The Middle Ages Crusades

Image: Universal History

Starting in the 11th century, Europe entered a new stage, known as the Full Middle Ages, which was characterized by the stabilization of the different nations that inhabited the continent. One of the most momentous events that we will find from this moment on will be the expansionist ideology of Christianity in front of the Islamic world. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a summary of the crusades in the Middle Ages in which we will see a clear idea to recover the holy places of Christianity that were under Islamic rule.

Index

1. The origin of the crusades and their causes
2. The first crusade (1095-1099)
3. The second crusade (1144-1148)
4. The third crusade (1187-1191)
5. The Fourth Crusade (1198-1204) and the Minor Crusades

In the year 1095, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I asked the papacy for help before the muslim threat that loomed over their territories. It was from that moment that the idea of ​​a crusade began to be forged throughout the Catholic world,

One of the ideas that have spread the most over time in the historiographic field is the referring to the different causes that could have led to the crusades, being the most important:

• The religious fervor to recover the places where Jesus Christ had been.
• The expansionist interests on the part of the nobility and the papacy who wanted to extend the feudal system throughout the territories of the Near East.
• The commercial possibility which was to link up with the Asian Silk Road.

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II urged the population gathered at the Council of Clermont, to recover the holy places and wage war against the infidel and this is how the first crusade began.

For this, the Pope himself promised absolution from sins, an element that we must take into account, because in the Middle Ages, in order to enjoy the earthly paradise all sins had to be purged and given a generous alms, a fact that could be omitted if one went to the crusade, that way many people who did not have financial means, would get their salvation. A different case was that, in addition, an open war allowed looting and the distribution of spoils among the soldiers.

In this first crusade, we will find two well differentiated groups:

The crusade of the poor or Peter the hermit

This was a company organized by the poor, and left in March 1096 through the kingdom of Hungary, where they would cause great problems, killing 4000 Jews in their path. This would lead to a series of clashes between Hungary and the Crusaders, which ended with a treaty stating that, if If the crusaders wish to reach Byzantium on foot, they should do so in an organized manner and without causing any kind of disturbance. trouble.

The crusade of princes

It was the princes' crusade that we can call it the true crusade. It was organized by second men of the nobility, who were the ones who, upon reaching Constantinople, swore to the emperor to return the lost territories to the Turks. In this way they entered Syria, conquering Antioch and Jerusalem. The problem was that they never returned their territories to Byzantium, but small principalities were formed where these second men would rule.

Image: Mediavida

We continue with this summary of the crusades in the Middle Ages to talk about the second crusade.

During the years 1099-1144 we will find the decline of the crusade spirit in the new Christian kingdoms, decadence that was taken advantage of by the Muslim kingdoms to start the so-called jihad or Holy war, preached by governors of the different Muslim states. These would attack the Christian kingdoms and their allies, Muslim kingdoms that accepted the Christian presence in their territories.

The immediate cause for which the second crusade would begin is found in the taking of Edessa from the Muslims, headed by Zengi in the year 1145; This caused that Pope Eugene III and Bernard of Clairvaux announce the second crusade.

In this period we will find the presence of kings such as Louis VII of France or Conrad III, Holy Roman Emperor. The different misunderstandings between the kings made the crusade a real failure, giving way to the fall of Damascus into the hands of the exalted Muslims, which was an ally of the Frankish kingdom of Jerusalem.

Thus after an unsuccessful period, the French and German armies marched again to Europe, abandoning the kingdom of Jerusalem which saw how the Muslims were taking ground from it.

Image: Roads and parcels

In the year 1174 Nur al-Din died, and with it came to power Saladin, which had been one of the top generals of the Muslim army, since he had been unifying all the Muslim tribes, creating a unitary state from Egypt to Syria. In this way, the Frankish state of the kingdom of Jerusalem was totally surrounded, having to make a series of pacts between its king, Baudouin IV and Saladin to avoid war.

On March 16, 1185, Baudouin IV died and with it the kingdom of Jerusalem was divided into various factions, reaching the throne Guido de Lusignan, that he belonged to the most hostile faction of all those found in the Frankish kingdom.

In addition to the radicalization of the new king of Jerusalem, we must stop at the figure of King of Châtillon, a second-in-class of the nobility who dedicated to assaulting caravans of Muslims, even having the Christian kingdoms a benevolent truce with them. Chance wanted him to assault a caravan where Saladin's sister was going, causing the sultan himself to swear to end the life of Reinaldo.

Once war was declared, the bulk of the Christian army mobilized towards the Hattin Horns, place where the confrontation would take place on July 4, 1187. In said battle, the christian army decimated by lack of water he was defeated and humiliated, also losing a fragment of the Holy Cross and leaving the city of Jerusalem totally defenseless. That is why Guido de Lusignan has gone down in history as the person who lost Jerusalem for being incompetent.

After this, Saladin took Jerusalem and other important squares, without reaching the coastal area, which was heavily supplied by Christian ships.

In 1189, the Pope Gregory VIII was calling for a crusade to regain Jerusalem, in which Ricardo Corazón de León, Felipe II Augustus of France and Emperor Federico I Barbarroja participated. Due to a series of circumstances, Ricardo was left alone before the Muslim forces, with whom he had to reach an agreement to sign peace, thinking of a future crusade that would end the Muslims.

Image: Universal History

We finish this summary of the crusades in the Middle Ages to talk about the fourth crusade and recent years.

Although the Fourth Crusade was originally intended to attack Egypt, we will see that it eventually headed towards the taking of Constantinople, due to the debt contracted by the emperor, Alexios IV with the crusaders. This fact ended the assault of the crusaders on the city, with the consequent looting, and the imposition of a feudal kingdom, with a French monarch at the head.

In total we will find about nine crusades related to the attempt to take Christian possessions in the Syro-Palestinian coast and seven referring to those carried out in European territories, such as the Reconquest Spanish. We have to bear in mind that those destined for the Middle East did not cause any important events, being mostly skirmishes.

Those related to European territories were political in nature and were intended to end heresy or to expel Muslims who had arrived in the territory.

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