The Crusades: A Brief History (1095-1291)

  Written by Robert Jones

Acworth, Georgia

Table of Contents

Introduction

Timeline

Background

First Crusade (1095-1099)

Second Crusade (1145-1148)

Third Crusade (1187–1192)

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229)

Children’s Crusade (1212-1213)

Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)

Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)

Seventh Crusade (1248-1250)

Eighth Crusade (1267-1272)

The Fall

Reasons for ultimate defeat

Results and impact

Sources

Other Christian History & Theology courses

Introduction

In modern times, the Crusades are often looked upon with disfavor even by Christians, often being lumped together with the Inquisition (or, in extreme cases, with the Holocaust).  But while the Crusaders didn’t always live up to the Christian ideal, they were the first wars fought for an ideal – the protection of the Holy Lands.  Most of the early Crusaders were fighting for their concept of God, and for the Papal promise of “full remission of sins”.  Most of them certainly weren’t fighting for personal gain – it is estimated that a knight in the Crusades needed to spend over 4 times his yearly earnings just to be outfitted for the Crusades.  There are many extant records of the Medieval version of bankruptcy as a result of the Crusades, as knights lost lands that they’d put up as collateral for their costs.

The Crusades are tricky from the point of view of the historian, too.  How many Crusades were there?  Should we include the Peasant’s Crusade, the Children’s Crusade, the Albigensian Crusade?  Should Christian attempts to take back Moslem Spain be considered Crusades?  Should the despicable Fourth Crusade, which twice sacked Constantinople, be considered an official “Holy Lands” crusade?  Most historians view that there were eight “official” crusades, although I’ve seen some that count as many as 23.  Even for the eight, read five different books, and you’ll see five different dates for most of the individual crusades.  From the papal standpoint, what defined a Crusade was the promise of remission of sins, or gaining an indulgence. 

Another thing that makes the Crusades hard to pin down is that they weren’t a monolithic clash between Christendom and Islam.  During the 200 years of the Crusades, at various points, England and France were at war, Eastern and Western Christianity were at war, internal division and civil war racked Byzantium, and various Moslem factions were jockeying for power in the Middle East, sometimes fighting each other.  The picture was hardly one of complete clarity. 

Hopefully this “brief history” of the crusades will shed some light on a complicated subject.

Arab terms

• Djimmi – Moslem concept that Jews and Christians are “protected peoples”, or “people of the Book”

• Imam –leader or exemplar; Shiites view an imam in almost messianic terms 

• Islam – submission, or surrender (to the will of God)

• Jihad – literally “striving”; the spiritual struggle between good and evil.  May refer to Holy War against non-believers.

• Khalifa – Caliph; supreme leader of Islam; the successors to Mohammed

• Muslim – one who submits; a follower of Mohammed’s revelation

• Quran or Koran – collection of the words of Mohammed; literally, “reading”

• Shiites – “partisans of Ali”.  Moslem followers of Ali, the prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and the fourth caliph.  He was murdered in 661.

• Sunnis – sometimes seen as the orthodox part of Islam; believe not just in the Koran, but in the sunna, or corpus of Mohammed’s words and deeds

Quiz

1. T/F St. Francis of Assisi participated in the Crusades

2. T/F Moslem armies reached as far as central France in the 8^th century

3. T/F Crusader armies sacked Constantinople twice in 1203/04

4. T/F The Albigensian Crusade was launched against Moslems in Southern France

5. T/F For all intents and purposes, the Second Crusade was ordered by Bernard of Clairvaux

6. T/F The Knights Templar were so called because they were Jewish

7. T/F The Children’s Crusade (1212/13) was a great success, from the point of view of Christendom

8.  T/F Richard the Lion-Hearted was so named because of his successful battles against Philip II of France

9. T/F Godfrey of Bouillon was crowned the first King of Jerusalem

10.  T/F The only Crusader King made a saint by the Catholic Church was Frederick II

11. T/F Frederick Barbarossa was especially known for his heroic deeds in the Holy Lands

12. T/F Marmeluke Sultan Baibar was known for his chivalry towards his enemies

13.  T/F Frederick II took Jerusalem without firing a shot

14. T/F One of the great advocates of the First Crusade was Peter the Hermit

15.  T/F One of the primary reasons that knights “took the cross” was for personal financial gain

16. T/F Key weapons of the Crusader armies were giant siege towers and catapults

17. T/F A primary reason for participating in the Crusades was to receive an indulgence for remission of sins from the church

18.  T/F St. Louis invaded Egypt in the 13^th century

19. T/F St. Augustine was a strict pacifist

Timeline

Background

Historical and political background

It is easy to forget in modern times that, by the time of the First Crusade, Islam had made alarming (from the point of view of Christendom) gains throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and even into the Europe itself.  Moslems had occupied the Holy Lands by the end of the 7^th century, and had built the Dome of the Rock in c. 700 A.D. on top of one of the most sacred sites in Judaism.  In the 8^th century, Moslems attacked (unsuccessfully) Constantinople, the center of the Eastern Church, and also took over Spain.  Moslem armies had gotten as far into the heart of Europe as Tours, in modern day France, when they were finally checked in 732 A.D. by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours.

Dome of the Rock

Charles Martel (“the Hammer”) at the Battle of Tours

The 11^th century – the century of the First Crusade – started off poorly for Christendom, too.  Egyptian caliph Al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, (built by Constantine’s mother Helen in 330 A.D.); this remains today the most wanton destruction of a key Christian holy site in history.  Al-Hakim also begin a systematic persecution of both Christians and Jews:

“The Christians were ordered to dress in black and to hang wooden crosses from their necks, half a metre long, half a metre wide, weighing five ratls, and uncovered so that people could see them.  They were forbidden to ride horses and allowed only to ride mules or donkeys, with wooden saddles and black girths without any ornament.  They had to wear the zunnar sash, and could not employ any Muslim or buy any slave of either sex.  These orders were so strictly enforced that many of them became Muslims…Churches were destroyed and their contents were pillaged…

In the year 1013 the Jews were compelled to wear belts around their necks when they entered the public baths…He [Al-Hakim] ordered the Christians and Jews to leave Egypt.” (Al-Maqrizi, 15^th-century Egyptian scholar; translation from Chronicles of the Crusades)

(Note: It is only fair to point out that even fellow Moslem rulers considered Al-Hakim to be insane, and that not all Moslem rulers persecuted Christians and Jews.)

As the 11^th century wore on, Islam began chipping away at the Byzantine Empire, too.  In 1071, Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was defeated and captured by the Turks at the Battle of Man-zikert.  It was against this backdrop that Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus appealed for help against the Seljuk Turks to Pope Urban II in 1095 A.D.

Theological background

The early Christian church, up to the time of Constantine in the early 4^th century, was generally pacifist in nature.  However, after Constantine became emperor and accepted Christianity, pure pacifism started to have less sway as a Christian doctrine.  After all, as the saying goes, they had an empire to run!”  And after the Roman Empire fell, “Christendom”, now headed by the Pope, with the support of Frankish, German, and English sovereigns, also had an interest in maintaining its borders against intruders.

No less a theological authority than St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), perhaps the greatest theologian of the Early Church Fathers, promulgated the idea of a “just war”, and indicated that it was OK for Christians to use violence in certain circumstances.  One example comes from early in Augustine’s City of God, where he defines that there are certain circumstance where by “divine authority”, men can be put to death:

“However, there are some exceptions made by the divine authority to its own law, that men may not be put to death. These exceptions are of two kinds, being justified either by a general law, or by a special commission granted for a time to some individual. And in this latter case, he to whom authority is delegated, and who is but the sword in the hand of him who uses it, is not himself responsible for the death he deals. And, accordingly, they who have waged war in obedience to the divine command, or in conformity with His laws, have represented in their persons the public justice or the wisdom of government, and in this capacity have put to death wicked men; such persons have by no means violated the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”” (City of God, p. 49, translated By Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D)

In an exchange of letters (concerning the fate of some pagans who vandalized Christian churches) with Nectarius in 408/409 A.D., Augustine opines that it is valid to use violence against enemies of Christianity, as long as the motive isn’t revenge.  Several excerpts follow.

“We are therefore resolved, neither on the one hand to lay aside Christian gentleness, nor on the other to leave in your city that which would be a most pernicious example for all others to follow.” (Letter 91, translated by The Rev. J. G. Cunningham, M.A.)

“Do you really think that a case of such cruel rage should be held up to the world as passing unpunished? We do not desire to gratify our anger by vindictive retribution for the past, but we are concerned to make provision in a truly merciful spirit for the future. Now, wicked men have something in respect to which they may be punished, and that by Christians, in a merciful way, and so as to promote their own profit and well-being. For they have these three things: the life and health of the body, the means of supporting that life, and the means and opportunities of living a wicked life. Let the two former remain untouched in the possession of those who repent of their crime: this we desire, and this we spare no pains to secure. But as to the third, upon it God will, if it please Him, inflict punishment in His great compassion, dealing with it as a decaying or diseased part, which must be removed with the pruning-knife.” (Letter 91)

When any one uses measures involving the infliction of some pain, in order to prevent an inconsiderate person from incurring the most dreadful punishments by becoming accustomed to crimes which yield him no advantage, he is like one who pulls a boy’s hair in order to prevent him from provoking serpents by clapping his hands at them; in both cases, while the acting of love is vexatious to its object, no member of the body is injured, whereas safety and life are endangered by that from which the person is deterred… Wherefore it is for the most part an advantage to themselves when certain things are removed from persons in whose keeping it is hazardous to leave them, lest they abuse them. When surgeons see that a gangrene must be cut away or cauterized, they often, out of compassion, turn a deaf ear to many cries. If we had been indulgently forgiven by our parents and teachers in our tender years on every occasion on which, being found in a fault, we begged to be let off, which of us would not have grown up intolerable? which of us would have learned any useful thing? Such punishments are administered by wise care, not by wanton cruelty.” (Letter 104, translated by The Rev. J. G. Cunningham, M.A.,emphasis added)

“But how can there be any healing virtue in the repentance of those who not only fail to acknowledge, but even persist in mocking and blaspheming Him who is the fountain of forgiveness?…But we think that we are even taking measures for the benefit of these men, if, seeing that they do not fear God, we inspire fear in them by doing something whereby their folly is chastened, while their real interests suffer no wrong. We thus prevent that God whom they despise from being more grievously provoked by their greater crimes, to which they would be emboldened by a disastrous assurance of impunity, and we prevent their assurance of impunity from being set’ forth with even more mischievous effect as an encouragement to others to imitate their example.” (Letter 104, emphasis added)

First Crusade (1095-1099)

In November of 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave a public speech calling on Western Christians to give aid to their Eastern Christian brethren, who were under attack from Moslem Turks.  He also called for the liberation of Jerusalem, which had been under Moslem control for 400 years.  It is said that when Urban II finished his speech, the crowd as one shouted “God wills it!”  Many in the crowd vowed to “take up the cross” on the spot, and had pieces of red cloth pinned to their shirts in the shape of the cross (the red cross would later be a symbol of many of the crusader knights, including the Knights Templar). 

In various letters written after the Council of Clermont, Urban II explained his reasons for launching the crusade – and what those that “took the cross” could expect to gain from it:

“We know you have already heard from the testimony of many that the frenzy of the barbarians has devastated the churches of God in the east. and has even - shame to say - seized into slavery the holy city of Christ, Jerusalem. Grieving in pious contemplation of this disaster. we visited France and strongly urged the princes and people of that land to work for the liberation of the Eastern Church.” (Letter to Flanders, translation from Chronicles of the Crusades)

“We have heard that some of you desire to go to Jerusalem. because you know that this would greatly please us. Know, then, that anyone who sets out on that journey, not out of lust for worldly advantage but only for the salvation of his soul and for the liberation of the Church, is remitted in entirety all penance for his sins, if he has made a true and perfect act of confession. This is because he has dedicated his person and his wealth to the love of God and his neighbor.” (Letter to Bologna, translation from Chronicles of the Crusades; emphasis added)

Urban I