The Crusades of Medieval Europe.....

THE CRUSADES

Introduction:

·         The Crusades (1095 – 1291) are a series of military expeditions made by western Christians seeking to free the Holy Land from Muslim domination. It attracted every social class in central Europe, Kings and commoners, barons and bishops, knights and knaves, all participated in these expeditions to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

·     The idea of ​​the crusade originated when the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos appealed to the West to help him repel the Turkish invaders advancing in Anatolia. In response, Urban II called the Council of Clermont and, on November 25, officially declared the crusade.

·         An additional objective later became the main objective of the expedition: the Christian re-conquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem, the liberation of Eastern Christians from Muslim rule.

·         Etymology: The crusaders derived their name from the Latin word for ‘cross’ – crux. A crusader went to the Holy Land with a cross of cloth sewn on the breast of his garment; when and if he returned, he had a similar cross stitched on its back.

·         Outcome: The Christians did not permanently free the Holy Land. Indeed, rather than driving the Muslims out of Palestine, the Crusades resulted in making them its indisputable masters.

The beginning of the Crusades:

·         The Crusades were started by the popes, who were considered the nominal leaders of all such undertakings. The soldiers of Christ believed they were fighting for a just and noble cause.

·         The Crusades were begun by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. He was a Cluniac Reform pope and during many sessions of the council had discussed various evils which had hindered the spiritual working of the church and its clergy and called for a holy war in the Holy Land.

The Crusade Wars:

First Crusade (1096-1099)

·         The first crusade (1095-1099) was invoked by Pope Urban II during the Council of Clermont in 1095. The crusade ended in 1099 with the capture of Jerusalem.

·         In 1096, the official crusade began and many European Catholic nobles such as Raymond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, Boemondo of Taranto, Baldwin of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, Hugh of Vermandois, Stephen II of Blois, Robert of Fiandra and Tancredi of Altavilla, took part in the Crusade.

·         During the expedition, the nobility, knights, peasants, and servants from many regions of Western Europe traveled by land and by sea, reaching first Constantinople and then Jerusalem.

·         The Crusaders took Nicaea in 1097 and conquered Antioch the following year. The Crusaders made their arrival in Jerusalem and besieged and conquered age city in July 1099.

Second Crusade (1147-1149)

·         When news of the capture of Odessa by the Muslims reached Europe, St. Bernard of Clairvaux virtually persuaded Emperor Conrad III of Germany and King Louis VII of France to undertake the Second Crusade.

·         The two sovereigns consciously avoided one another and neither accomplished much. The Crusade was a complete failure.

Third Crusade (1187 – 1192)

·         In contrast to the disunity among the Christians, the Arabs were being united by the extraordinary leader Saladin. Through his efforts, the Muslims from Baghdad to Egypt were united into a single state, and it was easy for Saladin to defeat the disunited Christian forces. In 1187 he captured Jerusalem and subsequently the rest of the kingdom.

·         Richard the Lion-Hearted thereafter was the sole leader of the Third Crusade. His exploits gave rise to the legends of the Lion-Hearted, and, through them, Richard acquired a posthumous prestige far greater than he deserved. Richard did regain Acre and Jaffa for the Christians, but that was all.

·         The agreement he finally reached with Saladin gave pilgrims free access to Jerusalem and little else. The city itself and the adjoining kingdom, except for some coastal cities, were still subject to the same law – that of the Koran, not the Holy Bible.

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

·         Though Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade in 1198, power struggles within and between Europe and Byzantium drove the Crusaders to divert their mission in order to topple the reigning Byzantine emperor, Alexius III, in favor of his nephew, who became Alexius IV in mid-1203.

·         The new emperor’s attempts to submit the Byzantine church to Rome was met with stiff resistance, and Alexius IV was strangled after a palace coup in early 1204.

·         In response, the Crusaders declared war on Constantinople, and the Fourth Crusade ended with the devastating Fall of Constantinople, marked by a bloody conquest, looting and near-destruction of the magnificent Byzantine capital later that year.

The Children’s Crusade (1212)

·         This Crusade was the most pathetic of all Christian attempts to free the Holy Land. It was also the most senseless. The movement originated in France and Germany, and peasant children in two separate bands flocked to join it.

·         Many parish priests and parents encouraged such religious fervour and urged the children on. The pope and higher clergy opposed the outburst but were unable to stop it entirely.

·         Despite all their efforts, a land of several thousand children set out for Italy. About a third survived the march over the Alps and as far as Genoa, another group reached Marseilles.

·         The luckier ones eventually managed to get safely home, but many others paid dearly for their innocence and ignorance. For them, the route to Jerusalem came to a dead end on the auction blocks of Mediterranean slave dealers.

The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)

·         Instigated by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, this Crusade was fixed for 1217 under John Brienne, king of Jerusalem, with the intention of conquering Egypt.

·         John was replaced as leader by the papal legate Pelagius in 1218, and in 1219 the city of Damietta was captured by the Crusaders.

·         The sultan of Egypt offered to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta but this was rejected. After an unsuccessful assault on Cairo in 1221, the Crusaders surrendered Damietta in return for the freedom to retreat.

The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)

·         Often called the Diplomatic Crusade, this expedition was led by Emperor Fredrick II, the grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa.

·         After several postponements, Frederick undertook the Crusade in 1228, but he fought no battles. Instead, by negotiation, he obtained Jerusalem and a strip of territory from Acre to Jerusalem for the Christians.

·         He had previously married Yolanda in 1225 CE, the young heiress of the kingdom. Following her death in 1228, Frederick crowned himself as the king of Jerusalem.

The Seventh Crusade (1248-1250)

·         Led by King Louis IX of France and directed against the Arabs of Egypt, this Crusade was a complete failure.

·         After the capture of Damietta, the crusaders were decisively defeated at Cairo and King Louis was captured. Completely victorious, the Arabs demanded and received a huge ransom for the release of the king.

The Eighth Crusade (1270):

·         Disregarding his advisers, King Louis IX again attacked the Arabs in North Africa. This time he struck the city of Tunis.

·         The Crusaders picked the hottest season of the year for campaigning and were devastated by a pestilence (bubonic plague). One of its victims was Louis IX, whose death in 1270 ended the Crusade.