The Crusades: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

 

'''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.

* '''The Fourth Crusade:''' In 1199, [[The Pope|Pope Innocent III]] initiated another crusade to save the remaining Christian territories in the Holy Land through Egypt. After the failure of the Third Crusade, his call was largely ignored by the most powerful monarchs of the time, who were preoccupied in their own conflicts with each other. Nonetheless, those crusaders who heeded his call assembled in Venice, which had offered ships to transport them. However, the Venetians refused to transport the soldiers until the latter had paid in full, as the Venetians had devoted great expenses to preparing the expedition. The famous blind Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, perceived an opportunity to use the crusaders to crush the city of Zara, which had rebelled against Venice. The papal legate reluctantly authorized this, deeming it necessary to prevent the failure of the Crusade, but when Pope Innocent found out, he was alarmed and forbade the attack against fellow Christians under threat of excommunication; it nonetheless duly took place anyway. To make matters worse, one of the crusade leaders, Boniface of Montferrat, had left Venice earlier to meet with the son of the recently deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II "Angelus", Alexius IV "Angelus", who offered money, ships, and men to help the crusaders -- if Boniface and his men would in turn sail to Byzantium and topple the reigning emperor Alexius III Angelus. This unsavory bargain ended in the infamous sacking of Constantinople in 1204, marking the definitive point where the crusades lost their original intent and making the schism between western and eastern Christianity all but absolute. Following crusades would be largely engineered by monarchs more for political than religious motivations; by the end of it almost none of the fourth crusade reached the Holy Land and the Pope excommunicated everyone who participated in it.

* '''The Fifth Crusade:''' Sometimes divided into two different crusades, this began in 1217, when crusader forces from Austria and Hungary joined with John I of Jerusalem. Their remarkable early success was reversed when their foolhardy attempt to capture Cairo in July of 1221 failed, resulting in an eight-year truce with the Egyptians. In 1228 [[Holy Roman Empire|the Holy Roman Emperor]] Frederick II (called ''Stupor Mundi'', "Wonder of the World") landed in Palestine; through a spectacularly unexpected coup of diplomacy, he reached a peace agreement with the ruler of Egypt and seized the rule of Christian Jerusalem for himself. A section of the kingdom, including Nazareth and Bethlehem as well as the Christian parts of the Holy City itself, was delivered to the crusaders for a period of ten years ― until some Muslims who were not content with their leaders' decision to allow the crusaders back into Jerusalem put the city under siege and expelled the remaining Christian forces in 1244. This is the last time the crusaders would maintain any actual control of Jerusalem itself.

{{tropelist|Tropes associated with the Crusades:}}

* [[Anticlimax]]: In the Third Crusade, [[Holy Roman Empire|Emperor]] Frederick Barbarossa marched an army of many thousands from Germany to southern Turkey -- [[Super Drowning Skills|and drowned in a river.]]

* [[Vestigial Empire]]: <s>Byzantium</s> ''[[Insistent Terminology|Basileia ton Romaion]]'', the Empire of the Romans

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Even though he was the Muslim leader, Saladin was highly respected by King Richard and many of the crusaders fighting against him (and ''vice versa'').

 

{{examples|Works dealing with, or set in the era of the Crusades:}}

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]'', directed by [[Ridley Scott]], features Orlando Bloom as a French blacksmith who enlists in a crusader army to the defend the now conquered city of Jerusalem from the Saracen leader Saladin. [[Politically-Correct History|It's not exactly]] historically accurate, but that's [[Hollywood History|pretty much a given]], and it's (relatively) fair to those involved. At least, it only [[Historical Villain Upgrade|demonizes]] the people who everybody agrees were [[Jerkass|jerkasses]] in real life (*Cough* Raynald of Châtillon *Cough*).