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'''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 [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests: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 First Crusade:''' In 1096, after [[The Pope|Pope Urban II]] had called for military action at the Council of Clermont in central France, the mainly Norman and Lombard Crusader forces, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, his nephew Tancred, Raymond of Toulose and other noblemen, after being warily received in Constantinople and pledging to restore lost territories to the Byzantines, sailed to Anatolia and began conquering the Seljuk-occupied land. All the while being faced by grave deprivation of food and water, they reached Jerusalem in 1099; the city refused to surrender and a lengthy siege began, with Jews and Muslims fighting side by side to repel the attackers, the native Christians having been expelled from the city before the siege. After the city was taken, the soldiers executed the then standard military practice of massacring the inhabitants of a city that refused to lay down arms (so that, we are told, their horses waded in blood up to the fetlocks), though some commanders managed to control their men and allowed the remaining citizens to surrender. Afterwards, the consolidation of the crusader states was completed, with the barons dividing the territory of Palestine (or as they called it, ''Outremer'' ― the "Land ''Beyond the Sea''") among them. Godfrey of Bouillon became the first "Frankish" ruler of Jerusalem, though refusing the crown and title of a King and preferring to be known merely as "Defender of the Holy Sepulcher".
* '''The Second Crusade:''' Initially the Muslim leaders did not do anything about the Crusaders, as they had internal conflicts to deal with, and a period of relative calm followed in the Holy Lands between the Muslim and Christian population. Eventually, however, Muslim forces under Zengi, the Turkish Atabeg ("Viscount", more or less) of Mosul (in what is now northern [[Useful Notes/Iraq|Iraq]]) finally organized and retook the city of Edessa in 1144; a second crusade was launched to defend the new kingdoms. They had great success in the Mediterranean but failed to win any major battles in Palestine. King Louis VII of France and the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III]] returned to their countries (although not before Louis led a completely futile and [[Idiot Ball|idiotic]] attack on Damascus--one of the few Arab ''allies'' of the Crusaders). This crusade was enlivened by the spectacle of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of the King of France, conducting with her ladies-in-waiting a sort of pageant of "women-warriors" (as well as being accused of carrying on an ''affaire'' with her uncle(!), Raymond of Antioch).
* '''The Third Crusade:''' Also known as the Crusade of the Three Kings. After the Second Crusade had ended, Turkish emir Nur ad-Din, Zengi's son, took control of Damascus, unified Syria, and subjected Egypt to his rule. When Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general in Egypt, the Kurd Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, better known as Saladin, seized power and became his successor. Now commanding a unified Muslim front, Saladin defeated the King of Jerusalem's army in 1187 at the Battle of Hattin, conquered Acre, and headed towards Jerusalem itself; the city, not being able to stand against Saladin's army, surrendered after being put under siege. The fall of Jerusalem after it had been nearly a century in Christian hands caused widespread alarm across Europe, and a new Crusade was called to retake her. King [[Richard the Lion Heart|Richard I "The Lion-Hearted"]] of England and King Philip II "Augustus" of France suspended their war with each other and joined the crusade. Frederick I "Barbarossa" of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] also answered the call, but his crusade was cut short when he drowned in the River Saleph in Turkey on his way to Outremer; a tiny fraction of his army straggled on under the command of Leopold, Archduke of Austria. Philip and Richard arrived in Acre in 1190 and 1191 respectively (Richard having paused along the way to be married and to conquer [[Useful Notes/Cyprus|Cyprus]]) and recaptured the city. However, after a falling-out in the Crusader leadership (Richard had jilted Philip's sister, threw Leopold's banner off the walls of Acre, and was supposedly complicit in the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Hashshashin |assassination]] of the King of Jerusalem), Philip and Leopold left the Holy Land, while Richard carried on the campaign, defeating Saladin again at Arsuf and Jaffa. However, it became apparent to Richard that he would not be able to hold Jerusalem with his remaining forces; moreover, Philip, back in Europe, was already plotting against him with Richard's brother, John. Richard therefore reached an agreement with Saladin which allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims into the city, and afterwards pulled back his army and set forth to England. As ill-luck would have it, he was forced to make his way home through the domains of Leopold of Austria -- where he was recognized, seized, and held ransom in the castle of Dürrenstein by Leopold and his overlord, Barbarossa's son, the [[Holy Roman Empire|Emperor]] Henry VI.
* '''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.
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* [[Career Killers]]: The Hashashins (whence the word "assassin") were a semi-religious sect that held a few independent territories next to the area of conflict; the name is derived from the "hashish" with which their legendary leader, Rashid ad-Din Sinan, the "Old Man of the Mountain", supposedly brainwashed them and bound them to his will. Their preferred method of dealing with anyone who might threaten them (Muslim ''or'' Christian) was quietly disposing of him by means of well-planned assassinations or by leaving a dagger next to his bed to let the target know that he should really leave them alone.
** Not quite the same as modern career killers, as an Hashashin's career would comprise exactly one kill (their favored ''modus operandi'' involved a highly public assassination in which the assassin would definitely be killed).
** They also worked as [[Deep -Cover Agent|deep cover agents]], trained in languages and politics for infiltrating enemy organizations.
* [[Church Militant]]: Examples include [[The Knights Hospitallers]], [[The Knights Templar]], and [[The Teutonic Knights]].
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Most of the Christians (French, Greeks, German, English...) and Muslims (Syrians, Turks, Egyptians...) did not like each other, but had to band together to fight the other side. Played best by the Hashassin, Muslim fanatics that even allied at some point with the Crusaders to fight off Saladin.
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** [[Tagalong Kid]]: Robert Curthose of Normandy, disgraced at home in England, despite being the son of the famed William the Conqueror his contribution to the crusade was rather minor and consisted of only himself and a small guard
** [[Crutch Character]]: Hugh of Vermandois, one of the early crusaders, an ineffective soldier and leader but with a sizable army. He left the Crusade and returned home after a few battles before the Crusaders reached Jerusalem
** [[Early -Bird Cameo]]: Baldwin of Edessa, Godfrey's younger brother, who would have qualified for [[The Smart Guy]] if he had stayed with the Crusaders. Instead he campaigned with the Crusaders only for a bit before marching his army to the east and becoming Count of Edessa. He would later return to Jerusalem and become it's first real king...
** [[Eleventh -Hour Ranger]]: Guglielmo Embriaco, who appeared out of nowhere during the Siege of Jerusalem with siege engines.
* [[Gondor Calls for Aid]]: Alexios Komnenos' call for help from the West resulted in the Crusades.
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: That call for help? It's believed the Emperor only intended to ask for a contingent of Western mercenaries to bolster the Byzantine army.
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== [[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*).
** The main problem with this movie is that it made the Knights Templar the main villains of the piece, while in reality most of the people who were Knights Templar in that movie, weren't in real life.
* Nearly all versions of ''[[Robin Hood]]'' have [[Richard the Lion Heart|King Richard I]] out fighting the Crusades, leaving [[Evil Prince|his no-good brother]] Prince John in charge. In some versions (Kevin Costner's ''Prince of Thieves'', for example), Robin himself is a Crusader.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Age of Empires II (Video Game)|Age of Empires II]]'' has you control the forces of Saladin and Frederick I.
* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' is set during the Third Crusade. You play as a member of the third side in the conflict, [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin |the Hashshins]]. [[Video Game Historical Revisionism|Again]], it isn't much of a historic representation of the period, what with those pesky Templars orchestrating the entire thing in yet another of their [[Ancient Conspiracy]] schemes.
* One of the campaigns in the ''Kingdoms'' expansion for ''[[Total War|Medieval II: Total War]]'' takes place in the Holy Land after the First Crusade. You can play as the Kingdom of Jerusalem, The Principality of Antioch, The Turks, The Egyptians, or the Byzantine Empire. Focused, of course, around Palestine and Egypt.
** Oh, and in the main game of ''Medieval II'', if you gain enough favor with [[The Pope]], you can ask a Crusade to be waged on one of your enemies. On the other hand, if you manage to conquer the Papal States, the Pope will launch a Crusade on the Vatican. Look forward to wave after wave of Christian armies marching on you.
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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:The Crusades]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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