This article is about the religious wars waged by Western Christians to seize the Holy Land from Muslim control between the 11th and 13thcenturies. For the theoretical, sociological, institutional, military, and financial dimensions of crusading, seeCrusading movement.
TheCrusades were a series of military campaigns launched by thepapacy between 1095 and 1291 against Muslim rulers for the recovery and defence of theHoly Land (Palestine), encouraged by promises of spiritual reward. TheFirst Crusade was proclaimed byPope Urban II at theCouncil of Clermont on 27November 1095 in response to aByzantine appeal for aid against the advancingSeljuk Turks. By this time, the papacy's position as head of theCatholic Church had strengthened, and earlier conflicts with secular rulers and wars onWestern Christendom's frontiers had prepared it for the direction of armed force in religious causes. The First Crusade led to the creation of fourCrusader states in theMiddle East, whose defence required further expeditions fromCatholic Europe. The organisation of such large-scale campaigns demanded complex religious, social, and economic institutions, includingcrusade indulgences,military orders, and thetaxation of clerical income. Over time, thecrusading movement expanded to include campaigns against pagans, Christian dissidents, and other enemies of the papacy, promoted with similar spiritual rewards and continuing into the 18thcentury.
TheCrusade of 1101, the earliest papally sanctioned expedition inspired by the First Crusade, ended in disastrous defeats. For several decades thereafter, only smaller expeditions reached the Holy Land, yet their role in consolidating and expanding the Crusader states was pivotal. Thefall of Edessa, the capital of the first Crusader state, prompted theSecond Crusade, which failed in 1148. Its failure reduced support for crusading across Latin Christendom, leaving the Crusader states unable to resistSaladin's expansion. Having united Egypt and Muslim Syria under his rule, Saladin destroyed their combined armies at theBattle of Hattin in 1187. The Crusader states survived largely owing to theThird Crusade, a major campaign against Saladin, though Jerusalem remained under Muslim control. Initially directed against Egypt, theFourth Crusade was diverted to the Byzantine Empire, culminating in theSack of Constantinople and the establishment of theLatin Empire in 1204. TheFifth Crusade again targeted Egypt but failed to conquer it in 1219–21. By this period, crusade indulgences could also be obtained through other campaigns—such as theIberian,Albigensian, andNorthern Crusades—thereby diminishing enthusiasm for expeditions in the eastern Mediterranean.
Jerusalem was regained through negotiation during theSixth Crusade in 1229, and in 1239–41 theBarons' Crusade restored much of the territory the Crusader states had lost. However, theSack of Jerusalem by Muslim freebooters soon ended Crusader rule in the Holy City.Louis IX of France launched two major campaigns—theSeventh Crusade against Egypt in 1248–51 and theEighth Crusade against Tunis in 1270—both of which ended in failure. In place of the large-scalepassagium generale, the smallerpassagium particulare became the predominant form of crusading campaigns in the late 13thcentury. The Crusader states, however, were unable to withstand the advance of theMamluks. Having reunited Egypt and Muslim Syria by 1260, they went on to attack the Crusader states, capturing the Crusaders' last mainland strongholds in 1291. Although plans for the reconquest of the Holy Land continued to be made in the following decades, only theAlexandrian Crusade briefly revived crusading activity in the region in 1365.
The Crusades were military campaigns undertaken byWestern Christians to reclaim theHoly Land, orPalestine, fromMuslim control between the 11th and 13thcenturies.[1][2] Launched by thepapacy with promises of spiritual reward, they were occasionally accompanied by unauthorised movements—driven by popular zeal—commonly referred to aspopular crusades. In scholarly usage, the term is frequently applied more broadly to include papally authorised conflicts in other regions, conducted within the wider framework of thecrusading movement.[3][4][5]
Terminology evolved gradually, primarily reflecting the close association between the Crusades andChristian pilgrimage. Early usage favoured terms denoting mobility—iter ('journey'),expeditio ('expedition'),passagium ('passage')—typically accompanied by references to the intended destination, such as theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.[6] Other early expressions invoked the cross (crux), and by around 1250,canon lawyers were distinguishing between campaigns in the Holy Land—crux transmarina ('the cross overseas')—and those within Europe—crux cismarina ('the cross this side of the sea'). Participants, who traditionally sewed a cross onto their garments, came to be known ascrucesignati ('those signed with the cross').[note 1][8]
Vernacular terminology reflected the ritual of "taking the cross".[8] The earliest attested form,crozada, appeared in Spain in 1212.[6] TheMiddle Englishcroiserie, derived fromOld French, emerged in the 13th–14thcenturies, later supplanted by forms such ascroisade andcrusado, both influenced by Spanish through French. The modern termcrusade was established by 1706.[9] The medievalistThomas Asbridge notes that the term's conventional use by historians imposes "a somewhat misleading aura of coherence and conformity" on the earliest crusading efforts.[10]
From the mid-9thcentury, central authority in Western Europe weakened, and local lords gained power, commanding heavily armouredknights and holding castles.[29][30] Their territorial disputes made warfare a regular feature across regions.[31] To protect church property and unarmed groups, church leaders launched thePeace of God movement, threatening offenders withexcommunication.[32][33] Assins permeated daily life, Christians feareddamnation. Sinners were expected toconfess and undertake priestly prescribedpenance.[34] Thousands made the penitential journey to Jerusalem, though attacks on pilgrims became increasingly frequent.[35]
Fromc. 1000, theMedieval Warm Period favoured Western Europe, spurring economic and population growth.[36][37] Within a century, Italian merchants supplanted their Muslim and Jewish rivals as the leading force in Mediterranean trade.[38] In 1031, al-Andalus fragmented intotaifas—smaller kingdoms—that could not resist theReconquista—the expansion of the northern Christian states—prompting intervention by the radicalAlmoravids from theMaghreb. In southern Italy,Norman warriors from northern France founded principalities and completed the conquest ofMuslim Sicily by 1091.[39]
In the mid-11thcentury, clerics promoting the "liberty of the Church" rose to power in Rome, banningsimony and clerical marriage. Thepopes, regarded as successors toSaint Peter in Rome, claimedsupremacy over Christendom, but Eastern Christian leaders rejected this.[40][41] Combined with long-standingliturgical andtheological differences, this led to mutual excommunications in 1054 and ultimatelythe division between theCatholic West andOrthodox East.[42][43] Reformist clerics' rejection oflay control triggered theInvestiture Controversy with secular powers.[44] Popes had already courted allies by offering spiritual rewards,[45] and the Controversy revived interest in the theology ofjust war, first articulated byAugustine in the 5thcentury. Theologians, underPope Gregory VII's auspices, concluded that dying in a just war equated tomartyrdom. Still, the idea of penitential warfare drew sharp criticism from anti-papal figures likeSigebert of Gembloux.[46]
By the late 11thcentury, the development of Christian just war theory, increasing aristocratic piety, and the popularity of penitential journeys to the Holy Land created a context for armed pilgrimages. Strengthened by the church reforms, the papacy was well positioned to channel anxiety over sin and hopes of remission into a papally orchestrated war.[47] In 1074, GregoryVII was the first pope to plan a campaign against the Turkomans, though it was never launched.[48] In March 1095, his successor,UrbanII, received envoys from EmperorAlexios I Komnenos, who requested military aid at theCouncil of Piacenza.[49]
By this time, the Seljuk Empire had descended into civil war following the deaths ofVizierNizam al-Mulk and SultanMalik-Shah I in 1092. Malik-Shah's brotherTutush I contested the succession of Malik-Shah's sonBerkyaruq. Although Tutush was killed in battle in 1095, his sonsRidwan andDuqaq, seized control of the Syrian cities ofAleppo andDamascus, respectively, while Tutush's formermamluk (slave soldier),Yaghi-Siyan, maintained his rule overAntioch.[50] In Anatolia, the breakaway Seljuk princeKilij Arslan I founded the independentSultanate of Rum, while an autonomous Turkoman clan, theDanishmendids, seized control of the north.[49][51]
Meanwhile, Fatimid Egypt faced its own succession crisis after the deaths of Caliphal-Mustansir and hisvizieral-Jamali. Al-Jamali's son and successoral-Afdal Shahanshah installed al-Mustansir's youngest sonal-Musta'li as caliph bypassing the eldest sonNizar. Although Nizar was murdered, his supporters rejected al-Musta'li's legitimacy and established a new branch of radical Shi'a Islam—theNizaris, also known as theAssassins.[52]
In July 1095, Pope Urban began a tour of France, negotiating with local elites, and ending with theCouncil of Clermont. Here, on 27November, he announced a military campaign against the Turkomans.[53] According to most accounts, he urged military support for eastern Christians, promising spiritual rewards, and condemning knightly violence.[54] Accounts differ on whether he promised reduced penance or full remission of sin.[55][56] Urban's appeal reportedly prompted the crowd to cryDeus vult! ('God wills it!').[57][58] The ritual of "taking the cross" was introduced on the spot, with BishopAdhemar of Le Puy setting the precedent. He was soon appointed papal legate.[59]
Urban held further councils in France, and set 15August—two weeks after the harvest began—as the campaign's start date.[60] His message spread mainly through those present at Clermont, leaving much of Western Europe unaware of the crusade.[61] He also urged Catalan counts not to join, granting them equal spiritual rewards for fighting the Almoravids, marking an early instance ofcrusading in Iberia.[62][63]
Pope Urban sought to restrict enlistment to trained warriors, but popular enthusiasm proved uncontrollable.[64] The charismaticPeter the Hermit preached in regions Urban had avoided, reportedly bearing a heavenly letter urging the expulsion of "pagans" from the Holy Land.[65][66] He attracted thousands of peasants and townsfolk, alongside some nobles such asWalter Sans Avoir.[65] InGermany, the preachers Folkmar and Gottschalk assembled similar groups.[67]
Several contingents departed before the harvest, from March 1096.[68] Walter and Peter each led forces of 10,000–15,000. While travelling, Peter threatened Jewish communities in pursuit of provisions. KingColoman of Hungary granted market access, but during their passage the host, by thenc. 20,000 people, plundered the border town ofZemun. Entering Byzantine territory in June, their continued looting provoked imperial raids, causing severe losses.[69] Meanwhile Folkmar and Gottschalk's 15,000-strong host was destroyed by Coloman on Hungary's western frontier in July.[70][71] A parallel rising under theSwabian countEmicho launched the anti-JewishRhineland massacres in western Germany, beginning atSpeyer on 3May 1096. Despite episcopal efforts at protection, his force spreadanti-semitic violence until Hungarian troops dispersed it in mid-July.[72]
Walter reachedConstantinople on 20July, Peter on 1August.[73] Distrustful of their disorder, Emperor Alexios shipped them across theBosporus to Anatolia. Germans captured the Seljuk fortress ofXerigordos, butit was retaken by the Turkomans on 29September. Kilij Arslan destroyed the crusadersat Civetot on 21October; Peter survived with a few followers.[74]
At Constantinople, tensions with the Byzantines resulted in skirmishes. Emperor Alexios demanded oaths from the crusader leaders to return former Byzantine lands before allowing passage into Anatolia.[79] The crusading host numbered 60,000–100,000, including 30,000non-combatants and up to 7,000knights.[80][81] Exploiting Seljuk distractions, the crusaders and Byzantinescaptured Nicaea in June 1097 and advanced toward Antioch, once a Byzantine provincial capital in Syria. They repelled Kilij Arslan's lightly armoured cavalry at theBattle of Dorylaeum.[82]
The march on Jerusalem was halted due to intense summer heat and a plague that claimed Adhemar of Le Puy's life. In the Byzantines' absence, Bohemond persuaded the other leaders to recognise his rule over Antioch, establishing a new Crusader state, thePrincipality of Antioch. The crusade resumed under pressure from the common soldiers in November.[89] Aftermassacring the defenders ofMa'arra, the crusaders were granted safe passage by local Muslim rulers. They reached Jerusalem, then held by a Fatimid governor, on 7June 1099. Thesiege stalled until Genoese craftsmen arrived with supplies. Their siege towers enabled the crusaders to conquer the city on 15July. Over the next two days, they slaughtered the population and looted the city. Godfrey was elected Jerusalem's first Western ruler, whileArnulf of Chocques, a Norman priest, was named the firstLatin patriarch.[90][80] Meanwhile, al-Afdal mobilisedc. 20,000Egyptian troops to retake the city, but the crusaders—roughly 9,000infantry and 1,200knights—defeated his army at theBattle of Ascalon on 12August. With theirvow fulfilled, most crusaders returned home, leaving Godfrey with just 300knights and 2,000foot soldiers.[91]
Conquest, consolidation and defence
The historian Malcolm Barber notes that the Crusader states' creation "committed western Europeans to crusading for the foreseeable future".[92] In the century after the First Crusade, the resurgence of Muslim unity shaped Middle Eastern history.[93] During the first half of this period, the Franks sought Western military aid only four times; between 1149 and 1186, they made at least sixteen such appeals.[94]
The Italian merchant republics pledged naval aid for the crusade but needed time to prepare.[95] ThePisan fleet of 120ships arrived under ArchbishopDaimbert in September 1099. As papal legate, he deposed Arnulf and was installed patriarch on Christmas Day, with Godfrey and Bohemond doing homage to him. Meanwhile,Tancred, Bohemond's nephew, completed the conquest ofGalilee.[96]
Vitale I Michiel,Doge of Venice, soon arrived with over 200ships. After Godfrey's unexpected death on 18July 1100,[97][98] the Venetians helped Tancred takeHaifa.[99] Daimbert, seeking to make Jerusalem an ecclesiastical lordship, lost support when Bohemond was captured by the DanishmendidGazi Gümüshtigin in August. Meanwhile, Godfrey's followers invited Baldwin of Boulogne to succeed him. Before going to Jerusalem, Baldwin granted Edessa to his cousinBaldwin of Bourcq, then seized Jerusalem and forced Daimbert to crown him king on Christmas Day. Within nine months, he capturedArsuf andCaesarea with Genoese aid,[100][101] and defeated a superior Egyptian force at theFirst Battle of Ramla.[102]
After Antioch's capture, crusader leaders wrote to senior Catholic clerics urging them to rally oath-breakers. In December 1100, Pope Urban's successorPaschalII launched a new crusade. Nicknamed the "Crusade of the Faint-Hearted", it included deserters such as Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois. The first contingent, led byAnselm, Archbishop of Milan andAlbert of Biandrate, leftLombardy in September 1100.[103][104] The Lombards reportedly aimed at Baghdad or Egypt,[105] and even attacked theBlachernae Palace in Constantinople before being ferried to Anatolia in early 1101.[106]
They were soon joined by French and German forces led byWilliam IX of Aquitaine,William II of Nevers,Welf I of Bavaria, the widowed MarchionessIda of Austria, and ArchbishopThiemo of Salzburg. Reaching Constantinople in June, they met Raymond of Saint-Gilles. Ignoring his and Stephen's warnings, the Lombards pressed to free Bohemond. Joined by other crusaders, they advanced into eastern Anatolia, but were crushed at theBattle of Mersivan in August by a coalition of Turkoman rulers. William of Nevers' army, heading south, was almost destroyed atHeraclea, where a third mainly German force was also routed. Ida vanished, later giving rise to tales she became mother of the powerful Turkoman rulerZengi.[107][108]
The failure of the 1101 Crusade shattered crusader invincibility, with Westerners chiefly blaming Byzantines.[105] Few survived. William of Aquitaine, Welf, and Stephen regrouped at Antioch, aiding Raymond and Genoese allies in capturingTortosa. Some, including Stephen, reached the Holy Land, where he died at theSecond Battle of Ramla on 17May 1102.[109] On that occasion Egyptians caught the crusaders by surprise, but survivors redeemed themselves at theBattle of Jaffa ten days later.[110]
Bohemond of Antioch secured his release by ransom, exploiting Danishmendid–Seljuk conflict. He supported BaldwinII of Edessa in an attack onHarran, but in May 1104,Jikirmish,atabeg (governor) of Mosul, defeated them at theBattle of Harran.[111][112] Jikirmish's victory allowed Ridwan to retake border fortresses, while the Byzantines expelled Antiochene garrisons from Cilicia.[113]
Seeking support in the West, Bohemond left Tancred in charge of Antioch in autumn 1104. Pope Paschal named BishopBruno of Segni as papal legate to promote a crusade for Jerusalem in France. Though highly regarded, Bohemond drew only lesser nobles likeHugh of Le Puiset andRobert of Vieux-Pont to take the cross. He then chose to invade the Byzantine Empire from Italy, accusing the Byzantines ofheresy. In October 1107, he besieged the fortress ofDyrrachium, but Alexios had reinforced its defences, allied with Venetians, and, with Turkoman mercenaries, blockaded Bohemond's army. Bohemond had to withdraw and accept Byzantine suzerainty over Antioch in the 1108Treaty of Devol, but Tancred did not implement the treaty.[114][115]
Coastal towns
King BaldwinI of Jerusalem expanded his realm to secure defence and attract knights with rewards. Naval aid for coastal conquests came from Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians, compensated with trade privileges. Hecaptured Acre in 1104 andBeirut andSidon in 1110.[116]Sigurd I of Norway, the first crowned monarch on crusade, assisted at Sidon.[117] Baldwin's position was strengthened by Duqaq of Damascus's death. Though Duqaq's successor,Toghtekin joined an Egyptian invasion, the Muslim coalition was defeated at theThird Battle of Ramla in 1105. Around the same time, the Damascene scholarAli ibn Tahir al-Sulami urged Muslim unity injihad against the Franks.[118][119]
Tripoli's fall alarmed the Muslim world. The Seljuk sultanMuhammad I Tapar orderedMawdud,atabeg of Mosul to invade, but his campaigns of 1110–13 failed amid desertions. In 1115 his successorAqsunqur also failed at Edessa. That year Toghtekin sheltered his kinsmanIlghazi, angering the Sultan. Toghtekin allied with Tancred's successor in Antioch,Roger, who defeated the Sultan's army at theBattle of Sarmin on 14September 1115.[123][124] Meanwhile, Ridwan's death in 1113 sparked a succession crisis in Aleppo, enabling Roger to exact tribute from the city.[125]
BaldwinI of Jerusalem died of illness during a campaign against Egypt on 2April 1118. He was succeeded by Baldwin of Bourcq, who ceded Edessa to his kinsmanJoscelinI.[126] Facing Roger of Antioch's repeated demands for tribute, the Aleppans appealed to Ilghazi, who with Toghtekin's aid invaded Antiochene lands. They defeated Roger at theBattle of the Field of Blood on 28June 1119, where some 700knights and 3,000infantry perished along with Roger. Antioch was saved by BaldwinII of Jerusalem, who became regent for the absentBohemondII, son of BohemondI.[125][127]
Amid famine and military disaster, Jerusalem's leaders met at theCouncil of Nablus in 1120, issuing decrees against sexual offences such as sodomy and relations with Muslims.[128] PatriarchWarmund approved Hugues de Payens' knightly confraternity, whose members vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, and protection of pilgrims. This marked the birth of themilitary orders. Baldwin II installed them in the formerAl-Aqsa Mosque, identified by the Franks asSolomon's Temple, whence their nameKnights Templar.[129][130]
Seeking aid, BaldwinII sent envoys to the West. Pope Paschal urged the Venetian dogeDomenico Michiel to lead a naval expedition.[131][132] As regent Baldwin prioritised Antioch's defence, though it was unpopular in Jerusalem. After Ilghazi's death, his nephewBelek Ghazi captured Joscelin and, in April 1123, Baldwin himself.[133][134] In his absence Patriarch Warmund concluded thePactum Warmundi with Venice, securing the conquest of Tyre on 7July 1124.[128] Baldwin returned to Jerusalem in April 1125.[135]
Aqsunqur united Aleppo and Mosul, recovering much territory from the Franks before his assassination in 1126.[136] That year BohemondII assumed power in Antioch, but his conflict with JoscelinI of Edessa prevented him from exploiting unrest in Aleppo. In 1127 the Turkoman commander Zengi becameatabeg of Mosul.[137]
In preparation for a major offensive against Damascus, BaldwinII of Jerusalem sent envoys to Europe to raise troops and arrange the marriage of his heir,Melisende. Her betrothal toFulk V of Anjou included the promise of joint succession.[138][139][137] In May 1128 Toghtekin of Damascus died, succeeded by his sonBuri, while Zengi reunited Aleppo with Mosul.[138]
Fulk arrived in May 1129 and married Melisende. Though lacking papal sanction, theCrusade of 1129 drew some 60,000warriors. The Franks invaded Damascene territory in November, but asortie routed their foragers. On hearing of this, the main force withdrew, perhaps also driven by a violent storm.[140][141]
In February 1130 BohemondII of Antioch was killed in a skirmish. His widowAlice—daughter of BaldwinII of Jerusalem—sought power with Zengi's support, but Baldwin assumed the regency for her daughter by Bohemond,Constance. When Baldwin died on 21August 1131, Fulk and Melisende succeeded him in Jerusalem, while Fulk secured the regency in Antioch by defeating Alice's alliesPons of Tripoli andJoscelinII of Edessa.[142] Muslim pressure mounted: Zengi plundered Antioch and Edessa, and Buri's successor,Ismail of Damascus raided Jerusalemite and Tripolitan lands, causing Pons's death.[143]
In 1136, Fulk arranged Constance's marriage to the FrenchRaymond of Poitiers.[144] The next year Raymond did homage to Byzantine emperorJohn II Komnenos, but John's campaigns against Aleppo andShaizar failed.[145] Zengi took Homs, but his assault on Damascus was repelled by the city's new rulerUnur allied with Fulk.[146] Fulk died in a hunting accident on 10November 1143.[147] His reign saw theHospitallers evolve from a nursing confraternity into a military order.[148] The widowed Melisende resisted sharing power with their sonBaldwinIII.[149][150]
In the early 1140s Zengi sought dominance over Muslim rivals, notably theArtuqids in Iraq.Kara Arslan, an Artuqid prince, sought aid from JoscelinII of Edessa, offering land in exchange. Joscelin accepted, provoking Zengi tobesiege Edessa. When the city fell on 26December 1144, most of its Frankish population was killed or enslaved.[151][152] Zengi was assassinated in 1146, but when Joscelin brieflyregained Edessa, Zengi's sonNur al-Din expelled him and the Turkomans massacred fleeing Christians.[153][154] Nur al-Din destroyed the city's fortifications, making its reconquest futile.[155] He secured a marriage alliance with Unur of Damascus.[156]
News of Edessa's fall reachedPope Eugenius III through BishopHugh of Jabala and Armenian clergy. He responded with the bullQuantum praedecessores on 1December 1145,[157] granting remission of sins, protection of property, and debt suspension to those who took the cross—establishing the model for later crusade bulls.[158][159]Louis VII of France, troubled by guilt over a massacre in a church, declared his intention to lead a crusade. AtVézelay in 1146 theCistercian abbotBernard of Clairvaux persuaded many French nobles to join.[160][161]
Bernard went on preaching across France and Germany. In the Rhineland, anti-semitic pogroms incited by the monk Radulf ended only after Bernard recalled him. In a Christmas sermon Bernard persuadedConrad III of Germany to take the cross atSpeyer.[162][163] WhenSaxon lords resisted abandoning war against the paganWends, he convinced Pope Eugenius to issue the bullDivina dispensatione in April 1147, extending crusade indulgences to theWendish campaign, later seen as the firstNorthern Crusade. The Pope also named Iberia as a crusading target.[164][165] A critic to the Wendish campaign,Helmold of Bosau later described the Second Crusade as fought in three theatres—the Holy Land, the Baltic and Iberia. Despite leadership by nobles such as the Saxon dukeHenry the Lion, the crusaders failed against the Wendish princeNiklot.[166]
The crusaders departed for the Holy Land in May and June 1147.[167] A distinctive feature was the prominent presence of women: LouisVII was joined by his wifeEleanor of Aquitaine and her household, while regulations for the crusader fleet mention wives.[168] The fleet of 150ships carried about 10,000crusaders from northwestern Europe. They aidedAfonso I of Portugal in his successfulSiege of Lisbon in October 1147 andRamon Berenguer IV of Barcelona incapturing Tortosa in December 1148, but only a small contingent reached the Holy Land.[169][170]
The German army, with many pilgrims, retraced the First Crusade's route through Hungary and the Balkans. EmperorManuel I Komnenos, fearing attack, made peace withMesud I, Sultan of Rum.[171]Roger II of Sicily invaded the Balkans, heightening Byzantine suspicion of a coordinated western action. Afterclashes at Constantinople, the Germans crossed into Anatolia without waiting for the French.[172] On 25October 1147 Mesud's forces crushed them at theBattle of Dorylaeum; many died, but Conrad, wounded, escaped into Byzantine territory.[173]
The French reached Constantinople in October 1147.[174][175] Clashes followed, and BishopGodefroy of Langres urged LouisVII to seize the city, but he advanced into Anatolia. The crusaders endured shortages, desertions and raids while wintering atEphesus. AtAntalya Louis and his knights sailed for Syria on Byzantine ships; most left behind perished, deserted or were enslaved.[176][177]
Louis reached Antioch on 19March 1148.[178] Raymond of Poitiers urged an attack on Aleppo and Shaizar, but Louis pressed on to Jerusalem, despite Eleanor—Raymond's niece—supporting her uncle. At Acre he joined Conrad, who had arrived by sea from Constantinople.[179] TheCouncil of Acre resolved tobesiege Damascus, beginning on 24July. Though Conrad repelled attacks, Damascene raids and news of Nur al-Din's approaching reinforcements soon forced the crusaders to abandon the siege. A plan to attackAscalon, the last Fatimid port, also collapsed, and the crusaders withdrew from the Holy Land.[180] The failure gravely weakened crusading fervour in Europe. Conrad blamed Jerusalem's leaders, while others, including Bernard of Clairvaux, accused the Byzantines.[181]
Muslim forces pressed the northern Crusader states. Raymond of Poitiers was killed at theBattle of Inab on 29June 1149; Nur al-Din seized Antiochene fortresses and destroyed Tortosa, while the Artuqids and Seljuks of Rum attacked the ruined County of Edessa. JoscelinII of Edessa was captured, and in 1150 his wifeBeatrice sold the remnants of his county to Byzantium.[182][183] Unur's death ended the Aleppo–Damascus alliance, as his successorAbaq allied with the Franks.[184]
In 1151 Assassins murderedRaymondII of Tripoli and his sonRaymondIII succeeded him. The following year, BaldwinIII of Jerusalem deposed his mother Melisende. Hecaptured Ascalon in 1153, completing the conquest of the coast.[185][186] He arranged the marriage of the French crusaderRaynald of Châtillon to Constance of Antioch. Between 1154 and 1157, Nur al-Din blockaded Damascus, forced Abaq to withdraw, and took Shaizar, uniting Muslim Syria.[187][188][189] The Franks failed toretake Shaizar despite the support ofThierry of Flanders, a veteran of the Second Crusade. In 1159 Emperor ManuelI invaded Syria, halting Nur al-Din's advance, but Raynald was captured by Turkomans in 1160/61.[190]
The childless BaldwinIII died of illness on 10February 1163.[191] His brotherAmalric's succession was made conditional on the annulment of his marriage toAgnes of Courtenay. Their children,Sibylla andBaldwin, nevertheless were recognised aslegitimate. In Antioch,BohemondIII, son of Constance and Raymond of Poitiers, took power and expelled his mother.[192]
Under Amalric, the wealthy but divided Egypt became the main battleground with Nur al-Din. Between 1163 and 1169, Amalric launchedfive campaigns, but Nur al-Din's forces blocked his conquest. In early 1169, the Fatimid caliphal-Adid appointed Nur al-Din's Kurdish generalShirkuh asvizier; on his death, his nephewSaladin succeeded him. Amalric renewed the Byzantine alliance, but their joint invasion of Egypt failed. In September 1171, Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate, but soon quarrelled with Nur al-Din.[193][194][195] In response to Amalric's appeals, LouisVII of France imposed a levy—one penny on every pound of property and income—for the Holy Land over five years. His initiative was soon matched byHenry II of England.[196]
In 1174, Nur al-Din and Amalric both died, leaving underage heirs:as-Salih and the leper BaldwinIV.[197] In his final years, Nur al-Din had made the conquest of Jerusalem the chief aim ofjihad, inspiring a new Muslim literary genre, theMerits of Jerusalem.[198][199] The struggle for his legacy was won by Saladin, who took Damascus in 1174, Aleppo in 1183, and compelled theZengid ruler of Mosul,Izz al-Din, to submit in 1186.[200][201] As early as 1176, the Abbasid caliphal-Mustadi urged Saladin to renew thejihad against the Franks, but he instead fought his Muslim rivals. Once he secured much of the Near East, however, he needed a new target to furnish his troops with plunder.[202]
Jerusalem's leaders sought Western support by marrying Baldwin's heir Sibylla toWilliam of Montferrat, a kinsman of German and French royalty, but he died in 1177.[203][204] That yearPhilip I of Flanders led a futile armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and a Byzantine–Frankish invasion of Egypt failed amid disputes over its future.[205][206] Before his death Baldwin designated Sibylla's posthumous son by William,BaldwinV his successor. On the child's death in 1186, Sibylla and her second husbandGuy of Lusignan seized power with the support of leading figures, including Raynald of Châtillon, by thenlord of Transjordan. Their rival, RaymondIII, allied with Saladin, granting his troops free passage through Galilee.[207][208]
Fall and recovery
Disillusioned by the failure of the Second Crusade, Western rulers were unwilling to launch another expedition to the Holy Land, despite the threat from Saladin.[209]Criticism of crusading intensified, recorded in the 1187Military Affairs by the historianRalph Niger, who questioned the efficacy of crusading indulgences without corresponding spiritual renewal.[210][211] In this climate only a major defeat in the East could revive crusading zeal.[212] The Byzantine Empire, a traditional ally of Jerusalem, was destabilised by coups in 1183 and 1185, while themassacre of Italian merchants deepened its isolation from the West.[213] In 1185 EmperorIsaac II Angelos concluded an anti-Seljuk alliance with Saladin, recognising his claim to Syria except Antioch.[214]
Pope Gregory VIII launched the new crusade with the bullAudita tremendi on 29October 1187. The English princeRichard was the first to take the cross.[221] Pope Gregory appointed Joscius of Tyre to preach in France andHenry of Albano in Germany. On 22January 1189 Joscius reconciledPhilip II of France andHenry II of England atGisors, where both kings and many nobles took the cross.[223][221][224]Troubadours such asConon of Béthune also spread the message of the bull.[225] To fund the crusade, the "Saladin tithe"—a levy of 10% on income and movable goods—was imposed in England and France.[226] On 27March 1188 EmperorFrederickI swore his oath at theCuria Christi ('Court of Christ') inMainz.[221][227] The English, French, and part of the German host chose the sea route, but Frederick resolved to march overland.[226][228]
Franco-English tensions persisted until HenryII's death in July 1189. RichardI succeeded and swiftly prepared for the crusade, raising further funds by exacting ataillage from the Jews.[236] He met with PhilipII atVézelay on 4July 1190 before departing.[237] Richard's host numberedc. 17,000,[238] while the French force was smaller, as many had already left underHenry of Champagne.[238][239] Richard hired ships inMarseille, Philip in Genoa, and both sailed to Sicily. There Richard seizedMessina, compelling the new Sicilian kingTancred of Lecce to pay a substantial sum. From Sicily the French sailed directly to Acre, arriving on 20April. A storm drove several English ships onto Cyprus, where the local Byzantine rulerIsaac Komnenos seized the wrecks and captives. Richard conquered the island before reaching Acre on 6June 1191.[240]
Meanwhile, the long siege caused a deadly plague at Acre, killing Queen Sibylla. As Guy's kingship relied on her, her death voided his claim. Supported by French and German crusaders and the papal legateUbaldo of Pisa, Conrad married Sibylla's half-sisterIsabella on 24November 1190. Guy refused to abdicate and sought Richard's backing.[241] The siege intensified with the arrival of two royal armies, and on 12July 1191 the defenders surrendered without Saladin's approval, under safe-conduct terms. Richard's and Philip's banners rose on Acre's walls, but whenLeopoldV of Austria raised his flag, Richard tore it down. Stricken by illness, PhilipII soon withdrew from the crusade. Acre's surrender required Saladin to free 1,600Frankish prisoners and return the True Cross within a month; when he failed, Richard ordered 2,700–3,000Muslim captives executed.[242][243] From Acre, Richard advanced south, defeated Saladin at theBattle of Arsuf, and secured Jaffa.[244]
News that Richard's brotherJohn was attempting to seize England reached the Holy Land, prompting Richard to plan his return. On 20April 1192 he recognised Conrad's claim to the remnant Kingdom of Jerusalem and granted Cyprus to Guy as compensation. Conrad was assassinated eightdays later, and his pregnant widow Isabella soon married Henry of Champagne, a kinsman of both the French and English kings. In June Richard advanced towards Jerusalem, but the crusaders halted atBayt Nuba, 13 miles (21 km) away, fearing defeat, and withdrew to the coast. Saladin counterattacked at Jaffa, but Richardrelieved the town. Peace talks begun the previous year led to theTreaty of Jaffa on 2September, a three-year truce confirming Frankish control of the coast between Tyre and Jaffa and allowing Christian pilgrims access to the holy sites of Palestine.[245] Richard left Palestine on 9 October 1192 but was captured inAustria by LeopoldV. In 1193 he was handed to EmperorHenryVI, who freed him for a ransom of 100,000marks.[246]
Saladin died of illness on 4March 1193. His empire soon collapsed, as his eldest son and designated heir,al-Afdal, proved unable to restrain the ambitions of his manyAyyubid kinsmen. Of these, Saladin's brotheral-Adil was the most astute, securing control of Damascus in 1196.[247][248]
The Third Crusade, with its heavy naval use, set a model for later expeditions: sea travel limited non-combatants and eased army supply.[249] Though no campaign matched its scale, new plans arose. Emperor HenryVI, after taking theKingdom of Sicily from Tancred, revived Norman ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean. He took the cross in April 1195, andPope Celestine III authorised preaching a new crusade in Germany.[223][250] By thenLeo I of Cilician Armenia andAimery of Lusignan, Guy's successor in Cyprus, had recognised Henry's suzerainty.[251]
Henry planned to recruit 3,000mercenaries and demanded tribute from the new Byzantine emperorAlexios III Angelos to fund the venture. Alexios levied the heavyAlamanikon ('German tax'), raising over 7,000pounds of silver, but payment ended when Henry died of illness on 28September 1197.[252] Earlier, the ailing emperor had named his marshalHenry of Kalden, and the imperial chancellor BishopConrad of Hildesheim to lead the crusade. German forces sailed from southern Italian ports between March and September. That same month al-Adil captured Jaffa, but the crusaders tookBotrun, Sidon and Beirut before abandoning the campaign when Henry's death reached Palestine in February 1198.[253]
During the crusade, Aimery of Cyprus and LeoI of Cilicia Armenia were crowned kings by imperial envoys. After marrying the widowed IsabellaI of Jerusalem, Aimery was also crowned king of Jerusalem in January 1198. He soon prolonged the truce with the Ayyubids until 1204.[254] The same year the German nursing confraternity that had run a hospital at Acre since the Third Crusade assumed military functions, forming theTeutonic Knights.[255]
Pope Innocent III: his policies had a major influence on the ideological and institutional framework of crusading (a fresco in St. Benedict's Cave at theSubiaco Abbey,c. 1219).
Pope CelestineIII died in 1198 and was succeeded byInnocentIII, a learned theologian and jurist. That year he proclaimed a new crusade, but theAnglo–French war and theGerman throne dispute betweenPhilip of Swabia andOtto of Brunswick blocked any large-scale campaign.[256]Markward von Annweiler, a veteran of the Third Crusade, rejected Innocent's claim to act as regent in Sicily for the childFrederick, son of Emperor HenryVI. Innocent accused him of endangering the Holy Land and extended crusading indulgence to those fighting him, though onlyWalter of Brienne, a French claimant to southern Italian fiefs, joined this first "political crusade".[257][258]
Innocent pressed on with plans for a crusade to the Holy Land. He sent his legatePeter Capuano to mediate peace between England and France, but talks ended when RichardI died in April 1199. By then Innocent had tasked the preacherFulk of Neuilly with promoting the crusade in France.[259] To fund it, he imposed a 2.5% extraordinarylevy on clerical income.[260]Theobald III of Champagne was the first to take the cross on 28November, followed by his cousinLouis of Blois and, in February 1200, his brother-in-lawBaldwin IX of Flanders.[261] They secretly agreed to strike Egypt first, concealing the plan to avoid rank-and-file opposition. Six envoys, includingGeoffrey of Villehardouin—later the crusade's chronicler—were appointed to hire a fleet. They agreed with DogeEnrico Dandolo that Venice would build, by June 1202, a fleet for 33,500crusaders for 85,000marks (over 20tons of silver). After Theobald's unexpected death in May 1201,Boniface of Montferrat, linked to royal houses in East and West, became leader.[262][263]
The crusade faltered when only a third of the expected force gathered at Venice; many embarked elsewhere or failed to keep their vows. The Venetians had invested heavily but the crusaders could not pay the agreed sum. To recover losses, Dandolo proposed attackingZara, a Christian city inDalmatia under KingEmeric of Hungary, himself a sworn crusader. Despite papal prohibition and protests from some, includingSimon de Montfort, the leaders agreed andcaptured Zara for Venice in November 1202.[264][265][266]
While wintering there,Alexios Angelos, son of the deposed Emperor IsaacII, offered to reunite the Byzantine Church with Rome, pay 200,000marks, and supply 10,000troops if restored to Constantinople. Though only recently absolved for attacking a Christian city, the leaders accepted and diverted the expedition, prompting several hundred dissenters to quit or sail directly to the Holy Land.[267] The army reached Constantinople in June 1203 and beganthe siege. Their first assault in July forced Emperor AlexiosIII to flee; IsaacII was restored and his son crowned co-emperor as AlexiosIV. Alexios raised only 100,000marks and promised more if the crusaders stayed until March, which aparlament, attended by both commanders and knights, accepted. As he failed to pay, the crusaders began plundering. Losing support, AlexiosIV and Isaac were deposed by the aristocratAlexios Doukas, crowned AlexiosV in February 1204.[268][269]
Lacking supplies, the crusader leaders resolved to attack Constantinople after agreeing on how to divide its spoils andpartition the empire. Their first assault failed, but clergy kept morale with sermons branding the Byzantines schismatics "worse than the Jews". The second attack, on 12April, succeeded and theSack of Constantinople lasted for days.[270] The crusaders massacred thousands, desecrated holy sites and seized the city's movable wealth. Relics were taken in great numbers to Western churches. The brutality shocked contemporaries, including the Pope and the Muslim scholarIbn al-Athirv The Byzantine historianNicetas Choniates contrasted Saladin's clemency in Jerusalem with the crusaders' slaughter of Orthodox Christians in Constantinople.[271]
A committee of six Venetian and six French crusaders elected Baldwin of Flanders as the first Latin Emperor. Boniface of Montferrat receivedMacedonia andThessaly, founding theKingdom of Thessalonica; his vassals created theDuchy of Athens inAttica and thePrincipality of Achaea in thePeloponnese. Venice gained many Aegean islands, including Crete, and thereafter thereafter a Venetian cleric was appointed asLatin Patriarch of Constantinople.[272] Frankish control of former Byzantine lands proved precarious. Baldwin died inBulgarian captivity after defeat at theBattle of Adrianople in 1205, and Boniface was killed fighting Bulgarians in 1207. Greek resistance centred on three Byzantine successor states:Epirus,Nicaea, andTrebizond.[273][272] From the Crusader states' view, the Fourth Crusade was almost a failure: only about a fifth of those who took the cross around 1200 reached the Holy Land—enabling Aimery of Jerusalem to extend the 1198 truce for six years in 1204—while most participants in Constantinople's sack returned home without going east.[274][275]
After the Fourth Crusade's collapse, Pope InnocentIII considered a new eastern campaign.[276] Yet large-scale plans had little chance amid the prolonged German throne dispute and renewed war between France and England.[277] The Crusader states faced no immediate danger because of divisions within the Ayyubids.[278] In 1212John of Brienne, the new king of Jerusalem, concluded a five-year truce with al-Adil, by then ruler of Egypt and Damascus, and soon asked Innocent to call a crusade once it expired. John had gained the throne by marrying Queen Isabella's daughter and heir,Maria of Montferrat; after his wife's death, he ruled with their infant daughterIsabellaII.[279]
TheBattle of Muret, a key engagement of the Albigensian Crusades (a miniature from the late 14th-centuryGrandes Chroniques de France)
The medievalist Andrew Jotischky sees Innocent's crusade policy as "pragmatic reactions to problems".[280] One challenge wasCatharism, adualist religious movement in southern France. He launched theAlbigensian Crusade against them in 1208, denouncing the Cathars as "more evil" than Muslims.[281]
Popular zeal for crusading persisted, though recent failures drew criticism of noble-led campaignsexpeditions.[282] Petition processions for Iberian Christians resisting the Muslim revivalistAlmohads and preaching against the Cathars stirred fervour in central France and the Rhineland in the early 1210s. In 1212 this produced popular movements later called the "Children's Crusade".[283] Sources conflict and mix myth with moral tales, but agree the participants were children and youths seeking to retake Jerusalem, but none reached the Holy Land.[284]
Unlike in the Levant, crusading in Europe was succeeding. In Iberia theReconquista struck a decisive blow to the Almohads at theBattle of Las Navas de Tolosa in July 1212. That year Simon de Montfort, now leader of the Albigensian Crusade, completed the conquest of much of southern France.[285][286] These victories, with the spontaneous zeal of the Children's Crusade, let Pope InnocentIII plan a new Levantine crusade. He proclaimed it in the bullQuia maior, citing a new Muslim fort onMount Tabor as pretext.[276][287] According to Madden, this "impressive document represents the full maturation of the crusading idea".[276] The Fourth Crusade had shown the ruinous effect of poor organisation,[288] and Innocent concluded only papal direction could ensure success.[289] He also broke with the tradition of appealing solely to the military class and granted full indulgence to those who funded a warrior's journey if unable to go themselves, and partial indulgence to donors.[290]
The expedition's terms were set at theFourth Lateran Council in November 1215. Crusaders were to gather atBrindisi orMessina in southern Italy by 1June 1217, when the 1212 truce ended. A 5% levy on clerical income across Europe for threeyears was imposed, and Innocent pledged 30,000pounds of silver.[291][292] The appeal failed in France, preoccupied with the Albigensian Crusade, but found support elsewhere.Andrew II of Hungary andLeopold VI of Austria took the cross. FrederickII, Innocent's protégé in the German throne dispute, also vowed to join though had not yet defeated Otto of Brunswick[293]Oliver of Paderborn, a crusade preacher, toured the Low Countries recounting visions such as three crosses in the sky, whileJacques de Vitry won over Genoese patricians through their wives.[294] During preparations Innocent died on 16July 1216, but his successor,HonoriusIII, carried on his policy.[295][296]
Hungarian and Austrian crusaders embarked at the Dalmatian port ofSpalato on Venetian ships rather than the more distant southern Italian harbours. By late September they reached Acre, where John of Brienne,Hugh I of Cyprus, andBohemond IV of Antioch joined them. After a failedsiege of Mount Tabor, AndrewII deemed his vow fulfilled and, with most Hungarians, withdrew.[297][298] Frisian, German, and Italian forces then joined, and in May 1218 the army advanced onDamietta, a thrivingNile Delta port. Thecity's subsequent siege saw a shifting host as Western contingents arrived and others departed. John of Brienne was chosen commander but soon challenged by the papal legatePelagius.[299]
In late August the crusaders seized the Tower of the Chain, guarding the Delta. Al-Adil reportedly died of shock; his sonal-Kamil offered to restore the pre-1187 borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (excluding Transjordan) for withdrawal.[300] On learning of the offer, al-Kamil's brotheral-Mu'azzam dismantled Jerusalem's walls, but the crusaders rejected the offer as the kingdom was indefensible without the fortresses over the Jordan.[301] In August 1219, the mysticFrancis of Assisi met al-Kamil, seeking to convert him to Christianity unsuccessfully. Prophecies promised victory and aid from the mythicalPrester John, fuelled by distorted reports of theMongol conquests in Central Asia.[302]
Damietta fell to the crusaders in November 1219, but its possession soon sparked renewed conflict between John of Brienne and Pelagius.[303] A year later Frederick reaffirmed his crusading vow at his imperial coronation in Rome. The first German forces arrived underLouis I of Bavaria in 1221. That July, ignoring Frederick's orders, Louis and Pelagius advanced towards Cairo, but al-Kamil, aided by his brothers al-Muʿazzam andal-Ashraf, forced a northward retreat. With the Nile in flood, he opened the sluices, flooding their route. Trapped, the crusaders accepted terms: Damietta was surrendered for safe conduct and an eight-year truce. Al-Kamil re-entered the city in September as the crusaders withdrew. The sudden collapse shocked Western Christendom. Many blamed Pelagius for the disastrous final campaign, while others—including returning crusaders and Honorius—condemned Frederick for failing to honour his vow.[304]
By 1218 FrederickII had secured his authority in Germany, but the union of Sicily with the Holy Roman Empire under his rule threatened the papacy. Yet, relations with Pope HonoriusIII stayed cordial, aided by mediators such asHermann of Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, andThomas of Capua, head of thepapal penitentiary.[305] Frederick renewed his crusading vow in May 1223, setting June 1225 for departure, and agreed to marry IsabellaII of Jerusalem in the presence of her father, John of Brienne.[306][307] With little response to the crusade call, he renewed the vow again in March 1225, pledging under threat of excommunication to depart in August 1227.[308] In November 1225 he married Isabella and exacted oaths of fealty from the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem despite earlier assurances that he would allow John to rule.[309][306]
In 1226 tensions between al-Kamil and al-Mu'azzam grew so severe that al-Kamil sent an envoy to Frederick, offering Jerusalem's return to the Christians for aid against his rival.[310] In March 1227 Pope Honorius died and the energeticGregoryIX succeeded him.[311] He soon clashed with Frederick over papal rights in Sicily, though preparations for the crusade continued.[312] To win Lombard support Frederick used force, yet many eagerly joined, including the German nobleLouisIV of Thuringia, the Italian aristocratThomas of Acerra, and the English bishopPeter des Roches.[312][313] Several crusaders sailed from Brindisi on 15August 1227. Frederick followed on 8September withc. 800knights and 10,000infantry but fell ill and returned to southern Italy. Enraged, Pope Gregory excommunicated him before the end of the month.[312][306] Learning of Frederick's illness and excommunication, many crusaders in the Holy Land abandoned the campaign; the rest repaired coastal fortifications.[314] They also seized Sidon and builtMontfort Castle near Acre after al-Mu'azzam died in November 1227.[315]
Disregarding papal demands to seek absolution before resuming the crusade, Frederick resolved to lead an expedition to the Holy Land. As Isabella died shortly after giving birth to their son,Conrad, he departed only in late June 1228. Reaching Cyprus, an imperial fief, he deposedJohn of Ibelin, regent for the underage KingHenryI, and demanded fealty from BohemondIV of Antioch and Tripoli, who refused.[316] Frederick landed at Acre on 7September. As the Hospitallers, the Templars, and devout crusaders would not follow an excommunicated leader, he used intermediaries to issue orders. He renewed talks with al-Kamil, displaying tolerance toward Islam and notable learning. On 18February 1229 theTreaty of Jaffa ceded Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and other key cities to the Christians, while preserving theTemple Mount, theDome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa Mosque as Muslim places of worship; it also established a ten-year truce, excluding Antioch, Tripoli, and the Hospitaller and Templar lands. Though gaining more than any earlier crusade, the treaty drew sharp criticism. Visiting Jerusalem, Frederick entered Muslim shrines and on 18May crowned himself king in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[317][318]
Meanwhile, with papal backing, John of Brienne invaded southern Italy, compelling Frederick to abandon his eastern campaign in May. He landed at Brindisi in June and, by the end of October, had driven his former father-in-law back into papal territory.[319]
Frederick reconciled with the papacy in May 1230. The following year Frederick appointedRichard Filangieri asbailli (deputy) in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Supported by the Teutonic Knights, Pisans, and some local nobles, Filangieri seized Tyre, but most Jerusalemite barons, led by John of Ibelin and backed by the Genoese and HenryI of Cyprus, resisted. Upon John's death in 1236, his sonBalian of Beirut assumed command of the resistance.[326]
Pope Gregory called for a new crusade in separate encyclicals to the English and French in 1234. The expedition was to depart for the Holy Land when the 1229 truce expired in 1239. He ordered taxation of clerical income and promoted commuting crusading vows for cash. He also proposed the establishment of a garrison in Palestine, to be maintained for ten years and financed by lay contributions in return for partial crusade indulgences. Mendicant friars preached the crusade, but bishops held the funds, which were distributed by papal authorisation to aristocrats who had taken the cross.[327] In France,Theobald IV of Champagne (alsoking of Navarre),Hugh IV of Burgundy, andPeter of Dreux were among the nobles who joined. Most had earlier rebelled againstBlanche of Castile, regent for KingLouisIX of France, and by taking the cross gained church protection.[328] Louis aided them with gifts, loans, and authorised them to fight under the royal banner.[329] In England, several nobles hostile to royal authority enlisted, includingRichard of Cornwall—one of Europe's wealthiest men—and his brother-in-lawGilbert Marshal; the army also attracted former enemies such asSimon de Montfort andRichard Siward.[330]
In the late 1230s the Crusader states faced little threat from their Muslim neighbours.[331] After al-Kamil's death in 1238, a two-year struggle followed before his sonAyyub secured Egypt. He recruited newmamluk troops, stationed on a Nile island, forming the Bahri ("river")mamluks.[332] By contrast, theLatin Empire came under pressure from a Bulgarian–Nicaean alliance. Pope Gregory tried to divert crusaders to Constantinople, but only a few—among themHumbert V de Beaujeu andThomas of Marle—agreed. By their arrival in 1239, the anti-Latin coalition had collapsed, and the crusaders mounted only minor raids in Thrace.[333][334]
The French crusaders offered command to FrederickII, who promised that he or his son Conrad would join. Yet his bid to assert power in Lombardy led to renewed conflict with Pope Gregory, who excommunicated him in March 1239. The French reached Acre that September. Leadership was divided, and in November an Egyptian force routed a contingent at theBattle of Gaza. The defeat emboldenedDawud, Ayyubid emir of Damascus, to sack Jerusalem and dismantle its walls. The divided Ayyubids failed to exploit success;Ismail of Damascus, Ayyub's uncle, even offered to cede Beaufort, Tiberias, andSaphet, then held by Dawud. It is unclear if the offer was accepted, as Theobald of Champagne and Peter of Dreux abandoned the crusade after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in September 1241.[335]
The English force,c. 600–800knights and additional troops, arrived in October 1240.[336][337][338] Richard of Cornwall, FrederickII's brother-in-law, sided with the pro-imperialist faction in Jerusalem, favouring alliance with Egypt over Damascus. Ayyub, via his ally Dawud, offered to restore Jerusalem to the Franks and release the prisoners taken at Gaza. Richard accepted the proposal, which also upheld Ismail's earlier concessions, expanding the kingdom to its widest extent since 1187.[339][340] With the agreement secured, the crusade ended in May 1241.[338]
Fall of the Crusader states
The final phase of the Levantine Crusades was marked by Mongol intervention in Middle Eastern politics and the restoration of Muslim unity.[341] Earlier, the Mongols hadinvaded Hungary andPoland, prompting Pope GregoryIX in June 1241 to call for a crusade against them, but the German host soon dispersed. The invasion ended unexpectedly later that year when theGreat Khan,Ögödei, died, compelling the Mongols to withdraw.[342]
In his letters, Emperor FrederickII portrayed Richard of Cornwall as acting on his behalf in concluding the treaty with Ayyub. In 1242 the Templars, Frederick's foes, plunderedNablus in defiance of the treaty, provoking an Egyptian counterattack.[343][344] The following year Frederick's son, Conrad—the absent king of Jerusalem—came of age, ending his father's claim to the regency. The barons appointed Conrad'sheir presumptive,Alice of Champagne, as regent and seized Tyre, seat of Frederick's lieutenant, Filangieri.[344][345] This break with Frederick gave Ayyub a pretext to reject papal proposals to renew the truce of 1229.[346]
The Mongols secured their position in Middle Eastern politics by defeatingKaykhusraw II, Sultan of Rum, at theBattle of Köse Dağ in June 1243. The Seljuks of Rum, the Ayyubids of Aleppo, and the Cilician Armenians soon accepted Mongol suzerainty, whileBohemond V of Antioch refused and warned Emperor Frederick and the newly electedPope Innocent IV of the growing threat.[344][347] Meanwhile, Ayyub of Egypt allied with fugitiveKhwarazmian soldiers who had settled in Anatolia and Iraq. His rival, Ismail of Damascus, aligned with the Franks and sent forces to Gaza, prompting some 10,000Khwarazmian horsemen to join Ayyub.[348] Advancing south, they massacred thousands of Christians andsacked Jerusalem in July 1244. Shortly after, they joined the Egyptian army and crushed the Damascene–Frankish force at theBattle of La Forbie on 17October.[349][350] Thousands of Frankish troops were killed, leaving the kingdom virtually defenceless.[351]
Reports of Jerusalem's sack had scarcely reached Europe when LouisIX of France took the cross in December 1244. Recently recovered from severe illness, he was, according to contemporary accounts, inspired by a visionary experience to make the vow.[352] Within two months Pope Innocent issued a new crusading bull and tasked CardinalOdo of Châteauroux with preaching the crusade in France. Promising spiritual rewards, Odo urged the nobility to emulate the heroism of their forebears in the First and Third Crusades.[353] Among the earliest to take the cross were Louis's brothersRobert of Artois,Alphonse of Poitiers, andCharles of Anjou.[354] Elsewhere in Europe support was weaker:Henry III of England, recentlydefeated by Louis, barred BishopGaleran of Beirut from preaching in his realm, whileHaakon IV of Norway declined Louis's invitation despite having earlier taken the cross.[355][356]
Exiled inLyon following his conflict with Emperor Frederick, Pope Innocent convened theFirst Council of Lyon in summer 1245 to plan a new crusade and address the state of the Latin Empire and the Mongol threat.[357] Funds came from indulgence sales, donations, and a clerical tax; Louis added royal taxes and enforced Jewish contributions, totalling over 1,500,000livres tournois in official accounts.[358] At the council Frederick was deposed, but Louis forbade preaching a crusade against him in France.[359] Meanwhile, war in the Levant continued: Ayyub expelled Ismail from Damascus in late 1245 and seized Galilee from the Franks in 1246. That year Alice died and was succeeded as regent by her son HenryI of Cyprus.[360]
In preparation for the crusade, Louis stockpiled food and wine in Cyprus, largely imported fromApulia with Emperor Frederick's approval. The fleet was supplied by Genoa and Marseilles, with extra ships built even in distant Scottish ports. It assembled at the new harbour ofAigues-Mortes, where thousands of volunteers—archers and foot soldiers—sought to enlist, but Louis refused them. The fleet sailed on 25August 1248. The crusaders wintered in Cyprus, where plague killed many, though reinforcements, includingGeoffrey II of Achaea with 400knights, strengthened their ranks.[361] They left Cyprus on 30May 1249 and captured Damietta a week later.[362] By then Ayyub was in poor health, yet the crusaders delayed advancing for months, fearing the Nile floods and awaiting reinforcements.[363] They moved towards Cairo only days before Ayyub died on 23November 1249. His death was concealed as envoys summoned his heirTuranshah from Iraq.[364]
Egyptians blocked the crusaders from crossing the Nile toAl Mansurah, a key garrison town, withGreek fire. On 6February 1251 Robert of Artois led a surprise assault across aford. The Egyptian commanderFakhr al-Din was killed, but Robert's forces were trapped in Al Mansurah's narrow streets and almost all were slain despite Louis's attempt to aid them.[365][366] On 24February Turanshah took power, blockading the crusaders' camp and unleashing famine and plague. Too weakened to retreat to Damietta, Louis surrendered on 6April. Turanshah ordered the slaughter of the poor and sick but released the rest, including Louis, for 800,000bezants and Damietta's surrender. Before this could be completed, he was assassinated by the Bakhrimamluks, who feared replacement by his own followers.[367] With their backingShajar al-Durr, Ayyub's widow, assumed power, while Turanshah's treaty remained in force. With Templar help, half the ransom (400,000bezants) was paid, and Damietta evacuated before Louis and much of his army sailed for Acre on 6May. The rest was secured by hostages.[366][368]
When news of Louis's defeat reached France, a charismatic preacher known as the "master of Hungary" proclaimed a new crusade. Claiming to bear a letter from theVirgin Mary to shepherds, he rallied followers from northern France and Flanders to free the Holy Land. This movement, later called theShepherds' Crusade, attacked Jews in central France before royal forces dispersed it in June 1250.[369][370] After the Egyptian defeat, most French crusaders, including Louis's surviving brothers, abandoned the campaign, but Louis remained in Palestine withc. 1,000troops. He rebuilt Caesarea, Jaffa and Sidon, and fortified Acre's suburb using revenue from a crusader tax on the French clergy.[371][372] Though Louis held no legal claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, still nominally ruled by the absent Conrad, his authority went unchallenged.[372] After Emperor FrederickII died in December 1250, Conrad succeeded him in Sicily and Germany but was soon targeted by the political crusade proclaimed against his father.[369]
Amid struggles betweenmamluk factions and Ayyubid princes, Louis opened negotiations with the Egyptian leaders in early 1252. They pledged to free hostages and restore much of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but the pact failed that April when they made peace withAn-Nasir, Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo and Damascus.[372][373][374] As unrest grew in France, Louis resolved to return. Before leaving the Holy Land on 24April 1254, he secured a ten-year truce with An-Nasir and left a garrison of 100knights at Acre under the distinguished soldierGeoffrey of Sergines.[375][376]
Shortly after LouisIX left Egypt for Acre, Shajar al-Durr married the Bahri commanderAybak, who became the firstMamluk sultan, founding a regime that ruled Egypt for over 250years. Unlike the hereditary Ayyubids, the Mamluks chose rulers from the military elite and vigorously wagedjihad to expel the Franks from the Levant. In the 1250s the Bahri commanderBaybars was exiled amid factional rivalries, while his rivalQutuz seized power in Egypt.[377][378]
Louis's return to France in 1254 left a power vacuum in Jerusalem. The regent HenryI had been succeeded by his infant sonHughII in Cyprus the previous year. Soon after Louis's departure King Conrad died; his two-year-old son Conradin, though residing in Bavaria, was recognised as king of Jerusalem. In 1255 Jerusalemite barons agreed a ten-year truce with Egypt, but next year rivalry between Venice and Genoa sparked theWar of Saint Sabas, dividing merchant communities, military orders and the aristocracy in the Crusader states. In 1258 the child HughII was named regent for Conradin, with his motherPlaisance of Antioch acting for him.[379]
As some Mongols followed theEastern Syriac (Nestorian) Church, hopes of alliance led popes and LouisIX to send envoys to theGreat Khans, who instead demanded submission.[380] In 1258Hulegu, the Mongolil khan,sacked Baghdad and ended the Abbasid Caliphate.[381]BohemondVI of Antioch–Tripoli accepted Mongol suzerainty and joined their army to seize Damascus in 1260. Jerusalem's leaders, distrusting the Mongols, persuadedPope Alexander IV to excommunicate Bohemond and proclaim an anti-Mongol crusade.[382][383] Qutuz executedHulegu's envoys, prompting a Mongol advance under the Christian commanderKitbuqa. Qutuz and Baybars reconciled and routed the Mongols at theBattle of Ain Jalut in 1260; they then occupied Muslim Syria. Baybars murdered Qutuz in October and assumed power in Egypt.[384][385]
Baybars allied with Hulegu's rivalBerke Khan of theGolden Horde and from 1261 raided the Crusader states. He sacked Saint Symeon in 1262, destroyed the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and Acre's suburbs in 1263. After Hulegu's death in 1265 he launched a systematic conquest: seizing and razing Caesarea, Haifa and Arsuf, capturing Safed, and taking Jaffa, Beaufort and Antioch by 1268. His campaigns often included massacres of Christians.[386][387]
Meanwhile, as the historian Jean Richard notes, "those who wanted to earn the crusade indulgence did not lack opportunities" in Europe.[388] The papacy, regarding Emperor FrederickII's heirs as its main foes, used crusade proclamations to tax clerical revenues. After King Conrad's death his half-brotherManfred of Sicily became the target of a crusade. In northern Italy theGhibelline (anti-papal) brothersEzzelino andAlberico da Romano were crushed. The Nicaeanreconquest of Constantinople prompted a crusade against EmperorMichael VIII Palaiologos, but the exiled Latin emperorBaldwinII did not gain support.[389][390] Only small contingents reached the Holy Land, among them French troops underOlivier de Termes, who replaced Geoffrey of Sergines in 1264, andOdo of Nevers with fiftyknights in 1265.[391]
In 1264Pope Urban IV granted Sicily to Charles of Anjou, who secured it by defeating Manfred at theBattle of Benevento in February 1266.[392] Conradin—Manfred's nephew—tried to recover southern Italy but was crushed by a crusade at theBattle of Tagliacozzo in August 1268 and executed.[393] Two rivals then claimed the throne of Jerusalem:HughIII, successor to HughII in Cyprus, and his auntMaria of Antioch. The Jerusalemite barons backed Hugh, but Maria maintained her claim.[394]
Baybars's conquests revived crusading zeal in Europe. Pope UrbanIV called a new crusade in 1265, but planning advanced mainly under his successorClementIV after Charles of Anjou's triumph in southern Italy.[395] Clement first proposed apassagium particulare—a modest, quickly raised force—to sail by April 1267, but delayed when LouisIX of France again took the cross on 25March 1267.[396][397]Abaqa, the new Mongolilkhan, offered alliance against the Mamluks, but war with his rivalBaraq Khan hindered any Levantine campaign.[398]
Funding came from a three-year, 10 % clerical levy, legacies, indulgence sales and plunder from Jewish bankers. Louis financed vassals with gifts and loans. He persuaded the English crown princeEdward to take the cross despite HenryIII's objections, and wonJames I of Aragon's pledge by diplomacy. Louis's leadership strengthened during the longsede vacante after Clement's death in November 1268.[399] He hired Genoese ships and mediated peace between Genoa and Venice.[400] James sailed first from Barcelona on 4September 1269, but a storm scattered his fleet and he soon abandoned the crusade. His two illegitimate sons,Fernando Sánchez andPedro Fernández, reached Acre with fewer than 200knights that October. They joined the French garrison, but were ambushed by Baybars.[401][402]
Over 10,000French crusaders sailed from Aigues-Mortes on 2July 1270. Louis chose to attack Tunis, capital of the newHafsid Caliphate in North Africa. Some historians, including Peter Lock, attribute this to his brother Charles of Anjou, while others, such as Christopher Tyerman, see it as Louis's own plan to secure a base for invading Egypt.[403][404][405] The crusaders reached North Africa on 18July and captured Carthage, but plague ravaged the camp. Louis died on 25August, the day Charles arrived. Charles assumed command and on 1November made peace with the CaliphMuhammad: the crusaders withdrew for 210,000gold ounces and rights to Christian worship and proselytism. English crusaders landed at Tunis as the French departed on 10November. The fleets regrouped at Trapani, but a storm wrecked most ships.[403][406]
Philip III of France, Louis's successor, and Charles abandoned the crusade, but the English continued with Frisians and other small groups. These sailed to Acre, while the English wintered in Sicily, reaching Acre only on 9May 1271. Meanwhile Baybars seizedChastel Blanc from the Templars and Krak des Chevaliers andGibelacar from the Hospitallers. Edward mounted no major operations; in June Baybars took Montfort Castle, the Franks' last inland stronghold, from the Teutonic Knights. On 12May 1272 Baybars accepted an almost eleven-year truce, and Edward—now king of England—sailed from Acre in late September.[407][408]
Final crusades in the Holy Land
The Italian cardinal Tedaldo Visconti was at Acre when elected pope asGregoryX.[409] Convinced of a divine mission to recover the Holy Land, he worked with PhilipIII of France to send small knightly expeditions as a prelude to a major crusade. In 1272–1273 he commissioned reports for anecumenical council. One, theCollectio scandalis Ecclesiae ('Collection of Church Abuses') by a Franciscan, condemned clerical taxation, redemption of crusader vows and secular feuds.[410] The DominicanHumbert of Romans urged preaching as Christianity's principal means of conversion but upheld crusading as a duty to defend the faithful. The FranciscanFidentius of Padua deemed crusades essential against Muslim obstinacy; the DominicanWilliam of Tripoli preferred peaceful proselytism.[411][412]
TheSecond Council of Lyon opened on 7May 1274.[413] GregoryX proclaimed a new crusade, setting 1278 as the departure date and funding it by taxing clerical income for six years.[414][415] The plan drew criticism: the troubadourFolquet de Lunel accused the pope of seeking to divert crusading zeal against Christian foes.[416] Threatened by Charles of Anjou's ambitions, Emperor MichaelVIII acknowledged papal supremacy but failed to enforce church union at home. Gregory ordered Charles to renew his truce with Byzantium, and talks began on Byzantine participation in the crusade.[413] In 1275 PhilipIII, the new German kingRudolf of Habsburg and his rivalOttokar II of Bohemia took the cross, but preparations collapsed with Gregory's death next year.[417] Yet the crusade tax remained in force.[418]
The subsequent period, as the historianNorman Housley observes, "was dominated by the ambitions of Charles of Anjou".[418] In 1277 Charles purchased Maria of Antioch's claim to Jerusalem. Her rival HughIII had withdrawn to Cyprus, and the barons of Jerusalem did homage to Charles.[419] In 1279 the Bahri veteranQalawun seized power in Mamluk Egypt. Facing revolts and a Mongol invasion of Syria, he renewed the truce with the Crusader states in 1281.[418][420] That year Charles, backed byPope Martin IV after MichaelVIII failed to implement the 1274 church union, pursued an anti-Byzantine policy. Martin granted crusade indulgences for Charles's planned campaign, but theSicilian Vespers—a popular uprising—forced him to recall his troops in 1282. AsPeter III of Aragon backed the rebels, Martin proclaimed acrusade against Aragon, diverting funds raised for the Holy Land.[421]
The withdrawal of Charles's troops let HughIII recover Tyre and Beirut.[422] Meanwhile Qalawun defeated the Mongols at theSecond Battle of Homs and resumedjihad against the Franks, seizing the Hospitallers' last fortress, Margat, taking Latakia and capturing Tripoli by 1289. Tripoli's fall shocked the West.Pope Nicholas IV sent 4,000livres tournois and 13galleys to Acre; EdwardI of England dispatched troops to strengthen its defences. A new crusade was preached, prompting apassagium particulare of 3,540Italian infantry. In August 1290 they attacked Muslims at Acre despite the truce. In retaliation Qalawun's son,Khalil,besieged and took Acre on 28May 1291. The last Frankish mainland strongholds soon fell, the final,Château Pèlerin, surrendering on 14August. The conquests brought massacres and enslavement, with only a few escaping to Cyprus.[423][424]
Aftermath
The fall of the Frankish East caused dismay rather than shock in the West and Western Christians mostly blamed the Franks' alleged immorality.Pope Nicholas IV appealed to EdwardI of England to lead a new crusade and imposed a tax to fund it, but theGascon War withPhilip IV of France ended English plans in 1294. Schemes to recover the Holy Land inspired treatises: Fidentius of Padua andCharles II of Naples urged a blockade of Egypt;James of Molay, Templar Grand Master, called for a large crusade; and the Armenian prince-turned-monkHayton of Corycus proposed a two-stage expedition.[425]
Amid frequent wars among Catholic powers, the crusade declined into a mainly political instrument. In 1297Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed crusades against his enemies, theColonna cardinals andFrederick III of Sicily.[426] His taxation of clergy provoked conflict with France, leading to the Pope's seizure by French troops in 1303. French influence grew, and the papal court moved toAvignon.[427][428] In 1307 French officers arrested all Templars on charges of corruption and heresy;Pope Clement V could not prevent the dissolution of their Order in 1312.[429] TheTemplar trials prompted new crusade plans, notably by the FrenchWilliam of Nogaret andPierre Dubois. In 1314 PhilipIV took the cross with his sons and son-in-lawEdward II of England, but his death next year ended the plan.Philip VI of France, the firstValois king, revived Levantine crusade proposals, but theHundred Years' War stopped preparations in 1336. The final crusade for the Holy Land, theAlexandrian Crusade, was led byPeter I of Cyprus: in October 1365 crusaders sacked the Egyptian port ofAlexandria but withdrew after a week.[430]
Elsewhere crusading endured. In Iberia campaigns ended in 1492 with the fall of the MuslimEmirate of Granada toCastile andAragon. In the Baltic, the Teutonic Knights waged anti-pagan wars, drawing crusaders from France, Germany and England until the 1410s. After theReformation the papacy occasionally granted indulgences againstProtestants, but more often Catholic powers formed papally sponsoredHoly Leagues against theOttoman Empire into the 17thcentury.[431]
The Crusades created national mythologies, tales of heroism, and a few place names.[432] Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones ofpolitical Islam encouraging ideas of a modern jihad and a centuries-long struggle against Christian states, while secularArab nationalism highlights the role of western imperialism.[433] Modern Muslim thinkers, politicians and historians have drawn parallels between the crusades and political developments such as theestablishment of Israel in 1948.[434]
Right-wing circles in thewestern world have drawn opposing parallels, considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the crusades. Crusader symbols andanti-Islamic rhetoric are presented as an appropriate response. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy.[435]
Thehistoriography of the Crusades is concerned with their "history of the histories" during the Crusader period. The subject is a complex one, with overviews provided inSelect Bibliography of the Crusades,[436] Modern Historiography,[437] andCrusades (Bibliography and Sources).[438] The histories describing the Crusades are broadly of three types: (1) Theprimary sources of the Crusades,[439] which include works written in the medieval period, generally by participants in the Crusade or written contemporaneously with the event, letters and documents in archives, and archaeological studies; (2)secondary sources, beginning with early consolidated works in the 16th century and continuing to modern times; and (3)tertiary sources, primarily encyclopedias, bibliographies and genealogies.[436]
The secondary sources of the Crusades began in the 16th century, with one of the first uses of the termcrusades by 17th century French historianLouis Maimbourg in hisHistoire des Croisades pour la délivrance de la Terre Sainte.[444][445] Other works of the 18th century includeVoltaire'sHistoire des Croisades,[446] and Edward Gibbon'sDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire, excerpted asThe Crusades, A.D. 1095–1261.[447] This edition also includes an essay onchivalry byWalter Scott, whose works helped popularize the Crusades. Early in the 19th century, the monumentalHistoire des Croisades was published by the French historianJoseph François Michaud, a major new narrative based on original sources.[448][449]
These histories have provided evolving views of the Crusades as discussed in detail in theHistoriography writeup inCrusading movement. Modern works that serve as secondary source material are listed in the Bibliography section below and need no further discussion here.[450]
^Although a comparable phrase—hominum multitude cruce signata est ('a multitude of men was signed with the cross')—appears in a late-11th-century papal letter, the earliest attested use of the termcrucesignatus occurs in a chapter heading of theChronicle of Monte Cassino from the mid-12th century.[7]
^Tyerman, Christopher (2006). "Historiography, Modern".The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. pp. 582–588.
^Bréhier, Louis René (1908). "Crusades (Sources and Bibliography)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia.4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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