Who and when declared the Crusades. Crusades (briefly). Ninth Crusade
The Crusades are an armed movement of the peoples of the Christian West to the Muslim East, expressed in a number of campaigns over the course of two centuries (from the end of the 11th to the end of the 13th) with the goal of conquering Palestine and liberating the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of infidels; it is a powerful reaction of Christianity against the strengthening power of Islam at that time (under the caliphs) and a grandiose attempt not only to take possession of the once Christian regions, but also to generally broadly expand the limits of the rule of the cross, this symbol of the Christian idea. The participants of these trips crusaders, wore a red image on the right shoulder cross with a saying from Holy Scripture (Luke 14:27), thanks to which the campaigns received the name crusades.
Causes of the Crusades (briefly)
Performance in was scheduled for August 15, 1096. But before preparations for it were completed, crowds of common people, led by Peter the Hermit and the French knight Walter Golyak, set off on a campaign through Germany and Hungary without money or supplies. Indulging in robbery and all sorts of outrages along the way, they were partly exterminated by the Hungarians and Bulgarians, and partly reached the Greek empire. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios Comnenus hastened to transport them across the Bosphorus to Asia, where they were finally killed by the Turks at the Battle of Nicaea (October 1096). The first disorderly crowd was followed by others: thus, 15,000 Germans and Lorraineers, under the leadership of the priest Gottschalk, went through Hungary and, having engaged in the beating of Jews in the Rhine and Danube cities, were exterminated by the Hungarians.
The Crusaders set out on the First Crusade. Miniature from a manuscript by Guillaume of Tire, 13th century.
The real militia set out on the First Crusade only in the autumn of 1096, in the form of 300,000 well-armed and superbly disciplined warriors, led by the most valiant and noble knights of the time: next to Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, the main leader, and his brothers Baldwin and Eustache (Estache), shone; Count Hugo of Vermandois, brother of the French king Philip I, Duke Robert of Normandy (brother of the English king), Count Robert of Flanders, Raymond of Toulouse and Stephen of Chartres, Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, Tancred of Apulia and others. Bishop Adhémar of Monteillo accompanied the army as papal viceroy and legate.
The participants of the First Crusade arrived by different routes to Constantinople, where the Greek emperor Alexei forced them to take a feudal oath and promise to recognize him as feudal lord of future conquests. At the beginning of June 1097, the army of the crusaders appeared before Nicaea, the capital of the Seljuk sultan, and after the capture of the latter they were subjected to extreme difficulties and hardships. However, he took Antioch, Edessa (1098) and, finally, on June 15, 1099, Jerusalem, which was at that time in the hands of the Egyptian sultan, who unsuccessfully tried to restore his power and was completely defeated at Ascalon.
Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099. Miniature from the 14th or 15th centuries.
Under the influence of the news of the conquest of Palestine in 1101, a new army of crusaders, led by Duke Welf of Bavaria from Germany and two others, from Italy and France, moved to Asia Minor, forming a total army of 260,000 people and exterminated by the Seljuks.
Second Crusade (briefly)
The Second Crusade - briefly, Bernard of Clairvaux - short biography
In 1144, Edessa was taken by the Turks, after which Pope Eugene III declared Second Crusade(1147–1149), freeing all the crusaders not only from their sins, but at the same time from their duties regarding their feudal masters. The dreamy preacher Bernard of Clairvaux managed, thanks to his irresistible eloquence, to attract King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Hohenstaufen to the Second Crusade. Two troops, which in total, according to Western chroniclers, amounted to about 140,000 armored horsemen and a million infantry, set out in 1147 and headed through Hungary and Constantinople and Asia Minor. Due to a lack of food, diseases in the troops and after several major defeats, the reconquest plan Edessa was abandoned, and an attempt to attack Damascus failed. Both sovereigns returned to their possessions, and the Second Crusade ended in complete failure
Crusader states in the East
Third Crusade (briefly)
The reason for Third Crusade(1189–1192) was the conquest of Jerusalem on October 2, 1187 by the powerful Egyptian Sultan Saladin (see the article Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin). Three European sovereigns took part in this campaign: Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French king Philip II Augustus and the English Richard the Lionheart. Frederick was the first to set out on the Third Crusade, whose army along the way increased to 100,000 people; he chose the path along the Danube, on the way he had to overcome the machinations of the incredulous Greek emperor Isaac Angel, who was only prompted by the capture of Adrianople to give free passage to the crusaders and help them cross to Asia Minor. Here Frederick defeated the Turkish troops in two battles, but soon after that he drowned while crossing the Kalikadn (Salef) River. His son, Frederick, led the army further through Antioch to Acre, where he found other crusaders, but soon died. The city of Akka in 1191 surrendered to the French and English kings, but the discord that opened between them forced the French king to return to his homeland. Richard remained to continue the Third Crusade, but, despairing of the hope of conquering Jerusalem, in 1192 he concluded a truce with Saladin for three years and three months, according to which Jerusalem remained in the possession of the Sultan, and Christians received the coastal strip from Tire to Jaffa, as well as the right to free visiting the Holy Sepulchre.
Frederick Barbarossa - Crusader
Fourth Crusade (briefly)
For more details, see the separate articles Fourth Crusade, Fourth Crusade - briefly and Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders
Fourth Crusade(1202–1204) was originally aimed at Egypt, but its participants agreed to assist the exiled emperor Isaac Angelos in his quest to re-assume the Byzantine throne, which was crowned with success. Isaac soon died, and the crusaders, deviating from their goal, continued the war and took Constantinople, after which the leader of the Fourth Crusade, Count Baldwin of Flanders, was elected emperor of the new Latin Empire, which lasted, however, only 57 years (1204-1261).
Participants of the Fourth Crusade near Constantinople. Miniature for the Venetian manuscript of Villehardouin's History, c. 1330
Fifth Crusade (briefly)
Without taking into account the strange Cross children's hike in 1212, caused by the desire to experience the reality of God's will, Fifth Crusade can be called the campaign of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria in Syria (1217–1221). At first he went sluggishly, but after the arrival of new reinforcements from the West, the crusaders moved to Egypt and took the key to access this country from the sea - the city of Damietta. However, the attempt to capture the major Egyptian center of Mansur was unsuccessful. The knights left Egypt, and the Fifth Crusade ended with the restoration of the former borders.
The assault of the Crusaders of the Fifth Campaign on the tower of Damietta. Artist Cornelis Claes van Wieringen, c. 1625
Sixth Crusade (briefly)
Sixth Crusade(1228–1229) was committed by the German Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. For the long delays in starting the campaign, the pope excommunicated Frederick from the church (1227). On next year the emperor nevertheless went to the East. Taking advantage of the discord among the local Muslim rulers, Frederick began negotiations with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil on the peaceful return of Jerusalem to Christians. To support their demands by threat, the emperor and the Palestinian knights besieged and took Jaffa. Threatened by the Sultan of Damascus, al-Kamil signed a ten-year truce with Frederick, returning Jerusalem and almost all the lands that Saladin had once taken from them to the Christians. At the end of the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II was crowned in the Holy Land with the crown of Jerusalem.
Emperor Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil. Miniature from the 14th century
The violation of the truce by some pilgrims led a few years later to a renewal of the struggle for Jerusalem and to its final loss by Christians in 1244. Jerusalem was taken from the Crusaders by the Turkic tribe of Khorezmians, driven out of the Caspian regions by the Mongols during the latter’s movement to Europe.
The Seventh Crusade (briefly)
The fall of Jerusalem caused Seventh Crusade(1248–1254) Louis IX of France, who, during a serious illness, vowed to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. In August 1248, the French crusaders sailed to the East and spent the winter in Cyprus. In the spring of 1249, the army of Saint Louis landed in the Nile Delta. Due to the indecisiveness of the Egyptian commander Fakhreddin, she took Damietta almost without difficulty. After staying there for several months waiting for reinforcements, the crusaders moved to Cairo at the end of the year. But near the city of Mansura, the Saracen army blocked their path. After hard efforts, the participants of the Seventh Crusade were able to cross the Nile branch and even break into Mansura for a while, but the Muslims, taking advantage of the separation of the Christian troops, inflicted great damage on them.
The crusaders should have retreated to Damietta, but due to false concepts of knightly honor, they were in no hurry to do so. They were soon surrounded by large Saracen forces. Having lost many soldiers from disease and hunger, the participants of the Seventh Crusade (almost 20 thousand people) were forced to surrender. Another 30 thousand of their comrades died. Christian captives (including the king himself) were released only for a huge ransom. Damietta had to be returned to the Egyptians. Having sailed from Egypt to Palestine, Saint Louis spent about 4 more years in Acre, where he was engaged in securing Christian possessions in Palestine, until the death of his mother Blanche (regent of France) recalled him to his homeland.
Eighth Crusade (briefly)
Due to the complete ineffectiveness of the Seventh Crusade and the constant attacks on the Christians of Palestine by the new Egyptian (Mamluk) Sultan Baybars the same king of France, Louis IX the Saint, undertook in 1270 Eighth(And last) crusade hike. At first the Crusaders again thought of landing in Egypt, but Louis's brother, king of Naples and Sicily Charles of Anjou, persuaded them to sail to Tunisia, which was an important trading competitor of southern Italy. Coming ashore in Tunisia, the French participants in the Eighth Crusade began to wait for the arrival of Charles's army. A plague began in their cramped camp, from which Saint Louis himself died. The pestilence caused such losses to the crusader army that Charles of Anjou, who arrived shortly after the death of his brother, chose to stop the campaign on the terms of the ruler of Tunisia paying an indemnity and releasing Christian captives.
Death of Saint Louis in Tunisia during the Eighth Crusade. Artist Jean Fouquet, c. 1455-1465
End of the Crusades
In 1286, Antioch went to Turkey, in 1289 - Tripoli of Lebanon, and in 1291 - Akka, the last major possession of Christians in Palestine, after which they were forced to give up the rest of their possessions, and the entire Holy Land was united again in the hands of the Mohammedans. Thus ended the Crusades, which cost Christians so many losses and did not achieve their originally intended goal.
Results and consequences of the Crusades (briefly)
But they did not remain without a profound influence on the entire structure of the social and economic life of Western European peoples. The consequence of the Crusades can be considered the strengthening of the power and importance of the popes, as their main instigators, further - the rise of royal power due to the death of many feudal lords, the emergence of independence of urban communities, which, thanks to the impoverishment of the nobility, received the opportunity to buy benefits from their feudal rulers; introduction in Europe of crafts and arts borrowed from eastern peoples. The results of the Crusades were an increase in the class of free farmers in the West, thanks to the liberation of the peasants who participated in the campaigns from serfdom. The Crusades contributed to the success of trade, opening up new routes to the East; favored the development of geographical knowledge; Having expanded the sphere of mental and moral interests, they enriched poetry with new subjects. One more important result The Crusades brought to the historical stage the secular knightly class, which constituted an ennobling element of medieval life; their consequence was also the emergence of spiritual knightly orders (Johannites, Templars and Teutons), which played an important role in history. (For more details, see separate articles
(1217-1221) ended unsuccessfully for Christians. Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands, which gave the Pope a reason to call for knights Western Europe to a new military campaign in the Holy Land. But this time the church did not need to look for a leader among European monarchs and nobles, since the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) was initially considered such.
Emperor Frederick II and the Egyptian Sultan Al-Kamil agree on the transfer of Jerusalem to Christians
He took Active participation in the Fifth Crusade, sending crusaders from Germany to Palestine and Egypt. However, he himself did not accompany the army, strengthening his positions in Germany and Italy. In 1220, Pope Honorius III placed the imperial crown on Frederick's head, and he became the sovereign ruler of the most powerful state in Europe. After this, the emperor swore to the pontiff that he would lead the Sixth Crusade (1228-1229).
The oath was reinforced by his marriage to Yolanda of Jerusalem, the daughter of the nominal ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, John of Brienne. The wedding took place in 1225, and Frederick II had a vested interest in expanding and strengthening the lands of the Latin East.
Now postpone indefinitely military company there was no point in going to the Holy Land, and in 1227 the emperor and his crusaders sailed from Italy to Acre, which at that time was considered the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. However, a plague epidemic broke out there, and the German army hastily departed back to Italy.
That same year, in March, Pope Honorius III died. He was replaced by Gregory IX (1227-1241). This man had an extremely negative attitude towards Frederick II. We can say that he was an enemy of the emperor, since he sought to subjugate the lands of Italy, which were under the absolute control of the Catholic Church. Therefore, the new pontiff was looking for any excuse to annoy the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
He stated that Frederick II had broken his crusade vow by leaving Acre. The fact that the plague was rampant there could not serve as an excuse in the opinion of the pope. After such a statement, Gregory IX excommunicated the emperor from the church and thereby freed his subjects from all oaths and obligations to the ruler. Frederick II tried to improve relations with the pope, but he remained adamant, hoping with his decision to weaken the power of the emperor.
Pope Gregory IX, who excommunicated Frederick II
It must be said that Frederick II was an extremely intelligent and well-educated man. He spoke 6 languages fluently, including Arabic. He cared about the well-being of his state and enjoyed great respect among all segments of the German population. Therefore, his authority was not greatly undermined after his excommunication.
Unable to come to an agreement with the pontiff, the emperor again set out on the Sixth Crusade in 1228, but at the same time he no longer enjoyed the support of the church. The Germans' route lay by sea through Cyprus. On this island, the leader of the next military expansion into the Holy Land tried to resolve his dynastic claims to the throne of the Kingdom of Cyprus. It was a crusader state created by the English king Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade.
Jean I Ibelin sat in it as regent. The German emperor declared that his rule was illegitimate, and the island should come under the full control of the Holy Roman Empire. But this initiative did not meet with understanding among the local nobility. As a result, everyone quarreled, and the main thing was that Cyprus ceased to consider itself an ally of the German emperor.
After Cyprus, Frederick II went to Acre, where the political situation turned out to be complex and ambiguous. The church ministers reacted extremely negatively to the arriving leader of the Sixth Crusade. But the knights were divided. Some supported the emperor, while others expressed sympathy for the servants of God. Thus, only the crusaders and knights of the Teutonic Order who arrived with him were subordinate to Frederick. With such forces it was impossible to carry out actions against Muslims.
What could an emperor do when he fell out of favor with the Pope? He became familiar with the political situation in the Muslim world and realized that the Sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, was bogged down in suppressing the rebellions in Syria and also did not have sufficient military forces to successfully resist the crusaders. And from this it followed that with a competent approach, it was possible to resolve the issue of returning Jerusalem to Christians without bloody battles.
The German emperor staged a demonstrative display of the huge army he supposedly had. He divided his army into detachments and led them south near the sea coast. For Al-Kamil this was enough. The Sultan believed in the power of the crusaders and agreed to negotiate. They turned out to be extremely fruitful for the soldiers of Christ. The Muslims gave Jerusalem to the Christians, and in addition gave them such fortresses as Bethlehem, Sidon, Nazareth and Jaffa.
Frederick II with Crusaders and Muslims in Jerusalem
An agreement on this and a truce for 10 years was concluded on February 18, 1229. Already on March 17 of the same year, Frederick II solemnly entered Jerusalem and the next day proclaimed himself king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. However, the Patriarch of the Latin East was absent from the coronation, and therefore this ceremony had no legal force. The newly-made king was not approved by either the pope or the noble feudal lords of the Holy Land. He could only be a regent for his son Conrad, born from his marriage to Yolanda of Jerusalem.
The German emperor stayed in Jerusalem until mid-May 1229 and left for his homeland, where political problems of a local nature arose. This was the end of the Sixth Crusade. In the same year, the pope lifted the excommunication of Frederick II, guided by the interests of the church. And in the revived kingdom, strife and struggle for power began. But the most important thing happened: Jerusalem returned to the Christians and was under their complete control in 1229-1239 and 1241-1244. The same can be said about other areas of the Holy Land.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the crusade led by Frederick II showed the whole world that the most important government issues can be resolved through negotiations, and not on the battlefield. The emperor himself was nicknamed “a crusader without a cross,” and his campaign began to be called “a campaign without a campaign.” After all, the soldiers of Christ did not fight the Muslims, but won a complete victory over them, which cannot be said about other military companies in the Holy Land.
The Crusades lasted about two centuries and became a completely unique period in world history. They originated in Europe on the wave of religious asceticism. Campaigns were preached Catholic Church and at first found a wide response in all segments of the population.
In which cities did the campaigns begin?
To name the cities in which the Crusades began, you need to understand a little about their history. For the first time, this idea arose among the French Catholic clergy and was voiced at the Council of Clermont. The result was the First Crusade, which began in 1095. Knights from France, Italy, Germany and other European countries took part in it. Among the cities from which it departed greatest number knights, it should be highlighted:
- Paris. Many French aristocrats went on the campaign, including the king’s son;
- Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon. These are large French cities, which during the Middle Ages were centers of feudal estates;
- German Reims became a gathering place for German knights and townspeople who also wanted to go to the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher;
- in Italy, knights gathered in Rome. Many warriors arrived from Palermo, Sicily and other places.
In exchange for participation in the Crusades, the pope promised absolution to all soldiers and ordinary people. In addition to spiritual benefits, they were promised forgiveness of debts, protection of their property and families who remained in Europe.
Who went hiking
The first Crusades aroused much enthusiasm. Therefore, aristocrats, large feudal lords, nobles, chivalry, and simple warriors went to war in the East. In addition to them, peasants, townspeople and even children took an active part.
For example, at first the army of Gautier Gaulac, consisting of unarmed pilgrims and beggars, went out on the first Crusade. All of them were destroyed by the Turks as soon as they reached their possessions in Asia Minor.
Thus, the idea of the Crusades was supported by all segments of the population. However, over time, the fervor faded and the hikes were no longer so popular. Only aristocrats and professional warriors took part in them. They were driven by political interests or thirst for profit.
The First Crusade of 1096 brought tens of thousands of crusaders to Constantinople. During the campaign, the cities of Asia Minor (the territory of modern Turkey) were captured. The first city captured in the campaign was Nicaea, the next was Edessa. Antioch was later captured, but here the knights met strong resistance in the person of Emir Kerboga. In 1099, the knights found themselves at the gates of Jerusalem. During the capture of the city, many Muslims were massacred. Godfrey of Bouillon becomes king. In 1101, many crusaders came to the lands of Asia Minor, but they were exterminated by the emirs. The Templars and Hospitallers provided great support to Jerusalem. The First Crusade ended with the creation of four states: the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa in the East, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the County of Tripoli.
A Brief History of the Crusades
Crusades (late 11th – late 13th centuries). Campaigns of Western European knights to Palestine with the aim of liberating the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem from Muslim rule.
First Crusade
1095 - at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban III called for a crusade to liberate holy places from the yoke of the Saracens (Arabs and Seljuk Turks). The first crusade consisted of peasants and poor townspeople led by the preacher Peter of Amiens. 1096 - they arrived in Constantinople and, without waiting for the knightly army to approach, crossed to Asia Minor. There, the poorly armed and even worse trained militia of Peter of Amiens was defeated by the Turks without much difficulty.
1097, spring - detachments of crusading knights concentrated in the capital of Byzantium. The main role in the First Crusade was played by the feudal lords of France: Count Raymond of Toulouse, Count Robert of Flanders, son of the Norman Duke William (the future conqueror of England) Robert, Bishop Adhemar.
Also taking part in the campaign were Count Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, his brothers Baldwin and Eustathius, Count Hugo of Vermandois, son of the French king Henry I, and Count Bohemond of Tarentum. Pope Urban wrote to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos that 300,000 crusaders were going on the campaign, but it is more likely that several tens of thousands of people took part in the First Crusade, of which only a few thousand knights were well armed.
A detachment of the Byzantine army and the remnants of the militia of Peter of Amiens joined the crusaders.
The main problem of the crusaders was the lack of a unified command. The dukes and counts who took part in the campaign did not have a common overlord and did not want to obey each other, considering themselves no less noble and powerful than their colleagues.
Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to cross over to the land of Asia Minor, followed by other knights. 1097, June - the crusaders took the fortress of Nicaea and advanced to Cilicia. The Crusader army marched in two columns. The right was commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon, the left by Bohemond of Tarentum. Godfrey's army advanced along the Dorylea valley, and Bohemond advanced through the Gargon valley. On June 29, the Nicaean Sultan Soliman attacked the left column of the crusaders, which had not yet managed to move away from Dorilea. The Crusaders were able to build a Wagenburg (closed line of convoys). In addition, their location was covered by the Bafus River. Bohemond sent Godfrey a messenger with a detachment to notify him of the approach of the Turks.
The Turks rained down stones and arrows on Bohemond's infantry, and then began to retreat. When the crusaders rushed after the retreating, they were unexpectedly attacked by Turkish cavalry. The knights were scattered. Then the Turks broke into Wagenburg and slaughtered a significant part of the infantry. Bohemond managed to push back the enemy with the help of a cavalry reserve, but reinforcements approached the Turks, and they again pushed the crusaders back to Wagenburg.
Bohemond sent another messenger to Godfrey, whose column was already hurrying to the battlefield. She arrived in time to force the Turks to retreat. Afterwards, the crusaders reformed for the decisive attack. On the left flank stood the South Italian Normans of Bohemond, in the center were the French of Count Raymond of Toulouse, and on the right were the Lorraineers of Godfrey himself. The infantry and a detachment of knights under the overall command of Bishop Adhemar remained in reserve.
The Turks were defeated, and their camp went to the winner. But the light Turkish cavalry was able to escape pursuit without much loss. The heavily armed knights had no chance of keeping up with her.
The Turks did not undertake new attacks on the combined forces of the crusaders. However, crossing the waterless rocky desert was an ordeal in itself. Most of the horses died from lack of food. When the Crusaders eventually entered Cilicia, they were greeted as liberators by the local Armenian population. The first crusader state was founded there - the County of Edessa.
1097, October - Godfrey's army captured Antioch after a seven-month siege. The Sultan of Mosul tried to recapture the city, but suffered a heavy defeat. Bohemond founded another crusader state - the Principality of Antioch.
1098, autumn - the army of the crusaders advanced towards Jerusalem. Along the way, she captured Accra and in June 1099 approached the holy city, which was defended by Egyptian troops. Almost the entire Genoese fleet, carrying siege weapons, was destroyed by the Egyptians. But one ship was able to break through to Laodicea. The siege engines he delivered enabled the crusaders to destroy the walls of Jerusalem.
1099, July 15 - the crusaders took Jerusalem by storm. On August 12, a large Egyptian army landed near Jerusalem, in Ascalon, but the crusaders managed to defeat it. Godfrey of Bouillon stood at the head of the Kingdom of Jerusalem they founded.
The success of the First Crusade was facilitated by the fact that the united army of Western European knights was opposed by disparate and warring Seljuk sultanates. The most powerful Muslim state in the Mediterranean - the Egyptian Sultanate - only with great delay moved the main forces of its army and navy to Palestine, which the crusaders managed to defeat piece by piece. This reflected a clear underestimation by the Muslim rulers of the danger threatening them.
For the defense of those educated in Palestine Christian states created spiritual knightly orders, whose members settled in the conquered lands after the bulk of the participants in the First Crusade returned to Europe. 1119 - the Knights of the Temple were founded, the Order of the Hospitallers, or Johannites, appeared somewhat later, and at the end of the 12th century it appeared.
Second Crusade (briefly)
The Second Crusade, which was undertaken in 1147–1149, ended in vain. According to some estimates, up to 70,000 people took part in it. The Crusaders were led by King Louis VII of France and German Emperor Conrad III. 1147, October - German knights were defeated at Dorileus by the cavalry of the Iconian Sultan. Afterwards, epidemics hit Conrad's army. The emperor was forced to join the army of the king of France, with whom he had previously been at enmity. Most German soldiers chose to return to their homeland. The French were defeated at Khonami in January 1148.
In July, the crusaders besieged heavily fortified Damascus for five days to no avail. 1149 - Conrad and then Louis returned to Europe, realizing the impossibility of expanding the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Third Crusade (briefly)
In the second half of the 12th century, Saladin (Salah ad-Din), a talented commander, became the sultan of Egypt, which opposed the crusaders. He defeated the crusaders at Lake Tiberias and captured Jerusalem in 1187. In response, the Third Crusade was proclaimed, led by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, King Philip II Augustus of France and the English king.
While crossing one of the rivers in Asia Minor, Frederick drowned, and his army, having lost its leader, disintegrated and returned to Europe. The French and British, moving by sea, captured Sicily and then landed in Palestine, but were generally unsuccessful. True, after a siege of many months, they took the fortress of Accra, and the king of England captured the island of Cyprus, which had recently separated from Byzantium, where he took rich booty. The Lusignan kingdom arose there, becoming a stronghold of the Crusaders in the East for a century. But strife between the English and French feudal lords caused the king of France to leave Palestine.
Deprived of the help of the French knights, Richard was never able to take Jerusalem. 1192, September 2 - Richard signed a peace with Saladin, according to which only the coastal strip from Tire to Jaffa remained under the control of the crusaders, while Jaffa and Ascalon were previously destroyed by the Muslims to the ground.
Fourth Crusade (briefly)
The Fourth Crusade began in 1202 and ended in 1204 with the conquest of Constantinople and a significant part of the possessions of Christian Byzantium instead of Palestine. The capital of the empire was stormed on April 13, 1204 and plundered. The first attack, which was launched on the 9th from the sea, was repulsed by the Byzantines.
Three days later, with the help of swing bridges, the knights climbed the walls. Some of the crusaders entered the city through a gap made with the help of battering guns, and already opened three Constantinople gates from the inside. Inside the city, the crusader army no longer encountered any resistance, since few defenders fled on the night of April 12-13, and the population was not going to take up arms, considering the fight pointless.
After the Fourth Campaign, the scale of the following crusades was significantly reduced. 1204 - King Amaury Lusignan of Jerusalem tried to assert his power in Egypt, stricken by drought and famine. The Crusaders defeated the Egyptian fleet and landed at Damietta in the Nile Delta. Sultan al-Adil Abu Bakr concluded a peace treaty with the crusaders, ceding to them Jaffa, previously conquered by the Egyptians, as well as Ramla, Lydda and half of Saida. After which, for a decade there were no major military conflicts between the Egyptians and the Crusaders.
Fifth Crusade (briefly)
The Fifth Crusade was organized in 1217–1221 to conquer Egypt. It was led by the Hungarian King Andras II and Duke Leopold of Austria. The crusaders of Syria greeted the newcomers from Europe without much enthusiasm. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had experienced a drought, found it difficult to feed tens of thousands of new soldiers, and it wanted to trade with Egypt rather than fight. Andras and Leopold raided Damascus, Nablus and Beisan, besieged, but never captured the strongest Muslim fortress of Tabor. After this failure, Andras returned to his homeland in January 1218.
The Hungarians were replaced by Dutch knights and German infantry in Palestine in 1218. It was decided to conquer the Egyptian fortress of Damietta in the Nile Delta. It was located on an island, surrounded by three rows of walls and protected by a powerful tower, from which a bridge and thick iron chains stretched to the fortress, blocking access to Damietta from the river. The siege began on May 27, 1218. Using their ships as floating battering guns and using long assault ladders, the crusaders took possession of the tower.
Having learned about this, the Egyptian Sultan al-Adil, who was in Damascus, could not bear the news and died. His son al-Kamil offered the crusaders to lift the siege of Damietta in exchange for the return of Jerusalem and other territories of the Kingdom of Jerusalem within the borders of 1187, but the knights, under the influence of the papal legate Pelagius, refused, although the Sultan promised to find and return even pieces of the True Cross captured by Saladin.
Pelagius actually led the army, reconciled the different groups of crusaders and brought the siege to an end. On the night of November 4-5, 1219, Damietta was stormed and plundered. By that time, the vast majority of its population had died of hunger and disease. Of the 80,000, only 3,000 survived. But the crusaders rejected Pelagius’s offer to go to Cairo, realizing that they did not have enough strength to conquer Egypt.
The situation changed when, in 1221, new detachments of knights from southern Germany arrived in Damietta. At the insistence of Pelagius, al-Kamil's peace proposals were again rejected, and the crusaders attacked the Muslim positions at Mansura, south of Damietta. His brothers from Syria came to the aid of al-Kamil, so that the Muslim army was not inferior in number to the crusaders. In mid-July, the Nile began to flood, and the crusaders’ camp was flooded, while the Muslims had prepared in advance for the rampant elements and were not harmed, and then cut off the path of retreat for Pelagius’s army.
The crusaders asked for peace. At this time, the Egyptian Sultan was most afraid of the Mongols, who had already appeared in Iraq, and chose not to tempt his luck in the fight against the knights. Under the terms of the truce, the crusaders left Damietta and sailed to Europe.
Sixth Crusade (briefly)
He led the Sixth Crusade in 1228–1229. German Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Before the start of the campaign, the emperor himself was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, who called him not a crusader, but a pirate who was going to “steal the kingdom in the Holy Land.” Frederick was married to the daughter of the King of Jerusalem and was about to become ruler of Jerusalem. The ban on the campaign did not in any way affect the crusaders, who followed the emperor in the hope of booty.
1228, summer - Frederick landed in Syria. There he was able to persuade al-Kamil, who was at war with his Syrian emirs, to return Jerusalem and other territories of the kingdom to him in exchange for help against his enemies - both Muslims and Christians. The corresponding agreement was concluded in Jaffa in February 1229. On March 18, the crusaders entered Jerusalem without a fight.
Then the emperor returned to Italy, defeated the pope's army sent against him and forced Gregory, under the terms of the Peace of Saint-Germain of 1230, to lift his excommunication and recognize the agreement with the Sultan. Jerusalem, thus, passed to the crusaders only due to the threat that their army created to al-Kamil, and even thanks to the diplomatic skill of Frederick.
Seventh Crusade
The Seventh Crusade took place in the fall of 1239. Frederick II refused to provide the territory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for the crusader army led by Duke Richard of Cornwall. The Crusaders landed in Syria and, at the insistence of the Templars, entered into an alliance with the emir of Damascus to fight the Sultan of Egypt, but together with the Syrians they were defeated in November 1239 in the Battle of Ascalon. Thus, the seventh campaign ended in vain.
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade took place in 1248–1254. His goal again was the reconquest of Jerusalem, captured in September 1244 by Sultan al-Salih Eyyub Najm ad-Din, who was helped by 10 thousand Khorezmian cavalry. Almost the entire Christian population of the city was slaughtered. This time, the leading role in the crusade was played by the King of France, Louis IX, and the total number of crusaders was determined at 15–25 thousand people, of which 3 thousand were knights.
At the beginning of June 1249, the crusaders landed in Egypt and captured Damietta. At the beginning of February 1250, the Mansura fortress fell. But there the crusaders themselves were besieged by the army of Sultan Muazzam Turan Shah. The Egyptians sank the Crusader fleet. Louis' army, suffering from hunger, left Mansura, but few reached Damietta. Most were destroyed or captured. The king of France was among the prisoners.
Epidemics of malaria, dysentery and scurvy spread among the captives, and few of them survived. Louis was released from captivity in May 1250 for a huge ransom of 800,000 bezants, or 200,000 livres. At the same time, the king was demanded that the crusaders leave Damietta. The remnants of “Christ’s army” went to Accra. Soon, in the same 1250, Turan Shah was killed, and the Mamluks, hired soldiers in the service of the Sultan, came to power. Muiz Aybek became the first Mamluk sultan. With him active fighting against the Crusaders practically ceased. Louis remained in Palestine for another 4 years, but without receiving reinforcements from Europe, he returned to France in April 1254.
Ninth Crusade
The ninth and last crusade took place in 1270. It was caused by the successes of the Mamluk Sultan Baybars. The Egyptians defeated the Mongol troops in the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. 1265 - Baybars captured the crusader fortresses of Caesarea and Arsuf, and in 1268 Jaffa and Antioch. The crusade was again led by Louis IX the Saint, and only French knights took part in it. This time the target of the crusaders was Tunisia.
The size of the Crusader army did not exceed 10,000 people. By that time, the knights no longer sought far to the East, as they easily found work in Europe, constantly shaken by feudal strife. The proximity of the Tunisian coast to Sardinia, where the crusaders gathered, and Louis’s desire to have a base for attacking Egypt from land played a role. He hoped that Tunisia would be easy to capture, since there were no large forces of Egyptian troops there.
The landing in July 1270 was successful, but soon a plague epidemic broke out among the crusaders, from which Louis himself died on August 25. His brother Charles I, King of the Two Sicilies, arrived in Tunisia with fresh forces, thereby saving the crusader army from collapse. On November 1, he signed an agreement under which the Tunisian emir resumed the full payment of tribute to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After this, the crusaders left Tunisia. After the failure of the Ninth Campaign, the days of the crusaders in Palestine were numbered.
1285 - Mamluk Sultan Kilawun of Egypt captured the fortresses of Marabou, Laodicea and Tripoli in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Accra remained the last stronghold of Christians in Syria. 1289 - a truce was concluded between Kilawun and King Henry II of Cyprus and Jerusalem, but it was soon broken by Henry’s troops, who invaded the border areas of the Mamluk state. In response, the Sultan declared war on the crusaders.
The Accra garrison, reinforced from Europe, numbered 20,000 men. But there was no unity in the ranks of Christians. In the fall of 1290, Kilawun set out on a campaign, but soon fell ill and died. The army was led by his son Almelik Azsharaf. In March 1291, the Muslims approached the walls of Accra. They had 92 siege engines. Truce negotiations proposed by the city's defenders were unsuccessful. On May 5, the Sultan's army began the assault. The day before, King Henry arrived in Accra with a small army, but on the night of May 15-16 he returned to Cyprus, and about 3,000 defenders of the city joined his detachment.
The remaining garrison numbered 12–13,000 men. They fought off enemy attacks until May 18, when the Muslims were able to smash the gates, dismantle the gaps in the walls filled up by the defenders and burst into the streets of Accra. The Egyptians killed Christian men and took women and children captive. Some of the defenders were able to make their way to the harbor, where they boarded ships and went to Cyprus. But a storm arose at sea, and many ships sank.
Several thousand of the crusaders who remained on the shore took refuge in the Templar castle, which the Sultan’s troops were quickly able to capture by storm. Some of the Christian warriors were able to break through to the sea and board ships, the rest were exterminated by the Egyptians. Accra was burned and razed to the ground. This was retribution for the murder of the Egyptian garrison of Accra, which was committed by the King of England, Richard the Lionheart. After the fall of Accra, Christians abandoned several small towns in Syria that were under their control. This was the inglorious end of the Crusades.
Who did not fulfill the vow to go to the liberation of the Holy Land, given by him at his coronation in Aachen (1215) and postponed going there from year to year. However, Frederick accepted the title of King of Jerusalem (although the actual king, John, was his father-in-law) and immediately sent Bishop Amalieri to Palestine to take the oath from the Jerusalem barons.
In 1227, a huge mass of crusaders (about 60 thousand people from England alone) gathered in the south of Italy, in Apulia, to set out on the Sixth Crusade. The crusaders were waiting only for the emperor. A gathering of such a large number of people for the most part unaccustomed to the hot climate, led to the terrible development of the plague, from which many died, while others fled home. As a result, Frederick, arriving in Brindisi in August 1227, found the crusader army already significantly weakened. The crusaders were immediately put on ships and sailed, and the emperor set off after them on September 8, but after 6 days he returned to the harbor of Brindisi. In a report immediately sent to the pope, Frederick explained his return by illness and contrary winds. But dad Gregory IX, extremely angry and did not believe in the reality of the emperor’s illness, on November 17, 1227, publicly excommunicated him from the church.
The Emperor, however, paid very little attention to this excommunication. He did not abandon his intention to go to the Holy Land, especially since the then political situation in the East was very favorable to the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher. The sons of Sultan Melik-Adil, who had recently united in view of the danger threatening Egypt, now began to quarrel with each other again. One of them, the Egyptian Sultan Melik-Kamil, even turned to Frederick, asking him for help against his brothers and promising Jerusalem for this. Most of the former crusaders had already dispersed. Frederick II had to look for new ones, and Gregory IX resisted this in every possible way, clearly proving that he put his personal interests above the holy cause of liberating the Holy Sepulcher. As a result, Frederick, with all his energy, could gather a very small number of crusaders, with whom he sailed on the Sixth Crusade on 40 galleys in August 1228 from Brindisi.
On September 7, 1228, Frederick arrived at the harbor of Acre and was solemnly greeted by the patriarch and the people. But after him, envoys from the pope arrived in Palestine and made public the excommunication that was weighing on the emperor. Then the clergy and the Palestinian population in general began to treat the emperor with hostility. Having learned of Frederick's arrival, Sultan Melik-Kamil sent envoys to him with rich gifts and himself headed with an army to Palestine, with the goal of capturing Damascus, whose ruler had just died. The emperor immediately entered into negotiations with Kamil about the concession of Jerusalem to the Christians. But the negotiations were not as successful as one might have expected: Kamil, apparently, was afraid of the possibility of too close interference by the German emperor in the affairs of the East.
Frederick II and Sultan Kamil. Miniature from the 14th century
Then Frederick, wanting to hide the protracted negotiations (this could compromise him in the eyes of Christians), approved the crusaders’ intention to strengthen the cities that were in their hands, as well as to capture the city of Jaffa (Joppa), which was very important as the port closest to Jerusalem. The capture of Jaffa was all the more part of the emperor's plans because the possession of this city brought him closer to the Egyptian Sultan, with whom he was negotiating. But, but because of the excommunication that weighed heavily on Frederick, the Jerusalem knights ( Templars And johannites) agreed to go with the emperor only on the condition that all orders would come not in the name of Frederick, but in the name of God and the holy church. Since the emperor did not agree to this, he had to move to Jaffa with only 10 thousand infantry (a force that was unsatisfactory both in number and composition: the lack of cavalry with an enemy rich in it). To the credit of the knights, the consciousness of duty and the importance of the matter overpowered their desire to serve the interests of the pope: they followed Frederick at some distance, so that if necessary they could always support him. Soon the emperor, not wanting to risk a division of forces, gave in to the demands of the knights.
On November 15, 1228, the crusaders occupied Jaffa and began to fortify this city. When setting out for Jaffa, the participants of the Sixth Crusade took with them food only for the duration of the march to it. They hoped to transport the rest of the supplies later by sea to the captured city. This was extremely careless: they might not have taken Jaffa, then there would not have been enough food for the return journey; In addition, the sea, depending on the weather, is an extremely incorrect line of communication. Indeed, a strong storm delayed the fleet carrying food at sea, as a result of which the crusaders of the Sixth Campaign began to endure extreme poverty, attributing their hardships to the decision to follow the excommunicated emperor. Many even thought of leaving the ranks of the army, but fortunately the wind soon died down, and the expected transport to Jaffa arrived.
Meanwhile, negotiations with the Sultan continued. Both sides wanted peace: the emperor - because of the hostility of Palestinian Christians towards him (there was even a conspiracy against his life) and rumors of an attack by the pope's troops on his European possessions; Kamil - in view of the threatening situation assumed by the army of the new Damascus Sultan. Therefore, on February 18, 1229, a truce was concluded for 10 years, according to which Christians received Jerusalem and other holy places. This agreement, despite the fact that it achieved the goal of the Sixth Crusade without bloodshed, outraged everyone, and especially the Patriarch of Jerusalem, without whose knowledge it took place. The Patriarch banned worship in Jerusalem during the emperor's stay in it, and this further increased the discord between Christians.
Kingdom of Jerusalem (designated yellow) after the treaty of 1229
Meanwhile, the unity of the latter was very necessary. The Damascus Sultan David did not recognize the concessions of Jerusalem, and it was important to take advantage of the discord between the Saracens in order to finally strengthen the Holy Land. Despite the non-recognition of the treaty, the emperor entered Jerusalem on March 17, 1229, where, in view of the patriarch’s refusal, he assumed the Jerusalem crown. The increased hostility of Palestinian Christians towards Frederick forced him to return to Jaffa two days later, but here too he was met with discontent. The embittered emperor began to brutally persecute the clergy who were hostile to him. Soon, news from Europe about the pope's attack on Frederick's possessions forced him to go home on May 1, 1229. When leaving, he did not take measures to strengthen the holy places for Christians. This ended the Sixth Crusade. The departure of Frederick, who enjoyed great influence on the Saracens thanks to his good relations with Sultan Kamil, noticeably weakened the position of the Christian colony in the Holy Land, which was also worsened by constant discord between knightly orders and imperial viceroy.
The Sixth Crusade, remarkable for the absence of military clashes between the warring parties, was completely invisible in military terms. This approach is much more interesting from the side of politics: it showed its significance in war and the importance personal relationships between the main leaders (bad relations between the emperor and the pope harmed the matter; good relations between the emperor and the sultan, on the contrary, helped). Even more important is that the Sixth Crusade described in relief the relations between the papal and imperial authorities. The first was clearly inclined to decline: even excommunication did not deprive the emperor of the opportunity to go to the East. Another obvious conclusion from the events of this campaign was the cooling of Europe towards the idea of the Crusades.
