HST 121 - The Crusades

I. Introduction

Definition: The crusades were holy wars "fought against those perceived
to be the external or internal foes of Christendom for the recovery of 
Christian property or in defense of the Church or Christian people."


Pope Urban II's speech at Clermont, 1095 [IMAGE]
"Your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help. The Turks and Arabs have attacked them and they have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impunity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends." (Fulcher of Chartres, Chronicle -- DOC 29) 

IMAGES: 
Battle between Crusaders and Muslims in the Holy Land
Jews being executed
2700 Muslims executed by Richard the Lionhearted at Acre (3rd Crusade, 1189-93)

Major questions to be answered:
        1. Why did the Crusades occur? What forces came
                together to cause the Crusades?
        2. What path did the Crusades take? Did they achieve their goal?
        3. What was the impact of the Crusades on Europe?
                - on the Byzantine Empire?  - on the Islamic world?

II. Context and Causes
        A. Western Europe
                1. religious revival during the High Middle Ages
			- increase in pilgrimages
                2. aristocratic warriors
                        a. Peace of God
                        b. Truce of God
                        c. chivalry
                3. split between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches
			- but pope and Byzantine emperor are getting along better
        B. Islamic World
                - rise of the Seljuk Turks
        C. Byzantine Empire
                - resurgence of the Empire under Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118)
        D. the catalyst:
                - Byzantine emperor asks the pope for monetary aid
                        to hire mercenaries to fight the Turks

III. First Crusade (1096-1101)
        A. preached by Pope Urban II in 1095 at Clermont,
                and then throughout France
        B. Why did people respond? (- Possibly as many as 100,000 during
                entire first crusade.)
                1. Landless knights seeking fortune?
                2. Adventure?
                3. Piety?
        C. 3 main waves of people; but also a steady stream of people
                1. first wave (1096): 
			a. complete failure
                        b. famine in Europe; not enough supplies                     
                        c. foraged and pillaged in Hungary; defeated by the Hungarians
			d. many died of starvation
                        e. crushed by the Muslims
			f. massacre of Jews [Map]
                2. second wave (1097-99): 
			a. most successful of all the crusades to the Holy Land
                        b. this wave included many groups led by the great lords of Europe
                        c. Byzantine emperor was very nervous/skeptical
                                - not what he expected
                        d. eventually, all the groups assembled (about 40,000)
                                and made their way across Asia Minor and down the coast
                        e. captured several cities; captured Jerusalem in July 1099
                                - killed all the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem
                        f. relatively easy conquest; surprising because:
                                1. poorly supplied = starvation, death of horses
				2. constant bickering; no real leader                                
				3. little support from the Byzantines 
                                4. outnumbered by Muslims
			g. why was it so easy?
				1. disorganization amongst the Muslims
					- local lords had been busy fighting each other
				2. seen by Europeans as divine intervention
                3. third wave (1101): 
                        a. most of them wanted to help defend the Holy Land
                        b. Lombards wanted to move eastward
                                - quickly defeated by the Muslims
        D. Crusader States
                1. County of Edessa
                2. County of Tripoli
                3. Principality of Antioch
                4. Kingdom of Jerusalem
        E. creation of military religious orders
                1. Hospitallers
                        - Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
                2. Knights Templar

IV. Muslim Response
        A. initially shocked by the crusades
        B. realized they had to unite politically and religiously 
		to overcome the Europeans
        C. they achieved this unity during the 12th century
        D. Saladin became leader in 1174
		1. he regularly attacked the crusader kingdoms from 1174-87
		2. in 1187, he invaded the kingdom of Jerusalem 
			with about 30,000 troops
		3. victorious over the smaller European force (20,000 troops)
		4. captured Jerusalem and various other cities

V. Effects of success of First Crusade
	A. crusading fervor develops
        B. spread of crusading to other areas
                1. Spain -- reconquista took the form of a crusade
                        - crusades against Muslims in Spain called repeatedly
                        - Christians had retaken all but Granada by mid 13th c.
                2. eastern Europe and the Baltic
                3. heretics
			e.g., southern France -- Albigensian Crusade
                4. enemies of the papacy
			- e.g., the Normans in Italy
                        - they were threatening papal lands and supporting a rival papal claimant
        C. continued crusading to the Holy Land

VI. "Second" Crusade (1147-1148)
        A. Edessa had fallen to the Muslims
        B. preached by the pope and St. Bernard of Clairvaux
        C. failure; defeated by the Muslims
        D. led to low morale and a decrease in crusading until
                Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1187

VII. "Third" Crusade (1189-1193)
        A. Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1187
        B. Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, drowned in a river
                - without leadership most of his army returned to Germany
        C. King Philip Augustus of France and King Richard the Lionhearted
                of England helped take Acre
        D. Philip returned to Europe
        E. Richard was the only one left; couldn't capture Jerusalem

VIII. "Fourth" Crusade (1201-1204)
        A. preached by Innocent III
        B. never made it to the Holy Land: two detours
                1. didn't have enough money to pay for the 
                        Venetian ships; agreed to capture port city 
                        of Zara, one of Venice's rivals
                2. then got sidetracked at Constantinople;
                        pillaged the city and placed Count Baldwin IX
                        of Flanders on the imperial throne

IX. Later Crusades
        A. there were several more crusades to the Holy Land in the later Middle Ages
                - none were able to recapture Jerusalem
	B. Europeans were losing by interest by the late 14th c.
	C. then the Reformation focused people's minds on conflict within Europe
	D. also, the idea of a Holy War slowly falls out of fashion
		- especially by the Age of Reason

X. Outcome of the Crusades
        A. ultimately unsuccessful in re-taking the holy land
        B. successful in Europe
		1. retook most of Spain
       		2. got rid of heresies
		3. Christianized various territories, e.g., the Baltic

XI. Impact of the Crusades
        A. Europe
                1. Christian Europe is unified and secure
                2. facilitated rise in wealth and power of Italian cities
                3. new luxury items brought back by crusaders and merchants
                4. the crusades required many European leaders to rethink
                        organization of government, finance, transportation
                5. created first widespread attacks on Jews
                        - initiated a tradition of European anti-Semitism that has 
                                survived up to the present
        B. Byzantine Empire
                1. further weakened the Byzantine empire
                2. not strong enough to fight off the new rising power of the
                        of the Muslim world: the Ottoman Turks
                3. eventually, Constantinople falls in 1453
        C. Islamic World
		1. animosity between east and west
		2. the Islamicization of the eastern Mediterranean
                        a. many Arab Christians were outraged by the excesses
                                and massacres perpetrated by the crusaders
                        b. they had been fairly well treated by the Muslims
                                before the late 11th century
                        c. thus, many converted to Islam