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The Crusades
Mixed reasons for and mixed results
of warfare
ID & SIG
 Constantinople, Crusades, Italian city-states, Jerusalem,
reasons for the Crusades, Reconquista, results of the Crusades,
Pope Urban, Richard the Lion Heart, Saladin
Decline of Byzantium
Review from Lesson 8
 In 1071, Muslim Saljuqs won
an important victory at
Manzikert
 Byzantine factions then
turned on each other in civil
war, allowing the Saljuqs
almost free rein in Anatolia
 The Byzantine Emperor
asked Pope Urban II to help
him against the Muslims
Pope Urban II
 Urban responded to
Byzantium’s request with a
rousing speech in Clermont,
France in 1095 in which he
called upon Christians to “Enter
upon the road to the Holy
Sepulcher; wrest that land from
the wicked race, and subject it
to yourselves…”
 Urban’s speech would help
launch the first of several
Crusades
Reasons for the Crusades
 The Pope hoped to unite the
entire eastern
Mediterranean and the
divided Christian faith under
the banner of the Latin
Church
 Remember the Schism from
Lesson 6
 Italian city-states, with their
large navies, hoped for
commercial gains and were
therefore keen supporters of
the Crusades
Reasons for the Crusades
 The Byzantine Empire was in
severe decline and no longer
could act as a buffer between
the Muslim East and the
Catholic West
 Christian pilgrims visiting the
holy sites in Jerusalem began
experiencing increased
harassment and danger
“A pilgrim camp near Jericho”
by David Roberts
A New Concept of War
 Augustine’s Just War Theory
 Waged under the auspices of the
state
 Vindication of justice (defense of
life and property)
 Restrained conduct with regard
to the enemy, non-combatants,
and prisoners
 The Crusades
 At behest of the Pope, but under
operational control of the kings
 Defense of the faith
 No restraint in dealing with the
infidel
 The change was justified
based on the Biblical accounts
of the conquest of Canaan by
Joshua (remember Lesson 10)
Mobilization of the Crusades
 Pope Urban traveled to various cities for nine months preaching
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the Crusade and offering extraordinary inducements to include a
plenary indulgence remitting all punishments due to sin for those
who died on the Crusade
Serfs were allowed to leave the land to which they were bound
Citizens were exempted from taxes
Debtors were given a moratorium on interest
Prisoners were freed and death sentences were commuted by a
bold extension of Papal authority to life service in Palestine
The Crusaders
 The variety of motivations resulted in a
varied assembly
 Men tired of hopeless poverty
 Adventurers seeking action
 Merchants looking for new markets
 Lords whose enlisting serfs had left them
laborless
 Sincerely religious individuals wanting to rescue
the land of Christ
The First Crusade
 The word “crusade” comes
from the Spanish cruzade
which means “marked with
the cross”
 Crusaders wore red crosses
on their chests to symbolize
their purpose
The First Crusade
 Urban had appointed August 1096
as the time of departure, but many
of the impatient peasants, who were
among the first recruits, could not
wait
 Led by such personalities as Peter
the Hermit and Walter the
Penniless, they set out in three
groups and quickly devolved into
disorder, hunger, and ill-discipline
 They were all but annihilated by a
force of Turks at Nicea
“Alexius Comnenus, Emperor
of the East, receives Peter the
Hermit at Constantinople,
August 1096”
by Gillot Saint-Evre
The First Crusade
 The more organized Crusaders,
under the divided leadership of
various feudal leaders, moved by
various routes to
Constantinople
 There the Emperor Alexius gave
them provisions and bribes in
exchange for a pledge of fealty
 Alexius was somewhat afraid
the Crusaders had designs on
Constantinople as well as
Jerusalem
Duke Godfrey of Bouillon was
among the most brave, pious,
competent, and fanatical of the
First Crusade leaders
The First Crusade
 The First Crusaders met an even
more divided Muslim force and
won victories at Nicea on June
19, 1097 and Antioch on June 3,
1098
 By June 7, 1099, after a three
year campaign, 12,000 of the
original 30,000 Crusaders
reached Jerusalem
Siege of Antioch
The First Crusade
 On July 15 the Crusaders
went over the city walls and
unleashed unbridled
carnage
 Blood reportedly ran knee-
deep
 70,000 Moslems were
slaughtered
 Jews were herded into a
synagogue and burned alive
The First Crusade
 Administrative rule of Jerusalem proved
problematic
 Eventually the kingdom was parceled into
practically independent fiefs and barons
assumed all ownership of land, reducing the
former owners to the condition of serfs
 The kingdom was further weakened by the
ceding of several ports to the Italian citystates in exchange for naval support and
seaborne supplies
 The native Christian population came to
look back on the era of Moslem rule as a
golden age
Godfrey served as the
first ruler of Jerusalem
Knights
 The establishment of new orders of
military monks partially offset these
weaknesses
 The Knights of the Hospital of Saint
John and the Knights Templar began by
protecting and nursing pilgrims but
gravitated to active attacks on Moslem
strongholds
 Both orders would come to play
prominent roles in the battles of the
Crusades and earned great reputations
as warriors
Seal of the Knights
Templar
Moslem Counterattack
 Most of the Crusaders returned to
Europe after freeing Jerusalem,
creating a manpower shortage
 Moslem refugees retreated to
Baghdad and demanded a force
retake Jerusalem
 In 1144, Moslems under Zangi
retook the Christian’s eastern-most
outpost at al-Ruah and then Edessa
 Such developments would spur the
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade
 St. Bernard appealed to Pope
Eugenius II to call for another
Crusade, but Eugenius begged
Bernard to undertake the task
himself
 Bernard persuaded King Louis VII
of France and then Emperor
Conrad III of Germany to accept
the Crusade
 At Easter 1147 the Germans set out
and the French followed at
Pentecost
Conrad approaching
Constantinople
The Second Crusade
 This time the Moslems were ready
 At Dorylaeum, the Germans were defeated so badly that barely one in ten Christians
survived
 At Attalia, nearly every Frenchman was slaughtered
 Eventually the Crusaders joined forces and lay siege to Damascus, but were soundly
defeated
The Second Crusade
 News of the defeat of the Second Crusade shocked
Europe
 Christians wondered how God could allow them to be so
humiliated by the infidel
 Bernard explained that the defeat must be punishment for sins
 Enthusiasm for the Crusades waned rapidly
 While the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem continued to be
torn by internal strife, its Moslem enemies were moving
toward unity
Saladin
 In 1175, Saladin brought Egypt and
Moslem Syria under one rule
 In 1185, he signed a four-year truce
with the Latin kingdom but the
Christians violated it by attacking a
Moslem caravan and capturing
Saladin’s sister
 He declared a holy war against the
Christians and captured Jerusalem in
1187
 His terms were much more
generous than those of the
Crusaders in 1099
Saladin: one of the few
Crusade personalities
generally described
favorably by both Eastern
and Western sources
The Third Crusade
 The Christians were able to
retain Tyre, Antioch, and
Tripoli and the Italian fleets
still controlled the
Mediterranean
 William, Archbishop of
Tyre, returned to Europe
to call for a Crusade
 Frederick Barbarossa of
Germany set out with his
army in 1189 but had little
success
“March of the Crusaders” by
George Inness
The Third Crusade
 Then Richard I the Lion Heart of
England took up the cause and took
Philip Augustus, the French king,
with him to ensure the French
didn’t encroach on English territory
in his absence
 The Christians captured Acre and an
ill Philip Augustus returned to
France, leaving Richard in sole
charge of the Third Crusade
 Still Richard would face divisions as
the German troops returned to
Germany and French troops
repeatedly disobeyed orders
The Third Crusade
 Richard and Saladin embarked on a “unique campaign in which
blows and battles alternated with compliments and courtesies”
 (Durant, 599)
The two executed enemy prisoners they held
Richard proposed his sister marry Saladin’s brother
They signed peace treaties then rejected them
Richard conferred knighthood on the son of a Moslem
ambassador
 Richard got sick and Saladin sent him his own physician and some
fruit
 Saladin saw Richard unmounted in battle and sent him a horse
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The Third Crusade
 In the end Richard and Saladin signed
a peace for three years beginning Sept
2, 1192
 Richard would keep the coastal cities he
had captured from Acre to Jaffa
 Moslems and Christians could pass freely
into and from each other’s territory
 Pilgrims would be protected in Jerusalem
 But… Jerusalem would remain in Moslem
hands
The Third Crusade
 Richard had possessed superior brilliance, courage, and knowledge of
the military art, but Saladin’s moderation, patience, and justice had
carried the day
 The relative unity and fidelity of the Moslems had once again
triumphed over the Christians’ divisions and disloyalties
The Fourth Crusade
 Acre was free but Jerusalem was still in Moslem hands
 Europe was in turmoil with problems such as renewed fighting
between France and England, but the death of Saladin and the
breakup of his empire renewed hope for another Crusade
 In exchange for its financial support, Venice exacted a promise that
the Crusaders would capture the important port of Zara and turn
it over to her
 Zara belonged to Hungary and was stiff competition to Venice’s
maritime trade
 Pope Innocent III denounced the scheme but to no avail
 The Fourth Crusade would be marked by avarice
The Fourth Crusade
 Part of the avarice was the
temptation to capture
Constantinople which had
derived much profit from the
Crusades
 Seizing Constantinople would
not only provide financial
benefit, it would also restore it
to the Western Church
 In 1204 the Crusaders captured
and looted Constantinople
The Fourth Crusade
 The Byzantine Empire was divided into feudal
dominions, each ruled by a Latin noble
 Most Crusaders returned home, perhaps thinking that by
securing Constantinople they now had a stronger base
against the Moslems
 Only a handful continued to Palestine and had no effect
there
 The Byzantine Empire never recovered and the Latin
capture of Constantinople served to prepare it for
capture by the Turks two centuries later
Collapse of the Crusades
 The scandal of the Fourth
Crusade and the failure of the
Third quenched the greater
fire for Crusades but several
half-hearted efforts would
continue until 1291
 In 1291, the Moslems seized
Acre
 Tyre, Sidon, Haifa, and Beirut
fell soon afterward
Among the ineffective latter
crusades was the “Children’s
Crusade” of 1212 in which
thousands of children ended up
drowning or being sold into slavery
Results of the Crusades
 Failures
 Jerusalem was in Moslem hands
 Christian pilgrims became fewer and more fearful than ever
 The Moslem powers, once tolerant of religious diversity, had
been made intolerant by attack
 The effort of the popes to bring peace and unity to Europe had
been thwarted by nationalistic ambitions, avarice, and internal
dissension
 The influence of the Catholic Church and the position of the
pope declined and the schism between the Eastern Orthodox
and Roman Catholic Church widened
Results of the Crusades
 Failures
 Moslem civilization had been victorious over Christian
civilization
 Indigenous eastern Christians were caught in the middle
between Crusaders and Moslems, and many who were outraged
by the excesses of the Crusaders or who wanted to avoid
persecution by Moslem leaders who saw them as collaborators
with the Crusaders converted to Islam
 In fact, the Crusades ironically proved instrumental in making the eastern
Mediterranean predominantly Moslem
Results of the Crusades
 Successes
 Serfs had used the Crusades to leave their lands and many found
new opportunities
 The Turkish capture of Constantinople was delayed until 1453
 The Moslems, even though victorious, had themselves been
weakened, and fell more easily when the Mongols attacked
 Remember from Lesson 21
 Trade and exploration were enhanced
Trade
 Italian traders obviously benefited
from supplying the Crusades while
they were going on, but they also
saw an opportunity to expand their
market by establishing direct trade
with the Moslem world
 The lucrative trade provided great
profit to the Italian city-states and
ultimately provided the economic
basis for the Italian Renaissance
we’ll discuss in Lesson 24
Lorenzo de Medici was part of a
family that ruled Florence and
served as bankers for the
Crusades and patrons of the
Renaissance
Trade
 The most important trade item
were spices
 Other items included cotton, linen,
dates, coral, pearls, porcelain, silk,
and metal goods
 Damascus was a key center for
industry and commerce and a
stopping point for pilgrims on
their way to Mecca
Egyptian scarf or garment
fragment ca 1395
Trade
 European Christians also became exposed to new ideas as they
traveled throughout the Mediterranean basin
 The works of Aristotle
 Islamic science and astronomy
 “Arabic” numerals which the Moslems had borrowed from India
 Techniques for paper production which the Moslems had
learned from China
 While the Crusades may have largely failed as military adventures,
they helped encourage the reintegration of western Europe into
the larger economy of the western hemisphere
The Reconquista of Spain
 The Christians did have better
success wresting Sicily and Spain
from the Moslems in actions
separate from the Crusades
 Sicily was regained relatively easily
 Moslems had conquered it in the 9th
Century but in the 1090, after about
20 years of fighting, Norman warriors
returned it to Christian hands
 Spain would be a bit more of a
challenge
The Reconquista of Spain
 Moslems invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th Century and
ruled all but small Christian states such as Catalonia
 In the 1060s Christians began attacking outward from these toeholds
The Reconquista of Spain
 By 1150 Christians had recaptured Lisbon and controlled over half the
peninsula
 These successes lured reinforcements from England and France and a
new round of campaigning in the 13th Century brought all but Granada
into Christian hands
 In 1492, Christian forces conquered Granada and the Reconquista was
complete
Immediate Impact of the Reconquista
 After the successful
Reconquista, the devoutly
Christian rulers of Spain and
Portugal were eager to
dominate the Islamic states in
North Africa and to convert
non-Christians
 The desire to spread
Christianity would be one of
the motives for the European
explorations we’ll discuss in
Lesson 25
1492 was the year of both the
completion of the Reconquista and
Columbus’ voyage to the New
World
Next
 Long-distance Trade and the Silk Roads Network