The Crusades

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Edward I of England took on another expedition in This battle, which is often grouped with the Eighth Crusade but is sometimes referred to as the Ninth Crusade, accomplished very little and was considered the last significant crusade to the Holy Land. In , one of the only remaining Crusader cities, Acre, fell to the Muslim Mamluks. Many historians believe this defeat marked the end of the Crusader States and the Crusades themselves. Though the Church organized minor Crusades with limited goals after —mainly military campaigns aimed at pushing Muslims from conquered territory, or conquering pagan regions—support for such efforts diminished in the 16th century, with the rise of the Reformation and the corresponding decline of papal authority.

While the Crusades ultimately resulted in defeat for Europeans, many argue that they successfully extended the reach of Christianity and Western civilization. The Roman Catholic Church experienced an increase in wealth, and the power of the Pope was elevated after the Crusades ended. Trade and transportation also improved throughout Europe as a result of the Crusades.

The wars created a constant demand for supplies and transportation, which resulted in ship-building and the manufacturing of various supplies. After the Crusades, there was a heightened interest in travel and learning throughout Europe, which some historians believe may have paved the way for the Renaissance. Among followers of Islam , however, the Crusaders were regarded as immoral, bloody and savage.

The ruthless and widespread massacre of Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians resulted in bitter resentment that persisted for many years. Timeline for the Crusades and Christian Holy War to c.

The Crusades

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In the deposed vizier, Shawar , visited Zengi's son and successor, Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo , in Damascus seeking political and military support. Some historians have considered Nur ad-Din's support as a visionary attempt to surround the Crusaders, but in practice he prevaricated before responding only when it became clear that the Crusaders might gain an unassailable foothold on the Nile.

Why did the Crusades happen?

However, Shawar asserted his independence and allied with Baldwin's brother and successor Amalric of Jerusalem. When Amalric broke the alliance in a ferocious attack, Shawar again requested military support from Syria, and Shirkuh was sent by Nur ad-Din for a second time. Amalric retreated, but the victorious Shirkuh had Shawar executed and was appointed vizier.

Barely two months later he died, to be succeeded by his nephew, Yusuf ibn Ayyub, who has become known by his honorific 'Salah al-Din', 'the goodness of faith', which in turn has become westernised as Saladin. He was the first Muslim to unite Aleppo and Damascus in the Crusade era. Some Islamic contemporaries promoted the idea that there was a natural Islamic resurgence under Zengi, through Nur al-Din to Saladin although this was not as straightforward and simple as it appears.

Saladin imprisoned all the caliph's heirs, preventing them from having children, as opposed to having them all killed, which would have been normal practice, to extinguish the bloodline. As Nur al-Din's territories became fragmented after his death, Saladin legitimised his ascent by positioning himself as a defender of Sunni Islam subservient to both the Caliph of Baghdad and Nur al-Din's son and successor, As-Salih Ismail al-Malik.

His overconfidence and tactical errors led to defeat at the Battle of Montgisard. However, Saladin lured the force into inhospitable terrain without water supplies, surrounded the Latins with a superior force, and routed them at the Battle of Hattin. Saladin offered the Christians the option of remaining in peace under Islamic rule or taking advantage of 40 days' grace to leave. As a result, much of Palestine quickly fell to Saladin including, after a short five-day siege , Jerusalem. Such were the deprivations of the Crusaders that at times they are thought to have resorted to cannibalism.

The journey to the Eastern Mediterranean was inevitably long and eventful.

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Philip considered his vow fulfilled and returned to France to deal with domestic matters, leaving most of his forces behind. But Richard travelled south along the Mediterranean coast, defeated the Muslims near Arsuf , and recaptured the port city of Jaffa. He twice advanced to within a day's march of Jerusalem before judging that he lacked the resources to successfully capture the city, or defend it in the unlikely event of a successful assault, while Saladin had a mustered army.

This marked the end of Richard's crusading career and was a calamitous blow to Frankish morale. However, in Henry died and most of the Crusaders returned to Germany to protect their holdings and take part in the election of his successor as Emperor. As collateral, the Crusaders seized the Christian city of Zara ; Innocent was appalled, and promptly excommunicated them. Following upon their initial success, the Crusaders captured Constantinople again and this time sacked it, pillaging churches and killing many citizens.

The Fourth Crusade never came within 1, miles of its objective of Jerusalem. The 13th century saw popular outbursts of ecstatic piety in support of the Crusades such as that resulting in the Children's Crusade in Large groups of young adults and children spontaneously gathered, believing their innocence would enable success where their elders had failed. Few, if any at all, journeyed to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Although little reliable evidence survives for these events, they provide an indication of how hearts and minds could be engaged for the cause. Leopold and John of Brienne besieged and captured Damietta but an army advancing into Egypt was compelled to surrender. However, since his marriage to Isabella II of Jerusalem gave him a claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem, he finally arrived at Acre in Frederick was culturally the Christian monarch most empathetic to the Muslim world, having grown up in Sicily, with a Muslim bodyguard and even a harem.

His great diplomatic skills meant that the Sixth Crusade was largely negotiation supported by force. In return, an alliance was made with Al-Kamil , Sultan of Egypt , against all of his enemies of whatever religion.

The treaty and suspicions about Frederick's ambitions in the region made him unpopular, and he was forced to return to his domains when they were attacked by Pope Gregory IX. What is sometimes known as the Barons' Crusade was led by Theobald I of Navarre and Richard of Cornwall ; it combined forceful diplomacy and the playing of rival Ayyubid factions off against each other. In a band of Khwarezmian mercenaries travelling to Egypt to serve As-Salih Ismail, Emir of Damascus , seemingly of their own volition, captured Jerusalem en route and defeated a combined Christian and Syrian army at the Battle of La Forbie.

Louis was defeated at Mansura and captured as he retreated to Damietta. Louis remained in Syria until to consolidate the Crusader states. Late 13th-century politics in the Eastern Mediterranean were complex, with a number of powerful interested parties. Baibars had three key objectives: The Crusader states were fragmented, and various powers were competing for influence. The French, led by Charles, similarly sought to expand their influence; Charles seized Sicily and Byzantine territory while marrying his daughters to the Latin claimants to Byzantium. To create his own claim to the throne of Jerusalem, Charles executed one rival and purchased the rights to the city from another.

Louis' fleet returned to France, leaving only Prince Edward , the future king of England, and a small retinue to continue what is known as the Ninth Crusade. Edward survived an assassination attempt organised by Baibars, negotiated a ten-year truce, and then returned to manage his affairs in England. This ended the last significant crusading effort in the Eastern Mediterranean. In response, Martin excommunicated Peter and called for an Aragonese Crusade , which was unsuccessful.

In Charles died, having spent his life trying to amass a Mediterranean empire; he and Louis had viewed themselves as God's instruments to uphold the papacy. The causes of the decline in Crusading and the failure of the Crusader States is multi-faceted. Historians have attempted to explain this in terms of Muslim reunification and Jihadi enthusiasm but Thomas Asbridge , amongst others, considers this too simplistic. Muslim unity was sporadic and the desire for Jihad ephemeral.

The nature of Crusades was unsuited to the conquest and defence of the Holy Land.

Why did the Crusades happen? | Guide

Crusaders were on a personal pilgrimage and usually returned when it was completed. Although the philosophy of Crusading changed over time, the Crusades continued to provide short-lived armies without centralised leadership led by independently minded potentates. What the Crusader states needed were large standing armies.

Religious fervour enabled amazing feats of military endeavour but proved difficult to direct and control. Succession disputes and dynastic rivalries in Europe, failed harvests and heretical outbreaks, all contributed to reducing Latin Europe's concerns for Jerusalem. Ultimately, even though the fighting was also at the edge of the Islamic world, the huge distances made the mounting of Crusades and the maintenance of communications insurmountably difficult.

It enabled Islam, under the charismatic leadership of Nur al-Din and Saladin as well as the ruthless Baibars to use the logistical advantages from proximity to victorious effect. After the First Crusade's capture of Jerusalem and victory at Ascalon the majority of the Crusaders considered their personal pilgrimage complete and returned to Europe. Godfrey found himself left with only knights and 2, infantry to defend the territory won in the Eastern Mediterranean. Of the crusader princes, only Tancred remained with the aim of establishing his own lordship.

Jerusalem remained economically sterile despite the advantages of being the centre of administration of church and state and benefitting from streams of pilgrims. The "Law of Conquest" supported the seizure of land and property by impecunious Crusaders from the autochthonous population, enabling poor men to become rich and part of a noble class.

Although some historians, like Jotischky, question the model once proposed, in which the primary motivation was understood in sociological and economic rather than spiritual terms. That class did not expel the native population, but adopted strict segregation and at no point attempted to integrate it by way of religious conversion. In this way the Crusaders created a colonial noble class that perpetuated itself through an incessant flow of religious pilgrims and settlers keen to take economic advantage.

The territorial gains followed distinct ethnic and linguistic entities. The Principality of Antioch, founded in and ruled by Bohemond, became Norman in character and custom. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in , followed the traditions of northern France. The County of Edessa, founded in , differed in that although it was ruled by the French Bouillons and Courteneys its largely Armenian and Jacobite native nobility was preserved. They are generally known by historians as Outremer , from the French outre-mer "overseas" in English.

Separate from the Frankish nobles or burgesses, the communes were autonomous political entities closely linked to their countries of origin. This gave the inhabitants the ability to monopolise foreign trade and almost all banking and shipping in the Crusader states. Every opportunity to extend trade privileges was taken. One example saw the Venetian Doge receiving one third of Tyre, its territories and exemption from all taxes, after Venice participated in the successful siege of the city.

However, despite all efforts, the two ports were unable to replace Alexandria and Constantinople as the primary centres of commerce in the region. Power derived from the support of the communards' native cities rather than their number, which never reached more than several hundred.

Thus by the middle of the 13th century, the rulers of the communes were barely required to recognise the authority of the crusaders and divided Acre into a number of fortified miniature republics. The Fourth Crusade established a Latin Empire in the east and allowed participating crusaders to partition the Byzantine European territory.

The Latin emperor controlled one-fourth of the Byzantine territory, Venice three-eighths including three-eighths of the city of Constantinople , and the remainder was divided among the other leaders of the Crusade. Crusades were expensive, and as the wars increased in number, their costs escalated. Rulers demanded subsidies from their subjects, [] and alms and bequests prompted by the conquest of Palestine were additional sources of income. The popes ordered that collection boxes be placed in churches and, beginning in the midth century, granted indulgences in exchange for donations and bequests.

The Crusaders' mentality to imitate the customs from their Western European homelands meant that there were very few innovations developed from the culture of the crusader states. Three notable exceptions to this rule are the military orders, warfare and fortifications. The military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar provided Latin Christendom's first professional armies in support of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states. This in turn led to a steady flow of new recruits and the wealth to maintain multiple fortifications across the Outremer.

In time, this developed into autonomous power in the region. The Pope responded in , with a series of papal bulls including Vox in excelso and Ad providam that dissolved the order on the alleged and probably false grounds of sodomy, magic, and heresy.

Amalfian merchants are attested to have lived in Cairo in 10th century by Cairo Geniza documents and were allowed to live in Jerusalem around by al-Mustansir. Amalfi however didn't participate. The Italian city states of Genoa and Venice flourished, creating profitable trading colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Crusades consolidated the papal leadership of the Latin Church, reinforcing the link between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism and increased the tolerance of the clergy to violence.

The behaviour of the Crusaders appalled the Greeks and Muslims, creating a lasting barrier between the Latin world and both the Islamic and Orthodox religions. It was an obstacle to the reunification of the Christian church and created a perception of Westerners as defeated aggressors. Many historians argue that the interaction between the western Christian and Islamic cultures was a significant, ultimately positive, factor in the development of European civilisation and the Renaissance. In addition, Muslim libraries contained classical Greek and Roman texts that allowed Europe to rediscover pre-Christian philosophy, science and medicine.

The Crusades provided an enormous amount of source material, stories of heroism, and interest that underpinned growth in medieval literature, romance, and philosophy. Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of Islamic ideology. Secular Arab Nationalism concentrates on the idea of Western Imperialism.

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Gamal Abdel Nasser likened himself to Saladin and imperialism to the Crusades. At the Council of Clermont, upset by what he saw as a cosmos out of order, he called upon the Christian faithful to mount a fightback on behalf of their Eastern brethren, and retake Jerusalem which the Arabs had conquered in Not only did they retake those Anatolian territories, they also conquered Jerusalem and set up three other Crusader States in the region: Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli.

Which meant it came as a bit of a shock when the County of Edessa fell to heathen forces in Conrad was smashed by Turks at Dorylaeum, but joined forces with Louis for a massive attack on Damascus. Unfortunately for them, there was a team-up on the other side of the battlefield as well — Arabian leaders Saif ad-Din of Mosul and Nur al-Din of Aleppo helped Damascus send the Christians packing with another humiliation. This is the big one people talk about, featuring the battle royale between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin — the Arab leader who retook Jerusalem from the Christians in , courtesy of an unbreakable siege.

Richard had been busting for a fight since he took the British throne, raising funds for an eastern sortie from almost day one fortunately his dad — who he killed to seize power — had already begun the Saladin Tithe to build a war chest.

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