What Caused the First Crusade, and was it a Success?

In 1095 at the Council of Clermont in France, Pope Urban II over exaggerated the danger of the Turks and indicted them in defiling and damaging multiple churches. As part of his objective, he desired to create a Christian army to lead against the Turks. This army of warriors would be under the charge of the papacy and directed to conquer Jerusalem and regain the Holy Land back from non-Christians. Urban’s concept of a justified war would utilize a vast warrior class that exited in Europe at the time and held the promise of bringing the Eastern Church back under the rule of the Pope. The promise of lands and wealth held interest from many but was further enhanced by the popular concept of some preachers that this pilgrimage would bring penance

The First Crusade was determined by political and economic desires that not only noblemen, but townspeople had. This concept was brought up many times during the crusade. Primarily during Pope Urban's speech, and also during the journey, as religious motives shifted into more selfish desires. During this time period, Alexius I was in desperate need of a skilled military to defend the holy land, Jerusalem, from being invaded. This need is because Jerusalem was the glue that kept the Byzantine Empire from collapsing.

In 1095 Pope Urban II delivered a riveting call to arms that led to the formation of a divinely inspired army intent on retaking Jerusalem from Muslim control. He grounds this appeal on a command from God: “I, not I, but God exhorts you as heralds of Christ to repeatedly urge men of all ranks…to hasten to exterminate this vile race from our lands and to aid the Christian inhabitants” (Fulcher 66). Though Urban emphasizes the need to assist the Byzantine Christians, the hordes of common people, clergy, and nobility that answer his call have diverse motives for embarking on the crusade. The rationalization for the first crusade is revealed expressly by participants who authored chronicles. However, some of the most conclusive evidence is

L. The main reason the crusades started was to take Jerusalem from the Turks. Before 1087, Christian pilgrims frequently traveled to Jerusalem, “the holy land”. However, according to document 6, “from 1087 onwards, turks stopped christian pilgrims from entering Jerusalem.” Basically, the Turks claimed Jerusalem as their own, and prevented any pilgrimages. Pope Urban II was not happy about this. He called European Christians to war in 1095 to recapture Jerusalem. According to Document 1, he says, “I, or rather, the Lord, beseech you as christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich….to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.” Basically, Pope Urban II is urging the people to fight the Turks, and win back Jerusalem.

The main objective of the first crusade was overcome by a secondary objective which later became the reason why we call it the First Crusade. The initial objective was to respond to the Byzantine Emperor who requested western volunteers to help fight against invading Turks. In The reconquest of jerusalem and the holy land soon became the main objective of the Crusade. Pope Urban in 1095 called upon his people telling them to go jerusalem and liberate the church of God out of devotion and not for honor and wealth. Calling the crusade increased the popes standings in a papacy which was struggling at the time due to the investiture controversy. During this time, religion was very important and people took it very seriously. Jerusalem was the

It has been told by Albert of Aachen’s account that Jesus once approached Peter the Hermit while sleeping in Jerusalem. Jesus came to instruct the mere mortal to “…cleanse the Holy Places of Jerusalem and restore the service of the saints” (Tyerman 33). For these Holy Places held the presence of another faith; the Jews, or as the Christians would refer to them, the murderers of he who was nailed to the cross. Peter would go on to attempt to carry out Jesus’s will, which will consequently lead to the death of thousands of men, women, and children. This complex phenomenon will be known as the crusades forevermore. The concept of how the First Crusade was justified has been disputed among historians for several years. While some may believe the crusades were justified because they purified the lands, it is actually true that they fought for selfish reasons in mind and to annihilate the Jews.

The First Crusades was a military group that was started by Christians in Europe who wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was being occupied by the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont Ferrand on November 1095. Most histories consider this speech to be the spark the fueled a wave of military campaigns to gain back the Holy Land. This speech was meant to unite the Europeans and to gain back what was taken from them. The holy land was a small area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The First Crusades was a very successful military expedition that was driven by religious faith to reclaim Jerusalem and other holy places that fell under Muslim control. driven by religious faith. They wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was once theirs. Arabs and the Muslim Turks otherwise known as the Seljuk Turks were the Muslims that invaded and conquered land rightfully occupied by the Christian’s. Many European men, women, and children joined the Crusades and fought in the Middle East. Pope Urban II granted forgiveness of all sins to those who died in battle thus assuring them ascendancy into heaven. Which gave those who volunteered to fight assurance. Nobles and peasants responded in great numbers to the call and marched across Europe to the capital of the Byzantine empire. Having the support of the Byzantine emperor helped make them a stronger army. The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories. Soon after seizing power the Seljuks face a very different challenge to Islamic civilization. It came from Christian Crusaders. Knights from western Europe who were determined to capture portions of the Islamic world that made up the holy land of biblical times. Muslim political division and element of surprise made the first of the Crusaders assaults, between 1096 and 1099, by far the most successful. Much of

The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The

The starting point of the first crusade was when Pope Urban II initiated a call to arms during his speech to the Council of Clermont on November 27, 1095. His fiery speech was a result of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, urgently requesting Pope Urban II’s help in fighting the Muslim Turks, after getting word that they were invading lands, pillaging, and converting people to Islam. They had reached Jerusalem and other places in Palestine, so it was imperative that Pope Urban II rally the Bishops and Nobles to action in order to free the Holy Land. Pope Urban II’s speech had a resounding effect on those attending the council, resulting in the Christian Knights and others engaging in a long bloody campaign that would ultimately

The people did not challenge his outlook and followed his word believing that the killing of the Turkish people was a brave deed, which was extremely honorable in terms of the church. Society then was brainwashed into thinking that the paradoxical existence of the religious wars or crusades was a noble deed when they were immorally killing Turks just to claim land. Since Pope Urban II said the crusades were God’s will, it really did make the people believe these wars were God’s will. It is indeed astonishing yet horrifying how Urban’s speech caused Christians to ironically go against their belief of the immorality of killing by participating in a series of the so-called religious crusades. The speech given at the Council of Clermont was extremely powerful and perhaps without this speech, many factors would

The first crusade started in autumn of 1095. Pope Urban II initiated the first crusade by calling upon his Christians to reclaim the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was also meant to seek revenge on the followers of Islam. The followers were accused of committing crimes against “Christendom”. Pope Urbans crusade was made possible by the work of St. Augustine on Christian Violence in the past. Many Christians joined the crusade because the Pope promised rewards for the afterlife. After the fourth century, Christianity underwent a transformation when it fused with the Roman state for which warfare was essential. St. Augustine and Pope Urban enabled violence to be an option for Christians and it can be described in this quote, “For the first time in Christian history, violence was defined as a religious act, a source of grace.” After the Pope’s Christian tour, many Christians were ready to destroy everything that stood in their way.

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.

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.

the army rerouted to the Orthodox city of Constantinople. With just 15000 men, the crusade put the city with a population of 500000, under siege. The soldiers of the crusade were horribly cruel and killed people of the city. Their actions went against so much of what the Christian faith stood for that Pope Innocence renounced the crusades. He gave a statement about how evil had corrupted the original motives of the crusade. However, the reasons he gave for ending the crusade were because the soldiers were harming Christians. The Pope didn’t seem to care about the welfare of the Orthodox adherents. Just a decade later, Pope Innocent banded together another crusade to complete the goal of his first one. The venture was largely unsuccessful and resulted in the killing of many of the fighting Christians. There were several more crusades that were met with little success in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, but none of them had the degree of participants that the first four armies did. Fortunately, since then there have been no more Christian centered battles and hopefully the future does not hold any.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars that were fought between Muslims and Christians and the main goal of these wars were to recover Jerusalem. The Christians wanted it because it is where they believe that Jesus was born, the Muslims wanted it because it is where they believe prophet Muhammed rose up to heaven. There were three main Crusades (first, second, and third crusade)