The Crusades

A returning Crusader

The Crusades were a series of military conflicts fought between European Christians and Arab Muslims to regain the Holy Land. Most often, the term “Crusades” refers to the campaigns in the Holy Land against Muslim forces sponsored by the Papacy, of which there were four. There were other crusades in the Holy Land lead by private royal armies, as well as crusades against Islamic forces in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily. Furthermore, the campaigns of Teutonic knights against pagan strongholds in Eastern Europe are also sometimes called crusades. Lastly, military action within Christendom lead against heretical and schismatic groups is also sometimes called a crusade. The four papal-sponsored crusades aimed at securing the Holy Land lasted from A. D. 1097 to 1204.

Of the four papal-sponsored crusades in the Holy Land, only the first and (to a lesser extent) third crusades were successful in terms of their military goals. Though Jerusalem was held for nearly a century and other strongholds in the Near East would remain in Christian possession much longer, the crusades in the Holy Land ultimately failed to establish permanent Christian kingdoms. The fourth crusade resulted in a very damaged relationship between Greek and Latin Christendom. Islamic expansion into Europe would renew and remain a threat for centuries, with courageous crusading orders establishing strongholds on Mediterranean islands that often, against all odds, managed to prevent Christendom from suffering from Islamic conquest. On the other hand, the crusades in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily were militarily successful, eventually leading to the demise of Islamic power in the regions – powers which had established themselves since the first Islamic Jihad-conquests of the eighth and ninth centuries. The Teutonic knights expanded Christian domains in Eastern Europe, and the much less frequent crusades within Christendom, such as the Albigensian Crusade, achieved their goal of maintaining doctrinal unity.

Holy Land Crusades

The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the Battle of Manzikert. Emperor Alexius I asked for aid from Pope Urban II (1088–1099) for help against Islamic aggression. He probably expected money from the pope for the hiring of mercenaries. Instead, Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom to fight for the defense of the Christian East and the protection of pilgrims in a speech made at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095. Urban demanded that all internal feuds within Christendom end, threatening excommunication for anyone who continued to bicker internally, and promising absolution and assurance of salvation to anyone who died in the crusade.

The crusades began with an odd start. The peasantry, excited by the notion of a crusade, and stirred by the preaching of the layman Peter the Hermit, embarked on a disorganized and poorly supplied “crusade”, which failed utterly, being rather unwelcome in the cities they stopped in on their journey, and being slaughtered by the first Islamic army they met. This was an unofficial, impromptu affair involving the peasantry, and which was warned, and forbidden, by the Christian feudal lords and the papacy alike.

The First Crusade, properly speaking, was lead by Feudal lords, mostly of Frankish origin. Many of the knights left home never expecting to return, knowing virtually nothing about the Holy Land, and trusting in God for victory. The army consisted of almost 20,000 men, including a mass of squires and other servants necessary to support a mounted knight. The army captured Nicaea in 1097, Antioch in 1099 and then Jerusalem. The Crusaders massacred the inhabitants of Jerusalem (and it should be noted that, in explaining why the crusaders ultimately failed, contemporary churchmen pointed out the sins of the crusaders). Four feudal kingdoms were established, which would remain for nearly 100 years. Crusading orders, consisting of paladins, were also set up.

The Second Crusade occurred in 1145 when Edessa was retaken by Islamic forces. It was ultimately a failure, owing in part to the French king's insistence on betraying and attacking his only Muslim ally, Damascus. In 1187 the Muslims captured Jerusalem under their leader Saladin, which brought about a new call for a Crusade.

The Third Crusade (1189-92) is famous for the battles between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, highlighted by the deep respect the two enemies had for each other, and the sense of chivalric honor of King Richard. The crusade also involved the king of France (who returned home after an argument with Richard at Acre) and the Holy Roman Emperor (who drowned en route). The crusade had the limited success of obtaining a truce from Saladin that promised to allow Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The Fourth Crusade, begun by Innocent III in 1202, intended to retake the Holy Land but was soon subverted by Venetians who used the forces to sack the Christian city of Zara. Innocent excommunicated the Venetians and crusaders. Eventually the crusaders arrived in Constantinople, but due to strife which arose between them and the Byzantines, rather than proceed to the Holy Land the crusaders instead sacked Constantinople and other parts of Asia Minor effectively establishing the Latin Empire of Constantinople in Greece and Asia Minor . Both Zara and Constantinople were Christian cities, and the ultimate effect was a severely damaged relationship between Greek and Latin Christendom.

This was effectively the last crusade sponsored by the papacy; later crusades were sponsored by individuals.

The Fifth Crusade and the Crusade of St. Louis both nearly succeeded in regaining Jerusalem by way of attacking Egypt and failed only through the greed of men like Robert of Artois.

Legends tell of a so-called Children’s crusade, where a mass of peasant children, enthused at the notion of a holy war, embarked to the Holy Land, only to be captured by greedy Genovese merchant men and sold into slavery before ever leaving Europe. Historians, though divided, generally consider this event to be a fiction.

Thus, though Jerusalem was held for nearly a century and other strongholds in the Near East would remain in Christian possession much longer, the crusades in the Holy Land ultimately failed to establish permanent Christian kingdoms. Islamic expansion into Europe would renew and remain a threat for centuries culminating in the campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century.

Analysis

A mixture of Christian spirituality and military adventure motivated the participants in the Crusades like never before in history and perhaps never since. Genovese Merchants participated also in the hope of undermining Venice's trade links with Muslim Egypt. Many of the crusaders were acting to advance the cause of Christianity. This was not necessarily true for all of the crusaders. Criminals who fought were pardoned, and a crusader was exempt from taxation from the time that he “took up the cross,” until he returned from the war.

Much is often made of the absolution from sins granted to crusaders who died in the holy wars. However, absolution was readily available, either though confession or, if the nobleman wish for a more dramatic gesture, retirement into a monastery and a life of contemplative prayer. Surely, it was the sense of heroic adventure that made this form of absolution attractive to the warrior elite. Neither is it a foreign concept to the modern observer to believe that a man who dies in war defending his fellowman, country, or allies, might be accepted into heaven on the grounds of his selfless sacrifice.

The legacy of the crusades is certainly mixed, and the crusaders have been remembered by some as heroes and by some as villains. Certainly, history furnished examples of both kinds of crusader. Likewise, the overall morality of the war raises questions of the just war doctrine, and opinions naturally vary.