The Crusades

Pope Urban II

Rough chronology of Crusades

First Crusade (1096 – 1102). Captures Jerusalem 1099.

Second Crusade (1147 – 9). Led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany.

Third Crusade (1189 – 92). Response to Saladin’s devastating victory at Hattin (1187). Involves Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Richard I of England and Philip II of France.

Battle of Hattin

Fourth Crusade (1202 – 4) takes Constantinople and much of Greece.

Fifth Crusade (1239 – 41). Ends with recovery of Jerusalem by Emperor Frederick II.

Louis IX’s first crusade (1269 – 72) is a response to the loss of Jerusalem in 1244.

Multiple theatres of conflict

Crusades in Iberian peninsula preached (1114, 1118 and 1122) to accompany Second Crusade

Crusade against Wends authorised by Pope Eugenius III in 1147.

Crusade against English rebels who’ve forced King John to concede Magna Carta (1216 –7)

Crusade against Frederick II in 1239.

Logistics

Organisational problems

Who pays for recruitment? Voluntary contributions of participants. Outlay of kings and lords. Taxation of all subjects.

Attempts by popes to control military strategy. Innocent III in Fourth Crusade.

Problem of non-combatants. Leads to system of commutation.

Difficulties

No clear command-structure (at least to begin with)

Difficulties in communication and co-ordination.#

Suspicious relationship with Byantine rulers

Divisions among crusader leaders

Reasons for successes

Development of a military caste in Latin Christendom

Political instabilities among Muslim rulers. Competition between Seljuk Turks and Fatimid caliphate.

Competition between heirs of Saladin (Ayyubid dynasty)

Desire to preserve trade.

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Fulke of Neuilly

Siege of Antioch 1098

Popular crusades

Children’s Crusade of 1212

Shepherd’s Crusade of 1251–2.

Military Orders

Holy Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (Templars) founded in 1120. Hugh of Payns. Supported by St Bernard of Clairvaux.

Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers). Recognised by papacy in 1113. Look after sick and poor in Jerusalem. Later become increasingly military in character.

Latin East (Crusader states)

Christian groups: Armenian, Jacobite, Orthodox, Copts and Nestorians.

Slaughter of Muslims in 1097–8 at Tilbeşar, Ravanda and Artah.

But there is a mixture of violence and toleration.

Muslim dhimmi laws adopted and adapted by Crusaders.

Countryside. Headman – ra’is. Tax – kharaj.