HIGHLIGHTS AND TAKEAWAYS FROM

PP.268-288 OF YOUR TEXTBOOK

THIS REPRESENTS PART OF CHAPTER 9 AND PART OF CHAPTER 10
THE CRUSADES, A HISTORY
BY JONATHAN RILEY-SMITH
• Your readings from Chapter Nine begins with a section on the “Conquests of Baybars.”

• Baybars (1223/1228-1277) was a mamluk sultan in the mid-13th century. The word mamluk
means ‘owned’ and the mamluks were not native to Egypt but were always slave soldiers,
mainly Qipchak Turks from Central Asia. They were also Muslim converts and were assigned
to military and administrative duties, and Muslim rulers of slave origin.

• The "mamluk phenomenon” was of great political importance; for one thing, it endured
for nearly 1,000 years, from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries.

• Over time, Mamluks became a powerful military knightly class in various societies that were
controlled by Muslim rulers. Mamluks held political and military power, particularly in Egypt.

• Most notably, mamluk factions seized the sultanate centered on Egypt and Syria, and
controlled it as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517).
MAMLUK WARRIORS (SLAVE SOLDIERS)
• Baybars rose in the Mamluk ranks until he became a commander, first truly proving his
abilities as an instrumental part of the defeat of the French (Louis IX) during the 7th
Crusade.

• In 1259, Baybars successfully repulsed the Mongol forces from Egypt's borders, a
victory that some argue was one of the most influential turning points in all of history.

• Baybars became the fourth Sultan of Egypt in 1260.

• He is credited with first organizing the Mamluks into a system of governance.

• Baybars used his (and by extension, the Mamluks) military strength to achieve legitimacy for
the new government. A soldier by training, he continued to campaign against foreign
enemies for the duration of his sultanate.

• To further bolster this legitimacy, Baybars gave Mamluk Egypt greater religious
authority in the world of Islam.
• As sultan, Baybars engaged in a lifelong struggle against the Crusader kingdoms in Syria, in
part because the Christians had aided the Mongols.

• By 1266, all that remained of the Christian kingdoms on the Levant (the countries on
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean) were Acre, Jaffa, Antioch, Tripoli, and a few
other small towns.

• In 1289, Baybars conquered Tripoli. His conquest of Tripoli was bloody and thorough.

• All of his accomplishments have elevated Baybars to heroic status in Egypt and Syria, as well
as in his native Kazakhstan. His hero status in Egypt and elsewhere is maintained today.
MODERN TURKISH IMAGE OF BAYBARS SHOWN AS IN A HEROIC POSE – BAYBARS WAS ALSO KNOW AS ‘THE LION OF
EGYPT’
• The crusader settlers Baybars faced were disunited as was discussed in the last
Lecture/PowerPoint. The rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem had not lived in the Holy Land
for a long time, but made their claims to rule from Europe or Cyprus.

• In some cases, the throne of Jerusalem was sold from one lord to another. Thus, the holy
city was reduced to a commodity as it passed from one person to another.

• There were multiple treaties made by individual crusader lords with various factions that
opposed them.

• The settlers sent to Europe for help against their increasingly aggressive enemies and in
response troops arrived from newly Christianized Aragon in Spain and from Genoa in
Italy. But the behavior of these troops provided just cause to break an important treaty.

• The Egyptian mamluks invaded and laid siege to Acre, the last of the crusader cities. Acre
fell in 1291. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was now confined to the island of Cyprus.
• Crusading, however, was still popular in Europe. There were relatively small
crusades to a variety of different places.

• It’s hard to see what all those crusades were for other then just the habit or
crusading or as an outlet for aggression.

• The armies became more disciplined and professional. Instead of being made up
mainly of knights with feudal obligations, crusading armies including many more
mercenaries (i.e. paid fighters and fighting groups), which increased their
professionalism. In the fifteenth century, this trend increased the number of
peasant fighters in these later crusades.

• However, the political situation in Europe meant that the European

Christians could not present a unified threat to the Muslim Turks in the
east.
• The trend toward the use of professional soldiers (mercenaries) was intensified in the
Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1453). This led to the
development of standing armies, which is one of the elements that defines a modern
state.

• During the fourteenth century, the arguments that success in the Reconquista of the Iberian
Peninsula would then lead to the reconquest of Jerusalem were resurrected. Various tactics,
social and economic as well as military, were proposed to retake Jerusalem.

• Some of these were partially enacted, but they did not see real results.
THE FALL OF THE TEMPLARS
• The responsibility for the shocking, traumatic, and spectacular fall of The Poor Fellow-
Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (i.e. the Knights Templar) falls mainly on
one man: Philip IV, King of France (1285-1314).

• Philip came from an illustrious line of crusaders, such as Philip II Augustus, French king
from 1180 to 1223, who was one of the leaders of the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and King
Louis IX, sainted king of France (1226-1270), who led two Crusades of his own, the Seventh
(1248-1254) and Eighth (1270).

• Philip IV had various dealings with the Mongols and finally took the cross himself in
1314. He died soon after in a hunting accident, so never fulfilled his vow.
PHILIP IV, CALLED PHILIP THE FAIR (1285-1314)
• Philip was known as Philip the Fair (which has nothing to do with fairness but with his looks –
he was considered to be very good looking).

• Philip was a new kind of king who greatly expanded royal power. His administrators were
lawyers not churchmen (a trend Henry II of England had started) and his people thought
of themselves as Christian Frenchmen not French Christians.

• He was also responsible for some of the most infamous and cruel events in medieval
history.
• One of those acts was with regard to the Jews. Philip, like many other rulers, nobles, and
merchants etc. owed money to the Jews.

• In 1306, Philip expelled the Jews from France, giving them one month to pack up and get
out of the kingdom. That he was able to enforce that order shows how much control and
authority he had gained over all regions of France. Philip was in debt to both the Jews
and the Templars.

• More relevant to our purposes here, though is his dispute with Pope Boniface VIII (1294-
1303) over the issue of taxation of the clergy and of the refusal of the Church to allow clergy
who commit crimes to be tried (i.e. put on trial) and punished in secular courts. This meant
that clergy who committed murder were punished leniently and allowed back into society to
commit more crimes. This was a problem for kings, but that was not the cause of the dispute
with Boniface: This was just over Philip’s arrest of a Bishop who had accused the king of acts
against the Church.
POPE BONIFACE VIII – ONE OF THE MOST EXTREME ADVOCATES OF PAPAL POWER AND SUPREMACY IN HISTORY
 • Boniface was inflexible and arrogant about both matters and treated Philip like a little boy.
Philip brought charges (undoubtedly false) against Boniface of simony (the sale of
Church offices), heresy, sorcery, incest, having a demon in his chambers, murder, and
other horrors.

• Finally, Philip sent troops to Rome and had Boniface arrested.

• A month later, the pope died of humiliation.

• Philip then forced the cardinals to elect a French pope, Clement V. Clement V, under
Philip’s influence, moved the papacy to a papal property in Avignon in southern France.
For the next 67 years, the papacy was under the influence of the French kings.

• Clement V and the influence of the French crown on the papacy is important to our story
here, as we shall see.
• In 1307, after the dispute with Boniface had ended, Philip IV destroyed the famous and
pious military order of the Knights Templar.

• As has been said, after its founding, the order grew exponentially thanks to donations from
supporters who recognized their important role in the protection of the small Christian states
in the Levant.

• Others, from the humblest to the rich, gave what they could to simply help ensure both a
better afterlife and, because donors could be mentioned in prayer services, perhaps a better
life in the here and now. Money, land, horses, military equipment, and foodstuffs were the
most common donations.

• The Templars invested their money, too, buying revenue-producing properties so that the
order came to own farms, vineyards, mills, churches, townships or anything else they thought
a good investment.
INTERIOR VIEW OF A CONVENT (MONASTERY) OF THE TEMPLARS IN TOMAR, PORTUGAL
• Another boost to the order’s treasure was loot and new land acquired as the result of successful
campaigns while tribute could also be extracted from conquered cities, lands controlled by Templar
castles, and weaker rival states in the Levant.

• Eventually, the order was able to establish subsidiary centers in most of the states of western
Europe, which became important sources of revenue and new recruits.

• Money may have poured in from all corners of Europe but there were high costs to be met, too.
Maintaining knights, their squires, horses (knights often had four each), and armor and equipment
were all drains on the Templars' finances.

• There were taxes to be paid to the state, donations to the papacy, and sometimes tithes to the
church, as well as payoffs to be made to local dignitaries, while performing masses and other
services had their not insignificant costs, too.

• The Templars also had a charitable purpose and were supposed to help the poor

• The exact accounts of the Templars are not known, but it is more than likely that the order
was never quite as rich as everyone thought they were.
• Templars became the first medieval bankers.

• Regarded as a safe place by locals, Templar communities or convents became repositories for cash,
jewels, and important documents.

• The order had their own cash reserves which were, from as early as 1130 CE, put to good use in
the form of interest-gaining loans.

• The Templars even permitted people to deposit money in one convent and, provided with an official
letter stating the amount, they could withdraw equivalent money from a different convent in a different
location. By the 13th century CE, the Templars had become such proficient and trusted bankers that
the kings of France and other nobles kept their treasuries with the order.

• Kings and nobles who embarked on crusades to the Holy Land, in order to pay their armies on the spot
and meet supply needs, often forwarded large cash sums to the Templars which could be withdrawn
later in the Holy Land.

• The Templars even lent money to rulers and thus became an important element in the
increasingly sophisticated financial structure of late medieval Europe.
• The order was led by the Grand Master who stood at the top of a pyramid of power.

• Largely a law unto themselves and a powerful military threat, western rulers became
wary of the military orders, especially as they began to accumulate a huge network of
lands and cash reserves.

• Like other military orders, the Templars had also long been accused of abusing their
privileges and extorting the maximum profit from their financial dealings. They were
accused of corruption and succumbing to gross pride and greed.

• Critics said they lived too soft a life and wasted money which could be better spent on
maintaining troops for Holy War.

• Most of these criticisms were based on ignorance of the affairs of the order, an
exaggeration of their actual wealth in real terms, and a general feeling of jealousy and
suspicion.
• By the end of the 13th century, many considered the military orders too independent for
everyone’s good and an amalgamation of them into a single body was the best solution to make
them more accountable to the Church and individual state’s rulers.

• Then, from around 1307, much more serious accusations against the Templars were
circulated, mainly by Philip IV.

• On Friday 13 October 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of all Templars in
France.

• He used the same tactics he had perfected against Boniface. He accused the Templars of
heresy, blasphemy, violation of their vows, of denying Christ and the Cross, promoting
homosexual practices, indecent kissing, the worship of idols etc.

• Philip saw the Templars, with their lands, wealth, and power, as “as state within a state.”

• Of course, he also owed them money.

• Initially, Pope Clement V (r. 1305-1314) defended this unsubstantiated attack on what
was, after all, one of his military orders.

• But Clement was, as said, firmly under Philip’s thumb and, coupled with confessions that
Philip had gotten from several Templars including the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay,
the pope ordered the arrest of all Templars in western Europe, and their property was
seized.

• The ‘confessions’ came from extreme torture during which several of the Templars died.
The Templars were now unable to resist except in Aragon where a number held out in
their castles until 1308.

• A trial followed in Paris in 1310, after which 54 brothers were burned at the stake.

• In 1314, the Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay, and the preceptor of Normandy,
Geoffrey of Charney, were burned too, again in Paris. Although they had confessed under
torture, they recanted and protested their innocence at the end.
• The fate of the order as a whole, though, was decided by the 1311 Council of Vienne (a
Church council). Investigations carried out in the previous three years into the order’s affairs
across Europe were considered, as were confessions (acquired through torture). A group of
knights called to hear their defense were, in the event, not called.

• When Philip arrived at the council, the Pope officially declared the order terminated on 3
April 1312, although the reason was for the damaging loss of its reputation rather than
any verdict of guilt. Physical evidence for the accusations - records, statues of idols etc. -
was never produced.

• In addition, many knights later retracted their confessions even when they were already
condemned and when to do so served no purpose.
Philip’s motivations were not just economic or political. They were also about religious
dominance.

• By claiming to be the champion of faith against heretics – i.e. the Templars and Boniface
VIII – and infidels like the Jews, he demonstrated that his intention was to invest the
French king with a Christ-like function that put him above the pope.

• In this we see the old tension between the Church and secular authority as to who is the
highest representative of god on earth. This is a question as to who truly rules in god’s
name, the king or the pope? Is the king above the pope or the pope above the king?

• In this case the king won out. Perhaps he believed he had the right to put himself above
the pope in his spiritual function because he was descended from a long line of kings said
to have divine healing powers. And, of course, having a crusading saint for a grandfather
(Louis IX) didn’t hurt.
TEUTONIC KNIGHTS: I discussed the Teutonic knights in Livonia and Prussia in the last
Lecture/PowerPoint. But just to recap.
• After the forced conversion of much of the Baltic region to Christianity, it became clear
that the Teutonic Knights were mostly interested in politics, land, and booty, rather than
conversion as the wars continued and pushed into Livonia.

• Indeed, the Teutonic Knights were frequently accused of slaughtering Christians, trashing
secular churches, impeding conversions, and trading with heathens.

• It was said that many pagans in central Europe resisted Christianization only because they did
not want to live under the brutal regime of the Teutonic Knights.

• The German knights essentially made Prussia into a state of their own (the Ordensstaat or
‘the Order’s State’ or, as your textbook says, just order state).

• This state was gradually transformed into a wholly German territory, with the Prussians
reduced to forced labor and serfdom.
• In the 14th and early fifteenth centuries, the Teutonic knights continued organized raids
into still-pagan Lithuania. Knights, lords, and rulers came from all over Europe to
participate in these raids, which were billed as being ‘honorable.’

• Riley-Smith compares them to sports and I guess the participants enjoyed exercising their
martial skills. He describes these raids as “packaged crusading for the European nobility,
and their popularity demonstrated how attractive this package could be when wrapped in
the trappings of a knightly enterprise.” (p. 284)

• In other words, by billing these raid as ‘honorable’ they appeared to be an opportunity for
knightly men to do knightly deeds. But, these raids were devastating and deadly to their
victims. The Teutonic knights emphasized that they were operating in an area that was a
frontier facing an infidel enemy, so this was supposedly an extension of Crusade.

• Calling them ‘infidel’ was, in modern terms, a way of dehumanizing their victims and
justifying their own violent and brutal actions.
• The marriage between the Christian Duke of Poland and the Lithuanian queen brought
about the conversion of Lithuania and the Teutonic knights could no longer justify
continuing their raids.

• In 1410, the Teutonic knights were brought down by an army of Poles, Lithuanians, and
others. They were allowed to keep their lands, but never really recovered.

• They had to hold their lands in eastern Prussia as a fief of Poland (i.e they became
vassals of the King of Poland).
HOSPITALLERS:

• In 1306, the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller was in Cyprus.

• They joined forces with an Italian privateer (A privateer is a private person or ship that engages
in maritime warfare under a commission of war: ie. they were licensed pirates) and conquered
the island of Rhodes in 1309.

• In 1312, the pope gave the Hospitallers all the properties of the fallen Knights Templar. It
took a lot of time and money to get some of them under their control. Nevertheless, their
holdings had doubled by 1324.
• Their expenditures were heavy, however, and they ended up heavily in debt. Due to this, the
papacy interfered in the business of the Hospitallers far more than they were able to do with the
Teutonic Knights. Still, they had a flourishing island state.

• They developed a powerful navy to defend it. Their navy also contributed to crusading
since many of the crusade settlers who had to flee the Holy Land ended up on islands in
the Aegean Sea. These settlements were protected by the Hospitaller navy.

• In 1380, the Hospitallers were able to successfully defend their state from an invasion by
a superior force of Turks. This was very good for the Hospitaller image and respect for
the order grew.

• In 1523, however, a large flotilla of Turkish ships attacked Rhodes again and, eventually,
the Hospitallers were forced to surrender.

• The knights moved around in Europe for a while until finally, in 1530, they were able to
set up a new state on the island of Malta.
PALACE OF THE GRAND MASTER OF THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLER ON THE ISLAND OF RHODES
ORDER STATES:

• So the order of the Teutonic Knights and the order of the Knights Hospitaller had each set up
their own states, called ‘order states.’

• In discussing these order states, Riley-Smith states: “The order-state developed by the
Teutonic Knights in Prussia and by Hospitallars on Rhodes and later on Malta, was a new
and distinctive polity (a political organization or unit). It was a theocracy (i.e. a
government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided), governed
by an elite class of soldiers, who had taken full religious vows, who originated from
outside the state’s boundaries and isolated themselves from the indigenous (i.e. native)
population, which was kept at arm’s length…” (p 288).

• Riley-Smith also tells us that, in both cases, they were extremely aggressive towards
neighboring territories that were not Christian.
• The Teutonic knights’ state was within Europe on the Baltic Sea. Their aggression consisted of
brutal raids into neighboring lands. Their actions were often cruel and violent. They were often
a thorn in the side of the papacy.

• This state was gradually transformed into a wholly German territory, with the Prussians
reduced to forced labor and serfdom.

• This state institutionalized both war and religion: ie. war and religion became the major
elements of their identity.

• The Hospitaller state, on the other hand, was comprised of islands in the Aegean sea.
Their aggression was naval, but they also used their ships for defense.

• Both groups weakened in the 16th century, the Teutonic knights more so than the
Hospitallers whose purpose of defending crusaders/settlers was no longer needed by then.