Changes Brought with Crusades - Essay Example

What Were the Motives of Crusaders in the Period up to 1204 and how much did they Change? The motivation behind movements such as the crusades, whichwere not only popular amongst the elite who went to fight, but also among the general population, is exceedingly difficult to define. In a mass movement such as this, individuals may have a range of different motivations which are not universal, while there may be underlying causes which cannot be seen across the centuries. The historian of the crusades must attempt to analyze the testimony, look at economic and social factors, and read motivation into the actions of those who traveled to the Holy Land to fight. By the time of the First Crusades, the Holy Lands of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the pilgrimage routes connecting these places to Europe, were under threat from an organized and ambitious Ottoman Empire. The Moslems themselves kept the routes open to Christians, and the Byzantine Empire safe, until 1071, when Seljuk Turks took the lands, and persecuted Christians on the way. Lost land, religious conflict, and internal pressures were the background to Western Europe’s initiation of the Crusades. R.W. Southern notes that “The worsening position of the Eastern Empire, and the genuine desire of some to save it: the even more potent though secret desire of others to profit by its disintegration; the dim realization that Islam constituted a…threat to Christendom…some hoped to be saved by going; others didn’t care if they were damned so long as they found new fields for profit and adventure. There was something in the Crusades to appeal to everyone.” (Southern, 56) The crusades were, as Riley-Smith states “A holy war fought against those perceived to be external or internal foes of Christendom for the recovery of Christian property or in defence of the church or Christian people” (Riley-Smith, 1987, xxviii). This was certainly the overt motivation for the first Crusade, as initiated by Pope Urban II in November of 1095. This Crusade had a peculiar beginning, and Riley-Smith has made extensive note of this: “Few nobles turned up, and the theatre must have been risky…even so, his appeal for knights to liberate Jerusalem struck a chord in western society” (Riley Smith, 1995). Urban openly declared “’Dieu le veult’ – ‘God wills it!’” (Bishop, 105); for many hearing the religious leader of the Western World declaring God’s Will, the Crusades must have seemed to be a religious duty. In considering why this speech made such an impression, it should not be forgotten that the majority of Western Europe was, by this time, Christian in name at the very least. Europeans had been making the arduous pilgrimage to Jerusalem for decades, and in some ways the early Crusades might be considered another form of pilgrimage. Personal penance and justification by faith were still quite strong issues of faith, and would remain so until at least the mid-fourteenth century (Flagellants during the Black Death being one example of this). Being a Crusader, not only fighting for Christ but also traveling to the Holy Land to do so, was therefore a religious duty, atonement for sin, and a Holy Quest, similar to that being written about in Early Medieval romances. In fact, it seems as though Urban did not intend to have such a dramatic effect upon the nobles of Europe: the impression is that “The pop was taken aback by the success of his proposal. No plan had been made for the prosecution of the crusade” (Bishop, 106). The organization of the First Crusade was rather like a mopping-up exercise, after the disastrous People’s Crusade in 1096. Poor people such as this marched under their own steam to free Jerusalem, and rather than the idealism of the nobility, their motivations appear to be genuine religious concern for the Holy Land. It should be clear, therefore, that the overt motivation, religion, was also an emotional force for many of the participants in the first Crusades, Kings and princes, such as Richard I of England, who were not struggling to maintain a fief, were probably motivated to a greater degree by religion; the percentage of religious motivation may fall as one progresses down the ranks. A secondary aspect of this religious motivation should be acknowledged, that: “All the Crusades have to be considered in the context of Rome’s Catholic but fruitless ambition to subjugate…the Eastern Church to the Papacy” (Heer, 126). The Byzantine Church was a source of opposition to the Catholic Christian faith, and this may be one of the reasons why those living in the East, such as Raymond of Antioch, where depicted as libidinous and pleasure-loving. The intention of the Church to gain dominance over the East, while a strong motivation for Urban and later Popes, may not have been a strong motivation for those actually making the pilgrimages, who relied upon the Eastern Empire for protection during the journey. It should not be forgotten, however, that Urban’s speech did not merely concentrate upon the religious aspects of the crusade. It is clear from economic and historical studies that the European nobles were running out of land and income: in other words, they were having too many sons who survived to adulthood. Urban’s speech emphasized that France (where he was giving the speech) was overcrowded: “It could barely support its sons…a poor crusader might find himself tempted by a fief of holy land: and if he should fall, he was assured, by papal promise, of a seat in heaven” (Bishop, 105). Poor knights, looking for an easy land-grab, may have been more common as the Crusades progressed. Certainly, there is little sign of religious fervor in the Crusade of Louis VII of France: the King even took along his Wife and her large entourage. Camp followers were inevitable, but bringing along a Queen and her baggage, considering that they were invading and involved in hand to hand combat, seems very foolish; the only conclusion can be that Louis perceived his Crusade as a pilgrimage, or even a Grand Tour, rather than an invasion. It should also be noted that Louis’ Crusade, and its failure, lead to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 to Turkish forces and increasing Moslem strength throughout the Holy Land. As well as religion and money, a motivating factor in the later Crusades of the Twelfth Century was adventure. This is a period of high-romance (Troubadours in Southern France, and the beginnings of the convention known as Courtly Love), and the children of Nobles would have been raised on Romantic Literature such as Arthurian romances, and legends like Troilus and Cressida, which date from this period. The Bible played a part in this, and the mystical aspects of Western Christianity may have been linked to the Crusades, providing a spiritual and romantic motivation for Crusaders. As has been shown, there are a number of motivations for the Crusades during the Twelfth Century, from religious inclinations to hopes of adventure fueled by medieval romances. The Religious element seems strongest during the First Crusade, when it affected not only Nobles (who were invited to witness Urban’s Speech but were not interested enough to turn up), but also the general population. This ideal in the early years does seem to be based upon religious inclination, rather than Southern’s “Men who were accustomed to the obligations occurred by holding land in return for military service…imaging themselves the feudatories of an injured God, seeking in a most literal way to exchange by military service a life tenancy on earth for a perpetual inheritance in heaven” (Southern, 57). This could be a motivation for the Second and Third Crusades, which were the first to induce Kings and Princes to actually travel to the Holy Land, rather than provide men and money. The Second Crusade resembles a romantic interlude; the princes traveling with their entourage as though there was nothing to fear. The later Crusade, which also bears romantic motivation, appears to be a combination of religious, feudal, and romantic motivations. Bibliography Bishop, Morris (1983) The Pelican Book of the Middle Ages Pelican, New York Heer, Friedrich (1974) The Medieval World: Europe From 1100 to 1350 Cardinal, London Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1987) The Crusades: A short history Yale University Press Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1995) “Religious Warriors. Reinterpreting the Crusades” The Economist, 23 Dec 1995 Southern, R.W.(1962) The Making of the Middle Ages Arrow Books, London. Read More