The Crusades

Video

Question for Consideration:Question for Consideration:

Were the Crusades SuccessfulWere the Crusades Successful

or Were The Crusades a Failure?or Were The Crusades a Failure?

Byzantine EmpireByzantine

Empire

The Holy Land

Starting in the 7th Century CE, Islam spreads from the Arabian Peninsula through the Middle East, across Africa into Asia and Europe.

The Holy Land

The Empire of the Seljuk Turks at the end of the 11th century. Very little was left of the Byzantine Empire.

Jerusalem in the 11th Century had fallen into the hands of the Islamic invaders - the Seljuk Turks

Jerusalem was a holy city for the Muslims as well as the Christians and Jews

The Muslims did begin to prevent Christian pilgrims from entering the city.

Stories began to circulate that the Turks were torturing and killing Christians and Christian missionaries and priests in Jerusalem and in other cities in the Holy Land.

Were the stories true? Or, were they an attempt by the Byzantine emperor to get help from Christian Europe against the Muslim invaders?

Were the stories an early form of propaganda?

Propaganda has been used throughout history to recruit armies and stir emotions.

We still use propaganda to feed hate and encourage people to support causes -- or go to war.

It wasn’t hard to find anti-Muslim

propaganda after 9/11

In 1095 Pope Urban II issued perhaps the most famous “call to arms” in history.

“Your brethren who live in the east (the Christians in the Byzantine Empire) are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them.”

“The Turks and Arabs have attacked them!”

“They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them.”

“On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds…to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.”

“Moreover, Christ

commands it!”

“O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God… “

“All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”

Admission to Heaven guaranteed…or your money back

Review Questions:What social, economic and

political system existed in

Western Europe at this time?

Feudalism

What was the richest and the

single most powerful entity in

11th century Western Europe?

The Church

What role did religion play in the lives of the people - including the nobility

Religion was the most important factor

How much impact would the Pope’s call for a crusade have?

Almost like a command

EnglandHoly Roman

Empire

Christian Spain

Moorish Spain

FranceByzantine Empire

Raymond of Toulouse and Godfrey of Bouillon, lead the First Crusade. They lead an army of around 35,000 men in a holy crusade to free the Holy Land from the infidels.

By the time they reach their goal their numbers have swelled to 100,000

Unfortunately, the religious zeal of the Crusaders and their hatred of the “infidels” was not restricted to just the Muslims in the Holy Land

In the German city of Mainz, the Crusaders massacred thousands of Jews, even those who had taken refuge in the Bishop’s palace.

The siege of

Jerusalem

An eyewitness, a Crusader, recorded the siege of Jerusalem and the brutal actions of the Crusders following the city’s capture:

"Exulting with joy we reached the city of Jerusalem on Tuesday, June 6, and we besieged it in a wonderful manner…Day and night on the fourth and fifth days of the week we vigorously attacked the city on all sides;…

Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders!

When he reached the top, all the defenders of the city quickly fled along the walls and through the city. Our men followed and pursued them, killing and hacking, as far as the temple of Solomon, and there there was such a slaughter that our men were up to their ankles in the enemy's blood. . . .

Entering the city, our pilgrims pursued and killed the Saracens up to the temple of Solomon. There the Saracens assembled and resisted fiercely all day, so that the whole temple flowed with their blood. At last the pagans were overcome and our men seized many men and women in the temple, killing them or keeping them alive as they saw fit.”

The Crusaders established a number of kingdoms in the Holy Land. They came to be known as the “Crusader States.”

Many were soon reconquered by the Turks. Even Jerusalem was recaptured in 1187

A Second Crusade was mounted, but the Crusaders spent more time and energy fighting each other than they did the Turks.

It failed miserably - not even reaching the Holy Land.

Then…….in 1189, a THIRD CRUSADE began.

This may have been the most famous -- mostly because of the people who led the Crusade.

This time the leaders were the Kings of the greatest states in Europe……..

Frederick Barbarossa of Germany

Phillip II of France

Richard I of England

Richard “the Lionhearted”

Drowned crossing a stream in Turkey

The Third Crusade

The English & French Traveled by Sea

Richard and his army captured the city of Acre after a one-month siege, and defeated the Muslim army at Jaffa.

When the Muslim leader, Saladin, refused Richard’s terms for a peace treaty, Richard had 2,700 prisoners executed.

Richard led his army on to Jerusalem

But, the Turks, led by their greatest leader, Saladin, held on to the city.

The exhausted army of Knights and common soldiers returned home

The Third Crusade was never able to capture Jerusalem. It remained in Muslim hands (except for short periods) for another 500 years, until captured by the British Army in 1917 - in World War I

The Fourth Crusade - Never Got to the Holy Land

In 1204 the Crusaders attacked, captured and sacked Constantinople, the largest Christian city in the world and the capitol of the Byzantine Empire

The sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade widened the schism (the break) between the Roman Catholic (Western) Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church

The schism has not yet completely healed

The Crusades did not end with the Fourth Crusade.

There was even a Children’s Crusade.

An army of children marched off to the Holy Land. They were captured by pirates who sold them into slavery.

Altogether there were NINE Crusades.

The last one ended in 1272 CE almost 200 years after the First Crusade

began.

Results of the Crusades

Thousands of Crusaders died -

many of them members of the feudal nobility.

The Muslim “infidels”

remained in control of the Holy Land.

The slaughter of thousands of Muslims left a legacy of hate between the

Christians and Muslims.

The schism between the Eastern & Western

churches widened after the sack of Constantinople.

The Byzantine Empire was permanently weakened

How might that have affected feudal society in Europe?

What impact would that have on the history of the Middle East?Causing the

eventual collapse of the Empire and the spread of Islam into southeastern Europe.

What if the eastern & western churches had remained together. Would Christianity have been even more powerful?

OTHER, More Positive Results of the Crusades

Crusaders were exposed to Eastern culture.

Products of the East like spices,

perfumes, and silk were

brought back to Western

Europe.

Trade routes opened

between the Middle East and Venice, Genoa and

other northern

Italian cities.

Death of feudal lords weakened

the feudal system and

increased the power of Kings.

Europeans learned about gunpowder & other weapons

Europeans learned about the rudder &

the compass

Without those advances, the discovery of the Americas might not have happened

Europeans wanted the new luxuries the Crusaders brought back from the wars.

Making them wealthy & powerful cites and eventually the centers of the Italian Renaissance

Follow-up Assignment

Historians have expressed that the Crusades were a “successful failure.”

Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Cite examples.