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The Crusades
So what were the Crusades and why have we always been so fascinated with them? They have been a source for entertainment
since the Middle Ages and still command our attention enough that modern Presidents reference them in speeches and blockbuster
films are made about them in Hollywood.
Prior to the Crusades it was very common for people to go on a journey to a place of religious significance. Many people from
different religions and countries still do this today. Sikhs journey to Amritsar, India to see the Golden Temple, Buddhists travel to
Bodhgaya, India to walk around the tree that grows on the site where the Buddha was enlightened, and in Saudi Arabia millions of
Muslims every year participate in the Hajj, the holy Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Islam.
To Christians the city of Jerusalem in modern day Israel has always held special significance (it also has great significance in Judaism
and Islam). For centuries pilgrims have traveled to see the place where Jesus Christ preached and was crucified. During the Middle
Ages there was actually quite a significant tourist trade in the area that catered to religious travelers. Pamphlets for pilgrims could
even be bought that covered topics ranging from how to be safe with your money, to how to rent a camel. However at the end of
the 11th Century a series of political issues led to the closing down of the pilgrim routes. These issues caused the Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I to make an appeal for help to Pope Urban II and the start of the armed pilgrimages that we call the Crusades.
Issue #1:
The Great Schism
In 284CE a Roman Emperor by the name of Diocletian came to the Imperial Throne. However by this point the Roman Empire was
so big that Diocletian decided to split it into two, and appointed a man names Maximian to rule with him. This is an important point
to remember. When people say that Rome ‘fell’ in 476CE they mean the western half of Rome. The eastern half (which we now call
the Byzantine Empire) lasted until 1453CE. In 306CE another Emperor named Constantine come to the throne and over the course
of his reign converted the Empire to Christianity (well he officially converted it, lots, if not the majority of people in the Empire were
still pagan even at the time of his death).
Rome Divided
However just like there were two political halves of Rome, each with its own Emperor, one in Rome and the other in Constantinople,
there also came to be two religious halves of the Empire with the Pope in Rome and the Patriarch in Constantinople. By the time of
the Crusades the two halves frequently did not get along. In fact a power struggle had been going on for quite some time between
the Pope and the Patriarch as to who outranked whom. This argument (along with some other points about Christian theology) got
so heated that at one point the Pope and the Patriarch both excommunicated each other (excommunicated means kicked out of the
Church). Even after western Rome fell in the 5th Century who was in charge of what continued to be debated and argued about by
Popes, Emperors, Kings and Patriarchs. Over the years though there were many attempts to bring the two halves of the Church back
together and heal the schism (schism means a division between people).
One such attempt was made by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I in the 1090s, when he appealed to the Pope in Rome for military aid
against the Seljuk Turks (we’ll explain who they were in a second). This was meant to be a peace offering of sorts, although in truth
Emperor Alexios, even though he was a great emperor, needed some help. While Eastern Rome had been quite large at one point
(see below), they had lost a great deal of land in the east to rising Islamic Empire.
Map of Eastern Rome (Byzantium) 500 years before Emperor Alexios
Eastern Rome (Byzantium) in the 800s.
Why? The Rise of the Islamic Caliphate
Issue #2:
Leadership in New Rome & the Islamic World
Before we get to who the Seljuk Turks were we have to explain two things about leadership in Constantinople or New Rome (the
capital of the Byzantine Empire) and in the Islamic Caliphate.
1.
Alexios I died in 1118CE between the 1st and 2nd Crusades. We won’t get into the details, but we will say that the people
who immediately succeeded him were not great leaders. Ok, they were actually pretty bad. In fact the Byzantine Empire
continued to suffer under poor leadership on and off until it’s end in 1453CE. Remember this when we talk about the 4th
Crusade… it gets to be important.
2.
When the Prophet Mohammad died in 632CE it was never completely clear who was supposed to succeed him. Some
people believed that leadership of the Caliphate should remain in the family of Muhammad, which means that his son in
law Ali and his decedents should have been put in charge. These Muslims are called Shia Muslims. Most people believed
that the leadership should pass to the most qualified person, in fact the first successor (or Caliph) was a man named Abu
Bakr not Ali. These Muslims are called Sunni Muslims. Shia and Sunni Muslims to this day still do not agree on this issue.
Over the centuries this has led to civil wars within the Islamic world. At the time of the start of the Crusades the Fatimid
Caliphate, a Shia group from Cairo, controlled the Islamic Empire.
Issue #3:
Central Asians & Arabs
So who were the Seljuk Turks? Well the Sejuk Turks were a group of Turkic tribesmen from Central Asia, probably from somewhere
in or near modern Turkmenistan. Originally they were nomadic herders from the central steppes (steppes are what we call plains or
prairie) of Eurasia. Highly prized as warriors they came from the same tradition (although weren’t necessarily the same ethnic
group) as the Huns, Xiongnu, Tartars and Mongols. These plains warriors were so successful that no one, not the Romans, Persians,
Indians or Chinese ever came up with a successful method of dealing with any of these groups (except to hire other plains warriors
to fight them) until the invention of gunpowder.
When the Islamic Caliphate defeated the Chinese Tang Dynasty at the Battle of Talas in Central Asia (751CE) there were warriors of
this type in both armies. However, since the Islamic Caliphate won the battle, Islam came to be seen as the ‘religion of victory’ in
Central Asia and in a large part explains why this region of Asia is still Islamic today. With this victory though, the Islamic Caliphate
inherited a great deal of these nomadic horse warriors. While they were terrific for fighting, they could be a little too terrific. The
Seljuk Turks, who became Sunni Muslims, eventually began to push south into the Empire and started to take over. This led them
into conflict with the Shia Fatimid government in Cairo.
As they pushed south towards Egypt the Seljuks didn’t want to by pass the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines had been friendly with
the Fatimid government in Cairo for some time. This is why Christian pilgrims had been allowed to travel to Jerusalem even though
the Muslims had possession of it. The Seljuks didn’t want to leave a potential enemy on their flank and so pushed into Byzantine
territory. This invasion is what caused the pilgrim trail to be shut down, angering the Christians. While Emperor Alexios I was a
capable leader he needed help, so he appealed to the Pope (and a few others). His successors were definitely not capable of dealing
with the Turks… with or without help.
Issue #4:
The ‘Not-Quite-So’ Christian Northern Europeans
The other issue that should really not be ignored is the impact of the culture of the Germanic peoples on the Crusades. Christianity
had spread slowly into northern Europe. By the time of the Crusades some parts of the north were still not officially Christian and
much of the older religions were still around. During his reign Charlemagne (742-814CE) on three separate occasions tried to wipe
out all the bears in what we now call Germany because his subjects were worshiping them (this went on long after Charlemagne’s
death… in fact there is some evidence that this might still going on in the far north of Europe today).
Basically the Germanic people had been a warrior culture since before Roman times, and despite become Christians they hadn’t
changed all that much. A ‘warrior culture’ means that they prized a person’s ability to fight in battle the way that we look up to
sports stars. When the Pope put out the call for warriors to go to the Holy Land to wage a war in the name of Christianity, it is hard
to believe that their very enthusiastic response wasn’t more than a little pagan.
The First Crusade
When Pope Urban II put out his call for warriors to come and help Alexios I and the Byzantines no one was really prepared for the
response. It was far greater in size and scope then anyone anticipated. Apparently the speech he gave (which was repeated all over
Europe) was really good. Nobles, knights, commoners and peasants turned out and headed for Constantinople. The city, expecting
a small, organized military force was completely unprepared for the unorganized mass of people that showed up in waves. We
won’t get into the details, but it is a crazy story. Groups of armed pilgrims and peasants flocked south, committing mass murders in
Jewish communities (no other reason than they weren’t Christian), looted the countryside of Byzantium when they couldn’t find
food and found themselves in pitch battles with Christian troops from Constantinople. It was chaos.
Eventually though the knights and nobles showed up, and against all odds, they not only found their way to Jerusalem, but actually
manage to take the city in July 1099CE. Again, totally chaos. The Crusades killed every non-Christian they could find within the city
walls. What they established was several Christian Kingdoms with the Kingdom of Jerusalem as the main focus point. These
Crusader Kingdoms would last until 1289CE when the last of them, Tripoli, fell to the Seljuk Turks. They were conquered by leaders
like the famous Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, more commonly known in the west as Saladin.
But is it fair to call the Crusades “religious wars”? At first glance it certainly seems that way perhaps, and we can probably all agree
the actions of the first Crusaders isn’t a shining moment in the history of Christianity in Europe. But let’s look at the Fourth Crusade
and see what else happened.
The Fourth Crusade
On October 2nd 1187CE the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin the leader of the Seljuk Turks. Saladin attacked the city after he had
crushed King Guy of Jerusalem and his army at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin on July 4 th and captured the King. Normally in the
Middle Ages kings were ransomed back to their people, usually for vast sums of money. However since no one would buy King Guy
back he remained Saladin’s prisoner until he eventually gave up trying to ransom Guy and let him go in 1188CE. Apparently he felt
Guy would best benefit the Turks by fighting with the Christians.
All of the Crusades after this, starting with the Third Crusade (the one with King Richard the Lionheart of England) were about
retaking Jerusalem. The Fourth Crusade took place from 1202-1204CE. The plan was to travel to Venice (at this point Venice was an
independent city-state) and then sail to Egypt. There they would capture Cairo and force the Islamic Caliphate and its Turkish rulers
to give back Jerusalem. The people of Venice agreed to this, and spent a whole year doing nothing but preparing a fleet that could
transport 33,500 Crusades to Cairo. When the army finally showed up though it was only about 12,000 Crusaders. The Venetians
didn’t care and demanded to be paid in full… 85,000 silver marks. Since the Crusaders couldn’t pay the debt, they made a deal with
the people of Venice. In return for the amount they couldn’t pay the Crusades would take the city of Zara for Venice. Zara had been
under the control of Venice until 1181CE when it had rebelled. If they took the city, Venice would forgive the balance of the debt.
The Crusades agreed and attacked and looted the city. When the Pope found out he was furious, after all Zara and its inhabitants
were Roman Catholic Christians just like the Crusaders!! Around the same time as the raid on Zara the leader of the Fourth Crusade,
a man named Boniface of Montferrat met a prince from Constantinople named Alexios IV. Alexios had escaped from the city when a
rival member of the Imperial family kicked his father off the throne. Understandably he wanted to return and take the throne back.
He agreed to pay the debt to the Venetians, give the Crusaders 200,000 silver marks and add not only 10,000 troops to the Crusade,
but also the use of the Byzantine fleet if the Crusaders would help him. This was an ENORMOUS amount of money and men.
While there were a few Crusaders who didn’t want to be part of it, most of them agreed and so the army headed for Constantinople
the largest, most important city in the Christian world. In July of 1203CE the Crusaders attacked the city. During the fighting the
rival Emperor slipped quietly out of the city and ran off with a lot of the government’s money. The people of the city quickly put
Alexios VI’s father back on the throne and brought him and the Crusaders in to end the fighting. Long story short, the Crusaders
eventually figured out that Alexios VI had no ability or possibly even intention of paying them. As a result the Crusaders savagely
sacked (looted and robbed) the city for three days. Apparently they piled all the money and valuables they could find in the
Hippodrome and divided it up amongst themselves, large parts of the city were destroyed including the Library of Constantinople.
They even abducted a large number of the city’s skilled workers and took them home. In the end most of the Crusaders never made
it to Egypt and the City of Constantinople was never the same again. Plagued by poor rulers, lacking funds and support the
Byzantine Empire would be eaten away by the Turks until 1453CE when the city of Constantinople fell once again. The Seljuk Turks
renamed the city Istanbul and today it remains the capital of… you guessed it… Turkey.
Knowing what you know now, is it fair to call the Crusades ‘religious wars’? Write a short paragraph giving your answer.
Remember there is no right or wrong answer; just be sure to include the reasons why you came to your opinion.
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