History of the Crusades

Introduction

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There were a series of military expeditions launched in the pursuit of religious goals. While the crusades were usually organized by the papacy, the military expeditions themselves were led by a mixture of nobles and monarchs, often lacking a formal leadership hierarchy. The crusades were started at the Council of Clermont where Pope Urban II called for the Christians in the west to defend their brethren in the east. This was framed as an armed pilgrimage and an act of penance through which one could earn salvation. Those who went on the crusade were said to have took the cross (sometimes literally with a cloth cross sown on their clothes) and the term crusade itself was derived from the word crucesignati which means "those signed by the cross"[1].

Most of the crusading energy was directed toward the area known as the Holy Land, as Jerusalem was considered a sacred city. Many crusades were launched with the purpose of capturing Jerusalem from the Muslims. The first crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem in 1099 and establishing several independent political entities in the Levant called the Crusader States. These were the Kingdom of Jerusalem, of Antioch, County of Tripoli, and the County of Edessa. The crusaders' military presence in the region continued until the fall of Acre in 1291. There are generally accepted to be nine crusades to the Holy Land, but there were other crusades launched for religious reasons.

The Crusades

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quiz

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1 The Crusades were a series of military expeditions launched in the pursuit of ________ goals.

economic
territorial
religious
political

2 The crusades were usually organized by the ________, but the military expeditions were led by nobles and monarchs.

monarchs
papacy
knights
commoners

3 The crusades were started at the Council of ________ where Pope Urban II called for the Christians to defend their brethren in the east.

Rome
Clermont
Nicaea
Constantinople

4 Those who went on the crusade were said to have took the ________.

sword
cross
shield
pilgrimage

5 The first crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem in ________.

1055
1099
1123
1187

6 The crusaders' military presence in the region continued until the fall of ________ in 1291.

Jerusalem
Acre
Antioch
Edessa


References

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  1. Madden, Thomas F. (2013). The concise history of the crusades (Third Student Edition ed.). Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-4422-1576-4. OCLC 861536788. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/861536788.