Stuff You Don’t Really Want To Know (But For Some Reason Have To) About The Crusades
Three Big Things:
1. The Crusades began as a response to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I’s request for military aid, but quickly evolved into a quest to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims – but with politics, greed, and even a little genuine religious conviction thrown into the mix.
2. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) never reached the Holy Land because the Crusaders were diverted to attack Constantinople instead – the capital of the Byzantine Empire which had first reached out to the west for help. Not surprisingly, this was a major blow to the already shaky relations between Eastern and Western Christianity.
3. After nearly two centuries of largely futile bloodshed, the Crusades ended up connecting the East and West in unprecedented ways – introducing new trade goods, technologies, and ideas which left the West eager for more positive interactions.
Introduction
“The Crusades” have become a rhetorical device and loaded historical allusion for a wide range of social and political ideologies. Those leaning conservative tend to bust them out in the most glorified terms, as an example of passion and devoutness to which modern believers would do well to aspire. Those less interested in holy wars (literal or otherwise) cite them just as often as condemnation – an easy allusion suggesting misguided and destructive passions.
They were both, of course – but also lots of other things as well. To begin with, there were eight or nine separate Crusades, depending on how they’re counted, and in many of these, people participated for a wide variety of reasons and with very different understandings of just what was happening and why. The most recurring themes were a desire to earn God’s favor, limited concern with who or what they actually attacked or destroyed to do so, and a mother lode of one of history’s favorite schemes: “unintended consequences.”
Background: Europe in the 11th Century
To understand why thousands of Europeans suddenly decided to march to the Middle East, you need to understand what life was like in medieval Europe. The short version is, “pretty terrible” – like, bad enough that even the people living it were starting to notice that things didn’t seem to be going very well.
The year 1000 had passed without the world ending, and Europe was gradually emerging from what historians call the “Early Medieval Period” but casual history still loves to identify (perhaps unfairly) as “The Dark Ages.” The Roman Empire was a distant memory, and most political authority was fragmented among local lords and kings.
The majority of people were peasants bound to the land they worked. Life expectancy was low, and entertainment options were limited. The Catholic Church had become the only institution with widespread organization and authority, owning vast amounts of land and collecting taxes called “tithes.” The Church provided structure, traditions and rituals, and some sense of “meaning” to it all – not to mention the security that comes from shared terror of damnation. Still, the system seemed to be working much better for the Church than it was for almost everyone else.
The Setup: A Call for Help
In 1095, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I found himself in serious trouble. The Seljuk Turks had been conquering Byzantine territory, and Alexius needed military assistance. He sent a request to Pope Urban II, asking for some European knights to help defend Christian lands.
While slightly surprising, given that the Byzantines and western Rome hadn’t been on the best of terms for several centuries, it was nevertheless a reasonable request that produced unreasonable (and largely unpredictable) results.
Pope Urban II saw an opportunity to address several problems simultaneously. Europe was full of unemployed knights who spent most of their time fighting each other. The Church faced various political challenges. And Urban himself was dealing with rival claimants to papal authority. Why not redirect all this martial energy eastward? The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy – in this case, the Muslims.
The Pitch: Urban’s Appeal
In November 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a powerful speech at the Council of Clermont. He described Muslim conquests of Christian lands and called for a holy war to reclaim Jerusalem. But Urban also offered compelling incentives: anyone who died in this cause would receive “plenary indulgence” – basically a “Get Out of Purgatory Free” card – as well as Church protection for their property and families.
The response was overwhelming. People began sewing crosses onto their clothing (hence “Crusade,” from the Latin crux), and within months, tens of thousands were eager to march east.
Unfortunately, enthusiasm and preparation turned out to be very different things.
The Peasants’ Crusade: Good Intentions, Poor Execution
Before the official First Crusade began, a preacher named Peter the Hermit convinced thousands of peasants and commoners to depart immediately for the Holy Land. This “People’s Crusade” (more commonly referred to as the “Peasants’ Crusade”) was well-intentioned but tragically under-equipped.
Peter’s followers had no military training, insufficient supplies, and little understanding of the journey ahead. Their trek across Europe became a disaster, marked by attacks on Jewish communities and conflicts with local populations – meaning they set out to refute the Muslim hordes, but ended up butchering a bunch of Jews and other Christians instead. (It’s not clear how this impacted their “plenary indulgence” vouchers.)
When they finally did reach Constantinople, Emperor Alexius quickly realized these weren’t the professional soldiers he’d requested. Still, they were here, and while he couldn’t fault their enthusiasm neither could he rely on them in actual warfare. Alexius made the pragmatic (if a bit coldhearted) decision to point them towards the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia (the region which will become the Ottoman Empire and is now pretty much Turkey) and encourage them to holy war themselves to glorious deaths.
Which they did.
The handful of survivors who found their way back to Europe had some rather sobering tales of what lay ahead for the actual Crusaders.
The First Crusade: Unexpected Success
The official First Crusade began in 1096, led by experienced nobles with actual armies. The main forces were commanded by leaders like Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, and Raymond of Toulouse. They weren’t that worried about the tales which had returned with the remnants of the Peasants’ Crusade. They had fancy shields with crosses on them, and horses, and honor, and swords and such. Scary Turks? Pshaw!
The journey to the Holy Land took two years, which was a bit longer than planned. The trip itself claimed numerous lives through disease, starvation, and sporadic warfare – sometimes with locals who refused to provide sufficient food or transportation, sometimes with the aforementioned Seljuk Turks, and sometimes among themselves when various factions couldn’t agree on exactly who was in charge, where they were going, or what cool team names they should use.
Fortunately for the Crusaders, the Islamic world was having some schisms of its own at the time. The Fatimid Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, and various Seljuk rulers were fighting each other as much as they fought the invaders. Finally, in 1099, after a brutal five-week siege, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. The aftermath was horrific, with widespread massacre of the city’s inhabitants regardless of religion. Muslims, Jews, Eastern Christians – contemporary accounts describe streets literally overflowing with blood. There was none of that woke “spare the women and children” stuff, either – everyone and everything that moved was cut down.
The Crusader States: From Colonization to Assimilation
The Crusaders set up several states in the freshly conquered territories – essentially planting European colonies in the Middle East. Not surprisingly, they were constantly threatened by hostile neighbors and repeatedly pleading for reinforcements from home.
Over time, however, many former Crusaders began adapting to local customs, learning Arabic and adjusting to the rich culture all around them. Some formed pragmatic alliances with Muslim leaders or used their familiarity with the west to create or expand trade networks connecting the regions. This “cultural diffusion” is something we see over and over in world history, and usually results in better trade, better technology, and better relationships. Once that happens, it becomes increasingly difficult to muster any enthusiasm for destroying the infidel – especially when his real name is Ahmad and he knows where to get the best silk at great prices as long as you don’t ask too many questions.
The Second Crusade (1147-1149): With Friends Like These…
One of these Crusader states, Edessa (located in what today is southeastern Turkey), was retaken by the Muslims in 1144. This prompted the Second Crusade, which – thanks to the dual leadership of Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany – promised to be even more awesome than the glorified tales told about the First Crusade five decades before.
It was not. The armies split up and took different routes, making it much easier for defenders to overwhelm each group with superior force before moving on to the next. Conrad’s German forces were decimated by the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia before they even reached the Holy Land.
Louis’s French army barely made it to Antioch (southern Turkey), where they intended to meet up with Raymond, uncle of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Louis’s wife) to retake Edessa. At this point, some serious reality TV drama took place between Louis and Eleanor. While details are murky, it appears that Louis became convinced that Eleanor and Raymond were having their own “strategy sessions” when he wasn’t around – which was scandalous for a variety of reasons (above and beyond the close family relationship) too messy to try to unravel here.
True or not, Louis lost interest in working with Raymond and decided to head for the Holy Land (Jerusalem) instead. There, he was somehow persuaded to attack Damascus – an ally of the surviving Crusader states against the Muslims trying to kick them out. Whether this was a result of the internal political dynamics of Crusader nobles starting to enjoy their pockets of power across Jerusalem or some other motivation lost to history, this was a terrible idea. Besides being one of the Crusaders strongest allies in the region, Damascus was heavily fortified and had plenty of resources.
Louis’s siege failed miserably after only a few days (which is almost hard to do no matter how badly you set it up). The attack alienated Damascus, which promptly allied itself with Nur al-Din, the guy who’d overthrown Edessa and prompted this Second Crusade in the first place. Somehow, Louis and Conrad managed to make everything much worse – and in record time.
Third Crusade (1189-1192): New Heights in Anticlimax
This is sometimes called the “star-studded” Crusade. It was called after Saladin – the most famous Muslim leader of the Crusades – recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. It included THREE of Europe’s most powerful rulers, so you’d expect bonus shenanigans with this one!
Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, drowned crossing a river in Anatolia – possibly the most anticlimactic death possible for a legendary warrior.
Philip Augustus of France and Richard the Lionheart of England hated each other and spent as much time scheming against one another as fighting Muslims. They did manage to work together long enough to capture Acre, a port city along the Mediterranean in what is now Israel. Philip decided that was enough for him and headed home, leaving Richard to carry on.
Richard actually did quite well for a bit. He was a skilled tactician and won several major battles, but he simply didn’t have enough troops to retake Jerusalem. Instead, he negotiated a three-year truce that allowed Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem while the city remained under Muslim control.
There’s more of that “real progress coming without the need for violence” that makes history so much less fun.
Richard only spent a few months in the Holy Land but nevertheless managed to add “the Crusader King” to his list of monikers. Then again, his accomplishments did stack up pretty well when compared to Philip, Louis VII, and Conrad.
The Fourth Crusade: The Phantom Menace
There’s a reason it’s usually best to stop after the initial trilogy, whatever one’s larger vision. The fourth installment of the Crusades turned out to be the hardest to make sense of so far and hinged on several plot points difficult to swallow even after all these years.
This time, the plan was to attack Egypt, Saladin’s power base, rather than heading straight for the Holy Land. The Crusaders made a deal with Venice for ships to get them there, but arrived in Italy only to realize they’d left their collective wallets in their other armor and couldn’t pay.
Venice’s Doge* was elderly, blind, and had a serious grudge against Constantinople for what seems to have been a messy mix of economic, political, and personal reasons. When he discovered that the Crusaders – heavily armed and itching for action – couldn’t pay, he put on his best Brando and told them maybe they could work out an arrangement. You do me a little favor, and we’ll forget about charging you for the boats, see?
This little favor involved attacking a commercial rival of Venice in modern Croatia. These weren’t Muslims. They weren’t even Eastern Christians. These were faithful Catholics just like the Crusaders, now sacked and slaughtered as part of the latest “holy war” against, um…
Before the Crusaders could regroup and get back on track toward Egypt, they received a message from someone claiming to be the son of a deposed ruler of Byzantium who needed their help to reclaim his rightful throne. Also, he had money – which clearly they did not. This part is even messier than it sounds, but the end result was that the Crusades originally begun in response to a call for help from the Byzantine Empire ended up sacking its capital city, Constantinople. They stole priceless artifacts, destroyed irreplaceable manuscripts, and murdered civilians before setting up what they called the “Latin Empire of Constantinople” which lasted for six decades.
Needless to say, this didn’t do much to help relations between Eastern and Western Christianity. While the Crusaders were eventually pushed out, the Byzantine Empire never fully recovered. It limped along a shadow of its former self until being overrun by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, who renamed the capital city “Istanbul.”
The Remaining Crusades: Straight to DVD
The remaining Crusades followed a predictable pattern of diminishing returns.
The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) actually managed to capture the Egyptian port of Damietta, which looked promising until the Crusaders got greedy, rejected a peace offer that would have given them Jerusalem, and promptly got trapped by Nile floods.
The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229) was led by Frederick II, who was actually excommunicated at the time but managed to negotiate Jerusalem back through diplomacy rather than warfare – which made everyone angry because apparently talking wasn’t holy enough.
Louis IX of France tried twice: his Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) was another Egyptian disaster where he got captured and ransomed, while his Eighth Crusade (1270) ended when Louis died of disease in Tunisia after deciding the local ruler might convert to Christianity if he attacked them instead of Egypt or Jerusalem. (He didn’t.)
The Ninth Crusade (1271-1272) was more of a small English expedition than a real crusade, and by 1291, when the last Crusader stronghold at Acre fell to the Mamluks, the whole enterprise finally limped to its inevitable conclusion.
Each successive attempt seemed to prove that maybe God wasn’t as invested in this project as originally advertised, but it took two centuries for anyone to get the hint.
Why It Matters
The Crusades created lasting tensions between Christianity and Islam while inadvertently facilitating cultural and commercial exchange between East and West. Europeans encountered new technologies, trade goods, and ideas that would later contribute to the Renaissance and eventually the Age of Discovery. As every high-schooler should know, Columbus originally set sail thinking he could find a better route to the East in order to better facilitate trade. Much of Europe’s participation in that trade had its roots in the Crusades. Part of the problem with the existing trade routes was the substantial control exercised by the Ottomans since their conquest of Constantinople.
The Crusades also demonstrated how religious motivation could mobilize massive social movements, but also how easily such movements could be redirected toward political and economic goals. They established patterns of religious warfare and justified conquest that would influence European expansion for centuries. The repeated failures and unnecessary damage done did little to mitigate the self-righteous zeal which fueled future colonization or the destruction it brought.
Perhaps most significantly, the Crusades showed how good intentions could produce disastrous results when combined with poor planning, cultural misunderstanding, and the inevitable mixture of noble and selfish motivations that characterizes most human enterprises. They also provide a pretty good argument for taking at least one good geography class before you set out to right the world. 
*”Doge” was the title of Italy’s leader at the time – elected for life and primarily accountable to the merchant elite. Their lifetime term was supposed to make them immune to corruption. For many of you, this suddenly sheds new perspective on more recent events and the personalities involved.