Crusades

This article is about the 11th–13th century religious military campaigns. For other uses, see Crusade (disambiguation) and Crusader (disambiguation).

The term "Crusade" is used to describe religiously motivated campaigns conducted between the 11th and 16th centuries predominately but not exclusively against Muslims in the near east but also against pagans, heretics, and peoples under the ban of excommunication for a mixture of religious, economic, and political reasons. Their emblem was the cross — the term "crusade" is derived from the French term for taking up the cross. Many were from France and called themselves "Franks," which became the common term used by Muslims. Europeans had historically called the occupants of the Holy Land Saracens, and used this in a negative sense throughout the Crusades and often into European history books into the 20th century.

The first crusade was called by Pope Urban II in 1095 with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. This led to an intermittent 200 year struggle to reclaim the Holy Land that ended in failure. The background was the Arab–Byzantine Wars,the Seljuq-Byzantine Wars and the defeat of the Byzantine army by Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in 1071. The Norman conqueror Robert Guiscard's conquest of Byzantine territories added to the problems of the Byzantine Empire. In an attempt to curtail both dangers, its Emperor Alexios I sought to align Christian nations against a common enemy, requested western aid, and Urban II in turn enlisted western leaders in the cause.. Several hundred thousand soldiers became Crusaders by taking vows; the papacy granted them plenary indulgence. The crusaders were Christians from all over Western Europe under feudal rather than unified command. There were seven major and numerous minor Crusades against Muslim territories. Rivalries among both Christian and Muslim powers also led to alliances between religious factions against their opponents, such as the Christian alliance with the Islamic Sultanate of Rûm during the Fifth Crusade. When the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell at Acre in 1291 there was no coherent response.

The Crusades had major political, economic, and social impact on western Europe. It resulted in a substantial weakening of the Christian Byzantine Empire, which fell several centuries later to the Muslim Turks. The Reconquista, a long period of wars in Spain and Portugal (Iberia), where Christian forces reconquered the peninsula from Muslims, is closely tied to the Crusades.

Background

Middle East

Main article: Muslim conquests

The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, 1337 miniature

In 636 CE, Muslim forces led by the Arab Rashidun Caliphs defeated the Eastern Roman/Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk, conquering Palestine. The Umayyad Dynasty ruled as caliphs from 661, but were overthrown in 750 by the Abbasid Dynasty of Baghdad. The Fatimids conquered Palestine in 969. The Fatimids, whose empire stretched to Morocco and centered on Egypt, were tolerant for the times and had many trade and political relationships with the Christian states of Europe. In 1072 the Fatimids lost control of Palestine to the rapidly expanding Great Seljuq Empire. They regained control of it in 1098, but their control was shaky, with the countryside subject to raids by Bedouin nomads and Turkish mercenaries.

One factor that may have contributed to Western interest in Palestine came during the reign of the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah who ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1039 his successor permitted the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it. Pilgrimages had been allowed by Christians to the holy sites in Palestine from soon after their conquest by the Muslims. However, under the Seljuqs pilgrimage routes were disrupted and the unsettled conditions in Palestine were not conducive to either pilgrims or merchants. The Muslims realized that much of the wealth of Jerusalem came from the pilgrims; for this reason and others, the persecution of pilgrims eventually stopped. However, the damage was already done, and the violence of the conquering Seljuk Turks became part of the concern that spread support for the Crusades across the Christian world.

Western Europe

The western European idea of the Crusades came in response to the deterioration of the Byzantine Empire caused by a new wave of Turkish Muslim attacks. The Byzantine emperors in the east, now threatened by the Seljuks, sent emissaries to the papacy asking for aid in their struggles with the Seljuk Turks. In 1074, Emperor Michael VII sent a request for aid to Pope Gregory VII, but although Gregory appears to have considered leading an expedition to aid Michael, nothing reached the planning stage. In 1095 Emperor Alexios I Komnenos asked Pope Urban II for help against the Turks.

The Crusades were, in part, an outlet for an intense religious piety which rose up in the late 11th century among the lay public. This was an outgrowth of the Investiture Controversy, which had started around 1075 and was still on-going during the First Crusade. The papacy began to assert its independence of secular rulers and marshalled arguments for the proper use of armed force by Christians. As both sides of the Investiture Controversy tried to marshal public opinion in their favor, people became personally engaged in a dramatic religious controversy. The result was an awakening of intense Christian piety and public interest in religious affairs, and was further strengthened by religious propaganda, which advocated "Just War" in order to retake Palestine from the Muslims. Taking part in such a war was seen as a form of penance, which could remit sins.

It was a hotly debated issue throughout the Crusades as what exactly "remission of sin" meant. Most believed that by retaking Jerusalem they would go straight to heaven after death. However, much controversy surrounds exactly what was promised by the popes of the time. One theory was that one had to die fighting for Jerusalem for the remission to apply, which would hew more closely to what Urban II said in his speeches. This meant that if the crusaders were successful, and retook Jerusalem, the survivors would not be given remission.^{[citation needed]}

Precursors

Map of the Iberian Peninsula at the time of the Almoravid arrival in the 11th century– Christian Kingdoms included Aragón, Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Portugal

At the time of the First Crusade in 1095, the Christian princes of northern Iberia had already been fighting their way out of the mountains of Galicia and Asturias, the Basque Country and Navarre, with increasing success, for about a hundred years. The fall of Moorish Toledo to the Kingdom of León in 1085 was a major victory, but the turning points of the Reconquista still lay in the future. The disunity of Muslim emirs was an essential factor. Other areas also saw Christian expansion into Muslim-held territory. The Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard had conquered northern Sicily by 1072. The maritime state of Pisa funded its new cathedral from the spoils of two raids on the Muslims - Palermo in 1063 and Mahdia in 1087. Not all these precursor conflicts were Christian versus Muslim; the Germans were expanding at the expense of the Slavs in Northern Europe. All of these expeditions, along with a few others, are considered precursors to the Crusades, and are often given the name of "proto-crusades".

Byzantine weakness

The Seljuq dynasty at its greatest extent, in 1092.

The Eastern Empire and its church were officially divided from the Western church and society in 1054, with the East-West Schism, but cultural differences had long divided the two before the official break in 1054. In the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern emperor's weakness was revealed by the defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which opened Asia Minor to the control of the Turks. The Empire was on the verge of collapse, with its treasury bankrupt, its armies poorly deployed, and its aged emperor ineffective. Although an appeal was made in 1074 to the papacy, no aid was forthcoming from Pope Gregory VII. The Eastern Empire also faced difficulties in the Danube river area, as the Petchenegs had allied with the Seljuks and threatened the Empire until 1091 when they were defeated by Emperor Alexius. Alexius still needed to rebuild his armies, and sought to increase his military forces by hiring mercenaries. The Byzantine envoys to Piacenza in March 1095 likely were more concerned to secure mercenaries for Alexius' armies and may have exaggerated the dangers facing the Eastern Empire in order to secure the needed troops.

Immediate cause

The immediate cause of the First Crusade was the Byzantine emperor Alexios I's appeal to Urban II for mercenaries to help him resist Muslim advances into territory of the Byzantine Empire. Although attempts at reconciliation after the East–West Schism between the Catholic Church in western Europe and the Eastern Orthodox Church had failed, Alexius I hoped for a positive response from Urban II.

Pope Urban II defined and launched the crusades at the Council of Clermont in 1095. He was a reformer worried about the evils which had hindered the spiritual success of the church and its clergy and the need for a revival of religiosity. Urban's solution was announced on the last day of the council when the pope suddenly proclaimed the Crusade against the Muslims. He called for Christian princes across Europe to launch a holy war in the Holy Land. He contrasted the sanctity of Jerusalem and the holy places with the plunder and desecration by the Turks. He caused outrage by vividly describing attacks upon the Christian pilgrims. He also noted the military threat to the fellow Christians of Byzantium. He charged Christians to take up the holy cause, promising to all those who went absolution of sins and to all who died in the expedition immediate entry into heaven.

Then Urban raised secular motives, talking of the feudal love of tournaments and warfare. He urged the barons to give up their fratricidal and unrighteous wars in the West for the holy war in the East. He also suggested material rewards, regarding feudal fiefdoms, land ownership, wealth, power, and prestige, all at the expense of the Arabs and Turks. He said they could be defeated very easily by the Christian forces. When he finished, his listeners chanted "Deus vult" (God wills it). This became the battle cry of the crusaders. Urban put the bishop of Le Puy in charge of encouraging prelates and priests to join the cause. Word spread rapidly that war against unbelief would be fused with the practice of pilgrimage to holy sites, and the pilgrims' reward would be great on earth, as in heaven. Immediately thousands pledged themselves to go on the first crusade. Pope Urban's speech ranks as one of the most influential speeches ever made: it launched the holy wars which occupied the minds and forces of western Europe for 200 years.

Preaching and preparation

See also: Persecution of Jews in the First Crusade

Urban's sermon at Clermont was the start of an eight-month preaching tour that the pope undertook throughout France, urging the holy war and exhorting people to help defend the Byzantine church against the Muslims. He also sent other preachers throughout Western Europe to spread the word of the Crusade. Urban fixed a date of August 1096 for the crusaders to depart for Palestine. Urban's example inspired the preaching of Peter the Hermit, who eventually led a "People's Crusade" of perhaps as many as 20,000 people, mostly lower class, towards the Holy Land just after Easter 1096. When they reached the Byzantine Empire, Alexios urged them to wait for the western nobles, but the "army" insisted on proceeding and was ambushed outside Nicaea by the Turks, with only about 3000 people escaping the ambush.

On a popular level, the preaching of the First Crusade unleashed a wave of impassioned, personally felt pious Christian fury that was expressed in the massacres of Jews that accompanied and preceded the movement of the crusaders through Europe, as well as the violent treatment of the "schismatic" Orthodox Christians of the east.

Besides the People's Crusade, Urban's appeal gathered a large number of noblemen and other soldiers together. Among the leaders of the First Crusade were Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert Curthose - son of William the Conqueror and eldest brother of the then King of England, William II of England, Hugh of Vermandois - brother of King Philip I of France, and Stephen, Count of Blois - brother-in-law of Robert Curthose. The French King was excommunicated and thus unable to go. The German Emperor, Henry IV, was still embroiled in the Investiture Crisis and would not have supported papal initiatives. The various leaders left at different times, with Hugh of Vermandois departing first and the bulk of the army dividing into four parts which travelled separately to Constantinople. In all, the western forces may have totaled as much as 100,000 persons counting both combatants and non-combatants.

Middle Eastern crusades

A traditional numbering scheme for the crusades totals nine during the 11th to 13th centuries.^{[citation needed]} This division is arbitrary and excludes many important expeditions, among them those of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The Knights Hospitaller continued to crusade in the Mediterranean Sea around Malta until their defeat by Napoleon in 1798. There were frequent "minor" Crusades throughout this period, not only in the area the crusaders called Outremer but also in the Iberian Peninsula and central Europe, against Muslims and also Christian heretics and personal enemies of the Papacy or other powerful monarchs.

First (1095–1099)

Main article: First Crusade

Route of the First Crusade through Asia

The official crusader armies set off from France and Italy in August and September 1096. The armies journeyed eastward by land toward Constantinople, where they received a wary welcome from the Byzantine Emperor. Pledging to restore lost territories to the empire, the main army, mostly French and Norman knights under baronial leadership—Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin of Bouillon, Tancred de Hauteville, Raymond of Toulouse, Robert Curthose, Stephen of Blois, Bohemond of Taranto, and Robert II, Count of Flanders-marched south through Anatolia.

The crusader states after the First Crusade

The Crusader armies fought the Turks, at first at the lengthy Siege of Antioch that began in October 1097 and lasted until June 1098. Once inside the city, as was standard military practice when an enemy had refused to surrender, the Crusaders massacred the Muslim inhabitants and pillaged the city. However, a large Muslim relief army under Kerbogha immediately besieged the victorious Crusaders within Antioch. Bohemond of Taranto led a successful rally of the crusader army and defeated Kerbogha's army on 28 June. While Bohemond and his men retained control of Antioch, in spite of his pledge to the Byzantine emperor. Most of the surviving crusader army marched south, moving from town to town along the coast, finally reaching the walls of Jerusalem on 7 June 1099 with only a fraction of their original forces.

Siege of Jerusalem

Main article: Siege of Jerusalem (1099)

After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The Jews and Muslims fought together to defend Jerusalem against the invading Franks. They were unsuccessful though and on 15 July 1099 the crusaders entered the city. They proceeded to massacre the remaining Jewish and Muslim civilians and pillaged or destroyed mosques and the city itself. As a result of the First Crusade, four main Crusader states were created: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Followups

Main articles: Crusade of 1101, Norwegian Crusade, and Bohemond I of Antioch#Wars between Antioch and the Byzantine Empire

Following this crusade there was a second, less successful wave of crusaders, known as the Crusade of 1101, in which Turks led by Kilij Arslan defeated the Crusaders in three separate battles in a response to the First Crusade. Sigurd I of Norway was the first European king who to visit the Crusading states, as well as the first European king to take part in a crusading campaign, although his expedition was as much pilgrimage as crusade. His fleet helped at the Siege of Sidon. Also in 1107, Bohemond I of Antioch attacked the Byzantines at Avlona and Dyrrachium, in what is occasionally called Bohemond's Crusade, which ended in September 1108 with a defeat for Bohemond and his retiring to Italy. Further efforts in the 1120s included a crusade preached by Pope Calixtus II around 1120 which became the Venetian Crusade of 1122–1124, a pilgrimage of Count Fulk V of Anjou in 1120, an effort by Conrad III of Germany in 1124 of which little details are known, and the Damascus Crusade of 1129 by Fulk V which resulted in the recognition of the Knights Templar by Pope Honorius II in January 1129. Some historians have seen Pope Innocent II's grant in 1135 of the same crusading indulgences to those who opposed papal enemies as the first of the politically motivated crusades against papal opponents, but other historians do not agree.

Initially, Muslims did very little about the Crusader states due to internal conflicts.^{[citation needed]} Eventually, the Muslims began to reunite under the leadership of Imad ad-Din Zengi, who was appointed governor of Mosul in 1127. He began to retake territory from the Christians, beginning with Aleppo in 1128. He retook Edessa in 1144. These defeats led Pope Eugenius III to call for another crusade on 1 March 1145.

Second (1147–1149)

Main article: Second Crusade

Europe and the Christian States in the East in 1142

The new crusade was called for by various preachers, most notably by Bernard of Clairvaux. French and South German armies, under the Kings Louis VII and Conrad III respectively, marched to Jerusalem in 1147 but failed to win any major victories, launching a failed pre-emptive siege of Damascus. On the other side of the Mediterranean, however, the Second Crusade met with great success as a group of Northern European Crusaders stopped in Portugal, allied with the Portuguese King, Afonso I of Portugal, and retook Lisbon from the Muslims in 1147. A detachment from this group of crusaders helped Count Raymond Berenguer IV of Barcelona conquer the city of Tortosa the following year. In the Holy Land by 1150, both the kings of France and Germany had returned to their countries without any result. Bernard of Clairvaux, who in his preachings had encouraged the Second Crusade, was upset with the amount of misdirected violence and slaughter of the Jewish population of the Rhineland. A followup to this crusade was the pilgrimage of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in 1172 that is sometimes labeled a crusade.

Third (1187–1192)

Main article: Third Crusade

A statue of king Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart), outside the Palace of Westminster in London.

The Muslims had long fought among themselves, but they were finally united by Saladin, who created a single powerful state. Following his victory at the Battle of Hattin he easily overwhelmed the disunited crusaders in 1187 and retook Jerusalem on 29 September 1187 breached the walls. Terms were arranged and the city surrendered, with Saladin entering the city on 2 October 1187.

Saladin's victories shocked Europe. On hearing news of the Siege of Jerusalem (1187), Pope Urban III died of a heart attack on 19 October 1187. On 29 October Pope Gregory VIII issued a papal bull Audita tremendi, proposing the Third Crusade. To reverse this disaster Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (r. 1152–1190) of Germany, King Philip II of France, (r. 1180–1223), and King Richard I (r. 1189–1199) of England all organized forces for the crusade. Frederick died en route and few of his men reached the Holy Land. The other two armies arrived but were beset by political quarrels. Philip returned to France, but left most of his forces behind. Richard captured the island of Cyprus from the Byzantines in 1191. After a long siege, Richard recaptured the city of Acre. The Crusader army headed south along the Mediterranean coast. They defeated the Muslims near Arsuf, recaptured the port city of Jaffa, and were in sight of Jerusalem, but supply problems prevented them from taking the city and the crusade ended without the taking of Jerusalem. Richard left the following year after negotiating a treaty with Saladin. The treaty allowed trade for merchants and unarmed Christian pilgrims to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, while it remained under Muslim control.

A followup to the Third Crusade was the German Crusade of 1197, which began when the Emperor Henry VI took the cross in 1195. Henry's health did not allow him to lead the forces in person, and leadership devolved on Conrad of Wittelsbach, the Archbishop of Mainz. The forces landed at Acre in September 1197 and captured some towns, including Sidon and Beirut, but Henry's death in late 1197 meant that most of the crusaders returned to Germany in the middle of 1198.

Fourth (1202–1204)

Main article: Fourth Crusade

The Latin Empire and the Partition of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade. (c. 1204)

Recruitment for the Fourth Crusade was initiated in 1200 by Pope Innocent III, with preaching taking place in France, England, and Germany, although the bulk of the efforts were in France. Because the Crusaders lacked the funds to pay for the fleet and provisions that they had contracted from the Venetians, the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo enlisted the crusaders to restore the Christian city of Zara to obedience, which surrendered to the crusaders on 24 November 1202. Innocent was appalled and excommunicated the crusaders. Because they subsequently lacked provisions and time on their vessel lease, the leaders decided to go to Constantinople, where they attempted to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the crusaders sacked the city on 13 April 1204. The crusaders established the so-called Latin Empire and a series of other Crusader states throughout the territories of the Greek Byzantine Empire. While deploring the means, the papacy initially supported this apparent forced reunion between the Eastern and Western churches.

Children's (1212)

Main article: Children's Crusade

Less formal and less historically certain was a movement in France and Germany in 1212 which attracted large numbers of peasant teenagers and young people, with few under age 15, who were convinced they could succeed where older and more sinful crusaders had failed: the miraculous power of their faith would triumph where the force of arms had not. Many parish priests and parents encouraged such religious fervor and urged them on. The pope and bishops opposed the attempt but failed to stop it entirely. A band of several thousand youth and young men led by a German named Nicholas set out for Italy. About a third survived the march over the Alps and got as far as Genoa; another group came to Marseilles. The luckier ones eventually managed to get safely home, but many others were sold as lifetime slaves on the auction blocks of Marseilles slave dealers.

Fifth (1217–1221)

Main article: Fifth Crusade

Pope Innocent III declared a new crusade to begin commence in 1217, along with his summoning of the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. The majority of the crusaders came from Germany, Flanders, and Frisia, along with a large army from Hungary led by King Andrew II and other forces led by Duke Leopold VI. The forces of Andrew and Leopold arrived in Acre in October 1217 but little was accomplished and Andrew returned to Hungary in January 1218. After the arrival of more crusaders, Leopold and the king of Jerusalem, John of Brienne, laid siege to Damietta in Egypt, which they captured finally in November 1219. Further efforts by the papal legate, Pelagius, to invade further into Egypt led to no gains. Blocked by forces of the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kamil, the crusaders were forced to surrender. Al-Kamil forced the return of Damietta and agreed to an eight-year truce and the crusaders left Egypt.

A followup to this crusade was the effort by King Theobald I of Navarre in 1239 and 1240 that had originally been called in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX to assemble in July 1239 at the end of a truce. Besides Theobald, Peter of Dreux and Hugh, Duke of Burgundy and other French nobles took part. They arrived in Acre in September 1239 and after a defeat in November, Theobald arranged a treaty with the Muslims that returned territory to the crusading states, but caused much disaffection within the crusaders. Theobald returned to Europe in September 1240. Also in 1240, Richard of Cornwall, younger brother of King Henry III of England, took the cross and arrived in Acre in October. He then secured the ratification of Theobald's treaty and left the Holy Land in May 1241 for Europe.

Sixth (1228–1229)

Main article: Sixth Crusade

Dirham struck by Christians between 1216 and 1241 with Arabic inscriptions.

Emperor Frederick II (left) meets al-Kamil (right), from a manuscript of the Nuova Cronica by Giovanni Villani

Emperor Frederick II had repeatedly vowed a crusade but failed to live up to his words, for which he was excommunicated by Gregory IX in 1228. He nonetheless set sail from Brindisi in June 1228 and landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre in September 1228, after a stopover in Cyprus. There were no battles as Frederick made a peace treaty with Al-Kamil, the ruler of Egypt. This treaty allowed Christians to rule over most of Jerusalem and a strip of territory from Acre to Jerusalem, while the Muslims were given control of their sacred areas in Jerusalem. In return, Frederick pledged to protect Al-Kamil against all his enemies, even if they were Christian.

Seventh (1248–1254)

Main article: Seventh Crusade

In the summer of 1244 a Khwarezmian force summoned by the son of al-Kamil, al-Salih Ayyub, stormed Jerusalem and took it. The Franks allied with Ayyub's uncle Ismail and the emir of Homs and the combined forces were drawn into battle at La Forbie in Gaza. The crusader army and its allies were completely defeated within forty-eight hours by the Khwarezmian tribesmen.

King Louis IX of France organized a crusade after taking the cross in December 1244, with preaching and recruitment taking up the time between 1245 and 1248. Louis' forces set sail from France in May 1249 and landed near Damietta in Egypt on 5 June 1249. Waiting until the end of the Nile flood, the army marched into the interior in November and by February were near El Manusra. But they were defeated near there and King Louis was captured on the retreat towards Damietta that resulted. Louis was ransomed for 800,000 bezants and a ten-year truce was agreed. Louis then went to Syria where he remained until 1254, working to solidify the kingdom of Jerusalem and constructing fortifications.

Eighth (1270)

Main article: Eighth Crusade

Ignoring his advisers, in 1270 Louis IX again attacked the Arabs in Tunis in North Africa. He picked the hottest season of the year for campaigning and his army was devastated by disease. The king himself died, ending the last major attempt to take the Holy Land.

Prince Edward's (1271–1272)

Main article: Ninth Crusade

Christian states in the Levant

The future Edward I of England undertook to crusade with Louis IX, but was delayed and did not arrive in North Africa until November 1270. After the death of Louis, Edward went to Sicily, but then went on to Acre in May 1271. His forces were too small to make much difference, and he was upset at the conclusion of a truce between the king of Jerusalem, Hugh, and Baibars. Although Edward learned of his father's death and his succession to the throne in December 1272, he did not return to England until 1274, although he accomplished little in the Holy Land.

Aftermath in the Middle East and North Africa

The Mamluks, led by Baibars, eventually drove the Franks from the Holy Land. During 1265 through 1271, he had driven the Franks to a few small coastal outposts. With the fall of Tripoli in 1289, and Acre in 1291, the mainland Crusading states disappeared.

Further crusading efforts lingered into the 14th century. The Alexandrian Crusade of October 1365 was a minor seaborne crusade against Muslim Alexandria led by Peter I of Cyprus. His motivation was at least as commercial as religious. It succeeded in capturing and sacking Alexandria, although the crusaders did not stay in Alexandria. The Mahdian Crusade of Summer 1390 was a French-Genoese enterprise against Muslim pirates in North Africa and their main base at Mahdia led by Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. After a ten week siege, the crusaders lifted their siege with the signing of a ten-year truce.

European crusades

A number of crusades were called by the papacy against targets in Europe. Some of these were political opponents of the papacy, others were heretical movements, and some were conquering movements against both non-Christian and Christian peoples and states on the fringes of Europe.

Reconquista

Main article: Reconquista

Although the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims began before the preaching of the First Crusade, with a notable success being the recapture of Toledo in 1085, when Urban II called the First Crusade, he also tied in the ongoing wars in Spain to the crusading effort. But until a papal encyclical of 1123, put out by Pope Calixtus II that these wars attained the status of crusades. After this, the papacy declared Iberian crusades in 1147, 1193, 1197, 1210, 1212, 1221 and 1229. Crusading privileges were also given to those helping the military orders - both the traditional Templars and Hospitallers as well as the specifically Iberian orders that were founded and eventually merged into two main orders - that of the Order of Calatrava and the Order of Santiago. From 1212 to 1265, the Spanish kingdoms drove the Muslims into the far south of the Iberian Peninsula, confining them to a small emirate of Granada. In 1492, this remnant was conquered and Muslims and Jews expelled from the peninsula.

Political Crusades

In November 1199 Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against his political opponent Markward of Anweiler in Sicily. Only a few people took part, and the need for the crusade ended in 1202 when Markward died. This is generally considered the first of the "political crusades" Between 1232 and 1234, there was a crusade against the Stedingers. It was proclaimed against peasants who refused to pay tithes to the Archbishop of Bremen. The archbishop excommunicated them, and Pope Gregory IX declared a crusade in 1232. The peasants lost the Battle of Altenesch on 27 May 1234 and were destroyed.

Emperor Frederick II was the object of several political crusades called by a number of popes. The first occurred in 1240 when Pope Gregory IX deposed and preached a crusade against Frederick, who was the papacy's opponent in Italy. A further crusade against Frederick was called in 1248 by Pope Innocent IV. This crusade was transferred in 1250 to Frederick's son, Conrad IV, with Frederick's death, although little was accomplished with this effort. Further crusades were called against Frederick's illegitimate son Manfred, King of Sicily, from 1255 through 1266. The papacy again preached a crusade against Conrad's son, Conradin, in 1268 with the urging of Charles of Anjou.

Two crusades appear to have been called against political opponents of King Henry III of England - one from 1215 to 1217 and the other from 1263 to 1265. The first episode enjoyed the same privileges as those given to crusaders on the Fifth Crusade. The second episode got as far as having papal legates being dispatched to England with the power to declare crusade against Simon de Montfort, but Montfort's death in 1265 ended this crusading effort. Another English crusade was the Norwich Crusade of 1383, also called Despenser's crusade, which was a military expedition led by Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, that aimed to assist the city of Ghent in their struggle against the supporters of Antipope Clement VII. It is regarded in hindsight as an extension of the Hundred Years War, rather than a purely religious enterprise.

Further political crusades took place against the Byzantines who had been expelled from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. With their recapture of the city in 1261, crusades were called by the papacy from 1262 through 1281 to drive the Greeks back out of Constantinople, with little result. The Aragonese Crusade, or Crusade of Aragón, was declared by Pope Martin IV against King Peter III of Aragon, in 1284 and 1285. Peter was supporting the anti-Angevin forces in Sicily following the Sicilian Vespers, and the papacy supported Charles of Anjou. Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed a crusade against Frederick, the younger brother of Peter, in 1298, but was unable to prevent Frederick's crowning and recognition as King of Sicily.

Crusades against heretics

Main article: Albigensian Crusade

Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians (left), Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders (right)

The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1208 to eliminate the heretical Cathars of Occitania (southern modern-day France). It was a decades-long struggle that had as much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control southwards as it did with heresy. In the end, the Cathars were driven underground and the independence of southern France was eliminated.

Pope Honorius III called a crusade against supposed Cathar heretics in Bosnia. There were rumors that there was an anti-pope of the Cathars named Nicetas, although whether such a figure ever existed is unclear. Hungarian forces responded to the papal calls in two efforts in 1234 and 1241, with the second one ending because of the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241. The Bosnian church was Catholic in theology but continued in schism with the Roman Catholic Church well past the end of the Middle Ages.

The battle between the Hussite warriors and the Crusaders, Jena Codex, 15th century

The Hussite Crusade(s), also known as the "Hussite Wars," or the "Bohemian Wars," involved the military actions against the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1420 to around 1431. Crusades were declared five times in that period - in 1420, 1421, 1422, 1427 and in 1431. The net effect of these expeditions was to force the Hussite forces, which disagreed on many doctrinal points, to unite to drive out the invaders. The wars were brought to a conclusion in 1436 with the ratification of the Compactata of Iglau by the Church.

In April 1487, Pope Innocent VIII called a crusade against the Waldensian heretics of Savoy, the Piedmont, and the Dauphiné in southern France and northern Italy. The only efforts actually undertaken were against heretics in the Dauphiné, and resulted in little change.

Popular lower class crusades

Main article: Shepherds' Crusade

Three crusading efforts among the peasants appeared in the middle 1250s and again in the early 1300s. The first, in 1251, was preached in northern France and after meeting with Blanche of Castile became disorganized and had to be disbanded by the government. The second, in 1309, occurred in England, northeastern France, and Germany, and had as many as 30,000 peasants arriving at Avignon before being disbanded. The last one, in 1320, had similar origins as the first shepherds' crusade, but quickly turned into a series of attacks on clergy and Jews, and was forcibly dispersed.

In the Balkans

To counter the expanding Ottoman Empire, several crusades were launched in the 15th century. The earliest was the Crusade of Nicopolis in 1396 organized by Sigismund of Luxemburg, king of Hungary. Many French nobles joined Sigismund's forces, including John the Fearless, son of the Duke of Burgundy, who was appointed the military leader of the crusade. Although Sigismund advised the crusaders to adopt a defensive posture once they reached the Danube, the crusaders instead besieged the city of Nicopolis. The Ottomans met the crusaders in the Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396, defeating the Christian forces and capturing 3,000 prisoners. A further Balkan crusade was the Crusade of Varna in 1444 led by the Polish-Hungarian king, Władysław Warneńczyk. The crusading force invaded Ottoman territory and reached Belgrade in January 1444. Negotiations over a truce eventually led to an agreement, that was repudiated by Sultan Murad II within days of its ratification. Further efforts by the crusaders ended in the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444 which, although resulting in a draw between the two forces, led to the crusaders withdrawing. This withdrawal led to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, as it was the last Western attempt to help the Byzantine Empire. Yet another crusade was that of 1456 organized to lift the Siege of Belgrade. It was led by John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano and resulting in the lifting of the Ottoman siege of Belgrade.

Northern crusades

Main article: Northern Crusades

Wendish

Contemporaneous with the Second Crusade, Saxons and Danes fought against Polabian Slavs in the 1147 Wendish Crusade, sometimes called the First Northern Crusade. The Wends defeated the Danes and the Saxons did not contribute much to the crusade. The Wends did acknowledge the overlordship of the Saxon ruler, Henry the Lion. Further crusading actions continued although no papal bulls were issued calling new crusades. Efforts to conquer the Wends began again in 1160 under Henry the Lion, continuing until 1162, when the Wends were defeated at the Battle of Demmin.

Baltic Sea crusades

Livonian Brothers of the Sword

A German religious and military order originally founded (1190) during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade and modeled after the Knights Templar and Hospitalers, the Teutonic Knights moved to eastern Europe early in the 13th century.^{[citation needed]} Besides the Teutonic Knights, other orders were founded to crusade in Northern Europe, including the Livonian Sword Brothers, who were founded in 1202. The Livonian Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III against the Livonians who were mostly still pagan. The Livonians were conquered and converted between 1202 and 1209. A crusade against the Prussians was called by Pope Honorius III in 1217.

Konrad of Masovia gave Chelmno to the Teutonic Knights in 1226 to serve the knights as a base for crusades against the Prussians, In 1236 the Livonian Sword Brothers were defeated by the Lithuanians at Saule, and in 1237 Pope Gregory IX merged the remaining Sword Brothers into the Teutonic Knights. In 1240 the Battle of the Neva was fought, where the Swedes, attempting to extend the northern crusades to the Russians, were defeated. By 1249, the Teutonic Knights had completed their conquest of the Prussians, which they ruled as a fief of the German emperor. The Knights then moved on to conquer and convert the pagan Lithuanians, a process that lasted into the 1380s.

The Teutonic Order's attempts to conquer Orthodox Russia (particularly the Republics of Pskov and Novgorod), an enterprise endorsed by Pope Gregory IX, can also be considered as a part of the Northern Crusades. One of the major blows for the idea of the conquest of Russia was the Battle of the Ice in 1242.

Swedish

Swedish crusaders in Finland

National-romanticist Swedish and Finnish historians in the nineteenth century gave the name "crusades" to military expeditions which resulted in the Swedish conquest of Finland. The First Swedish Crusade, considered mythical by some historians, may have taken place around 1155. It resulted in the conversion of the Suomi peoples of southern Finland. The Second Swedish Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Gregory IX in 1237 and took place between 1238 and 1239 under the leadership of Birger Jarl. Another crusade, against the Karelians, was authorized by Pope Alexander VI, but came to nothing. The Third Swedish Crusade was led by Torgils Knutsson and was against Novgorod.

Role of women

Women at home were intricately connected with the crusade movement by aiding the recruitment of crusading men, taking on extra duties in their absence, and supporting them financially and with prayer.^{[citation needed]} Their encouragement and familial ties created kinship connections which made the prospect of taking the cross more appealing for those risking their lives. Arguably the most significant role that women played in the West during the crusades was their preservation of the home. The best known example is of Adela of Blois, wife of Stephen of Blois whose correspondence with her husband while he was on Crusade and she was at home managing his fief has survived in part. It appears she was rather more keen on his crusading than he was. Men could journey to the Holy Land without having to worry about their home because regents, often wives or mothers, were in charge of their estates and families. The Church recognised that concern about their families and estates might discourage crusaders, however, so they instituted special papal protections for them as part of the crusading privilege.

Even though most women showed their support for the crusades at home, some women took the cross themselves to go on the crusade.^{[citation needed]} Aristocratic women who joined the movement often found that they had new positions of authority they did not have in the West.^{[citation needed]} Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wealthy queen of France and the wife of king Louis VII, took the cross from St. Bernard of Clairvaux on Easter Sunday 1145 to join her husband. Another woman who had ultimate political power in the East was Melisende of Jerusalem, who under law gained hereditary rights to the crown upon her husband's death.^{[citation needed]} Like Eleanor, Melisende never led troops into battle, but she did participate in acts of political diplomacy. Less successful was her granddaughter Sibylla of Jerusalem, whose choice of husband had been a crucial political issue since her childhood. Her second marriage to Guy of Lusignan made him the king-consort on the death of Baldwin IV, with disastrous results.^{[citation needed]} While most women were there to help and care for the crusading men by bringing them water or raising their spirits by offering emotional support, there were women who had specific tasks which defined their feminine characteristics like the washerwoman.

The most controversial role that women had in the crusades was taking an active part, which threatened their femininity. Accounts are contradictory. The accounts of women fighting come mostly from Muslim historians whose aim was to portray Christian women as barbaric and ungodly because of their acts of killing.^{[citation needed]} The contrasting view from Christian accounts portray women fighting only in emergency situations for the preservation of the camps and their own lives. In these cases women are seen as more feminine while behaving like "proper women".

Criticism

Elements of the Crusades were criticised by some contemporaries. For example, Roger Bacon felt the Crusades were not effective because, "those who survive, together with their children, are more and more embittered against the Christian faith." Nevertheless the movement was widely supported in Europe long after the fall of Acre in 1291.

From the fall of Acre forward, the Crusades to recover Jerusalem and the Christian East were largely lost. Later, 18th century Enlightenment thinkers judged the Crusaders harshly. Likewise, some modern historians in the West expressed moral outrage. In the 1950s, Sir Steven Runciman wrote that "High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed ... the Holy War was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God". Against this, historian Thomas F. Madden has argued that the Crusades were "the West's belated response to the Muslim conquest of fully two-thirds of the Christian world".

One aspect of the crusades that shocked some easterners was the formation in the west of military religious orders. This violated canon law.^{[citation needed]} The Byzantines also complained that the Crusaders broke their promise to return lands that had once belonged to Byzantium, but failed to do so.

In the Enlightenment historians criticized the misdirection of the crusading movement. In particular they pointed to the Fourth Crusade which instead of attacking Islam attacked another Christian power - the (Eastern) Roman Empire. David Nicolle says the Fourth Crusade has always been controversial in terms of the "betrayal" of Byzantium.

Legacy

Historiography

Main article: Historiography of the Crusades

During the Reformation and Counter-Reformation of the 16th centuries, historians saw the Crusades through the prism of their own religious beliefs. Protestants saw the crusades as a manifestation of the evils of the papacy, while Catholics viewed the crusading movement as a force for good. During the Enlightenment, historians tended to view both the Crusades and the entire Middle Ages as the efforts of barbarian cultures driven by fanaticism. By the 19th century, with the dawning of Romanticism, this harsh view of the Crusades and its time period was mitigated somewhat, with later 19th century crusade scholarship focusing on increasing specialization of study and more detailed works on subjects. The 20th century saw three important works covering the entire history of the crusades - those of Rene Grousset, Steven Runciman, and the multi-author work edited by K. M. Stetton. The 20th century also saw the development of the pluralist view of crusading, that saw the Crusades as not just confined to the Holy Land but inclusive of all papal-led efforts whether in the Middle East or in Europe.

Politics and culture

20th century depiction of a victorious Saladin

The Crusades influenced the attitude of the western Church and people towards warfare. The frequent calling of crusades habituated the clergy to the use of violence. The crusades also sparked debate about the legitimacy of taking lands and possessions from pagans on purely religious grounds that would arise again in the 15th and 16th centuries with the Age of Discovery. The needs of crusading warfare also stimulated secular governmental developments, although this was not always a totally positive development. The resources collected for crusading could have been used by the developing states for local and regional needs instead of in far away lands.

The crusades impacted the papacy in a number of ways. Although they did raise the prestige of the papacy, the sheer effort required to support the crusaders took away resources that might have been better employed elsewhere. The crusades did increase the control of the papal curia over the entire western Church, by extending the system of papal taxation throughout the whole ecclesiastical structure of the west. The crusades also stimulated the development of the indulgence system that grew greatly in extent in late medieval Europe, later to spark the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s.

The military experiences of the crusades had a limited degree of influence on European castle design; for example, Caernarfon Castle, in Wales, begun in 1283, directly reflects the style of fortresses Edward I had observed while fighting in the Crusades. The crusades otherwise seem to have had little effect on military tactics or organization, mainly because it was difficult to transfer the lessons that were learned in the Holy Land to the different terrain and fighting styles of Europe.

The Northern Crusades caused great loss of life among the pagan Polabian Slavs, and they consequently offered little opposition to German colonization (known as Ostsiedlung) of the Elbe-Oder region and were gradually assimilated by the Germans, with the exception of Sorbs.^{[citation needed]} The First Crusade ignited a long tradition of organized violence against Jews in European culture. The Albigensian Crusade was initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc. The violence led to France's acquisition of lands with closer cultural and linguistic ties to Catalonia. The Albigensian Crusade also had a role in the creation and institutionalization of both the Dominican Order and the Medieval Inquisition.

Trade

The need to raise, transport and supply large armies led to a flourishing of trade throughout Europe. Roads largely unused since the days of Rome saw significant increases in traffic as local merchants began to expand their horizons. This was not only because the Crusades prepared Europe for travel, but also because many wanted to travel after being reacquainted with the products of the Middle East. This also aided in the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, as various Italian city-states from the very beginning had important and profitable trading colonies in the crusader states, both in the Holy Land and later in captured Byzantine territory.

Increased trade brought many things to Europeans that were once unknown or extremely rare and costly. These goods included a variety of spices, ivory, jade, diamonds, improved glass-manufacturing techniques, early forms of gunpowder, oranges, apples, and other Asian crops, and many other products.

Etymology and usage

The crusades were never referred to as such by their participants. The original crusaders were known by various terms, including fideles Sancti Petri (the faithful of Saint Peter) or milites Christi (knights of Christ). They saw themselves as undertaking an iter, a journey, or a peregrinatio, a pilgrimage, though pilgrims were usually forbidden from carrying arms.^{[citation needed]} The word "crusade" first appears in the L'Histoire des Croisades written by A. de Clermont and published in 1638. By 1750, the various forms of the word "crusade" had established themselves in English, French and German. The Oxford English Dictionary records its first use in English as occurring in 1757 by William Shenstone.

Like pilgrims, each crusader swore a vow (a votus), to be fulfilled on successfully reaching Jerusalem, and they were granted a cloth cross (crux) to be sewn into their clothes. This "taking of the cross", the crux, eventually became associated with the entire journey; the word "crusade" (coming into English from the Medieval French croisade and Spanish cruzada).

See also

• History of the Jews and the Crusades
• List of Crusader castles
• Art of the Crusades
• Crusade cycle
• List of principal Crusaders

References

• Asbridge, Thomas (2011). The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land. Ecco. ISBN 978-0-06-078729-5. 
• Asbridge, Thomas (2005). The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518905-6. 
• Barber, Malcolm (1992). The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050–1320. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09682-0. 
• Brand, Charles M. (April 1962). "The Byzantines and Saladin, 1185–1192: Opponents of the Third Crusade". Speculum 37 (2): 167–181. doi:10.2307/2849946. JSTOR 2849946. 
• Bréhier, Louis (1908). "Crusades". Catholic Encyclopedia 4. 
• Bull, Marcus (1999). "Origins". In Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 15–34. ISBN 0-19-280312-3. 
• Dickson, Gary (2008). The Children's Crusade: Medieval History, Modern Mythistory. Palgrave Macmillan. 
• Edington, Susan B. and Lambert, Sarah (2002). Gendering the Crusades. New York: Columbia University Press. 
• Esposito, John L. What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam. 
• Hindley, Geoffrey. The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy. New York: Carrol & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1344-5. 
• Hodgson, Natasha (2007). Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative. Boydell. 
• Holt, P. M. (1983). "Saladin and His Admirers: A Biographical Reassessment". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 46 (2): 235–239. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00078824. JSTOR 615389. 
• Housley, Norman (2006). Contesting the Crusades. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1189-5. 
• Jackson, Peter (2007). The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254. 
• Kolbaba, T. M. (2000). The Byzantine Lists: Errors of the Latins. University of Illinois. 
• Lewis, Richard D. (2005). Finland: Cultural Lone Wolf. Intercultural Press. ISBN 978-1-931930-49-9. 
• Lock, Peter (2006). Routledge Companion to the Crusades. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-39312-4. 
• Madden, Thomas F. (2005). The New Concise History of the Crusades. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3822-1. 
• Mayer, Hans Eberhard (1988). The Crusades (Second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-873097-7. 
• Munro, Dana Carleton (January 1906). "The Speech of Pope Urban II at Clermont, 1095". American Historical Review 11 (2): 231–242. doi:10.2307/1834642. JSTOR 1834642. 
• Nelson, Laura N. The Byzantine Perspective of the First Crusade. 
• Nicholson, Helen (1997). "Women on the Third Crusade". Journal of Medieval History 23 (4): 335. doi:10.1016/S0304-4181(97)00013-4. 
• Nicolle, David (2007). Crusader Warfare Volume II: Muslims, Mongols and the Struggle against the Crusades. 
• Nicolle, David (2003). The First Crusade 1066–99: Conquest of the Holy Land. Campaign. Wellingborough, UK: Osprey. ISBN 1-84176-515-5. 
• Nicolle, David (2011). The Fourth Crusade 1202–04: The Betrayal of Byzantium. Osprey Publishing. 
• Pringle, Denys (1999). "Architecture in Latin East". In Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 155–175. ISBN 0-19-280312-3. 
• Owen, Roy Douglas Davis (1993). Eleanor of Aquitaine : Queen and Legend. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. 
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1990). The Atlas of the Crusades. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-2186-4. 
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2005). The Crusades: A Short History (Second ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10128-7. 
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1997). The First Crusaders 1096–1131. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. 
• Rose, Karen (2009) "The Order of the Knights Templar"
• Runciman, Steven (1951). A History of the Crusades: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades (reprinted 1987 ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Strayer, Joseph Reese (1992)). The Albigensian Crusades. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06476-2. 
• Strayer, Joseph R. (1969). "The Crusades of Louis IX". In Wolff, R. L. and Hazard, H. W. The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. pp. 487–521. 
• Tyerman, Christopher (1988). England and the Crusades, 1095–1588. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-82013-0. 
• Tyerman, Christopher (2006). God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-067402387-1. 
• Vasilʹev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1952). History of the Byzantine Empire: 324–1453. University of Wisconsin Press. 
• Villegas-Aristizábal, L. (2009). "Anglo-Norman involvement in the conquest of Tortosa and Settlement of Tortosa, 1148–1180". Crusades (8): 63–129. 
• Wickham, Chris (2009). The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400–1000. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311742-1. 
• Zacour, Norman P. (1969). "The Children's Crusade". In Wolff, R. L. and Hazard, H. W. The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. pp. 325–342. 

Further reading

Introductions

• Andrea, Alfred J. Encyclopedia of the Crusades. (2003)
• Asbridge, Thomas. The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam (2005)
• France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300 (1999)
• Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives. (2000)
• Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. (1986)
• Phillips, Jonathan. Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (2010)
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed. The Atlas of the Crusades (1991)
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (2011)

Specialized studies

• Boas, Adrian J. Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades: Society, Landscape, and Art in the Holy City under Frankish Rule (2001)
• Bull, Marcus, and Norman Housley, eds. The Experience of Crusading Volume 1, Western Approaches. (2003)
• Constable, Giles. "The Historiography of the Crusades" in Angeliki E. Laiou, ed. The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (2001)
• Edbury, Peter, and Jonathan Phillips, eds. The Experience of Crusading Volume 2, Defining the Crusader Kingdom. (2003)
• Florean, Dana. "East Meets West: Cultural Confrontation and Exchange after the First Crusade." Language & Intercultural Communication, 2007, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp. 144–151
• Folda, Jaroslav. Crusader Art in the Holy Land, From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre (2005)
• France, John. Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (1996)
• Harris, Jonathan. Byzantium and the Crusades. (2003)
• Hillenbrand, Car. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (1999)
• Housley, Norman. The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar (1992)
• James, Douglas. "Christians and the First Crusade." History Review (Dec 2005), Issue 53
• Kagay, Donald J., and L. J. Andrew Villalon, eds. Crusaders, Condottieri, and Cannon: Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean. (2003)
• Maalouf, Amin. Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1989)
• Madden, Thomas F. ed. The Crusades: The Essential Readings (2002)
• Madden, Thomas F. et al., eds. Crusades Medieval Worlds in Conflict (2010)
• Peters, Edward. Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198–1229 (1971)
• Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213–1221, (1986)
• Queller, Donald E., and Thomas F. Madden. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (2nd ed. 1999)
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan.The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. (1986)
• Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: Volume 2, The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East (1952) vol 2 online free; A History of the Crusades: Volume 3, The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades (1954); the classic 20th century history
• Setton, Kenneth ed., A History of the Crusades. (1969–1989), the standard scholarly history in six volumes, published by the University of Wisconsin Press

Includes: The first hundred years (2nd ed. 1969); The later Crusades, 1189–1311 (1969); The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (1975); The art and architecture of the crusader states (1977); The impact of the Crusades on the Near East (1985); The impact of the Crusades on Europe (1989)

• Smail, R. C. "Crusaders' Castles of the Twelfth Century" Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 10, No. 2. (1951), pp. 133–149.
• Stark, Rodney. God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades (2010)
• Tyerman, Christopher. England and the Crusades, 1095–1588. (1988)

Primary sources

• Barber, Malcolm, Bate, Keith (2010). Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th-13th Centuries (Crusade Texts in Translation Volume 18, Ashgate Publishing Ltd)
• Housley, Norman, ed. Documents on the Later Crusades, 1274–1580 (1996)
• Krey, August C. The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants (1958)
• Shaw, M. R. B. ed.Chronicles of the Crusades (1963)
• Villehardouin, Geoffrey, and Jean de Joinville. Chronicles of the Crusades ed. by Sir Frank Marzials (2007)

External links

• The Crusades, a virtual college course through Boise State University ed. by E. L. Knox.
• Crusades: A Guide to Online Resources, Paul Crawford, 1999.
• The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East—an international organization of professional Crusade scholars
• De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History—contains articles and primary sources related to the Crusades
• Resources > Medieval Jewish History > The Crusades The Jewish History Resource Center – Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem