Crusades: The Peasant Crusade

A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.

After Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade in 1198, Crusaders led largely by French knights marched for the Holy Land in 1202 only to be distracted by Venetian lords. These Lords convinced the Crusaders to attack Constantinople, a Christian city! The Crusaders only managed to take Constantinople and further weaken the Byzantine Empire.

The crusaders traveled by land and by sea to take back the holy land from the Muslim infidels they tried to set up crusader states to claim more land but they failed. The crusades contributed to the construction of many European castles and missions and gave more power to the church. The crusades also helped contribute to the start of

The Crusades were a series of nine wars that began when Christians accumulated the first Crusaders to go and fight to take Jerusalem from the Muslims. But though the Crusades failed in their quest to conquer Jerusalem, there were positive and negative effects. However, it is evident in many ways the results were very damaging; in the way they impacted future relationships of Christians, Muslims, and Jews; and in how terrible the 4th Crusade ended up being.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars that began in 1095 CE. These wars were fought between Christians and Muslims to gain control over the sacred land. The Turks moved into the middle east during the early part of the 11th century CE. Most of the Turks served the Islamic armies and would invade land rapidly using combat forces. This alarmed the Greek emperor and caused him to seek out Pope Urban II and ask for mercenary troops to confront the Turks. The Pope called a council and had 300 attendees to show up. During this council, the Pope made a plea to free the Holy Land, which received an enthusiastic response. After this, Pope Urban II promptly waged war against the Muslims and took armies of Christians to Jerusalem to try and

The First Crusades was a military group that was started by Christians in Europe who wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was being occupied by the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont Ferrand on November 1095. Most histories consider this speech to be the spark the fueled a wave of military campaigns to gain back the Holy Land. This speech was meant to unite the Europeans and to gain back what was taken from them. The holy land was a small area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The First Crusades was a very successful military expedition that was driven by religious faith to reclaim Jerusalem and other holy places that fell under Muslim control. driven by religious faith. They wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was once theirs. Arabs and the Muslim Turks otherwise known as the Seljuk Turks were the Muslims that invaded and conquered land rightfully occupied by the Christian’s. Many European men, women, and children joined the Crusades and fought in the Middle East. Pope Urban II granted forgiveness of all sins to those who died in battle thus assuring them ascendancy into heaven. Which gave those who volunteered to fight assurance. Nobles and peasants responded in great numbers to the call and marched across Europe to the capital of the Byzantine empire. Having the support of the Byzantine emperor helped make them a stronger army. The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories. Soon after seizing power the Seljuks face a very different challenge to Islamic civilization. It came from Christian Crusaders. Knights from western Europe who were determined to capture portions of the Islamic world that made up the holy land of biblical times. Muslim political division and element of surprise made the first of the Crusaders assaults, between 1096 and 1099, by far the most successful. Much of

Historians consider that between 1096 and 1291 there were seven major Crusades and numerous minor ones. However, some consider the Fifth Crusade of Frederick II as two distinct crusades. This would make the crusade launched by Louis IX in 1270 the Eighth Crusade.

In 1096 the Knights Crusade started. It has been called such because it was under the leadership of famous knights. The Crusade's point was to capture the Holy Land, Jerusalem, back from the Mohammedans. The Knights' Crusade was the first Crusade, and the only truly successful one. In 1099 the Knights' Crusade captured Jerusalem, which remained in Christians control for almost 200 years.

Before invading Jerusalem or Egypt, both Muslims and Christians soon agreed on a treaty deal in 1192 ending the crusade; Jerusalem stayed under Islamic control. Pope Innocent II called for another crusade in 1198. With not not enough knights to go in to war Enrico Dandolo, the doge of Venice lead forces to aid. In 1203, the crusaders invaded Constantinople and made Alexius IV king of Byzantine Empire. Not much later, the king was overthrown by Alexius V. Crusaders responded by taking control of the city ultimately causing Constantinople to fall dividing the Byzantine Empire up in 1204.

The Third Crusade was the journey of three European leaders into battle with Saladin, the Muslim Sultan of Egypt. In 1187, Saladin gained control of Jerusalem, sparking conversations between Christians all around Europe that the idea of Muslims parading around the Holy Land was horrible and they had to do something. Of course the leaders of many nations heard of this, most notably Richard I, King Philip II of France and the Emperor of Germany, Frederick Barbarossa, who decided to crusade into the Middle East and get Jerusalem back. On the way there, many things happened, probably most importantly that when the German Emperor drowned, at the age of 70, the whole German army decided to go back home. Richard and Philip continued with their armies.

The crusades lasted until 1250. There were seven Crusades conducted in these 200 years. The Crusades failed time and time again. Many of them were fought for commercial reasons rather than religious ones. Eventually, Europe had, had enough. Very few Christians remained in the region of their Holy Land (History of the Crusades).

the Seljuk Turks were able to invade the Holy Land and take it away from Western Europe. Once Pope Urban II heard about what had happen to the Holy Land he was outraged. He immediately called out for an army to win back the holy lands for Christianity. About 4,000 people showed up to fight for the war. They were able to fight and take back the holy lands but were soon able to lose their lands due to the Turks fighting back. This soon turned into a win and lose fight due to both sides being unable to defend the holy lands from their enemy. The reason why this is extensive is because a majority of people would die in every battle because of the crusaders determination into getting the Holy Land back from the “Infidels” also known as the Turks.

The Crusades were a series of wars between western Christians and Muslims for control of "The Holy Land" in the Middle Ages. The first crusades began in 1095 and lasted until about 1291. This time period meant so much to both the Christians and the Muslims, as The Holy Land had significant value to both groups. The most important parts/things about the crusades are, The Holy Land, the First Crusade, and the Crusader states/ the second Crusade.

Pope Urban II called for a Crusade. The Crusades was a fight between the Christians and Muslims. The reason for this call was in hopes to unite European Christians in a common cause. He wanted to make the kings and noble vassald under his leaderhip. This was as well hoped to reduce warfare at home, have kights fight muslims rather than each other. He wanted the holy lands to return to Christan control, and people went on Crusades soley becasue they believed that the holy land was theirs. They also thought that if they went on this jouney their debts would be erased and their sins would be forgiven.

1096 – across Europe, a wave of religious enthusiasm swept. Peter the Hermit, a french monk, started a “People's Crusade”. It was made up of disorganized army of peasants and soldiers. They marched towards Constantinople and then towards Anatolia. Sad to say, nearly all of the crusaders perished in an ambush by the Turks.