The Crusades
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The Crusades of the Middle Ages
Introduction
In wars called the Crusades, Christians from Europe fought Muslims for control of Jerusalem and other holy places. The word crusade comes from the Latin word crux, meaning “cross.” The Christian soldiers, called Crusaders, wore the cross as a symbol of their religion. The Crusades took place between 1095 and 1291.
Jerusalem is a holy city to several religions. Muslims controlled Jerusalem for hundreds of years before the Crusades. However, they allowed Christians to make pilgrimages to the city. In 1071 a new Muslim group called the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem. They were hostile to Christian pilgrims. They also attacked the nearby Byzantine Empire, which was Christian.
The Byzantine emperor feared that the Muslims would attack Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), his capital. He asked the pope in Rome for help. In 1095 the pope urged Christians to take back Jerusalem.
First Crusades
The main army of the First Crusade left Europe in August 1096. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099.
Most of the Crusaders returned home after the First Crusade. Others stayed in the Holy Land and established Christian states. In 1144 the Turks captured one of the Christian states. German and French rulers then called for the Second Crusade. It was a failure for the Christians.
The Muslim leader Saladin conquered Jerusalem in 1187. The kings of England, France, and Germany launched the Third Crusade against him. They were not able to recapture Jerusalem. However, the English king signed a peace treaty with Saladin in 1192. It allowed Christian pilgrims to visit holy places in Jerusalem.
Crusades of the 1200s
The Fourth Crusade started in 1202. The Crusaders planned to attack the Muslims in Egypt. However, the plan changed when the Crusaders passed through Venice. The Venetians got the Crusaders to capture Zara (now Zadar, Croatia), a Christian city that competed with Venice for trade. Then the Venetians and the Crusaders seized Constantinople. In 1204 they looted the city.
In 1212 two separate groups of children set out for Jerusalem. Some children died during the difficult journey. Others were captured and sold into slavery. Neither of the Children’s Crusades got near Jerusalem.
French and German Crusaders reached Egypt in1218 as part of the Fifth Crusade. In 1219 the Muslims offered to give up Jerusalem if the Crusaders would leave Egypt. The leader of the Crusaders refused. Later he was defeated.
Frederick II, the Holy Roman emperor, set out on the Sixth Crusade in 1228. He signed a treaty with the leader of Egypt that gave the Christians control of most of Jerusalem. In1244, however, the Turks took Jerusalem back. This led to the Seventh Crusade in 1249. Louis IX, king of France, was the leader. He was captured and held before being released in 1250. In 1270 Louis led the Eighth Crusade. He died of plague, however, and the Crusade failed.
The Crusaders then lost their fighting spirit. In 1291 the Muslims recaptured the last of the Christian states in the Holy Land.
The Children’sCrusade
In 1212 the religious enthusiasm that led knights to go on Crusade touched the common people, including many young people. The Children’s Crusade involved many kinds of people, including the elderly, women, and the poor as well as young adults and children. It emerged in France and Germany without papal approval. It revealed that many in the Middle Ages were inspired by the idea of rescuing the Holy Land.
The French phase of the Crusade was led by Stephen, a shepherd boy from an area near Cloyes. In the spring of 1212 he said that Jesus had appeared to him in a vision and given him a letter for King Philip Augustus of France (presumably encouraging the king to go on Crusade again). Stephen led his large band of followers to Paris to deliver the letter. The king graciously received Stephen and then ordered him and his followers to return home.
News of Stephen’s preaching spread into Germany. It inspired the young man Nicholas of Cologne to band German children and others together to free the Holy Land. He believed that God would open up the Mediterranean Sea to allow them to walk there. Nicholas led his many followers over the Alps into Italy. They reached Genoa, where the sea did not part. Some of them then went to Rome, and Pope Innocent III gently ordered them home. Few apparently ever reached their homes in Germany. Some accounts indicate that merchants sold many of the children into slavery. It is also likely that many found jobs in Italy.