Crusades

The Wars That Lasted 200 Years

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns during the time of Medieval England against the Muslims of the Middle East. In 1076, the Muslims had captured Jerusalem - the most holy of holy places for Christians. Jesus had been born in nearby Bethlehem and Jesus had spent most of his life in Jerusalem. He was crucified on Calvary Hill, also in Jerusalem. There was no more important place on Earth than Jerusalem for a true Christian which is why Christians called Jerusalem the "City of God". However, Jerusalem was also extremely important for the Muslims as Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim faith, had been there and there was great joy in the Muslim world when Jerusalem was captured. A beautiful dome - called the Dome of the Rock - was built on the rock where Muhammad was said to have sat and prayed and it was so holy that no Muslim was allowed to tread on the rock or touch it when visiting the Dome. Therefore the Christians fought to get Jerusalem back while the Muslims fought to keep Jerusalem. These wars were to last nearly 200 years

The aftermath of the first crusade began when the commanders met on a Sunday to discuss plans. They gave orders to have the streets cleared of corpses and for the return of local Christians. The question of who should rule in Jerusalem was broached at this meeting, seemingly for the first time. No one could agree on who should be chosen as Patriarch and that decision was postponed.

The leading candidates for a governor were Raymond and Godfrey. The barons first offered to Raymond, who refused, saying that only Christ could be king in Jerusalem. They made the same offer to Godfrey, who showed an unexpected cleverness. He too declined the title of king, but he accepted the offer, taking as his title "Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre". The title of advocatus was a traditional one in northern France. An advocate was one who was given authority over a town or region by its overlord. The advocate acted on his lord's behalf until such time as the lord should return in person. Godfrey was thus able to lay claim to all the temporal authority of being a ruler of Jerusalem without threatening the theoretical superiority of the Church.

Raymond was furious. He holed up in the Tower of David and refused to yield it. He was finally persuaded to give it into the care of a bishop, but as soon as he moved out, the bishop turned it over to Godfrey. Raymond was now sure that everyone was conspiring against him. He left Jerusalem, never to return.

With Raymond gone, Arnulf Malecorne was now chosen as Patriarch of Jerusalem. He was not a particularly good choice. Most of the army liked him, but he banned all rites at the Holy Sepulchre except the Latin, alienating the local Christians, and his moral reputation was not good.

Still, Jerusalem now had its leaders. The First Crusade had been a tremendous success. It was to be the only crusade to succeed in its objectives.

The Second Crusade began when news of Edessa's fate trickled into Rome in the summer of 1145. Pope Eugenius III had just been elected when he was brought word of the disaster by Bishop Hugh of Jabala. Other delegations arrived over the summer. It was not until late fall, however, that Eugenius finally issued a crusading bull: Quantum predecessors, addressed to Louis VII and the Gauls, on 1 December 1145.

Eugenius, a little discouraged at the underwhelming response, referred the matter to Bernard of Clairvaux and commissioned Bernard to preach the crusade. He reissued the bull in March 1146.This time, there was a response.

King Conrad went home almost immediately. He had political trouble at home to tend to, and there seemed to be nothing further he could do. King Louis stayed longer. He took part in some desultory fighting, and stayed long enough to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem in 1149. Then he, too, went home. Almost none of the Crusader knights remained in the Holy Land.

The Second Crusade was an enormous undertaking. There had been crusades in Spain, activity in Portugal, and a crusade against the Slavs in Germany, all in addition to the main expedition to Palestine. Only the un-planned capture of Lisbon yielded any permanent gains.

Kings had raised armies for this. The Church had called upon all its resource, put one of its greatest preachers in the field, and had staked its reputation on the outcome.

Over the next forty years, then, there were no more crusades and few calls for one. The armed pilgrimage had not lost its allure, or the promise of remission of sins. But now, crusaders went in small bands, led by local nobles on their own initiative. Over and over, representatives came from Jerusalem to beg for large armies. What they got was an army from Brabant here, a fleet from Pisa there, and little more. Nothing coordinated and nothing on the scale needed.

Ironically, "crusading" had become what it was in theory: a pilgrimage of arms. Bands of people came to Jerusalem in order to visit the holy places and to do battle with the infidel, and then to return home again. Once in a while, someone came looking to enter the Templars, or to marry into the local nobility, but most visited for a season and then left. The Palestinian barons came to understand that they must survive largely on their own resources and through alliances with local powers.

The Third Crusade failed in its main objective: Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands. That it was regarded as a failure can be seen in the actions of Europeans: Henry VI was soon planning a new Crusade set for 1196. Henry died on the very eve of his crusade and Germany fell into civil war, but the leadership was taken up almost immediately by the new pope, Innocent III.

The English and the French were too preoccupied with their struggle against one another to try again right away, so there was no new effort from that quarter, either. Yet, the Third Crusade did succeed in a very important way: it preserved Outremer. The valiant defense of Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat could not have been kept without reinforcements from the West. And Guy's mad assault on Acre would never have succeeded without those same armies. Because of the Third Crusade, Outremer still clung to a narrow strip of cities along the coast of Lebanon and Palestine, and those cities could serve as the basis for future efforts to reclaim Jerusalem. Moreover, the victories had served as a significant counter-balance to Saladin's early victories, and he emerged from the Third Crusade not quite as invincible as he had at first appeared.

The Third Crusade also led to the acquisition of Cyprus by the Latins. This was a major addition to Outremer and one that outlasted the mainland. Its acquisition was important