Hackbarth-Proske

The Time of the Crusades

The First Crusade The first Crusade took place in Medieval England. It was an attempt to re-capture Jerusalem, the Holy Land. The Muslims who were living in Jerusalem, would not let Christians pay pilgrimage to their land. Pope Urban called for war against the Muslims because of this. He said to the knights, " Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captian, Christ." The Crusaders wore red crosses on their tunics as a symbol of who they were. The knights were volunteer fighters who were told by the Pope that they had a free ticket into heaven if they fought and died in the war. They traveled by foot for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Many of the men became sick from the long journey and lack of clean water. There was no one person who lead the first Crusade. There were four major armies in the first Crusade and other smaller ones. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem with about 70,000 people killed. The Crusades did not end here.

 The Second Crusade

The Second Crusade took place between 1147-1149. During this time, the Muslims recaptured the Christian colony, Edessa. It was taken by the Turks of Asia Minor. When the Second Crusade was taking place, both the Hospitallers and Templars military were formed. Saint Bernard, who was considered the apostle of the Second Crusade, went around everywhere to arouse the knights and people of the lands to defend the Holy Land. His preaching encouraged many people to march back into the Holy Land to recapture what they believed was truthfully theirs. Unfourtanetly for them, the Muslims had become much stronger that they were in the First Crusades and defeated the Crusaders.



The Third Crusade ​ ​The Third Crusade began when the Muslims, led by Saladin, recaptured Jerusalem. Emperor Frederick Berbarossa of Germany, King Phillip Augustus of France, and King Richard I of England united in an attempt to capture Jerusalem for the Christians. Berbarossa led the first strike, but he was killed and his army retreated. One of the major battles was the Siege of Acre, where the Crusaders attepmted to capture the Muslim city of Acre. They were successful, but it was a costly win. Ultimately, Richard I led many campaigns, but was unable to capture Jerusalem. Richard and Saladin called a truce, where Saladin agreed to allow Christian pilgrims in to the Holy Land and gave the Christians land on the coast of Israel.

The Fourth Crusade Innocent III was just elected pope and he wanted to reveive Pope Urban II's plan to unite Christianity against Islam. He decides to not attack the Holy Land, but Egypt instead since Egypt was the center of Islam at that time. To get there, he had to use Venitian ships. In exchange, he attacked Zara, a major competitor in trade and commerce to Venice. This made the pope very mad, and he excommunicated all of the Crusaders. They joined forces with the Venetians and came up with a new plan to conquer Constantinople. He proceeded to attack Constantinople, and completety massacred it. It was recorded as one of the most violent plunderings ever. They then divided Constantinople and the srrounding area up in the fuedal system, and declared Baldwin, Count of Flanders as the Emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. The empire was short lived, and Constantinople fell years later as a result of the devastation.





The Children's Crusade

The Children's Crusade happended in 1212. It was led by a twelve-year old shepherd-boy named Stephen. He thought that children could do what the adults could not do in getting back the Holy Lands. He told the king that he would get an army of children to rescue Christendom. He summoned kids around France to come and fight with him. He convinced about 30,000 children all under the age of twelve to accompany him to Marseilles. The children traveled by foot and it was a very difficult journey. Many of them died on the way there or decided to go back home. The kids soon ended up on ships that either crashed and sank or were sold into slavery. The Children's Crusade ended very badly.

 “The Crusades.” //Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters//. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. [].
 * Work Cited**

“The Crusades.” //The Middle Ages Website//. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. [].

Runciman, Steven. “The Children’s Crusade.” //The History Guide//. 28 Feb. 2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. [].

Trueman, Chris. “The First Crusade.” //History Learning Site//. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. [].

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