Montes,+DeVargas

= A Look Into The Crusades =

The First Crusade The First Crusade was establised to get Jerusalem back from the Muslims in 1095. the war against the Muslims became a Holy War. The people that volunteered to fight in the First Crusade were mostly Christians. The Christians wanted to reclaim Jerusalem for their belief. Those who had committed a sin thought they would be forgiven by God if they fought in the crusade. They went through a hard journey just to get to the Middle East. They could not use the Mediterranean Sea because the cursaders did not control the ports on their side of the Middle East. Therefore the Crusaders had to cross by land. They covered thousands of land on foot in the scorching heat and deep snow through mountain passes. Throught out their travel they bought food but at very expensive and unfair prices. Disease was very common because of walking and battling in the brutal landscape and also the dirty unsteril water that they were forced to drink. There were four proper Crusader armies and a bunch of smaller armies in the First Crusade, but there was no proper command structure.



The first target of the crusaders was the fortress of Nicea. The city was easily taken because the leader was away fighting. It took a seven month battle to take the next target which was Anitoch, a strongly protected Turkish city. After that it was time to take Jerusalem. The attack on Jerusalem started in the summer of 1099. Jerusalem was well defended and held off the first few attacks that the Crusaders launched. Once seighed machines were built the Crusaders were able to get over the walls of Jerusalem. Once inside they were able to open the gates and let the rest of the Crusaders in. It was said that the Crusaders "killed anyone they wished." The Muslim survivors that were spared had to go around, collecting the bodies of the dead and dump them outside of the city because the smell was unbearable.



The Second Crusade

The Second Crusade was taken by the Turks. The entire population was either slaughterd or sold into slavery. This was a big deal and it put great alarm on the entire West side, and if they should capture the little Christian state, then all of the holy places should fall into the hands of infidels. After this a man named Peter the Hermit went everywhere, trying to get the warriors of the Cross to defend the birthplace of there religion. In the meantime, two monarchs, Louis VII and Conrad III were now infected with the sacred frenzy and were leaving their empires to go protect the Holy sepulchre of Christ. ​Through all this preperation, this Crusade did not turn out to well. Only a few thousand escaped annihilation from the Turks. Louis and Conrade with the rest of their armies made a finiale attack on Damascus but had to surrender after a few days. This was the end of the Second Crusade. The strengh of both the French and the German waswasted and the crusade had accomplished nothing.



The Third Crusade The Third Crusade began in 1189 because it was an attempt to get the Holy Land back from Saladin, the leader of Egypt. Pope Gregory VIII asked for help from the kings of France and England. They agreed to help but then their feud began again. Frederick Barbarossa aslo responded to the Popes call for help. These three all fought against the Conrad of Montferrat but then they soon fought over power amongst theirselves. Phillip of France left the Holy Land because he was frustrated with Richard of England. Richard took the port of Jaffa so he could launch an attack on Jerusalem. Saladin attacked Richard but Richard won a resounding battle. Richard attempted to march on Jerusalem twice but Saladin had a strong army that turned Richard away both times. Saladin then tried to retake Jaffa but he too was turned away by Richard's army. On September 2, 1192, Saladin and Richard signed a finalized a treaty. The treaty allowed Jerusalem to stay under Muslim rule and the Christians were allowed to visit the city. This was the end of the Third Crusade.



The Fourth Crusade

In 1200 AD, Pope Innocent had the crazy idea to start asking to participate in a Fourth Crusade. He then Again started to try and take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids who ruled at that time. The Crusaders had thought that since Saladin had died in 1193 AD, it would be much easier to take it away from his successors. They had another idea too, they would not come from the north but sail to Egypt and come up from the south. The only way they were going to get enough ships to take everyone in Egypt they needed help from the Great Sea power, Venice. In 1202, the Crusaders travled to Venice to buy their ships but they did not have enough money to buy them. The Venetians did them a favor and said "okay, you can pay us later, but in exchange you have to fight for us to get back the city Zara that went over to the Hungarians a few years ago." The Crusaders agreed ,even though Zara was a Christian city. The Pope dint not agree at all and excommunicated the Crusaders at once.

After taking Zara, they were about to go and try and take Egypt but Alexius Comnenus got kicked out of power of the city of Constantinople and asked the Crusaders to help him get it back. He told them that he would pay for the rest of their Crusade. When he did they got him his throne back, he could not raise the money he had promised. Alexius then tried getting the money through new taxes but that only did worse for him. He and his father were killed and Alexius V got the throne. In 1204, the Crusaders and the Venetians sacked the city of Constantinople. A lot of the islands that belonged to the empire of Constantinople were also taken over by the Venetains. The Crusaders never had to go to Jerusalem and fight the Ayyubids. They had enough piles of money,jewels, and gold that they sacked from Constantinople and went home.



The Childrens Crusade The Childrens Crusade took part shortly after the Fourth Crusade. It started around 1212. Two groups apeared and they seemed to still have the beliefs of the First Crusade Alive. The two groups were from France and Germany, and they were off to get the Holy Land. But there was something very strange about these two groups. Because, you see, both of these two groups were made entirely up of children. You see these children thought that they were protected by God and could just go in there and take back Jerusalem. But they were wrong. It all started with a boy named Stephen if Cloyes showing up in the court of King Philip of France saying he has a letter from Christ ordering him to organise another Crusade. King Philip was not having it and told the 12 year old Stephan to come back when he was older.

Stephan had and idea of his own. So he went around preaching to other children about his letter from Christ and his idea about taking Jerusalem back. He told them that taking the waterways would be faster because they would part for them because they were protected by God. By the end Stephen had 30000 children all as followers to his ideas. Adults cheered them on along the route. It was thought that their innocence made their success a certainty.

The Children's Crusade was doomed to failure. Many children have ever walked suched a distance and seemed to much for many of them. When they got to the Mediterranean it did not part as Stephen had said, so they had to cross by ship. Opon leaving that was the last time they were heard of. Many years later a priest had claimed to have met some of the remaining survivers. Now adults. He claimed that two ships had crashed and killed everyone on board. The remaining five ships were have said to been captured by pirates and the children were sold to slavery.



Links First Crusade Edessa Alexius Comnenus

References

//THe Childern’s Crusade//. N.d. //Childern’s Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . “The Children’s Crusade.” //The Children’s Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . //The Crusades//. N.d. //map list//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . “The First Crusade.” //The First Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. . //First Crusade//. N.d. //First Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . //The First Crusade//. N.d. //fmft.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . //Fourth Crusade//. N.d. //Imagesof the Crusades//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . Nelso, Lynn H. “The First Crusade.” //Lecture of a Mediviel Survay//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. . //Popes Call for Help//. N.d. //English Monarchs//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. . “The Second Crusade.” //The Second Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2010. . //The Second Crusade//. N.d. //The Second Crusade//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. .