The crusades

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THE CRUSADES

I Undertake this journey for the forgiveness of your sins, with the assurance of everlasting glory in the kingdom of Heaven.¡±

Maria Westlund Nv3a


Background
The 1000¡¯s were one of the darkest periods In the Medieval history. The power of the pope and of the church was extremely large. The teaching of the Catholic Church was spread over almost the entire Europe and the development of the Feudal Society had weakened the government. During those times of trouble people searched for protection from the worldly misery within the churches and abbeys.

Out of this came a strong loyalty to the church. The growing religiosity among the Europeans resulted in that many went on pilgrims to Jerusalem and prayed beside the grave of Jesus. But during the late 1000s it was not safe to be a pilgrim anymore. A Turkish people called the Seljuk¡¯s had conquered Jerusalem 1071. They were a barbaric people who sacked and killed pilgrims who crossed their way. The Europeans turned upset because the infidel ruled the Holy Land and that the pilgrims could not visit the country in peace. They wanted to cast out the Mohammedans and lay the country under a Christian regime.

Clermont 1095 ¨C Urban spoke for the crusades
The European dream came true when the pope Urban II held a meeting in a church in the city Clermont in south France after that the Christian pilgrims not even could pray beside the grave of Jesus or bath in the holy water of Jordan because of the fear being sacked by the Muslims.
He begged to the Christians to make a fight to the infidel, in this case the Muslims. There were many causes why the pope wanted a crusade. The spreading of the Arabs and their beliefs had threatened Europe and the Christianity during hundreds of years. The ways for trade crossed Syria and Palestine and when the Seljuk¡¯s took those areas the connection was erupted. It was not so appreciated in Europe and was therefore another cause.

Urban had beside some religious causes a lot of egoistical causes too. He hoped not only to bee mightier in the Western Europe but that the Orthodox Church, the church in the Byzantine Empire would be laid under his regime. He also hoped that in a crusade where the kings and nobles in Europe were unified would finish their civil wars. Urban was a very god speaker and he promised that God would forgive the sins of everyone who took part in the crusade and those who fell in the fights would come to heaven immediately. Other priests and monks carried out the announcement from the pope and started to preach about the crusades in every town and village. The interest grew large and thousands of knights and peasants from everywhere came flocking to get a red cross on their clothes. A fanatic and enormous popular movement were formed. They were called the crusaders, because they were people who take up the cross.

The first crusade was rather unorganized and consisted of almost 20 000 peasants, knights and soldiers who they traveled by the land to the Holy Land under the command of Peter of Amiens. Many of the followers were criminals who escaped from prison or from large debts if they followed the crusade, so it is not that unexpected that a large part of the army started to sack and devastate cities. There were many fights between the crusaders and the inhabitants of the town they came to, and many died.

Finally they reached Constantinople, but with an army much smaller than the one who left France some months ago, and they were all killed in a bloody fight when they were surprised by an ambush in the Turkish area.
The first official crusade ¨C How far it is to Jerusalem?

Soon after the catastrophe a bigger and much more organized army of crusaders were formed. The crusade contained between 40 000 to 80 000 men. Not many of them were geographically oriented in the conditions of the Eastern countries and most of them did not know what enormous distances they were about to travel before they came to the Holy Land. From Clermont to Jerusalem it is approximately 3750 km.

The Turks were not the only barriers they met on their trip. Many died of thirst, hunger and diseases in the deserted environment and if they sometime found a sea or flood, many drank themselves to death. Another common cause of death was that many men fell over the sloped mountains they had to cross.

After two years on the move, filled with hard fights and many troubles the crusaders reached the walls of the Holy Town Jerusalem and after a month of siege they assaulted the town in a terrible blood bath from where neither women, elders nor children were spared. The year was 1099 and an author who took part in the fights wrote, ¡°Men rode in blood up to their knees¡±.
The success of this crusade was mostly caused by the fact that the Mohammedans were splintered. But also because the crusaders were large, strong and good warriors and they were not afraid of armies much larger than their own.

In the countries the crusaders had conquered they set up four crusader states, or feudal states. They were called Edessa, Tripoli, Antioch and Jerusalem. But now a new problem was created. Most of the crusaders traveled back to their countries now when their missions were completed and the states that were surrounded by Mohammedan countries were now threatened by attacks of large armies. But they got help from crusaders who every year came from Europe and from the crusader orders that were formed. The feudal states remained for more than 200 years, but they were very dependent on countries sending supplies and knights. The European crusaders who stayed in Palestine grew more tolerant in the Jewish and Muslim culture and adopted some of their traditions and customs.

Second crusade ¨C Disaster
There was a group of people called assassins who were Mohammedan fanatics. They threatened the crusaders uninterrupted and killed them even during times of peace. The assassins actually gave birth to the English and French word assassin.

1130 the Mohammedans started to get an advantage and 1144 they recaptured Edessa. When the news came to Europe a second crusade was organized. The year was 1147. This crusade was a bad one with bad leaders and no good result followed. Edessa was not recaptured. Several disasters for the crusaders were about to come. Saladin, a very famous leader of the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem in a battle at Hattin, 1187.

Third crusade ¨C Richard the Lion-Hearted
Thousands of European knights now planned a new crusade, the third one. Famous princes like Fredrik I, ¡°Barbados¡± of Germany, King Richard I of England and Philip II August of France were at the head of this new crusade.
They reached Acre by the sea and managed to recapture the city. The year was 1191. After the battle Philip August returned to France after a dispute with Richard I. At the end of August the crusade traveled with only Richard I of England in the top and in Arsuf the met Saladin and his armies. They won over the great Saladin but many had to pay for it with their lives. They were now coming closer and closer to their goal. Jerusalem. But Richard I of England¡¯s army was not strong enough to make an attack. Instead, just 20 kilometers from Jerusalem, he raised his shield over his face and refused to look at the town. ¡°My eyes shall never see it, if my hands can not recapture it¡± he said and returned with a sad crusade to Acre.

The forth crusade ¨C a terrible plundering expedition
The forth crusade was organized during the 1200s, but the reason for crusading had changed. They were not ¡°men taking up the cross¡± anymore. The reasons for traveling during this period were selfish and instead of looking forward to visit the Holy Land, they faced Constantinople and wanted to get large spoil. The crusades ha turned to plundering expeditions. The conquered Constantinople 1204, but during the plundering many valuable pictures and books were destroyed. For 57 years they managed to hold Constantinople but 1261 the roman emperor recaptured the town.
This forth crusade was a total disaster and by that the time of the large crusades was over. The enthusiasm over the crusades was not s big as before and the trend died out.

The Crusade of the Children
1212 a different crusade was organized. It was called the Crusade of Children and was a very tragic happening. A French shepherd boy called Stephan started to travel around in France telling everyone that he had had a vision in which Jesus told him that the Holy Land would be rescued by children and not by nobles and knights. Stephan inspired thousands of children and they left their families and homes and traveled south towards Marseilles were they waited for Stephan¡¯s prophecy about that the sea would divide into two halves, just as it did for Moses. When the miracle didn¡¯t occur two ship owners offered the children to find them a ship. The ships left the country with thousands of children on board, but instead of going to Palestine, they traveled to north Africa were all the children were sold as slaves.

The last crusades ¨C Everything went back to normal
1217 another crusade was formed and they tried to attack Egypt, but without success. The seventh one, 1249, also attacked Egypt and even though they had the king Ludwig IX- the Holy Ludwig ¨C they did not manage. The only lucky crusade during this period was the sixth one, 1228. The leader was Frederic II of Germany. He managed to take the holy town without any blood bath. But the occupation was short and 1244 the Mohammedans recaptured the town.

Even though Jerusalem was lost they could hold their feudal states. For a while anyway. Between 1268-91 they were all lost in terrible blood baths. Two centuries later the Mohammedans could control what they controlled before the Europeans took during their crusades. That ended the crusades to the holy country.

Why were the later crusades so failed?
The Mohammedans was unified when Saladin got the power and because of that they could make giant armies that were much bigger than the crusaders, but so was not the situation when the first crusaders attacked Jerusalem because then the Mohammedans were still splintered. In the 1200s the interest in crusades decreased and the collapse was a fact.

Results of the Crusades
Urban II got the credit for the success of the first crusade. But other popes who started crusades just to favo...