The history of mankind is, unfortunately, not always a world of discoveries and achievements, but often a chain of a myriad of wars. These include those committed from the 11th to the 13th centuries. This article will help you understand the reasons and reasons, as well as trace the chronology. It is accompanied by a table compiled on the theme of the Crusades, containing the most important dates, names and events.

Definition of the concepts of "crusade" and "crusader"

The crusade is an armed offensive of the army of Christians to the Muslim East, which lasted a total of more than 200 years (1096-1270) and was expressed in at least eight organized performances of troops from Western European countries. In a later period, this was the name of any military campaign with the aim of converting to Christianity and expanding the influence of the medieval Catholic Church.

The crusader is a participant in such a campaign. On the right shoulder he had a stripe in the form of the same image was applied to the helmet and flags.

Reasons, reasons, goals of campaigns

Military demonstrations were organized. The formal reason was the fight against the Muslims in order to liberate the Holy Sepulcher, located in the Holy Land (Palestine). In the modern sense, this territory includes such states as Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Gaza Strip, Jordan and a number of others.

Nobody doubted the success. At that time, it was believed that anyone who became a crusader would receive the forgiveness of all sins. Therefore, joining these ranks was popular with both knights and urban residents, peasants. The latter, in exchange for participation in the crusade, received liberation from serfdom. In addition, for European kings, the crusade was an opportunity to get rid of powerful feudal lords, whose power grew as their holdings increased. Wealthy merchants and townspeople saw economic opportunity in military conquest. And the very highest clergy, led by the popes, considered the crusades as a way to strengthen the power of the church.

Beginning and end of the Crusader era

The 1st Crusade began on August 15, 1096, when an unorganized crowd of 50,000 peasants and urban poor set out on a campaign without supplies or training. Basically, they were engaged in looting (because they considered themselves the soldiers of God, who own everything in this world) and attacked the Jews (who were considered the descendants of the murderers of Christ). But within a year this army was destroyed by the Hungarians who met along the way, and then by the Turks. Following the crowd of the poor, well-trained knights went on a crusade. Already by 1099 they reached Jerusalem, capturing the city and killing a large number of inhabitants. These events and the formation of a territory called the Kingdom of Jerusalem ended the active period of the first campaign. Further conquests (until 1101) were aimed at strengthening the conquered borders.

The last crusade (eighth) began on June 18, 1270 with the landing of the army of the French ruler Louis IX in Tunis. However, this performance ended unsuccessfully: even before the start of the battles, the king died of pestilence, which forced the crusaders to return home. During this period, the influence of Christianity in Palestine was minimal, and Muslims, on the contrary, strengthened their positions. As a result, they captured the city of Acre, which put an end to the era of the Crusades.

1st-4th crusades (table)

	Years of the Crusades	Leaders and/or Major Events
		Duke Gottfried of Bouillon, Duke Robert of Normandy and others. The capture of the cities of Nicaea, Edessa, Jerusalem, etc.	Proclamation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
2nd crusade		Louis VII, King of Germany Conrad III	The defeat of the crusaders, the surrender of Jerusalem to the army of the Egyptian ruler Salah ad-Din
3rd crusade		King of Germany and the Empire Frederick I Barbarossa, French King Philip II and English King Richard I the Lionheart	Conclusion by Richard I of an agreement with Salah ad-Din (unfavorable for Christians)
4th crusade			Division of Byzantine lands

5th-8th Crusades (table)

	Years of the Crusades	Leaders and major events
5th Crusade		Duke Leopold VI of Austria, King Andras II of Hungary and others. Campaign in Palestine and Egypt.	Failure of offensive in Egypt and talks on Jerusalem due to lack of unity in leadership
6th Crusade		German King and Emperor Frederick II Staufen	The capture of Jerusalem by agreement with the Egyptian Sultan In 1244 the city again passed into the hands of the Muslims.
7th Crusade		French King Louis IX Saint Campaign to Egypt	The defeat of the crusaders, the capture of the king, followed by ransom and return home
8th crusade		Louis IX Saint	Curtailment of the campaign due to the epidemic and the death of the king

Results

How successful the numerous crusades were, the table clearly demonstrates. Among historians, there is no unequivocal opinion on how these events influenced the life of Western European peoples.

Some experts believe that the Crusades opened the way to the East, establishing new economic and cultural ties. Others point out that it could have been done more successfully peacefully. Moreover, the last crusade ended in an outright defeat.

One way or another, significant changes took place in Western Europe itself: the strengthening of the influence of the popes, as well as the power of kings; the impoverishment of the nobility and the rise of urban communities; the emergence of a class of free farmers from former serfs who gained freedom through participation in the crusades.

A Brief History of the Crusades

Crusades (late 11th - late 13th century). Campaigns of Western European knights to Palestine with the aim of liberating the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem from the rule of Muslims.

First crusade

1095 - at the Clermont Cathedral, Pope Urban III called for a crusade to liberate the holy places from the yoke of the Saracens (Arabs and Seljuk Turks). The first crusade consisted of peasants and poor citizens, led by the preacher Peter of Amiens. 1096 - they arrived in Constantinople and, without waiting for the approach of the knightly army, crossed over to Asia Minor. There, the poorly armed and even worse trained militia of Peter of Amiens was easily defeated by the Turks.

1097, spring - detachments of crusader knights concentrated in the capital of Byzantium. The main role in the First Crusade was played by the feudal lords of France: Count Raymond of Toulouse, Count Robert of Flanders, son of the Norman Duke William (the future conqueror of England) Robert, Bishop Ademar.

Count Gottfried of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, his brothers Baldwin and Eustathius, Count Hugh of Vermandois, son of the French King Henry I, and Count Bohemond of Tarentum also took part in the campaign. Pope Urban wrote to the Emperor of Byzantium, Alexios I Comnenus, that 300,000 crusaders were going on the campaign, but it is more likely that several tens of thousands of people participated in the First Crusade, of which only a few thousand knights were well armed.

The crusaders were joined by a detachment of the Byzantine army, and the remnants of the militia of Peter of Amiens.

The main problem of the crusaders was the lack of a unified command. The dukes and counts who took part in the campaign did not have a common overlord and did not want to obey each other, considering themselves no less noble and powerful than their colleagues.

Gottfried of Bouillon was the first to cross to the land of Asia Minor, followed by other knights. 1097, June - the crusaders took the fortress of Nicaea and advanced to Cilicia. The crusader army marched in two columns. The right was commanded by Gottfried of Bouillon, the left by Bohemond of Tarentum. Gottfried's army advanced through the valley of Dorilea, and Bohemond marched through the valley of Gargon. The Nicaean Sultan Soliman on June 29 attacked the left crusader column, which had not yet managed to move away from Dorilea. The crusaders were able to build a wagenburg (a closed line of carts). In addition, their location was covered by the Bafus River. Bohemond sent a messenger with a detachment to Gottfried to inform him of the approach of the Turks.

The Turks brought down a hail of stones and arrows on Bohemond's infantry, and then began to retreat. When the crusaders rushed after the retreating, they were suddenly attacked by the Turkish cavalry. The knights were scattered. Then the Turks broke into Wagenburg and massacred a significant part of the infantry. Bohemond managed to push the enemy back with the help of a cavalry reserve, but reinforcements approached the Turks, and they again pushed the crusaders back to the Wagenburg.

Bohemond sent another messenger to Gottfried, whose column was already hastening to the battlefield. She arrived in time to force the Turks to retreat. After the crusaders reorganized for a decisive attack. On the left flank stood the South Italian Normans of Bohemond, in the center - the French of Count Raymond of Toulouse, and on the right - the Lorraine of Gottfried himself. The infantry and a detachment of knights remained in reserve under the overall command of Bishop Ademar.

The Turks were defeated, and their camp went to the winner. But the light Turkish cavalry was able to evade pursuit without much loss. The heavily armed knights had no chance of keeping up with her.

The Turks did not undertake new attacks on the combined forces of the crusaders. However, crossing the waterless, rocky desert was an ordeal in itself. Most of the horses died from starvation. When the crusaders finally entered Cilicia, the local Armenian population greeted them as liberators. There they founded the first state of the crusaders - the county of Edessa.

October 1097 - Gottfried's army captured Antioch after a seven-month siege. The city tried to recapture the Sultan of Mosul, but suffered a heavy defeat. Bohemond founded another crusader state - the Principality of Antioch.

1098, autumn - the army of the crusaders advanced to Jerusalem. Along the way, she took possession of Accra and in June 1099 approached the holy city, which was defended by Egyptian troops. Almost the entire Genoese fleet, carrying siege weapons, was destroyed by the Egyptians. But one ship was able to break into Laodicea. The siege engines delivered by him enabled the crusaders to destroy the walls of Jerusalem.

1099, July 15 - The crusaders took Jerusalem by storm. On August 12, near Jerusalem, in Ascalon, a large Egyptian army landed, but the crusaders managed to defeat it. At the head of the Kingdom of Jerusalem founded by them stood Gottfried of Bouillon.

The success of the First Crusade was facilitated by the fact that the united army of the Western European knights was opposed by the scattered and warring Seljuk sultanates. The most powerful Muslim state in the Mediterranean - the Egyptian Sultanate - only with a great delay moved the main forces of its army and navy to Palestine, which the crusaders managed to break in parts. Here, the Muslim rulers clearly underestimated the danger threatening them.

For the defense of the Christian states formed in Palestine, spiritual and knightly orders were created, whose members settled in the conquered lands after the bulk of the participants in the First Crusade returned to Europe. 1119 - was founded (by the Knights of the Temple), somewhat later the Order of the Hospitallers, or Johnites, appeared, and at the end of the 12th century it appeared.

Second Crusade (briefly)

The second crusade, which was undertaken in 1147-1149, ended in vain. According to some estimates, up to 70,000 people took part in it. The Crusaders were led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. 1147, October - German knights were defeated at Dorileus by the cavalry of the Iconian Sultan. After that, epidemics hit Conrad's army. The emperor was forced to join the army of the king of France, with whom he had previously been at enmity. Most of the German soldiers chose to return to their homeland. The French, in January 1148, were defeated at Honami.

In July, the Crusaders besieged the heavily fortified Damascus for five days to no avail. 1149 - Conrad, and then Louis returned to Europe, realizing the impossibility of expanding the boundaries of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Third Crusade (briefly)

In the second half of the 12th century, Saladin (Salah ad-Din), a talented commander, became the sultan of Egypt, which opposed the crusaders. He defeated the crusaders at Lake Tiberias and in 1187 captured Jerusalem. In response, the Third Crusade was proclaimed, led by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, King Philip II Augustus of France and the English king.

When crossing one of the rivers in Asia Minor, Frederick drowned, and his army, having lost its leader, broke up and returned to Europe. The French and British, moving by sea, captured Sicily, and then landed in Palestine, but acted generally unsuccessfully. True, after a siege of many months, they took the fortress of Accra, and the king of England captured the island of Cyprus, which had recently been separated from Byzantium, where he took rich booty. There arose the kingdom of the Lusignans, which for a century became the stronghold of the crusaders in the East. But the strife between the English and French feudal lords caused the departure of the king of France from Palestine.

Having deprived the aid of the French knights, Richard was never able to take Jerusalem. 1192, September 2 - Richard signed a peace with Saladin, according to which only the coastal strip from Tyre to Jaffa remained under the control of the crusaders, while Jaffa and Ascalon were previously destroyed by Muslims to the ground.

Fourth Crusade (briefly)

The fourth crusade began in 1202 and ended in 1204 with the conquest of Constantinople instead of Palestine and a significant part of the possessions of Christian Byzantium. The capital of the empire was taken by storm on April 13, 1204 and plundered. The first attack, which was made on the 9th from the sea, was beaten off by the Byzantines.

Three days later, with the help of swing bridges, the knights climbed the walls. Part of the crusaders entered the city through a breach made with the help of battering rams, and already from the inside opened three Constantinople gates. Inside the city, the crusader army no longer met with any resistance, since a few defenders fled on the night of April 12-13, and the population was not going to take up arms, considering the fight pointless.

After the Fourth Campaign, the scale of the following crusades was significantly reduced. 1204 - King Amaury Lusignan of Jerusalem tried to assert his power in Egypt, struck by drought and famine. The Crusaders defeated the Egyptian fleet and landed at Damietta in the Nile Delta. Sultan al-Adil Abu Bakr concluded a peace treaty with the crusaders, ceding to them Jaffa, previously recaptured by the Egyptians, as well as Ramla, Lydda and half of Saida. After that, for a decade there were no major military conflicts between the Egyptians and the crusaders.

Fifth Crusade (briefly)

The Fifth Crusade was organized in 1217–1221 to conquer Egypt. It was headed by the Hungarian king Andras II and Duke Leopold of Austria. The crusaders of Syria met the newcomers from Europe without much enthusiasm. It was difficult for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which survived the drought, to feed tens of thousands of new soldiers, and it wanted to trade with Egypt, not to fight. Andras and Leopold raided Damascus, Nablus and Beisan, besieged, but never took the strongest Muslim fortress of Tavor. After this failure, Andras returned to his homeland in January 1218.

To replace the Hungarians in Palestine in 1218, the Dutch knights and German infantry arrived. It was decided to conquer the Egyptian fortress of Damietta in the Nile Delta. It was located on an island, surrounded by three rows of walls and protected by a powerful tower, from which a bridge and thick iron chains stretched to the fortress, blocking access to Damietta from the river. The siege began on May 27, 1218. Using their ships as floating wall-beating guns and using long assault ladders, the crusaders captured the tower.

Upon learning of this, the Egyptian Sultan al-Adil, who was in Damascus, could not bear this news and died. His son al-Kamil offered the crusaders to lift the siege of Damietta in exchange for the return of Jerusalem and other territories of the Kingdom of Jerusalem within the boundaries of 1187, but the knights, under the influence of the papal legate Pelagius, refused, although the sultan promised to find and return even pieces of the Life-Giving Cross captured by Saladin.

Pelagius actually led the army, reconciled different groups of crusaders and brought the siege to an end. On the night of November 4-5, 1219, Damietta was taken by storm and plundered. By that time, the vast majority of its population had died of starvation and disease. Of the 80,000, only 3,000 survived. But the Crusaders rejected Pelagius's proposal to go to Cairo, realizing that there were not enough forces to conquer Egypt.

The situation changed when, in 1221, new detachments of knights from South Germany arrived in Damietta. At the urging of Pelagius, al-Kamil's peace proposals were again rejected, and the crusaders attacked the Muslim positions at Mansura south of Damietta. His brothers from Syria came to the aid of al-Kamil, so that the Muslim army was not inferior in number to the crusaders. In mid-July, the Nile began to flood, and the crusader camp was flooded, while the Muslims prepared in advance for the revelry of the elements and did not suffer, and then cut off the path of retreat for the army of Pelagius.

The crusaders asked for peace. At this time, the Egyptian sultan was most afraid of the Mongols, who had already appeared in Iraq, and preferred not to tempt his luck in the fight against the knights. Under the terms of the truce, the crusaders left Damietta and sailed for Europe.

Sixth Crusade (briefly)

He led the Sixth Crusade in 1228–1229. German Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. The emperor himself, before the start of the campaign, was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, who called him not a crusader, but a pirate who was going to "steal the kingdom in the Holy Land." Frederick was married to the daughter of the king of Jerusalem and was going to become the ruler of Jerusalem. The prohibition of the campaign had no effect on the crusaders, who followed the emperor in the hope of booty.

1228, summer - Frederick landed in Syria. There he was able to persuade al-Kamil, who was at war with his Syrian emirs, to return Jerusalem and other territories of the kingdom to him in exchange for help against his enemies - both Muslims and Christians. The corresponding agreement was concluded in Jaffa in February 1229. On March 18, the crusaders entered Jerusalem without a fight.

Then the emperor returned to Italy, defeated the army of the pope sent against him and forced Gregory, under the terms of the Peace of Saint Germain in 1230, to lift the excommunication and recognize the agreement with the sultan. Jerusalem thus fell to the crusaders only because of the threat that their army posed to al-Kamil, and even thanks to the diplomatic skill of Frederick.

Seventh Crusade

The Seventh Crusade took place in the autumn of 1239. Frederick II refused to provide the territory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for the crusading army led by Duke Richard of Cornwall. The Crusaders landed in Syria and, at the insistence of the Templars, entered into an alliance with the Emir of Damascus to fight the Sultan of Egypt, but together with the Syrians were defeated in November 1239 at the Battle of Ascalon. Thus, the seventh campaign ended in vain.

Eighth Crusade

The Eighth Crusade took place in 1248-1254. His goal was again to recapture Jerusalem, captured in September 1244 by Sultan as-Salih Eyyub Najm ad-Din, who was assisted by 10,000 Khorezmian cavalry. Almost the entire Christian population of the city was slaughtered. This time, King of France Louis IX played the leading role in the crusade, and the total number of crusaders was determined at 15-25 thousand people, of which 3 thousand were knights.

In early June 1249, the crusaders landed in Egypt and captured Damietta. At the beginning of February 1250, the fortress of Mansur fell. But there the Crusaders themselves were besieged by the army of Sultan Muazzam Turan Shah. The Egyptians sank the Crusader fleet. Louis's starving army left Mansoura, but few made it to Damietta. Most were destroyed or captured. Among the prisoners was the king of France.

Epidemics of malaria, dysentery and scurvy spread among the captives, and few of them survived. Louis was released from captivity in May 1250 for a huge ransom of 800,000 besants, or 200,000 livres. At the same time, they demanded from the king that the crusaders leave Damietta. The remnants of the "Christian army" went to Accra. Soon, in the same 1250, Turan Shah was killed, and the Mamluks, hired soldiers in the service of the Sultan, came to power. Muiz Aibek became the first Mamluk sultan. Under him, active hostilities against the crusaders practically ceased. Louis remained in Palestine for another 4 years, but, having not received reinforcements from Europe, in April 1254 he returned to France.

ninth crusade

The ninth and last crusade took place in 1270. It was prompted by the success of the Mamluk sultan Baibars. The Egyptians in 1260 defeated the Mongol troops at the battle of Ain Jalut. 1265 - Baybars captured the fortresses of the crusaders Caesarea and Arsuf, and in 1268 - Jaffa and Antioch. The crusade was again led by Saint Louis IX, and only French knights participated in it. This time the target of the crusaders was Tunisia.

The size of the crusader army did not exceed 10,000 people. By that time, the knights were no longer striving far to the East, as they easily found work in Europe, constantly shaken by feudal civil strife. Played a role as the proximity of the Tunisian coast to Sardinia, where the crusaders gathered, and the desire of Louis to have a base to attack Egypt from land. He hoped that Tunisia would be easy to capture, since there were no large Egyptian forces there.

The landing in July 1270 was successful, but soon an epidemic of plague broke out among the crusaders, from which Louis himself died on August 25. His brother Charles I, king of the Two Sicilies, arrived in Tunisia with fresh forces, which saved the crusading army from disintegration. On November 1, he signed an agreement under which the Tunisian emir resumed the full payment of tribute to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After that, the crusaders left Tunisia. After the failure of the Ninth Campaign, the days of the crusaders in Palestine were numbered.

1285 - The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Kilawun, captured the fortresses of Marabou, Laodicea and Tripoli in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Accra remained the last Christian stronghold in Syria. 1289 - a truce was concluded between Kilavun and King Henry II of Cyprus and Jerusalem, but soon it was violated by Henry's troops, who invaded the border areas of the Mamluk state. In response, the Sultan declared war on the Crusaders.

The Accra garrison, reinforced from Europe, numbered 20,000 men. But there was no unity in the ranks of Christians. In the autumn of 1290, Kilavun went on a campaign, but soon fell ill and died. The army was led by his son Almelik Azsharaf. In March 1291, the Muslims approached the walls of Accra. They had 92 siege engines. Truce negotiations proposed by the city's defenders were unsuccessful. On May 5, the Sultan's army launched an assault. The day before, King Henry arrived in Accra with a small army, but on the night of May 15-16 he returned to Cyprus, and about 3,000 defenders of the city joined his detachment.

The remaining garrison numbered 12–13,000 men. They fought off enemy attacks until May 18, when the Muslims were able to smash the gates, dismantle the breaches in the walls blocked by the defenders and broke into the streets of Accra. The Egyptians killed Christian men and took women and children captive. Some of the defenders were able to make their way to the harbor, where they boarded ships and went to Cyprus. But a storm arose on the sea, and many ships sank.

Several thousand crusaders who remained on the shore took refuge in the Templar castle, which the Sultan's troops were quickly able to capture by storm. Some of the Christian soldiers were able to break through to the sea and board ships, the rest were exterminated by the Egyptians. Accra was burned and razed to the ground. This was in retribution for the massacre of the Egyptian garrison in Accra by King Richard the Lionheart of England. After the fall of Accra, the Christians also left several small towns in Syria under their control. This was the inglorious end of the Crusades.

Jerusalem was returned to the Christians, but remained without fortifications. He constantly had to fear the attacks of the Muslims. The inhabitants of the Holy Land lived in constant anxiety, no one else dared to visit the Holy places. Over 10,000 pilgrims were slaughtered in the Judean mountains.

At the council called by the pope at Spalato, the groans of Zion were heard again. This council, which was attended by Frederick II with the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, decided to continue the war against the infidels and go to the aid of the Christian colonies in the East.

While waiting for the armies to gather, the pope sent several missionaries across the sea to fight with the sword of the word against the teachers and followers of Islam. At the same time, Gregory sent messages to the Caliph of Baghdad, to the Sultans of Cairo and Damascus, and to many Muslim princes, urging them to accept the Christian faith, or at least patronize Christians.

This way of fighting Islam was something new in holy wars. The thought of him appeared during the struggle with the Albigensians and northern pagans, where the missionaries almost always preceded the soldiers of the Cross.

The monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders were instructed to preach holy war to the entire Christian world, they were authorized not only to distribute crosses to pilgrims, but also to free from pilgrimage those who were obliged to deliver maintenance to the crusaders.

Everywhere the clergy met the monks in procession, with banners and the best church decorations. Indulgences were issued to those present at their sermons, the effect of which extended for several days, and in the name of the holy see, they demanded that each believer contribute a weekly tax for the expenses of the Crusade. They had at their disposal spiritual treasures for all who served the sacred enterprise, and curses for those who betrayed the cause of the Lord God or remained indifferent to it.

However, all means, the exhortations of the pope, the name of Jerusalem, which had so powerfully acted in former times, could no longer arouse the enthusiasm of the peoples, and the cause of this Crusade would not have advanced further than preaching in vain, if a few noble vassals of the kingdom of France, who rebelled against the royal power and defeated she did not come up with the idea to atone for the crimes of civil war through holy war.

Thibault, Count of Champagne, and the King of Navarre, Duke of Brittany, Peter Moclerc accepted the cross. Following their example, the counts of Barsky, Forezsky, Makonsky, de Joigny, Neversky, Amalrik, son of Simon of Montfort, Andrey Vitreysky, Gottfried Ansensky, many barons and noble rulers swore an oath to go to war in Asia.

Then a council was convened at Type, not to excite the zeal of the faithful, but to discuss various matters concerning this crusade. In previous expeditions, both thieves and robbers joined the ranks of the soldiers of Jesus Christ, and such a miracle served, as it were, as a warning to all believers. Now opinions changed, and the Council, in order not to tempt the Knights of the Cross, was compelled to decree that great criminals should not be admitted into the pilgrim army. Due to the bad treatment of the Jews, the Council of Tours protected their lives and property with the special patronage of the church.

When the new crusaders were preparing to leave for Palestine, the Franks of Constantinople, driven to the last extremity, came to the West to ask for immediate help. This Latin empire, founded in such a glorious manner, was now limited to the boundaries of one capital, constantly threatened by the Bulgars and Nicene Greeks.

John of Brienne, who seems to have been destined by fate to support every crumbling greatness, was called to save the Latin Empire, as before he was called to save Jerusalem, but he could not establish the shaken throne with his victories.

Having reigned for four years over the remnants of the empire of Constantine, he died at the age of 89, in the humble vestments of a monk of the Franciscan order. Of the imperial family of Kurtneev, only one prince now remained, who traveled around Europe, appealing to the mercy of sovereigns and peoples.

The pope, seeking to rectify the position of Baldwin II, invited the crusaders, who were ready to leave for the Holy Land, to help their brothers in Constantinople. “Greece,” Gregory told them, “was the way to Jerusalem.”

The Crusaders hesitated between Constantinople and Jerusalem, and, held back now by the pope, now by Frederick, made the Eastern Christians wait for a long time for the help they had been promised. To top the misfortune, a new quarrel broke out between Gregory IX and the German emperor.

The squabbling between the papacy and the empire reached an extreme. For the imperial party, the church no longer had anything sacred. The pope preached a crusade against his formidable rival and offered the imperial crown to whoever was able to dethrone him. Frederick then came out against the pope with weapons in his hands and appeared at the head of the army in the very capital of Christendom.

Military operations in the Holy Land

Amid the general confusion and despondency, the cries and entreaties of the Christian colonies in the East were no longer heard. At the end of the truce concluded with Frederick, the Muslims returned to Jerusalem, left without protection.

Ptolemais and the Christian cities no longer had communication with Europe, from which they expected salvation. Between all the fleets in the Mediterranean there was a war - some fought for the pope, others for the emperor. Thibault and his companions could hardly find ships to move to Syria, and some left Marseilles, others from various Italian ports.

Arriving in Palestine, they found this country torn apart by disagreements: one party acted in favor of the German emperor, the other stood for the king of Cyprus, and there was no authority that could control the forces of the Crusade. The crowd of pilgrims was not bound by any common interest that could keep them for a long time under the same banners, each of the leaders chose his enemies and waged war at his own expense and in his own name.

The Duke of Brittany, with his knights, attacked the Damascus possessions and returned with a multitude of buffaloes, rams, and camels. At the sight of such a rich booty, envy aroused in other crusaders, and they set off to plunder the fertile lands of Gaz. The most ardent (or greedy?) of the crusaders rushed far ahead and faced the Muslim army and, in the ensuing battle, almost completely died.

After this defeat, none of the crusader princes dared to enter into new battles, only complaints and murmurs about the disasters of the Crusade were heard in the Christian army.

The papal legate and the clergy denounced in their sermons the envious and arrogant spirit of the leaders and did not cease to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ to awaken in them zeal for the Cross and enthusiasm for holy war.

Idleness gave birth to vices and strife, which made them despair of the outcome of this expedition. Fortunately for the Christian colonies, there were also strife among the Muslims, and they did not attack the possessions of the Franks. The princes and barons, having spent several months in their tents, now thought only of returning to their fatherland; they entered into separate negotiations with the Saracens and made peace in the same way that they made war.

Some of them entered into an agreement with the Sultan of Damascus, others with the Sultan of Egypt. Through these negotiations, they again acquired the Holy Places in their possession. But the liberation of Jerusalem, which had been conquered so many times and could never be saved, was not received with the same enthusiasm by the believers.

The Count of Champagne, the Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy were replaced by Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III and nephew of Richard the Lionheart. The latter turned out to be no happier than those who preceded him - all that he managed to acquire through his expedition was only the opportunity to bury the bodies of the crusaders who fell in the battle of Gaza.

The end of the last "big" crusade

These are the last events of the Sixth Crusade, the last great campaign of the West against the East. Of course, the crusades continued after, there was also the seventh and even the eighth, which will be discussed later, but ... they can be called "crusades" with a big stretch, and even more so in terms of scale. The era of great campaigns was coming to an end, and with them, the whole world, the world of old Europe, was coming to an end.

Source - Compilation based on Joseph Michaud's History of the Crusades and other materials in the public domain
Posted by Malfis K.

Crusades Nesterov Vadim

Sixth Crusade (1228–1229)

sixth crusade

It was held under the leadership of the German emperor and the Sicilian king Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Friedrich was one of the most educated sovereigns of his time: he spoke Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German and Arabic, was interested in the natural sciences and medicine. All his life he collected books in different languages and left behind a very large library.

Having accepted the cross back in 1215, Frederick in 1227 went to sea in the direction of the Holy Land, but was forced to return due to an epidemic that had begun in the troops, and then the pope excommunicated him from the church. In 1228, the king nevertheless reached Palestine, where he acted not through military clashes, but through diplomacy, and achieved significant success through negotiations. In exchange for the promise of military assistance to al-Kamil, he, according to the Jaffa Agreement, concluded on February 11, 1229, received Jerusalem.

Louis IX at the head of the crusaders. Source: Guillaume de Saint-Patu, Life of Saint Louis

The agreement took into account mutual interests: the mosques of Omar and al-Aqsa remained with the Muslims, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was returned to the Christians. Having fulfilled his vow, having entered Jerusalem, Frederick set sail for his homeland. However, already under the heirs of al-Kamil, the agreement was violated, and in 1244 Jerusalem again fell under the rule of the Muslims.

Attempts to return holy places to Christians were continued by the French king Louis IX the Saint, who organized the Seventh (1248–1254) and Eighth (1270) crusades.

From the book The Complete History of Islam and the Arab Conquests in One Book author Popov Alexander

The German Crusade and the Campaign of the Nobles In May 1096, a German army of about 10,000 people, led by a small French knight Gauthier the Beggar, Count Emicho of Leiningen and the knight Volkmar, staged a massacre with the crusader peasants

From the book History of the Crusades author Monusova Ekaterina

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The Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1272, are an important part of the Middle Ages covered in the 6th grade history course. 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:

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)	Organized by Pope 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 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 Rus'

The ideas of the crusades also penetrated the territory of Rus'. One of the directions of the foreign policy of her princes is wars with unbaptized neighbors. The campaign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1111 against the Polovtsy, who often attacked Rus', 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: