Crusades

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A number of movements in CatholicWestern Europe, especially during the 12th and13th centuries, that aimed to free the "holy land"from Muslim rulers. The name derives from crux,the Latin word for CROSS. The Crusaders wore largered crosses sewn onto their shirts.In the course of the 11th century, the territoryof Palestine came under the control of the SeljuqTurks. The Seljuqs were less welcoming than theearlier Muslim rulers had been to Christians whowanted to visit holy sites such as Bethlehem andJERUSALEM. In addition, the advance of the Seljuqsposed political and economic threats to the Latinspeakingparts of Western Europe. In response,on November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II appealed toChristendom to liberate the Holy Land. To enticepeople to participate in the efforts, he offered Crusadersforgiveness of their fi nancial debts as wellas of their sins.There were four major Crusades and a numberof minor ones. The First Crusade lasted from1096 to 1099. The major contingent, led by severalnoblemen, crossed the Mediterranean Sea,engaged the Turks in battle, and eventually managedto establish four Crusader states along thecoast of Palestine. The most important was theLatin Kingdom of Jerusalem.Surrounded by hostile forces, these states werenot genuinely viable. After 200 years they disappearedentirely. The second and third major Crusadeswere attempts to recover territory that theCrusader states had lost to Muslim counterattacks.The Second Crusade (1147–49) was a response tothe fall of the Crusader state of Edessa; the third(1188–92) to the capture of Jerusalem and otherterritories by the great Muslim leader Saladin. TheThird Crusade, whose leaders included King RichardI, the Lion-Hearted, of England, was moderatelysuccessful.The Fourth Crusade (1202–04) illustrates wellthe questions that loom over the entire crusadingenterprise. The Crusaders had assembled in Venice,but they could not pay for their passage. Soat the instigation of the Venetians, they sacked amercantile competitor of Venice, Zara, a Christiancity in Dalmatia across the Adriatic. They also tookup with a claimant to the throne of the ByzantineEmpire. He promised the Crusaders that if theyrestored him to power, he would provide them withthe funds that they needed. The deal fell through,and the Crusaders sacked Constantinople, the capitalof (Christian) Byzantium, in 1204. Constantinople became the center of a Latin state, which didnot last out the century; the Crusaders also establishedsmall states known as Frankish kingdoms inthe Greek Peninsula. They never engaged Muslimsin combat.The Crusades have provided European culturewith much legend and literature. They were a particularlyrich source of material during the Romanticmovement in the early 19th century. They alsoled to the founding of several religious orders. Oneorder was the Knights Templar, a short-lived military-religious order, originally based in Jerusalem,that turned to banking when the last of the crusaderstates fell. Another was the Knights Hospitalers,an order originally charged with caring for theneeds of pilgrims. It continues today as the Knightsof Malta.On balance, however, the main outcome of theCrusades would seem to be senseless expenditureand misery. Although technically warring againstMuslim armies, the Crusaders found excuses toattack others, many of whom had no adequatemeans of defense. In addition to Orthodox Christians,such as those who fell victim to the FourthCrusade, a large number of European Jews wereslaughtered by those infused with the crusadingspirit. Equally senseless was the so-called Children'sCrusade of 1212. In this venture, childrenfrom the area around the Rhine attempted to crossthe Alps under the leadership of a 12-year-old boy.They wanted to go and fi ght for the Holy Land.Most died of hunger and exposure. Ten to 20 yearslater rumors spread that some of these children hadbeen spotted, now grown up, working as slaves ongalleys sailing the Mediterranean.