Don Bosco Center of Studies

An Affiliate of the Salesian Pontifical University

CRUSADES OF THE MEDIEVAL

PERIOD

A Research Paper submitted to Rev. Fr. Nesty Impelido, SDB

Institute of Theological Formation

In partial fulfillment of the subject Medieval Church History

By

Bro. Regino Carlo P. Godinez, SDB

 August 6, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………….

II. THE CRUSADES……………………………………………………

a. The First Crusade…….…………………………………………

b. The Second Crusade……………………………………………

c. The Third Crusade……………………………………………..

d. The Fourth Crusade……………………………………………

e. The Fourth Crusade……………………………………………

3
 f. The Fifth Crusade………………………………………………

g. The Sixth Crusade …………………………………………….

h. The Seventh & Eighth

Crusades…………………………......... 4

III. THE KNIGHTS……………………………………………………..

IV. CONCLUSION………….………………………………………….

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………..

TABLE OF THE CRUSADES………………………………………….........

IMPORTANT MAPS……………………………………………………....

8
 I. INTRODUCTION
The Crusades are among the highlights of the Middle Ages in that it
garnered much documentation and attention of both historians and avid
readers alike. What is a Crusade? A crusade is a military expedition
organized by Western Christians against Muslim powers in order to maintain
control over Jerusalem and the places associated with Jesus Christ during His
earthly life.1 For many of the crusades, as we shall see later, those who
participated were willing not only to venture into foreign, non-Christian
lands, but also to sacrifice their lives and wealth just to rescue Jerusalem
from the clutches of the Muslims all for the sake of Jesus.
Before the first crusade was launched, several factors need to be
considered. In this paper, we shall cite two such fundamental factors. First,
there was the economic revival of the 11th century, which contributed to the
attitude of the people having financial confidence and great interest on
adventures. Second, there came the growth of religious enthusiasm, both for
the Muslims as well as the Christians. Christians believed that the end of the
world was coming. This gave the Christians much desire to go to Jerusalem,
the earthly symbol of the heavenly city, as pilgrims.2 Hence, Jerusalem
became a very important aspect of the Western Christians, particularly in
their religious fervor. The Seljuk Turks, originally one of several Muslim
Turkish tribes, embraced Islam. Eventually, they moved southwards. It was in
1071 that the Seljuk Turks defeated Romanus, the emperor of Byzantium, or
the Eastern Empire, during the battle of Manzikert.3 In the event, they went
out to conquer Jerusalem in 1076 and made it extremely difficult, if not
impossible for Christians to go on safe pilgrimages. Pilgrims towards the
1
Cf. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., Vol. 16 (Chicago: Encylopedia Britannica, Inc., 1994),
s.v. “The Crusades”.
2
Christians believed that going for pilgrimages to Holy sites, and especially in the land where the Lord
Jesus Christ died, would atone for their biggest sins. This symbolizes their spiritual journey back to God, having
been away from Him because of Sin. Indeed, grave sinners during this particular period of time have wandered off
into a place where God is and welcome them back to His loving embrace.
3
Cf. G.R. Evans, Faith in the Medieval World (Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2002), 134, and Lawrence G.
Lovasik, Church History: The Catholic Church through the Ages (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1990),
96.
Jerusalem, the main attraction of the Holy Land, were on the outpour during
the 11th Century. This was also considered by many Christian authorities as a
contamination of the Holy Land by the non-Christian people called Muslims.
As a response, Pope Urban II preached about the crusades at Council of
Clermont in Auvergne in 1095 and appealed to those who were present:
“Men of God, men chosen and blessed among all,
combine your forces! Take the road to the Holy Sepulchre
assured of the imperishable glory that awaits you in God’s
kingdom. Let each one deny himself and take the Cross!”4

It is very important to note that this particular plea, the first among the
Pope’s series of appeals that year, passionately inspired a great number of
Christians, whether peasant or rich, ordinary or powerful, to embark on
heroic journeys to rescue Jerusalem from these Muslims and these came to
be called Crusades.
This research work is an attempt to narrate the historical facts and
adventures of the crusades of the Middle Ages in a concise manner. Since
this is not a thorough scholarly work, the details of each crusade are reduced
to the bare essentials. Eight significant crusades will be tackled accordingly.
This text is arranged according to particular topics relevant to the basic
understanding of the Crusades.

II. THE CRUSADES

a. The First Crusade
In 1096, a year after that compelling speech of Pope Urban II, the first
wave of crusaders gathered together in Constantinople. They were led by
four big armies of knights whose commanders were Godfrey of Bouillon,
Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of Normandy, and the Normans Bohemond and
Tancred.5 Among those who provided Spiritual motivation was Peter the
Hermit, who re-echoed the thoughts of Pope Urban II to the poor and rich
alike. Converging at Constantinople, they all headed eastwards into Asia
4
Cf. Henri Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and Crusade, Vol. II, trans. by John Warrington (NY: Image Books,
1957), 167.
5
L.J. Cheney, A History of the Western World (NY: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1959), 91.
Minor and then southwards capturing Antioch and Jerusalem after a four-year
long struggle with the Muslims. It was in 1099 that they took control of
Jerusalem, establishing a Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, a patriarchate in
Edessa, and other important Latin settlements all over Palestine. This
crusade conquered the Muslim Turks and thus brought back the influence of
Rome to the East.
b. The Second Crusade
Christian kingdom of Jerusalem was established in a rather shaky
foundation and was in constant threat to external forces. Eventually, the
Muslims recaptured Jerusalem. After hearing the news, the need for a second
crusade was felt in Europe. Pope Eugenius III, in 1145, issued a formal
Crusade Bull. Two years later, St. Bernard of Clairvaux preached and
launched the second crusade. Some groups of Englishmen, together with
Flemings and Frisians, went for a small-scale crusade. They met an initial
success in the Portuguese coast when they captured Lisbon, the Muslim
capital of the area. They then proceeded to the East to help the other groups
of crusaders. The large-scale expedition was led by two major Rulers, King
Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Germany. Their major opponent
was the extremely competent Muslim leader, Saladin, who eventually
defeated the Latin army and conquered all of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in
1189. Thus, the crusade ended in failure in 1149.
c. The Third Crusade
With the fall of Jerusalem, the European Christians were determined to
recapture Jerusalem. Thus the third crusade was called by Pope Gregory VIII.
In May 1189, Frederick Barbossa, the seventy-year-old Holy Roman Emperor,
gathered the largest crusade army ever assembled. However, his death by
drowning prior to their arrival at Jerusalem greatly discouraged the troops.
The rulers who eventually took the leadership roles for this crusade were
King Philip II Augustus of France and Richard I the Lion-Heart of England, who
epitomized the chivalrous crusader. Cyprus was captured but they were not
able to recapture Jerusalem from Saladin. Instead, both parties agreed to a
treaty that was to last for five years. With the treaty, pilgrims were given
free access to the holy places. Although the main objective of recapturing
Jerusalem was not achieved, nevertheless, the capture of Cyprus, the
possession of some crusader states, and the peace treaty gave relative
peace to both Christians and Muslims.
d. The Fourth Crusade
In 1198, since the previous crusade did not achieve its main goal, Pope
Innocent III commissioned a new crusade. This time, its purpose was to
conquer the main stronghold of Muslim power in the East—Egypt. The Pope
made a contract with the Venetians to assist the crusaders. However, in
1202, the Venetians convinced the latter to assist them first in the capture of
Zara in Dalmatia. Afterwards, the leaders of the crusades decided to attack
Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire, instead of Egypt. They
eventually succeeded in sacking the said capital in 1203, albeit with much
vandalism that damaged permanently the majestic city. Baldwin of Flanders
was elected Emperor. Thus, a Latin Empire was established in the East that
lasted until 1261. This was considered by historians as a disaster inasmuch
as the main objective was never even partially achieved but instead went to
pillage another site. With the brewing conflict of the Eastern and Western
Churches, this became another source of much antagonism between the
two.
e. The Fifth Crusade
This was the last crusade actively participated by a Pope. In 1215, the
same Pope Innocent III once more renewed his efforts to revive crusader
interests. In the fourth Lateran Council, a systematic Crusade plan was
made. In May 1118, the troops were formed under the leadership of King
John of Brienne and of Cardinal Pelagius. They had initial success as they
went on to capture Damietta, a small part of Egypt. However, the Muslims
seized Damietta from them and the entire Egypt was never conquered. It
ended in 1121 with an eight-year truce and was considered another failure.
This was the crusade in which St. Francis of Assisi was able to visit and
establish a Franciscan province in the Holy Land.
f. The Sixth Crusade
Emperor Frederick II of Germany was obligated to lead this sixth
expedition. It was a closely diplomatic crusade. In 1229, he and Sultan al-
Kamil of Eqypt signed a treaty that gave back Jerusalem, except the Dome of
the Rock, to the Europeans and thus were ceded back to the Kingdom of
Jerusalem. This was done without much bloodshed. In 1239, a poorly
organized minor Crusade under Thibaut IV of Champagne and Richard of
Cornwall did nothing to gain advantage in the Levant. Later, the
Khwarezmian Turks, with the support of Eqypt, mustered enough force to
finally capture Jerusalem in 1244.
g. The Seventh and Eighth Crusades
Under the leadership of King Louis IX of France, the seventh crusade
doggedly proceeded to recapture Jerusalem in 1148 passing through Egypt
first. They recaptured Damietta in 1249. However, the king was defeated and
captured by the Muslim forces in Egypt. He was ransomed later by giving
back Damietta to the Muslims. It was a miserable failure. After being given
enough time to recuperate, King Louis IX felt heavily responsible for the
foiled seventh crusade. He attempted another expedition (the Eighth
Crusade), which would eventually become the last of all organized crusades.
However, in 1270, as the French troops landed North Africa, disease struck
them and claimed the lives of many, including that of Louis. Like the
previous crusade, this one ended in tragedy.
After this last crusade, there seemed to be a decline in the Westerners’
desire for further adventures to free Jerusalem from the Muslims. In due
course, the crusader strongholds in the entire Palestine, or the Levant, were
besieged and systematically destroyed in 1291 by the new Egyptian
Dynasty, the Mamluks. This marked the end of the period of the crusades,
which approximately spanned two hundred (200) years since the time of the
first Crusade in 1096.
 III.THE KNIGHTS
The Knights came to existence when the need for military assistance,
due to the constant fear of Muslim invasion from the surrounding regions of
the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, was felt. These Religio-Military
Orders are composed of able-bodied men who would consider themselves as
Knights of God, always ready to serve the Lord, and would be willing to lay
sacrifice their own lives for Him. At the same time, they were true monks
who professed the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.6 The more
popular were the Templars and Hospitallers. The less popular were the
Teutonic Knights.
The Knights of the Temple of Solomon, or Templars, was founded by
Hugh de Payens in 1118. They had their headquarters in the mosque of El
Aqsa on the site of Solomon’s Temple. They consisted of Chaplains, Knights
coming from noble blood, and servants who were military men sworn to
protect and serve the Kingdom of Jerusalem from any Muslim threat. They
wore a white mantle with a red cross.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or Hospitallers, was founded by
merchants in the 11th century and was originally a charitable order
committed to provide medical care for pilgrims. Raymond of Puy transformed
the order into a Military Order, like that of the Templars, and was tasked to
protect the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Christ had lain for three days prior
to His glorious Resurrection. They wore a black mantle with a white cross.
The Teutonic Knights were formed in 1122 originally as a charitable
institution by the Burgresses of Bremen and Lubeck. It then became a
Military Order in 1190, but did little work in the Holy Land. They helped
Emperor Frederick II during the sixth crusade. The wore a white mantle with
a black cross.

6
Cf. Henri Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and Crusade, Vol. II, trans. by John Warrington (NY: Image Books,
1957), 188.
 IV. CONCLUSION
Although many of the Crusades ended in relative disaster, they still
played a very significant role that could be described as providential. For
one, they revealed that Christians can truly be united, especially under the
guidance of able leaders such as Popes and Kings or Emperors who are
resolute enough to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims. Such unity
transcended the ordinary level in that a spiritual motivation was truly
involved in such Crusades. Second, these Crusades brought to the West
some of the most prized cultural achievements of the East, whether in
Science, Literature, or the Arts. Third, trade routes to the Orient were opened
up. Fourth, the Crusades unsurprisingly provided a venue for European
literature to flourish inasmuch as the Crusades invited many literary
enthusiasts to produce many accounts of the heroic adventures of those who
participated. Finally, the Crusades also gave some Religious institutions to
promote Christian missionary fervor into the Palestine area.
Hence, despite the failures of the Crusades, especially that of the
Fourth Crusade that severed diplomatic ties between the Eastern and the
Western Empires as well as Churches, they can be considered as among the
most stupendous feats of the Church during the medieval era.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed., Vols. 3 and 16. Chicago:
Encylopedia Britannica, Inc., 1994.

Betten, Francis S. and Alfred Kaufmann. The Modern World: from

Charlemagne to the Present Time. Norwood, Mass.: Norwood Press,
1919.

Bradford, Ernle. The Sundered Cross: The Story of the Fourth Crusade. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967

Bredero, Adriaan H. Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages.

Translated by Reinder Bruinisma. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1994.
Cheney, L.J. A History of the Western World. NY: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,
1959.

Daniel-Rops, Henri. Cathedral and Crusade. Vol. II. Translated by John

Warrington. NY: Image Books, 1957.

Evans, G.R. Faith in the Medieval World. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2002.

Frank, Isnard Wilhelm. A Concise History of The Mediaeval Church. NY: The
Continuum Publishing Company, 1995.

Guillemain, Bernard. The Early Middle Ages. Translated from the French by S.
Taylor. New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1960.

Harkavy, Michael D., ed. The New Webster’s International Encyclopedia: The
New Illustrated Home Reference Guide. Florida: Trident Press
International, 1996.

Latourelle, René, and Rino Fisichella, eds. Dictionary of Fundamental

Theology. English-language edition. New York: The Crossroad
Publishing Company, 1994.

Lovasik, Lawrence G. Church History: The Catholic Church through the Ages.
New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1990.

Perry, Ray C., ed. A History of Christianity: Readings in the History of the
Early and Medieval Church. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962.

Pirenne, Henri. A History of Europe. Vol. II. Translated by Bernard Miall. NY:
Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956.

Runciman, Steven. A History of The Crusades. Vols. I-III. Great Britain:

Cambridge University Press, 1952.

Thomas, P.C. A Compact History of the Popes. Bangalore: The Bombay Saint
Paul Society, 1992.

Thomas, P.C. General Councils of the Church. Bangalore: Saint Paul Society,
1993.

Maps: Google Internet Search Engine

TABLE OF THE CRUSADES
CRUSAD YEAR(S) IMPORTANT ACCOMPLISHMENT
E PARTICIPANTS S
First 1096 – 1099 - Godfrey of Bouillon, - Capture of
- Raymond of Toulouse, Jerusalem in 1099
- Robert of Normandy, - Erection of
and Western
- Bohemond and principates at
Tancred Edessa and
Antioch
Second 1147 – 1149 - King Louis VII of France - Capture of Lisbon
- Emperor Conrad III of in 1147
Germany
Third 1189 – 1192 - Emperor Frederick I - Capture of both
Barbossa of the Holy Cyprus and Acre in
Roman Empire 1191
- King Philip II Augustus - Peace treaty
of France between Richard
- Richard I the Lion- the Lion-Heart and
Heart of England Saladin giving
pilgrims free
access to
Jerusalem
Fourth 1202-1204 - Baldwin of Flanders - Capture of Zara
- Republic of Venice in 1202
- Capture of
Constantinople in
1203
Fifth 1118 – 1121 - King John of Brienne - Capture (and
- Cardinal Pelagius loss) of Damietta
in 1221
Sixth 1229 – 1244 - Emperor Frederick II of - Peace Treaty
Germany between Emperor
- Thibaut IV of Frederick II and
Champagne Sultan al-Kamil of
- Richard of Cornwall Eqypt that gave
back Jerusalem,
except the Dome
of the Rock, back
to the Europeans
and thus were
ceded back to the
Kingdom of
Jerusalem (but
was lost in 1244)
Seventh 1248 – 1250 - King Louis IX of France - Recapture of
Damietta (but lost
again as Ransom
for the captured
King)
Eighth 1270 - King Louis IX of France - none
 IMPORTANT MAPS
(Routes of the First Four Crusades and the Crusader States in the 12th
Century)

1. First Crusade

First Crusade

2. Second Crusade

Second Crusade

3. Third Crusade

Third Crusade
4. Fourth Crusade

Zara

Fourth Crusade

During the
5. The Crusader States of the 12th Century establishment of the
Kingdom of
Jerusalem, after the
First Crusade, this is
a close
approximation of
how the Levant, or
the area that
spanned from
Palestine to Egypt
looked like in the 12th
Century.