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What happened during the Crusades? What were the Crusades? This time is one of the most misunderstood periods of Western history. From 1095 to 1291, successive waves of Christian knights and royals, called to action by the Catholic Church, quested to the Holy Land in an effort to capture (or re-capture) it from Muslim armies. However, the facts are a lot more complicated.
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From 1095 to 1291, successive waves of Christian knights and royals, called to action by the Catholic Church
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quested to the Holy Land in an effort to capture it from Muslim armies, or recapture it in their eyes
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Those campaigns have come to be collectively known as the Crusades, and their era is one of the most misunderstood periods of Western history
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So, today we're going to take a look at some things you probably didn't know about the Crusades
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Okay, time for one last crusade, and not the Indiana Jones movie
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First, a little background. During the 10th century, Seljuk Turks conquered Iran, Iraq, and most of what was known to Europeans as the Near East
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They didn't get too imaginative about naming things back then. Then, in 1071, Jerusalem was conquered by the Turkish warlord Atsiz, who also seized most of Syria and Palestine in the name of the Seljuks
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Because at that point, you might as well. Don't want to have to make two trips. By 1095, the Seljuk Turks had such a tight grip on Jerusalem that Christians were barred from entering, which obviously made Christians throughout the world pretty upset
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But it wasn't until the Turks threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire
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that Emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for military assistance
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The Pope promptly called the Council of Clermont in November 1095, where he delivered a rousing speech
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In front of hundreds of clerics and nobles, Urban denounced Islam and its anti-Christian acts
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most of which may have never actually happened. He then called on the rich and poor alike to unite in a religious war against Islam
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beneath a battle cry of God wills it. And just like that, the Crusades were born
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In the most general sense, the Crusades were Christian invasions of Muslim-held lands
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that were sanctioned and indeed encouraged by the Catholic Church. The ultimate goal was to guarantee Christian pilgrims access to the Holy Land
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which had only recently been restricted. It's worth noting the area had been under Muslim control
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since it was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in 637. And while the expulsion of Christians from Jerusalem was a new rule
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access to the Holy Land was merely one of the goals that Catholic leadership had on its mind
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The church also saw an opportunity to reunite the eastern and western branches of Christendom
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after their split in 1054, just a few decades before the beginning of the Crusades
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However, as is often the case with geopolitics, things didn't go exactly as planned
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Rather than scoring a quick win for the church, the First Crusade kicked off two centuries of warfare and bloodshed
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Pope Urban II's call to arms was a huge success. Tens of thousands of people attempted to join the growing crusader armies
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although most of these people were peasants with no combat training whatsoever. They just wanted to be part of all the excitement
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The exact numbers are unknown, but it's generally agreed that somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 soldiers
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under the command of four different princes left Europe for the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in August 1096 After that they crossed into Asia Minor and quickly got busy conquering The army laid siege to several major cities over the next few years
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including Nicaea and Antioch, until finally reaching Jerusalem in 1099. By that point, only a third of the initial 35,000 strong force was left
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forcing an attack on multiple sides of the walled city. Nonetheless, the assault successfully drove the city's defenders from its walls
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and Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders. Upon entering the city, the Crusaders took the Church
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of the Holy Sepulchre and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, slaughtering most of the remaining
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Muslim and Jewish defenders. The First Crusade had been a stunning success, for European Christians
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anyway. Less of a success for everyone else. After making his wildly successful appeal to
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Christians and launching the First Crusade, Pope Urban II would live less than a year
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He passed away on July 29, 1099. And while Jerusalem had fallen two weeks earlier
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the Pope would never learn that his crusade had worked, at least temporarily. The news hadn't yet reached Rome when the pontiff went off to his final reward
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The Crusades weren't so much a direct series of events as they were an entire time period
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The call for what became the First Crusade went out in 1095
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and one of the last remaining Crusader cities, the city of Acre, fell to the Muslims in 1291
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essentially marking the end of the period roughly two centuries later. For a comparison
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that's 10 times longer than the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. Also, the Crusades weren't just
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one movement, but dozens. They were led by hundreds of knights, kings, and dukes
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and those guys were not always focused on capturing Jerusalem. To be sure, there were
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numerous attempts to free Jerusalem from Muslim rule, but the Crusaders also found the time to
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claim a number of other ancient cities, while destroying priceless artifacts and culture along
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the way. Don't just focus on the main quest when you can squeeze in a bunch of side missions
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If nothing else, you have to admire their ability to multitask. Starting with the First Crusade in
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1095, there were nine major crusades, which makes it as successful and long-running a franchise as
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the Fast and Furious movies of Sir Vincent Diesel, at least until Fast X comes out and ups the ante
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God wills it. While the details of each crusade vary, including who exactly was involved and where
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they were going, they all had a few things in common. For example, they all involved armies
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of Christian knights who considered themselves to be soldiers of God. Each knight had sworn a public
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oath, traveling from Europe to the Holy Land in order to liberate it from Muslim control. But again
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that was only the major crusades. Like any good franchise, the crusades had several minor
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spinoff entries outside the nine numbered campaigns. You can't wage a two century long
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more for the Holy Land without cranking out a few Hobbes and Shaw's. God wills it. These numerous
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Others, other smaller crusades usually involved an army raised by a king or duke going off to liberate one particular city
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or place. These bite-sized crusades took place all over Europe, occurring everywhere from France to modern-day Turkey
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Before the misleadingly named First Crusade was launched in 1096 there was actually an earlier event known as the People Crusade During this misguided prequel campaign a charismatic monk named Peter the Hermit
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gathered a decently sized army of peasants, priests, minor knights, women, children, and monks
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for the purpose of marching on Jerusalem. However, this so-called People's Crusade was just a loose collection of angry maniacs
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who sought to murder their way to the Holy Land. Unlike the official Crusades, which were a much more idealistic and regimented collection of angry maniacs
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The untrained rabble marched south through Germany, where they slaughtered numerous Jewish communities
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This gruesome event would become known as the Rhineland Massacres, but the people's crusaders would quickly receive their comeuppance
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They suffered two crushing defeats at the hands of the Seljuk Turks
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At the Battle of Civito, almost the entirety of Peter the Hermit's forces were wiped out
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Only a few thousand survivors made it back to Constantinople, having never even come close to reaching Jerusalem
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Look, it is hard to pull together a successful crusade without official church sponsorship
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It's like a NASCAR driver with zero decals on their car. It's embarrassing
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In 1144, the Seljuk Turk general, Zanke, governor of Mosul, captured the crusader state of Edessa
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The next year, Pope Eugenius III issued a call to arms, similar to Urban II's bull of 1098
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And why wouldn't he? The First Crusade was generally considered a success, and everyone loves a good sequel
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King Louis VII of France entered the call for the Second Crusade, as did King Conrad III of Germany, who was spurred by the mystic monk Bernard of Clairvaux
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They raised a massive army and marched to Constantinople, where they planned to retake Edessa and reinforce Jerusalem
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Unfortunately for Pope Eugenius, this turned out to be one of those sequels that was pretty bad compared to the original
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unless The Godfather Part II and more Rise of the Silver Surfer. The two kings barely communicated with each other, and as a result, the attack was poorly planned
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The combined forces were eventually beaten at Damascus, having never managed to even
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reach Edessa. The Third Crusade, which ran from 1189 to 1192, saw three European kings, Philip II
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of France, Richard I of England, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, team up to conquer
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the Holy Land once again. Richard I is better known as Richard the Lionheart, the guy from all
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the Robin Hood movies. But thanks mostly to the efforts of the legendary Muslim commander Saladin
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the Crusaders failed again. While they did manage to recapture some important cities
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Jerusalem wasn't one of them. In fact, Europeans wouldn't manage to establish rule over the Holy
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City until the Sixth Crusade in 1229. This time, the goal was accomplished primarily via political
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maneuvering, with very little fighting actually taking place. Even then, however, it was only a temporary victory
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for the crusaders. The city was back in Muslim hands a mere 15 years later
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roughly the same length of time as the entire run of the TV series Supernatural
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A number of pilgrims dropped out of the First Crusade either turning back during their journey or never leaving Europe at all Getting off the train probably seemed like a good idea at the time but the crusade turned out to be such a success that many of these people became targets for
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mockery and derision. Like people who slept on Bitcoin, fear of missing out has been a powerful
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motivator for centuries. In response, the Crusade of 1101, which was also mockingly called the
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Crusade of the Fainthearted, was formed. Those crusaders left from Constantinople, pillaging and slaying along the way
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However, they should have been content to endure the sick burns of their peers for having missed out on the first crusade
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because this impromptu make-up quest didn't go so well. The crusaders were harassed relentlessly by Turkish forces
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and were finally crushed at the Battle of Mersevan in northern Turkey
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Two other battles finished off this batch of crusaders and the casualties were almost total
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Knights of the Middle Ages operated under a complex series of religious rules for combat
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These rules were instituted to control what was perceived as an almost unquenchable lust
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for violence and conquest, which sounds like a quality you'd want in any warrior anointed by God
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According to these guidelines, which were known as the Peace of God, church property was off-limits for destruction, as were women, children, the elderly, and other non-combatants
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Hmm, that doesn't sound like any fun. The peace of God was a good start, but it wasn't quite enough to get the job done
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So in the 11th century, it was supplemented with the truce of God, which limited the days that combat could be initiated
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Lent, Advent, Fridays, and Saturdays were declared to be off-limits, ultimately making only 80 days available for fighting
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That's a pretty breezy schedule for a holy warrior. Pro-golfers have a more strenuous season
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But it's tough to pack it all in in that short time. However, given that people who need firm rules to prevent them from murdering women and children
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tend to be the first to ignore those rules, the peace of God and truce of God didn't really
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accomplish what they set out to do. But while they may have failed to wholly prevent wanton
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violence and cruelty, they weren't totally a waste of time either. The peace and the truce
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did help reestablish some semblance of order in a conflict ravaged Western Europe and were a
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critical precursor to the Crusades. In addition to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was formed in 1099 after the holy city fell to the Crusaders
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several other Crusader states were created in the wake of conquests in the Middle East
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These territories were founded by Crusaders who went to the Holy Land and didn't want to go back
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They're electing to remain in the East to convert infidels and enforce church rule
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and maybe get a nice big place with a pool. For example, the County of Edessa, in what is now modern-day Turkey, was formed in 1098 and lasted about 50 years
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The sacking of Edessa actually provoked the Second Crusade. The Principality of Antioch, located in modern-day Turkey and Syria
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also formed in the wake of the First Crusade, and was retaken in 1268 by the Sultan of Egypt and Syria
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A number of other crusader states came into being in the next 200 years
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almost all of which had been taken by other kingdoms by the end of the 13th century
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Hey, it was a conqueror's market