Five Crusades between 1096-1221 - Essay Example

The First Crusade (1096 – 1099) Following Pope Urban II’s call for a crusade or armed pilgrimage, an enthusiastic preacher known as Peterthe Hermit and a knight called Walter the Penniless led a group that rushed ahead of the official expedition. This group, known as the Peasants’ Crusade, was untrained and undisciplined. Its members demanded free food and shelter as they traveled through Eastern Europe towards Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). These crusaders often stole what they wanted, that resulted in many of them being killed by angry Europeans. The Turks slaughtered most of the rest in Asia Minor. The main armies sent by Pope Urban II consisted of well-trained French and Norman knights. The key leaders included Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of Flanders and Bohemond of Taranto. At Constantinople, Byzantine forces joined the crusaders. In 1097, the combined army defeated the Muslims near Nicaea (now Northwest Turkey). Then the army divided, and the western Europeans marched towards Jerusalem, fighting many bloody battles along the way. The most difficult was the siege of Antioch, in northern Syria (now in Turkey). Many crusaders lost their lives there, in battle or from hunger, and many others deserted. The Turks fiercely attacked the crusaders in Antioch. However, the discovery of a lance said to be the one that wounded Jesus on the cross inspired the crusaders, and they won a great victory. The Europeans arrived at Jerusalem in the summer of 1099. They recovered the Holy City after six weeks of fighting. Most of the crusaders then returned home. The leaders who remained divided the conquered land into four states. These states, called the Latin States of the Crusaders, were the County of Edessa, The Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Second Crusade (1144-1150) After the First Crusade set up Christian kingdoms all along the coast of Israel and Lebanon, the Fatimid Caliphs, who had earlier ruled that area, were very upset. By 1144, a Mamluk general, Imad-ed-din Zangi, had managed to unite enough Turks and Arabs in his army to attack the Christian kingdoms. Zangi did not take Jerusalem, but he did take the County of Edessa. In Europe, people were very upset to learn that the Turks had taken Edessa. The Pope ordered Bernard of Clairvaux (in France) to preach a Second Crusade, take it back and defeat Zangi. The young king of France, Louis VII, was among the first who agreed to go along with his wife, Eleanor of Aquitane; Emperor Conrad III of Germany also agreed to join. Their acceptance was primarily due to the tireless efforts of Bernard of Clairvaux, who traveled across France, Germany and Italy to exhort people to take up the cross and reassert Christian domination in the Holy Land. From beginning to end, the Second Crusade was not successful. On September 14, 1146 Zangi, whose capture of Edessa from the Crusaders in 1144 made him a hero among Muslims, was assassinated by a servant he intended to punish. In February 1148 most of Conrad’s soldiers were killed as they marched through Turkey. When Louis and Conrad reached Jerusalem, they decided to attack Damascus, which would have made up for the loss of Edessa. This move was foolish on their part as it endangered the survival of the Crusader States. However, on July 28, 1148 the crusaders were forced to withdraw from their siege of Damascus after only one week, partly as a result of Conrad and Louis being unable to agree on almost anything. With this, the Second Crusade was effectively finished and the kings returned home in disgust. The Third Crusade (1189-1192) The Muslims continued to attack the Christians in the Holy Land. By 1183, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, had united the Muslim areas around the Latin States. In 1187, Saladin easily defeated a Christian army at the Battle of Horns of Hattin, and triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Only the coastal cities of Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch remained in Christian hands. The loss of Jerusalem led to the Third Crusade. The important leaders of the Third Crusade included the German Emperor Frederick I (called Barbarossa), King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) of England, and King Philip II (Augustus) of France. Frederick drowned in Cicilia in 1190 on his way to the Holy Land, leaving an unstable alliance between the English and the French. Quarrels among Richard, Philip, and other leaders limited the crusaders’ success. The Europeans conquered the Palestinian port cities of Acre (now Akko) and Jaffa in 1191. But after the capture of Acre, Philip returned home. Richard led the crusaders down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They defeated the Muslims near Arsuf and were within sight of Jerusalem. However, the inability of the crusaders to survive due to inadequate food and water resulted in an empty victory. Richard left the following year after negotiated a treaty with Saladin. As a result of this treaty, the Muslims let Christian pilgrims enter Jerusalem freely. The negotiation of this peace treaty made the Third Crusade a Success. The Third Crusade failed to harm Saladin; he died on March 4, 1193 revered till the end as a great Muslim hero for resisting the crusades. On his way home, Richard’s ship was wrecked and he ended up in Austria. In Austria, his enemy Duke Leopold captured him, delivered him to Frederick’s son Henry VI and Richard was held for, literally, a king’s ransom. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) The Fourth Crusade resulted from the failure of the Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem. In 1200, Pope Innocent III started asking the leaders of Europe to participate in a Fourth Crusade, again attempting to take Jerusalem. Saladin had died in 1193, and the crusaders thought that his successors, the Ayyubids, were weaker and would be easy to beat. Instead of coming down from the north, the crusader armies decided to sail south to Egypt, and then come up from there to Jerusalem. In order to get enough ships to take everyone to Egypt, the Crusaders sought help from the great sea power, Venice. In 1202 the crusaders came to Venice to get their ships, but they did not have enough money to pay for them. However, the Venetians offered to transport the crusaders if the crusaders helped them attack Zara, a city in what is now Hungary. The crusaders agreed to do this, even though Zara was a Christian city. The Pope did not like this and excommunicated all the Crusaders. The Crusaders succeeded in taking Zara, and were about to go to Egypt with their ships when Alexius Comnenus, who had recently been thrown out of Constantinople, asked the crusaders to help him get into power again, promising to pay the rest of the crusade once he was back on his throne. Instead of going to Egypt, the crusaders agreed to this plan, and in 1203 (with the help of the Venetians) they took Constantinople and put Alexius IV on the throne. But Alexius IV could not raise the money he had promised the crusaders. When he tried to raise money through taxes, he became so unpopular that he and his father were killed and a new emperor, Alexius V, was put on the throne. In 1204 the Crusaders and Venetians attacked Constantinople and sacked the city. Many islands that had belonged to the Byzantine Empire were taken over by the Venetians. The crusaders never did go on to Jerusalem, and never fought the Ayyubids at all. Instead, they took the piles of money, gold and jewels that they had plundered from Constantinople and returned home, after putting Count Baldwin of Flanders on the Byzantine throne. This Latin Empire of Constantinople lasted until 1261. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to take back Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt. In Spring 1213, Pope Innocent III issued the papal bull Quia Maior, calling all of Christendom to join a new crusade. In 1215 Innocent convened the Fourth Lateran Council where he discussed the recovery of the Holy Land. Innocent III died in 1216. His successor, Pope Honorius III organized crusading armies lead by Leopold VI of Austria and Andrew II of Hungary. The army left for Acre in 1217 to fight against the Ayyubids in Syria. However, the Ayyubids were not interested in fighting. Andrew II returned home. In 1218 Oliver of Cologne arrived with a new army and with Leopold VI planned to attack Damietta in Egypt. The crusaders began the siege of Damietta in June 1218. Although they broke through the outer walls, they could not get control of the town, and in the ensuing months disease killed many of the crusaders. Al-Kamil tried to negotiate a peace with the crusaders but failed. By November 1218 the crusaders had worn out the Sultan’s forces and were finally able to occupy the port. The crusaders marched toward Cairo in July 1221. The march was a total disaster. The Nile river flooded ahead of them, stopping their advance while a dry canal what was previously crossed by the crusaders flooded, blocking their retreat. With supplies dwindling, a forced retreat began, culminating in a night attack by Al-Kamil (who was by then able to ally with other Ayyubids in Syria) that resulted in a great number of crusaders losses and eventually their surrender. The terms of the surrender involved the crusaders relinquishing Damietta to Al-Kamil and the establishment of a 8-year treaty with Europe. Read More