The Crusades: The Quest For Holy Land Essay, Research Paper
The Crusades: The Quest for Holy Land
Of course you have heard of the crusades, who
hasn t. The crusades were military expeditions launched
against the Muslims by the Christians in an attempt to
regain the Holy Land. They took place between 1095 A.D. and
1270 A.D. It was one of the most violent periods in the
history of mankind.
The start of the great crusades was on November 18,
1095 A.D., when Pope Urban II opened the Council of
Clermont. On November 27, outside the French city of
Clermont, the Pope made an important speech. He called upon
everyone to help the Christians in the east to regain peace.
The crowd’s response was very positive and pro peace. The
original object of the First Crusade was to help out the
Christian churches in the east (Mayer 41). The new goal,
became to free the Holy Land from Muslim control, especially
Jerusalem.
Pope Urban II stayed in France until September 1096,
to provide leadership and guidance for the members of the
First Crusade(42). He urged churchmen to preach the cross
in France. Urban wanted the crusading army to be mostly
made up of knights and other military personnel. Since the
news of his speech at Clermont spread through the west,
people from all social classes and occupations joined the
Crusade. As a result of Urban losing control of personnel,
violence was launched against the Jews of northern France.
This violence was mostly instigated by bands of the urban
and rural men led by men like Peter the Hermit and Walter
Sans-Avoir(43).
These groups lacked supplies and discipline. They
attempted to reach Constantinople but most of them never got
that far. The leaders in lands which they passed through
were frightened and killed many of the crusading groups.
Some did get to Constantinople and traveled across the
Bosphorus in August 1096(Encarta Online). There, they split
into two groups. One tried to overtake Nicaea and was
unsuccessful. The other was ambushed and slaughtered near
Civetot, in October. The remaining crusaders retreated to
Constantinople and joined the second wave of the Crusade.
The crusaders were eager to start the journey to
Jerusalem but they needed to capture the Anatolian Turkish
capital of Nicaea first because it blocked the road that
would be their main supply route(Permoud 33). It was held
by Seljuk Turks. In May 1097, the crusaders attacked
Nicaea. The Turks realized that they were defeated and
agreed to give the city to the Byzantines in exchange for
the lives of their men. The Byzantines agreed to this and
on June 18, Nicaea was under Byzantine control (Runciman
116). The leaders of the crusade disagreed and wanted to
slaughter the Turks because they were enemies of Christ. On
June 30, 1097, the crusaders were ambushed at the city of
Dorylaeum by Seljuk Turks led by Kilij Arslam, the Seljuk
Sultan(Mayer 50). The fight continued until July 1. The
crusaders won a big victory and nearly wiped out the Turkish
force. This victory opened up the way to Anatolia.
The crusaders attacked Anitoch in northern Syria on
October 21, 1097(Encarta Online). This was the main
obstacle on the road to Jerusalem. In a long and gruesome
battle, the city finally fell on June 2, 1098 (Encarta
Online). The crusaders were quickly attacked by a new
Turkish army from Al Mawsil. They arrived too late to revive
Anitoch’s Turkish defenders and they were forced to retreat
on June 28 (The Crusades).
The starting date for the march to Jerusalem was set
for November 1, 1098, but was delayed by an epidemic, and
also because of fighting to the south of Anitoch. On
January 13, 1099 the commander-in-chief, Count Raymond IV
of Toulouse, led the crusaders’ march to Jerusalem. They
avoided attacks on cities to conserve forces. In May 1099
they reached the northern border of Palestine. On June 7
they camped on the top of a hill where they could see
Jerusalem. Many soldiers were so happy they cried.
Jerusalem was well protected and only vulnerable from
the north and the southwest. On June 13, they tried to
storm Jerusalem but were defeated because of a lack of
supplies. Extreme heat and a water shortage lowered morale.
A priest called Peter Desiderius told them that if they
fasted and held a procession around the walls of Jerusalem
with devotion, the city would be theirs within nine days.
The crusaders did this and, when they completed building
three mini castles, they assaulted Jerusalem on July 13.
There was a frenzy of killing as everyone was hacked down.
The governor and his staff were the only Muslims to escape
alive.
After the First Crusade, four Levant states were
established: Jerusalem, Tripoli, Anitoch, and Edessa. The
success of this crusade was due to the weakness of the
Muslim powers.
The Muslim reunification started in the Middle East
under Imad ad-Din Zengi. The Muslims got their first great
victory versus the crusaders when they captured Edessa, in
1144, and destroyed the crusader state in that region
(Encarta Online). This led to the Second Crusade, which was
proclaimed late in 1145(Encarta). Many people joined the
crusade, including the King Louis VII of France and the holy
Roman emperor, Conrad III(Pernoud 7).
Conrad’s army left Nuremberg, Germany for Jerusalem
in May 1147. A few weeks later the French army set out for
Metz(Mayer 104). The Germans tried to cross central
Anatolia in October, but the Seljuks defeated them near
Dorylaeum. The survivors fled to Nicaea. The other German
contingent, led by Otto of Freising, was defeated by Turks
at Ladoicea. The remaining crusaders fled to the coast of
Pamphylia and were slaughtered in February 1148. Few
survivors finished the trip to Syria by ship.
The French army had reached Constantinople on
October 4, 1147. The French then journeyed through
Byzantine territory in west Asia Minor. The Turks destroyed
most of them, but the French king,the German Emperor, and
some knights survived and traveled by ship to Outremer from
Antalya on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Zengi had
died before the crusaders arrived so his sons took control;
Saif al-Din in Mosul, and Nur al-Din in Aleppo. Joescelin
II, the Frankish count of Edessa, took advantage of Zengi’s
death and tried to regain his capital, but Nur al-Din
massacred the Edessan population and retook it.
On June 24, 1148, the High Court of Jerusalem met at
Palmarea near Acre(Encarta Online). The decision was made
to a
anymore. On July 24, they camped along the west side of
Damascus. The Palestinian barons convinced the two kings
that the orchards on the west were making the attack
difficult, so they moved to the southeast. They couldn’t
stay very long in the southeast because it was very open and
hot. On that same day, they took back their army. The
Second Crusade had failed miserably. Saladin took control
of the Muslims when Nur al-Din died on May 15, 1174 in
Damascus. In 1180, he joined forces with the Anatolian
Seljuk sultan, Kilij Arslan II. Saladin stopped the
unification of Aleppo and Mosul in 1182, brought Aleppo
under his control in 1183, and made a four year truce with
the Franks in 1185 after invading Palestine in 1183(Mayer
126). Reynald of Ch tillon, leader of the Franks, broke
the truce when he heard of a rich caravan of unarmed
merchants traveling on the east bank of Jordan. In
retaliation, Saladin invaded Palestine in 1187. The Franks
got their forces together to withstand Saladin at Zippori.
On July 4, Saladin defeated the Latin army at Hattin
in Galilee. Jerusalem surrendered on October 2(Pernoud 8).
On October 29, 1187, Pope Gregory VIII, who succeeded Pope
Urban II after he died from shock of the defeat at Hattin,
declared the Third Crusade(Mayer 136). Three major European
monarches joined: the holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I, the
French King, Philip II, and the English King, Richard I. It
was the largest force of crusaders since 1095. Frederick
died in Anitoch along with many others as a result of an
disease. Most of his army returned to Germany. Philip and
Richard reached Palestine but couldn’t regain Jerusalem.
Many cities along the Mediterranean coast were freed from
Saladin’s control. On July 12, 1191 Acre surrendered to the
Christians. Richard left the Holy Land on October 9, 1192.
The Latin Kingdom had been restored.
In 1198, Pope Innocent III proclaimed a Fourth
Crusade(Mayer 183). In April 1202, the crusaders asked the
Venetians for transport because they overestimated the
number of people who would sail. The Venetians agreed to
postpone the payment due to them if the crusaders helped
them recapture Zara which had been taken from them by
Hungary. The leaders of the crusade had no other choice.
Some protested, saying that an attack on a Christian city is
a sin. On November 24, Zara was captured(Mayer 187). On
June 24, 1203, the fleet anchored at Chalcedon, and on July
17, Constantinople was attacked from sea and land. Emperor
Alexius III fled in fear. Isaac II Angelus and his son
Alexius IV became co-emperors. In a revolt in January 1204,
both were murdered. Alexius V Ducas Murzuphlus became
emperor. On April 12, 1204, they stormed the city and took
control of the walls. On April 14, Constantinople was
captured (Mayer 191). The Crusaders and Venetians murdered
and looted for three days. Afterwards, the crusaders
started their own empire in the Byzantine ruins with a
Catholic religion, French speech, and Italian commercial
policies.
The Children’s Crusade of 1212 began in Rhineland and
Lower Lorraine. In the spring, large crowds of children
gathered there. The leader was a boy named Nicholas from
Cologne(Mayer 203). The goal of this crusade was to capture
the Holy Land. The French King persuaded a large group of
French children to return home. The group led by Nicholas
reached Genoa on August 25. They expected God to allow them
to walk across the sea but that didn’t happen. What
happened after that is a mystery.
In 1213,Innocent III opened a new crusade. He had no
doubt about the Fifth Crusade because the Book of
Revelations said that Islam would last less than 666 years.
It started in 622 A.D. so they thought it would end by 1288
A.D. Innocent III died on July 16, 1216 and Honorlus III
became his successor(Mayer 209). He was dedicated to the
crusade but lacked the political strength and energy of
Innocent III. In return for the capture of Zara during the
Fourth Crusade , the Venetians agreed to transport the
Hungarian army. The crusaders arrived at Acre in May 1218.
Egypt was now the target. If they could get it, all of
southern Palestine could be easily attained. On May 29,
1218, the fleet anchored off shore and the army was placed
on the west bank of the Nile. The crusaders overtook a
tower protecting Damietta. Instead of attacking Damietta,
the crusaders waited for reinforcements. Saladin’s nephew,
Sultan al-Kamil, attacked the crusader camp but was
defeated. In September al-Kamil offered Jerusalem,
Palestine, Galilee, and the return of the true cross if the
Christians evacuated Egypt. Cardinal Pelagius, leader of
the Christian army, rejected the offer. He didn’t want to
come to terms with the Muslims. On November 5, 1219,
Damietta was captured (Mayer 214). In August 1221, the
Crusaders attacked the Egyptians but were forced to
surrender Damitetta.
Emperor Frederick II took up the Sixth Crusade in
1215(Mayer 219). Political problems in the west kept him
from joining. He wanted to boost his appearance by
regaining the Holy Land. Pope Gregory IX excommunicated him
in 1227 when his journey was delayed more because of an
illness(Pernoud 10). He finally left for the Holy Land in
June 1228. In February 1229, Sultan al-Kamil surrendered
Jerusalem because he was afraid of Frederick’s
expedition(Pernoud 10). A ten year truce was agreed upon.
No blood was shed during this peaceful, political crusade.
King Louis IX of France organized the Seventh Crusade
after the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem in 1244. Louis spent
four years planning, and at the end of August 1248, Louis
and his army sailed to Cyprus(Pernoud 10). The army spent
the winter in Cyprus while waiting for reinforcements. The
fleet left at the end of May and stopped off at Damietta on
June 5, 1249. On June 6, the citizens of Damietta evacuated
in a panic. The crusaders spent the summer in Damietta
waiting for reinforcements. On November 20, 1249, the army
started to march to Cairo(Pernoud 10). In the spring of
1250, they attacked Cairo. Louis surrendered to the
Egyptians in April 1250. Damietta was given up and a ransom
was paid.
As you can see, the crusades were one of the most
violent periods of time. Throughout the Crusades the
crusaders lost focus of their original objective, which was
to promote christianity while regaining the holy land. In
the end they not only promoted christianity, they promoted
bloodshed.