Download Crusades Crusades Definition: Military expedition undertaken by

 Crusades
 Crusades
 Definition:

Military expedition undertaken by European Christians to regain Holy Land from
Muslims
 Motives


Peasants were promised salvation for anyone killed on a crusade

Could escape manor life and the lord’s control

Offered adventure

Help reunite the Church and increase its prestige
Motives cont.
 Knights

Could use their fighting skills

Chance to gain land & wealth in the east
 Lords

Chance to gain land in the east

Political power
 Motives cont.
 Pope

Free the holy land from the Muslims who did not believe in Christianity

Help Christians in the Byzantine Empire to defend their territory from the Seljuk
“Muslim” Turks that had invaded Palestine
 Cities

Expand their trading markets
 Major Crusades
 1071- Seljuk Conquest of Jerusalem
 First Crusade (1096-1099)

Peasants’ crusade

Land route

Captured Jerusalem temporarily

Set up feudal estates to help defend recaptured land
 Major Crusades cont.
 Second Crusade (1147-1149)

Land route

Attempted to re-enforce feudal states

Made it as far as Turkey

Spent more time fighting one another than fighting the Muslims

Jerusalem was lost to the Muslims
 Major Crusades Cont.
 1187- Saladin recaptures Jerusalem
 Third Crusade (1189-1192)

Crusade of the Kings

Water route

Led by French, English, and German Kings

Attempted to regain Jerusalem

Disaster from the beginning


King Fredrick of Germany drowned in a river
Failed to recapture the Holy Land
 1192- Truce between Saladin & Richard the Lion-hearted
 Major Crusades Cont.
 Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

Water route

Purpose was to gather works of art, jewels, and gold to pay of debts incurred on
previous crusades

Crusaders ransacked towns and sent their treasures home to Europe to sell for cash

Constantinople sacked by Christian Crusaders
 1270- End of Crusades (lasted approximately 200 years)
 1492- Jews and Muslims (Moors) forced from Spain during the Inquisition
 Outcomes
 Cities grew through increased trade
 Increased contact and trade with Muslim civilizations; had impact on European civilization
 Classical literature was rediscovered
 Increased persecution of Jews by Crusaders and by others in Europe
 Magna Carta (Great Charter)
 Medieval charter later became the basis for democratic government in England
 king had to ask parliament for permission to tax the citizens
 Magna Carta limited the power of the king

He had to obey the law!
 Magna Carta Cont.
 Habeas corpus was an important legal principle because it stopped unlawful imprisonment
 One of the most important legal principles in the Magna Carta developed from a clause that
asserted the right to a trial by jury