy Roman Empire each started out at the head
of a great army to regain the Holy Land. The Europeans failed once again, and an
estimated 300,000 Christians and Muslims died. There were many more Crusades until
1291, when the Muslims captured the last Christian stronghold, in Acre.
From a military standpoint, all the Crusades except the first failed. The Muslims
eventually recaptured Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine. However, Europeans learned
many things of military importance, such as the crossbow, carrier pigeons and
messengers, new siege tactics, and gunpowder. In Europe the Crusades increased the
power of kings and decreased the power of feudal lords. Kings imposed new taxes and
led armies drawn from their entire countries. The church also got more political power
because of its leadership role in initiating the crusades. During this time in history there
was cultural diffusion Europeans were influenced by the ideas exchanged among the
crusaders form different countries and between the crusaders and the other people they
met.
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-crusades.htm
http://crusades-medieval.blogspot.com/2007/10/summary-of-major-crusades-twelfthand.html
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-timeline.htm
www.umich.edu/~marcons/Crusades/timeline/timeline3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades