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This article is about the Crusades, the series of European military campaigns.
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The Crusades were a series of several military campaigns sanctioned by the Pope that took place during the 11th through 13th centuries. They began as Catholic endeavors to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims but developed into territorial wars. Later crusades were called against the remaining pagan nations of Europe such as the Polabians and Lithuania, and against heresy, such the crusade against Bohemia, 1418-1437 (see Northern Crusades).
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1 Historical background
2 Popular reputation
3 Historical context
4 First Crusade
4.1 "Crusade" of 1101
5 Second Crusade
6 Third Crusade
7 Fourth Crusade
8 Albigensian Crusade
9 Children's Crusade
10 Fifth Crusade
11 Sixth Crusade
12 Seventh Crusade
13 Eighth Crusade
14 Ninth Crusade
15 Crusades in Baltic and Central Europe
16 See also
16.1 References
Historical background
The initial conquest of Palestine by the forces of Islam did not interfere much with pilgrimage to Christian holy sites such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. However, in the year 1009 the Fatimid caliph of Cairo, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre destroyed. His successor permitted the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it, and pilgrimage was permitted again.
The decisive loss of the Byzantine army to the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 brought the beginning of Byzantine pleas for troops and support from the West.
Popular reputation
In Western Europe the Crusades have traditionally been regarded by laypeople as heroic defensive enterprises, although not all historians have agreed. In the Islamic world, however, the Crusades are regarded to this day as cruel and savage onslaughts by Christendom on Islam, and so, for example, some of the rhetoric from Islamic fundamentalists uses the term "crusade" in this emotional context to refer to Western moves against them. However, this view may lack accuracy as the crusaders were ultimately defeated by the Muslim armies. Contrast this to how Spain fell to Muslim armies in 713 and only freed itself from Arab rule in 1492.
Eastern Orthodox Christians also see the Crusades as attacks by the West, especially because of the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade. Countries of Central Europe, despite the fact that formally they also belonged to Western Christianity, were the most skeptical about the idea of Crusades. Many cities in Hungary were sacked by passing Crusades armies. One ruler of Poland refused to join a Crusade, allegedly because of the lack of beer in the Holy land. Later on Poland and Hungary were subject to conquest from the Crusaders (see Teutonic Order), and therefore invented the idea that pagans have the rights to live in peace and have property rights to their lands (see Pawel Wlodkowic).
There is an interesting symmetry between the terms "Crusade" and "Jihad". In the West the term "Crusade" has positive connotations (for example a politician might use rhetoric such as "a crusade against illegal drugs") while the term "Jihad" has negative connotations associated with fanatical holy war. In the Islamic world the term "Jihad" has positive connotations that include a much broader meaning of general personal and spiritual struggle, while the term "Crusade" has the negative connotations described above. Thus it is viewed by some that to correctly translate nuances of meaning, the use of "Jihad" in Arabic should be translated to "Crusade" in English while use of the Arabic term for "Crusade" should be translated to "Jihad" in English.
The crusaders committed atrocities not just against Muslims but also against Jews and even other Christians. For example, the Fourth Crusade never made it to Palestine, but instead sacked Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire. Many religious relics and artifacts taken from Constantinople are still in the hands of Roman Catholics, in the Vatican and elsewhere. This crusade served to deepen the already hard feelings between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity. The Byzantine Empire eventually recovered Constantinople, but its strength never fully recovered, and the Byzantine Empire finally fell to the Ottomans in 1453
Historical context
"It is necessary to look for the origin of a crusading ideal in the struggle between Christians and Moslems in Spain and consider how the the idea of a holy war emerged from this background," Norman F. Cantor has written (Reference). When the First Crusade was preached in 1095, the Christian princes of northern Iberia had been fighting their way out of the mountains of Galicia and Asturias, the Basque country and Navarre, with increasing success, for about a hundred years. The turning points of the Reconquista still lay in the future. But the disunity of the Muslim emirs was a factor, and the Christians, whose wives remained safely behind, were hard to beat: they knew nothing except fighting, they had no gardens and libraries to defend, and they worked their way forward through alien territory where they could afford to wreak havoc. This was to be thesituation in the fighting grounds of the East. Spanish historians have traditionally seen the Reconquista as the molding force in the Castilian character, with its sense that the highest good was to die fighting for the cause of the right deity, in a Christian jihad. An ascetic religious fanaticism enforced by a military aristocracy became the dominant social values.
The papacy of Gregory VII had struggled with reservations about the doctrinal validity of a holy war and the shedding of blood for the Lord and had resolved the question. Saint Augustine, Gregory's intellectual model, had justified the use of force in the service of Christ in The City of God, and a Christian war might enhance the wider standing of an aggressively ambitious leader of Europe, as Gregory saw himself. The northerners would be cemented to Rome and their troublesome minor counts and younger sons could see the only kind of action that suited them. To the south of Rome, Normans were showing how such energies might be unleashed against both Arabs (in Sicily) and Byzantines (on the mainland). A Latin hegemony in the Levant would provide leverage in resolving the Papacy's claims of supremacy over the Patriarch of Constantinople, which had resulted in the Great Schism of 1054, a rift that might yet be resolved through the force of Frankish arms.
In the Byzantine homelands the Eastern Emperor's weakness was revealed by the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which reduced the Emperor to a region in western Anatolia and round Constantinople. A sure sign of Byzantine desperation was the appeal of Alexius Comnenus to his enemy the Pope for aid. But Gregory was occupied with the Investiture Controversy and could not call on the German emperor and the crusade never took shape.
For Gregory's more moderate successor Urban II, a crusade would serve to reunite Christendom, bolster the Papacy, perhaps bring the East under his control. The disaffected Germans and the Normans were not to be counted on, but the heart and backbone of a crusade could be found among the northern French.
First Crusade
Full article: First Crusade
After Byzantine Emperor Alexius I called for help with defending his empire against the Seljuk Turks, in 1095 Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join a war against the Turks, a war which would count as full penance. Crusader armies marched up towards Jerusalem, sacking several cities on their way. In 1099, they took Jerusalem, massacring the Jewish and Muslim population. As a result of the First Crusade, several small states were created, notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
"Crusade" of 1101
A minor crusade sent to reinforce the newfound Kingdom of Jerusalem, mostly destroyed on the way. See First Crusade article.
Second Crusade
Full article: Second Crusade
After a period of relative peace, in which Christians and Muslims coexisted in the Holy Land, Bernard of Clairvaux called for a new crusade when the town of Edessa was conquered by the Turks. French and German armies marched to Asia Minor in 1147, but failed to accomplish any major successes. In 1149, both leaders had returned to their countries without any result.
Third Crusade
Full article: Third Crusade
In 1187, Saladin captured Jerusalem. Pope Gregory VIII preached a crusade, which was led by several of Europe's most important leaders: Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick drowned in Cilicia in 1190, leaving an unstable alliance between the English and the French. Philip left in 1191 after the Crusaders had recaptured Acre from the Muslims, while Richard left the following year after establishing a truce with Saladin.
Fourth Crusade
Full article: Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III in 1202, but ended up in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, as crusaders fought alongside Venetians and traitors to the Byzantine Empire.
The vital crusading spirit was now dead, and the succeeding crusades are to be explained rather as arising from the efforts of the papacy in its struggle against the secular power, to divert the military energies of the European nations toward Syria.
Albigensian Crusade
Full article: Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars of southern France.
Children's Crusade
Full article: Children's Crusade
The Children's Crusade is a possibly fictitious or misinterpreted crusade of 1212. The story is that an outburst of the old enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany, which Pope Innocent III interpreted as a reproof from heaven to their unworthy elders. None of the children actually reached the Holy Land, being sold as slaves or dying during the journey of hunger.
Fifth Crusade
Full article: Fifth Crusade
By processions, prayers, and preaching, the Church attempted to set another crusade on foot, and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) formulated a plan for the recovery of the Holy Land.
A crusading force from Hungary, Austria, and Bavaria achieved a remarkable feat in the capture of Damietta in Egypt in 1219, but under the urgent insistence of the papal legate, Pelagius, they proceeded to a foolhardy attack on Cairo, and an inundation of the Nile compelled them to choose between surrender and destruction.
Sixth Crusade
Full article: Sixth Crusade
In 1228, Emperor Frederick II set sail from Brindisi for Syria, though laden with the papal excommunication. Through diplomacy he achieved unexpected success, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem being delivered to the Christians for a period of ten years.
Seventh Crusade
Full article: Seventh Crusade
The papal interests represented by the Templars brought on a conflict with Egypt in 1243, and in the following year a Korasmian force summoned by the latter stormed Jerusalem.
Louis IX of France made an unsuccessful crusade against Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria in 1248-54. He left France from Aigues-Mortes.
Eighth Crusade
Full article: Eighth Crusade
The eighth Crusade was sent by Louis IX, again starting from Aigues-Mortes, against Tunis in 1270, but ended when Louis died.
Ninth Crusade
Full article: Ninth Crusade
The later Edward I of England undertook another expedition in 1271, retiring the following year after a truce. With the fall of Antioch (1268), Tripoli (1289), and Acre (1291) the last traces of the Christian occupation of Syria disappeared.
Crusades in Baltic and Central Europe
Full article: Northern Crusades
See also
References
A History of the Crusades, edited by Kenneth Setton (a massive six volume work, originally published between 1969 and 1989)
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
The Machine Crusade (Dune Series) by Brian Herbert
Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
The Journey Home : Finishing with Joy by Bill Bright
Warriors of God : Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade by Jr. James Reston
The Grand Crusade (The DragonCrown War Cycle, Book 3) by Michael A. Stackpole
Crusade : The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War by Rick Atkinson
The Boys' Crusade : The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945 by Paul Fussell
Ironfire : A Novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades by David Ball
Himmler's Crusade : The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race by Christopher Hale
Dune: The Machine Crusade by Kevin J. Anderson
The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity by Tariq Ali
The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades by Piers Paul Read
Holy War : The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World by Karen Armstrong
A History of the Crusades: Volume 1, The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Steven Runciman
Chronicles of the Crusades by Geoffrey De Villehardouin
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