Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religiously sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of
Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific
crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200
years, between 1095 and 1291. Other campaigns in Spain and Eastern Europe continued into the
15th century. The Crusades were fought mainly by Roman Catholic forces (taking place after the
East-West Schism and mostly before the Protestant Reformation) against Muslims who had
occupied the near east since the time of the Rashidun Caliphate, although campaigns were also
waged against pagan Slavs, pagan Balts, Jews, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols,
Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemies of the various popes.

1st CRUSADE

Pope Urban II (1088-1099, see art below) was responsible for assisting Emperor Alexus I
(1081-1118) of Constantinople in launching the first crusade. He made one of the most influential
speeches in the Middle Ages, calling on Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue the
Holy Land from the Turks. In the speech given at the Council of Clermont in France, on November
27, 1095, he combined the ideas of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy
war against infidels.

Dr. E.L. Skip Knox gives a summary of the pope's speech, which has been recorded differently in
various sources:

"The noble race of Franks must come to the aid their fellow Christians in the East. The
infidel Turks are advancing into the heart of Eastern Christendom; Christians are being
oppressed and attacked; churches and holy places are being defiled. Jerusalem is groaning
under the Saracen yoke. The Holy Sepulchre is in Moslem hands and has been turned into a
mosque. Pilgrims are harassed and even prevented from access to the Holy Land.

"The West must march to the defense of the East. All should go, rich and poor alike. The
Franks must stop their internal wars and squabbles. Let them go instead against the infidel
and fight a righteous war.

"God himself will lead them, for they will be doing His work. There will be absolution and
remission of sins for all who die in the service of Christ. Here they are poor and miserable
sinners; there they will be rich and happy. Let none hesitate; they must march next summer.
God wills it!

"Deus vult! (God wills it) became the battle cry of the Crusader.

"The day after Urban's speech, the Council formally granted all the privileges and protections
Urban had promised. The red cross was taken as the official sign of the pilgrims, and Bishop
Adhemar of Le Puy was chosen as papal legate and the spiritual leader of the expedition."

The First Crusade was the most successful from a military point of view. Accounts of this action
are shocking. For example, historian Raymond of Agiles described the capture of Jerusalem by the
Crusaders in 1099:
Some of our men cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they
fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads,
hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over
the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the
temple of Solomon, a place where religious services ware ordinarily chanted. What happened there?
If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much at least,
that in the temple and portico of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.

Some of the results of the first crusade were not expected. Alexus I thought that the Byzantine
territories would be returned to him and the Eastern Empire, but instead the European conquerors
established four independent Latin kingdoms. In addition, three military orders (Hospitallers,
Templars, and Teutonic Knights) came into power. The stated purpose of these orders was to
protect pilgrims and holy sites.

Dr. E.L. Skip Knox

2nd CRUSADE

Calling of the Crusade

News of Edessa's fate trickled into Rome in the summer of 1145. Pope Eugenius III had just
been elected when he was brought word of the disaster by Bishop Hugh of Jabala. Other
delegations arrived over the summer. It was not until late fall, however, that Eugenius finally issued
a crusading bull: Quantum praedecessores, addressed to Louis VII and the Gauls, on 1 December
1145.

Louis' reaction was interesting. He had quarreled with the papacy over the appointment of bishops
and other matters, but had recently been reconciled. He had perpetrated a massacre at Vitry in
which a number of people had been burned to death in a cathedral, and he was looking for an
appropriate penance. He knew of the fall of Edessa and the call for help, though he probably did not
know of the papal bull. All of these factors made him sympathetic to a crusade, but they did not
mean he was going to drop everything and gallop to the rescue.

The situation changed at Christmas, when the royal French court assembled at Bourges. There
was still no universal enthusiasm for a crusade, for no one had forgotten the catastrophes of 1101.
But the king spoke in favor of it, and support spread slowly through the winter. Even at Christmas,
though, Louis made no reference to the crusading bull, which is why we don't think he yet knew of
it.

Eugenius, a little discouraged at the underwhelming response, referred the matter to Bernard of
Clairvaux and commissioned Bernard to preach the crusade. He reissued the bull in March 1146.This
time, there was a response.

3rd CRUSADE

Bad News Travels Fast

Between the terrible loss at Hattin and the loss of the great cities, especially Jerusalem, the news
electrified Europe. The news was brought by Genoese merchants to Rome in October, followed
closely by the Archbishop of Tyre, come to plead for aid. King William II of Sicily was one of the
first monarchs to hear the news and he immediately sent a fleet to the Holy Land. Its timely arrival
helped save Tripoli and Tyre.

The archbishop went north, to gain the help of the English and French, who were at war at the time,
but were in the midst of negotiating a truce (January 1188). Henry II and Philip II patched up their
quarrel and made peace on the very battlefield, and a number of nobles took the cross on the spot.
The two monarchs also agreed to levy a special tax to finance the crusade, a tax that became known
as the Saladin Tithe.

Instead of marching off to save Jerusalem, however, the two nations became embroiled again in
war. Henry's son, Richard of Poitou, went to war with the Count of Toulouse. Both men appealed
to their overlords, and then in a fit of anger Richard switched sides to the French and made war on
his own father, Henry of England. On July 6, 1188, the old king died and Richard of Poitou was now
Richard I of England (September 3).

The delays because of rebellion and war were widely and loudly condemned. Once Richard was made
king, he had no further excuse for delay (for he had taken the crusading vow even before Henry
had). In fact, Richard did not depart for the Holy Land until July 1190, almost three years after
the fall of Jerusalem.

4th CRUSADE

The Sack of Constantinople (1204)

   The First Crusade was the most successful from a military point-of-view and very violent
against Moslems. The Fourth Crusade, proclaimed by Pope Innocent
III (1198-1216, picture below), wreaked violence on other
Christians.

   The crusade was to be directed at Egypt, because the Crusaders

believed that conquering it would be the key to regaining Jerusalem.
The expedition took an expected turn, however, and the Pope could
not stop it.

   The Crusaders gathered at Venice, Italy, but they could not

raise enough money to sail to the Holy Land. They made an
arrangement with the Venetians. For Venice, the Crusaders would conquer the Christian city
of Zara; then the Venetians would take them on to Jerusalem. Pope Innocent III ordered the
army not to proceed and even excommunicated them, but he could not stop them.

   After conquering Zara, the Crusaders diverted to Constantinople rather than sail on to the
Holy Land. They and the Venetians attacked Constantinople, the richest Christian city in the
world. They plundered the city and took its wealth, including the treasures of the great
church Hagia Sophia. They battled against other Christian men and they raped Christian
women.

   The conquering of the great Christian city in 1204 ended the Fourth Crusade and had
significant religious and political consequences. A number of Latin states were established in
Greece and the Aegean; the communion between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches
ended. The Byzantine government moved to Nicea. Likewise most of the Greek bishops
abandoned their sees and took refuge at Nicea, leaving their churches to the Latin bishops;
Greek convents were replaced by Cistercian monasteries.

   Although other Christians had been transgressed, the Crusaders, who returned with many
Eastern treasures, generally were not condemned by European society. Pope Innocent III even
removed the ban that had excommunicated them. The acquisition of the Greek Empire was,
after all, a great prize.

5th CRUSADE

A New Crusade

Pope Innocent III spent most of his papacy preaching a Crusade. When he began, he was trying to
mobilize one to recover Jerusalem in the wake of the failure of the Third Crusade. Henry VI's
crusade had died with him. The Fourth Crusade had gone woefully wrong. After that, Innocent was
preoccupied with the Albigensians and preached a Crusade against them. He also preached a
Crusade in Spain. He called for yet another one at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, but by then
he was at the end of his years and he died in 1216 without seeing the results.

Three days after Innocent's death, a new pope was elected as Honorius III. He immediately took
up where Innocent had left off, writing letters to the monarchs of Europe. Few answered the call,
and those who did sent only very small armies. Response was better among the French and German
barons, and the Frisians agreed to provide a fleet. The Crusaders were to assemble in Italy in 1217
and set out from there, but the Frisians were late arriving, and the army had to wait out the winter.

A portion of the army sailed in April, 1218 and arrived in Acre with most of the leaders. There they
decided that the best course of action would be to attack Egypt. King John of Jerusalem knew
perfectly well that there was no point in attacking Jerusalem as long as Egypt was strong, whereas
with Egypt under Latin control, then the Muslims could not hold Jerusalem for very long. The great
wealth of Egypt must also have been an attraction.

The Crusaders left Acre on May 24, 1218, bound for Egypt.

6th CRUSADE

An Emperor's Vow
The Fifth Crusade had failed to recover Jerusalem or to conquer Egypt. Since this was the first
crusade since the crusade of the kings in 1189 that actually tried to rescue the Holy Land, its
defeat was a bitter blow. It was even harder to endure because it had begun so well, but worst of
all was the conviction shared by many that it would have succeeded if only the German Emperor had
made good on his promise to participate in this crusade.

The Emperor in question was Frederick II, a ruler who had far more lands at his command than any
other monarch, even though he could not always rely on them. Frederick had taken the crusading
vow in 1215 when he was still a youth, evidently carried away by the moment during his coronation
ceremonies at Aachen. No crusade was immediately in the offing, and in any case he had to bring
Germany to order, so there was no question of him setting out immediately.

But when the Fifth Crusade set out, the pope reminded him of his pilgrim's vow and the timing did
seem propitious. Unfortunately, even as he was raising an army, rebellion broke out in Italy.
Frederick delayed, hoping to settle matters at home and still be able to fight in the Crusade. But
the delay stretched out. The Crusaders sent him urgent messages, begging for assistance. Finally,
all he could do was send a fleet with a small force. It was not enough.

7th CRUSADE

The Crusade of St. Louis

The last of the major crusades that traditionally has a number was entirely the work of Louis IX,
King of France. He undertook the crusade largely upon his own initiative, it was financed by the
French crown, he set the objectives, and it was over only when he decided to go home again. The
event that spurred the king to go was not anything in particular that happened, although there was
a great defeat at Gaza in 1244, but rather it was the king's own illness and brush with death in that
same year. While still sick, he swore that if he should recover, he would go on Crusade.

The Seventh shares with the Sixth Crusade the attribute of being under the control of a particular
monarch. Taken together, they show plainly that the papacy had lost control of the crusading
movement and, equally, that the movement was no longer able to stir interest throughout Europe.
The crusades were close to becoming the instrument of national policy.

Like all the other crusades except the First, this one ended in failure. And, like the others, it had
unintended consequences in Outremer and almost no effect back home. We will look at both of
these.

Preparations

We know quite a bit about Louis' preparations for his crusade; he was a very famous monarch, even
in his own day, and so we have many sources, and one in particular—that of the king's seneschal,
Joinville—tells us much about this Crusade. Louis took three years before he was ready to go. He
had to raise money, arrange matters internally and with foreign powers, find transportation, and
then raise the army itself.

Although the French church complained mightily about not being exempted from the Crusade tax,
Louis managed to make all these arrangements without making too many enemies. With one
exception: the Venetians were already unhappy about Louis' plan to invade Egypt, for that was the
objective Louis had selected. When the king also chose to use for transport ships from Marseilles
and Genoa, he effectively made Venice his enemy. It would have to be Venice or Genoa as
enemy;there was almost no way to favor one without angering the other.
A few Scots and Englishmen went along, but the great bulk of the Crusaders were French. They set
out from the ports in August of 1248. Louis brought with him many family members, including his
queen, two of his brothers, and numerous cousins.

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