The Crusades

Quote

• "That others have a just grievance against us is a more potent reason for hating them than that we have a just grievance against them" Hoffer, The True Believer

The Crusades

• High ideas were besmirched by cruelty and greed, enterprise and endurance by a blind and narrow self righteousness, and the Holy War itself was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God, which is a sin against the Holy Ghost.-Sir Steven Runciman, In The History of the Crusades

Council of Clermont • March 1095 Alexius I, the emperor of the

Byzantine Empire sent envoys to ask Urban for aid against the Turks. Why?– Manzikert and Turkish success

• Why did Urban think this was a good idea?– Heal the Schism– Get Knights out of Europe– Increase secular power

Pope Urban II

• At Clermont, Urban calls for the French people to unite and retake the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims.

• Dieu le veut! -- "God wills it!"

Speech at Clermont• Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage

private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. [1]

• Promised forgiveness for sins if you fought against the “infidels”

Peter’s Army (People’s Crusade)

• 1st phase of 1st Crusade • Looted and fought with

local peoples over supplies. • Ended up being slaughtered

by the Turks before the Pope’s army arrived.

Mistrust of the “Greeks”• “We recognized, then, that the Emperor had

betrayed Peter the Hermit, who had long before come to Constantinople with a great multitude. For he compelled him, ignorant of the locality and of all military matters, to cross the Strait with his men and exposed them to the Turks. Moreover, when the Turks from Nicea saw that unwarlike multitude, they cut them down without effort and delay to the number of sixty thousand” – Raymond d'Aguiliers

The Prince’s Crusade

• Leaders meet at Constantinople– Bohemund, Godfrey and Baldwin.

• Problems? – Travel/supplies– Internal strife between leaders• Ex. Godfrey and Baldwin

Jerusalem

• Army reaches in 1099 after two years. – Only about ¼ of the knights left.

Jerusalem

• Peter Desiderius’ “vision”• July 15, 1099 the men broke through.• Fulcher of Chartres: "Indeed, if you had been

there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared."

Anonymous• "When the pagans had been overcome, our men seized

great numbers, both men and women, either killing them or keeping them captive, as they wished." Later it is written, "[Our leaders] also ordered all the Saracen dead to be cast outside because of the great stench, since the whole city was filled with their corpses; and so the living Saracens dragged the dead before the exits of the gates and arranged them in heaps, as if they were houses. No one ever saw or heard of such slaughter of pagan people, for funeral pyres were formed from them like pyramids, and no one knows their number except God alone."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/1099jerusalem.jpg

Results

• Crusader States established • Jerusalem in the hands of the Pope, with King Alexius furious. • ¼ of crusaders died on journey, and another ¼ died fighting. The

remaining men returned heroes or stayed to live and rule crusader states.

• What do you think possible future problems could be w/ the Crusader States?

• Muslim division allowed crusaders to win. • After crusades, a gradual push towards expelling crusaders led to

unification of Eastern Muslims Baldwin’s poor leadership leads to loss of Damascus leading to 3rd Crusade.

2nd Crusade 1147-1149• Nur ad-Din• Louis VII of France• Stronger Muslim armies

begin to unify and only a few hundred knights remain.

• Lost Edessa, prompts Christian response.

• Baldwin crowns himself King and poor leadership ensues.

• Crusaders lose at Damascus and go home.

Results

• Battle of Hattin (1187)• Much of Crusader States lost, including

Jerusalem in 1187. • Reunified Islamic army led by Saladin.