11. The Crusades

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

You will learn:

• About the Crusades.
• How to explain the changing relations between Islam and the West during the medieval era.
• How to use a range of sources to outline what is revealed about different perspectives on the Crusades.
  • Saladin and Richard
    • 4.13 The Crusades
    • The Crusades were a series of wars fought throughout Europe and the Middle East between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. In these wars, Christians fought against non-Christians and heretics. The Crusades generally centred on the Holy Land and the main enemy of the Crusaders were the Muslim Turks. The term Crusader comes from the Latin word Crux, which referred to the Christian cross. However, evidence suggests Crusaders only began calling themselves this as late as the thirteenth century.
    • The First Crusade
    • Jerusalem is a very important city for Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is believed to be the site of Jesus' tomb. When the Muslim Turks took control of Jerusalem in 1071, they began to harass and even kill visiting Christian pilgrims.
    • In Constantinople, Emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II to help him fight his Muslim enemies. In 1095, the Pope called upon Christians to fight the Turks and reclaim Jerusalem.
      • If you choose the right path, you will be forgiven for all your sins. This path is to make war upon the Turk … Let those who are going to fight for Christianity put the form of the Cross upon their garments … God will be gracious to those who undertake this expedition: those who die will go straight to heaven …
    • Source 1 Extract from call to arms by Pope Urban II at Clermont, France, in 1095

• Source 3 The siege of Nicaea in 1097, from a thirteenth-century French manuscript, The History of Outremer. Outremer was the name by which the parts of the Holy Land captured by the Crusaders became known.
• With drawn swords our people ran through the city; nor did they spare anyone, not even those pleading for mercy. If you had been there, your feet would have stained up to the ankles in blood. What more shall I tell? Not one of them was allowed to live. They did not spare the women or children. The horses waded in blood up to their knees, nay up to the bridle. It was a just and wonderful judgment of God.
• Source 4 From an account of one of the crusaders who took part in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099
• RICHARD AND SALADIN
• Battles between Muslims and Christians continued for some years in the Middle East, and Muslim power began to spread once again. This, and the loss of Edessa, inspired the Second Crusade, from 1147 to 1149. It was led by Conrad III of Germany and Louis VII of France. The Second Crusade was poorly managed and the Crusaders were soon defeated.
• Saladin and the capture of Jerusalem
• In 1169, a Kurdish Muslim soldier named Saladin became king of Egypt. He worked hard to bring Muslim warriors of different countries together under his flag. In 1187 he led his impressive armies against the Christians and won a clear victory over the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin. From here he moved on to Jerusalem, which had been under Christian control for over a hundred years, and succeeded in recapturing it for the Muslims. However, he did not slay his defeated enemies but let many go free.

• The third Crusade (1189–92)
• Pope Gregory VII was now the head of the Church in Rome. In 1190 he called for the Third Crusade — to win back Jerusalem. This attempt was far more organised and was led by the three greatest kings in Europe at that time:
• • Frederick Barbarossa of Germany
• • Philip Augustus of France
• • Richard I of England (also known as the ‘Lion-Heart’).
• King Frederick was drowned while crossing a river on the way to Palestine. Philip Augustus and Richard took their armies by sea from the south coast of France and arrived at the city of Acre in the Holy Land in 1191. Acre was put under siege by the Christians and fell to them in 1191. The Crusaders slaughtered many of the city's inhabitants.
• Philip was 24 years old and a reluctant Crusader, but he did have political skills in working out strategy and getting his way. Richard was 32 years old and was strong and courageous, sometimes generous but with a violent temper — the opposite of Philip in many ways. The two eventually quarrelled and Philip returned to France, where he plotted to attack Richard's territories. Richard, however, stayed in the Holy Land, determined to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslim leader Saladin.

• Gallant foes
• For one year, Richard led the Crusaders in a series of marches on Jerusalem but they were forced back repeatedly by Saladin's well-organised defences. The contest between the two leaders was fierce but their relationship appears to have been an interesting one. It is said that:
• • when Richard fell ill with a fever, Saladin sent him fresh fruit, and some snow to cool his drinks
• • when Richard's horse fell during a fierce battle, Saladin sent him two fresh horses of his own so that the fight could continue
• • Richard suggested to Saladin that his sister could marry Saladin's brother — and Jerusalem could be their wedding gift
• • Richard, having grown weary of warfare, wrote to Saladin: ‘You have no more right to send all Muslims to their death than I have the right to send Christians to their death’.

• Richard's efforts to recapture Jerusalem failed and the Holy City remained under Muslim control. But Richard did agree to a truce with Saladin. In 1192, they signed a treaty that was to last five years, in which:
• • Saladin agreed to allow Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
• • the Christians could retain the coastal cities as far south as Jaffa
• • Muslims and Christians could move freely in each other's territory.
• Richard was shipwrecked on his return in 1193 and held for ransom by Henry VI. It took a year to raise the money for his ransom.

• Question
• 1. Saladin won the Third Crusade. However he reached a truce with Richard in 1192 that was fair to the Christians. Explain how some parts of the Treaty gave rights to Christians in the Holy Land?

• Saladin, Muslim leader
• • Born in 1137 or 1138 in Mesopotamia in the Middle East
• • A Kurd, he grew up in Syria
• • Handsome, an excellent scholar and a natural leader
• • Generous and with a wicked sense of humour
• • Skilled and cunning warrior
• • Became ruler of Egypt at age 34
• • Recapture of Jerusalem for Muslims in 1187 was his greatest achievement
• • Died in Damascus, Syria, in 1193
• • Born in 1157 of French parents
• • Lived in France for most of his life
• • Fair-haired, blue-eyed and tall
• • King of England from 1189 to 1199
• • Brave and a splendid fighter (nicknamed ‘the Lion-Heart’)
• • Ruthless and violent against enemies
• • Third Crusade was his greatest undertaking
• • Killed in France in 1199
• Complete the following table on Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.