The Crusades: Difference between revisions

[[File:TheCrusades.jpg|frame|Dieu le veult!]]

 

'''The Crusades''' were a series of military campaigns that took place between the [[The High Middle Ages|11th and 13th centuries]] against the Muslims, or Saracens, to reconquer the Holy Land (other conflicts, such as the campaigns against the Moors in Spain, the Baltic pagans, or even the Albigensian [[The Heretic|heretics]], were occasionally styled "crusades", but in the popular mind, it is the Palestinian campaigns that dominate). The ''immediate'' cause was the petition from the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine Roman]] Emperor Alexios I to [[The Pope|Pope Urban II]] for help against the [[wikipedia:Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]] in the Byzantine Empire<ref>Indirect causes included the arrival of the Turks, which threw off the political equilibrium developed between the Byzantines and the Arabs and had led to the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the persecution of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, and the depredations of the Norman lords of southern Italy on the Empire's European holdings, which both Pope and Emperor thought to be quite threatening to Christendom--if the Byzantines were attacked on both sides, they could no longer be the eastern bulwark of Christian Europe against the Muslims, who what with the Turks were now again in an expansionist mode.</ref> , but the movement from then on extended to a much bigger and more complex set of conflicts. Although religious fervour was certainly a big factor, the motives, progress, and effects of the various Crusades are deeper and more various than most people think, so perhaps you are better off reading [[The Other Wiki]] (among other places) if you want to know more. Nevertheless, here is an overview of the more important crusades―the first through the fifth, which had the approval and blessing of the then reigning [[The Pope|Popes]], to get you started.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Useful Notes/Egypt]]

[[Category:Hollywood History]]

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]