Small groups began to form, each planning their own path to Constantinople; that was where they would meet. Their plan was to attack the Turkish forces in Constantinople and regain control of the city. The pope called for all knights, kings, warriors and even commoners to take up arms and get back the holy land. The Christian armies talked with the Byzantium emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, and agreed to return any of the old land that was recaptured. The armies were unsure about this agreement, however, they agreed to the treaty anyhow.
The Muslims over time learned the value of united action and in 1144A.D. they captured the city of Edessa. The fall of Edessa made people realize the dangers, which threatened Jerusalem and led to another crusade. The second crusade had a favorable outlook but an unhappy ending. Of the people that left a few thousand escaped annihilation at the hands of the Turks.
In this paper I will attempt to discover why the Crusades began, what where the motives, and have the Crusades furthered the cause of Christ. HISTORY The Crusades started during the time of the Middle Ages. The reason for the Crusades was to start war with the Muslims over the Holy Lands. Christians wanted to regain
Their plan was for the Venetians attack against the harbor wall and the French against the north end of the land wall, adjacent to the Palace of Blachernae. The French then took up position opposite the wall. After they attacked, they could not do more so they decided to burn the city down, much of their materials and equipment did not work but they accomplished their goals. The crusaders looked forward to restoring the holy land to the cross. Young Alexius the 4th could not raise enough money for the crusaders so he was kidnapped and imprisoned.
When the Hundred Years War broke out, both side decided to use their ability to tax the church granted to the kings by the church as a repayment for the crusades. When the church refused to pay France, they kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII. The Pope died soon after his rescue and the cardinals elected a French pope so as not to stir trouble again. But instead of moving to Rome, the new Pope Clement V stayed in Avignon. A new string of Popes would settle in Avignon for the next 70 years where the French kings were able to maintain a firm hold on the papacy.
In the mid-12th century, the Turkic ruler Saladin rose to lead the Seljuks and succeeded in uniting the fragmented Muslim armies of Southwest Asia and North Africa. To Saladin, the Christian armies were the infidels that had to be evicted. When Saladin’s forces took Jerusalem, the call went out across Europe to launch another crusade. Three kings came forward-Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, King Phillip II of France, and King Richard I, later known as Richard the Lionheart of England. Held in 1187-1192.
There may also have been the idea of taking revenge on those (the Muslims) who had desecrated Christ’s Holy City, and his people, the Christians. Reclaiming Jerusalem was a main religious factor that encouraged people to Crusade. In 1076, it had been captured by the Seljuk Turks, which was a big problem for Christians. Jerusalem was a Holy place of worship for many religions, most especially Christians. At this time, Jerusalem was shown to be the navel of the world: in most medieval maps, Jerusalem is placed at the very centre, the place where there was a connection between god and man.
[1] The loss of the territory of Jerusalem in the summer of 1244 had unravelled the unexpected success of the Sixth Crusade and as a result King Louis IX of France, as a devout Christian, wished to travel to the East to reclaim the lost Christian lands. It was the combination of a grave illness, the desire to follow the Capetian tradition and the events that had taken place in the East which compelled Louis IX to take the cross in December 1244. The Seventh Crusade, however, did not reach Jerusalem as Louis IX was forced to return to France due to the troubles in his own kingdom. [2] In spite of such failures, the fall of Antioch in 1268 inspired the courageous king to return to the East. While figures such as Louis IX and Jean de Joinville were motivated by the actions of their predecessors, further Christians felt compelled to join the crusading movement as they believed in the idea of the crusade as a ‘penance rewarded by the indulgence.’[3] The political climate of Western Europe in 1245 did not, however, favour the implementation of a new crusade.
The First Crusade and the Propagation of Religion The First Crusade was a military attempt by Roman Catholic Europe to regain control over the Holy Lands of Jerusalem, in which the Muslims had taken control of in 661. During this crusade, knights and peasants from many areas of Western Europe went on this pilgrimage, first stopping at Constantinople and then continuing on to Jerusalem. In the group of crusaders, the peasants greatly out numbered the military knights. Many crusaders did not make it the long journey, and the lasting crusaders were mostly the knights, as they were better trained and prepared for such combat. Once the Knights reached Jerusalem, they took control by ransacking every building and torturing and killing almost all of the 60,000 unarmed civilians living in Jerusalem.
When Pope Urban II wrote about “The kingdom of the Greeks” he referred to early Christendom in the Middle East. The Pope also wrote that their kingdom was “dismembered”, which showed the church viewed the rise of Islam as threat to Catholicism because Islam threatened a unified Christian world. In order to maintain this unified Christian world, the church urged its members to form armies and invade the Middle East. The Pope portrayed the Muslims as barbaric, cruel, and savage to incite Christians. He created an anti- Muslim feeling by writing they were an “accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God.” Pope Urban accused them of “violently invading the lands of the Christians and [depopulating] them by pillage and fire.” The Pope further described them as taking Christians captive and torturing them.