The Crusades were a series of religious wars
sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval
period. The most commonly known Crusades are
the campaigns in the Eastern Mediterranean
aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim
rule, but the term "Crusades" is also applied
to other church-sanctioned campaigns. These
were fought for a variety of reasons including
the suppression of paganism and heresy, the
resolution of conflict among rival Roman Catholic
groups, or for political and territorial advantage.
At the time of the early Crusades the word
did not exist, only becoming the leading descriptive
term around 1760.
In 1095, Pope Urban II called for the First
Crusade in a sermon at the Council of Clermont.
He encouraged military support for the Byzantine
Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, who needed
reinforcements for his conflict with westward
migrating Turks colonizing Anatolia. One of
Urban's aims was to guarantee pilgrims access
to the Eastern Mediterranean holy sites that
were under Muslim control but scholars disagree
as to whether this was the primary motive
for Urban or those who heeded his call. Urban's
strategy may have been to unite the Eastern
and Western branches of Christendom, which
had been divided since the East–West Schism
of 1054 and to establish himself as head of
the unified Church. The initial success of
the Crusade established the first four Crusader
states in the Eastern Mediterranean: the County
of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the
Kingdom of Jerusalem and the County of Tripoli.
The enthusiastic response to Urban's preaching
from all classes in Western Europe established
a precedent for other Crusades. Volunteers
became Crusaders by taking a public vow and
receiving plenary indulgences from the Church.
Some were hoping for a mass ascension into
heaven at Jerusalem or God's forgiveness for
all their sins. Others participated to satisfy
feudal obligations, obtain glory and honour
or to seek economic and political gain.
The two-century attempt to recover the Holy
Land ended in failure. Following the First
Crusade there were six major Crusades and
numerous less significant ones. After the
last Catholic outposts fell in 1291, there
were no more Crusades; but the gains were
longer lasting in Northern and Western Europe.
The Wendish Crusade and those of the Archbishop
of Bremen brought all the North-East Baltic
and the tribes of Mecklenburg and Lusatia
under Catholic control in the late 12th century.
In the early 13th century the Teutonic Order
created a Crusader state in Prussia and the
French monarchy used the Albigensian Crusade
to extend the kingdom to the Mediterranean
Sea. The rise of the Ottoman Empire in the
late 14th century prompted a Catholic response
which led to further defeats at Nicopolis
in 1396 and Varna in 1444. Catholic Europe
was in chaos and the final pivot of Christian–Islamic
relations was marked by two seismic events:
the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans
in 1453 and a final conclusive victory for
the Spanish over the Moors with the conquest
of Granada in 1492. The idea of Crusading
continued, not least in the form of the Knights
Hospitaller, until the end of the 18th-century
but the focus of Western European interest
moved to the New World.
Modern historians hold widely varying opinions
of the Crusaders. To some, their conduct was
incongruous with the stated aims and implied
moral authority of the papacy, as evidenced
by the fact that on occasion the Pope excommunicated
Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they
travelled, and their leaders generally retained
control of captured territory instead of returning
it to the Byzantines. During the People's
Crusade, thousands of Jews were murdered in
what is now called the Rhineland massacres.
Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth
Crusade. However, the Crusades had a profound
impact on Western civilisation: Italian city-states
gained considerable concessions in return
for assisting the Crusaders and established
colonies which allowed trade with the eastern
markets even in the Ottoman period, allowing
Genoa and Venice to flourish; they consolidated
the collective identity of the Latin Church
under papal leadership; and they constituted
a wellspring for accounts of heroism, chivalry,
and piety that galvanised medieval romance,
philosophy, and literature. The Crusades also
reinforced a connection between Western Christendom,
feudalism, and militarism.
== Terminology ==
The term crusade used in modern historiography
at first referred to the wars in the Holy
Land beginning in 1095, but the range of events
to which the term has been applied has been
greatly extended, so that its use can create
a misleading impression of coherence, particularly
regarding the early Crusades. The term used
for the campaign of the First Crusade was
iter "journey" or peregrinatio "pilgrimage".
The terminology of crusading remained largely
indistinguishable from that of pilgrimage
during the 12th century, reflecting the reality
of the first century of crusading where not
all armed pilgrims fought, and not all who
fought had taken the cross. It was not until
the late 12th to early 13th centuries that
a more specific "language of crusading" emerged.
Pope Innocent III used the term negotium crucis
"affair of the cross" for the Eastern Mediterranean
crusade, but was reluctant to apply crusading
terminology to the Albigensian crusade. The
Song of the Albigensian Crusade from about
1213 contains the first recorded vernacular
use of the Occitan crozada. This term was
later adopted into French as croisade and
in English as crusade. The modern spelling
crusade dates to c. 1760. Sinibaldo Fieschi
(the future pope Innocent IV) used the terms
crux transmarina for crusades in Outremer
against Muslims and crux cismarina for crusades
in Europe against other enemies of the church.The
Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally
counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered
from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the
Ninth Crusade of 1271–72. This convention
is used by Charles Mills in his History of
the Crusades for the Recovery and Possession
of the Holy Land (1820) and is often retained
for convenience even though it is somewhat
arbitrary. The Fifth and Sixth Crusades led
by Frederick II may be considered a single
campaign, as can the Eighth Crusade and Ninth
Crusade led by Louis IX.In modern historiography,
the term "Crusade" may differ in usage depending
on the author. Giles Constable describes four
different perspectives among scholars:
Traditionalists restrict their definition
of the Crusades to the Christian campaigns
in the Holy Land, "either to assist the Christians
there or to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy
Sepulcher", during 1095–1291.
Pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign
explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope.
This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic
Church (including medieval contemporaries
such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) that every
military campaign given Papal sanction is
equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of
its cause, justification, or geographic location.
This broad definition includes attacks on
paganism and heresy such as the Albigensian
Crusade, the Northern Crusades, and the Hussite
Wars, and wars for political or territorial
advantage such as the Aragonese Crusade in
Sicily, a Crusade declared by Pope Innocent
III against Markward of Anweiler in 1202,
one against the Stedingers, several (declared
by different popes) against Emperor Frederick
II and his sons, two Crusades against opponents
of King Henry III of England, and the Christian
re-conquest of Iberia.
Generalists see Crusades as any and all holy
wars connected with the Latin Church and fought
in defence of the faith.
Popularists limit the Crusades to only those
that were characterised by popular groundswells
of religious fervour – that is, only the
First Crusade and perhaps the People's Crusade.The
Arabic loanword Muslim is first attested in
English in the 17th century. Before this the
common term for Muslim was Saracen, in origin
referring to the pre-Islamic, non-Arab inhabitants
of the desert areas around the Roman province
of Arabia. The term evolved to include Arab
tribes, and by the 12th century it was an
ethnic and religious marker in Medieval Latin
literature corresponding to modern "Muslim".Frank
and Latin were used during the Crusades for
Western Europeans, distinguishing them from
Greeks. Medieval Muslim historiographers such
as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades
as the "Frankish Wars" (ḥurūb al-faranǧa
حروب الفرنجة‎).
The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt
ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية‎, lit.
"campaigns of the cross", is a loan translation
of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography.
== Eastern Mediterranean ==
=== 
Background ===
The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam
in the Arabian Peninsula and had united much
of Arabia into a single polity by his death
in 632. Arab power expanded rapidly in the
7th and 8th centuries largely by military
conquest. This influence spread to the north-west
Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia,
the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy,
the Iberian peninsula and the Pyrenees. Jerusalem
was taken from the Byzantine Empire after
a siege in 637.Tolerance, trade, and political
relationships between the Arabs and the Christian
kingdoms waxed and waned. Pilgrimages by Catholics
to sacred sites were permitted, Christian
residents in Muslim territories were given
Dhimmi status, legal rights, and legal protection.
These Christians were allowed to maintain
churches, and marriages between faiths were
not uncommon. The various cultures and creeds
coexisted and competed, but the status quo
was disrupted by the western migration of
the Turkish tribes. The 1071 victory over
the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert
was once considered a pivotal event by historians
but is now regarded as only one further step
in the expansion of the Great Seljuk Empire
into Anatolia. Catholic pilgrims and merchants
reported that the frontier conditions between
the Syrian ports and Jerusalem became increasingly
inhospitable.From the 8th century, the Christians
entered to recapture the Iberian peninsula
from the Muslims, known as the Reconquista.
The campaign reached a turning point in 1085
when Alfonso VI of León and Castile captured
Toledo. In the same period, the Muslim Emirate
of Sicily was conquered by Norman adventurer
Roger de Hauteville in 1091.Europe was immersed
in power struggles on many different fronts.
The Christian Church split along Latin Orthodox
lines in 1054 after centuries of disagreement
leading to a permanent division called the
East–West Schism. Following the Gregorian
Reform, an assertive, reformist papacy attempted
to increase its power and influence over the
laity. Beginning around 1075 and continuing
during the First Crusade, the Investiture
Controversy was a power struggle between Church
and state in medieval Europe over whether
the Catholic Church or the Holy Roman Empire
held the right to appoint church officials
and other clerics. Antipope Clement III was
an alternative pope for most of this period,
and Pope Urban spent much of his early pontificate
in exile from Rome. The result was intense
piety and an increased interest in religious
affairs amongst the general population in
Catholic Europe and religious propaganda by
the Papacy advocating a just war to reclaim
Palestine from the Muslims. Participation
in a crusade was seen as a form of penance
that could counterbalance sin.
=== First Crusade (1096–1099) and aftermath
===
In 1095, at the Council of Piacenza, Byzantine
Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military
aid from Pope Urban II, probably in the form
of a small body of mercenary reinforcements
he could direct and control. Alexios had restored
the Empire's finances and authority, but he
still faced a number of foreign enemies, particularly
the migrating Turks who had colonised the
sparsely populated areas of Anatolia. At the
Council of Clermont later that year, Urban
raised the issue again and preached for a
Crusade. Many historians consider that Urban
also hoped that aiding the Eastern Church
would lead to its reunion with the Western
under his leadership.
Almost immediately Peter the Hermit led thousands
of mostly poor Christians out of Europe in
what became known as the People's Crusade.
He claimed he had a letter from heaven instructing
Christians to prepare for the imminent apocalypse
by seizing Jerusalem The motivations of this
Crusade included a "messianism of the poor"
inspired by an expected mass ascension into
heaven at Jerusalem. Germany witnessed the
first incidents of major violent European
antisemitism when these Crusaders massacred
Jewish communities in what became known as
the Rhineland massacres. In Speyer, Worms,
Mainz, and Cologne the range of anti-Jewish
activity was broad, extending from limited,
spontaneous violence to full-scale military
attacks. The Crusaders journeyed, despite
advice from Alexios' to wait for the nobles,
to Nicaea. Only 3000 survived an ambush by
the Turks at the Civetot.Both Philip I of
France and Emperor Henry IV were in conflict
with Urban and declined to participate in
the official crusade. However, members of
the high aristocracy from France, western
Germany, the Low countries, and Italy were
drawn to the venture, commanding their own
military contingents in loose, fluid arrangements
based on bonds of lordship, family, ethnicity,
and language. Foremost amongst these was the
elder statesman, Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse.
He was rivalled by the relatively poor but
martial Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew
Tancred from the Norman community of southern
Italy. They were joined by Godfrey of Bouillon
and his brother Baldwin I of Jerusalem in
leading a loose conglomerate from Lorraine,
Lotharingia, and Germany. These five princes
were pivotal to the campaign that was also
joined by a Northern French army led by Robert
Curthose, Stephen, Count of Blois, and Robert
II, Count of Flanders. The armies, which may
have contained as many as 100,000 people,
including non-combatants, travelled eastward
by land to Byzantium where they were cautiously
welcomed by the Emperor. Alexios persuaded
many of the princes to pledge allegiance to
him and that their first objective should
be Nicaea, which Kilij Arslan I had declared
the capital of the Sultanate of Rum. Having
already destroyed the earlier People's Crusade,
the over-confident Sultan left the city to
resolve a territorial dispute, enabling its
capture in 1097 after a Crusader siege and
a Byzantine naval assault. This marked a high
point in Latin and Greek co-operation and
also the start of Crusader attempts to take
advantage of political and religious disunity
in the Muslim world: Crusader envoys were
sent to Egypt seeking an alliance.The Crusades'
first experience with the Turkish tactic of
lightly armoured mounted archers occurred
when an advanced party led by Bohemond and
Duke Robert was ambushed at Dorylaeum. The
Normans resisted for hours before the arrival
of the main army caused a Turkish withdrawal.
After this, the nomadic Seljuks avoided the
Crusade. The factionalism amongst the Turks
that followed the death of Malik Shah meant
they did not present a united opposition.
Instead, Aleppo and Damascus had competing
rulers. The three-month march to Antioch was
arduous, with numbers reduced by starvation,
thirst, and disease, combined with the decision
of Baldwin to leave with 100 knights in order
to carve out his own territory in Edessa.
The Crusaders embarked on an eight-month siege
of Antioch but lacked the resources to fully
invest the city; similarly, the residents
lacked the resources to repel the invaders.
Eventually, Bohemond persuaded a tower guard
in the city to open a gate and the Crusaders
entered, massacring the Muslim and many Christian
Greeks, Syrian and Armenian inhabitants.Sunni
Islam now recognised the threat. The sultan
of Baghdad raised a force to recapture the
city led by the Iraqi general Kerbogha. The
Byzantines provided no assistance to the Crusaders'
defence of the city because the deserting
Stephen of Blois told them the cause was lost.
Losing numbers through desertion and starvation
in the besieged city, the Crusaders attempted
to negotiate surrender, but this was rejected
by Kerbogha, who wanted to destroy them permanently.
Morale within the city was boosted when Peter
Bartholomew claimed to have discovered the
Holy Lance. Bohemond recognised that the only
option now was for open combat, and he launched
a counterattack against the besiegers. Despite
superior numbers, Kerbogha's army, which was
divided into factions and surprised by the
commitment and dedication of the Franks, retreated
and abandoned the siege. The Crusaders then
delayed for months while they argued over
who would have the captured territory. This
ended only when news arrived that the Fatimid
Egyptians had taken Jerusalem from the Turks,
and it became imperative to attack before
the Egyptians could consolidate their position.
Bohemond remained in Antioch, retaining the
city despite his pledge that this would return
to Byzantine control, while Raymond led the
remaining Crusader army rapidly south along
the coast to Jerusalem.An initial attack on
the city failed and, due to the Crusaders'
lack of resources, the siege became a stalemate.
However, the arrival of craftsman and supplies
transported by the Genoese to Jaffa tilted
the balance in their favour. Crusaders constructed
two large siege engines; the one commanded
by Godfrey breached the walls on 15 July 1099.
For two days the Crusaders massacred the inhabitants
and pillaged the city. Historians now believe
the accounts of the numbers killed have been
exaggerated, but this narrative of massacre
did much to cement the Crusaders' reputation
for barbarism. Godfrey further secured the
Frankish position by surprising the Egyptian
relief force commanded by the vizier of the
Fatimid Caliph, Al-Afdal Shahanshah, at Ascalon.
This relief force retreated to Egypt, with
the vizier fleeing by ship. At this point
most of the Crusaders considered their pilgrimage
complete and returned to Europe, leaving behind
Godfrey with a mere 300 knights and 2,000
infantry to defend Palestine. Of the other
princes, only Tancred remained with the ambition
to gain his own princedom.On a popular level,
the First Crusade unleashed a wave of impassioned,
pious Catholic fury – expressed in the massacres
of Jews that accompanied the Crusades and
the violent treatment of the "schismatic"
Orthodox Christians of the east which occurred
at Antioch. The Islamic world seems to have
barely registered the Crusade; certainly there
is limited written evidence before 1130. This
may be in part due to a reluctance to relate
Muslim failure, but it is more likely to be
the result of cultural misunderstanding. Al-Afdal
and the Muslim world mistook the Crusaders
for the latest in a long line of Byzantine
mercenaries rather than religiously motivated
warriors intent on conquest and settlement.
In any case, the Muslim world was divided
between the Sunnis of Syria and Iraq and the
Shia Fatimids of Egypt. Even the Turks were
divided, with rival rulers in Damascus and
Aleppo. In Baghdad the Seljuk sultan vied
with an Abbasid caliph in a Mesopotamian struggle.
This gave the Franks a crucial opportunity
to consolidate without any pan-Islamic counter-attack.
=== 12th century ===
Under the papacies of successive Popes smaller
groups of Crusaders continued to travel to
the Eastern Mediterranean to fight the Muslims
and aid the Crusader States in the early 12th
century. The third decade saw campaigns by
Fulk V of Anjou, the Venetians, and Conrad
III of Germany and the foundation of the Knights
Templar. The period also saw the innovation
of granting indulgences to those who opposed
papal enemies, and this marked the beginning
of politically motivated Crusades. The loss
of Aleppo in 1128 and Edessa (Urfa) in 1144
to Imad ad-Din Zengi, governor of Mosul, led
to preaching for what subsequently became
known as the Second Crusade. King Louis VII
and Conrad III led armies from France and
Germany to Jerusalem and Damascus without
winning any major victories. As in the First
Crusade, the preaching led to attacks on Jews
including massacres in the Rhineland, Cologne,
Mainz, Worms and Speyer amid claims that the
Jews were not contributing financially to
the rescue of the Holy Land. Bernard of Clairvaux,
who had encouraged the Second Crusade in his
preaching, was so perturbed by the violence
that he journeyed from Flanders to Germany
to deal with the problem.Christian princes
continued to make gains in the Iberian peninsula:
the King of Portugal, Afonso I, captured Lisbon
and Raymond Berenguer IV of Barcelona conquered
the city of Tortosa. In northern Europe the
Saxons and Danes fought against tribes of
Polabian Slavs known as Wends in the Wendish
Crusade, although no official papal bulls
were issued authorising new Crusades. The
Wends were finally defeated in 1162.Egypt
was ruled by the Shi'ite Fatimid dynasty from
969, independent from the Sunni Abbasid rulers
in Baghdad and with a rival Shi'ite caliph
– considered the successor to the Muslim
prophet Mohammad. The caliph's chief administrator,
called the vizier, was chiefly responsible
for governance. From 1121 the system fell
into murderous political intrigue and Egypt
declined from its previous affluent state.
This encouraged Baldwin III of Jerusalem to
plan an invasion that was only halted by the
payment by Egypt of a tribute of 160,000 gold
dinars. In 1163 the deposed vizier, Shawar,
visited Zengi's son and successor, Nur ad-Din,
atabeg of Aleppo, in Damascus seeking political
and military support. Some historians have
considered Nur ad-Din's support as a visionary
attempt to surround the Crusaders, but in
practice he prevaricated before responding
only when it became clear that the Crusaders
might gain an unassailable foothold on the
Nile. Nur al-Din sent his Kurdish general,
Shirkuh, who stormed Egypt and restored Shawar.
However, Shawar asserted his independence
and allied with Baldwin's brother and successor
Amalric of Jerusalem. When Amalric broke the
alliance in a ferocious attack, Shawar again
requested military support from Syria, and
Shirkuh was sent by Nur ad-Din for a second
time. Amalric retreated, but the victorious
Shirkuh had Shawar executed and was appointed
vizier. Barely two months later he died, to
be succeeded by his nephew, Yusuf ibn Ayyub,
who has become known by his honorific 'Salah
al-Din', 'the goodness of faith', which in
turn has become westernised as Saladin. Nur
al-Din died in 1174. He was the first Muslim
to unite Aleppo and Damascus in the Crusade
era. Some Islamic contemporaries promoted
the idea that there was a natural Islamic
resurgence under Zengi, through Nur al-Din
to Saladin although this was not as straightforward
and simple as it appears. Saladin imprisoned
all the caliph's heirs, preventing them from
having children, as opposed to having them
all killed, which would have been normal practice,
to extinguish the bloodline. Assuming control
after the death of his overlord, Nur al-Din,
Saladin had the strategic choice of establishing
Egypt as an autonomous power or attempting
to become the pre-eminent Muslim in the Eastern
Mediterranean – he chose the latter.
As Nur al-Din's territories became fragmented
after his death, Saladin legitimised his ascent
by positioning himself as a defender of Sunni
Islam subservient to both the Caliph of Baghdad
and Nur al-Din's son and successor, As-Salih
Ismail al-Malik. In the early years of his
ascendency, he seized Damascus and much of
Syria, but not Aleppo. After building a defensive
force to resist a planned attack by the Kingdom
of Jerusalem that never materialised, his
first contest with the Latin Christians was
not a success. His overconfidence and tactical
errors led to defeat at the Battle of Montgisard.
Despite this setback, Saladin established
a domain stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates
through a decade of politics, coercion, and
low-level military action. After a life-threatening
illness early in 1186, he determined to make
good on his propaganda as the champion of
Islam, embarking on heightened campaigning
against the Latin Christians. King Guy responded
by raising the largest army that Jerusalem
had ever put in the field. However, Saladin
lured the force into inhospitable terrain
without water supplies, surrounded the Latins
with a superior force, and routed them at
the Battle of Hattin. Saladin offered the
Christians the option of remaining in peace
under Islamic rule or taking advantage of
40 days' grace to leave. As a result, much
of Palestine quickly fell to Saladin including,
after a short five-day siege, Jerusalem. According
to Benedict of Peterborough, Pope Urban III
died of deep sadness on 19 October 1187 on
hearing of the defeat. His successor as Pope,
Gregory VIII issued a papal bull titled Audita
tremendi that proposed a further Crusade later
named the Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem.
On 28 August 1189 King Guy of Jerusalem besieged
the strategic city of Acre, only to be in
turn besieged by Saladin. Both armies could
be supplied by sea so a long stalemate commenced.
Such were the deprivations of the Crusaders
that at times they are thought to have resorted
to cannibalism.The journey to the Eastern
Mediterranean was inevitably long and eventful.
Travelling overland, Frederick I, Holy Roman
Emperor, drowned in the Saleph River, and
few of his men reached the Eastern Mediterranean.
Travelling by sea, Richard the Lionheart,
King of England conquered Cyprus in 1191 in
response to his sister and fiancée, who were
travelling separately, being taken captive
by the island's ruler, Isaac Komnenos. Philip
II of France was the first king to arrive
at the siege of Acre; Richard arrived on 8
June 1191. The arrival of the French and Angevin
forces turned the tide in the conflict, and
the Muslim garrison of Acre finally surrendered
on 12 July. Philip considered his vow fulfilled
and returned to France to deal with domestic
matters, leaving most of his forces behind.
But Richard travelled south along the Mediterranean
coast, defeated the Muslims near Arsuf, and
recaptured the port city of Jaffa. He twice
advanced to within a day's march of Jerusalem
before judging that he lacked the resources
to successfully capture the city, or defend
it in the unlikely event of a successful assault,
while Saladin had a mustered army. This marked
the end of Richard's crusading career and
was a calamitous blow to Frankish morale.
A three-year truce was negotiated that allowed
Catholics unfettered access to Jerusalem.
Politics in England and illness forced Richard's
departure, never to return, and Saladin died
in March 1193. Emperor Henry VI initiated
the German Crusade to fulfil the promises
made by his father, Frederick, to undertake
a Crusade to the Holy Land. Led by Conrad,
Archbishop of Mainz, the army captured the
cities of Sidon and Beirut. However, in 1197
Henry died and most of the Crusaders returned
to Germany to protect their holdings and take
part in the election of his successor as Emperor.
=== 13th century ===
Pope Innocent III also began preaching what
became the Fourth Crusade in 1200, primarily
in France but also in England and Germany.
After gathering in Venice, the Crusade was
used by Doge Enrico Dandolo and Philip of
Swabia to further their secular ambitions.
Dandolo aimed to expand Venice's power in
the Eastern Mediterranean, and Philip intended
to restore his exiled nephew, Alexios IV Angelos,
along with Angelos's father, Isaac II Angelos,
to the throne of Byzantium. This would require
overthrowing the present ruler, Alexios III
Angelos, the uncle of Alexios IV. When an
insufficient number of knights arrived in
Venice, the Crusaders were unable to pay the
Venetians for a fleet, so they agreed to divert
to Constantinople and share what could be
looted as payment. As collateral, the Crusaders
seized the Christian city of Zara; Innocent
was appalled, and promptly excommunicated
them. However, the French Crusaders eventually
had their excommunications lifted. When the
original purpose of the campaign was defeated
by the assassination of Alexios IV Angelos,
they conquered Constantinople, not once but
twice. Following upon their initial success,
the Crusaders captured Constantinople again
and this time sacked it, pillaging churches
and killing many citizens. The Fourth Crusade
never came within 1,000 miles of its objective
of Jerusalem.The 13th century saw popular
outbursts of ecstatic piety in support of
the Crusades such as that resulting in the
Children's Crusade in 1212. Large groups of
young adults and children spontaneously gathered,
believing their innocence would enable success
where their elders had failed. Few, if any
at all, journeyed to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Although little reliable evidence survives
for these events, they provide an indication
of how hearts and minds could be engaged for
the cause.
Following Innocent III's Fourth Council of
the Lateran, crusading resumed in 1217 against
Saladin's Ayyubid successors in Egypt and
Syria for what is classified as the Fifth
Crusade. Led by Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold
VI, Duke of Austria, forces drawn mainly from
Hungary, Germany, Flanders, and Frisia achieved
little. Leopold and John of Brienne besieged
and captured Damietta but an army advancing
into Egypt was compelled to surrender. Damietta
was returned and an eight-year truce agreed.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was excommunicated
for breaking a treaty obligation with the
Pope that required him to lead a crusade.
However, since his marriage to Isabella II
of Jerusalem gave him a claim to the kingdom
of Jerusalem, he finally arrived at Acre in
1228. Frederick was culturally the Christian
monarch most empathetic to the Muslim world,
having grown up in Sicily, with a Muslim bodyguard
and even a harem. His great diplomatic skills
meant that the Sixth Crusade was largely negotiation
supported by force. A peace treaty was agreed
upon, giving Latin Christians most of Jerusalem
and a strip of territory that linked the city
to Acre, while the Muslims controlled their
sacred areas. In return, an alliance was made
with Al-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt, against all
of his enemies of whatever religion. The treaty
and suspicions about Frederick's ambitions
in the region made him unpopular, and he was
forced to return to his domains when they
were attacked by Pope Gregory IX. While the
Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy were in conflict,
it often fell to secular leaders to campaign.
What is sometimes known as the Barons' Crusade
was led by Theobald I of Navarre and Richard
of Cornwall; it combined forceful diplomacy
and the playing of rival Ayyubid factions
off against each other. This brief renaissance
for Frankish Jerusalem was illusory, being
dependent on Ayyubid weakness and division
following the death of Al-Kamil.In 1244 a
band of Khwarezmian mercenaries travelling
to Egypt to serve As-Salih Ismail, Emir of
Damascus, seemingly of their own volition,
captured Jerusalem en route and defeated a
combined Christian and Syrian army at the
Battle of La Forbie. In response, Louis IX,
king of France, organised a Crusade, called
the Seventh Crusade, to attack Egypt, arriving
in 1249. It was not a success. Louis was defeated
at Mansura and captured as he retreated to
Damietta. Another truce was agreed upon for
a ten-year period, and Louis was ransomed.
Louis remained in Syria until 1254 to consolidate
the Crusader states. From 1265 to 1271, the
Mamluk sultan Baibars drove the Franks to
a few small coastal outposts.Late 13th-century
politics in the Eastern Mediterranean were
complex, with a number of powerful interested
parties. Baibars had three key objectives:
to prevent an alliance between the Latins
and the Mongols, to cause dissension between
the Mongols particularly between the Golden
Horde and the Persian Ilkhanate, and to maintain
access to a supply of slave recruits from
the Russian steppes. In this he developed
diplomatic ties with Manfred, King of Sicily,
supporting him against the Papacy and Louis
IX's brother Charles of Anjou. The Crusader
states were fragmented, and various powers
were competing for influence. In the War of
Saint Sabas, Venice drove the Genoese from
Acre to Tyre where they continued to trade
happily with Baibars' Egypt. Indeed, Baibars
negotiated free passage for the Genoese with
Michael VIII Palaiologos, Emperor of Nicaea,
the newly restored ruler of Constantinople.
The French, led by Charles, similarly sought
to expand their influence; Charles seized
Sicily and Byzantine territory while marrying
his daughters to the Latin claimants to Byzantium.
To create his own claim to the throne of Jerusalem,
Charles executed one rival and purchased the
rights to the city from another. In 1270 Charles
turned his brother King Louis IX's last Crusade,
known as the Eighth Crusade, to his own advantage
by persuading Louis to attack his rebel Arab
vassals in Tunis. Louis' army was devastated
by disease, and Louis himself died at Tunis
on 25 August. Louis' fleet returned to France,
leaving only Prince Edward, the future king
of England, and a small retinue to continue
what is known as the Ninth Crusade. Edward
survived an assassination attempt organised
by Baibars, negotiated a ten-year truce, and
then returned to manage his affairs in England.
This ended the last significant crusading
effort in the Eastern Mediterranean. The 1281
election of a French pope, Martin IV, brought
the full power of the papacy into line behind
Charles. He prepared to launch a crusade against
Constantinople but, in what became known as
the Sicilian Vespers, an uprising fomented
by Michael VIII Palaiologos deprived him of
the resources of Sicily, and Peter III of
Aragon was proclaimed king of Sicily. In response,
Martin excommunicated Peter and called for
an Aragonese Crusade, which was unsuccessful.
In 1285 Charles died, having spent his life
trying to amass a Mediterranean empire; he
and Louis had viewed themselves as God's instruments
to uphold the papacy.The causes of the decline
in Crusading and the failure of the Crusader
States is multi-faceted. Historians have attempted
to explain this in terms of Muslim reunification
and Jihadi enthusiasm but Thomas Asbridge,
amongst others, considers this too simplistic.
Muslim unity was sporadic and the desire for
Jihad ephemeral. The nature of Crusades was
unsuited to the conquest and defence of the
Holy Land. Crusaders were on a personal pilgrimage
and usually returned when it was completed.
Although the philosophy of Crusading changed
over time, the Crusades continued to provide
short-lived armies without centralised leadership
led by independently minded potentates. What
the Crusader states needed were large standing
armies. Religious fervour enabled amazing
feats of military endeavour but proved difficult
to direct and control. Succession disputes
and dynastic rivalries in Europe, failed harvests
and heretical outbreaks, all contributed to
reducing Latin Europe's concerns for Jerusalem.
Ultimately, even though the fighting was also
at the edge of the Islamic world, the huge
distances made the mounting of Crusades and
the maintenance of communications insurmountably
difficult. It enabled Islam, under the charismatic
leadership of Nur al-Din and Saladin as well
as the ruthless Baibars to use the logistical
advantages from proximity to victorious effect.
The mainland Crusader states of the outremer
were finally extinguished with the fall of
Tripoli in 1289 and Acre in 1291. Many Latin
Christians were evacuated to Cyprus by boat,
were killed or enslaved.
== European campaigns ==
=== 
Northern Crusades ===
The success of the First Crusade inspired
12th-century popes such as Celestine III,
Innocent III, Honorius III, and Gregory IX
to call for military campaigns with the aim
of Christianising the more remote regions
of northern and north-eastern Europe. These
campaigns are known as the Northern Crusades.
The Wendish Crusade of 1147 saw Saxons, Danes,
and Poles attempt to forcibly convert the
tribes of Mecklenburg and Lusatia, who were
Polabian Slavs or "Wends". Celestine III called
for a Crusade in 1193, but when Bishop Berthold
of Hanover responded in 1198, he led a large
army into defeat and to his death. In response,
Innocent III issued a bull declaring a Crusade,
and Hartwig of Uthlede, Bishop of Bremen,
along with the Brothers of the Sword brought
all of the north-east Baltic under Catholic
control. Konrad of Masovia gave Chelmno to
the Teutonic Knights in 1226 as a base for
a Crusade against the local Polish princes.
The Livonian Brothers of the Sword were defeated
by the Lithuanians, so in 1237 Gregory IX
merged the remainder of the order into the
Teutonic Order as the Livonian Order. By the
middle of the century, the Teutonic Knights
completed their conquest of the Prussians
before conquering and converting the Lithuanians
in the subsequent decades. The order also
came into conflict with the Eastern Orthodox
Church of the Pskov and Novgorod Republics.
In 1240 the Orthodox Novgorod army defeated
the Catholic Swedes in the Battle of the Neva,
and, two years later, they defeated the Livonian
Order in the Battle on the Ice.
=== Albigensian Crusade ===
The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) was
a campaign against heretics that Innocent
III launched to eradicate Catharism, which
had gained a substantial following in southern
France. The Cathars were brutally suppressed
and the autonomous County of Toulouse formally
submitted to the crown of France. The county's
sole heiress Joan was engaged to Alphonse,
Count of Poitiers, a younger brother of Louis
IX of France. The marriage was childless so
that after Joan's death the county fell under
the direct control of Capetian France which
was in part one of the motivations of the
Crusaders.
=== Bosnian Crusade ===
The Bosnian Crusade was a campaign against
the independent Bosnian Church, which was
accused of Catharism (Bogomilism). However,
it was also possibly motivated by Hungarian
territorial ambitions. In 1216 a mission was
sent to convert Bosnia to Rome but failed.
In 1225 Honorius III encouraged the Hungarians
to crusade in Bosnia. This ended in failure
after the Hungarians were defeated by the
Mongols at the Battle of Mohi. From 1234 Gregory
IX encouraged further crusading, but again
the Bosniaks repelled the Hungarians.
=== Reconquista ===
In the Iberian peninsula, Crusader privileges
were given to those aiding the Templars, the
Hospitallers, and the Iberian orders that
merged with the orders of Calatrava and Santiago.
The Christian kingdoms pushed the Muslim Moors
and Almohads back in frequent Papal-endorsed
Iberian Crusades from 1212 to 1265. The Emirate
of Granada held out until 1492, at which point
the Muslims and Jews were finally expelled
from the peninsula.
== Late Middle Ages and Renaissance ==
Minor Crusading efforts lingered into the
14th century, and several Crusades were launched
during the 14th and 15th centuries to counter
the expansion of the Ottoman conquest of the
Balkans. In 1309 as many as 30,000 peasants
gathered from England, north-eastern France,
and Germany proceeded as far as Avignon but
disbanded there. Peter I of Cyprus captured
and sacked Alexandria in 1365 in what became
known as the Alexandrian Crusade; his motivation
was as much commercial as religious. Louis
II led the 1390 Barbary Crusade against Muslim
pirates in North Africa; after a ten-week
siege, the Crusaders signed a ten-year truce.The
Ottomans had conquered most of the Balkans
and reduced Byzantine influence to the area
immediately surrounding Constantinople after
victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Nicopolis
was seized from the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman
in 1393 and a year later Pope Boniface IX
proclaimed a new Crusade against the Turks,
although the Western Schism had split the
papacy. This Crusade was led by Sigismund
of Luxemburg, King of Hungary; many French
nobles joined Sigismund's forces, including
the Crusade's military leader, John the Fearless
(son of the Duke of Burgundy). Sigismund advised
the Crusaders to adopt a cautious, more defensive
strategy, when they reached the Danube, instead
they besieged the city of Nicopolis. The Ottomans
defeated them in the Battle of Nicopolis on
25 September, capturing 3,000 prisoners.
The Hussite Wars, also known as the Hussite
Crusade, involved military action against
the Bohemian Reformation in the Kingdom of
Bohemia and the followers of early Czech church
reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake
in 1415. Crusades were declared five times
during that period: in 1420, 1421, 1422, 1427,
and 1431. These expeditions forced the Hussite
forces, who disagreed on many doctrinal points,
to unite to drive out the invaders. The wars
ended in 1436 with the ratification of the
compromise Compacts of Basel by the Church
and the Hussites.As the Ottomans pressed westward,
Sultan Murad II destroyed the last Papal-funded
Crusade at Varna on the Black Sea in 1444
and four years later crushed the last Hungarian
expedition. In 1453 they extinguished most
of the remains of the Byzantine Empire with
the capture of Constantinople. John Hunyadi
and Giovanni da Capistrano organised a 1456
Crusade to oppose the Ottoman Empire and lift
its Siege of Belgrade. Æneas Sylvius and
John of Capistrano preached the Crusade, the
princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the Diets
of Ratisbon and Frankfurt promised assistance,
and a league was formed between Venice, Florence,
and Milan, but nothing eventually came of
it. In April 1487 Pope Innocent VIII called
for a Crusade against the Waldensians of Savoy,
the Piedmont, and the Dauphiné in southern
France and northern Italy because they were
unorthodox and heretical. The only efforts
undertaken were in the Dauphiné, resulting
in little change. Venice was the only polity
to continue to pose a significant threat to
the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, but it
pursued the "Crusade" mostly for its commercial
interests, leading to the protracted Ottoman–Venetian
Wars, which continued, with interruptions,
until 1718. The end of the Crusading in terms
of at least nominal efforts by Catholic Europe
against Muslim incursion, came in the 16th
century, when the Franco-Imperial wars assumed
continental proportions. Francis I of France
sought allies from all quarters, including
from German Protestant princes and Muslims.
Amongst these, he entered into one of the
capitulations of the Ottoman Empire with Suleiman
the Magnificent while making common cause
with Hayreddin Barbarossa and a number of
the Sultan's North African vassals.
== Crusader states ==
After the First Crusade's capture of Jerusalem
and victory at Ascalon the majority of the
Crusaders considered their personal pilgrimage
complete and returned to Europe. Godfrey found
himself left with only 300 knights and 2,000
infantry to defend the territory won in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Of the crusader princes,
only Tancred remained with the aim of establishing
his own lordship. At this point the Franks
held Jerusalem and two great Syrian cities
- Antioch and Edessa - but not the surrounding
country. Jerusalem remained economically sterile
despite the advantages of being the centre
of administration of church and state and
benefiting from streams of pilgrims.The "Law
of Conquest" supported the seizure of land
and property by impecunious Crusaders from
the autochthonous population, enabling poor
men to become rich and part of a noble class.
Although some historians, like Jotischky,
question the model once proposed, in which
the primary motivation was understood in sociological
and economic rather than spiritual terms.That
class did not expel the native population,
but adopted strict segregation and at no point
attempted to integrate it by way of religious
conversion. In this way the Crusaders created
a colonial noble class that perpetuated itself
through an incessant flow of religious pilgrims
and settlers keen to take economic advantage.
The territorial gains followed distinct ethnic
and linguistic entities. The Principality
of Antioch, founded in 1098 and ruled by Bohemond,
became Norman in character and custom. The
Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, followed
the traditions of northern France. The County
of Tripoli, founded in 1104 (although the
city of Tripoli itself remained in Muslim
control until 1109) by Raymond de Saint-Gilles
became Provençal. The County of Edessa, founded
in 1098, differed in that although it was
ruled by the French Bouillons and Courteneys
its largely Armenian and Jacobite native nobility
was preserved. These states were the first
examples of "Europe overseas". They are generally
known by historians as Outremer, from the
French outre-mer ("overseas" in English).Largely
based in the ports of Acre and Tyre, Italian,
Provençal and Spanish communes provided a
significant characteristic of Crusader social
stratification and political organisation.
Separate from the Frankish nobles or burgesses,
the communes were autonomous political entities
closely linked to their countries of origin.
This gave the inhabitants the ability to monopolise
foreign trade and almost all banking and shipping
in the Crusader states. Every opportunity
to extend trade privileges was taken. One
example saw the Venetian Doge receiving one
third of Tyre, its territories and exemption
from all taxes, after Venice participated
in the successful 1124 siege of the city.
However, despite all efforts, the two ports
were unable to replace Alexandria and Constantinople
as the primary centres of commerce in the
region. Instead, the communes competed with
the Crown and each other to maintain economic
advantage. Power derived from the support
of the communards' native cities rather than
their number, which never reached more than
several hundred. Thus by the middle of the
13th century, the rulers of the communes were
barely required to recognise the authority
of the crusaders and divided Acre into a number
of fortified miniature republics.The Fourth
Crusade established a Latin Empire in the
east and allowed participating crusaders to
partition the Byzantine European territory.
The Latin emperor controlled one-fourth of
the Byzantine territory, Venice three-eighths
(including three-eighths of the city of Constantinople),
and the remainder was divided among the other
leaders of the Crusade. This began the period
of Greek history known as Frankokratia or
Latinokratia ("Frankish [or Latin] rule"),
when Catholic Western European nobles – primarily
from France and Italy – established states
on former Byzantine territory and ruled over
the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks. In the long
run, the sole beneficiary was Venice.
== Military orders ==
The Crusaders' mentality to imitate the customs
from their Western European homelands meant
that there were very few innovations developed
from the culture of the crusader states. Three
notable exceptions to this rule are the military
orders, warfare and fortifications. The Hospitallers
(Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint
John of Jerusalem) were founded in Jerusalem
before the First Crusade but added a martial
element to its ongoing medical functions to
become a much larger military order. In this
way the knighthood entered the previously
monastic and ecclesiastical sphere.The military
orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and
the Knights Templar provided Latin Christendom's
first professional armies in support of the
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader
states. The Poor Knights of Christ (Templars)
and their Temple of Solomon were founded around
1119 by a small band of knights who dedicated
themselves to protecting pilgrims en route
to Jerusalem. The Hospitallers and the Templars
became supranational organisations as Papal
support led to rich donations of land and
revenue across Europe. This in turn led to
a steady flow of new recruits and the wealth
to maintain multiple fortifications across
the Outremer. In time, this developed into
autonomous power in the region. After the
fall of Acre the Hospitallers first relocated
to Cyprus, then conquered and ruled Rhodes
(1309–1522) and Malta (1530–1798), and
continue in existence to the present day.
Philip IV of France probably had financial
and political reasons to oppose the Knights
Templar, which led to him exerting pressure
on Pope Clement V. The Pope responded in 1312,
with a series of papal bulls including Vox
in excelso and Ad providam that dissolved
the order on the alleged and probably false
grounds of sodomy, magic, and heresy.
== Legacy ==
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was the first experiment
in European colonialism creating a 'Europe
Overseas' or Outremer. The Arabs had come
to dominate trade in the Mediterranean after
their conquests. Before the Crusades, Fatimids
had trade relations with Italian city-states
like Amalfi and Genoa. Amalfian merchants
are attested to have lived in Cairo in 10th
century by Cairo Geniza documents and were
allowed to live in Jerusalem around 1060 by
al-Mustansir. In return for assisting the
Crusaders, Genoa, Pisa and Venice were granted
wide privileges in matter of land, trade and
jurisdiction. Amalfi however didn't participate.
The raising, transportation, and supply of
large armies led to flourishing trade between
Europe and the outremer. The Italian city
states of Genoa and Venice flourished, creating
profitable trading colonies in the Eastern
Mediterranean. The colonies allowed them to
engage in trade with eastern markets. This
trade was sustained through the middle Byzantine
and Ottoman eras, and the communities were
often assimilated and known as Levantines
or Franco-Levantines.The Crusades consolidated
the papal leadership of the Latin Church,
reinforcing the link between Western Christendom,
feudalism, and militarism and increased the
tolerance of the clergy to violence. The growth
of the system of indulgences became a catalyst
for the Protestant Reformation in the early
16th century. The Crusades also had a role
in the creation and institutionalisation of
the military and the Dominican orders as well
as the Medieval Inquisition.The behaviour
of the Crusaders appalled the Greeks and Muslims,
creating a lasting barrier between the Latin
world and both the Islamic and Orthodox religions.
It was an obstacle to the reunification of
the Christian church and created a perception
of Westerners as defeated aggressors.
Many historians argue that the interaction
between the western Christian and Islamic
cultures was a significant, ultimately positive,
factor in the development of European civilisation
and the Renaissance. The many interactions
between Europeans and the Islamic world across
the entire length of the Mediterranean Sea
led to improved perceptions of Islamic culture,
but also make it difficult for historians
to identify the specific source of various
instances of cultural cross-fertilisation.
The art and architecture of the Outremer show
clear evidence of cultural fusion but it is
difficult to track illumination of manuscripts
and castle design back to their sources. Textual
sources are simpler, and translations made
in Antioch are notable but considered secondary
in importance to the works emanating from
Muslim Spain and the hybrid culture of Sicily.
In addition, Muslim libraries contained classical
Greek and Roman texts that allowed Europe
to rediscover pre-Christian philosophy, science
and medicine.Jonathan Riley-Smith considers
that much of the popular understanding of
the Crusades derives from the novels of Walter
Scott and the French histories by Joseph François
Michaud. The Crusades provided an enormous
amount of source material, stories of heroism,
and interest that underpinned growth in medieval
literature, romance, and philosophy.Historical
parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration
from the Middle Ages have become keystones
of Islamic ideology. Secular Arab Nationalism
concentrates on the idea of Western Imperialism.
Gamal Abdel Nasser likened himself to Saladin
and imperialism to the Crusades. In his History
of the Crusades Sa'id Ashur emphasised the
similarity between the modern and medieval
situation facing Muslims and the need to study
the Crusades in depth. Sayyid Qutb declared
there was an international Crusader conspiracy.
The ideas of Jihad and a long struggle have
developed some currency.
== Historiography ==
Five major sources of information exist on
the Council of Clermont that led to the First
Crusade: the anonymous Gesta Francorum (The
Deeds of the Franks), dated about 1100–01;
Fulcher of Chartres, who attended the council;
Robert the Monk, who may have been present,
and the absent Baldric, archbishop of Dol
and Guibert de Nogent. These retrospective
accounts differ greatly. In his 1106–07
Historia Iherosolimitana, Robert the Monk
wrote that Urban asked western Roman Catholic
Christians to aid the Orthodox Byzantine Empire
because "Deus vult" ("God wills it") and promised
absolution to participants; according to other
sources, the pope promised an indulgence.
In these accounts, Urban emphasises reconquering
the Holy Land more than aiding the emperor,
and lists gruesome offences allegedly committed
by Muslims. Urban wrote to those "waiting
in Flanders" that the Turks, in addition to
ravaging the "churches of God in the eastern
regions", seized "the Holy City of Christ,
embellished by his passion and resurrection—and
blasphemy to say it—have sold her and her
churches into abominable slavery". Although
the pope did not explicitly call for the reconquest
of Jerusalem, he called for military "liberation"
of the Eastern Churches.During the 16th-century
Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Western
historians saw the Crusades through the lens
of their own religious beliefs. Protestants
saw them as a manifestation of the evils of
the papacy, and Catholics viewed them as forces
for good. 18th-century Enlightenment historians
tended to view the Middle Ages in general,
and the Crusades in particular, as the efforts
of barbarian cultures driven by fanaticism.
These scholars expressed moral outrage at
the conduct of the Crusaders and criticised
the Crusades' misdirection – that of the
Fourth in particular, which attacked a Christian
power (the Byzantine Empire) instead of Islam.
The Fourth Crusade had resulted in the sacking
of Constantinople, effectively ending any
chance of reconciling the East–West Schism
and leading to the fall of the Byzantine Empire
to the Ottomans. In The History of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, 18th-century
English historian Edward Gibbon wrote that
the Crusaders' efforts could have been more
profitably directed towards improving their
own countries.The 20th century produced three
important histories of the Crusades: one by
Steven Runciman, another by Rene Grousset,
and a multi-author work edited by Kenneth
Setton. Historians in this period often echoed
Enlightenment-era criticism: Runciman wrote
during the 1950s, "High ideals were besmirched
by cruelty and greed ... the Holy War was
nothing more than a long act of intolerance
in the name of God". According to Norman Davies,
the Crusades contradicted the Peace and Truce
of God supported by Urban and reinforced the
connection between Western Christendom, feudalism,
and militarism. The formation of military
religious orders scandalised the Orthodox
Byzantines, and Crusaders pillaged countries
they crossed on their journey east. Violating
their oath to restore land to the Byzantines,
they often kept the land for themselves. The
Fourth Crusade is widely considered controversial
in its "betrayal" of Byzantium. Similarly,
Norman Housley viewed the persecution of Jews
in the First Crusade – a pogrom in the Rhineland
and the massacre of thousands of Jews in Central
Europe – as part of the long history of
anti-Semitism in Europe.With an increasing
focus on gender studies in the early 21st
century, studies have examined the topic of
"Women in the Crusades". An essay collection
on the topic was published in 2001 under the
title Gendering the Crusades. In an essay
on "Women Warriors", Keren Caspi-Reisfeld
concludes that "the most significant role
played by women in the West was in maintaining
the status quo", in the sense of noble women
acting as regents of feudal estates while
their husbands were campaigning. The presence
of individual noble women in Crusades has
been noted, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine (who
joined her husband, Louis VII). The presence
of non-noble women in the Crusading armies,
as in medieval warfare in general, was mostly
in the role of logistic support (such as "washerwomen"),
while the occasional presence of women soldiers
was recorded by Muslim historians.The Muslim
world exhibited little interest in European
culture until the 16th century and in the
Crusades until the mid-19th century. There
was no history of the Crusades translated
into Arabic until 1865 and no published work
by a Muslim until 1899. In the late 19th century,
Arabic-speaking Syrian Christians began translating
French histories into Arabic, leading to the
replacement of the term "wars of the Ifranj"
– Franks – with al-hurub al Salabiyya
– wars of the Cross. Namik Kamel published
the first modern Saladin biography in 1872.
The Jerusalem visit in 1898 of Kaiser Wilhelm
prompted further interest, with Sayyid Ali
al-Harri producing the first Arabic history
of the Crusades. Muslim thinkers, politicians
and historians have drawn parallels between
the Crusades and modern political developments
such as the French Mandate for Syria and the
Lebanon, Mandatory Palestine, and the United
Nations mandated foundation of the state of
Israel.
== See also ==
Arab–Byzantine wars (634–1050s)
Art of the Crusades
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars (1265–1479)
Crusade cycle – Old French cycle of epic
poems concerning the First Crusade
The Crusades, An Arab Perspective
History of the Jews and the Crusades
Jihad
List of principal Crusaders
List of Crusader castles
Ottoman Wars in Europe (1453–1922)
Miles Christianus ("Christian soldier")
Religious war
== Notes ==
== 
References ==
== 
Bibliography ==
== 
Further reading ==
Asbridge, Thomas (2005). The First Crusade:
A New History: The Roots of Conflict between
Christianity and Islam. ISBN 978-0-19-518905-6.
Daniel, Norman (1979). The Arabs and Mediaeval
Europe. Longman Group Limited. ISBN 978-0-582-78088-0.
Hodgson, Natasha (2007). Women, Crusading
and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative.
Boydell.
Kahf, Mohja (1999). Western Representations
of the Muslim Women: From Termagant to Odalisque.
U of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74337-3.
Madden, Thomas F. (2013). The Concise History
of the Crusades. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN
978-1-442-21575-7.
Maier, Christoph T. (March 2004). "The roles
of women in the Crusade movement: a survey".
Journal of Medieval History. 30 (1): 61–82.
doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2003.12.003.
Paterson, Linda. 'Singing the Crusades. French
and Occitan Responses the Crusading Movements,
1137–1336'. Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 2018.
Phillips, Jonathan. Holy Warriors: A Modern
History of the Crusades (2010)
Riley-Smith, Jonathan (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated
History of the Crusades Paperback, Oxford
University Press (2001).
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A history
(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014)
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades
(3 vols. 1951–1954)
Setton, Kenneth ed., A History of the Crusades,
University of Wisconsin Press (6 vols., 1969–1989;
online edition (wisc.edu))Includes: The first
hundred years (2nd ed. 1969); The later Crusades,
1189–1311 (1969); The fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries (1975); The art and architecture
of the Crusader states (1977); The impact
of the Crusades on the Near East (1985); The
impact of the Crusades on Europe (1989).Tolan,
John; Veinstein, Gilles; Henry, Laurens (2013).
Europe and the Islamic World: A History. Princeton
University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14705-5.
Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, "Pope Gregory
VII and Count Eblous II of Roucy’s Proto-Crusade
in Iberia c. 1073", Medieval History 
Journal 21.1 (2018), 1-24. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0971945817750508
=== Historiography ===
Constable, Giles. "The Historiography of the
Crusades" in Angeliki E. Laiou, ed. The Crusades
from the Perspective of Byzantium and the
Muslim World (2001) Extract online.
Phillips, Jonathan. "A new history of the
Crusades" The Telegraph 17 Sep 2006
Powell, James M. "The Crusades in Recent Research,"
The Catholic Historical Review (2009) 95#2
pp. 313–19 in Project MUSE
Rubenstein, Jay. "In Search of a New Crusade:
A Review Essay," Historically Speaking (2011)
12#2 pp. 25–27 in Project MUSE
von Güttner-Sporzyński, Darius. "Recent
Issues in Polish Historiography of the Crusades"
in Judi Upton-Ward, The Military Orders: Volume
4, On Land and by Sea (2008) available on
Researchgate, available on Academia.edu
=== Primary sources ===
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