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From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a
horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our
ears: namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race,
a race utterly alienated from God, a generation, forsooth, which has neither
directed its heart nor entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of
those Christians and has depopulated them by sword, pillage, and fire. . . .
---Pope Urban II, Proclamation at
Clermont, 1095
The Crusades, like so much of the modern conflict, were not wholly
rational movements that could be explained away by purely economic or
territorial ambition or by the clash of rights and interests. They were
fueled, on all sides, by myths and passions that were far more effective in
getting people to act than any purely political motivation. The medieval holy
wars in the Middle East could not be
solved by rational treatises or neat territorial solutions. Fundamental
passions were involved which touched the identity of Christians, Muslims and
Jews and which were sacred to the identity of each. They have not changed
very much in the holy wars of today.
---Karen Armstrong, Holy War,
1988
Beginning in the 11th century, the people of western Europe launched a
series of armed expeditions, or Crusades, to the East and Constantinople.
The reason for the Crusades is relatively clear: the West wanted to free the
Holy Lands from Islamic influence. The first of early Crusades were part of a
religious revivalism. The initiative was taken by popes and supported by
religious enthusiasm and therefore the Crusades demonstrated papal leadership
as well as popular religious beliefs. They were also an indication of the
growing self-awareness and self-confidence of Europe
in general.
Europe no longer waited anxiously for an attack
from outside enemies. Now and for the first time, Europeans took the
initiative and sent their armies into the Holy Lands. It took courage to
undertake such an adventure, a courage based on the conviction that the
Crusades were ultimately the will of God. An unintended consequence of the
Crusades was that the West became more fully acquainted with the ideas and
technology of a civilization far more advanced than their own. The Crusades also
highlight the initial phase of western expansion into new lands, a movement
of the peoples of Europe that has influenced the
course of western civilization ever since.
 From the third century on, Christians had visited the
scenes of Christ's life. In Jerusalem,
St. Helena had
discovered what was believed to be the True Cross and her son, CONSTANTINE
(c.274-337), built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there. Before the Muslim
conquest of the 7th century, pilgrims came from Byzantium
and the West in search of sacred relics for their churches. Pilgrimages were
a dangerous business and could only be taken amidst hardship. But by the
reign of Charlemagne,
conditions had improved for western pilgrims: Caliph Harun
al-Rashid (763-809) allowed Charlemagne to endow a hostel in Jerusalem
for the use by pilgrim traffic.
Stability in both the Muslim and Byzantine worlds was essential for the
easy and safe continuance of pilgrim traffic. But in the early 11th century
this stability broke down as the Egyptian ruler of Palestine,
Hakim (c.996-1021), abandoned the tolerant practices of his predecessors, and
began to persecute Christians and Jews and to make travel to the Holy Lands
difficult once again. Hakim destroyed Constantine's
Church of the Holy Sepulchre and declared himself to be God incarnate.
By 1050 the Seljuk Turks had created a state in Persia.
In 1055 they entered Baghdad on
the invitation of the Abbasid caliph and became the champions of Sunnite
Islam against the Shi'ite rulers of Egypt.
In the 1050s Seljuk forces raided deep into Anatolia,
almost to the Aegean. Their advance culminated in the
Byzantine defeat at Manzikert in 1071, followed by
the occupation of most of Asia Minor and the
establishment of a new sultanate at Nicaea.
Jerusalem fell in 1071 and became
part of the new Seljuk state of Syria.
In 1081, and amid disorder, palace intrigue and the capital in danger, the
general Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) came to the
Byzantine throne. He held off a Norman attack on the Dalmatian coast through
an alliance with Venice, and he
played one Turkish potentate off against another, slowly reestablishing a
Byzantine foothold in Asia Minor. Civil wars among the
Turks and the increase of brigands made pilgrim traffic exceedingly
difficult.
The schism
between Eastern and Western churches provided the papacy with an additional
incentive to intervene in the east. In 1073 Pope Gregory VII
(c.1020-1085) sent an ambassador to Constantinople,
who reported that the emperor was anxious for reconciliation. Gregory VII
planned to reunite the churches by extending the holy war
from Spain to
Asia. He would send the Byzantines an army of western
knights, which he would lead himself.
Pope Urban II
(c.1042-1099) carried on the tradition of Gregory VII. To his Council of Piacenza (1095) came envoys from Alexius, who asked for
military help against the Turks. Since Turkish power was declining, perhaps
it was a good time to strike. Historians have never understood why Pope Urban
II promulgated the First
Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Perhaps we can glean some
purpose by looking at the speech itself.
Oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains, race chosen and
beloved by God, as shines forth in very many of your works, set apart from
all nations by the situation of your country, as well as by your Catholic
faith and the honor of the Holy Church! To you our discourse is addressed,
and for you our exhortation is intended. We wish you to know what a grievous
cause has led us to your country, what peril, threatening you and all the
faithful, has brought us.
From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a
horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our
ears: namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race,
a race utterly alienated from God, a generation, forsooth, which has neither
directed its heart nor entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of
those Christians and has depopulated them by sword, pillage, and fire; it has
led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has
destroyed by cruel torture; it has either entirely destroyed the churches of
God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy the
altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the
Christians, and the blood of the circumcision their either spread upon the altars
or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture
people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and, dragging forth the
end of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the
victim around until his viscera have gushed forth, and he falls prostrate
upon the ground. Others they bind to a post and pierce with arrows. Others
they compel to extend their necks, and then, attacking them with naked
swords, they attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow. What shall I
say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be
silent. The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them, and deprived of
territory so vast in extent that it can not be traversed in a march of two
months. On whom, therefore, is the task of avenging those wrongs and of
recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you? You, upon whom above
other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage,
bodily energy, and the strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist
you. . . .
What are we saying? Listen and learn! You, girt about with the badge
of knighthood, are arrogant with great pride; you rage against your brothers
and cut each other in pieces. This is not the soldiery of Christ, which rends
asunder the sheep-fold of the Redeemer. The Holy
Church has
reserved a soldiery for herself to help her people, but you debase her
wickedly to her hurt. Let us confess the truth, whose heralds we ought to be;
truly, you are not holding to the way which leads to life. You, the
oppressors of children, plunderers of widows; you, guilty of homicide, of
sacrilege, robbers of another's rights; you who await the pay of thieves for
the shedding of Christian blood; as vultures smell fetid corpses, so do you
sense battles from afar and rush to them eagerly. verily,
this is the worst way, for it is utterly removed from God! If, forsooth, you
wish to be mindful of your souls, either lay down the girdle of such
knighthood, or advance boldly, as knights of Christ, and rush as quickly as
you can to the defense of the Eastern Church. For she it is from whom the joy
of your whole salvation have come forth, who poured into your mouths the milk
of divine wisdom, who set before you the holy teachings of the Gospels. We say
this, brethren, that you may restrain your murderous hands from the
destruction of your brothers, and in behalf of your relatives in faith oppose
yourself to the Gentiles. Under Jesus Christ, our Leader, may you struggle
for your Jerusalem.
. . . But if it befall you
to die this side of it, be sure that to have died on the way is of equal
value, if Christ shall find you in His army. God pays with the same coin,
whether at the first or the eleventh hour. You should shudder, brethren, you
should shudder at raising a violent hand against Christians; it is less
wicked to brandish your sword against Saracens. It is the only warfare that
is righteous, for it is charity to risk your life for your brothers.
Pope Urban II emphasized the appeal received from the Eastern Christians
and painted the hardships that now faced pilgrims to Jerusalem.
He summoned his listeners to form themselves, rich and poor alike, into an
army, which God would assist. Killing each other at home would give way to
fighting a holy war. Poverty at home would be relieved by riches obtained
from the East. If a man were killed doing the work of God, he would
automatically be absolved of his sins and assured of salvation. The audience
greeted the oration with cries of "God wills it," and the First
Crusade had been launched.
On the more popular level, it was Peter the Hermit
(c.1050-1115), an unkempt old man who lived on fish and wine, who proved to
be the most effective preacher of the Crusade. In France
and Germany
he recruited an undisciplined mob of peasants, including women and children.
They believed Peter was leading them to the New Jerusalem, flowing with milk
and honey. The followers of Peter came up the Rhine,
across Hungary,
where 4000 Hungarians were killed in a riot over the sale of a pair of shoes,
and into Byzantine territory at Belgrade.
The Byzantines, who had hoped for a well-trained army, were appalled by
Peter's mob. They proceeded to arrange military escorts and to take all
precautions against trouble. Despite their efforts, the undisciplined
crusaders burned houses and stole everything, including the lead from the
roofs of churches. Once in Constantinople, the
crusaders were graciously received by Alexius Comnenus,
who shipped them across the Straits as quickly as possible. In Asia
Minor, they quarreled among themselves, murdered the Christian
inhabitants and scored no success against the Turks. They were eventually
massacred.
At the upper levels of European society no kings had enlisted in the
Crusades, but a number of great lords had been recruited including Godrey of Bouillon (c.1061-1100) and his brother Baldwin
(1058-1118), Count Raymond of Toulouse,
Count Stephen of Blois
(c.1097-1154), and Bohemond (c.1057-1111), a Norman
prince from southern Italy.
Better-equipped and disciplined, the armies led by these lords converged on Constantinople
by different routes.
Emperor Alexius found himself in a difficult position. He was willing to
allow the crusaders from Europe to carve out
principalities for themselves from Turkish occupied land. At the same time,
however, he wanted to assure himself that Byzantine lands would be returned
to his control and that any new states created would be his dominions. He
understood the practice of European vassalage and the importance attached to
an oath taken to an lord. So, he decided to require
each European lord to take an oath of liege homage to him upon their arrival.
Alexius had to resort to bribery in order to obtain such oaths.
The armies were ferried across the Straits. There was no one in command
but the armies did act as a unit, following the orders of the leaders
assembled in council. In June 1097 at Nicaea, the Seljuk capital, the
Turks surrendered at the last minute to Byzantine forces rather than suffer
an assault from the Crusader armies. Crossing Asia Minor,
the crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum,
captured the Seljuk sultan's tent and treasure, and opened the road to
further advance. Godfrey's brother Baldwin, marched
to Edessa,
an ancient imperial city near the Eurphrates,
strategically situated for the defense of Syria
from attacks coming from the east. Baldwin became
count of Edessa,
lord of the first crusader state to be established (1098).
Meanwhile, the main body of the army was besieging the
great city of Antioch which was
finally conquered after seven months. Antioch
became the second crusader state under Bohemond.
The other crusaders then took Jerusalem
by assault in July 1099, followed by the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and
Jews, men, women, and children, an event recorded by FULCHER OF CHARTRES.
Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen as "defender of the Holy Sepulcher,"
and the third crusader state had been founded. When Godfrey died not long
afterward, his brother Baldwin of Edessa became the
first king of Jerusalem in 1100.
Venetian, Genoese and Pisan fleets assisted in the
gradual conquest of coastal cities ensuring the flow of communications, supplied
and reinforcements between the East and the West. In 1109 the son of Raymond
of Toulouse founded the fourth and last crusader state near the seaport of Tripoli.
Early in their occupation of the eastern Mediterranean
the crusaders founded the military orders of knighthood. The first of these
were the Templars, created around 1119 by a Burgundian knight who sympathized with the hardships of
Christian pilgrims. The Templars banded together to
protect the helpless on their pilgrimage. The Templars
took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and were given headquarters
near the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) inspired their rule, based on
the rules for his own Cistercians
and confirmed by the pope in 1128. A second order, the Hospitalers,
was founded soon after the Templars, and was
attached to the ancient Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
Composed of knights, chaplains, and brothers under the command of a grand
master, with branches both in the East and in Europe,
the two military orders were the most effective fighting forces in the Holy
Land. Each had a special uniform: the Templars
wore red crosses on white, the Hospitalers white
crosses on black. Later, a third, purely German group became the order of the
Teutonic
Knights with headquarters at Acre (they word black
crosses on white).
The orders grew very wealthy. They had fortresses and churches of their
own in the Holy Land as well as villages from which
they obtained necessary supplies. Western monarchs endowed the knights richly
with lands in Europe. Over time, the original intent
of these military orders became lost in personal conflicts. The knights were,
after all, a quarrelsome lot. They often allied themselves with Muslims, and
so completely lost sight of their original vows of poverty that they engaged
in banking and large-scale financial operations. In the early 14th century
the Templars were destroyed by Philip IV (1268-1314)
of France.
The Hospitalers moved first to Cyprus
and then to Rhodes in the early 14th century. They
were driven to Malta
by the Turks in 1522 and continued there until Napoleon's seizure of the
island in 1798.
It is a wonder that the crusader states lasted as long as they did. It was
neither their castles nor the existence of military orders that made their
success possible but the disunity of the Muslims. When the Muslims did
achieve unity, crusader states fell. So, in the late 1120s, Zangi, governor of Mosul on the Tigris,
succeeded in unifying the local Muslim rulers, In 1144 he took Edessa. Two years later Zangi was assassinated, but the Muslim reconquest had begun.
In response to the conquest of Edessa,
St. Bernard preached the so-called Second Crusade. Thanks to the enormous
enthusiasm he unleashed, King Louis VII (1120-1180) of France
and King Conrad III (1093-1152) of Germany
came to the East. But the Second Crusade
proved to be a failure. Relations with the Byzantines were worse than ever.
The western armies were almost wiped out in Asia Minor.
When the remnants of this army reached the Holy land,
they found themselves in conflict with the local lords who feared that these newcomers
would take over their kingdom. The crusader's failure to take Damascus
in 1149 brought its own punishment. In 1154 Zangi's
son took Damascus. "Because
of my preaching, towns and castles are empty of inhabitants. Seven women can
scarcely find one man," St. Bernard once boasted. Now he could only
lament that:
we have fallen on evil days, in
which the Lord, provoked by our sins, has judged the world, with justice,
indeed, but not with his wonted mercy. . . . The sons of the Church have been
overthrown in the desert, slain with the sword, or destroyed by famine. . . .
The judgments of the Lord are righteous, but this one is an abyss so deep
that I must call him blessed who is not scandalized therein.
The next act of Muslim reconquest was carried
out in Egypt
by a general who was sent to assist one of the quarreling factions in Cairo.
This general became vizier of Egypt
and died in 1169, leaving his office to his nephew Saladin (1137-1193), a
chivalrous and humane man who became the greatest Muslim leader during the
period of the Crusades. Saladin brought the Muslims cities of Syria
and Mesopotamia under his control and distributed them
to faithful members of his own family. By 1183 his brother ruled Egypt
and his sons ruled Damascus and Aleppo.
In 1187 Jerusalem fell and soon
there was nothing left to the Christians except the port
of Tyre
and a few castles.
These events made a Third Crusade (1189-1192) necessary. The Holy Roman
emperor, Frederick Barbarossa (c.1123-1190) led a
German force through Byzantium,
only to be drowned (1190) before reaching the Holy Land.
Some of his troops, however, continued on to Palestine.
There they were joined by Philip Augustus
of France and Richard
the Lionhearted (1157-1199) of England,
former rivals in the West. The main thrust of the Third Crusade was the siege
of Acre, which was finally captured in 1191. Jerusalem
could not be taken but Saladin signed a treaty with
Richard allowing Christians to visit the city freely.
Innocent III (1160-1216)
came to the papal throne in 1198 and called for the Fourth Crusade. A number
of powerful lords answered the call and decided to proceed by sea. The
Venetians agreed to furnish transportation and food and also contributed
fifty warships on condition that they would share equally in all future
conquests. Enrico Dandolo
(c.1108-1205) agreed to forgive the debt temporarily if the crusaders would
help him conquer Zara, a town on the eastern side
of the Adriatic that had revolted against Venetian
domination. So the Fourth Crusade began with the sack and destruction of a
Roman Catholic town in 1202! The pope excommunicated the crusaders.
The crusaders then turned their sights on a new goal: Constantinople.
The German king, Philip of Swabia proposed that the
massed armies escort Alexius, a prince with a strong claim to the throne, to Constantinople
and enthrone him. If successful, Alexius would finance the subsequent
expedition, the goal of which was Egypt.
In the spring of 1203, the fortified crusaders attacked Constantinople.
Despite advanced warning, the usurper Alexius III,
had done little to prepare the city. In the initial assault, the crusaders
won a complete naval victory though the city held its ground. A second attack
by both land and sea broke through the defenses and Alexius III fled the
city. The young Alexius was then crowned Alexius IV. The city was eventually
damaged when a group of Franks set fire to a mosque in the Saracen quarter
and Alexius IV refused to make the promised payment. Convinced that Alexius
IV could not make peace with the crusaders, a faction of senators, clergy and
the populace deposed Alexius, who was later murdered in prison by yet another
usurper.
In March 1204 the crusaders and Venetians agreed to seize the city a second
time and to elect a Latin emperor. This siege ended in a second capture and a
three-day sack of Constantinople. The pope criticized
the outrage. Whole libraries and collections of art were destroyed but the
Venetians managed to salvage what they could and sent it all back to Venice.
Of particular importance were sacred relics including a fragment identified
as the True Cross and part of the head of John the Baptist.
 Faith at its purest and most innocent was perhaps inherent
in one of the most horrifying and disastrous episodes, the so-called CHILDREN'S
CRUSADE of 1212. For these children, faith, love and hope could destroy the
infidels where force alone had failed. Their motivation was more simple, more
primitive and naive. Their faith and love was part of that general trend
toward regeneration and spiritual awakening that we mentioned at the start of
this lecture.
There were two Children's Crusades which started simultaneously in 1212,
one from the Rhineland, the other in the Loire
valley. A ten year old boy, Nicholas, preached the Children's Crusade at Cologne
and is said to have recruited more than 20,000 children to his cause. When
the pilgrims reached Italy,
many of the girls were taken into brothels and others were taken as servants.
Those boys who eventually carried on to the east were sold as slaves.
In May 1212, there appeared at Saint-Denis,
a twelve year old boy by the name of Stephen. He was alleged to have gathered
30,000 children but at Marseilles
they fell into the hands of thieves and were sold as slaves at Alexandria.
Over 2000 alone perished when their ships sank in the Mediterranean.
The Children's Crusades were not merely a brief episode but rather part of
that deeply rooted unrest which had disturbed the conscience of the masses.
Above all, the miracles associated with Stephen (it's said that animals,
birds, fish and butterflies joined him) point forward to two other figures --
St. Francis of
Assisi and Joan of Arc.
In the Fifth Crusade (1218-1221) the Christians attempted the conquest of Egypt
on the notion that this was the center of Muslim strength. That Crusade was a
miserable failure. Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) personally led the Sixth
Crusade (1228-1229). No fighting was involved. Speaking Arabic and long
familiar with the Muslims from his experience in Sicily,
Frederick secured more for the
Christians by negotiation than any crusader had secured by force since the
First Crusade. In 1229 he signed a treaty with Saladin's nephew that restored
Jerusalem to the Latin world. Bethlehem
and Nazareth were also handed
over and a ten year truce was signed.
The last two major crusades were organized by the saintly king of France,
Louis IX (1215-1270). In 1248, Louis attacked Egypt
with the idea of then regaining Palestine.
A horrible strategist, Louis' and his army were defeated, taken prisoner, and
made to pay an enormous ransom to obtain their freedom. Louis tried again in
1270, leading his troops on an expedition to Tunis
in North Africa. There was no success here either as
Louis and much of his army died from plague.
Slowly, the Christian possessions in the Holy Lands were retaken. Acre,
the last stronghold of the crusaders, surrendered in 1291.
The ultimate effect of the Crusades on European history is certainly
debatable. What is certain is that the crusaders made very little direct
impact on the east where the only visible remnants of their conquests were
their castles. There may have been some broadening of perspective that comes
from the exchange and the clash between two cultures, but the interaction
between Muslim and Christian was more meaningful in Spain
and Sicily than it was in the
Holy Lands.
The Crusades did manage to reduce the number of quarrelsome and
contentious knights in Europe. The Crusades provided
an outlet for their penchant for fighting and it has been argued that
European monarchs were able to consolidate their control much more easily now
that the warrior class had been reduced in number.
The Crusades also contributed to the economic growth of the Italian port
cities of Genoa, Pisa
and Venice. Of course, the great
wealth and growing population of 11th century Europe
had made the Crusades possible in the first place. The Crusades may have
enhanced trade but they certainly were not the cause of the revival of trade.
Italian merchants would have pursued their trade with the east regardless of
whether or not the Crusades took place.
In general, it can be said that the almost incredible success of the First
Crusade helped raise the self-confidence of the medieval west. For centuries Europe
had been on the defensive against Islam -- now a western army could march
into a center of Islamic power and take their coveted prize. With this in
mind, the 12th century became an age of optimism and rebirth. To the
Christians of the west it must have seemed as if God was on their side and
that they could accomplish anything. But there was a negative side to the
crusading balance sheet. There is no escaping the fact of the Crusader's
savage butchery -- of Jews at home and of Muslims abroad. The Crusades
certainly accelerated the deterioration of western relations with the Byzantine
Empire and contributed to the destruction of that realm, with
the disastrous consequences that followed. And western colonialism in the Holy
Land was only the beginning of a long history of colonialism
that has continued into the 20th century.
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