Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1272, an important part of the Middle Ages studied in the history course of the 6th grade. These were military-colonial wars in the countries of the Middle East under the religious slogans of the struggle of Christians against the "infidels", that is, Muslims. It is not easy to talk briefly about the crusades, since only eight are distinguished as the most important.

Causes and Reasons for the Crusades

Palestine, which belonged to Byzantium, was conquered by the Arabs in 637. It has become a place of pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims. The situation changed with the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1071 they interrupted the pilgrimage routes. The Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos in 1095 turned to the West for help. This was the reason for organizing the trip.

The reasons that motivated people to participate in a dangerous event were:

• the desire of the Catholic Church to spread influence to the East and increase wealth;
• the desire of monarchs and nobles to expand territories;
• the peasants' hopes for land and freedom;
• the desire of merchants to establish new trade relations with the countries of the East;
• religious upsurge.

In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the liberation of the holy lands from the yoke of the Saracens (Arabs and Seljuk Turks). Many knights immediately accepted the cross and proclaimed themselves warlike pilgrims. Later, the leaders of the campaign were also determined.

Rice. 1. The call of Pope Urban II to the crusaders.

Members of the Crusades

In the crusades, a group of main participants can be distinguished:

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• large feudal lords;
• small European knights;
• merchants;
• craftsmen-philistines;
• peasants.

The name "crusades" comes from the images of the cross sewn onto the clothes of the participants.

The first echelon of the crusaders was made up of the poor, led by the preacher Peter of Amiens. In 1096 they arrived in Constantinople and, without waiting for the knights, crossed over to Asia Minor. The consequences were sad. The Turks defeated the poorly armed and untrained peasant militia without difficulty.

Beginning of the Crusades

There were several crusades aimed at Muslim countries. The crusaders made their first appearance in the summer of 1096. In the spring of 1097 they crossed into Asia Minor and captured Nicaea, Antioch, and Edessa. In July 1099, the crusaders entered Jerusalem, arranging a brutal massacre of Muslims here.

On the occupied lands, the Europeans created their own states. By the 30s. 12th century the crusaders lost several cities and territories. The King of Jerusalem turned to the Pope for help, and he called on the European monarchs for a new crusade.

Main hikes

The table “Crusades” will help in systematizing the information

hike	Participants and organizers	Main goals and results
1 crusade (1096 - 1099)	Organized by Pope Urban II. Knights from France, Germany, Italy	The desire of the Roman popes to extend their power to new countries, the desire of Western feudal lords to acquire new possessions and increase incomes. Liberation of Nicaea (1097), capture of Edessa (1098), capture of Jerusalem (1099). Creation of the state of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa, the Kingdom of Jerusalem
2 crusade (1147 - 1149)	Led by Louis VII French and German Emperor Conrad III	Loss of Edessa by the crusaders (1144). Complete failure of the crusaders
3 crusade (1189 - 1192)	Headed by the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French King Philip II Augustus and the English King Richard I the Lionheart	The purpose of the campaign is to return Jerusalem, captured by the Muslims. have failed.
4th crusade (1202 - 1204)	Hosted by dad Innocent III. French, Italian, German feudal lords	The brutal sacking of Christian Constantinople. The collapse of the Byzantine Empire: the Greek states - the Kingdom of Epirus, the Nicaean and Trebizond empires. The Crusaders created the Latin Empire
Children's (1212)		Thousands of children died or were sold into slavery
5th crusade (1217 - 1221)	Duke Leopold VI of Austria, King Andrew II of Hungary, and others	A campaign was organized in Palestine and Egypt. Failed offensive in Egypt and in the negotiations on Jerusalem due to the fact that there was no unity in the leadership.
6th crusade (1228 - 1229)	German king and emperor of the Roman Empire Frederick II Staufen	March 18, 1229 Jerusalem as a result of an agreement with the Egyptian Sultan, but in 1244 the city again passed to the Muslims.
7th crusade (1248 - 1254)	French King Louis IX Saint.	Campaign to Egypt. The defeat of the crusaders, the capture of the king, followed by a ransom and return home.
8th Crusade (1270-1291)	Mongolian troops	Last and failed. The knights lost all possessions in the East, except for Fr. Cyprus. The ruin of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean

Rice. 2. Crusaders.

The second campaign took place in 1147-1149. They were led by the German Emperor Konrad III Staufen and the French King Louis VII. In 1187, Sultan Saladin defeated the crusaders and captured Jerusalem, which was recaptured by King Philip II Augustus of France, King Frederick I Barbarossa of Germany and King Richard I the Lionheart of England.

The fourth was organized against Orthodox Byzantium. In 1204, the crusaders mercilessly plundered Constantinople, massacring Christians. In 1212, 50 thousand children were sent to Palestine from France and Germany. Most of them became slaves or died. In history, the adventure is known as the "Children's Crusade".

After the report to the Pope on the fight against the heresy of the Cathars in the Languedoc region from 1209 to 1229, a series of military campaigns took place. This is the Albigensian or Cathar crusade.

The fifth (1217-1221) was the great failure of the Hungarian king Endre II. In the sixth (1228-1229) the cities of Palestine were handed over to the crusaders, but already in 1244 they finally lost Jerusalem for the second time. To save those who remained there, they proclaimed the seventh campaign. The crusaders were defeated, and the French king Louis IX was captured, where he stayed until 1254. In 1270, he led the eighth - the last and extremely unsuccessful crusade, the stage of which from 1271 to 1272 is called the ninth.

Crusades of Russia

The ideas of the crusades also penetrated the territory of Russia. One of the directions foreign policy her princes - wars with unbaptized neighbors. The campaign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1111 against the Polovtsy, who often attacked Russia, was called a crusade. In the XIII century, the princes fought with the Baltic tribes, the Mongols.

Consequences of campaigns

The crusaders divided the conquered lands into several states:

• Kingdom of Jerusalem;
• kingdom of Antioch;
• County of Edessa
• county of Tripoli.

In the states, the crusaders established feudal orders on the model of Europe. To protect their possessions in the east, they built castles and founded spiritual and knightly orders:

• hospitallers;
• templars;
• Teutons.

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Crusades- a series of military campaigns from Western Europe directed against Muslims, pagans, Orthodox states and various heretical movements.
The time of the Crusades, in the proper sense of the word, includes the XII and XIII centuries, more precisely 1096-1291.
The purpose of the first crusades was the liberation of the Holy Land, primarily Jerusalem (with the Holy Sepulcher), from the Seljuk Turks. 3
Crusades against Muslims continued for two centuries, until the very end of the 13th century. How , and Islam alike considered themselves called to dominate the whole world.
However, it should be noted that in the Middle Ages the term "Crusade" was often used to refer to any military expeditions against non-Christians, for example, pagans (as the German expansion to the east, in Slavic lands), Muslims (like the reconquista in Spain) or heretics (like the Albigensian wars). 5
What were the reasons and prerequisites for starting crusades?
The ancient Roman Empire broke up around 400 into two parts, western and eastern.

The Greek part, the Eastern Roman Empire, was called the Middle East or Orient, "land of the morning," because the sun rises in the east.
The Latin part, the Western Roman Empire, was called the Occident, or "Evening Country," because the sun sets in the west.
Today the Middle East occupies all of Asia Minor.
The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist by the end of the 5th century, while the Eastern, Byzantine, still existed and the emperor still ruled in its capital, Constantinople.

Both parts of the former large empire were located north of mediterranean sea. The northern coast of this elongated body of water was inhabited by Christians, the southern coast - by peoples professing Islam - Muslims. The latter even crossed the Mediterranean Sea and established themselves on the northern coast, in Italy, France and Spain. 2
The rapid success of Islam in the first century of its existence threatened a serious danger to European Christianity: the Arabs conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain.
The beginning of the 8th century was a critical moment: in the East, the Arabs conquered Asia Minor and threatened Constantinople, and in the West they tried to penetrate beyond the Pyrenees.
The victories of Leo the Isaurian and Charles Martel stopped the Arab expansion, and the further spread of Islam was stopped by the political disintegration of the Muslim world that began soon.
The caliphate was divided into parts that were at enmity with each other.
In the second half of the 10th century, the Byzantine Empire even got the opportunity to return some of what had been lost earlier: Nicephorus Phocas conquered Crete, part of Syria, Antioch from the Arabs.
Christian Europe, having gone through a series of acute crises, began to expand its possessions, and among its enemies, forced to cede their lands, were Muslim Arabs in Spain and Sicily.
In the 11th century, things changed again in a way that was unfavorable to Christians. The Schism took place in 1054. christian church- Catholics and Orthodox anathematized each other.
The establishment of the Turks in Palestine made the pilgrimages of Christians in holy land much more difficult, expensive and dangerous: the pilgrims were much more likely to become victims of Muslim fanaticism. The stories of the returning pilgrims developed in the religiously minded masses of Western Christianity a feeling of sorrow for the sad fate of the holy places and a strong indignation against the infidels.
Then, quite suddenly, some supernatural impulse pushed the Europeans to conquer the distant and Muslim-controlled Eastern Mediterranean, at the heart of which lay " Holy Land”, revered by Christians as the place where Christ of Nazareth lived and died.
The main military force of the crusading detachments were knights. The main means of production in the era of feudalism - the land - was in the West divided between the secular and spiritual nobility by the 11th century.
The transformation of a lifetime beneficiation into a hereditary fief led to the establishment of a certain order of land inheritance by feudal lords. Now she began to pass from the father only to the eldest son (the right of seniority, or primacy).
As a result, a large layer of knights formed in Western Europe, who did not have feuds and were eager both to capture and plunder new territories and to enslave the peasants living on them.
In addition to large and small feudal lords, representatives of the merchant elite of many cities also took part in the Crusades. The merchants of the Italian cities of Genoa and Venice played a particularly important role, striving to seize territories in Asia Minor, to eliminate Byzantium's trade rivalry and to strengthen their role as intermediaries between East and West.
The most active role in the Crusades was played by the Roman Catholic Church, which was the largest feudal owner and was interested in the military-colonization movement for the same reasons as other large feudal lords.
But the church also had its own special interests. At the time First Crusade the western and eastern churches finally separated from each other. From that moment on, the desire of the Western Church to subjugate the Eastern one was one of the main points in the program of the papacy, which wanted to put the power of the Pope above any other secular and spiritual authority.

lucky crusades to the East, the Catholic Church also hoped to increase the number of dioceses (church regions obliged to pay tithes to it) and thus increase their income.
In addition, those who went on a campaign often donated their savings to the church or gave their property under its protection.
The riches of the church as a result of this continuously grew ... 5
Leaving for a holy war, the knights "took the cross" and became crusaders. 1
One of the reasons First crusade there was a call for help, which the Byzantine emperor Alexei I turned to the Pope in March 1095. For hundreds of years, Byzantium was a stronghold of Christianity against militant Islam, but in 1071, after the defeat at Manzikert (Manzikert), it lost most of Asia Minor (limits of modern Turkey). one
“... the only important result of the Manzikert tragedy from a military point of view was that Byzantium lost its territory, which had always served as the main reserve of manpower for the empire - armies of 120 thousand people and more were recruited here.
From that moment on, Byzantium was forced to rely mainly on mercenaries in the formation of the armed forces; heavy cavalry, as a rule, was recruited from Western Europeans, infantry - from Russians and Scandinavians, light cavalry - from Pechenegs and Polovtsians.
The main regular unit of the Byzantine army became the Varangian guard; From one name it is clear that the Russians and Scandinavians served there mainly.
The most amazing thing is that the empire held out for almost four more centuries, and thanks to almost the only factor - the preserved continuity of the amazing army system and military doctrine. 5
The winners in the battle of Manzikert were the Seljuk Turks - fierce nomads who converted to Islam and became the main force in the Middle East. While the Arabs were relatively tolerant of Christian pilgrims on holy land, the new rulers immediately began to put obstacles in their way.
This was another reason for calling for crusade, with which Pope Urban II spoke in 1095 at the Council of Clermont.
Concluding the cathedral, the pope said public speech with a huge gathering. And although the exact text of the speech has not come down to us, many listeners remembered the words of the pope so much that they were able to later reproduce them from memory.
A reliable source can be considered the presentation of this speech by Fulcherius of Chartres.
"Beloved brothers! - so, according to the chronicler, the pope began his appeal. “Our first duty is to give the brothers in the East the aid so often promised and much needed. The Turks and Arabs attacked the Christians (...) and penetrate deeper and deeper into their country, they defeated them seven times in battles, they killed and captured many of them, they destroyed the churches and devastated this land.
If you do not resist now, the faithful servants of God in the East will no longer be able to withstand their onslaught.
Therefore, I ask and exhort you - not even I, but the Lord himself, through the mouth of the herald of Christ, asks and exhorts you, whether rich or poor, not delaying expelling this vile tribe from the lands where your brothers live (...)
If those who go out on this campaign lay down their lives on land or sea, or in battle against the pagans, all their sins will immediately be forgiven; By the authority that God has given me, I solemnly promise you this.” 2
Urban's speech caused a stormy response.
"Deus lo vult" - this is what God wants - the listeners cried out, according to the stories.
Aid to the Byzantines took a backseat to the return of the Holy Land, where, as Urban declared, murders, looting and the seizure of new possessions would be acceptable, since the victims would be "infidels" who had nothing more to hope for. one
In addition, there was a long-established belief in Europe regarding the “fabulous” riches of the East, which at that time stood much higher than the West in terms of its material and spiritual culture ...
Numerous pilgrims (pilgrims) who went to Jerusalem to worship the "sepulcher of the Lord", and merchants who traded with the countries of Asia Minor, visiting the cities of Byzantium, Syria and Palestine, were invariably amazed at the beauty and elegance of buildings and temples, the abundance of rich shops and markets and all kinds of goods unseen in the West.
Returning to their homeland, merchants and pilgrims brought with them stories not only about holy land, palm trees of Jericho, about the waters of the Jordan and about the “Holy Sepulcher”, but also rave reviews about the riches of the East.
Thus, in Western Europe, an opinion was formed about overseas countries full of abundance, which are not only profitable, but also easy to conquer ... 5
Calls of the Pope, frantic sermons of Peter the Hermit and others religious fanatics caused an unprecedented upsurge. In various places in France, Germany and Italy, the army of the cross was hastily equipped for the campaign.
This army did not consist of noble knights alone, their warriors and other warriors wealthy enough to buy a horse. No, they also participated in the campaign cross-inspired peasants and poorly armed townspeople, men and women.
They did not have the money to properly arm themselves for such a campaign, but the fantastic stories about Jerusalem and the expectation of rich booty completely replaced the fear of what awaited them in the future.
Thousands of people spontaneously gathered in detachments and moved forward, robbing, killing Jews and wreaking havoc on their way.
One of his contemporaries writes in this way about the reasons that made crusaders to leave their homes: “They pursued different goals. Some went camping out of curiosity because they wanted to see new countries.
Others were driven by need; wanting to end the poverty that reigned in their home, they went out to fight not only against the enemies of Christ, but also against His adherents, depending on what was more profitable for them.
Some were driven away by debt, or unwillingness to serve their masters, or the desire to avoid punishment for certain sins.
The peasants sought to find in the East deliverance from the oppression of the feudal lords and new lands for settlement. They dreamed of hiding from the endless feudal strife that ruined their economy, and saved themselves from famine and epidemics, which, under the conditions of a low level of technology and the most severe feudal exploitation, were a common occurrence in the Middle Ages.
Under these conditions, the preachers of the Crusade met with a lively response to their preaching from the broadest peasant masses. Following the Church's call for a Crusade, the peasants began to leave their lords in great numbers. 5
According to the chronicler Robert of Reims, Urban II made every effort to dissuade the elderly, the disabled, women, clerics and monks from accepting the cross, which is also confirmed by his surviving letters.
At the Council of Clermont, the Pope said:
“We do not command or exhort that old men or weak people who do not own weapons go on this campaign, and in no way should women go on the road without their husbands, or brothers, or legal witnesses. They are, after all, more of a hindrance than a reinforcement, and more of a burden than a benefit.
Let the rich help the poor, and at their own expense bring with them those fit for war.
Priests and clerics of any rank should not go without the permission of their bishops, for if they go without such permission, the trip will be useless for them.
And the laity should not embark on a pilgrimage except with the blessing of the priest.”
Urban II was well aware that effective assistance to Eastern Christians could only be provided by professional soldiers, and not by civilians, albeit seized by religious enthusiasm.
War is for warriors, holy war is no exception, and civilians should not participate in it. 7
In total, it is believed that from 50,000 to 70,000 people, united in five or six large groups, set out on this campaign. Moreover, most of them made a significant part of the journey on foot. 2
One of these poor groups was headed by Pierre of Amiens, or, as he is more commonly called, Peter the Hermit.
Dirty, in rags, he rode his donkey all over France and recruited participants crusade.
In the spring of 1096 he appeared in the Northern Rhineland. Ordinary people, touched by his eloquence, mistook Peter for a saint, considered it happiness even to pluck a piece of wool from his donkey as a keepsake.
The pope stayed in France for a few more weeks and read sermons to armed pilgrims. Even in Clermont, he appointed Adémar as his legate and proclaimed him leader crusade, for a clergyman was to lead the campaign.
First, separate detachments led by Hermit and knight Walter, nicknamed Golyak. They numbered approximately 15,000 people.
The first detachment left the Rhine regions in March and headed through Hungary and Bulgaria to the southeast. Per knight Golyak was followed primarily by the French.
In the words of the chronicler, countless, like the stars in the sky or the sand of the sea, masses of peasants came mainly from Northern and Central France and from Western Germany up the Rhine and further down the Danube.
The peasants had no idea how far away Jerusalem was. At the sight of every major city or castle, they asked if this was Jerusalem, to which they were striving. 5
As these peasant mobs marched through Hungary, they had to endure fierce clashes with the embittered local population. For a large group crusaders led by Peter the Hermit, near the city of Nish (now in Serbia), wild hordes of Pechenegs attacked, which caused a lot of trouble for the Byzantines.
The peasants suffered heavy losses because they were not well equipped for such battles. They did not have enough weapons or food.
From hunger, they were engaged in robbery along the way, and therefore the local population mercilessly expelled and persecuted them. 2
Passing through Europe crusaders, under the leadership of Peter the Hermit and knight nicknamed Walter Bezdenezhny (Golyak), eventually reached the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople. The alarmed emperor Alexei hastily sent them to Asia Minor.
On October 21, 1096, the Seljuks utterly defeated the peasant army crusaders. Those peasants who did not fall in battle were sold into slavery.
So the naive illusions of the peasants, who dreamed of accomplishing a religious feat and achieving liberation, were shattered at the first collision with reality...
Among the dead was Knight Walter Golyak. Peter the Hermit had not yet left Constantinople by that time, and in May 1097 he, with the remnants of his army, would join knights...
Peasant-like crusade an explosion of mass hysteria occurred more than a century later, when crowds of young preachers from France and Germany went to the so-called Crusade children (it is believed that it was he who formed the basis of the legend of the Pied Piper from Hameln).
In fairness, it must be said that in the strict sense of the word, the children's campaign was not cross for the church refused him its support from the very beginning.
And the following happened: in June 1212, the 12-year-old shepherdess Etienne from the northern French county of Vendome allegedly appeared Jesus in the garb of a pilgrim. He encouraged Stephen to lead the children across the sea to Jerusalem.
The boy humbly went to the nearest town and announced what Jesus had commanded him. Thus began the ill-fated campaign of children in holy land.
Thousands of children, especially in the east of France and in the Rhine regions of Germany, joined this campaign.
Even more supporters were found at the 9-year-old Nicholas from Cologne, when in the same 1212 he called on the children to speak out for the liberation of Jerusalem.
Around the beginning of July, crowds of children and teenagers set off. When asked where they were going, they answered: "To God." They wanted, without any worldly means - without money, without organization, without princes and kings - to achieve what their more powerful predecessors had not been able to: to win back the Holy Sepulcher and preserve it.
After crossing the Alps, about 7,000 children reached Genoa at the end of August. They hoped that they could, like Christ, walk on the sea, as if on dry land, without getting their feet wet.
In Italy trace of them is lost. According to some chronicles, two ship with the children they left Pisa for the sea, and no one heard anything more about them.
In other chronicles, one can read that the children went to Rome or Brindisi, or even returned home.
And according to some stories, pirates attacked children on the high seas and sold them into slavery to the Saracens.
We have no more reliable information... 2
The campaign claimed hundreds of children's lives, and no one reached the Holy Land. one
Pope Innocent is said to have exclaimed:
“These children shame us; while we sleep they joyfully go to conquer Holy Land»...
Consequences crusades difficult to assess.
In the Middle East, there was an interaction of three completely different civilizations: Muslim, Byzantine and Christian.
Refined, cultured, cynical and tenacious Byzantium in the past has already fruitfully interacted with the equally developed and cultured Muslim East. And now, with a mixture of envy, laughter and disgust, both Eastern civilizations looked at the rude, cruel and uncouth Europeans, literally cutting their way through their long-established world ...
Most benefited from this interaction crusaders- they had a lot to learn.
Except for the noisy enthusiasm that accompanied 1st Crusade, direct impact crusades seems insignificant to Europe. Of course, Europeans learned more about the culture and science of Islam, acquired a taste for exotic dishes, carpets and silks.
However, no one doubts the fact that crusaders brought with them from the Middle East new ideas regarding weapons and even clothing. Military lessons turned out to be no less important for the West than cultural, scientific and economic ones.
Lessons from the field of tactics include mastering the maneuver (in the form of ambush and encirclement), using light cavalry for reconnaissance and cover, as well as horse archers, and, most importantly, recognizing the importance of coordinating the actions of infantry and cavalry, archers and shock troops when fighting against inventive mobile adversary.
The most obvious military effect of the Crusades was in fortification art. The powerful Byzantine fortresses and fortified cities, surrounded by two or three concentric circles of thick walls with watchtowers, made a special impression on Europeans.
In the West at that time there was nothing even remotely similar. As a result, a real revolution took place in European fortifications in the 12th century.
Its most impressive manifestation is the Chateau Gaillard, built by Richard the Lionheart in Normandy on his return from Third Crusade. Richard I showed himself not only as a keen observer, but also as a talented and inventive engineer, as he made undeniable improvements in the design of the eastern fortresses. 7
One of the important lessons of the crusades was the realization of how much in military affairs depends on logistics and supplies; after the fall of Rome, this art was practically lost in Western Europe.
In the field of shipbuilding, it is safe to say that the Latins borrowed from Byzantium a new type of ships designed to transport troops and horses.
In the XIII century. previously unknown navigation instruments appear: for example, the compass, which existed in China already in the 11th century. 6
During the Crusades, a number of military and monastic orders arose: the Knights Templars (or Templars), knights St. John (or Johnites, or Hospitallers) and the Teutonic knights.
The last of these three orders, although founded in Holy Land(1190), soon moved to Prussia, from where he went on the Crusades against the Slavic pagans.
And the Templars and Hospitallers remained in Holy Land where they formed the core of the regular army of the kings of Jerusalem; their fortresses have long served as a brake on the Islamic revival, which began under Zangi, Nur-ad-Din and Salah-ad-Din.
By the end of the twelfth century, these orders appear to have been the most effective military organization in the world. The Western European rulers and military leaders held the Templars and Hospitallers in high esteem as military advisers and career officers.
Several European musical instruments, including the tabor and nakker military drums and the more peaceful oud flute, are of clear Eastern origin.
The "Arabic" numerals, borrowed by the Arabs from the Hindus, including zero, appeared in Europe thanks to the translation into Latin of the fundamental treatises on arithmetic and algebra by the scientist al-Khwarizmi.
In Syria, Europeans got acquainted with the glass-making technique introduced in Venice, with new crops (sugarcane, cotton, fruits), as well as new types of handicrafts (silk, camlot, purple, brocade).
Closer contacts established through the Crusades helped spread luxury goods to Europe, while Western goods in turn made their way into Muslim and Byzantine markets.
Being active centers of trade and financial activity, the states crusaders one of the first to mint a coin of gold - an imitation of the dinar - almost a century before the return to gold in Italy, which indicated a change in the situation in the Mediterranean in favor of the West.
As for other areas of life, crusaders borrowed from the inhabitants of the East their manners in dress and food, as well as a penchant for luxury, unfamiliar to the West until that time. 6
The drama of the Crusades found its reflection in literature, and above all in chivalrous novels of the 12th-13th centuries, the best of which can rightfully be called “The Old French Cycle of crusades».
Church sculpture also reflected the epic crusaders. Muslim artists had a great influence on European art, "giving" Europe new metalworking methods, the secrets of making enamels, ivory carving techniques, as well as the art of decorating manuscripts with fabrics and glass. 4
Muslims were well aware of their superiority over Christians in many areas: with natural sciences and with ancient philosophy They knew Greece much better than the Christians. They inherited the works of the Greco-Roman physician Galen and studied them thoroughly.
But they themselves made successful observations and experiments, primarily in the fields of medicine, chemistry, astronomy and mathematics. In the West, scientific thought and teaching were under the supervision of the church, and she forbade the dissemination of ideas and knowledge that did not suit her.
There were no such obstacles in the Islamic world, and science could develop freely.
Christians highly appreciated and borrowed from the "infidels" some of the pleasures and conveniences of everyday life. So, in Europe of that time, they didn’t care much about body care, and the use of cosmetics was considered sinful at all.
Muslims, on the other hand, gave great importance water and daily ablutions. Only from them did Christians learn what a bath is and how beneficial its effect is.
But the people of the East remained alien and obscure some of the traditions, customs and mores of the people of the West.
For example, Muslims who kept their wives separate from themselves could not understand how Christians could give their wives such freedom.
“No sense of honor or jealousy can be found among the Franks,” one Muslim remarked with surprise. - When one of them is walking down the street with his wife and meets another, he takes the wife of the first one aside to talk to her, while the husband stands and waits for her to finish talking.
If the conversation drags on, he just throws her with the interlocutor, and he leaves.
As a result of the Crusades, the contradictions between Catholics and Orthodox, as well as between Christians and Muslims, escalated.
Muslims have lost their former religious tolerance, although not alone crusaders were guilty of it. Society became more militarized, more rigid and conservative, even in regard to issues as far removed from religion as science and art...
But the Christians who lived in the Middle East suffered the heaviest losses, precisely those people whom they were going to “liberate” crusaders.
At times 1st Crusade Syrian and Armenian Christians, Nestorians, Jacobites and Copts were the majority in many parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt and even Sudan.
By the 14th century, the proportion of Christians in the Middle East had dwindled, with many Christians converting to Islam.
4th Crusade largely contributed to the fall of Byzantium - the largest Christian state in the east of the Mediterranean. 4
From the point of view of the "Franks" or "Latins", Crusades were a complete failure - an exciting but premature episode in the history of European expansion ... 1

Sources of information:
1. "The Crusades" (The Tree of Knowledge magazine No. 21/2002)
2. Vazol M. " crusaders»
3. Wikipedia site
4. military-historical almanac "Soldier" No. 8
5. "All the wars of world history" (according to the Harper Encyclopedia military history Dupuy)
6. Morison S. "The Crusades"
7. Riley-Smith J. History of the Crusades
8. Michaud J.-F. "History of the Crusades"

Crusades

1095-1096 - Campaign of poverty or peasant campaign
1095-1099 - First crusade
1147-1149 - Second crusade
1189-1192 - Third crusade
1202-1204 - Fourth Crusade
1202-1212 - Children's crusade
1218-1221 - Fifth Crusade
1228-1229 - Sixth Crusade
1248-1254 - Seventh Crusade
1270-12?? - The Last Crusade

CRUSADES (1096-1270), military-religious expeditions of Western Europeans to the Middle East with the aim of conquering Holy places associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ - Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher.

Background and the beginning of the campaigns

The prerequisites for the crusades were: the traditions of pilgrimages to the Holy places; a change in views on the war, which began to be considered not a sinful, but a good deed, if it was waged against the enemies of Christianity and the church; capture in the 11th century. the Seljuk Turks of Syria and Palestine and the threat of the capture of Byzantium; heavy economic situation Western Europe in the 2nd half. 11th c.

On November 26, 1095, Pope Urban II called on those assembled at the local church cathedral in Clermont to win back the Holy Sepulcher captured by the Turks. Those who took this vow sewed patchwork crosses on their clothes and therefore were called “crusaders”. The pope promised earthly riches in the Holy Land and heavenly bliss in case of death to those who went on the Crusade, they received complete absolution of sins, it was forbidden to collect debts and feudal duties from them during the campaign, their families were protected by the church.

First crusade

In March 1096, the first stage of the First Crusade (1096-1101) began - the so-called. campaign of the poor. Crowds of peasants, with families and belongings, armed with whatever, under the leadership of random leaders, or even without them, moved east, marking their way with robberies (they believed that, since they are God's soldiers, any earthly property belongs to them) and Jewish pogroms (in their eyes, the Jews from the nearest town were the descendants of the persecutors of Christ). Of the 50,000 troops of Asia Minor, only 25,000 reached, and almost all of them died in the battle with the Turks near Nicaea on October 25, 1096.

In the autumn of 1096, a knightly militia from different parts of Europe set off on its way, its leaders were Gottfried of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse and others. By the end of 1096 - the beginning of 1097 they gathered in Constantinople, in the spring of 1097 they crossed to Asia Minor, where, together with the Byzantine troops, began the siege of Nicaea, they took it on June 19 and handed it over to the Byzantines. Further, the path of the crusaders lay in Syria and Palestine. On February 6, 1098, Edessa was taken, on the night of June 3 - Antioch, a year later, on June 7, 1099, they besieged Jerusalem, and on July 15 they captured it, having committed a cruel massacre in the city. On July 22, at a meeting of princes and prelates, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, to which the county of Edessa, the principality of Antioch, and (since 1109) the county of Tripoli were subordinate. The head of state was Gottfried of Bouillon, who received the title of "defender of the Holy Sepulcher" (his successors bore the title of kings). In 1100-1101, new detachments from Europe set off for the Holy Land (historians call this a "rearguard campaign"); the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were established only by 1124.

There were few immigrants from Western Europe who permanently lived in Palestine, a special role in the Holy Land was played by spiritual and knightly orders, as well as immigrants from the seaside trading cities of Italy, who formed special privileged quarters in the cities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Second crusade

After the Turks conquered Edessa in 1144, on December 1, 1145, the Second Crusade (1147-1148) was announced, led by the King of France Louis VII and the German King Conrad III and turned out to be inconclusive.

In 1171, Salah ad-Din seized power in Egypt, who annexed Syria to Egypt and in the spring of 1187 began a war against Christians. On July 4, in a battle that lasted 7 hours near the village of Hittin, the Christian army was defeated, in the second half of July the siege of Jerusalem began, and on October 2 the city surrendered to the mercy of the winner. By 1189, several fortresses and two cities remained in the hands of the crusaders - Tire and Tripoli.

Third crusade

October 29, 1187 was declared the Third Crusade (1189-1192). The campaign was led by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick I Barbarossa, the kings of France Philip II Augustus and England - Richard I the Lionheart. On May 18, 1190, the German militia captured the city of Iconium (now Konya, Turkey) in Asia Minor, but on June 10, while crossing a mountain river, Frederick drowned, and the German army, demoralized by this, retreated. In the autumn of 1190, the crusaders began to lay siege to Acre, the port city and sea gate of Jerusalem. Acre was taken on June 11, 1191, but even before that, Philip II and Richard quarreled, and Philip sailed home; Richard undertook several unsuccessful offensives, including two against Jerusalem, concluded on September 2, 1192, an extremely unfavorable treaty for Christians with Salah ad Din, and left Palestine in October. Jerusalem remained in the hands of the Muslims, and Acre became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Fourth Crusade. Capture of Constantinople

In 1198 a new, Fourth Crusade was announced, which took place much later (1202-1204). It was supposed to strike at Egypt, which belonged to Palestine. Since the crusaders did not have enough money to pay for the ships for the sea expedition, Venice, which had the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean, asked for help in conquering the Christian (!) City of Zadar on the Adriatic coast, which happened on November 24, 1202, and then prompted the crusaders move on Byzantium, the main commercial rival of Venice, under the pretext of intervening in dynastic strife in Constantinople and uniting the Orthodox and Catholic churches under the auspices of the papacy. April 13, 1204 Constantinople was taken and brutally plundered. Part of the territories conquered from Byzantium went to Venice, on the other part the so-called. Latin Empire. In 1261, the Orthodox emperors, who had entrenched themselves in Asia Minor, which was not occupied by Western Europeans, again occupied Constantinople with the help of the Turks and Venice's rival, Genoa.

Children's Crusade

In view of the failures of the crusaders in the mass consciousness of Europeans, the belief arose that the Lord, who did not give victory to the strong, but sinful, would grant it to the weak, but sinless. In the spring and early summer of 1212, crowds of children began to gather in different parts of Europe, declaring that they were going to liberate Jerusalem (the so-called crusade of children, not included by historians in the total number of crusades).

The church and secular authorities regarded this spontaneous outburst of popular religiosity with suspicion and prevented it in every possible way. Some of the children died on the way across Europe from hunger, cold and disease, some reached Marseilles, where clever merchants, promising to transport the children to Palestine, brought them to the slave markets of Egypt.

Fifth Crusade

The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) began with an expedition to the Holy Land, but, having failed there, the crusaders, who did not have a recognized leader, transferred military operations to Egypt in 1218. May 27, 1218 they began the siege of the fortress Damietta (Dumyat) in the Nile Delta; the Egyptian sultan promised them to lift the siege of Jerusalem, but the crusaders refused, took Damietta on the night of November 4-5, 1219, tried to build on their success and occupy all of Egypt, but the offensive bogged down. On August 30, 1221, peace was concluded with the Egyptians, according to which the soldiers of Christ returned Damietta and left Egypt.

sixth crusade

The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229) was undertaken by Emperor Frederick II Staufen. This constant opponent of the papacy was excommunicated on the eve of the campaign. In the summer of 1228, he sailed to Palestine, thanks to skillful negotiations he entered into an alliance with the Egyptian sultan and, as a help against all his enemies, Muslims and Christians (!), He received Jerusalem without a single battle, where he entered on March 18, 1229. Since the emperor was under excommunication, the return of the Holy City to the bosom of Christianity was accompanied by a ban on worship in it. Frederick soon left for his homeland, he had no time to deal with Jerusalem, and in 1244 the Egyptian sultan again and finally took Jerusalem, massacring the Christian population.

Seventh and Eighth Crusades

The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) was almost exclusively the work of France and its King Louis IX Saint. Egypt was again the target of the attack. In June 1249, the crusaders took Damietta for the second time, but were later blocked and in February 1250 surrendered in full strength, including the king. In May 1250, the king was released for a ransom of 200 thousand livres, but did not return to his homeland, but moved to Acre, where he waited in vain for help from France, where he sailed in April 1254.

In 1270, the same Louis undertook the last, the Eighth Crusade. His target was Tunisia, the most powerful Muslim maritime state in the Mediterranean. It was supposed to establish control over the Mediterranean in order to freely send troops of the crusaders to Egypt and the Holy Land. However, soon after the landing in Tunisia on June 18, 1270, an epidemic broke out in the crusader camp, Louis died on August 25, and on November 18, the army, without entering into a single battle, sailed home, carrying the body of the king with them.

Things in Palestine were getting worse, the Muslims took away city after city, and on May 18, 1291, Acre fell - the last stronghold of the Crusaders in Palestine.

Both before and after that, the church repeatedly proclaimed crusades against the pagans (a campaign against the Polabian Slavs in 1147), heretics and against the Turks in the 14th-16th centuries, but they are not included in the total number of crusades.

Lesson 29: "Crusades. Reasons and participants

Crusades and their aftermath.

The purpose of the lesson: To reveal the main reasons for the crusades to the East and the goals of their participants. Show the role of the church as an inspirer and organizer of these campaigns. Contribute to the formation of students' ideas about the aggressive and colonial nature of the crusade.

Plan for studying new material:

Causes and Participants of the Crusades.

The First Crusade and the Formation of the Crusader States.

Subsequent campaigns and their results.

Spiritual and knightly orders.

Consequences of the Crusades.

At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher can update students' knowledge about the role of the Catholic Church in the life of medieval society.

Going to study new topic, the teacher pays attention to revealing the truereasons for the crusades:

The desire of the popes to extend their power to new lands;

The desire of secular and spiritual feudal lords to acquire new lands and increase their income;

The desire of Italian cities to establish their control over trade in the Mediterranean;

The desire to get rid of the robber knights;

Deep religious feelings of the crusaders.

Crusades - the military-colonial movement of Western European feudal lords to the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean inXI- XIII centuries (1096-1270).

Reason for the Crusades:

In 1071, Jerusalem was captured by the Seljuk Turks and access to the Holy Places was cut off.

Appeal of the Byzantine Emperor AlexeiIComnena to the Pope with a request for help.

In 1095 Pope UrbanIIcalled for a campaign to the East and the liberation of the tomb of the Lord. The motto of the knights: "God wills it."

Total was done8 trips:

The first is 1096-1099. The second - 1147-1149. Third - 1189-1192.

Fourth - 1202-1204. ……. Eighth - 1270.

Using the possibilities of a computer presentation, the teacher can invite students to get acquainted with the social composition of the participants in the crusades, their goals and the results achieved.

Participants of the Crusades and their goals:

Members

Goals

results

Catholic Church

Spread of Christianity in the East.

Expansion of land holdings and an increase in the number of taxpayers.

Didn't get land.

kings

The search for new lands in order to expand the royal army and the influence of royal power.

Increased urge to beautiful life and luxury.

Dukes and Counts

Enrichment and expansion of land holdings.

Changes in life.

Inclusion in trade.

Borrowing oriental inventions and cultures.

Knights

Search for new lands.

Many died.

Land was not received.

Cities (Italy)

Merchants

Establish control over trade in the Mediterranean.

Interest in trade with the East.

The revival of trade and the establishment of control of Genoa and Venice over trade in the Mediterranean.

Peasants

The search for freedom and property.

The death of people.

At the end of the work with the table, students must independently draw a conclusion about the nature of the crusades (aggressive).

Traditionally, the first, third and fourth crusades are considered in detail in history lessons.

First crusade (1096-1099)

Spring 1096 Autumn 1096

(campaign of the peasants) (campaign of the knights of Europe)

defeat victory

1097 1098 1099

Nicaea Edessa Jerusalem

Antioch

Working with the map workbook E.A. Kryuchkova (task 98 ss.55-56) or assignments for contour map“Western Europe in the 11th-13th centuries. Crusades "(indicate the states of the crusaders and mark their borders).

Crusader states

Jerusalem Edesskoe Antiochskoe Trypillia

kingdom kingdom kingdom kingdom

(main state

in the Eastern Middle

earthsea)

Meaning of the First Crusade:

Showed how powerful the Catholic Church has become.

Moved a huge mass of people from Europe to the Middle East.

Strengthening the feudal oppression of the local population.

New Christian states arose in the East, Europeans seized new possessions in Syria and Palestine.

Reasons for the fragility of the crusader states:

along with feudal relations, feudal fragmentation and civil strife were inevitably transferred here;

there were few lands convenient for cultivating, and therefore there were fewer people willing to fight for them;

the subjugated locals remained Muslim, leading to double hatred and fighting.

Consequences of conquest:

plunder;

the seizure of land, the introduction of feudal relations;

huge taxes (from 1/3 to 1/2 of the crop + taxes to the king + 1/10 - churches);

creation of spiritual and chivalric orders.

Reasons for the start of the second crusade:

Results of the first Struggle Liberation Call for a new

crusade conquered Edessa crusade

campaign of peoples from the crusaders to the campaign

Second crusade (1147-1149) - led the German

Emperor ConradIIIand the French king LouisVII.

The campaign against Edessa and Damascus ended in the defeat of the crusaders.

Third Crusade (Three Kings Campaign) (1189-1192) –

Friedrich Barbarossa for Jerusalem Salah ad-Din (Saladin)

Richard the Lionheart (united Egypt, Mesopotamia)

Philip II. tamiya, Syria, returned

Jerusalem)

2-year siege of Acre

Truce.

Jerusalem was not returned, but Salah ad-Din agreed

on the admission of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem shrines.

Reasons for the defeat of the Third Crusade:

death of Frederick Barbarossa;

Philip's quarrel IIand Richard the Lionheart, Philip's departure in the midst of battle;

not enough strength;

there is no single trip plan;

strengthened the forces of Muslims;

there is no unity among the crusader states in the Eastern Mediterranean;

huge sacrifices and difficulties of campaigns, there are no longer so many who want to.

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) - arranged by dad

Innocent III

Capture of Zadar Capture of Constantinople pogroms and robbery

The collapse of the Byzantine Empire

Fighting Christians

Formation of the Latin Empire (before 1261)

Opened robbery

essence of campaigns

loss of religious

essence of campaigns

In this campaign, the predatory, predatory goals of the crusaders were most clearly manifested.

Gradually, the crusaders lost their possessions in Syria and Palestine. The number of participants in the campaigns decreased. Lost spirit.

The most tragic in the crusader movement was the organized

in 1212 the children's crusade.

Question:

Why did the Catholic Church support the call to send children to empty the tomb of the Lord?

Answer:

The Church claimed that adults are powerless to free the tomb of the Lord, because they are sinful, and God expects a feat from children.

some of the children returned home;

As a result, a part died of thirst and hunger;

part sold by merchants into slavery in Egypt.

Eighth Crusade (1270)

to Tunisia and Egypt

Defeat.

Loss of all their lands in the Muslim world.

In 1291, the last stronghold of the crusaders fell - the fortress of Acre.

The history of the Crusades is the story of how two around the world failed to learn tolerance for each other, about how the seeds of hatred sprouted.

One of the main consequences of the conquests of the crusaders in the East was the creation of spiritual and knightly orders.

Signs of spiritual knightly orders:

led by masters;

obeyed the Pope, did not depend on local authorities;

their members renounced property and family - became monks;

but - had the right to bear arms;

created to fight the infidels;

had privileges: exempted from tithes, subject only to papal court, had the right to accept donations and gifts;

they were forbidden: hunting, dice, laughter and unnecessary talk.

Three major orders of chivalry

Templars

Hospitallers

Teutons

The order of the knights of the temple ("temple" - temple) - "templars".

Created in 1118-1119.

Residence in Jerusalem.

The symbol is a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross.

The order supported heretics.

Engaged in usury and trade.

In 1314, the master of the order de Male was burned at the stake, and the order ceased to exist.

The order of horsemen of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem - Ionites.

Created in XIcentury in Jerusalem.

The hospital was founded by the merchant Mauro.

The symbol is a white eight-pointed cross on a black mantle, later on a red cloak.

Later they settled on the island of Rhodes (Rhodian knights), then on the island of Malta (Knights of Malta).

The Order of Malta still exists today. Residence in Rome.

Order of the House of Saint Mary of the Teutonic.

("Teutonic" - German)

Created in XIIcentury in Jerusalem.

A hospital for German-speaking pilgrims was founded.

The symbol is a white cloak with a black cross.

V XIIIcentury merged with the Livonian Order.

Defeated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.

From them the Nazis borrowed the cross.

In Germany, the Teutonic Order still exists.

As homework Students may be asked to complete the following table:

positive

negative

the disasters of the peoples of the East;

collapse of the Byzantine Empire;

Consequences of the Crusades:

positive

negative

the revival of trade between West and East;

an impetus to the development of European trade, the transfer of control over trade in the Mediterranean to Venice and Genoa;

new crops came to Europe from the East (watermelons, sugarcane, buckwheat, lemons, apricots, rice);

windmills spread to the East;

Europeans learned how to make silk, glass, mirrors;

there have been changes in European life (washing hands, bathing, changing clothes);

Western feudal lords were even more drawn to luxury in clothing, food, weapons;

increased people's knowledge of the world around them.

the disasters of the peoples of the East;

huge sacrifices on both sides;

destruction of cultural monuments;

increased hostility between the Orthodox and Catholic churches;

collapse of the Byzantine Empire;

the contradictions between the Muslim East and the Christian West became even deeper;

weakened the influence and power of the pope, who failed to implement such grandiose plans.

Consequences of the Crusades:

positive

negative

the revival of trade between West and East;

an impetus to the development of European trade, the transfer of control over trade in the Mediterranean to Venice and Genoa;

new crops came to Europe from the East (watermelons, sugarcane, buckwheat, lemons, apricots, rice);

windmills spread to the East;

Europeans learned how to make silk, glass, mirrors;

there have been changes in European life (washing hands, bathing, changing clothes);

Western feudal lords were even more drawn to luxury in clothing, food, weapons;

increased people's knowledge of the world around them.

the disasters of the peoples of the East;

huge sacrifices on both sides;

destruction of cultural monuments;

increased hostility between the Orthodox and Catholic churches;

collapse of the Byzantine Empire;

the contradictions between the Muslim East and the Christian West became even deeper;

weakened the influence and power of the pope, who failed to implement such grandiose plans.

Homework:

Tutorials:

A - §§ 22, 23; B - §§ 25, 27; Br - § 24; B - § 17; D - § 4.4; D - §§ 22, 23; K - § 30;

KnCh - ss.250-264, 278-307.

Filling in the table: "Consequences of the Crusades."

The content of the article

CRUSADES(1095–1270), military colonization campaigns of Europeans to the Middle East (to Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia) at the end of the 11th–13th centuries. in the form of a pilgrimage with the aim of liberating the Holy Land (Palestine) and the Holy Sepulcher (in Jerusalem) from the "infidels" (Muslims). Going to Palestine, their participants sewed red crosses on their chests, returning, they sewed it on their backs; hence the name "crusaders".

Causes of the Crusades.

The crusades are based on a whole complex of demographic, socio-economic, political, religious and psychological motives, which were not always realized by their participants.

Started in the 11th century in Western Europe, demographic growth ran into limited resources, primarily land as the main means of production (low labor productivity and productivity). Demographic pressure escalated due to the progress of commodity-money relations, which made a person more dependent on market conditions, and his economic situation less stable. A significant surplus of population arose, which could not be provided within the framework of the medieval economic system: it was formed at the expense of the younger sons of feudal lords (in a number of countries the right of majorat dominated - the inheritance of paternal land holdings only by the eldest son), impoverished knights, small and landless peasantry. According to J. Le Goff, "the Crusades were perceived as a cleansing agent for the overpopulation of the West." The idea of ​​the untold riches of the East, which strengthened in the mind, gave rise to a thirst for the conquest of fertile overseas lands and the acquisition of treasures (gold, silver, precious stones, fine fabrics).

For the Italian trading city-republics of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, expansion to the East was a continuation of their struggle with the Arabs for dominance in the Mediterranean. Their support for the crusading movement was determined by the desire to establish themselves on the shores of the Levant and to control the main trade routes to Mesopotamia, Arabia and India.

Demographic pressure has contributed to the growth of political tensions. Civil strife, feudal wars, and peasant uprisings have become a constant feature of European life. The crusades made it possible to channel the aggressive energy of the frustrated groups of feudal society into a just war against the "infidels" and thereby ensure the consolidation of the Christian world.

In the late 1080s - early 1090s, socio-economic and political difficulties were exacerbated by a series of natural disasters (harsh winters, floods) and epidemics (primarily "fever" and plague), which hit primarily Germany, the Rhine regions and East France . This contributed to the widespread spread of religious exaltation, asceticism, and hermitage in all strata of medieval society. The need for religious deeds and even self-sacrifice, which ensure the atonement of sins and the achievement of eternal salvation, found its adequate expression in the idea of ​​a special pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher.

In psychological terms, the desire to master the riches of the East and the hope for eternal salvation were combined with the thirst for wandering and adventure inherent in Europeans. Traveling into the unknown made it possible to escape from the familiar monotonous world and get rid of the hardships and disasters associated with it. The expectation of the afterlife bliss was intricately intertwined with the search for an earthly paradise.

The initiator and main organizer of the crusading movement was the papacy, which significantly strengthened its position in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the Cluniac movement () and the reforms of Gregory VII (1073–1085), the authority of the Catholic Church increased significantly, and it could again claim the role of leader of the Western Christian world.

Beginning of the Crusades.

position in the East.

With the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate at the end of the 10th c. Palestine came under the rule of Fatimid Egypt; increased hostility of Muslims to Christians. The situation became even more tense after the capture of Jerusalem by the Seljuk Turks (1078). Europe was disturbed by stories about the atrocities of Muslims in relation to Christian shrines and the cruel persecution of believers. In 1071-1081, the Seljuks took away Asia Minor from the Byzantine Empire. In the early 1090s, the Byzantine emperor Alexei I Komnenos (1081–1118), pressed by the Turks, Pechenegs and Normans, appealed to the West for help.

Clermont Cathedral.

Taking advantage of the appeal of Alexei I, the papacy took the initiative in organizing a holy war to free the Holy Sepulcher. On November 27, 1095, at the Clermont Cathedral (France), Pope Urban II (1088–1099) delivered a sermon to the nobility and clergy, urging Europeans to stop internecine strife and go on a crusade to Palestine, promising its participants remission of sins and eternal salvation. The pope's speech was enthusiastically received by a crowd of thousands, repeating as a spell the words "God wills it", which became the slogan of the crusaders.

Peasant Crusade.

Numerous preachers spread the appeal of Urban II throughout Western Europe. Knights and peasants sold their property in order to acquire the necessary military equipment, and sewed red crosses on their clothes. In mid-March 1096, crowds of peasants (about 60–70 thousand people), mainly from Rhineland Germany and Northeastern France, led by the ascetic preacher Peter Hermit, set off on a campaign without waiting for the knights to gather. They passed along the valleys of the Rhine and Danube, crossed Hungary and in the summer of 1096 reached the limits of the Byzantine Empire; their path was marked by robberies and violence against the local population and Jewish pogroms. To prevent excesses, Alexei I demanded that they not stay anywhere for more than three days; on the territory of the Empire, they followed under the vigilant supervision of the Byzantine troops. In July, the significantly thinned (almost halved) militia of the crusader peasants approached Constantinople. The Byzantines hastily transported him across the Bosporus to the town of Tsibotus. Against the advice of Peter the Hermit, peasant detachments moved to Nicaea, the capital of the Seljuk state. On October 21, they were ambushed by Sultan Kylych-Arslan I in a narrow desert valley between Nicaea and the village of Dragon, and were utterly defeated; most of the crusader peasants died (about 25 thousand people).

The first knightly crusade began in August 1096. It was attended by knights from Lorraine led by Duke Gottfried IV of Bouillon, from Northern and Central France led by counts Robert of Norman, Robert of Flanders and Stephen of Bloise, from southern France led by Count Raymond IV of Toulouse and from Southern Italy (Normans), led by Prince Bohemond of Tarentum; the spiritual leader of the campaign was Bishop Ademar of Puy. The path of the Lorraine knights went along the Danube, the Provencal and northern French ones - through Dalmatia, the Norman ones - along the Mediterranean Sea. From the end of 1096 they began to concentrate in Constantinople. Despite the tense relations between the crusaders and the local population, sometimes resulting in bloody clashes, Byzantine diplomacy managed (March-April 1097) to get them to take a fief oath to Alexei I and to return to the Empire all its former possessions in Asia Minor, captured by the Seljuk Turks. By the beginning of May, the crusading detachments crossed the Bosphorus and in the middle of the month, together with the Byzantines, laid siege to Nicaea. The knights defeated the army of Kylych-Arslan I under the walls of the city, but his garrison surrendered not to them, but to the Byzantines (June 19); to pacify the crusaders, Alexei I gave them part of the booty.

At the end of June, the knights set out on a campaign against Antioch. On July 1, they utterly defeated the Seljuks at Dorilei and, having passed through the interior regions of Asia Minor with great difficulty (the Turks used the scorched earth tactics), reached Iconium in mid-August. Having repelled the attack of the Seljuks at Heraclia, the crusaders entered Cilicia and in October, having crossed the Antitaurus ridge, entered Syria. On October 21, they laid siege to Antioch, but the siege dragged on. At the beginning of 1098 a detachment of knights captured Edessa; their leader Baldwin of Bouillon founded here the first state of the crusaders - the county of Edessa. The crusaders were able to take Antioch only on June 2, 1098. On June 28, they defeated the army of the Emir of Mosul, who had come to the rescue of the city. In September 1098, by agreement between the leaders of the crusaders, Antioch was transferred to the possession of Bohemond of Taren; thus, a second state of the crusaders arose - the principality of Antioch.

After the fall of Antioch, the leaders of the crusading army began to conquer the Syrian fortresses, which caused discontent among ordinary soldiers who wanted to continue the campaign. In the winter of 1098/1099, they revolted in Maar and forced their leaders to move in the spring of 1099 to Jerusalem, which by that time had passed from the hands of the Seljuks under the authority of the Egyptian sultan. On June 7, 1099, they besieged the city and on July 15 took it by storm, exterminating the entire non-Christian population. The winners created the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was headed by Gottfried of Bouillon with the title of "guardian of the Holy Sepulcher." On August 12, Gottfried defeated the Fatimids near Ascalon, ending their dominance in Palestine.

In the first quarter of the 12th c. The crusaders' possessions continued to expand. In 1101 they captured Tripoli and Caesarea, and in 1104 - Acre. In 1109 the county of Tripoli was created, and Bertrand, son of Raymond IV of Toulouse, became its ruler. Beirut and Sidon fell in 1110, and Tire in 1124.

Crusader states.

The Jerusalem king was the supreme suzerain of the Palestinian and Syrian lands that fell under Christian rule; the count of Edessa, the prince of Antioch and the count of Tripoli were dependent on him as vassals. Each state was organized according to the Western European feudal model: it was divided into baronies, and baronies into knightly fiefs. Vassals were obliged, at the call of their overlord, to carry out military service at any time of the year. Direct vassals of the rulers sat in the council (in the Kingdom of Jerusalem - Assis of the High Court). Legal relations were regulated by a local judge - Jerusalem Assises. In the port cities, Italian merchants (Genoese, Venetians, Pisans) played a leading role; they had wide privileges and had their own fortified quarters, managed by elected consuls. The dependent population consisted of peasants of local origin and slaves (mostly prisoners).

In ecclesiastical terms, the crusading lands formed the Jerusalem Patriarchate, which was divided into fourteen bishoprics. The local Catholic Church had great wealth and considerable political weight. In Syria and Palestine, there was an extensive system of monasteries.

In the crusader states, special spiritual and chivalric orders arose, whose task was to fight against the "infidels" and provide conditions for the pilgrimage of Christians to the Holy Land (protection of roads and shrines, construction of hospitals and hospices). Their members were both monks (brought vows of chastity, poverty and obedience) and knights (could take up arms to defend the faith). The orders were headed by grand masters and chapters directly subordinate to the pope. The first such order in Palestine was the Order of the Johnites, or Hospitallers (the Order of St. John the Merciful; from 1522 the Order of Malta), which was constituted in 1113; its members wore red cloaks with a white cross. In 1128 the Order of the Templars (Order of the Temple of Solomon) took shape; they dressed in white cloaks with a red cross. In 1190/1191 the German knights founded the Teutonic Order (Order of the Holy Virgin Mary); their distinguishing feature was a white cloak with a black cross.

Subsequent Crusades.

After the emir of Mosul, Imad ad-Din Zengi, captured Edessa in December 1144, in 1145 Pope Eugene III (1145–1153) called for a new crusade. The fiery preacher Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded the French King Louis VII (1137–1180) and the German Emperor Conrad III (1138–1152) to lead it. In 1147 the German army moved into Asia along the Danube route through Hungary; the French followed two months later; the total number of the two armies was 140 thousand people. Byzantine Emperor Manuel I (1143-1180) did not provide them with serious material support and hastened to transport them across the Bosporus. Without waiting for the French, the Germans headed deep into Asia Minor. At the end of October 1147 they were defeated by the Seljuk Turks at Dorilea, retreated to Constantinople, and then reached Acre by sea; another German detachment was defeated in Pamphylia in February 1148.

The French army, having reached Constantinople, crossed the Bosphorus and moved to Syria by the southern road (through Lydia). In the battle of Laodicea south of the river. Meander Louis VII failed, retreated to Pamphylia and sailed from Attalia to the Holy Land.

In March 1148 German and French troops arrived in Palestine. Together with the detachments of the Jerusalem king Baldwin III, they undertook two campaigns against Damascus and Ascalon, which ended in complete failure. In September 1148 Conrad III evacuated his army from Palestine; soon his example was followed by Louis VII.

In the early 1150s, the position of the crusader states in Palestine improved somewhat: in 1153 they managed to capture Ascalon. However, in the mid-1170s, they faced a new threat: in 1176, the new Egyptian sultan Salah ad-Din (Saladin) subjugated Syria, and the crusaders found themselves in the ring of his possessions. In 1187, one of the largest feudal lords of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Reno of Shatillon, captured a caravan with the sister of Salah ad-Din, which provoked an attack by the Sultan on the crusader states. In June 1187, the Egyptians inflicted a series of defeats on the knights near the Lake of Gennesaret, and on July 5 they defeated their main forces at Hattin, capturing King Guy de Lusignan, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Renaud of Châtillon and big number knights. On September 19, Salah ad-Din laid siege to Jerusalem and on October 2 forced him to surrender. Then he captured Ascalon, Acre, Tiberias and Beirut, part of the county of Tripoli and the principality of Antioch.

At the call of Pope Clement III (1187–1191), a third crusade was organized, led by the German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–1190), the French king Philip II Augustus (1180–1223) and the English king Richard I the Lionheart (1189–1199). ). The Germans were the first to act (end of April 1189). Having entered into an alliance with the Hungarian king Bela III (1173–1196) and the Seljuk sultan Kılıç-Arslan II, Frederick I led his army along the Danube route. He freely reached the borders of Byzantium, but, once on its territory, he faced the hostility of Emperor Isaac II Angelos (1185-1195). Nevertheless, he managed to negotiate with the Byzantines, who allowed the German army to spend the winter in Adrianople. In the spring of 1190, Frederick I crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor and moved to Syria through Lydia, Phrygia and Pisidia. The Germans captured Iconium, crossed the Taurus and entered Isauria; On June 10, 1190 Frederick I drowned while swimming in the Kalikadne (Salef) river not far from Seleucia. The army was led by his son Duke Friedrich of Swabia; passing Cilicia and Syria, he reached Palestine and laid siege to Acre.

In 1190, Philip II Augustus and Richard I concentrated their troops in Messina (Sicily). But the conflict that broke out between them led to the division of the forces of the crusaders. In March 1191 the French left Sicily and soon joined the Germans who were besieging Acre. They were followed by the English, who on the way captured Cyprus, which belonged to the Byzantine dynast Isaac Comnenus; in June 1191 they landed at Acre. A few weeks later, the fortress fell. A new conflict with Richard I forced Philip II Augustus to evacuate his troops from Palestine. In the second half of 1191 - the first half of 1192, Richard I undertook a series of military operations against Salah ad-Din, but did not achieve any success; three of his attempts to take Jerusalem failed. In September 1192, he made peace with the Egyptian sultan, according to which the Christians regained the coastal strip from Jaffa to Tire, the Muslims pledged to destroy Ascalon, but retained Jerusalem. October 9, 1192 English troops left Palestine. Cyprus, Richard I, ceded to the former King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, who founded the independent Kingdom of Cyprus (1192–1489).

Fourth Crusade.

The failure of the third crusade prompted Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) to start campaigning for a crusade against Egypt, the main enemy of the crusader states, who owned Jerusalem. In the summer of 1202, detachments of knights, led by the Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, gathered in Venice. Since the crusader leaders did not have the funds to pay for sea transportation to Palestine, they agreed to the Venetian demand to take part in a punitive expedition against the deposited port of Dara (Zadar) in Dalmatia. In October 1202, the knights sailed from Venice and at the end of November, after a short siege, captured and plundered Dara. Innocent III excommunicated the crusaders from the church, promising, however, to lift the excommunication if they continued their campaign in Egypt. But at the beginning of 1203, at the request of the Byzantine prince Alexei Angel, the son of Emperor Isaac II, who was deposed in 1095 by his brother Alexei III (1195–1203), who fled to the West, the knights decided to intervene in the internal political struggle in Byzantium and restore Isaac to the throne. At the end of June 1203 they laid siege to Constantinople. In mid-July, after the flight of Alexei III, the power of Isaac II was restored, and Tsarevich Alexei became his co-ruler under the name of Alexei IV. However, the emperors could not pay the crusaders the huge amount of two hundred thousand ducats promised to them, and in November 1203 a conflict broke out between them. On April 5, 1204, as a result of a popular uprising, Isaac II and Alexei IV were overthrown, and the new emperor Alexei V Murzufl entered into an open confrontation with the knights. On April 13, 1204, the crusaders broke into Constantinople and subjected it to a terrible defeat. Several crusading states were founded on the site of the Byzantine Empire: the Latin Empire (1204–1261), the Kingdom of Thessaloniki (1204–1224), the Duchy of Athens (1205–1454), the Principality of Morea (Achaean) (1205–1432); a number of islands went to the Venetians. As a result, the Fourth Crusade, the purpose of which was to strike at the Muslim world, led to the final split of Western and Byzantine Christianity.

At the beginning of the 13th c. In Europe, the belief spread that only sinless children are able to liberate the Holy Land. The fiery speeches of the preachers, who mourned the capture of the Holy Sepulcher by the "infidels", found a wide response among children and adolescents, mainly from peasant families in Northern France and Rhineland Germany. The church authorities for the most part did not interfere with this movement. In 1212, two streams of young crusaders headed for the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Detachments of French teenagers, led by the shepherd Etienne, reached Marseille and boarded ships. Some of them died during a shipwreck; the rest, upon arrival in Egypt, were sold into slavery by the shipowners. The same fate befell the German children who sailed east from Genoa. Another group of young crusaders from Germany reached Rome and Brindisi; the pope and the local bishop freed them from their vows and sent them home. Few of the participants in the Children's Crusade returned home. This tragic event may have formed the basis of the legend of the pied-piper flutist who took all the children away from the city of Hammeln.

In 1215 Innocent III called on the West for a new crusade; Honorius III (1216-1227), who succeeded him, repeated this call in 1216. In 1217, the Hungarian king Endre II landed with an army in Palestine. In 1218, more than two hundred ships arrived there with crusaders from Friesland and Rhineland Germany. In the same year, a huge army under the command of the Jerusalem King Jean de Brienne and the Grand Masters of the three spiritual and knightly orders invaded Egypt and laid siege to the strategically important fortress of Damietta at the mouth of the Nile. In November 1219 the fortress fell. At the request of the papal legate, Cardinal Pelagius, the crusaders rejected the proposal of the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil to exchange Damietta for Jerusalem and launched an offensive against Cairo, but found themselves sandwiched between the Egyptian troops and the flooded Nile. For the possibility of an unhindered retreat, they had to return Damietta and leave Egypt.

Under pressure from Popes Honorius III and Gregory IX (1227–1241), the German emperor Frederick II (1220–1250), husband of the heiress to the throne of Jerusalem, Iolanta, undertook a campaign in Palestine in the summer of 1228. Taking advantage of al-Kamil's conflict with the ruler of Damascus, he entered into an alliance with the Egyptian sultan; under the terms of the ten-year peace concluded between them, al-Kamil freed all Christian captives and returned Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the coast from Beirut to Jaffa to the Kingdom of Jerusalem; The Holy Land was open to pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims. On March 17, 1229, Frederick II solemnly entered Jerusalem, where he laid on himself the royal crown, and then sailed to Italy.

After a period of ten years of peace, the crusaders launched several offensive operations against the Muslims. In 1239, Thibault I, king of Navarre (1234–1253), landed in Palestine, but his actions had no success. More successful was the campaign of 1240–1241 by English knights under the command of Earl Richard of Cornwall, brother of King Henry III (1216–1272); Richard obtained from the Egyptian Sultan Ayyub the release of all Christian captives and departed for his homeland. But in 1244 Ayyub, gathering an army of Turkish mercenaries, invaded Palestine, captured Jerusalem and defeated the crusaders in the battle of Gaza. In 1247, the Muslims captured Ascalon. In response to the call of Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254), the French king Louis IX (1226-1270) in February 1249 sailed from Marseille with a large fleet and landed in Egypt. The French occupied Damietta left by the Muslims and moved to Cairo, but they were surrounded and were forced to capitulate. The entire rank and file of the army was exterminated. With great difficulty, Louis IX managed to conclude a truce and gain freedom for a huge ransom of two hundred thousand livres; Damietta was returned to the Egyptians. The king went to Acre and for four years conducted military operations in Syria with varying success. In 1254 he returned to France.

In the second half of the 1250s, the position of Christians in Syria and Palestine strengthened somewhat, as the Muslim states had to fight the Tatar-Mongol invasion. But in 1260 the Egyptian sultan Baybars subjugated Syria and began to gradually capture the fortresses of the crusaders: in 1265 he took Caesarea, in 1268 - Jaffa, in the same year captured Antioch, putting an end to the existence of the Principality of Antioch. The last attempt to help the crusader states was the Eighth Crusade, led by Louis IX, the Sicilian king Charles of Anjou (1264–1285) and the Aragonese king Jaime I (1213–1276). The plan was to attack Tunisia first and then Egypt. In 1270, the crusaders landed in Tunisia, but because of a plague that broke out among them (Louis IX was among the dead), they interrupted the campaign, making peace with the Tunisian sultan, who pledged to pay tribute to the king of Sicily and give the Catholic clergy the right to freely worship in their possessions.

This failure made inevitable the fall of the last strongholds of the crusaders in Syria and Palestine. From 1289, the Muslims captured Tripoli, liquidating the county of the same name, and in 1291 they took Beirut, Sidon and Tire. The loss in the same year of Acre, which was desperately defended by the Templars and the Johnites, marked the end of crusading rule in the East.

Consequences of the Crusades.

The Crusades brought innumerable disasters to the peoples of the Middle East and were accompanied by the destruction of material and cultural values. They (especially the Fourth Crusade) undermined the strength of the Byzantine Empire, thereby hastening its final fall in 1453. The Crusades ended in failure, and therefore did not solve any of the long-term problems that faced medieval Europe. Nevertheless, they had a significant impact on its further development. They allowed for a certain period to ease the demographic, social and political tension in Western Europe. This contributed to the strengthening of royal power and the creation of national centralized states in France and England.

The Crusades led to a temporary strengthening of the Catholic Church: it significantly strengthened its financial position, expanded its sphere of influence, created new military and religious institutions - orders that played important role in subsequent European history (Joannites in the defense of the Mediterranean from the Turks, the Teutons in the German aggression in the Baltic). The papacy confirmed its status as the leader of Western Christendom. At the same time, they made the gulf between Catholicism and Orthodoxy insurmountable, deepened the confrontation between Christianity and Islam, and sharpened Europeans' intransigence towards any form of religious dissent.

It used to be believed that the Crusades significantly enriched the European food flora, gave impetus to the development of production technologies and led to the expansion of cultural potential through borrowing from the East. Latest Research, however, do not support such claims. At the same time, the Crusades did not leave their mark on the Western economy and culture. The robbery of overseas countries became a catalyst for property stratification and the progress of commodity-money relations. The economic power of the Italian trading republics increased, having received huge profits from freight and significantly strengthening their commercial positions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, seriously ousting the Arabs and Byzantines. The crusades contributed to the social mobility of Europeans, overcoming their fear of the unknown; psychologically, they prepared the Great Geographical Discoveries. And, finally, the crusading movement and the crusading spirit were reflected in medieval literature (knightly romance, troubadour poetry, historical writing). Among the most significant works are the historiographical and biographical works of William of Tire, Geoffroy de Villardouin, Robert de Clary and Jean de Joinville, poems Song of Antioch and Story holy war.

According to J. Le Goff, the Crusades were "the pinnacle of the expansionism of medieval Christendom", "the first experience of European colonialism."

Ivan Krivushin

Literature:

Zaborov M. A. Crusaders in the East. M., 1960
Robert de Clary . Conquest of Constantinople. M., 1986
Zaborov M. A. The history of the crusades in documents and materials. M., 1986
Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaya O. A. Cross and sword. M., 1991
Geoffroy de Villehardouin . Conquest of Constantinople. M., 1993
Anna Komnenos . Alexiad. St. Petersburg, 1996



Crusades - an armed movement of the peoples of the Christian West to the Muslim East, expressed in a number of campaigns over the course of two centuries (from the end of the 11th to the end of the 13th) with the aim of conquering Palestine and liberating the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidels; it is a powerful reaction of Christianity against the power of Islam (under the caliphs) that was growing stronger at that time and a grandiose attempt not only to take possession of the once Christian areas, but in general to widen the limits of the dominance of the cross, this symbol of the Christian idea. Participants in these trips crusaders, wore a red image on the right shoulder cross with a saying from Holy Scripture (Luke 14, 27), thanks to which the campaigns got their name crusades.

Causes of the Crusades (briefly)

Performance in was scheduled for August 15, 1096, but before the preparations for it were over, crowds of ordinary people, led by Peter the Hermit and the French knight Walter Golyak, set off on a campaign through Germany and Hungary without money and supplies. Indulging in robbery and all sorts of outrages along the way, they were partly exterminated by the Hungarians and Bulgarians, partly reached the Greek empire. The Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos hastened to transport them across the Bosporus to Asia, where they were finally killed by the Turks at the Battle of Nicaea (October 1096). The first disorderly crowd was followed by others: thus, 15,000 Germans and Lorraine, led by the priest Gottschalk, went through Hungary and, having engaged in beating Jews in the Rhine and Danube cities, were exterminated by the Hungarians.

The crusaders set off on the first crusade. Miniature from a manuscript by Guillaume of Tyre, 13th century.

The real militia set out on the First Crusade only in the autumn of 1096, in the form of 300,000 well-armed and excellently disciplined warriors, led by the most valiant and noble knights of that time: next to Gottfried of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, the main leader, and his brothers Baldwin and Eustathius (Estachem), shone; Count Hugh of Vermandois, brother of the French king Philip I, Duke Robert of Normandy (brother of the English king), Count Robert of Flanders, Raymond of Toulouse and Stephen of Chartres, Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, Tancred of Apulism and others. As papal governor and legate, the army was accompanied by Bishop Ademar of Monteil.

Participants of the First Crusade arrived by various routes to Constantinople, where the Greek emperor Alexei forced from them a fealty oath and a promise to recognize him as a feudal lord of future conquests. At the beginning of June 1097, the crusader army appeared before Nicaea, the capital of the Seljuk sultan, and after the capture of the latter, it was subjected to extreme difficulties and hardships. Nevertheless, they took Antioch, Edessa (1098) and, finally, on June 15, 1099, Jerusalem, which at that time was in the hands of the Egyptian sultan, who unsuccessfully tried to restore his power and was utterly defeated at Ascalon.

The capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1099. Miniature of the XIV or XV centuries.

Under the influence of the news of the conquest of Palestine in 1101, a new army of crusaders moved to Asia Minor, led by the Duke of Welf of Bavaria from Germany and two others, from Italy and France, amounting to a total army of 260,000 people and exterminated by the Seljuks.

Second Crusade (briefly)

The Second Crusade - Briefly, Bernard of Clairvaux - Brief Biography

In 1144, Edessa was taken by the Turks, after which Pope Eugene III declared Second crusade(1147-1149), freeing all the crusaders not only from their sins, but at the same time from their obligations regarding their fief masters. The dreamy preacher Bernard of Clairvaux managed, thanks to his irresistible eloquence, to attract King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Hohenstaufen to the Second Crusade. Two troops, totaling, according to Western chroniclers, about 140,000 armored horsemen and a million infantrymen, set out in 1147 and headed through Hungary and Constantinople and Asia Minor. Due to lack of food, illness in the troops and after several major defeats, the reconquest plan Edessa was abandoned, and the attempt to attack Damascus failed. Both sovereigns returned to their possessions, and the Second Crusade ended in complete failure.

Crusader states in the East

Third Crusade (briefly)

Reason for Third Crusade(1189–1192) was the conquest of Jerusalem on October 2, 1187 by the powerful Egyptian sultan Saladin (see the article The Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin). Three European sovereigns participated in this campaign: Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, French king Philip II Augustus and English Richard the Lionheart. The first to march on the Third Crusade was Frederick, whose army increased to 100,000 along the way; he chose the path along the Danube, along the way he had to overcome the intrigues of the incredulous Greek emperor Isaac Angelus, who was only prompted by the capture of Adrianople to give free passage to the crusaders and help them cross over to Asia Minor. Here Frederick defeated the Turkish troops in two battles, but soon after that he drowned while crossing the Kalikadn (Salef) River. His son, Frederick, led the army further through Antioch to Akka, where he found other crusaders, but soon died. The city of Akka in 1191 surrendered to the French and English kings, but the strife that opened between them forced the French king to return to his homeland. Richard remained to continue the Third Crusade, but, desperate in the hope of conquering Jerusalem, in 1192 he concluded a truce with Saladin for three years and three months, according to which Jerusalem remained in the possession of the Sultan, and the Christians received the coastal strip from Tyre to Jaffa, as well as the right to free visiting the Holy Sepulcher.

Frederick Barbarossa - crusader

Fourth Crusade (briefly)

For more details, see separate articles Fourth Crusade, Fourth Crusade - briefly and Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders

Fourth Crusade(1202-1204) was originally aimed at Egypt, but its participants agreed to assist the exiled emperor Isaac Angelus in his quest to regain the Byzantine throne, which was crowned with success. Isaac soon died, and the crusaders, deviating from their goal, continued the war and took Constantinople, after which the leader of the Fourth Crusade, Count Baldwin of Flanders, was elected emperor of the new Latin Empire, which lasted, however, only 57 years (1204-1261).

Members of the Fourth Crusade near Constantinople. Miniature to the Venetian manuscript of Villehardouin's History, c. 1330

Fifth Crusade (briefly)

Ignoring the strange Cross hiking children in 1212, caused by the desire to test the reality of the will of God, Fifth Crusade one can name the campaign of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria to Syria (1217–1221). At first, he walked sluggishly, but after the arrival of new reinforcements from the West, the crusaders moved to Egypt and took the key to access this country from the sea - the city of Damietta. However, an attempt to capture the large Egyptian center of Mansour was not successful. The knights left Egypt, and the Fifth Crusade ended with the restoration of the former borders.

Assault by the crusaders of the Fifth campaign of the tower of Damietta. Painter Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, c. 1625

Sixth Crusade (briefly)

sixth crusade(1228–1229) committed by the German Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. For the long delay in starting the campaign, the pope excommunicated Frederick from the church (1227). The next year, the emperor nevertheless went to the East. Taking advantage of the strife of the Muslim rulers there, Frederick started negotiations with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil on the peaceful return of Jerusalem to the Christians. To back up their demands with a threat, the emperor and the Palestinian knights besieged and took Jaffa. Threatened also by the Sultan of Damascus, al-Kamil signed a ten-year truce with Frederick, returning Jerusalem to the Christians and almost all the lands once taken from them by Saladin. At the end of the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II was crowned in the Holy Land with the crown of Jerusalem.

Emperor Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil. 14th century miniature

The violation of the truce by some pilgrims led a few years later to the resumption of the struggle for Jerusalem and to its final loss by the Christians in 1244. Jerusalem was taken from the crusaders by the Turkic tribe of the Khorezmians, who were ousted from the Caspian regions by the Mongols during the movement of the latter to Europe.

Seventh Crusade (briefly)

The fall of Jerusalem caused Seventh Crusade(1248–1254) Louis IX of France, who, during a serious illness, vowed to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. In August 1248 the French crusaders sailed to the East and spent the winter in Cyprus. In the spring of 1249 the army of Saint Louis landed in the Nile Delta. Due to the indecision of the Egyptian commander Fakhreddin, she took Damietta almost without difficulty. After lingering there for several months in anticipation of reinforcements, the crusaders moved to Cairo at the end of the year. But at the city of Mansura, the Saracen army blocked their path. After hard efforts, the participants of the Seventh Crusade were able to cross the branch of the Nile and even break into Mansura for a while, but the Muslims, taking advantage of the separation of the Christian detachments, inflicted great damage on them.

The crusaders should have retreated to Damietta, but due to false notions of knightly honor, they were in no hurry to do so. They were soon surrounded by large Saracen forces. Having lost many soldiers from disease and hunger, the participants in the Seventh Crusade (almost 20 thousand people) were forced to surrender. Another 30 thousand of their comrades died. Christian captives (including the king himself) were released only for a huge ransom. Damietta had to be returned to the Egyptians. Sailing from Egypt to Palestine, Saint Louis spent about 4 years in Akka, where he was engaged in securing Christian possessions in Palestine, until the death of his mother Blanca (regent of France) recalled him to his homeland.

Eighth Crusade (briefly)

Due to the complete failure of the Seventh Crusade and the constant attacks on the Christians of Palestine by the new Egyptian (Mamluk) Sultan Baybars the same king of France, Louis IX the Saint, undertook in 1270 Eighth(And last) cross hike. The crusaders at first thought again to land in Egypt, but the brother of Louis, king of Naples and Sicily Charles of Anjou, persuaded them to sail to Tunisia, which was an important commercial rival of southern Italy. Coming ashore in Tunisia, the French participants in the Eighth Crusade began to wait for the arrival of Charles' troops. A plague broke out in their cramped camp, from which Saint Louis himself died. Mor caused such losses to the crusader army that Charles Anjou, who arrived shortly after the death of his brother, chose to stop the campaign on the terms of the payment of indemnity by the ruler of Tunisia and the release of Christian captives.

Death of Saint Louis in Tunisia during the Eighth Crusade. Painter Jean Fouquet, c. 1455-1465

End of the Crusades

In 1286, Antioch went to Turkey, in 1289 - Lebanese Tripoli, and in 1291 - Akka, the last major possession of Christians in Palestine, after which they were forced to abandon the rest of the possessions, and the whole Holy Land was united again in the hands of the Mohammedans. Thus ended the Crusades, which cost the Christians so many losses and did not reach the originally intended goal.

Results and consequences of the Crusades (briefly)

But they did not remain without a profound influence on the entire structure of the social and economic life of the Western European peoples. The consequence of the Crusades can be considered the strengthening of the power and importance of the popes as their main instigators, further - the rise of royal power due to the death of many feudal lords, the emergence of independence of urban communities, which, thanks to the impoverishment of the nobility, received the opportunity to buy benefits from their fief owners; the introduction in Europe of crafts and arts borrowed from the eastern peoples. The result of the Crusades was an increase in the class of free farmers in the West, thanks to the liberation from serfdom of the peasants participating in the campaigns. The crusades contributed to the success of trade, opening up new routes to the East; favored the development of geographical knowledge; expanding the scope of intellectual and moral interests, they enriched poetry with new subjects. Another important result of the Crusades was the promotion to the historical stage of the secular knighthood, which constituted an ennobling element of medieval life; their consequence was also the emergence of spiritual knightly orders (Johnnites, Templars and Teutons), which played an important role in history. (For more details, see separate articles