Term Paper on "Study of the Crusades"

Term Paper 10 pages (3669 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Crusades refer to a series of wars waged by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims from the end of the 11th century to the late 13th century. Later on, the term "Crusades" was broadened to include all military campaigns by the Europeans against non-Christians. There were four major crusades carried out by European Christian armies although many more excursions against the Muslims as well as other "unbelievers" during the Middle Ages have been termed as "crusades" by some historians. In this paper we shall discuss the background, causes and consequences of the Crusades, besides examining the first Crusade in detail and taking a brief look at the other crusades.

Background

Following the death of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in 814 a.D., the Empire fell into a steady decline. Christian Europe came under repeated attacks, from the Magyars in the east and center and from the marauding Vikings in the north. Islam, which was a growing power since the 7th century, posed an even bigger threat to Europe. Its forces had had conquered North Africa, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and Spain by the 8th century. The Byzantine Empire, which had survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire, to carry the torch of the ancient Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity in the east, was also threatened by the forces of Islam. In the 11th century a.D., however, Europe began to experience a revival in its strength. A growing population matched a robust economy. The power and influence of the Church was consolidated following a reform movement which reversed the previous practice of kings' appointment of important clergy members. The growing population and economy meant that the European traders needed access to the Mediterranean trade routes hitherto controlled by the Muslims. By the end of the 11th century, therefore, Western Europe had regained much of its confidence and was brimming with restless energy. Moreover, an increasing number of young men (sons of nobles in a feudal European set-up) were able and willing to embark on adventurous journeys and the Europeans felt confident that they had the capacity to launch a major military undertaking. Religious feelings and secular economic interests of the people were thus in synchronicity for forays to the East at the time.

The Immediate Cause

The Seljuks were one of the several Turkish tribes that had recently converted to Islam in the 11th century a.D. And had established their rule in Iran on the edges of the Byzantine Empire. When the Seljuks started to make forays into the Anatolian peninsula (present-day Turkey) and then part of the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Alexius felt greatly threatened and due to the weakened state of his Empire, appealed to the Pope (Urban II) for help to fight the "unbelievers." The appeal struck a responsive chord in the West. Tales of pagan / Muslim treatment of Christians in the East had already roused bitter hatred among Western Europeans for long. The hatred had been further reinforced through the tales of mutilation and torture of Christians by Muslim warlords -- most of which were exaggerations or outright lies-- brought back by the pilgrims who had traveled to Jerusalem as pilgrims. (Gore 1)

Pope Urban II had recently assumed a position of prominence in European politics following the papal reforms in Church. The tales and the request for help by the Byzantine Emperor provided him with the powerful ammunition he needed to persuade the proud princes of Europe to give up their personal vendettas and come together to fight the Infidel. He decided to seize on the opportunity to put a much more ambitious plan in motion. He decided to call for a "holy war" against the unbelievers, i.e., the Muslims, in order to regain the Holy Lands and the city of Jerusalem which was under Muslim occupation in 1095.

Pope Urban's Clermont Address of 1095

No transcript of Pope Urban II's address at Clermont in 1095 exists. However, some of the monks present at the time later recorded what the pope had said in the meeting and slightly different versions of the speech now exist. It has been reported that Urban addressed the gathering in his native French language in a very effective, emotional manner. The speech was a clever mix of passionate exhortations to the religious convictions of the Christian gathering -- by offering them salvation in the hereafter, as well as the promise of material wealth.

The Franks were referred to as the "the race beloved and chosen by God" and the Muslims were denounced in the strongest terms as "....an accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God, [that] has violently invaded the lands of those Christians." Urban went on to recount how the "unclean" Muslims had tortured and killed their fellow Christians, defiled and destroyed the churches of God and dismembered the kingdom of the Greeks. (Robinson, 312)

The Franks were then exhorted to avenge the wrongs perpetrated by the Muslims and to recover the lands that rightfully belonged to the Christians. The Pope motivated the people by referring to brave deeds and accomplishments of King Charlemagne, his son Louis and other brave Franken monarchs. Urban then expanded his appeal for the taking up of arms by raising the specter of the holy Sepulcher by exhorting, "Let the holy Sepulcher of our Lord and Savior, which is possessed by the unclean nations, especially arouse you..." (Ibid. 313)

He reminded the faithful that the love of their families and children should not hinder them in a higher cause (fighting for the glory of God) by quoting the Gospel: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" and in the same breath appealed to their material instincts by reminding the people that they lived in a land which was too limited for the growing population while the holy land, with Jerusalem at the center of the earth, was a land that 'floweth with milk and honey' and waiting to be freed from the clutches of the infidels. The Pope advised the Christians to stop quarreling among themselves and to unite for a higher cause. He promised that all those who would willingly take the journey to free the holy land would have washed away their sins and would be assured of "imperishable glory in the kingdom of heaven."

According to Robert the Monk, all those who were present agreed enthusiastically with Pope Urban and cried out in unison, "It is the will of God! It is the will of God!" The Pope asked to make this their war cry in combats with their enemy.

The First Crusade

The Poor People's Crusade

Urban II's rousing call to arms proved extremely effective but in ways that the Pope had not anticipated. Urban had intended that the crusade army should consist fundamentally of knights who would lead the army along with soldiers of lower rank who would be disciplined and militarily useful. However, as the news of his Clermont proclamation spread, men and women of all social classes and occupations decided to join the crusade. Bands of urban and rural poor were the first to gather for the journey. The first people to fall victim to the marauding bands of the undisciplined crusaders were not the Muslims, who were far off, but the Jews of northern France and the Rhineland, who were near at hand. Appalling pogroms against the Jews took place, and from then onwards anti-Semitism and prosecution of Jews became a feature of most crusades that followed. (Lloyd 36) Such bands of crusaders, led by men like Peter the Hermit, were the first to form and depart, in the spring of 1096. They are known collectively in history as the "Poor People's Crusade," or the "First Wave of Crusaders" and consisted of independent groups of the urban and rural poor, who were poorly armed and lacked supplies. Most groups of the 'first wave' set off from northern France, the Low Countries, the Rhineland, and Saxony and attempted to reach Constantinople from different directions. Lacking discipline and food supplies, they raided the people and the land on the way which was mostly Byzantine territory. Many were killed in the armed clashes with the local people. Some of them did get through to Constantinople and were shipped across the Bosphorus in August 1096, and split into two groups. Their first contact with the Turkish forces was disastrous. One group attempted to take Nicaea (now Iznik in present-day Turkey) but failed, as the Turks led by their Seljuk leader, Kilij Arsalan, surrounded and killed most of the group. The other group also met a similar fate as the Turks ambushed and massacred them near Civetot. The remaining survivors fled back to Constantinople and ultimately joined up with the "second wave" of the crusade. (Ibid., 37-38) the ill-conceived "Crusade of the Poor People" thus had a disastrous end. But in an ironic way, it had laid the groundwork for… READ MORE

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