Essay on The Crusades: a Short History by Johnathan Riley-Smith

When analyzing the events of the first crusade it is essential to first uncover the flame that ignited the spiritual motivation. Although there ought to be numerous events that contributed to the fire, a general church council at Clermont in France is credited for starting the crusading movement. In response to Alexiu 's plea, Urban delivered a sermon intended to call upon European Christians to rescue the Holy Land from Muslim occupation. As the crowd likely wrestled with the idea to start, he continued to provide justifications for the conquest. To accomplish this, he

The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed,

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an army to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. This was what was later known as the ‘First Crusade’. A crusade is a religious war or a war mainly motivated by religion. The first crusade consisted of 10’s of thousands of European Christians on a medieval military expedition to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. This doesn’t mean that the first crusade was just motivated by religion. Throughout this essay, I will be suggesting the main reasons of why people went on crusades and which different people went for specific reasons and why.

A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.

The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power

The Pope had all of the power and that led to mass amounts of people going to war for the Pope. In document 4 by the Islamic leader, Saladin, he states that his people should try to retake Jerusalem to get back their holy land and to please God. The people are trying to please their gods and to give their homage to their god. That would show a religious view for the Crusades and their brethren. Document 5 by the Jewish chronicler, Solomon bar Samson, shows that there was a religious aspect to the Crusades, mind it be extremism. The crusaders would see a pack of Jews on the way to the Holy Land and they would give the Jews two choices: 1. they could kill them to avenge the death of Jesus Christ or 2. They could incorporate them into their faith and acknowledge the offspring of promiscuity. Document 7, an excerpt from “In Praise of the New Knighthood” by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, tells of the two-fold war that was being fought by the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitallers. It was a normal killing people war, and it was a spiritual war. You are protected by the armor of faith and an armor of steel. Next, I would have liked a document from Pope Nicholas IV about how the Crusades had to stop. That would have filled in the ending to the story of the Crusades.

The Crusades were a bloody war that the church deemed holy and necessary for salvation of the knights soul. The Crusades are a highly controversial and very dark stain on the Catholic church and Hierarchies past. The war was brought to the church from there Roman allies who they had tense dealings with. The where seeking aid in the fight against the muslim turks. The church decreed there act holy and justified. The people who were under the churches thumb had no objections to the slaughter that their beloved God had suposably justified.

he subject of the crusades is still a very controversial topic that spans across various time periods and has religious, social, and political implications. The first crusade started off as a widespread pilgrimage that ended as a military expedition resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1099. The crusades initiated from a call from help from Alexius for the protection of Constantinople and the recovery of Anatolia. For centuries textbooks have repeated with routine regularity, that the immediate cause, of the Crusades was the Turkish conquest of the Near East, which apparently was a very real threat to Christendom, that had to be countered by military action. With this in mind, the primary purpose of this essay is to identify the various reasons that contributed to the start of the first crusade, while disproving the fact that the first Crusade was a response to a military threat. In discovering the true cause of the first crusades it is necessary to examine it from all aspects from the start to the finish.

Going against modern day religious beliefs, in 1095AD the Christians went to war to claim the holy city of Jerusalem, massacring the Muslims in a bloody attempt to worship their God. Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont inspired by claims made by the Byzantium Emperor encouraged the Christians to partake in the First Crusade in an attempt to liberate Jerusalem. The religious and economic factors were the most relevant to cause this crusade, with some influence from desired political gain and little from social factors unrelated to religion. The immediate consequences were positive for the Christians and negative for the Muslims, but the First Crusade launched an ongoing conflict between the Christians and Muslims which had positive and negative consequences for both sides. There are a number of relevant modern sources which examine the causes and consequences of the First Crusade, but, while there are many medieval sources, they do not explicitly discuss the causes and consequences of the war. In order to fully comprehend the First Crusade, it is necessary to analyse the religious, economic, and political factors, as well as the short-term, long-term, and modern consequences.

With total autonomy to kill and plunder as they please alongside a godly, miracle-like victory in their first ever attempt in a series of holy wars, the Crusades stand out as a key point in the history of both Christianity and the medieval world as a whole. It is undeniable that religious devotion played a factor in the Crusades; in an era where Europe was a land of chaotic violence, a quick chance to absolve oneself from any sin was immensely appealing. Yet from the wars' very origin to their ways of recruiting and actions on the battlefield, this apparent devotion that is the heart of the Crusades is repetitively contradicted. The holy wars would never have reached the height they did – or

Patrick Geary’s “Readings in Medieval History” contains four accounts of the invasion of the Middle East by the Europeans in 1095 A.D. These accounts all cite different motives for the first crusade, and all the accounts are from the perspective of different sides of the war. The accounts all serve to widen our perspective, we hear from the Christian and Middle Eastern side of the conflict. Fulcher of Chartres claims, Pope Urban the Second urged all Christians to intervene in the “East” at the council of Claremont, saying it was a sign of “Strength of good will”. (Readings in Medieval History, Geary, page 396).

In The middle of the Eleventh Century The tranquillity of the eastern Mediterranean seemed assured for many years to come, but little did the people know what was ahead . This, thus embark us on a journey back into the First Crusade. In this paper I will be discussing the events that lead up to the first in a long line of crusades. I will also be mentioning the lives of some of the crusaders through letters that they wrote. The crusades were a time of confusion for most people, yet today we look back at them as a turning point.

In the current news, the tensions between the Islamic and Christian faith are a recurring topic that sparks conversations between many people. The history behind this religious conflict goes back into the early 7th and 8th centuries during the times of the Byzantine and Western European Empires. Although the conflicts between the two religions may have not been profound in the past, they were solidified due to the Crusades. Lasting from 1096 to 1204 CE, the Crusades are a prominent event in history and they had a significant impact on both the Byzantine and Western European Empires. These four expeditions involved the long distance travel from Europe to the Middle East, the loss of many innocent lives and the destruction of cities and important

The Crusades were expeditions that originated in completion of a solemn vow in order to deliver the Holy areas from Mohammedan domination. The origin of the word can be traced to the cross. This meaningful cross was worn as a badge on the outer garment of those who took part in these enterprises and also made out of cloth. Since the Middle Ages, the meaning of the word crusade has been comprehended to contain all wars undertaken in the act or practice of pursuing a vow. It was also directed against infidels who were the Mohammedans, Pagans, Heretics, or those under the bar of excommunication. Modern literature has abused the word crusade by applying it to all wars having anything to do with religion. An example would be the voyage of

"While the army of the First Crusade was assembling, there arose a number of popular crusading movements led by a variety of charismatic preachers. Unorganized and often violent, these groups exhibited a fanatical belief in the justness of their cause—a belief that resulted in the slaughter of Jewish communities in Europe and hostile encounters with fellow Christians in both eastern Europe and Byzantium as the "armies" made their way toward Jerusalem during 1096. Most medieval accounts of these popular crusades are critical of their actions and motives, and it is certainly true that politics and personal gain were as much a part of the movement as religious feeling."3 As the editors introduce Albert of Aachen's, a twelfth century historian, perspective on the ordeal, it becomes evident just how misguided and spontaneous the Peasants' Crusade was. First of all, overly passionate and unrealistic preachers without any fighting experience organizing equally unqualified and brainwashed citizens is not an ideal place to start when attempting to carry out a successful overthrow. Next, the plan to win back the Holy Land would have been notably more triumphant if they took the time to consider a reasonable plan as opposed to immediately acting upon emotion. Because their fuel was based on feelings and not practicality, the journey to the desired land became interrupted with unnecessary violence and apparent disarray. Since the Western Christians did not consider their motives and plans beforehand, the Crusades became an emotionally and spiritually-driven slaughtering of all those who got in the