Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How and Why Wonder Book of The Crusades PDF
How and Why Wonder Book of The Crusades PDF
THE CRUSADES
Written by BRENDA RALPH LEWIS
Illustrated by EDWARD MORTELMANS
n
P'.
Introduction
One summer nearly nine centuries ago, a mass emotion gripped
thousands of Europeans, an emotion which drove rich and poor alike
to leave their homes and lands, relinquish their feudal allegiance to
their lords and set off eastwards across the Continent. At the same
time, thousands of .Christian knights and soldiers armed themselves
. and embarked on the long, difficult and dangerous trek towards the
east.
.Their des'tination was the Holy Land of Palestine, where Jesus
Christ had once lived and preached, and in particular the holy city
of Jerusalem and Christ's tomb in the Holy Sepulchre. Their inspira-
tion was the call made in 1095 by Pope Urb=!tn II, urging the Christians
of Europe to undertake a crusade against the Muslim rulers of
Palestine.
This First Crusade was highly successful. The crusaders captured
Jerusalem and later set up Christian states in Palestine. However,
the .Muslims were not so easily thwarted,' and over the next two
centuries, because of their persistent attacks, thousands more knights
and soldiers were inspired to set off on crusades to the Holy Land.
An enormous amount of faith, courage, . enterprise and .suffering
went into the two crusading centuries, and yet the story of those
centuries is not an entirely noble one. True, men performed great
deeds, showed great courage and acted with great chivalry. But too
many others gave way to intolerance, greed and cruelty, slaughtering
innocent civilians, looting cities of their wealth and dealing . with
opponents in merciless and vengeful fashion.
This is why the colossal collision between Christian Europe and
the Muslim East which took place during the crusades taught some
men to respect and admire one another, and provoked in others only
resentment, distrust and the fiercest brand of hate.
2
Contents
Page Page
INTRODUCTION 2 FACT BOX: THE SECOND CRUSADE
OF 1147-1148 27
PRELUDE TO THE CRUSADES 4 FACT BOX: THE CRUSADER ORDERS OF
Who was at Clermont in 1095? 4 KNIGHTHOOD 27
What did the Pope say at Clermont? 5
What did the Pope propose to do? 6 THE THIRD CRUSADE 28
What effect did Pope Urban's words have? 6 Why was Richard an ideal crusader? 28
How was the crusade made known? 7 How did Richard prepare for the crusade? 28
Who answered the call to crusade? 7 Why were Richard and Philip rivals? 28
Why did the peasants want to be crusaders? 8 How did Philip and Richard reach Palestine? 29
Who led the Peasants' Crusade? . 9 What did Richard and Philip find in Palestine? 29
What went wrong with the Peasants' Crusade? 9 What happened in the early days of the siege? 30
What happened in Hungary and Byzantium? 10 How did the new arrivals attack Acre? 30
What did the Byzantine Emperor do? 10 How did the crusaders capture Acre? 31
What happened to the peasants? 11 What problems did Richard face? 31
What towns did Richard attack? 32
FACT BOX: POPE URBAN II (c.1042-1099) 11 Why were Richard and Saladin friends? 32
FACT BOX: PETER THE HERMIT (d. 1115) 11 Why did Richard never capture Jerusalem? 32
What were the terms of Richard's treaty
THE KNIGHTS' CRUSADE 12 with Saladin? 33
What did the crusaders think of Constantinople? 12 What happened to Richard on his way home? 33
Why was Alexius suspicious? 13 What happened after Saladin's death? 34
What precautions did Alexius take? 13
How did Alexius help the crusaders? 13 FACT BOX: PHILIP II AUGUSTUS OF
What were the crusaders' early successes? 13 FRANCE (1165-1223) 34
What difficulties did the crusaders encounter? 14
How was the first crusader state created? 14 THE- NOT-SO-NOBLE CRUSADES 35
How did Bohemund plot against Alexius? 15 What part did Venice play in the crusade? 35
How was Antioc~ captured? 15 What was the Doge's solution? 35
How was Kerbogha defeated? 15 What happened at Zara and Constantinople? 36
Why did the crusaders remain in Antioch? 16 What went wrong with the Fifth Crusade? 37
What effect did this threat have? 16 Why was Emperor Frederick a bad crusader? 38
What was Bohemund's private plan? 17 Why was Frederick excommunicated? 38
What happened at Bethlehem? 17 What happened during the Sixth Crusade? 39
What was Jerusalem like? 17 Why were Christians so horrified? 39
Why was Jerusalem difficult to capture? 17 How did Frederick become King of Jerusalem? 39
What happened at the siege of Jerusalem? 18 What happened after Frederick's departure? 40
How was Jerusalem captured? 18 What was the great danger from Asia? 40
How did the Muslims recover Jerusalem? 41
FACT BOX: BOHEMUND I OF ANTIOCH
(c. 1057-1111) 18 FACT BOX: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE
OF 1212 41
THE CRUSADER STATES IN PALESTINE 19
How was news of victory received? 19 THE LAST OF THE CRUSADES 42
How did the crusaders consolidate their victory? 19 What did people think of crusading now? 42
How extensive were the crusaders' conquests? 20 Who was this new leader? 42
Who were the "peacetime" crusaders? 20 What happened on the Seventh Crusade? 42
How were the crusader states organised? 20 When did Louis go crusading again? 43
How did the crusaders get on with the natives? 21 Why did Louis' brother betray him? 43
What did the crusaders wear? 22 Who was Baybars? 43
What was Muslim food like? 22 How were the crusaders affected? 44
How did the crusaders entertain themselves? 22 Why was there no new crusade? 45
Why did the crusaders favour Muslim doctors? 23 What happened at the siege of Acre? 46
What did visitors from Europe think? 23 How was Acre captured? 46
Why were the Muslims more successful now? 24 How did crusader rule end? 46
What effect did the "Jihad" have? 24 What were the bad results of the crusades? 46
How did Saladin capture Jerusalem? 25 How did the crusades affect European life? 47
What happened after Jerusalem fell? 26 How did the crusades affect literature
and language? 47
FACT BOX: GODFREY OF BOUILLON
(C. 1060-1100) I . 26 INDEX 48
Prelude to the Crusades
A respectful hush fell over the great villages and resume their work guiding
crowd of bishops the peasants in their care and ensuring
Who was at
Clermont in 1095 7 and barons that they led good Christian lives: The
gathered in monks would return to their mona-
council at Clermont, France on 27 steries and their lives of prayer and
November 1095. The murmurs of contemplation. And the great feudal
quiet conv:ersations faded away, and barons would return to their estates
everyone's eyes turned towards Pope and their castles, their armies of serfs
Urban II as he prepared to address and their servants.
them. At least, that is what everyone at
No one, of course, expected the Pope Clermont expected. What they got was
to say anything extraordinary or un- something totally different. T4e
usual. Councils like this one were message Pope Urban had brought them
normally just meetings for the discus- completely changed their lives, their
sion of church business. Once that was ideas and their ambitions and set them
over, and the Pope had pronounced a and all other Christians in Europe a
blessing, everyone simply went home new and quite revolutionary task.
and got on with their everyday lives.
The bishops would return to their
sees. Priests would go back to their Pope l)rban ll's message changed t he history of Europe.
Christian pilgrims were frequently attacked by the Muslims.
"Beloved brethren," the Pope began,
"the Church of
What did the Pope Chtist is in
, say at Clermont 1
mortal danger.
Everywhere, Ch~istians are. being mur- sadly at hearing these tragic and all-
dered and tortured, thetr churches too-familiar facts.
destroyed, their altars defiled and the "Just as individual Christians are in
Holy Cross broken and spat upon danger," Pope Urban continued, "so
by the terrible .Muslim hordes. These whole communities are in great peril.
followers of the so-called prophet Think of the valiant Christians in
Mohamed attack unarmed pilgrims Spain, who are now engaged in a
on their way to the holy places in violent war with the Muslims. Think
Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy of the great eastern Empire in Byzan-
Land. They rob and kill them, kidnap tium, which is constantly threatened
the women and children and lead them by the Muslim Turks. And above all,
away to lives of_fearful slavery and beloved brethren, think of the Holy
suffering!" Land where Christ was born, lived and
A murmur of agreement ran through preached and where He died for our
the gathering. Men nodded their heads sins!"
5
Pope Urban paused. Emotion was audience. There was anger. There was
making his voice sorrow. There was gloom. Some men
What did the Pope
propose to do 1 tremble and his were weeping, some had bowed their
eyes fill with heads with grief.
tears. Then, after a few moments, he Then, . suddenly, someone shouted
went on: ''Jerusalem, Bethlehem, out: "God wills it! God . wills this
Nazareth, 'Galilee-the whole country crusade!" Another man took up the
of our beloved Lord has been in the cry, and then another and anoth.er
grip of the brutal Turks ever since 1071. . until, in a few minutes, all doubts
How can we stand by and let this seemed to have been swept aside and
happen? How can we let our Lord be the whole body of bishops and barons
shamed and reviled in His own land? were shouting with one mighty voice :
We must rescue Him! We must raise "God wills it! God wills it!" Some of
a great Christian army and drive the them went even further and started
vile Muslim from the holy places in tearing their Clbaks into strips to make
Jerusalem, and from every scrap of the crosses, which they pinned on their
holy soil which Christ once trod! I call sleeves.
for a great crusade of Christians .every- Pope Urban stood up, tears of joy
where! Rich and poor, powerful and streaming down his cheeks. He raised
humbl~veryone must vow to take his arms and pronounced a blessing on
the Cross and go to fight in Christ's the gathering. "Yes, our crusade is
cause.I" indeed the will of God!" he cried.
, "Now, we must send messengers and
There was an awed silence for a envoys to all the towns and villages of
moment after the Europe, and call upon the people to
What effect did Pope had finished join us in the great holy enterprise!" .
Pope Urban's words k' Ub
have 1 spea mg. r an
could see many
emotions reflected in the faces of his "God wi lls this crusade!"
--=--
~~-
---=====--=
Envoys spread the message througnout Europe. Both princes
Within the next months, Urban sent and peasants set out to drive the Muslims from the Holy land.
his envoysspeed-
How was the ing on horseback
crusade made
known? over the rough In quite a short time, Urban's call for
roads of Europe, a crusade was
spreading. the message of the crusade. Who answered the h h
call to crusade? sweepmg t roug
The papal messengers sped up to . Europe like a
castles, and there gave the news to the fever. The whole continent, it seemed,
nobles and barons and to their families was in a state of high excitement and
and servants. Other horsemen went to enthusiasm.
the courts of kings, princes and bishops. Feudal princes formed a great cru-
Priests hurried from monastery to sading army in southern France .
.monastery to inform the abbots and Raymond, Count of Toulouse raised
their monks. ' another large force, and yet another
In the towns, town criers toured the gathered under the command of
streets, clanging their handbells and pro- Bohemund of Otranto in the N onri.an
claiming the crusade in loud, booming duchy of Apulia, southern Italy. In
voices. Wandering preachers, like Peter northern France, Duke Robert of
the Hermit, travelled from village to No;rmandy, son of William the Con-
village whipping up enthusiasm with queror, pawned his duchy for 25,000
rousing, dramatic speeches. in order to "take the Cross", as going
7
on crusade was_ called. Other French peasants were inspired by the desire .to
lords who also took crusading vows escape their hard lives as serfs to harsh
were Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of feudal lords. Others hoped that in the
Lower Lorraine, Stephen, Count of . Holy Land the promises of Jesus
Blois and Hugh, Count of Vermandois. would come true. For had not Jesus
These nobles and princes were, of forecast that the "meek shall inherit
. course, the men whose profession was the Earth" and that the poor should
war. However, to everyone's amaze- be the first to enter the Kingdom of
ment, it soon became clear that a great Heaven?
mass of . illiterate, .poverty-stricken With such thoughts in mind, thou-
peasants had also made up their minds sands of peasants all over Europe and
to go on crusade. from as far away as Scotland sold their
meagre possessions, abandoned their
Churchmen thought that some miracle homes and fields, and loaded their
must have occur- children onto ox-carts and horse-
Why did the . red to stir the wagons. I~ the early spring of 1096 they
peasants want to be ,
crusaders? peasants dull, set off eastwards., bound for the Holy
apathetic spirits. .Land which many of them believed
It is more likely, though, that some to be the Kingdom of Heaven itself.
,.4'y ': ~
l~lfy .
~ ii Vermandois
N~rmandYt ~ .
t IJ Lorraine
\ff Blois
Toulouse t
0 J>rague
-
The Peasants' Crusade.
Individual groups were headed by In the early summer of 1096, the great
local knights or horde of peasants
Who led the
Peasants Crusade 1
bl b
no es, ut t e h What went wrong was choking the
with the
overall leader of Peasants Crusade 1 r Oad S Of the
most peasant crusaders was Peter the Rhineland with a
Hermit. Peter set out from Cologne, huge, disorganised mass of wagons,
Germany, in May, 1096, intending to pack animals and pedestrians. As they
take his followers through the Rhine- plodded the long weary kilometres from
. land and Hungary to Constantinople, .one town to the next, the peasants
capital of the Byzantine Empire . .At became more and more restless and un-
about . the same time another great ruly. Finally, violence broke out and
mass of peasants set out under another before long the peasants were making
preacher, Walter the Penniless. wild attacks on villagers and towns-
Neither Peter nor Walter had got people. They looted shops and beat up
very far; though, before they were made their owners, broke into homes,
to realise that going on crusade was not . wrecked furniture and furnishings,
the grand and glorious venture they had . and stole everything . they could lay
pictured. There was a very ugly and their hands on.
disturbing side to crusading, for while In places like Worms or Prague, the
many peasants were sincere and devout, people who suffered most were the
too many others were nothing better Jews. They had long been an object of
than greedy, murderous thugs. Because hatred among Christians and, as a
of them, the ideal of crusade soon result, lived in a constant state of
became stained with savage, bloody uncertainty and suspense. When the
deeds. peasant crusaders arrived, the Jews'
9
worst fears came true, for they faced The peasants proved a plague of an-
annihilation from gangs of thugs with other kind, for in Byzantium, too, they Wl
murder in mind. Numberless Jews were bnrned and killed and pillaged and
seized and slaughtered. Others were
threatened with instant death if they
created terror and havoc wherever they
went. Even Peter the Hermit was un-
""
t11
The crusaders had never seen anything as splendid or as beautifu l as the city of Constantinople.
The Knig_
hts' Crusade inti
The crusad.e rs soon found that they had to fight for survival
against heat, thirst and starvation.
1
r
t
The crusader armies reached:Aniioch Bohehtund was determined that Antioch was going to be his
city.
in October, 1097, .
,, How did Bohemund after slogging saders take the City. This betrayal took
plot against
Atexius 1 their way over place just in time. When the crusaders
1 the narrow, finally entered Antioch and over-
dangerous passes of the Taurus whelmed its Turkish defenders, a relief
Mountains. Antioch, which the Turks army under Kerbogha, Atabeg
had captured in 1085, rightfully be- (Regent) of Mosul, was only two days
longed to the Byzantine Empire. Bohe- away. Kerbogha arrived on June 5, to
. mund, however, had no intention of find the crusaders in control, but in a
f handing it back to Emperor .Alexius 1 v~ry weak state. They were suffering
who was still occupied with retrieving from starvation and from the terrible
his former territories in Asia Minor. hardships of the long siege. Thousands
With the crusader armies camped had died in Antioch during that siege,
before the walls of Antioch, Bohemund and with piles of bodies lying in the
used Alexius' absence as proof that the streets, the crusaders a:lso faced the
Emperor meant to betray them. By perils of disease.
planting this damaging idea in the
minds of other crusader leaders, Kerbogha laid siege to Antioch, confi-
Bohemund got most of them to agree dent that it was
that whoever captured Antioch should How was Kerbogha on1y a matter of
defeated?
rule the city as his own. time before the
The one leader to disagree, and insist crusaders surrendered :. on1y a divine
on sticking by his oath to Alexius, was miracle could possibly save them. To
Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond Kerbogha' s fury-and the delight . of
watched Bohemund .closely as the siege Bohemund, who held most of Antioch.
of Antioch dragged on into the early - ,a miracle happened. A French priest
months of 1098 believing, quite rightly, dreamed that the Holy Lance, which, it
that. Bohemund was planning some was believed, had once pierced the body
treachery. of Jesus Christ, was hidden somewhere
in the city. The Lance was found, and
Despite Raymond's susp1c10us eyes, with this new assurance of God's sup-
Bohemund port to raise their spirits, the crusaders
How was Antioch
captured? secretly arranged swarmed out of Antioch on June 28
with Firuz, one, and thrashed Kerbogha's army. It was
of the Muslim commanders inside a great victory, for as a result of it
Antioch, that he would .help the cru- Kerbogha's forces disbanded and fled.
15
In 1099 the crusaders created the new Christian Bishopric of
Most crusaders now longed to press St. George.
on to Jerusalem,
Why did the kilometres away
crusaders remain in
Antioch 1 to the south, but, began immediately, or they would burn
Bohemund and down Antioch and demolish its walls.
Raymond of Toulouse had other ideas.
They were not at all anxious to leave The shock of this threat made the
Antioch. For months, they quarrelled squabbling
What effect did
violently over their rival claims to the this threat have 7 leaders see sense.
city. Bohemund maintained it was his They took a
because he had played the major part solemn oath to "remember Jerusalem"
in capturing it. Raymond insisted that and publicly repented for the sins of
Emperor Alexius should have it. greed and pride they had committed.
After five months of this wrangling, Privately, though, the wily Bohemund
the ordinary soldiers, priests and ,pil- was still plotting to get hold of
grims, who had not lost sight of the Antioch.
purpose of their c,rusade, decided they At long last, in November, 1098, the
had had enough. To the astonishment crusaders began to move towards Jeru-
of their leaders, they issued a: ulti- salem. It was not a difficult progress,
matum: either the march to Jerusalem for local resistance by the Turks was
16
lftW-Cru51
weak, and in their eagerness to reach Then the knights left to join the rest
the Holy City the crusaders left un- of the army; which was now approach-
touched several cities and castles .that ing Jerusalem through the Mountains
lay along their route. By Christmas, of Judea.
the crusaders were well on their way
towards the sacred soil of Palestine and On June 7, 1099, some 13,000 crusaders
it was, naturally, a very special and climbed to the
solemn Christmas in their eyes. What was f
Jerusalem like? top o a hill
overlooking
Just after they had celebrated the Jerusalem. Wonderstruck and deeply
festival, Bohe- moved, the crusaders scanned the
What was mund put his panorama of Jerusalem's flat-roofed
Bohemund's
private plan 1 private plan into houses and shining domes. There was
operation. B~ the Church of the Resurrection, with
fore Raymond could stop him, he its roof sparkling in the brilliant sum-
turned back, and raced to Antioch. mer sunlight. There were the great
Bohemund seized the city and over- round roofs of the bazaars. Here and
came the guards Raymond had left there, dotted among the other build-
there. In January, 1099, after fourteen ings, were the tall, elegant minarets
months of plOtting and argument, from which the Muslims were called
Bohemund achieved his great ambition to prayer each day. And there,
and founded the second crusader state in the distance, silhouetted against
in Antioch. .the skyline, was the Mount of
Meanwhile, the crusaders' advance Olives, where Jesus had often gone
on Jerusalem continued, and when the to pray.
spring of 1099 came they reached the Confronted with a scene that, to
Holy Land. When they arrived at them, was a dream come true, the
Lydda, a solemn ceremony took place crusaders wept with emotion and knelt
If in which .the crusaders created the new in prayer to offer thanks to God for
ChristianBishopric of St. George. bringing them safely through so many
dangers. The hill on which they knelt
An even more exciting and en;iotional was blessed and formally baptised as
experience , "Montjoie", or Hill of Joy.
What happened
at Bethlehem 1 awaited them the
day after they However, the magnificent view of
moved on from Lydda, for they were J er us al em, as
now very close to Bethlehem, birth- Why was seen from the
Jerusalem difficult
place of Christ. to capture? Hill of Joy, also
When the Christians in Bethlehem showed the cru-
saw one hundred crusader knights saders that wresting the city from its
approaching the town iri the pale light Muslim and Jewish defenders was not
of dawn, they snatched up crosses and going to be easy. Jerusalem was built
banners and rushed out to greet them, on top of a hill, 2,500 feet (762 metres)
tears of joy streaming down their faces. high, and except on the north side
e Singing hymns and proclaiming hies- was surrounded by very deep ravines.
sings, they led the knights to the basilica From a military viewpoint, this is
of the Virgin Mary, where the crusaders the most difficult sort of place to
knelt a.n.d offered heartfelt prayers. capture.
'
17
The siege of Jerusalem began within
hours of the
What happened at crusaders' arrival
the siege of
Jerusalem? and in the five
weeks it lasted it
proved to be a vicious and exhausting
struggle. Again and again, the crusaders
approached and attacked the city walls,
only to have their scaling ladders
hacked down by the defenders. Scores
of knights were killed as the ladders
crashed down to the ground. 1Scores
more, who managed to get over the The Crusaders used great siege machines to get into Jeru -
salem.
walls, were slaughtered by groups of
defenders lying in wait for them with The toll of dead was appalling, for the
swords and daggers. crusaders butchered women and child-
As the weeks passed and Jerusalem ren as well as men.
continued to hold out, desperation The massacres went on for three
seized many of the crusaders. Time and whole days. By the time the crusaders
. again, they walked in procession round gathered in the Church of the Resur-
the city walls, calling on God to make rection to give thanks to God for
the walls fall like those of Jericho in the victory, Jerusalem was a horribly silent
Old Testament. Others prayed and city, littered with bodies, stained with
fasted and did penitence, but still the blood and choked with the smoke
city failed to fall. of burning houses, mosques and
synagogues.
Then, it was decided to use Nevertheless, it was now a Christian
siege machines. city, after four centuries of Muslim
Howwas
Jerusalem captured 1
Ra Ym ond of rule, and the great crusade Pope
Toulouse and Co1
Urban had preached had achieved its
Godfrey of Bouillon took several weeks most important purpose.
to build the great wooden castles on
wheels which the crusaders needed, but FACT BO.X: BOHEMUND I OF ANTIOCH
at last, in mid-July, they were ready. (c.1057-1111)
On July 15, in the sizzling heat of noon, Bohemund's treacherous seizure of Antioch, in January
1099, brought him no joy or pleasure, because he was
Godfrey's tower was whC(eled towards faced with two extremely powerful adversaries. One
the north wall of Jerusalem. Amid a was Emperor Alexius, whom Bohemund had betrayed.
thick shower of arrows and spears The other was the strong force of Muslims in north-east
Syria. Between these two enemies, Bohemund was
flung at them by the defenders, the crushed.
crusaders lowered a bridge from the In 1100, he was captured by the Muslims and
top of the machine onto the battle- remained imprisoned for three years, until he was
ments. As crusader soldiers surged over ransomed by an Armenian prince. A year later, in 1104,
Bohemund was badly beaten by the Muslims in
the bridge and into the city, the de- a battle at Rakka on the River Euphrates. After this,
fenders fled towards the city centre. Bohemund returned to Europe, where he spread Me<
, Soon, Jerusalem was the scene of slanderous stories about Emperor Alexius and began
frightful battles, with crusaders swarm- to organise a crusade against him. This venture failed,
.,I too. Alexius defeated Bohemund in 1108 at the Devoll
I ing through the narrow streets killing River, and forced him to submit to him as his vassal.
g
! every Muslim and Jew they could find. Bohemund died three years later, in Italy.
~!
18
The Crusader States in
Palestine
When news of the capture of Jerusalem The Turks were embittered by what
spread through had happened,
How was the news E h How did the but they were
of victory rec;:eiveci 1 urope, t ere crusaders consolidate
were wild cele- their victory? helpless to stop
brations. People danced and feasted in the crusaders
the streets. The merrymaking went on strengthenjng their hold on the lands
for days at a time. Churches all over and cities they had won.
the continent were crowded with people In the twelve years after the fall of
expressing in prayer and thanksgiving Jerusalem, the crusaders captured the
their joy and gratitude at the wonderful entire Mediterranean coastline of
achievement of the crusaders. Syria, Lebanon and Palestine and
In this mood of wild delight, most moved inland to overrun Judea,
Christians failed to realise that the Samaria, Galilee and a good deal of
crusaders' success was largely due to land across the Jordan River. By 1111,
disunity among the Muslims. A people the Muslims, whom the crusaders called
as divided and quarrelsome as the "Saracens", retained only Tyre and
Turks were in Asia Minor, Syria and Ascalon. Tyre fell to the Christians in
Palestine did not make good defenders, 1123, and Ascalon in 1154.
and this had a lot to do with the
relative ease with which the First
Crusade had accomplished its aims. The crusaders made great advances after the fall of Jerusalem.
Constantinople
Caesarea
d
as
4,
in
Mediterranean
After Godfrey's death, Baldwin had himself crowned King of
Jerusalem. Many of the lords and knights who
had taken part
Who were the
"peacetime"
in the crusade
The Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, crusaders? returned home J
which the First soon after it was
How extensive Crusade created, over, having fulfilled the promises they
were the crusaders'
conquests? extended from made to Pope Urban when they vowed
Beirut in the to take the Cross. There were hundreds I
north to Aqaba in the south, with a line of others, though, who wanted to
of strong fortifications and castles replace them and share in the glory that
guarding the 250-mile (402.3 kms.) soon surrounded the whole idea of
eastern frontier which ran through going to live in the Holy Land.
desert country. North of th~ Kingdom As well as fresh soldiers and knights,
lay the crusader Cmmtship of Tripoli, the crusader states also received a
Bohemund' s Princedom of Antioch and constant flow of pilgrims. Many crafts-
I Baldwin's Countship of Edessa. With men and artisans also came, to set up
I these four territories, the crusaders had business in the towns. These people
carved a slice . out of the Muslim were encouraged by the Church .to
. Turkish Empire that was some 500 regard themselves as "peacetime" cru-
miles (804.6 kms.) long. Over t4e next saders, who were supporting and work-
few years, until the mid-12th century, ing for the states the crusading princes,
Muslim forces made inany attacks on knights and . soldiers had created by
the Christians' lands. Many of these war.
onslaughts were made with consider-
able strength and determination, and The first crusader ruler of Jerusalem
the crusaders often had to fight hard to was Godfrey of
avert defeat. Despite this, though, the How were the Bouillon~ who
crusader states
Muslims scored no great success and organised? had played the
they had to face the fact that the hated main part in the
Christians and their states had come to capture of the city. Unfortunately,
stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Godfrey, brother .of Baldwin, crusader
20
I .
Count of Edessa, died after little more With government, law and religion, the
than a year, in July 1100. When he crusaders simply
heard the news, the ever-ambitious How did the transplanted to
crusaders get on
Baldwin, accompanied by 200 knights with the natives? the Holy Land
and 700 soldiers, hurried down from . the way of life
Edessa to take his brother's place: and the customs they knew at home in
Baldwin was crowned king of Jerusalem Europe. Even so, they could not trans-
on Christmas Day, in the Church of the [orm everything because at no time
Nativity in Bethlehem. were they anything more than a tiny
Like the feudal lords they were, minority among a large indigenous
Godfrey and Baldwin both shared out population.
lands among their followers who, in Of this population, the Muslims and .
return, did homage to them as their Jews were far more cultured than the
vassals and promised to provide them crusaders themselves, with an impres-
with soldiers in the event of war. This sive history of scholarship and philo-
was; of course, the same . system by sophy. Muslim knights, whose courage
which feudal lords ruled in Europe at could . not be disputed, were often
that time. The only difference was that learned scholars, while ' Christian
in the Holy Land the serfs who worked knights were usQally illiterate: they
the vassals' lands were the Muslims, thought reading and writing were use-
Druses and others who were natives of less for fighting men like th~mselves,
the country. and left such things to monks and
The crusaders also set up their own churchmen.
courts oflaw, again on feudal European In this situation, Christians who had
lines. In addition, they turned Jeru- come to Palestine with a rather superior
. salem into a Christian city and forbad attitude towards the natives soon found
Jews and Muslims, whom they con- they were outclassed and placed in the
sidered "infidels", to live there. Muslim awkward position of ruling over people
mosques and Jewish synagogues were cleverer than themselves.
all converted into churches, and the Add to this the fact that, as in all
niche in the southern wall of Jerusalem, countries, life in Palestine was influ-
where the Muslims had turned towards enced greatly by climate and geo-
Mecca to pray, was covered in. graphy, and you will see why, after a
few years, the crusaders began to copy
native customs and take advantage of
Muslim mosques and Jewish synagogues were all converted
into churches. native talents.
At home, the crusaders dressed in the
loose robes,
What did the
crusaders wear 1 turbans and open
sandals which
Palestinians had long ago found most
comfortable for the very hot climate.
The burning sun could make the metal
of a knight's armour too hot to touch,
so crusader knights copied the Muslim
custom of covering it with a linen
surcoat.
The crusaders' wives and .daughters
Soon began to protect their delicate
European complexions from the sun
by wearing veils. over their faces, just The crusaders enjoyed watching the Muslim women dance.
24
Saladin united the Muslims of Syria, Palestine and Egypt in
was even greater, though, when the their Holy War against the crusaders.
rescue operation-the Second Crusade,
called by Pope Eugenius III and led by
King Louis VII of F ranee and the 1186, when Baldwin V, child king of
German king; Conrad III-turned out Jerusalem died, a struggle for the
to be a dismal failur~ (see Fact Box : throne began between rival groups ~ The
The Second Crusade). struggle was so violent that it seemed
Worse was to come, for after Zengi civil war was imminent.
died in 1146, his son Nureddin and one
of Nureddin's most brilliant generals, While the crusaders squabbled, Saladin
Saladin, took over his work. Like Zengi, and his powerful
Nureddin and S;:tladin roused enthusi- How did Saladin f 80 000
capture Jerusalem? army 0 . '
asm for the Holy War and unified men were sweep-
Muslims in Syria, Palestine and Egypt ing through Palestine. In May, 1187,
for the common purpose of driving out Saladin crossed the Jordan river, de-
the crusaders. feated 20,000 crusaders at Hattin in
After Nureddin died in 1174, Saladin Galilee on July 4, and marched to-
took sole command and worked cun- wards Jerusalem virtually unchallenged,
ningly to undermine the crusaderl)' conquering castles and cities as he
i
position. He exploited the strong ani- went. The worst blow of all fell on
mosity between the Byzantines and the October 2, the day Saladin overran
crusaders in the Holy Land. He made
sure that rich Italian cities like Venice
Jerusalem.
The Christian knights in the city
I'
would not ship supplies and men to the fought back fiercely as Saladin's :1
crusaders, by offering them tempting s9ldiers, using a siege machine, poured ,
trading treaties with Egypt. over the walls, but they were doomed !I
Saladin was greatly helped by the from the start, for the Muslims were
crusaders themse1ves, because after strong, determined and cunning.
25
Ibn-Al-athir, a Muslim who was placed on the Holy Sepulchre, and
present at the siege, described how some trampled and spat upon it.
of Saladin's soldiers "approached the The Third Crusade was preached first
moat . . . and made a breach. Archers by Pope Gregory VIII, and then by
posted nearby repulsed the Christians Pope Clement III. Knights and fighting
on top of the ramparts with shots from men all over Europe, even from as far
their arrows, and so protected the away as Viking Scandinavia, responded . ...~
.. _
workers. At the same time, they dug a to the call. Among thei:n were the three
;
27
- - - - --- - ~
By the end of the 12th century most In 1189, the year he became King
people looked on crusading as the of Erigland, he
:finest, most noble venture a Christian How did Richard raised the money
prepare for the
could undertake. Knights who took crusade? he needed to go
the cross were the great he.roes of the on' crusade by
age and among their number King . every possible means. He sold govern-
Richard I of England was the hero of ment posts to anyone who would pay
heroes, for he had all the qualifications for them. He made landowners pay
a true crusader required. "carucage", a tax levied on every
hundred acres of land they owned. He
li Richard was tall, fair, handsome and a demanded that men unwilling or un-
. great leader of able to go on crusade should pay a tax
Why was Richard A b called "sentage"; And he freed the
an ideal crusader 1 men. super
soldier, with a Scots king from vassalage to England
great love of fighting, he had earned for 10,000 marks.
his nickname "Lionheart" through With all this money, and a large
many acts of magnificent courag(( in amount from the treasure his father, .
battle. King Richard and the crusades King Henry II, had left him, Richard
were truly made for , each other' and raised a powerful fleet of ships and a
once the call went out for an army to considerable army of men. In July,
rescue Jerusalem, Richard could think 1190, he left by sea for Palestine. At the
of little else. . same time, King Philip II Augustus set
out from France.
29 '
-------~ - - . - -----------~~~-----
After nearly two years, the struggle be- The crusaders got t_o work
. quickly. with
tween Christians siege engines,
What happened in and Muslims at How did the new b
the early days of the A h db arrivals attack Acre? attenng rams
siege? ere a ecome and mangonels,
a stalemate which hurled huge stones at the wide
punctuated by sporadic attacks by one walls of the city at great speeds and
side or the other. Small bands of caused much damage and many
Christians carrying crosses would casualties. Day after day, night after
swoop down on groups of Muslims, night, the war machines banged and
kill as many as they could with swords, thumped away, sending frightening
maces and battle-axes and then ride off. thundering noises echoing through the
Sometimes, the Muslims inside Acre narrow streets of Acre. Meanwhile, the
would rush out and attack their be- Christian cavalry and infantry con-
siegers. At other times, Saladin's tinually skirmished with the Muslims.
soldiers would ambush a group of Men fought each other at close.quarters
Christians and set about them with with spears and swords while, over-
their long, curved swords. Neither side head, the air was thick with flying
managed to score a major victory, arrows.
though, and after a while a strange The Muslims were aw~d by the
friendship grew up between thein. When crusaders' ability to kill a rider and his
they were tired of fighting, the adver- horse with one thrust of a lance, and
saries laid down their weapons and met they were frustrated by the way the
to chat, sing songs, dance, swop jokes Christians' armour and thick felt
and tell stories. Later, when another jerkins protected them from arrows
battle began, the same Christians and and swords. One Muslim chronicler
Muslims who had been friends only wrote of Christians with "up to twenty-
hours before would start fighting and one arrows stuck on their bodies,
killing each other once again: marching no less easily for that." Also,
All this changed after Richard and the Muslims were greatly' daunted by
I Philip came on the scene. The men they the heavily armoured and armed cru-
had brought with them were fresh and sader knights, each of whom was like a
keen, and had been itching for a whole human tank.
year to get to grips with the vile With the arrival of Richard and Philip the city of Acre was
Muslims. taken .
' '
I j'
' I
Again and agam, Saladin tried to
bring help to
How did the the starving
crusaders capture
Acre? beleaguered
garrison, but
again and again he failed. Once, he sent
secret orders to the Muslims inside
Acre to open the gates and force their
way out to join his troops. The plan
was scotched when the crusaders
learned of Saladin's stratagem in
advance and sealed all the exits to
Acre.
At last, Saladin came to the bitter
conclusion that the garrison could not
hold out any longer, and he offered to
negotiate a truce. It was agreed that the
garrison and inhabitants of Acre should
pay 200,000 pieces of gold as their
ransom, and that 2,500 Christian
prisoners would be released. Richard and Leopold quarrelled violently and Leopold swore
he would have his revenge.
On July 12, 1191, Richard, Philip and
the joyful crusaders marched into Acre The departure of Philip and Leopold
and took possession of the city. The left Richard with two worrying prob-
first thing they did was tear down the . lems. The first was that the French
sign of the . Crescent, the Muslim king and the Austrian duke had ta'.ken
emblem, on buildings and houses and the greater part of the crusading armies
replace it with their own sign of the with them. The second was the certain
Cross. Tragically, Saladin was late in knowledge that, once back in France,
fulfilling his side of the truce and the P];rilip would attack Richard's Angevin
great victory at Acre became yet an- territories. Also, Richard's sly, ambi-
other bloodstained crusader triumph : tious brother, Prince John, was bound
on Richard's orders, 3,bOO unransomed to make trouble in England.
Muslims were executed. This was not the end of Richard's
worries, though. Acre, with its good
Shortly after this dreadful act of food, fine wines, exciting entertain-
butchery, King ments and luxurious comforts, proved a
What problems did Philip resolved to great temptation to his soldiers, who
Richard face?
return .to France, had never dreamed such a paradise
giving ill-health as an excuse. No existed. They argued long and loudly _
amount of persuasion or pleading by that they did not want to leave, but
his infuriated knights and barons could Richard's counter-arguments were
dissuade him, and on July 31 he louder and longer. He was determined
departed. Duke Leopold of Austria also to fulfil his crusader's vow to re-
left, vowing vengeance on Richard : capture Jerusalem, and after much
during a violent quarrel with Leopold, bullying, cajoling and threats he
Richard had dealt the duke a frightfu] managed to gather his forces and march
insult by tearing down his standard. them out of Acre at the end of August.
31
Saladin gave Richard a present of two Arab horses.
gave Richard two beautiful Arab horses
Richard headed southwards in the after Richard's own mount had been
sizzling heat of killed. Richard, for his part, even
What towns did
Richard attack 7 the Palestinian offered Saladin his sister, 'Joan, as a
summer,. driving prospective bride for Saladin's brother
Saladin and his army before him. One al-Adil, a:p.d suggested that the couple
after the other, Haifa, Caesarea and should be given the Holy Land as a
Jaffa fell to the crusaders. At Arsuf, on wedding present. The proposal came
September 7, Richard gave Saladin's to not!ting because both Joan and the
men a terrible thrashing and killed Pope were outraged at the idea.
thousands of them. All Saladin could
do in retaliation was to lay waste the Nevertheless, neither Richard nor
country, and destroy villages and -Saladin ever for-
castles as his army retreated, in order Why did Richard got they were at
never capture
that they should not give succour to Jerusalem? war with one
the advancing Christians. another, and
Because of his exploits, Richard be- both of them were determined to
I came greatly feared and respected by emerge from that war as the victor.
the Muslims. There is a st9ry that the After _his lightning conquest of the
English king once galloped along tpe Mediterrap.ean ports, Richard turned
whole front line of the Muslim army inland and headed for Jerusalem in the
with his lance at rest : they were so late autumn of i 191. Now~ so near his
overawed that not one of them made a great goal, Richard began to encounter
move to attack him. enormous difficulties. His army was
exhausted by sickness, hunger and heat
Although theywere sworn foes, and by the long months of campaign-
Richard and ing, and their stores and supplies were
Why were Richard S 1 d" getting further and further away.
and Saladin friends 7 a a m came to
admire and re- The approach of winter halted
spect each other a great deal, both as Richard's march to Jerusalem when he
' , men and as soldiers. There are many was only kilometres .away from the
stories of the chivalrous way they city, and though he waited till the
treated each other. Once Saladin sent . following summer and tried again, he
Richard a present of fruit and snow knew his army was too weak to succeed.
when the king was suffering from Richard was so distressed at this
fever. On another occasion, Saladin bitter fact that when his men pointed
32
out the spires and towers of Jerusalem it. Richard also obtained a promise
in the distance, he covered his face with from Saladin that Christian pilgrims
his shield and refused to look. "If my could visit the holy places in Jerusalem,
hand cannot conquer it,'? he cried, "my and that there would be a halt to
eyes shall not behold it!" hostilities for at least three years.
'
Adana
Tarsus Hamistra
Alexandretta Antioch
Rhodes
Crete
ARMENIANS
FRANKS
ENGLISH
MUSLIM.S
Leopold had his revenge. Richard was kept a prisoner for FACT BOX: PHILIP II AUGUSTUS OF FRANCE
over a year. (1165-1223)
Philip II Augustus was the son of King Louis VII, one
of the leaders of the unsuccessful Second Crusade. For
ten months before Louis' death in 1180, Philip ruled
On March 4, 1193, Saladin died of fever jointly, with him as king of France. After he became sole
king, Philip quickly proved himself a strong, deter-
in Damascus. mined ruler despite the fact that he was only fifteen
What happened Almost immedi-
after Saladin's years old.
death? ately, the Muslim Philip and Richard of England inherited their
unity he had rivalry from their respective fathers. At the end of 1191,
after he left Palestine, Philip began a series of attacks
striven so hard to build up began to on his rival's lands and actually promised financial help_
disintegrate. Old jealousies, rivalries to Richard's captor, Leopold of Austria, to encourage
and quarrels re-emerged and with that Leopold to prolong Richard's imprisonment.
there returned to the Muslim world the In 1194, though, Richard was released and returned
to inflict several. heavy defeats on Philip. Philip got his
dangerous weakness of disunity. chance after Richard died in 1199, leaving the throne
This was opportune for the Chris~ of England to his far less formidable younger brother,
tians since it gave them a good chance John. In the years that followed, John was virtually
helpless as Philip took many Angevin lands, including
to wipe out their disappointment over Normandy, Touraine, Anjou and most of Poitou.
the Third Crusade. In 1199 a new Philip even had ideas of seizing the English throne, arid
expedition was already being planned. put Lip his son Louis as a candidate for king.
However, far from compensating for Although this particular plan failed, Philip II is
counted among the best and most able kings of France,
previous disappointments, it turned out energetic, strong-willed, a clever politician and a
to be the most disreputable venture that monarch who attracted and retained the loyalty of all
ever came to be called a crusade. his subjects. Philip died at Mantes on July 14, 1223.
The Not-so- Noble
Crusades
The Fourth Crusade has been called a stranded there with debts for food and
farce, a fiasco, a travesty and a tragedy. supplies in their camps mounting up
Whatever uncomplimentary name was daybyday. '
given to it, though, this thoroughly
ignoble expedition certainly gave Then, Enrico Dandolo, the blind 90-
Christians plenty of cause for shame year-old Doge
What was the
and shock, and their Muslim enemies a Doge's solution 1 (Duke) of Venice,
prize chance to jeer, sneer and rejoice. came up with a
Afterwards, when the time came to cunning solution. The territories of
apportion blame, many people decided Zara and Dalmatia (Yugoslavia) had
that the chief villain of the Fourth rebelled against Venice in 1166 and
Crusade was the Republic of Venice. were threatening Venetian trade in the
Adriatic Sea. Dandolo wanted the
At that time, Venice was a wealthy crusaders' help in overcoming them . .
city state with It was an outrageous suggestion, but
What part did flourishing trade, despite vigorous protests from Pope
Venice play in the
crusade? a fine fleet of Innocent III and howls of anger from
ships and many more sincere crusaders, Marquis Boni-
C:E
overseas possessions, all of which face of Montforrat, leader of the
1ne aroused great jealousy among other crusade, agreed.
=or Italian cities, like Genoa. Also, Vene-
ed . tians had a bad name for their greed, Venice was a wealthy city state, and the Doge wanted to
le
their double-dealing and their haughty expand her territory.
ways. .
Nevertheless, when the leaders of the
eir
91, Fourth Crusade began to consider how
ks to transport their troops and equip-
elp ment, Venice was the obvious place to
ge go. The Venetians agreed to provide
ed ships to carry 4,500 horses, 9,000
his knights and 20,000 foot-soldiers and
ne enough provisions to last a year. In
er,.
lly return, the Venetians demanded 85,000
ing silver marks and half of all the cru-
ou. saders' conquests. It was a heavy price,
and and it was also too high, for the
is crusaders could raise only 51,000
ce, marks. The Venetians would not sail
~ until all the money .was forthcoming
all
and so the crusaders, who had gathered
I
in Venice in the spring of 1201, were
,
In November 1202 the cr:usading
forces stormed
What happened at Zara, a Christian
Zara and
Cotlstantinople? city, and . looted
it. As punish-
ment for this sacrilegious act, Pope
Innocent excommunicated every cru- .
sader who had taken part.
Worse, much worse, was to come.
The wily Venetians now persuaded the
crusaders to help them in another
disreputable plan : this was to dethrone
A dome mosaic of Christ at Arta in Epirus (about 1300). .the Byzantine Emperor and put a pro-
Venetian monarch, Alexius IV, in his
.. place. Once again, the crusadei;s agreed .
I
Once again, the Christian world was
,I shocked and disgusted to learn that
' I'
I men who had taken the Cross had
besieged, captured and pillaged a
Christian city. This was the fate of
Constantinople on April 12, 1204, when
the crusaders overwhelmed it and, pos-
sessed by a frenzy of greed, set about
stripping the Byzantine capital of thou-
sands of pounds, worth of gold and
silver ornaments, jewelled crosses,
chalices, candelabra andother priceless
A detail from an illumination from the Book of Gospels
(about 11 O).
objects.
The crusaders had acted like bandits
and 'barbarians and, not unnaturally,
their reprehensible behaviour aroused
great hatred among . the Byzantines.
This hatred was all the stronger because
after Alexius IV was deposed the
crusaders set up their own "Latin"
j emperor in his place.
!. . L~ft: A lead seal belonging to Bohemund (twelfth century).
j Right: An enamelled cross belonging to Pope Pascal I (ninth
century).
The Fifth Crusade came to an end when the crusaders were
Previous crusades had, of course, been trapped by ,a Nile flood at Mansurah.
marked by greed,
What went wrong brutality, ambi~ a siege of Damietta which lasted seven-
with the Fifth
Crusade? tion and bad teen months before Sultan al-Kamil of
. faith, :but never Egypt gave in and offered to restore to
on the appalling scale that occurred at the crusaders the whole Kingdom of
Zara and Constantinople. Bad manage- Jerusalem west of the River Jordan: in
ment, too, had not been absent during exchange, the Sultan proposed, the
former crusading years, and when it crusaders would leave Egypt.
came to the Fifth Crusade, bungling The great prize of Jerusalem was
stupidity turned out to.be its dominant actually being handed over by the
characteristic. enemy, and yet Cardinal Pelagius re-
This time, the crusaders' objective fused it: he had ambitious ideas of
was the port of Damietta in Egypt, conquering .the whole of Egypt.
which they hoped to capture and Damietta fell .to the crusading armies
hold hostage for the return of Jerusa- on November 5, 1219, but in the next
lem. The crusade, led by John de two years the Egyptians put up such
Brienne, titular King of Jerusalem, strong resistance that Pelagius came
very nearly succeeded, and failed to nowhere near to fulfilling his ambitions.
do so only through the stubborn- The end came in August, 1221 when
ness and lack of sense shown by the crusaders were trapped at Man-
Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, the papal , surah by a Nile flood and Pelagius was
legate. forced to restore Damietta to the
In June 1218, John de Brienne began Egyptians.
37
If the Fourth Crusade had been dis- The Emperor's most notable . char-
honourable and acteristics, in fact, were covetousness
Why was the Fifth a stupid and opportunism and he fulfilled his
Emperor Frederick
a bad crusader 7 failure, the Sixth crusading vow, made in 1215, purely for
was utterly repre- the sake of getting his hands on the
hensible and showed in most scanda- Kingdom of Jerusalem. The chance to
lous fashion how taking the Cross had do so came his way in 1225, when he
become an excuse for greed and married 14-year-old Yolande Isabella,
personal ambition. daughter of John de Brienne and heiress
The leader of the Sixth Crusade was to the throne of Jerusalem.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor -
and King of Germany and Sicily. Through his young wife, the Kingdom
Frederick was a clever man, but pos- could be his and
sessed some horrible habits, like his Why was Frederick in September,
excommunicated 7
fondness for using his serfs as human 1227, Frederick
'.I guinea-pigs in bizarre scientific experi- sailed for the Holy :Land in gleeful
.~
ments. Frederick had no religious anticipation of the greatest prize _
beliefs and once said that "all the Christendom had to offer. He was not
misfortunes of Mankind are due to many kilometres out to sea, though,
three impostors-Moses, Mohamed before he turned back, complaining of
and Christ." seasickness. The rest of his fleet con-
tinued across the Mediterranean
Frederick turned his ship back after a few kilometres because
towards the port of Acre.
he felt sea-sick. Pope Gregory IX was so enraged
and so certain that Frederick was going
back on his vows that he excommuni-
cated him. Frederick, a virtual atheist,
was not at all bothered and in the
__~?lmer of 1228 he set out again.
- ~.'~- - ~~~~
:'~
- .:-__~._ - -
:..
- - ---...:
' -; '
-----
-- . - .....__.... ::.-- __
. -.:...-
. .:" .
- - . ..:....-
;:: ~~- - .....
- ..~-;:.;.: --.--.
:::-:-.- ......-:.-
- -:---:-.::.:
-~
----~--~-:s...-- - ...
- -~ - - ----
.. . -- - .....:....-.. -- . .
To most Christians, the idea of an
ex comm uni ca te
What happened like Frederick, a
during the .
Sixth Crusade 1 virtual outlaw
from Christian
society, actually leading a crusade to
the Holy Land was shocking enough.
But even more shocking and astound-
ing were Frederick's actions when he
got there.
The crusaders did a little token
fighting against the Muslims, but noth-
ing very energetic, and then Frederick
began negotiating with Sultan al-Kamil
of Egypt. The Sultan offered Frederick
much the same terms as those he had
proposed to Cardinal Pelagius ten years
before. Unlike Pelagius, Frederick ac-
cepted them, .and a treaty was signed
on February 18, 1229.
I Muslims. The . Knights Templar, for first woke up to the danger and re-
instance, sided with the Muslims of solved to challenge it. In doing so, the
Syria against the M uslinis of Egypt, Egyptians had an additional motive:
who were being backed in their turn by they saw in the coming conflict with
the Knights Hospitaller. the Mongols not only a chance to save
the Muslim world,. but a prize oppor-
The Muslims of Egypt realised that the Mongols were a great
t_l1reat. With the help of the Khwarlzmians, the Muslims
tunity to topple the Christians in
defeated the Mongols at the battle of Gaza. Palestine.
Very few children survived the Children's Crusade.
41
King Louis IX of France believed it was his duty i:o go on crusade.
Antioch
Cyprus
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
Haifa]
Arsuf 1265
Caesarea
Sated ] 1266
I I
Montfort
BeHort
J
Haifa I I Safed
Jaffa
Belfort 1268
AnUoch
I Ca&11area
Alexandria
Arsuf I Jaffa
Safita]
Krak des Chevaliers
Montfort
1271
I
Jerusalem
Port Said 8aflla
Once, a great crusade would have Left: Some of the weapons used by the crusaders.
Right: Some of the weapons used by the Muslims.
been preached
. Whywas there no
new crusade 1 throughout too. In many European countries, a
Europe to re-. new sense of nationalism was stirring,
lieve the hard-pressed Christians in the and men were now more concerned
Holy Land. Wandering priests would with what was happening in their own
have travelled from village to village to lands than in foreign regions far away.
inflame the people with terrible stories In addition, the Pope was losing his
of Baybars' brutalities. They would power to command or even inspire men
have had plenty of material: Baybars to take the Cross.
was no chivalrous, scrupulous Saladin, There was still some interest, of
but a merciless, savage warrior intent course, but nothing very effective, or
on the complete extermination of his even enthusiastic. King Jam.es I of
enemies. Many of his .victories against Aragon took crusading vows and set
the crusaders had been accompanied out, but turned for home when he was
by the most atrocious massacres. halfway .to Palestine. King Edward I
Under the hammer-blows of Bay- of England, who had originally in-
bars' attacks, the crusader states in tended to join Louis IX's last, ill-fated
Palestine were dying. Yet there was no crusade, arrived in Acre in May, 1271,
great rescue . operation this time, for but though he stayed until September,
now the ideal of crusading was dying, 1272, he achieved very little.
45
Sultan Baybars died of fever in dead bodies began to pile up all over
Damascus in Acre.
What happened at
the siege of Acre 1 1277, . but his
work was carried Three months later, in August 1291,
on by his equally enterprising succes- the Christians in
How did crusader
sors. Sultan Qalawim overran Christian rule end? Tyre, Beirut,
Tripoli in 1289 and celebrated his , Tortosa and
victory as Baybars would have done, Athlit surrendered to the Muslims
by cutting the throats of the men and without a fight, and at Sidon they put
taking the women and children as up only feeble resistance. The last
slaves. remnant of the crusader presence in
Two years later, in April 1291, the Holy Land clung on until 1303,
Qalawun's son, Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil, when some Knights Templar holding
laid siege to the great crusader bastion out on the tiny island of Arwad, two
of Acre with an army of 66,000 cavalry miles ..out to sea from Tortosa, finally
.
47
. t ro duced"synJp ""h
crusaders, m. , s er- Index
bet", "elixir", "divan", "candy" as
well as the sinister-sounding "assassin"
to the English language.
Perhaps, though, the most important
word we have acquired from thisperiod
of history is the word "crusade" itself. Acre, 29-31, 45, 46 King James I of Aragon, 45
Aigues-Mortes, 42, 43 James of Vitry (traveller), 23
Originally, "crusade", taken from the al-Ashraf Khalil, Sultan, 46 Jerusalem, Kingdom of,
Spanish word "cruzada", meant Alexius I, Byzantine Em- 19-25, 37
peror, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 Jews, 9, 10, 21
"marked with a cross". Today, it is Alexius IV, Byzantine Em-
peror, 36
"Jihad" (Holy War), 24, 43
John de Brienne. 37, 38
commonly used to describe a deter- al-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt, John, Prince (of England), 31
37, 39, 41
mined attack on evil practices or on Antioch, 14, 15, 44 Kerbogha (Regent of Mo-
evil people who seek to oppress others. Antioch, Princedom of, 20 sul), 15
Arsuf, 32, 44 Khwarizmians, 41
Although this is, of course, the Asia Minor, 13, 15
Athlit, 47
Krak des Chevaliers, 44
modern meaning of "crusade", it does Ayyub, Sultan of Egypt, 41, Leopold, Duke of Austria,
42 31, 33
help explain how the original crusaders King Louis Vil of France, 25
thought, and why they acted, at times, Baldwin ofBoulogne (Count
of Edessa, King of Jeru-
King Louis IX of France
(St. Louis), 42-44
in ways we find shocking and brutal. salem), 14, 20 Lydda, 16
Baybars, Sultan of Egypt,
Rightly or mistakenly, sincere cru- 43, 44, 45 Mameluke5, 43, 44
Beirut, 46 Medicine, 23
saders viewed their task as a holy fight Belfort, castle of, 44 Mongols, 40
against evil, and it was in that spirit Bethlehem, 6, 39
Bohemund of O'tranto
Montfort, Castle of, 44
that they ventured to a strange, distant (Prince of Antioch), 7, 13, Nazareth, 39
14, 15-18 Nicaea, 13
and inhospitable land with the Cross Boniface, Marquis of Mont Nureddin, 25
of their faith emblazoned on their ferrat (leader of Fourth
Crusade), 35 Pelagius of Albano, Cardi-
breasts and the . resolve to fight for Byzantine Empire, 5, 9, 10,
47
nal, 37
Peter the Hermit, 7, 9, 10, 11
Christ burning fiercely in their hearts. King Philip II Augustus of
Caesarea, 32, 44 France, 26, 28-31, 34
Charles of Anjou (King
T he Crusades i~spired many legends. One of these was t he Chartes of Sicily), 43 Popes:
story of Tristan and Isolde Conrad ill, King of Ger- Eugenius III, 25
many, 25 Gregory IX, 26, 38
Constantinople, 9, 36 Innocent ill, 35 ' .
Council of Clermont (1095), Urban II, 4, 5, 6, 11
4
Cyprus, 29 Qalawun, Sultan, 46
Dalmatia (Yugoslavia), 35 Raymond, Count of Tou-
Damietta (Egypt), 37 louse, 7, 15, 16-18
Dandolo, Enrico, Doge of Rhineland, 9 .
Venice, 35 King Richard I of England
Dorylaeum, pass of, 13 (Lionheart), 26, 28-34
E.dessa, city of, 14, 24 Safed, castle of, 44
Edessa, Countship of, 20 Safita, castle of, 44
King Edward I of England, Saladin, 25-26, 29-34
45 Sidon, 39, 46
King Frederick I Barbar-
ossa, 26, 28 Taurus Mountains, 14, 15
Emperor Frederick II of Templar, Knights, 27, 40
Germany, 38, 39 Tortosa, 46
Tripoli, 29
Godfrey of Bouillon (De- Tripoli, Countship of, 20
fender of the Holy Sepul- Tunisia, 46
chre of Jerusalem), 8, 18, Tyre, 19, 29, 46
20, 26
Guy de Lusignan (King . of Venice, 25, 35.
Jerusalem), 29
Walter the Penniless, 9, 11
Haifa, 32, 44
Holy Lance, 15 Yolande Isabella (wife of
Hospitaller, Knights, 27, 40 Frederick II), 38
Hungary, 9, 10
Zara, 35, 36
Jaffa, 32, 44 Zengi (Regent of Mosul), 24
NEW! A collector's binder to hold
----=