Crusaders history. Who are the “crusaders”? Reasons and reason for the Crusades

CRUSADES(1096-1270), military-religious expeditions of Western Europeans to the Middle East with the aim of conquering Holy places associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ - Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher.

Prerequisites and start of hikes

The prerequisites for the Crusades were: traditions of pilgrimages to Holy Places; a change in views on war, which began to be considered not a sinful, but a good deed if it was waged against the enemies of Christianity and the church; capture in the 11th century the Seljuk Turks of Syria and Palestine and the threat of capture by Byzantium; the difficult economic situation of Western Europe in the 2nd half. 11th century

On November 26, 1095, Pope Urban II called on those gathered at the local church council in the city of Clermont to recapture the Holy Sepulcher captured by the Turks. Those who took this vow sewed crosses from rags onto their clothes and therefore were called “crusaders.” To those who went on the Crusade, the Pope promised earthly riches in the Holy Land and heavenly bliss in case of death, they received complete absolution, they were forbidden to collect debts and feudal obligations during the campaign, their families were under the protection of the church.

First Crusade

In March 1096, the first stage of the First Crusade (1096-1101) began - the so-called. march of the poor. Crowds of peasants, with families and belongings, armed with anything, under the leadership of random leaders, or even without them at all, moved east, marking their path with plunder (they believed that since they were soldiers of God, any earthly property belonged to them) and Jewish pogroms (in their eyes, the Jews from the nearest town were the descendants of the persecutors of Christ). Of the 50 thousand troops of Asia Minor, only 25 thousand reached, and almost all of them died in the battle with the Turks near Nicaea on October 25, 1096.

In the autumn of 1096, a knightly militia from different parts of Europe set off, its leaders were Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse and others. By the end of 1096 - beginning of 1097, they gathered in Constantinople, in the spring of 1097 they crossed to Asia Minor, where, together with Byzantine troops, they began the siege of Nicaea, They took it on June 19 and handed it over to the Byzantines. Further, the path of the crusaders lay in Syria and Palestine. On February 6, 1098, Edessa was taken, on the night of June 3 - Antioch, a year later, on June 7, 1099, they besieged Jerusalem, and on July 15 captured it, committing a brutal massacre in the city. On July 22, at a meeting of princes and prelates, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, to which the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch and (from 1109) the County of Tripoli were subordinate. The head of state was Gottfried of Bouillon, who received the title “Defender of the Holy Sepulcher” (his successors bore the title of kings). In 1100-1101, new detachments from Europe set off for the Holy Land (historians call this a “rearguard campaign”); The borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were established only in 1124.

There were few immigrants from Western Europe who permanently lived in Palestine; spiritual knightly orders played a special role in the Holy Land, as well as immigrants from the coastal trading cities of Italy who formed special privileged quarters in the cities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Second Crusade

After the Turks conquered Edessa in 1144, the Second Crusade (1147-1148) was declared on December 1, 1145, led by the King of France Louis VII and the German King Conrad III and which turned out to be inconclusive.

In 1171, power in Egypt was seized by Salah ad-Din, who annexed Syria to Egypt and in the spring of 1187 began a war against Christians. On July 4, in a battle that lasted 7 hours near the village of Hittin, the Christian army was defeated, in the second half of July the siege of Jerusalem began, and on October 2 the city surrendered to the mercy of the winner. By 1189, several fortresses and two cities remained in the hands of the crusaders - Tire and Tripoli.

Third Crusade

On October 29, 1187, the Third Crusade (1189-1192) was declared. The campaign was led by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the kings of France, Philip II Augustus, and the kings of England, Richard I the Lionheart. On May 18, 1190, the German militia captured the city of Iconium (now Konya, Turkey) in Asia Minor, but on June 10, while crossing a mountain river, Frederick drowned, and the demoralized German army retreated. In the fall of 1190, the crusaders began the siege of Acre, the port city and sea gate of Jerusalem. Acre was taken on June 11, 1191, but even before that Philip II and Richard quarreled, and Philip sailed to his homeland; Richard launched several unsuccessful attacks, including two on Jerusalem, concluded an extremely unfavorable treaty for Christians with Salah ad Din on September 2, 1192, and left Palestine in October. Jerusalem remained in the hands of Muslims, and Acre became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Fourth Crusade. Capture of Constantinople

In 1198, a new, Fourth Crusade was announced, which took place much later (1202-1204). It was intended to strike Egypt, to which Palestine belonged. Since the crusaders did not have enough money to pay for ships for the naval expedition, Venice, which had the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean, asked for help in conquering the Christian (!) city of Zadar on the Adriatic coast, which happened on November 24, 1202, and then prompted the crusaders march on Byzantium, the main trading rival of Venice, under the pretext of intervening in dynastic feuds in Constantinople and uniting the Orthodox and Catholic churches under the auspices of the papacy. On April 13, 1204, Constantinople was taken and brutally plundered. Part of the territories conquered from Byzantium went to Venice, on the other part the so-called. Latin Empire. In 1261, the Orthodox emperors, who had established themselves in Asia Minor, which was not occupied by Western Europeans, with the help of the Turks and Venice's rival Genoa, again occupied Constantinople.

Children's Crusade

In view of the failures of the crusaders, the belief arose in the mass consciousness of Europeans that the Lord, who did not give victory to the strong but sinful, would grant it to the weak but sinless. In the spring and early summer of 1212, crowds of children began to gather in different parts of Europe, declaring that they were going to liberate Jerusalem (the so-called children's crusade, not included by historians in the total number of Crusades). The church and secular authorities treated this spontaneous explosion of popular religiosity with suspicion and did their best to prevent it. Some of the children died on the way through Europe from hunger, cold and disease, some reached Marseilles, where clever merchants, promising to transport the children to Palestine, brought them to the slave markets of Egypt.

Fifth Crusade

The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) began with an expedition to the Holy Land, but, having failed there, the crusaders, who did not have a recognized leader, transferred military operations to Egypt in 1218. On May 27, 1218, they began the siege of the fortress of Damietta (Dumyat) in the Nile Delta; The Egyptian sultan promised them to lift the siege of Jerusalem, but the crusaders refused, took Damietta on the night of November 4-5, 1219, tried to build on their success and occupy all of Egypt, but the offensive floundered. On August 30, 1221, peace was concluded with the Egyptians, according to which the soldiers of Christ returned Damietta and left Egypt.

Sixth Crusade

The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229) was undertaken by Emperor Frederick II Staufen. This constant opponent of the papacy was excommunicated from the church on the eve of the campaign. In the summer of 1228, he sailed to Palestine, thanks to skillful negotiations, he concluded an alliance with the Egyptian Sultan and, in return for help against all his enemies, Muslims and Christians (!), received Jerusalem without a single battle, which he entered on March 18, 1229. Since the emperor was under excommunication, the return of the Holy City to the fold of Christianity was accompanied by a ban on worship there. Frederick soon left for his homeland; he had no time to deal with Jerusalem, and in 1244 the Egyptian Sultan again and finally took Jerusalem, carrying out a massacre of the Christian population.

Seventh and Eighth Crusades

The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) was almost exclusively the work of France and its king, Louis IX the Saint. Egypt was again targeted. In June 1249, the crusaders took Damietta a second time, but were later blocked and in February 1250 the entire force, including the king, surrendered. In May 1250, the king was released for a ransom of 200 thousand livres, but did not return to his homeland, but moved to Acre, where he waited in vain for help from France, where he sailed in April 1254.

In 1270, the same Louis undertook the last, Eighth Crusade. His goal was Tunisia, the most powerful Muslim maritime state in the Mediterranean. It was supposed to establish control over the Mediterranean in order to freely send crusader detachments to Egypt and the Holy Land. However, soon after the landing in Tunisia on June 18, 1270, an epidemic broke out in the crusader camp, Louis died on August 25, and on November 18, the army, without having entered into a single battle, sailed to their homeland, taking with them the body of the king.

Things in Palestine were getting worse, the Muslims took city after city, and on May 18, 1291, Acre fell - the last stronghold of the Crusaders in Palestine.

Both before and after this, the church repeatedly proclaimed crusades against pagans (a campaign against the Polabian Slavs in 1147), heretics and against the Turks in the 14th-16th centuries, but they are not included in the total number of crusades.

Results of the Crusades

Historians have different assessments of the results of the Crusades. Some believe that these campaigns contributed to contacts between East and West, the perception of Muslim culture, science and technological achievements. Others believe that all this could be achieved through peaceful relations, and the Crusades would remain only a phenomenon of senseless fanaticism.

D. E. Kharitonovich

At the end of May 1212, unusual wanderers suddenly arrived in the German city of Cologne on the banks of the Rhine. A whole crowd of children filled the city streets. They knocked on the doors of houses and begged for alms. But these were no ordinary beggars. Black and red cloth crosses were sewn onto the children’s clothes, and when questioned by the townspeople, they answered that they were going to the Holy Land to liberate the city of Jerusalem from infidels. The little crusaders were led by a boy of about ten years old, who carried an iron cross in his hands. The boy's name was Niklas, and he told how an Angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that Jerusalem would not be liberated by mighty kings and knights, but by unarmed children who would be led by the will of the Lord. By the grace of God, the sea will part, and they will come on dry land to the Holy Land, and the Saracens, fearful, will retreat before this army. Many wanted to become followers of the little preacher. Without listening to the admonitions of their fathers and mothers, they set off on their journey to liberate Jerusalem. In crowds and small groups, children walked south, to the sea. The Pope himself praised their campaign. He said: “These children serve as a reproach to us adults. While we sleep, they joyfully stand up for the Holy Land.”

But in reality there was little joy in all this. On the road, children died from hunger and thirst, and for a long time peasants found the corpses of little crusaders along the roads and buried them. The end of the campaign was even sadder: of course, the sea did not part for the children who had reached it with difficulty, and the enterprising merchants, as if undertaking to transport the pilgrims to the Holy Land, simply sold the children into slavery.

But not only children thought about the liberation of the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulcher, located, according to legend, in Jerusalem. Having sewn crosses on shirts, cloaks and banners, peasants, knights, and kings rushed to the East. This happened in the 11th century, when the Seljuk Turks, having captured almost all of Asia Minor, in 1071 became the masters of Jerusalem, the holy city of Christians. For Christian Europe this was terrible news. Europeans considered Muslim Turks not only “subhumans” - worse! - minions of the devil. The Holy Land, where Christ was born, lived and suffered martyrdom, now turned out to be inaccessible to pilgrims, but a pious journey to the shrines was not only a commendable deed, but could also become an atonement for sins both for a poor peasant and for a noble lord. Soon rumors began to be heard about the atrocities committed by the “damned infidels”, about the brutal tortures to which they allegedly subjected the unfortunate Christians. The Christian European turned his gaze to the East with hatred. But troubles also came to the lands of Europe itself.

End of the 11th century became a difficult time for Europeans. Beginning in 1089, many misfortunes befell them. Plague visited Lorraine, and an earthquake occurred in Northern Germany. Severe winters gave way to summer droughts, after which floods occurred, and crop failure led to famine. Entire villages died out, people engaged in cannibalism. But no less than from natural disasters and diseases, the peasants suffered from unbearable exactions and extortion of the lords. Driven to despair, people in entire villages fled wherever they could, while others went to monasteries or sought salvation in a hermit’s life.

The feudal lords also did not feel confident. Unable to be content with what the peasants gave them (many of whom were killed by hunger and disease), the lords began to seize new lands. There were no more free lands left, so large lords began to take away estates from small and medium-sized feudal lords. For the most insignificant reasons, civil strife broke out, and the owner expelled from his estate joined the ranks of landless knights. The younger sons of noble gentlemen were also left without land. The castle and land were inherited only by the eldest son - the rest were forced to share horses, weapons and armor among themselves. Landless knights indulged in robbery, attacking weak castles, and more often mercilessly robbing already impoverished peasants. Monasteries that were not ready for defense were especially desirable prey. Having united in gangs, the noble gentlemen, like simple robbers, scoured the roads.

An angry and turbulent time has come in Europe. A peasant whose crops were burned by the sun, and whose house was burned by a robber knight; a lord who does not know where to get funds for a life worthy of his position; a monk looking with longing at the monastery farm ruined by “noble” robbers, not having time to perform the funeral service for those who died of hunger and disease - all of them, in confusion and grief, turned their gaze to God. Why is he punishing them? What mortal sins have they committed? How to redeem them? And is it not because the wrath of the Lord has overtaken the world that the Holy Land - the place of atonement for sins - is being trampled by the “servants of the devil,” the damned Saracens? Again the eyes of Christians turned to the East - not only with hatred, but also with hope.

In November 1095, near the French city of Clermont, Pope Urban II spoke in front of a huge crowd of gathered people - peasants, artisans, knights and monks. In a fiery speech, he called on everyone to take up arms and go to the East to win the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels and cleanse the Holy Land from them. The Pope promised forgiveness of sins to all participants in the campaign. People greeted his call with shouts of approval. Shouts of “God wants it this way!” Urban II's speech was interrupted more than once. Many already knew that the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos turned to the Pope and European kings with a request to help him repel the onslaught of the Muslims. Helping the Byzantine Christians defeat the “non-Christians” would, of course, be a godly deed. The liberation of Christian shrines will become a real feat, bringing not only salvation, but also the mercy of the Almighty, who will reward his army. Many of those who listened to the speech of Urban II immediately vowed to go on a campaign and, as a sign of this, attached a cross to their clothes.

The news of the upcoming campaign to the Holy Land quickly spread throughout Western Europe. Priests in churches and holy fools on the streets called for participation in it. Under the influence of these sermons, as well as at the call of their hearts, thousands of poor people took up the holy crusade. In the spring of 1096, from France and Rhineland Germany, they moved in discordant crowds along roads that had long been known to pilgrims: along the Rhine, Danube and further to Constantinople. The peasants walked with their families and all their meager belongings, which fit in a small cart. They were poorly armed and suffered from food shortages. It was a rather wild procession, since along the way the crusaders mercilessly robbed the Bulgarians and Hungarians through whose lands they passed: they took away cattle, horses, food, and killed those who tried to defend their property. Being barely familiar with the final destination of their journey, the poor, approaching some large city, asked, “Is this really the Jerusalem where they are going?” With grief in half, having killed many in skirmishes with local residents, in the summer of 1096 the peasants reached Constantinople.

The appearance of this disorganized, hungry crowd did not please Emperor Alexei Komnenos at all. The ruler of Byzantium hastened to get rid of the poor crusaders by transporting them across the Bosphorus to Asia Minor. The end of the peasants' campaign was sad: in the fall of the same year, the Seljuk Turks met their army not far from the city of Nicaea and almost completely killed them or, having captured them, sold them into slavery. Of the 25 thousand “armies of Christ”, only about 3 thousand survived. The surviving poor crusaders returned to Constantinople, from where some of them began to return home, and some remained to wait for the arrival of the crusading knights, hoping to fully fulfill their vow - to free shrines or at least find a quiet life in a new place.

The crusading knights set out on their first campaign when the peasants began their sad journey through the lands of Asia Minor - in the summer of 1096. Unlike the latter, the lords were well prepared for the upcoming battles and difficulties of the road - they were professional warriors, and they were accustomed to prepare for battle. History has preserved the names of the leaders of this army: the first Lorraineers were led by Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, the Normans of Southern Italy were led by Prince Bohemond of Tarentum, and the knights of Southern France were led by Raymond, Count of Toulouse. Their troops were not a single cohesive army. Each feudal lord who went on a campaign led his own squad, and behind his lord the peasants who had escaped from their homes again trudged along with their belongings. The knights on the way, like the poor people who had passed before them, began to plunder. The ruler of Hungary, taught by bitter experience, demanded hostages from the crusaders, which guaranteed fairly “decent” behavior of the knights towards the Hungarians. However, this was an isolated incident. The Balkan Peninsula was plundered by the “soldiers of Christ” who marched through it.

In December 1096 - January 1097. The crusaders arrived at Constantinople. They behaved with those whom they were actually going to protect, to put it mildly, unfriendly: there were even several military skirmishes with the Byzantines. Emperor Alexei used all the unsurpassed diplomatic art that had so glorified the Greeks, just to protect himself and his subjects from unbridled “pilgrims.” But even then, the mutual hostility between the Western European lords and the Byzantines, which would later bring death to the great Constantinople, was clearly evident. For the coming crusaders, the Orthodox inhabitants of the empire were, although Christians, but (after the church schism in 1054) not brothers in faith, but heretics, which is not much better than infidels. In addition, the ancient majestic culture, traditions and customs of the Byzantines seemed incomprehensible and worthy of contempt to the European feudal lords - short-term descendants of barbarian tribes. The knights were infuriated by the pompous style of their speeches, and their wealth simply aroused wild envy. Understanding the danger of such “guests”, trying to use their military zeal for his own purposes, Alexei Komnenos, through cunning, bribery and flattery, obtained from the majority of the knights a vassal oath and an obligation to return to the empire those lands that would be conquered from the Turks. After this, he transported the “army of Christ” to Asia Minor.

The scattered Muslim forces were unable to withstand the pressure of the crusaders. Capturing fortresses, they passed through Syria and moved to Palestine, where in the summer of 1099 they took Jerusalem by storm. In the captured city, the crusaders committed a brutal massacre. The killings of civilians were interrupted during prayer, and then began again. The streets of the “holy city” were littered with dead bodies and stained with blood, and the defenders of the “Holy Sepulcher” scoured around, taking away everything that could be carried away.

Soon after the capture of Jerusalem, the Crusaders captured most of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In the occupied territory at the beginning of the 12th century. The knights created four states: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa - the lords began to settle their lives in new places. Power in these states was built on the feudal hierarchy. It was headed by the King of Jerusalem; the other three rulers were considered his vassals, but in reality they were independent. The church had enormous influence in the crusader states. She also owned large land holdings. Church hierarchs were among the most influential lords in the new states. On the lands of the Crusaders in the 11th century. later spiritual and knightly orders arose: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutons.

In the 12th century. under pressure from the Muslims who began to unite, the crusaders began to lose their possessions. In an effort to resist the onslaught of the infidels, European knights launched the 2nd Crusade in 1147, which ended in failure. The 3rd Crusade that followed (1189-1192) ended just as ingloriously, although it was led by three warrior kings: the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French King Philip II Augustus and the English King Richard I the Lionheart. The reason for the action of the European lords was the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by Sultan Salah ad-Din. The campaign was accompanied by continuous troubles: at the very beginning, while crossing a mountain stream, Barbarossa drowned; French and English knights were constantly at odds with each other; and in the end it was never possible to liberate Jerusalem. True, Richard the Lionheart obtained some concessions from the Sultan - the crusaders were left with a piece of the Mediterranean coast, and Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit Jerusalem for three years. Of course, it was difficult to call this a victory.

Next to these unsuccessful enterprises of European knights, the 4th Crusade (1202-1204) stands completely apart, which leveled the Orthodox Christian Byzantines with the infidels and led to the death of the “noble and beautiful Constantinople.” It was initiated by Pope Innocent III. In 1198, he launched a grandiose campaign for another campaign in the name of the liberation of Jerusalem. Papal messages were sent to all European states, but, in addition, Innocent III did not ignore another Christian ruler - the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III. He, too, according to the Pope, should have moved troops to the Holy Land. In addition to reproaches to the emperor for his indifference to the liberation of Christian shrines, the Roman high priest in his message raised an important and long-standing issue - about union (the unification of the church that was divided in 1054). In fact, Innocent III dreamed not so much of restoring the unity of the Christian Church as of subordinating the Byzantine Greek Church to the Roman Catholic Church. Emperor Alexei understood this very well - as a result, neither an agreement nor even negotiations came out. Dad was angry. He diplomatically but unambiguously hinted to the emperor that if the Byzantines were intractable, there would be forces in the West ready to oppose them. Innocent III did not frighten - indeed, European monarchs looked at Byzantium with avid interest.

The 4th Crusade began in 1202, and Egypt was initially planned as its final destination. The path there lay through the Mediterranean Sea, and the crusaders, despite all the careful preparation of the “holy pilgrimage,” did not have a fleet and therefore were forced to turn to the Venetian Republic for help. From this moment on, the route of the crusade changed dramatically. The Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, demanded a huge sum for the services, and the crusaders turned out to be insolvent. Dandolo was not embarrassed by this: he suggested that the “holy army” compensate for the arrears by capturing the Dalmatian city of Zadar, whose merchants competed with the Venetian ones. In 1202, Zadar was taken, the army of the crusaders boarded ships, but... they did not go to Egypt at all, but ended up under the walls of Constantinople. The reason for this turn of events was the struggle for the throne in Byzantium itself. Doge Dandolo, who liked to settle scores with competitors (Byzantium competed with Venice in trade with eastern countries) with the hands of the crusaders, conspired with the leader of the “army of Christ” Boniface of Montferrat. Pope Innocent III supported the enterprise - and the route of the crusade was changed for the second time.

Having besieged Constantinople in 1203, the crusaders achieved the restoration of Emperor Isaac II to the throne, who promised to pay generously for support, but was not rich enough to keep his word. Angered by this turn of events, the “liberators of the Holy Land” took Constantinople by storm in April 1204 and subjected it to pogrom and plunder. The capital of the Great Empire and Orthodox Christianity was devastated and set on fire. After the fall of Constantinople, part of the Byzantine Empire was captured. On its ruins a new state arose - the Latin Empire, created by the crusaders. It did not exist for long, until 1261, when it collapsed under the blows of the conquerors.

After the fall of Constantinople, calls to go liberate the Holy Land died down for a while, until the children of Germany and France in 1212 set off for this feat, which turned out to be their death. The subsequent four crusades of the knights to the East did not bring success. True, during the 6th campaign, Emperor Frederick II managed to liberate Jerusalem, but after 15 years the “infidels” regained what they had lost. After the failure of the 8th crusade of the French knights in North Africa and the death of the French king Louis IX the Saint there, the calls of the Roman high priests to new “exploits in the name of the faith of Christ found no response. The possessions of the crusaders in the East were gradually captured by Muslims, until at the very end of the 13th century. The Kingdom of Jerusalem did not cease to exist.

True, in Europe itself the crusaders existed for a long time. By the way, those German dog knights whom Prince Alexander Nevsky defeated on Lake Peipus were also crusaders. Roman Popes until the 15th century. organized crusades in Europe in the name of exterminating heresies. But these were only echoes of the past. The Holy Sepulcher remained with the “infidels”; this loss was accompanied by enormous sacrifices - how many paladins remained forever in the Holy Land? But along with the returning crusaders, new knowledge and skills, windmills, cane sugar, and even the familiar custom of washing our hands before eating came to Europe. Thus, having shared a lot and taken thousands of lives in payment, the East did not yield a single step to the West. The great battle, which lasted 200 years, ended in a draw.

Who are the “crusaders”?

The Christ-bearers were simply warriors, and the Templars fought wars as monks; later the Templars were excommunicated from the church when they fell into occultism, Satanism, Kabbalism, well, it’s all from the same direction. The Templars were destroyed, they created a secret community, and set themselves the goal of taking control of all European states. They moved to Scotland from where they began campaigning with the Scots on England, and from there on France. They infiltrated the highest ranks of states and strived for power. Even the campaign of the English King Richard (the lion's heart) was planned by them; he was sent to besiege Eurusalem, which Sallahudin had already captured. And the main goal of this dispatch was the desired death of Richard, so that he would die and put his man on the throne. Richard successfully besieged Jerusalem for 2 years, and just as successfully for the secret community of the Templars, he did not die in battle. Even during his campaigns, Richard was poisoned, but was later recovered by the personal physicians of Sallahudin. Sallahudin cured Richard with the goal of a 2-year truce, which he achieved. Later, when Richard returned unharmed, he was again sent to besiege one of the counties in England, where he was killed in the back with a shot from a bow or crossbow. Today the Templars are called Masons, and in Russia they call themselves the Grand Lodge

Crusaders are knights of the church who participated in the crusades in order to clear the lands of the unfaithful (people of other religions - Muslims, Buddhists) and in order to return all the gifts of God (shrouds, tablets, crosses and other paraphernalia), and also return the lands of Jerusalem and the eastern countries and unite them under the church. They were called crusaders because their clothes were white, and a large red cross was embroidered on it; there were also crosses on other paraphernalia - helmets, swords, shields - which showed that, first of all, they are the warriors of God. After battles, they gathered in the church where the supreme clergy absolved them of the main sin of war - murder (although this is at odds with the Bible and the main commandments).

Even the most wonderful idea, which is implanted with the help of the sword, destroying innocent people, does not decorate Humanity and does not bring peace and prosperity to life. We will find countless examples of this in history.

The crusaders, who paved the way for Christianity with fire and sword, are no exception. Has the world become kinder and more noble because of their campaigns? Something this has not been visible at all for a millennium.

No matter how much Islam is attacked today, which supposedly gave birth to terrorism (terrorism was born much earlier than Islam), its spread throughout the World was peaceful.

Any war means violence, blood, fires. And the crusaders are from the same ranks.

Crusaders were participants in the crusades who sewed a cross on their cloak or armor, hence the name. These are not only knights - townspeople and peasants and even children took part in the crusades. But the main striking force was precisely the representatives of the military service class. In addition to religious fanaticism, the crusading knights had other motives. Firstly, densely populated Europe was already divided, so many went on a campaign for new possessions. New kingdoms were founded in the conquered territories. Secondly, not all knights were rich; many had nothing but a horse, sword and armor. Participation in the crusade provided an opportunity to earn money from robbery and trophies. Thirdly, for noble and wealthy lords, participation in this event is a way to increase authority and influence among their peers. Another reason was to gain the support of the church, which meant a lot in those days. Finally, the crusades are an excellent opportunity to get rid of the fragmentation of possessions, namely, if a feudal lord has several sons, after his death the feud should be divided between them. And so - the younger sons go on a crusade, where they either die or get their allotment.

Crusaders are those who went on crusades. These wars got their name from the fact that they sewed crosses on their clothes, that is, they wore crosses. These campaigns were military, began in Western Europe and were directed against Muslims. Crusaders could be knights, ordinary residents and even children.

As far as I know from history, the crusaders are knights (people who wore a cross patch in their clothing, indicating that they vowed to participate in the campaign) who participated in the crusades. You know, of course, we will never know, and I think historians will keep silent, but in addition to chivalry and love for the Motherland, there is a human factor, in any time and in any war there were and will be rats, ready for pennies or a piece (even a crust) of bread (this is conditional) to sell not only his homeland, but also his own mother.

Knights were called crusaders because when they went on military campaigns they sewed crosses onto their clothes. They had such a belief that thereby they received forgiveness for their sins. Not only knights, but also residents of cities and villages went on crusading campaigns.

Affairs of bygone days... Without being a historian, without studying the issue from all sides, it is difficult to draw any conclusions or give definitions. In my opinion, there is no more confusing science than history. And this is understandable: contemporaries and eyewitnesses of the events did not always write the truth either. And what can we say about descendants, when there is not a single historical fact that has not been updated to please the ruling persons: be it the emperor or the party in power.

It's the same story with the crusaders. More or less firmly, we only know the dates of the Crusades and their number. But in calling their participants crusaders, we are taking some liberties, because they began to be called that way much later. At that time these were pilgrims who accepted the cross. That is, not just pilgrims, but those who set out to visit enslaved holy places and free them with the help of weapons.

Why did they take it into their hands? Let us not think that agitation and propaganda are inventions of our days. And then the Pope was no worse able to agitate about the need to perform a godly deed. Some went to absolve themselves of their sins, and the world championship was also broadcast.

It turned out as always - they directed the crowd to solve their problems. To emphasize the religious nature of the actions, crosses were sewn on, as well as to distinguish knights free from vows from knights called to help. And here knightly groups arose, each of which had its own goal.

The three knightly orders are the most famous: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order.

Perhaps some scientific works extol the sacrifice of the crusading knights, their religious fanaticism in returning holy artifacts, and their image is covered with a romantic flair. But, it seems to me that this is rather the work of fiction and chivalric novels.

But history tells us what exactly Templars were the first soldiers moneylenders, essentially establishing banking, ensuring all campaigns against Muslims and more.

I will not only decipher this. The Crusades were carried out not only towards Palestine and the Middle East, but also wrong Christians, namely, countries that professed Orthodoxy. In particular - Rus' (a crowd of heretics) or closer - Reconcista in Spain. What kind of Holy Lands are there...

This time is surrounded by many myths. Gradually new facts and revelations are emerging. And one of them is that it was not Muslims who destroyed Eastern Christians. It didn't matter to them who they robbed - they did it without asking what religion the victim belonged to.

Usurer and aggressor. This is how I get a portrait. I am silent about the Order of Hospitallers.

I’ll make a reservation - I’m not a historian and this is just my opinion, possibly erroneous.

It is difficult to imagine the history of the Middle Ages without the Crusades, which shook the entire Middle East in the 11th-13th centuries. Both representatives of the European nobility and commoners took an active part in these massive invasions, trying to cleanse the land of wicked Muslims.

Crusaders. Who are they?

The people who called themselves that professed Christianity. Hence the name of the campaigns, as well as the warriors who were involved in them. Devoted to the blood they shed, simple peasants quickly became professional fighters. A crusader is a knight. Such warriors took up arms and went against the infidels for various reasons: some because of a thirst for adventure, others for the sake of material enrichment, and still others were indeed notorious religious fanatics. Participants in the first campaigns called themselves pilgrims, and their military raids - a sacred road or a pilgrimage pleasing to God.

The knights dressed accordingly. A crusader is a religious warrior who placed crosses on his armor and outfits: before the campaign they were on the chest, after a successful return - on the back. The long journeys of knights were always shrouded in an aura of grandeur and romance. Despite heroism and valor, bravery and courage, they never managed to complete the holy mission. Muslims continued to dominate the East, and also became complete rulers of Palestine.

First Crusades

It all started with Pope Urban, who in March 1095 clearly formulated the economic reason for the raids. He said: European countries cannot feed a population that is growing every year. Therefore, in order to save the lives of honest Christians, it is necessary to seize the resource-rich eastern territories, which are unjustly occupied by Muslims. As for the religious motive, it became an indisputable fact: the Holy Sepulcher, an important shrine of their faith, is kept by infidels, and this is completely unacceptable.

A crusader is a simple man inspired by the calls of the pope. He, like his other brothers-in-arms, did not hesitate for a moment, abandoned his fields and went to the East. It was not difficult to gather a crowd: in those days, Europe worshiped the church and was enveloped in religious fanaticism. The first campaign aimed at Constantinople ended unsuccessfully. Most of the volunteers died on the way from disease, hunger and cold. The Turks destroyed that pitiful bunch of tired people who reached their destination.

results

Despite the defeat, the conquerors did not give up and gradually increased their strength. Within a few years, warriors burst into Asia. Here they destroyed cities and organized local crusade powers. They managed to capture Jerusalem and Byzantium, but the main goal, the Holy Sepulcher, remained in the hands of the infidels. Someone started a false rumor that only children's hands could free him. As a result, an army was organized, the core of which was the young crusading knights. Their age did not exceed 14-15 years. The result was tragic. Half of the minors died, the other half were sold into slavery.

A crusader is a person who was in complete subordination to the Church. Listening to the sermons of the priests, people justified their losses and strived for new conquests. There were eight Crusades in total. Their results are mixed. Firstly, it expanded its zone of influence and enriched itself with new lands. Secondly, the tension between the West and the East increased, and a retaliatory threat from the infidels arose - jihad. In addition, Christianity itself was finally divided into Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

The Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1272, are an important part of the Middle Ages studied in 6th grade history. These were military-colonial wars in the countries of the Middle East under the religious slogans of the struggle of Christians against the “infidels,” that is, Muslims. It’s not easy to talk briefly about the crusades, since only eight of the most important ones are singled out.

Reasons and reason for the Crusades

Palestine, which belonged to Byzantium, was conquered by the Arabs in 637. It has become a place of pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims. The situation changed with the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1071 they interrupted the pilgrimage routes. The Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos in 1095 turned to the West for help. This became the reason for organizing the trip.

The reasons that prompted people to participate in a dangerous event were:

the desire of the Catholic Church to spread influence in the East and increase wealth;
the desire of monarchs and nobles to expand territories;
peasant hopes for land and freedom;
the desire of merchants to establish new trade relations with the countries of the East;
religious upsurge.

In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the liberation of the holy lands from the yoke of the Saracens (Arabs and Seljuk Turks). Many knights immediately accepted the cross and proclaimed themselves warlike pilgrims. Later, the leaders of the campaign were determined.

Rice. 1. Pope Urban II's call to the crusaders.

Participants of the Crusades

In the crusades, a group of main participants can be distinguished:

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large feudal lords;
minor European knights;
merchants;
tradesmen;
peasants.

The name “crusades” comes from images of the cross sewn onto the clothes of participants.

The first echelon of the crusaders was made up of the poor, led by the preacher Peter of Amiens. In 1096 they arrived in Constantinople and, without waiting for the knights, crossed over to Asia Minor. The consequences were sad. The Turks easily defeated the poorly armed and untrained peasant militia.

Beginning of the Crusades

There were several crusades aimed at Muslim countries. The crusaders set out for the first time in the summer of 1096. In the spring of 1097 they crossed to Asia Minor and captured Nicaea, Antioch, and Edessa. In July 1099, the crusaders entered Jerusalem, carrying out a brutal massacre of Muslims here.

Europeans created their own states on the occupied lands. By the 30s. XII century The crusaders lost several cities and territories. The King of Jerusalem turned to the Pope for help, and he called on the European monarchs for a new crusade.

Main hikes

The table “Crusades” will help in systematizing information.

*Hike*	*Participants and organizers*	*Main goals and results*
1st Crusade (1096 – 1099)	Organizer: Pope Urban II. Knights from France, Germany, Italy	The desire of the popes to extend their power to new countries, the desire of Western feudal lords to acquire new possessions and increase income. Liberation of Nicaea (1097), capture of Edessa (1098), capture of Jerusalem (1099). Creation of the State of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem
2nd Crusade (1147 – 1149)	Led by Louis VII French and German Emperor Conrad III	Loss of Edessa by the Crusaders (1144). Complete failure of the crusaders
3rd Crusade (1189 – 1192)	Led by the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French King Philip II Augustus and the English King Richard I the Lionheart	The purpose of the campaign is to return Jerusalem, captured by Muslims. failed.
4th Crusade (1202 – 1204)	Organizer: Pope Innocent III. French, Italian, German feudal lords	The brutal sack of Christian Constantinople. The collapse of the Byzantine Empire: Greek states - the Kingdom of Epirus, the Nicaean and Trebizond empires. The Crusaders created the Latin Empire
Children's (1212)		Thousands of children died or were sold into slavery
5th Crusade (1217 – 1221)	Duke Leopold VI of Austria, King Andras II of Hungary, and others	A campaign was organized in Palestine and Egypt. The offensive in Egypt and in the negotiations on Jerusalem failed due to the lack of unity in leadership.
6th Crusade (1228 – 1229)	German king and Roman Emperor Frederick II Staufen	On March 18, 1229, Jerusalem was reclaimed as a result of a treaty with the Egyptian Sultan, but in 1244 the city fell back to the Muslims.
7th Crusade (1248 – 1254)	French King Louis IX Saint.	March on Egypt. The defeat of the crusaders, the capture of the king, followed by a ransom and return home.
8th Crusade (1270-1291)	Mongol troops	The last and unsuccessful one. The knights lost all their possessions in the East, except for Fr. Cyprus. The devastation of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean

Rice. 2. Crusaders.

The second campaign took place in 1147-1149. It was led by the German Emperor Conrad III Staufen and the French King Louis VII. In 1187, Sultan Saladin defeated the crusaders and captured Jerusalem, which the King of France Philip II Augustus, the King of Germany Frederick I Barbarossa and the King of England Richard I the Lionheart went on a third campaign to recapture.

The fourth was organized against Orthodox Byzantium. In 1204, the crusaders mercilessly plundered Constantinople, massacring Christians. In 1212, 50 thousand children were sent to Palestine from France and Germany. Most of them became slaves or died. In history, the adventure is known as the “Children’s Crusade.”

After the report to the Pope on the fight against the Cathar heresy in the Languedoc region, a series of military campaigns took place from 1209 to 1229. This is the Albigensian or Cathar Crusade.

The fifth (1217-1221) was a great failure for the Hungarian king Endre II. In the sixth (1228-1229) the cities of Palestine were handed over to the crusaders, but already in 1244 they lost Jerusalem for the second time and finally. To save those who remained there, a seventh campaign was proclaimed. The crusaders were defeated, and the French king Louis IX was captured, where he remained until 1254. In 1270, he led the eighth - the last and extremely unsuccessful crusade, the stage of which from 1271 to 1272 is called the ninth.

Russian Crusades

The ideas of the Crusades also penetrated into the territory of Rus'. One of the directions of the foreign policy of its princes is wars with unbaptized neighbors. The campaign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1111 against the Polovtsians, who often attacked Rus', was called a crusade. In the 13th century, the princes fought with the Baltic tribes and the Mongols.

Consequences of the hikes

The crusaders divided the conquered lands into several states:

Kingdom of Jerusalem;
Kingdom of Antioch;
Edessa County;
County of Tripoli.

In the states, the crusaders established feudal orders modeled on Europe. To protect their possessions in the east, they built castles and founded spiritual knightly orders:

Hospitallers;
Templars;
Teutons.

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These are military-colonization movements of Western European feudal lords, part of the townspeople and peasantry, carried out in the form of religious wars under the slogan of liberating Christian shrines in Palestine from Muslim rule or converting pagans or heretics to Catholicism.

The classical era of the Crusades is considered to be the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries. The term “Crusades” appeared no earlier than 1250. Participants in the first Crusades called themselves pilgrims, and campaigns - a pilgrimage, deeds, expedition or sacred road.

Causes of the Crusades

The need for the Crusades was formulated by the Pope Urban after graduation Clermont Cathedral in March 1095. He determined economic reason for the crusades: European land is not able to feed people, so to preserve the Christian population it is necessary to conquer rich lands in the East. Religious arguments concerned the inadmissibility of keeping holy objects, especially the Holy Sepulcher, in the hands of infidels. It was decided that the army of Christ would set out on a campaign on August 15, 1096.

Inspired by the calls of the pope, crowds of thousands of ordinary people did not wait for the set deadline and rushed to the campaign. The pitiful remnants of the entire militia reached Constantinople. The bulk of the pilgrims died on the way from deprivation and epidemics. The Turks dealt with the remainder without much effort. At the appointed time, the main army set out on a campaign, and by the spring of 1097 it found itself in Asia Minor. The military advantage of the Crusaders, who were opposed by the disunited Seljuk troops, was obvious. The crusaders captured cities and organized crusader states. The native population fell into serfdom.

History and consequences of the Crusades

The consequence of the first campaign there was a significant strengthening of positions. However, its results were fragile. In the middle of the 12th century. The resistance of the Muslim world is intensifying. One after another, the states and principalities of the crusaders fell. In 1187, Jerusalem and the entire Holy Land were recaptured. The Holy Sepulcher remained in the hands of infidels. New Crusades were organized, but all of them ended in complete defeat.

During IV Crusade Constantinople was captured and barbarously plundered. In place of Byzantium, the Latin Empire was founded in 1204, but it was short-lived. In 1261 it ceased to exist and Constantinople again became the capital of Byzantium.

The most monstrous page of the Crusades was children's hike, took place around 1212-1213. At this time, the idea began to spread that the Holy Sepulcher could only be released by innocent children's hands. Crowds of boys and girls aged 12 and older flocked to the coast from all European countries. Many children died along the way. The remainder reached Genoa and Marseille. They had no plan for moving forward. They assumed that they would be able to walk on water “like on dry land,” and the adults who were promoting this campaign did not take care of the crossing. Those who came to Genoa scattered or died. The fate of the Marseilles detachment was more tragic. Merchant adventurers Ferrey and Pork agreed “for the sake of saving their souls” to transport the crusaders to Africa and sailed with them on seven ships. The storm sank two ships along with all the passengers; the rest were landed in Alexandria, where they were sold into slavery.

In total, eight Crusades were launched to the East. By the XII-XIII centuries. include the campaigns of German feudal lords against the pagan Slavic and other peoples of the Baltic states. The indigenous population was subjected to Christianization, often violently. In the territories conquered by the crusaders, sometimes on the site of previous settlements, new cities and fortifications arose: Riga, Lubeck, Revel, Vyborg, etc. In the XII-XV centuries. Crusades against heresies are organized in Catholic states.

Results of the Crusades ambiguous. The Catholic Church significantly expanded its zone of influence, consolidated land ownership, and created new structures in the form of spiritual knightly orders. At the same time, the confrontation between the West and the East intensified, and jihad intensified as an aggressive response to the Western world from the Eastern states. The IV Crusade further divided the Christian churches and implanted in the consciousness of the Orthodox population the image of an enslaver and enemy—the Latin. In the West, a psychological stereotype of distrust and hostility has become established not only towards the world of Islam, but also towards Eastern Christianity.