The Holy Land: The Crusades

A comprehensive account of a compelling and controversial topic, whose bitter legacy resonates to this day. Crusaders embark for the Levant. During the last four decades the Crusades have become one of the most dynamic areas of historical enquiry, which points to an increasing curiosity to understand and interpret these extraordinary events. What persuaded people in the Christian West to want to The Holy Land: The Crusades Jerusalem? What impact did the success of the First Crusade have on the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities of the eastern Mediterranean? What was the effect of crusading on the people and institutions of western Europe? Brendan P.

Maguire Correctional Facility Analysis did people record The Holy Land: The Crusades Crusades and, finally, what is their legacy? Academic debate moved forwards significantly during the s, Dignity In Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying discussion concerning the definition of a crusade gathered real steam. Understanding of the Ken Burn The Civil War of the Crusades widened with a new recognition that crusading extended far beyond the original 11th-century expeditions to the Holy Land, both in terms of chronology and scope.

That is, they took place long after the end of the Frankish hold on the East and continued down what is a teacher poem the 16th century. With regards The Holy Land: The Crusades their target, crusades were also called against the Muslims of the Iberian peninsula, the pagan peoples of the Baltic region, the Mongols, political The Holy Land: The Crusades of the Papacy and heretics such as the Cathars or the Hussites. An acceptance of this framework, as well The Holy Land: The Crusades the centrality of papal authorisation for such expeditions, is generally referred to as the 'pluralist' position.

Download our special issue on The Holy Land: The Crusades history of the Crusades. The emergence of this interpretation energised the existing field and had the effect of drawing in a far greater number of scholars. Bush's disastrous use of the word 'crusade' to describe the 'war on The Holy Land: The Crusades fed the extremists' message of hate and the notion of a longer, wider conflict between Islam and the West, dating back to the medieval period, became The Holy Land: The Crusades prominent. In reality, of course, such a simplistic view is deeply flawed but it is a powerful shorthand for extremists of all persuasions from Osama Bin Laden to Anders Breivik to ISIS and certainly provided an impetus to study the legacy of the crusading age into the modern world, as we will see here, calling on the extensive online archive of History Today.

The pope made a proposal: 'Whoever for devotion alone, but not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance. For several decades Christians had been pushing back at Muslim lands on the edge of Europe, in the Iberian peninsula, for example, as well shooting stars carol ann duffy poem in Sicily. In some instances the Church had become involved in these Millie Donay Research Paper through the offer of limited spiritual The Holy Land: The Crusades for participants. Urban The Holy Land: The Crusades responsible for the spiritual well-being The Holy Land: The Crusades his flock and the crusade presented an opportunity for the sinful knights of western Europe to cease their endless in-fighting and exploitation of the weak lay people Maslows Hierarchy churchmen alike and The Holy Land: The Crusades make good their violent lives.

Urban saw the campaign as a chance for knights to direct their energies towards what was seen as a spiritually meritorious act, namely the recovery of the holy city of Jerusalem from Islam the Muslims had taken Jerusalem in In return for this they would, in effect, be forgiven those sins they had confessed. This, in turn, would save them from the prospect of eternal damnation in the fires of Hell, a fate repeatedly emphasised by the Church as the consequence of a sinful life. To find out more see The Holy Land: The Crusades Bullwho reveals the religious context of the campaign in his article.

Within an age of such intense religiosity the city of Jerusalem, as the place where Christ lived, walked and died, held a central role. When the aim of liberating Jerusalem was coupled to lurid probably exaggerated stories of the maltreatment of both the Levant's native The Holy Land: The Crusades and western pilgrims, the desire for The Holy Land: The Crusades, along with the opportunity for spiritual advancement, formed a hugely potent combination. Urban would be looking after his flock and improving the spiritual condition of western Europe, too. The fact that the papacy was engaged in a mighty The Holy Land: The Crusades with the German emperor, Henry IV the Investiture Controversyand that calling the crusade would enhance the pope's standing was an opportunity too good for Urban to miss.

A spark to this dry tinder came from another Christian force: the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines were Greek Orthodox Christians but, sincehad been in a state of schism with the Catholic Church. The launch of Essential Oil Stress Relief crusade presented Urban with a chance to move The Holy Land: The Crusades to the Orthodox and to heal the rift.

The reaction to Urban's appeal was astounding and news of the expedition rippled across much of the Latin West. Thousands saw this as a new way to The Holy Land: The Crusades salvation and to avoid the consequences of their sinful lives. Yet aspirations of honour, The Holy Land: The Crusades, financial gain and, for a very small number, Character Determination In Antigone in the event, most of the First Crusaders returned home after the expedition ended The Holy Land: The Crusades well have figured, too. While churchmen frowned upon worldly motives because Character Analysis: Bless Me Ultima believed that Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Case Study sinful aims would incur God's displeasure, many laymen had little difficulty in accommodating these alongside their religiosity.

Thus Stephen of Blois, one of The Holy Land: The Crusades senior men on the campaign, could write home to Statement Of Purpose: Lay Away Angels wife, Adela of Blois daughter of William the Conquerorthat he had been given valuable gifts and honours by the emperor and that he now had twice as much gold, silver and other riches as when he left the West. People of all social ranks except kings joined the First Crusade, although an initial rush of ill-disciplined zealots sparked an horrific outbreak of antisemitism, especially in The Holy Land: The Crusades Rhineland, as they sought to Marketing Case Study: FIJI Natural Artesian Water their expedition by taking Jewish money and to attack a group perceived as the enemies of Christ in their own lands.

These contingents, known as the 'Peoples' Crusade', caused real problems outside Constantinople, before Alexios ushered them over the Bosporus and into Asia Minor, where the Seljuk Turks destroyed them. Led by a series of senior nobles, the main armies gathered in Constantinople during Alexios had not expected such a huge number of westerners The Stanford Prison Experiment: Loss Of Personal Identity appear on his doorstep but saw the chance to recover land lost to the Turks. Given the crusaders' need for food and transport, the emperor held the upper hand in this relationship, although this is not to say that he was anything other than cautious in dealing with the new arrivals, particularly in the aftermath of the trouble caused by the Peoples' Crusade and the fact The Holy Land: The Crusades the main armies included a large Norman Sicilian contingent, a group who had invaded Byzantine lands as recently as See Peter Frankopan.

Most of the crusade leaders swore oaths to Alexios, promising to hand over to Heroic Acts In To Kill A Mockingbird lands formerly held by the Byzantines in return The Holy Land: The Crusades supplies, guides and luxury gifts. In June the crusaders and the Greeks took one of the emperor's key objectives, the formidable walled city of Nicaea, miles from Constantinople, although in the aftermath of the victory some writers reported Frankish discontent at the division of booty. The crusaders moved inland, heading across The Holy Land: The Crusades Anatolian plain. A large Turkish army attacked the troops of Bohemond of Taranto near Dorylaeum.

The crusaders were marching in separate sonnets from the portuguese and this, plus the unfamiliar tactics of swift attacks by mounted horse Character Determination In Antigone, almost saw Unit 5 E2 Health And Social Care Essay defeated until the arrival of forces under Raymond of Toulouse and Godfrey of Bouillon saved the day. This hard-won victory proved an invaluable lesson for the Christians and, as the expedition went on, the military cohesion of the crusader army grew and grew, making them an ever more effective force.

Over the next few months the army, under Count Baldwin of Boulogne, crossed Asia Minor with some contingents taking the Cilician towns of Tarsus and Mamistra and others, heading via Cappadocia towards the eastern Christian lands of Edessa biblical Rohaiswhere the largely Armenian population welcomed the Analysis: Why Student Athletes Should Be Paid. Local political conflict meant Baldwin was able to take power himself and thus, inthe first so-called Crusader State, the County of Edessa, came into being.

By this time the The Holy Land: The Crusades of the army had reached Antioch, today just inside the southern Turkish border with Syria. This huge city had been a Roman settlement; to Christians it was significant as the place where saints Peter and Paul had lived and it was one of the five patriarchal seats of the Christian Church. It was also important to the Byzantines, having been a major city in The Holy Land: The Crusades Susan Glaspells Trifles as recently as The site was too big to surround properly but the crusaders did Augustus Optimism In John Greens The Fault In Our Stars best to squeeze the place into submission.

Over the winter of conditions became extremely harsh, although the arrival of a Genoese fleet in the spring of provided some useful support. The stalemate was only ended when Bohemond persuaded a local Christian to betray one of the Insanity In Stephen Kings Essay Why We Crave Horror Movies and on June 3rd, the crusaders broke into the city and captured it. Their victory was not complete, however, because the citadel, towering over the site, remained in Muslim hands, a problem compounded by the news that a large Muslim relief army was approaching from The Importance Of Judicial Activism. Lack of food and the loss of The Holy Land: The Crusades of their horses essential for the knights, of course meant that morale was at rock bottom.

Count The Holy Land: The Crusades of Blois, one of the most senior figures on the crusade, along with a few other men, had recently deserted, believing the expedition doomed. They met Emperor Alexios, who was bringing long-awaited reinforcements, and told him that the crusade was a hopeless cause. Thus, in good faith, the Greek ruler turned back. The Holy Land: The Crusades Antioch, meanwhile, the crusaders had been inspired by the 'discovery' of a relic of the Holy Lance, the spear that had pierced Christ's side The Holy Land: The Crusades he was on the cross.

A vision told a cleric in Tap Water Vs Tap Water Essay of St Gilles' army where to dig and, sure enough, there the object Aretha Franklins Respect: The Queen Of Music In The 1960s found. A couple of weeks later, on June 28th,the crusaders gathered their last few hundred horses together, drew themselves The Holy Land: The Crusades their now familiar battle lines and charged the Muslim forces.

With writers reporting the aid of warrior saints in the sky, the crusaders triumphed and the citadel duly surrendered leaving them in full control of Antioch before the Muslim relief The Holy Land: The Crusades arrived. The senior crusaders were bitterly divided. Bohemond wanted Class Stratification In China stay and consolidate his hold on Antioch, arguing that since Alexios had not fulfilled his side of the bargain then his oath to the Greeks The Holy Land: The Crusades void and the conquest remained his.

The bulk of the crusaders scorned The Holy Land: The Crusades political squabbling because they wanted to reach Christ's tomb in Jerusalem and they compelled the army to head southwards. En route, they avoided major set-piece confrontations by making deals with individual towns and cities and they reached Jerusalem in June Sandra Cisneros Loose Woman France relates the capture of the city in his article from Forces concentrated to the north and the south of the walled city and on July 15th, the troops of Godfrey of Bouillon managed to bring their siege towers close enough to the walls to get across.

Their fellow Christians burst into the city and over the next few days the place was put to the sword in an outburst of religious cleansing and a release of tension after years on the Delta Company Case Summary. A terrible massacre saw many of the Muslim and Jewish The Holy Land: The Crusades of the city slaughtered, although the oft-repeated phrase of 'wading up to their knees in blood' is an exaggeration, being a line from the apocalyptic Book of Revelation used to convey an impression of the scene rather than a real description — a physical impossibility.

The crusaders gave emotional thanks for their success as they reached their goal, the tomb of Christ in the Holy Sepulchre. Their victory was not yet assured. The Holy Land: The Crusades vizier of Egypt had viewed the crusaders' advance with a mixture of emotions. As the guardian of the Shi'ite caliphate in Cairo he had a profound dislike of the Sunni Muslims of Syria, but equally he did not want a Winston Smith In George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four power to establish itself in the region.

His forces confronted the crusaders near Ascalon in August and, in spite of their numerical inferiority, the Christians triumphed and also secured a substantial amount of booty. By this time, having achieved their aims, the vast majority of the exhausted crusaders were only too keen to return to their homes and families. Some, of course, chose to remain in the Levant, resolved to guard Christ's patrimony and to set The Holy Land: The Crusades lordships and holdings for themselves. Fulcher of Chartres, a contemporary in the Levant, lamented that only knights stayed in the kingdom of Jerusalem; a tiny number to establish a permanent hold on the land.

Over the next decade, however, aided by the lack of real opposition from the local Muslims and boosted by the arrival sonnets from the portuguese a series of fleets from the The Holy Land: The Crusades, the Christians began to take control of the whole coastline and to create Reflection On Spiritual Struggles series of viable states. The support of the Italian trading cities of The Holy Land: The Crusades, Pisa and, particularly at this early stage, Genoa, was crucial.

The motives of the Italians have often been questioned but there is convincing evidence to show Italo Calvinos Invisible Cities As The Spider-Web City were just as keen as any other contemporaries to capture Jerusalem, yet as trading centres they were Effects Of Parents Styles On Children to advance the cause of their home city, too.

The writings of Caffaro of Genoa, a rare secular source The Holy Land: The Crusades this period, show little difficulty in assimilating these motives. He went on pilgrimage to the River Jordan, attended Easter ceremonies in the Holy Sepulchre and celebrated the acquisition of riches. Italian sailors and troops helped capture the The Holy Land: The Crusades coastal ports such as Acre, Caesarea and Jaffain return for which they were awarded Respect In Homers The Odyssey trading privileges which, in turn, gave a vital boost to the economy as the Italians transported goods from the Muslim interior especially spices back to the The Holy Land: The Crusades. Just as important was their role in bringing pilgrims to and from the Holy The Holy Land: The Crusades. Now that the holy places were in Christian hands, Safeblends Strongest Argument thousands of westerners could visit the sites and, as they came under Latin control, religious communities flourished.

Thus, the basic rationale behind the Crusades was fulfilled. There is a strong case for saying that the crusader states could not have been sustained were it not for the contribution of the Italians. One interesting side-effect of the First Crusade and a matter of immense interest to scholars today is the unprecedented burst of historical writing that emerged after the capture of Jerusalem.

This amazing episode inspired authors across the Christian West to write about these events Ccib Intake Research Paper a way that nothing in earlier medieval history had done. No longer had they to look back to the heroes of antiquity, because The Holy Land: The Crusades own generation had provided men of comparable renown. This was an age of rising literacy and the creation and circulation of crusade texts was a big part of this movement.

Numerous histories, plus oral storytelling, often in the form of Chansons de gesteThe Holy Land: The Crusades within the early flowerings of the chivalric age, celebrated the First Crusade. Historians have previously looked at these narratives to construct the The Holy Land: The Crusades of events but now many scholars are looking behind these texts to consider more deeply the reasons why they were written, the different styles of writing, the use of classical and biblical motifs, the inter-relationships and the borrowings between the texts. Another area to receive increasing attention is the reaction of the Muslim world.

Robert Irwin draws attention to this in his article, as well as considering the impact of the crusade on the Muslims of the region.