Crusades
This article is about the 11th-13th century religious military campaigns. For other uses, see Crusade (disambiguation) and Crusader (disambiguation).
v,
t,
e,
Crusades
Reconquista,
Sardinian,
Mahdia,
First,
People's,
1101,
Northern
Wendish,
Livonian,
Prussian,
,
Norwegian,
Balearic,
Second,
First Swedish,
Third,
1197,
Fourth,
Albigensian,
Children's,
Fifth,
Sixth,
Second Swedish,
Seventh,
Eighth,
Ninth,
Aragonese,
Third Swedish,
Smyrniote,
Alexandrian,
Savoyard,
Despenser's,
Barbary,
Nicopolis,
Varna,
Otranto,
Lepanto,
Armada,
Vienna,
Book:The Crusades,
Portal:Crusades,
v,
t,
e,
People's Crusade
Road To Constantinople
Massacre of Rhineland Jews,
,
Xerigordon,
Civetot,
v,
t,
e,
First Crusade
Nicaea,
Dorylaeum,
Antioch,
Ma'arrat al-Numan,
Jerusalem,
Ascalon,
v,
t,
e,
Seljuk-Crusader War, (1097-1127)
Nicaea,
Dorylaeum,
Antioch,
Ma'arrat,
Melitene,
Crusade of 1101,
1st Ramla,
2nd Ramla,
Harran,
Artah,
3rd Ramla,
Tripoli,
Norwegian Crusade,
Shaizar,
Al-Sannabra,
Sarmin,
Ager Sanguinis,
Hab,
Azaz,
Marj al-Saffar,
v,
t,
e,
Second Crusade
Lisbon,
Dorylaeum,
Ephesus,
Meander Valley,
Mount Cadmus,
Damascus,
v,
t,
e,
Third Crusade
Iconium,
Acre,
Arsuf,
Jaffa,
v,
t,
e,
Fifth Crusade
Jerusalem,
Damietta,
v,
t,
e,
Seventh Crusade
Damietta,
Al Mansurah,
Fariskur,
v,
t,
e,
Crusader battles in the Levant (1096-1303)
First Crusade
Xerigordon,
Civetot,
Nicaea,
1st Dorylaeum,
1st Antioch,
Ma'arra,
1st Jerusalem,
1st Ascalon,
Inter-Crusade Period
Melitene,
Mersivan,
1st Heraclea,
2nd Heraclea,
1st Ramla,
2nd Ramla,
Harran,
Artah,
3rd Ramla,
1st Tripoli,
Sidon,
1st Shaizar,
Al-Sannabra,
Sarmin,
Ager Sanguinis,
Hab,
Yibneh,
Azaz,
Marj al-Saffar,
Ba'rin,
2nd Shaizar,
Edessa,
Bosra,
Second Crusade
2nd Dorylaeum,
Ephesus,
Meander Valley,
Mount Cadmus,
Damascus,
Inter-Crusade Period
Inab,
Aintab,
2nd Ascalon,
Lake Huleh,
al-Buqaia,
1st Bilbeis,
Harim,
al-Babein,
2nd Bilbeis,
1st Damietta,
Montgisard,
Marj Ayyun,
Jacob's Ford,
Belvoir Castle,
Al-Fule,
Kerak,
Cresson,
Hattin,
2nd Jerusalem,
Tyre,
Third Crusade
Iconium,
1st Acre,
1st Arsuf,
Jaffa,
Fourth Crusade
Zara,
Constantinople,
Sack of Constantinople,
Adrianople,
Fifth Crusade
3rd Jerusalem,
2nd Damietta,
Aftermath of the Sixth Crusade
4th Jerusalem,
La Forbie,
Seventh Crusade
3rd Damietta,
Al Mansurah,
Fariskur,
Late Crusades Period
Caesarea,
Haifa,
2nd Arsuf,
2nd Antioch,
Krak des Chevaliers,
2nd Tripoli,
3rd Tripoli,
2nd Acre,
Ruad,
The Crusades were religious conflicts during the High Middle Ages through the end of the Late Middle Ages, conducted under the sanction of the Latin Catholic Church. Pope Urban II proclaimed the first crusade in 1095 with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. There followed a further six major Crusades against Muslim territories in the east and numerous minor ones as part of an intermittent 200-year struggle for control of the Holy Land that ended in failure. After the fall of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, in 1291, Catholic Europe mounted no further coherent response in the east. Many historians and medieval contemporaries, such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, give equal precedence to comparable, Papal-blessed military campaigns against pagans, heretics, and people under the ban of excommunication, undertaken for a variety of religious, economic, and political reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the Aragonese Crusade, the Reconquista, and the Northern Crusades.
While some historians see the Crusades as part of a purely defensive war against the expansion of Islam in the near east, many see them as part of long-running conflicts at the frontiers of Europe, including the Arab-Byzantine Wars, the Byzantine-Seljuq Wars, and the loss of Anatolia by the Byzantines after their defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Urban II sought to reunite the Christian church under his leadership by providing Emperor Alexios I with military support. Several hundred thousand soldiers became Crusaders by taking vows and by receiving plenary indulgences. These crusaders were Christians from all over Western Europe under feudal rather than unified command, and the politics were often complicated to the point of intra-faith competition leading to alliances between combatants of different faiths against their coreligionists, such as the Christian alliance with the Islamic Sultanate of Rûm during the Fifth Crusade.
The impact of the Crusades was profound. Jonathan Riley-Smith identifies the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Crusader States as the first experiments in "Europe Overseas". These ventures reopened the Mediterranean to trade and travel, enabling Genoa and Venice to flourish. The collective identity of the Latin Church was consolidated under the Pope's leadership. The Crusades were the source of heroism, chivalry, and medieval piety that spawned medieval romance, philosophy, and literature. However, they reinforced the nexus between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism that ran counter to the Peace and Truce of God that Urban had promoted. The chance of ending the East-West Schism and reuniting the church was ended by the conflict between the Latin Crusaders and the Orthodox Christians, leading to the ultimate weakening and fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans.
The conduct of the Crusaders was shocking not only to modern sensibilities but also to a contemporary of the First Crusade, Bernard of Clairvaux. The Crusaders pillaged the countries in transit, living off the land, as did all transiting armies of the time. The First Crusade resulted in the massacre of 8,000 Jews in the Rhineland in the first of Europe's pogroms. It also resulted in the slaughter of a purported 70,000 citizens in the fall of Jerusalem. The nobles carved up the territory that they had gained rather than return it to the Byzantines, as they had vowed to do. The Fourth Crusade resulted in the sacking of Constantinople. The majority of crusaders, however, were poor people trying to escape the hardships of medieval life in an armed pilgrimage leading to Apotheosis at Jerusalem.
v,
t,
e,
Crusades
Reconquista,
Sardinian,
Mahdia,
First,
People's,
1101,
Northern
Wendish,
Livonian,
Prussian,
,
Norwegian,
Balearic,
Second,
First Swedish,
Third,
1197,
Fourth,
Albigensian,
Children's,
Fifth,
Sixth,
Second Swedish,
Seventh,
Eighth,
Ninth,
Aragonese,
Third Swedish,
Smyrniote,
Alexandrian,
Savoyard,
Despenser's,
Barbary,
Nicopolis,
Varna,
Otranto,
Lepanto,
Armada,
Vienna,
Book:The Crusades,
Portal:Crusades,
v,
t,
e,
People's Crusade
Road To Constantinople
Massacre of Rhineland Jews,
,
Xerigordon,
Civetot,
v,
t,
e,
First Crusade
Nicaea,
Dorylaeum,
Antioch,
Ma'arrat al-Numan,
Jerusalem,
Ascalon,
v,
t,
e,
Seljuk-Crusader War, (1097-1127)
Nicaea,
Dorylaeum,
Antioch,
Ma'arrat,
Melitene,
Crusade of 1101,
1st Ramla,
2nd Ramla,
Harran,
Artah,
3rd Ramla,
Tripoli,
Norwegian Crusade,
Shaizar,
Al-Sannabra,
Sarmin,
Ager Sanguinis,
Hab,
Azaz,
Marj al-Saffar,
v,
t,
e,
Second Crusade
Lisbon,
Dorylaeum,
Ephesus,
Meander Valley,
Mount Cadmus,
Damascus,
v,
t,
e,
Third Crusade
Iconium,
Acre,
Arsuf,
Jaffa,
v,
t,
e,
Fifth Crusade
Jerusalem,
Damietta,
v,
t,
e,
Seventh Crusade
Damietta,
Al Mansurah,
Fariskur,
v,
t,
e,
Crusader battles in the Levant (1096-1303)
First Crusade
Xerigordon,
Civetot,
Nicaea,
1st Dorylaeum,
1st Antioch,
Ma'arra,
1st Jerusalem,
1st Ascalon,
Inter-Crusade Period
Melitene,
Mersivan,
1st Heraclea,
2nd Heraclea,
1st Ramla,
2nd Ramla,
Harran,
Artah,
3rd Ramla,
1st Tripoli,
Sidon,
1st Shaizar,
Al-Sannabra,
Sarmin,
Ager Sanguinis,
Hab,
Yibneh,
Azaz,
Marj al-Saffar,
Ba'rin,
2nd Shaizar,
Edessa,
Bosra,
Second Crusade
2nd Dorylaeum,
Ephesus,
Meander Valley,
Mount Cadmus,
Damascus,
Inter-Crusade Period
Inab,
Aintab,
2nd Ascalon,
Lake Huleh,
al-Buqaia,
1st Bilbeis,
Harim,
al-Babein,
2nd Bilbeis,
1st Damietta,
Montgisard,
Marj Ayyun,
Jacob's Ford,
Belvoir Castle,
Al-Fule,
Kerak,
Cresson,
Hattin,
2nd Jerusalem,
Tyre,
Third Crusade
Iconium,
1st Acre,
1st Arsuf,
Jaffa,
Fourth Crusade
Zara,
Constantinople,
Sack of Constantinople,
Adrianople,
Fifth Crusade
3rd Jerusalem,
2nd Damietta,
Aftermath of the Sixth Crusade
4th Jerusalem,
La Forbie,
Seventh Crusade
3rd Damietta,
Al Mansurah,
Fariskur,
Late Crusades Period
Caesarea,
Haifa,
2nd Arsuf,
2nd Antioch,
Krak des Chevaliers,
2nd Tripoli,
3rd Tripoli,
2nd Acre,
Ruad,
The Crusades were religious conflicts during the High Middle Ages through the end of the Late Middle Ages, conducted under the sanction of the Latin Catholic Church. Pope Urban II proclaimed the first crusade in 1095 with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. There followed a further six major Crusades against Muslim territories in the east and numerous minor ones as part of an intermittent 200-year struggle for control of the Holy Land that ended in failure. After the fall of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, in 1291, Catholic Europe mounted no further coherent response in the east. Many historians and medieval contemporaries, such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, give equal precedence to comparable, Papal-blessed military campaigns against pagans, heretics, and people under the ban of excommunication, undertaken for a variety of religious, economic, and political reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the Aragonese Crusade, the Reconquista, and the Northern Crusades.
While some historians see the Crusades as part of a purely defensive war against the expansion of Islam in the near east, many see them as part of long-running conflicts at the frontiers of Europe, including the Arab-Byzantine Wars, the Byzantine-Seljuq Wars, and the loss of Anatolia by the Byzantines after their defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Urban II sought to reunite the Christian church under his leadership by providing Emperor Alexios I with military support. Several hundred thousand soldiers became Crusaders by taking vows and by receiving plenary indulgences. These crusaders were Christians from all over Western Europe under feudal rather than unified command, and the politics were often complicated to the point of intra-faith competition leading to alliances between combatants of different faiths against their coreligionists, such as the Christian alliance with the Islamic Sultanate of Rûm during the Fifth Crusade.
The impact of the Crusades was profound. Jonathan Riley-Smith identifies the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Crusader States as the first experiments in "Europe Overseas". These ventures reopened the Mediterranean to trade and travel, enabling Genoa and Venice to flourish. The collective identity of the Latin Church was consolidated under the Pope's leadership. The Crusades were the source of heroism, chivalry, and medieval piety that spawned medieval romance, philosophy, and literature. However, they reinforced the nexus between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism that ran counter to the Peace and Truce of God that Urban had promoted. The chance of ending the East-West Schism and reuniting the church was ended by the conflict between the Latin Crusaders and the Orthodox Christians, leading to the ultimate weakening and fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans.
The conduct of the Crusaders was shocking not only to modern sensibilities but also to a contemporary of the First Crusade, Bernard of Clairvaux. The Crusaders pillaged the countries in transit, living off the land, as did all transiting armies of the time. The First Crusade resulted in the massacre of 8,000 Jews in the Rhineland in the first of Europe's pogroms. It also resulted in the slaughter of a purported 70,000 citizens in the fall of Jerusalem. The nobles carved up the territory that they had gained rather than return it to the Byzantines, as they had vowed to do. The Fourth Crusade resulted in the sacking of Constantinople. The majority of crusaders, however, were poor people trying to escape the hardships of medieval life in an armed pilgrimage leading to Apotheosis at Jerusalem.
