The Crusades (Part 1)

Why Crusade?

It is popular these days to condemn the Crusades as an attempt to spread Christianity by force. We are given the impression that a militant Catholic Church went forth to force the gentle Muslim nations to accept Christianity at the point of the sword. Such a suggestion ignores several important historical facts - but popular opinion does not like its mythologies to be confused by facts.

The first fact we should note is that the idea of Holy War was not initially a Christian concept. It was the Muslim Creed that religious war brought glory to God and immediate entry to Paradise for the fallen.

Secondly, the Muslim nations had pressed their Jihad through Northern Africa and well into Europe long before the Crusades were dreamed of and that only the strong defence of the Carolingians had repulsed them, saving the West from being forced into Islam.

Thirdly, the Crusades were not intended to convert Muslims by force. They were intended to liberate Jerusalem from Islamic tyranny. They came partly as a result of a plea for help from the Eastern Church and because of reports of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem being persecuted by the Muslim Turks.

All of these facts do not excuse the abuses that took place on either side of the conflict but they do put the conflict into clearer perspective. Nor, of course, is any cause as simple as this. Politics were certainly involved. The Pope and the Emperor were at loggerheads over the right of Princes to invest Priests with Spiritual authority. The proclaiming of the first Crusade was influenced by that power struggle. It was a demonstration of strength on the Pope's part. There was even the hope that the divided Churches of East and West might again be united (under the Pope, of course).

The First Crusade

The first Crusade was declared at the Council of Clermont in 1095 by Pope Urban II. The Seljuk Turks were threatening the Church in the East and the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I called for help. Peter the Hermit was a pilgrim who experienced very cruel treatment at the hands of the Turks who ruled Jerusalem at this time. He was determined to stir up Christian feeling against the Turks. He received backing from Urban II. Peter went through Europe, mounted on a donkey, and preaching the Crusade. Soon the idea of a Holy War was enthusiastically taken up by the people. Urban declared the Crusade to popular acclaim.

The first wave of the Crusade was disastrous. Thousands of untrained men were slaughtered by the Turks at Nicaea. However, they were followed by trained soldiers who captured Nicaea. They carried on into Syria and eventually took Antioch in June, 1098. In 1099 the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. In the July of that year the Turkish inhabitants of Jerusalem were massacred, men women and children. By the time they realised the horror of what they had done it was too late.

A Christian, Frankish, kingdom of Jerusalem was set up but, under constant threat from Turkish forces, it lasted only about 50 years.

The Second Crusade

It was the Turkish threat to the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem that led to the raising of a second Crusade. Bernard of Clairvaux, a saintly man most famed for his beautiful hymns, was persuaded to preach this new Crusade. In 1147, two immense armies were raised, one led by the German Emperor and the other by the King of France. This time, however, the Crusade did not meet with any success at all. After their complete failure to take Damascus, the Syrian capital, the armies of the Cross, turned around and marched back home.

This, of course, left Jerusalem weaker than before and the encouraged Muslim armies, under the brilliant leadership of Saladin, marched upon Jerusalem and captured it in 1187.

The Crusade of the Three Kings

The fall of Jerusalem was the event that sparked off the third Crusade. This Crusade was led by an alliance of Richard I (Coeur-de-Lion or Lionheart) of England, Philip Augustus of France and Frederick I (Barbarossa or Red Beard) of Germany. Frederick did not even reach the Holy Land. He travelled overland but somehow managed to get drowned in the River Cydnus in Cilicia, Asia Minor.

Richard and Philip managed to reach the Holy land but quarrelled between themselves and other leaders. Philip went home to France leaving Richard to carry on alone. The Crusade was a shambles and the cost in human life was immense. When Richard reached Emmaus, only seven miles from Jerusalem, he realised that he did not have the force to recapture the Holy City. He made terms with Saladin who agreed not to allow Christian pilgrims to be molested or taxed and began his return to England.

On the way through Austria, Richard was captured by Henry VI (Frederick's son) who imprisoned him in Germany until a large sum of money could be raised in England to ransom him.