Episode 9 The Crusades Clash of Cultures 1095-1271

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

People’s Crusade (1096) – responding to Byzantine emperor Alexius’s request for European mercenaries to defend Byzantium against the Seljek Turks, in 1095 Pope Urban II called for a European crusade to seize Jerusalem from Arabs who had ruled it for centuries. In 1096, thousands of poor people with no military training or weapons set out for Constantinople, raiding villages for food and persecuting Jews along the way. When they arrived in Constantinople, Emperor Alexius transported them across the Bosporus Sea to Asia Minor, where they were killed by Turks.

First Crusade (1096-1099 – The European knights who embarked on crusade a few months later were more successful. After conquering Edessa (a city in southwest Turkey) and Antioch (formerly part of Syria, now part of Turkey), they triumphantly (after a five-week siege) triumphantly entered Jerusalem. After they established four Christian states in the Middle East: the county of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli (in modern day Lebanon) and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. With the advent of Christian control of Jerusalem, the Holy Land became a common destination for European pilgrims. This would lead to the formation of the Knights Templar in 1120, a new religious order in which so-called Christian monks were allowed to carry arms and kill people. The Knights Templar mainly protected pilgrims from bandits and safeguarded their money by allowing them to deposit money prior to departure and withdraw it on reaching Jerusalem (making the Knights Templar fabulously wealthy because many pilgrims died of hunger or disease before reaching Jerusalem.

Second Crusade (1147-1149) – After Zengi from Aleppo attacked Edessa, Pope Eugenius III called for a second crusade led by the European kings. Although Conrad III of Germany, Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine all made preparations, the effort was abandoned in 1149.

Third Crusade (1189-1192) – called after the Kurdish leader Saladin reconquered Jerusalem in 1187. Frederick Barbosa (the Holy Roman Emperor) set out on crusade but drowned and King Richard (the Lionhearted of England) was forced to retreat after losing too many knights. On reaching Jerusalem, Phillip II of France negotiated with Saladin that the Muslims controlling Jerusalem would allow Christian pilgrims to continue to visit holy shrines there.

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) – was a strange expedition, in which the crusaders, instead of heading for Jerusalem, sacked the cities of Zara and Constantinople at the behest of the doge of Venice. Venice would rule Zara and Constantinople as new colonies for 50 years before the Byzantine empire won them back.

Territory controlled by the city-state of Venice

Children’s Crusade (1212) – consisted of 1000 children age 7-14, who were sold into slavery by unscrupulous ship captains.

Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) – Called by Pope Honorius III to attack Egypt. Capturing one significant city, the Europeans ultimately abandoned it due to heat intolerance and disease.

Sixth Crusade (1228-29) – Led by Emperor Frederick II after the pope communicated him, who successfully negotiated with Sultan al Kalam that Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem would be free unfortified city open to all religions

Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) – The first of two unsuccessful crusades led by Louis XIX (St Louis) of France, who aimed to reconquer Jerusalem by attacking Egypt, now the eat of Muslim power. He was defeated by the Sultan’s armies.

Eighth Crusade (1270) – The French king Louis XIX’s attempt to besiege Tunisia ended with his death.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172805