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This page is about the ideology and institutions associated with crusading. For the expeditions themselves, see Crusades.

For other uses, see Crusade (disambiguation) and Crusader (disambiguation).

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This is a site of Christian pilgrimage built where Christian Roman authorities pinpointed the purported location of Jesus' burial and resurrection in Jerusalem in 325. One of the objectives of the Crusades was to free the Holy Sepulchre from Muslim control.

The crusading movement encompasses the framework of ideologies and institutions that described, regulated, and promoted the Crusades. The crusades were religious wars that the Christian Latin Church initiated, supported, and sometimes directed in the Middle Ages. The members of the Church defined this movement in legal and theological terms that were based on the concepts of holy war and pilgrimage. In theological terms, the movement merged ideas of Old Testament wars that were believed to have been instigated and assisted by God with New Testament ideas of forming personal relationships with Christ. The institution of crusading developed with the encouragement of church reformers the 11th century in what is commonly known as the Gregorian Reform and declined after the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

The idea of crusading as holy war was based on the Greco-Roman Just war theory. A "just war" was one where a legitimate authority is the instigator, there is a valid cause, and it is waged with good intentions. The Crusades were seen by their adherents as a special Christian pilgrimage – a physical and spiritual journey authorised and protected by the Church. The actions were both a pilgrimage and penitental, Participants were considered part of Christ's army and demonstrated this by attaching crosses of cloth to their outfits. This marked them as followers and devotees of Christ and was in response to biblical passages exhorting Christian "to carry one's cross and follow Christ". Everyone could be involved, with the church considering anyone who died campaigning a Christian martyr. This movement was an important part of late-medieval western culture, that impacted politics, the economy and wider society.

The original focus and objective was the liberation of Jerusalem and the sacred sites of Palestine from non-Christians. The city was considered to be Christ's legacy and it was symbolic of divine restoration. The site of Christ's redemptive acts was pivotal for the inception of the First Crusade and the subsequent establishment of crusading as an institution. The campaigns to reclaim the Holy Land were the ones that attrcated the greatest support, but the crusading movement's theatre of war extended wider than just Palestine. Crusades were waged in the Iberian Peninsula, northeastern Europe against the Wends, the Baltic region, campaigns were fought against those the church considered heretics in France, Germany, and Hungary, as well as in Italy where Pope's indulged in armed conflict with their opponents. By definition all the crusades were waged with papal approval and through this reinforced the Western European concept of a single, unified Christian Church under the Pope

Major Features

Further information: Cluniac Reform, Gregorian Reform, and History of the papacy (1048–1257)

The Crusading movement's origins can be found in the significant changes within the Latin church during the mid-eleventh century. In the 1040s church reformers gained control of the papacy. The reformers viewed this as the most effective method to eliminate what they saw as corruption in the church. They believed in Papal primacy. That the Pope, as heir of St Peter, was the hierarchical leader of all Christendom, including Byzantium. Secular rulers were only appointees who could be removed. The takeover was with the initial support Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, but later in conflict with his son Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The French historian Augustin Fliche popularised the description Gregorian Reform for the resulting innovations, named after one of the leading reformers Pope Gregory VII. This description oversimplifies the complexity of events. There were numerous initiatives which were not all initiated by the papacy which took place across Europe and in different elements of the Church. Reformers opposed practices like the sale of clerical positions, clerical marriage, and papal authority. There was internal opposition to some of Gregory VII's policies which led to a rift with the emperor and a schism within the papacy. Despite this, this faction created an ideological framework and a cohort within the clergy who viewed themselves as God's agents for the moral and spiritual renewal of Christendom. Historians now see this as a pivotal moment for the movement because these were men who stood behind a concept of holy war and would eventually seek to enact it.

Three initiatives were necessary before this could be but into action. Firstly, this reform of the Latin Church into an independent force that was motivated by the belief it had divine authority for religious renewal. This belief would lead to conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire, Muslim states, other Christian groups, and pagans. Secondly, the creation of crusading as a social institution through which the church could act militarily supported by armed nobility considered Knights of Christ. Lastly, the development of formal army structures for the raising of armies through which the church could advance its ambitions. The developments would lead to violent conflicts between the Church and its adversaries and have an impact on broader social and political transformations. These factors enabled the crusading movement, and its decline corresponded with their decreasing significance.

Christianity and war

Fresco from San Bevignate depicting the Templars battling the Saracens, the Battle of Nablus (1242)

Further information: Just war theory

Erdmann documented in The Origin of the Idea of Crusade the three stages of the development of a Christian institution of crusade:

• the argument that preserving Christian unity was a just cause for warfare;
• the ideas developed under Pope Gregory I that the conquest of pagans in an indirect missionary war was also in accordance;
• The paradigm developed under the reformist popes Leo IX, Alexander II, and Gregory VII, in the face of Islamic conflict, that war should be waged to defend Christendom.

Historians, such as Erdmann, believed that from the 10th century the Peace and Truce of God movement restricted conflict between Christians. Certainly, this is evident in Pope Urban II's speeches, but it is now thought that the influence was limited and had even ended by the time of the crusades. In the 11th century, the Church sponsored conflict with Muslims on the southern peripheries of Christendom, including the siege of Barbastro in what is now northern Spain and the Norman conquest of the Emirate of Sicily. For the philosophers and combatants, the conflict in Spain provided practical foundational arguments for the movement. In 1074, Gregory VII planned a holy war in support of Byzantium's struggles with Muslims, which produced a template for a crusade, but he was unable to garner the required support, possibly because he stated he intended to lead the campaign himself.

The Church defined crusading in legal and theological terms based on the theory of holy war and the concept of Christian pilgrimage. The theology developed from a merger of two themes. Firstly, the wars fought by the Israelites in the Old Testament. It was believed these were instigated and assisted by God. Secondly, the Christocentric concept of forming an individual relationship with Christ that came from the New Testament. Holy war was based on bellum justum which was the Greco-Roman just war theory. This was Christianised by a 4th-century theologian called Augustine of Hippo, and canon lawyers developed this further in the 11th century into bellum sacrum. This is what became the paradigm of Christian holy war.} Augustine's argument was that war was sinful, but a "just war" could be rationalised if three criteria were met. These criteria were that the war must be declared by a legitimate authority, it was defensive or for the recovery of rights or property and the combatants intentions must be good. Later, Anselm of Lucca consolidated the writing on just war theories into Collectio Canonum or Collection of Canon Law. In the 13th century these principles formed the foundation of a doctrine of religious war developed by Thomas Aquinas and others. The church used canon law to justify various Italian wars. This was by judging Rome as the Patrimony of Saint Peter and any papal war as being waged by the church in purely defensive crusades to protect theoretical Christian territory.

Penance and indulgence

Further information: Crusade indulgence

The Latin Church had formulated a system enabling forgiveness and pardon for sins in exchange for genuine remorse, admission of wrongdoing, and acts of penance. This presented a significant obstacle for warriors who were required to refrain from violence. In the latter part of the 11th century, Gregory VII resolved this with the offer of forgiveness for sin resulting from supporting him in Church-sanctioned violence as long as service was altruistically given. At the Council of Clermont in November 1095, Urban II offered exemption from penance for those who journeyed to Jerusalem to recover the holt places and the protection of all goods and property while doing so. Subsequently, later Popes developed this into the granting of plenary indulgence that removed the guilt and the sins as well as just the God-imposed punishment.

The weakness of conventional theology when confronted by crusading excitement was evident in a letter critical of Pope Paschal II from the writer Sigebert of Gembloux to the crusader Robert II, Count of Flanders. Sigebert referred to Robert's safe return from Jerusalem, but completely avoided any mention of the crusade. Later, Calixtus II promised identical privileges and protections of property to the families of crusaders. Innocent III emphasised the crusader oath, and that absolution of sins was a gift from God, not reward for the suffering on crusade. In the 1213 bull, Quia maior, he appealed to not just the nobility but to all with the offer of vow redemption without crusading. In this a precedent was set for the trade in spiritual rewards which became a practice that scandalised devout Christians. It would later became a contributing cause of the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

As late as the 16th century, writers were still looking for redemption in crusading, while others – such as English martyrologist John Foxe – saw them as "the impure idolatry, and profanation". Lutherans, Calvinists, and Roman Catholics could agree on other grounds for the Turkish wars and the role of the granting of indulgence declined. Alberico Gentili and Hugo Grotius developed international laws of war that discounted religion as a cause, in contrast to popes, who persisted in issuing crusade bulls for generations.

Knights and chivalry

Further information: Chivalry and Knighthood

When crusading began chivalry was just developing, but in time it played a central role in the crusading ethos, by shaping the ideals and principles of knights. The knighthood was separate from the aristocracy while being praised in literature. The control of fortifications dominated society. The men who manned these became the basis of the knighthood. Simultaneosly, new military tactics based on the use of heavy cavalry combined with the growing naval capability of Italy's maritime republics, made the First Crusade feasible. The new methods of warfare led to codes, ethics, and ideologies. Knighthood required combat training, leading to solidarity and the rise of combat as sport. The resulting tournaments were used by crusade preachers to obtain vows of support from attendees, conduct campaigns of persuasion, and make announcements of senior figures taking of the cross. Despite the courage of knights and some notable generalship, the crusades in the Levant were typically unimpressive. Military strategy and medieval institutions were immature in feudal Europe at the time and power was too fragmented for the creation of disciplined units.

The idealised perfect knight was represented in literature such as the c1130 romance Alexandre. This related adventurous ideas of the courage, charity, and good manners. These ideals of excellence, martial glory, and romantic love conflicted with the spiritual views of the Church. While the Church feared this knightly caste, it also co-opted it for support. The Church developed liturgical blessings to sanctify new knights.. Kings even began depicting themselves as knights to order to project their power.

Crusade participation was considered integral to idealised knightly behaviour. It became part of the knightly class's self-identification, in a way that created a cultural gap with other social classes. From the Fourth Crusade onward, crusading became an adventure that was normalised in Europe. This altered the relationship between knightly enterprise, religious, and worldly motivation.

Military orders

Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson with senior knights, wearing the "Rhodian cross" on their habits. Dedicatory miniature in Gestorum Rhodie obsidionis commentarii (account of the Siege of Rhodes of 1480), BNF Lat 6067 fol. 3v, dated 1483/4.

Further information: Military order (religious society)

There were few innovations in the crusading movement that originated from the polities created in the Eastern Mediterranean following the First Crusade. These polities are generally known as the Crusader states and they tended to follow the customs of western European homelands. One of the exceptions was the creation of military religious orders.

The Knights Hospitaller were delivering ongoing medical functions in Jerusalem before the First Crusade but added a martial element to their to become a much larger military order. The Knights Templar were founded around 1119 by a small band of knights who dedicated themselves to protecting pilgrims en route to Jerusalem. Many other orders followed. These military orders were Latin Christendom's first professional armies, supporting the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states. In time they developed a reach that crossed national borders. This was through papal support that led rich donations of land and revenue across Europe, a steady flow of recruits and the wealth to maintain multiple fortifications. Eventually, the orders even developed independent autonomous powers.

When the Latin Christian control of territory in the Holy Land ended after the fall of Acre, the Hospitallers relocated to Cyprus, conquered and ruled Rhodes (1309–1522) and Malta (1530–1798). The Sovereign Military Order of Malta continue to exist to the present-day. The Knights Templar were brought to an end by the actions of King Philip IV of France around 1312. He probably had financial and political reasons that led him to exert pressure on Pope Clement V. The pope responded by dissolving the order on alleged and false grounds of sodomy, magic, and heresynwith a series of papal bulls including Vox in excelso and Ad providam.

Common people

Further information: Popular crusades

In the movement's early years papal recruitment concentrated on warriors, but it was impossible to exclude non-knightly participants. Grooms, servants, smiths, armourers, and cooks provided services and fought if required. Traveling armies also included women. The motivation of the poor who joined the early crusades in large numbers and engaged in popular unsanctioned events during the 13th and 14th has increasingly been the subject of research by historians. Preaching used popular forms encourage voluntary participation< This meant that theological propaganda could be misunderstood. Crusading was technically defensive, but among the poor, Christianity and crusading were perceived as aggressive. From the 12th century a wealth of useful preaching resources were created. One of the most popular examples came later in 1268, from the Dominican friar Humbert of Romans. He collected, what he considered, the best arguments into a single guide. The poor's eschatological perceptions of crusading as opposed to the advanced, professionalized plans advocated by theorists provoked popular but short-lived outbreaks of crusade enthusiasm following the fall of Acre to Egypt. Most common people did not go on pilgrimage to the East. So to associate themselves with the act, Christians across Europe built models of the Holy Sepulchre and dedicated chapels. Although, these acts predated crusading, they grew in popularity and may have provided a backdrop to Easter Drama or sacramental liturgy. In this way, what was known as the remotest place in 1099 became embedded in daily devotion, providing a visible sign of what crusading was about.

In 1096, 1212, 1251, 1309, and 1320 uncontrolled peasant crusading erupted. Except for the Children's Crusade of 1212, these were all accompanied by violent antisemitism. It is not known why 1212 was the exception. The literate classes were hostile to this particular unauthorised crusade but mytho-historicised it so effectively that it has become one of the most evocative verbal accounts from the Middle Ages and this has remained in European and American imagination. The term "Children's Crusade" requires clarification in that neither word "children" – in Latin pueri – nor the word "crusade" – described in Latin as peregrinatio, iter, expeditio, or crucesignatio – are a completely accurate or inaccurate description. Although, there are a numerous written sources they are of doubtful veracity. They differ on dates and details and utilise mytho-historical motifs and plot lines. At the time, clerics used the sexual purity and "innocence" of the pueri as a critique of the sexual misbehaviour seen in the formal crusades. This misbehaviour was considered to be the source of God's anger and the ultimate reason for the failure of campaigns.

Perception of Muslims

Further information: Christianity and Islam

Ethnic identity was a social construct in medieval times. In the opinion of Christians, all humanity shared descent from Adam and Eve. Differences were cultural, rather than racial. Chroniclers of the First Crusade often use the ethno-cultural term inherited from the Greeks of antiquity of barbarians or barbarae nationes. This is best understood in medieval terms as a differentiator from the self-identity of the word Latins, that the crusaders used for themselves.

There are no specific crusading references in the 11th century chanson de geste Chanson de Roland but the author presents a twisted representation of Muslims as monsters and idolators. Possibly this is for intentional propaganda purposes. Christian writers repeated this imagery elsewhere. Muslims were represented as evil, dehumanised, monstrous aliens with black complexions and devilish faces. Even after wars for territory had declined, this representation of Muslims continued. The noun Muslim was unused in the chronicles instead Saracen was used. This described a member of an Islamic community not a race. Infidel, gentile, enemy of God, and pagan were also used. For Christian clergy the conflict was a Manichean contest between good and evil. Muslims were represented antagonistically, inaccurately and as degenerate beasts. Islamic rites were caricatured and Mohammad was insulted. Historian Jean Flori argues that to self-justify Christianity's move to war, their enemies needed to be ideologically destroyed.

The Turks were respected as opponents in the Gesta Francorum despite some negative representations. Turks and the Franks were considered to share a knightly lineage. Aumont in the Chanson d'Aspremont and some others were represented as equals, even as far as being seen as following the chivalric code. By the time of the Third Crusade there is evidence of a class division within the nobility in both camps. They shared an identity that overcame religious and political differences. The two elites were separate from their common coreligionists who had other loyalties. Epics increasingly included conversions to Christianity. At a time when the crusading movement was being defeated militarily this offered the promise of a successful solution to the conflict.

Numerous poets went on crusade. Theobald I of Navarre, Folquet de Marselha, and Conon de Béthune all wrote songs. Other leading crusaders provided patronage for poets. So poets extolled the values of the nobility. These were feudal in nature and crusading was represented in these terms. The Holy Land was God's, this had been stolen and his Christian vassals was fight for its restoration. The rule by Muslims of lands that had once been held by Christians was seen as theft and the mistreatment of Christians demanded revenge. Islamic polities' own self perception led them to the opposite view and violent resistance to the restoration of Christian governance.

History

Illustration of the Council of Clermont, Jean Colombe, Les Passages d'Outremer, BnF Fr 5594, c. 1475

Further information: Res publica Christiana and First Crusade

The papacy developed "political Augustinianism" into attempts to remove the Church from secular control by asserting ecclesiastical supremacy over temporal polities and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This was associated with the idea that the Church should actively intervene in the world to impose "justice". In the 12th century, Gratian and the Decretists elaborated on this, and Aquinas refined it in the 13th century. In the late 11th and early 12th century the papacy became a unit for organized violence in the Latin world order, equivalent to other kingdoms and principalities. This required what were partly inefficient mechanisms of control that mobilised secular military forces under direct control of the papacy.

The sanctification of war developed from 1159 when fairly permanent conflict with Islam in the Mediterranean began with the encouragement of Pope Alexander II. This included the Norman conquest of Sicily, the recovery of Iberia from the Muslims, and the Pisan and Genoese Mahdia campaign of 1087 to North Africa.

At the Council of Clermont, Urban II laid the foundation of the crusading movement. The catalyst was an embassy from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to the earlier Council of Piacenza, requesting military support in his conflict with the Seljuk Empire. These Turks were expanding into Anatolia and threatening Constantinople. Urban's two expressed objectives for the campaign were freeing Christians and the Holy Sepulchre – the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem – from Muslim control.

The military vulnerability of the settlers in the East required further supportive expeditions throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. In each generation, these followed the pattern of a military setback in the East, followed by a request for aid, and then crusade declarations from the papacy.

12th century

13th-century miniature of Baldwin II of Jerusalem granting the captured Al Aqsa Mosque to Hugues de Payens

The first century of crusading was simultaneous with the Renaissance of the 12th century. Crusading themes were used in the writing that was developing in France and Germany. There are French language versions, and in the literary language of southern France – Occitan, of epic poems such as the Chanson d'Antioche about the Siege of Antioch (1268) and the Canso de la Crozada about the Albigensian Crusade. In French, these were known as Chansons de geste, taken literally from the Latin for deeds done. Crusade songs dedicated to crusading are rare. But many works survive in Occitan, French, German, Spanish, and Italian that include crusading as a topic or use it as an allegory, from the time of the Second Crusade onward. Occitan troubadours Marcabru and Cercamon wrote songs with themes called sirventes and about absent loves called pastorela. Crusading became the subject of songs and poems rather than creating a new genre. Many songs about the third and fourth crusades remain, written by troubadours, and their northern French Trouvère and German Minnesänger equivalents. Crusade songs served multiple purposes. They provided material, variations on courtly love, allegories, and paradigms. Through song audiences learnt about crusading in a way unmediated by the Church. These songs reinforced the nobility's identity and its position in society. They also provided for the expression of injustice and criticism of mismanagement when events did not go well.

The First crusade's success was astonishing and seen as only possible through God's will. Urban's successor, Paschal II's Spanish experience led him to offer Spaniads sin remission to fight Muslims in their homeland, rather than journey to Jerusalem. He also did this gain support to suppress political opposition in Italy in support of Bohemond I of Antioch's campaign against Byzantium. Early crusade recruitment concentrated in certain families and networks of vassals. These groups demonstrated their commitment through funding, although the sale of churches and tithes may have been a pragmatic acceptance that retaining these properties was unsustainable in the face of the reform movement in the Church. These kinship groups often exhibited traditions of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, association with Cluniac monasticism, the reformed papacy, and the veneration of certain saints. Marriage spread these values into other groups. Pope Calixtus II was another with Spanish experience. In 1123, He proposed that crusading should be conducted in both Iberia in the Levant with Canon XI at the First Council of the Lateran. This led to the campaign by Alfonso the Battler against Granada in 1125.

Strategically, the crusaders could not hold Jerusalem in isolation, which led to the establishment of other western polities known as the Latin East. Even then, these required regular defensive expeditions, supported by the developing military orders. The movement expanded into Spain with campaigns in 1114, 1118, and 1122. Eugenius III he drew ideological links between fighting the Wends, the reconquest of Spain and the Second Crusade. The crusade in the East was not a success, which left the movement at the lowest ebb that it would be until the 1400s. There were still three campaigns in Spain, and in 1177 one in the East, but the movement remained diminished until news of the defeat at the hands of the Muslims in the Battle of Hattin created consternation throughout Europe and reignited enthusiasm.

From the latter part of the century, Europeans adopted the terms crucesignatus or crucesignata, meaning "one signed by the cross". Crusaders identified themselves by attaching cloth crosses to their clothing. This fashion derived from the biblical passages in Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34 and Matthew 16:24 "to carry one's cross and follow Christ". Through this action, a personal relationship between Crusaders and God was formed. This was a mark of the crusader's spirituality. Anyone could become a crusader, irrespective of gender, wealth, or social standing. This was known as an imitatio Christi, an "imitation of Christ", a sacrifice motivated by charity for fellow Christians. Those who died campaigning were martyrs.

13th century

Providentialism was linked enthusiastically with an appetite for prophecy at the end of the 12th century. Joachim of Fiore included the war against the infidels in his cryptic writings of the past, the present, and the future. Foreshadowing the Children's Crusade, he believed that the third of his three ages of history was the age of the Holy Spirit. The representatives of this were children, or pueri. Salimbene and other Franciscans considered themselves as ordo parvulorum which translates as "order of little ones". The Austrian Rhymed Chronicle added apocalyptic elements of mytho-history to the Children's Crusade. In 1213, Innocent III called for the Fifth Crusade by announcing that the days of Islam were over.

Propaganda

Jean de Mandeville is sent forth from England on his expedition by Edward II

The crusading movement brought together supporters within papal circles, monastic orders, mendicant friars, and the developing universities. Despite this seeming unity achieving uniformity in medieval Christendom was in practice challenging. Central church authority lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure and control necessary to make this happen. Crusading themes featured in literary works include include romances, travelogues like Mandeville's Travels, poems such as Piers Plowman and John Gower's Confessio Amantis, and works by Geoffrey Chaucer. Nationalism was largely absent. Instead great men were praised, such as Charlemagne and members of leading families.

Institutional reform

From 1198 when he was elected pope, Innocent III reformed the ideology and practices of crusading. He created a new executive office to organise the Fourth Crusade. In each province of the Church he appointed executors and utilised freelance preachers such as Fulk of Neuilly. By the time of the Fifth Crusade this system developed into provincial organisations with papal authority, while the papacy codified preaching. dioceses and archdioceses were required to report to these bodies on promotional policy. Implementation was pragmatic and ad-hoc because of political circumstance, but local propaganda was more coherent and greater than before. Innocent III increased campaign funding through the introduction of taxation and by encouraging donations. In 1199, he became the first pope to enforce papal rights by deploying the conceptual and legal apparatus developed for crusading against his Christian opponents. From the 1220s, crusader privileges were regularly granted to those who fought those Christians the papacy considered non-conformist, heretics, or schismatics.

Popular crusading

Academic views on the breadth of the crusading movement are varied. Riley-Smith excludes popular crusades by definition, while Gary Dickson has produced in depth research. The 1212 Children's Crusade was the inaugural independent popular crusade. This began a tradition of outbreaks of popular crusading that lasted until the 1514 Hungarian Peasants' Crusade. The children's crusade was prompted by preaching for the Albigensian Crusade and processions seeking divine intervention for the Iberian crusades. Crusades such as these were considered illegitimate because they were unauthorised by the Church and lacked papal endorsement. The participants were also unconventional crusaders. Little evidence remains for what these poor crusaders thought or felt. Although rare sources cast doubt on whether these poor crusaders were in fact poor. The anonymous author of the Austrian Rhymed Chronical included what they claimed was a verbatim lyric of the marching song of children on the march to the East. This offers one evidential window into their eschatological beliefs. The church could not understand poor secular leaders like Nicholas of Cologne who used charisma when recruiting large followings.

Early century

Cardinal Hugo Ugolino of Segni led teams of preachers in Tuscany and northern Italy between 1217 and 1221. He played a part in loosening the church funding and crusade recruitment rules by using five percent income tax on the Church known as the "clerical twentieth" to pay for the mercenaries who joined the Fifth Crusade and for grants to crucesignati. He took the name Pope Gregory IX when elected pope in 1227. In 1239 Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick II when the emperor attempted to expand into papal territory. In 1241 Frederick threatened Rome, so Gregory deployed the crusading tools of indulgences, privileges, and taxes against him.

Innocent IV agreed with Muslims land ownership but in his view this was only under the authority of Christ. The Christians' right to ownership was foundational to crusading ideology. Alexander IV continued the policies of Gregory IX and Innocent IV after he succeeded to the papacy in 1254. In practice this led to crusading against the Hohenstaufen dynasty. In the face of a significant low point of the movement in 1274, the Second Council of Lyons began the gathering of ideas to improve crusading organisation and finance. This demonstrated the resilience that would enable the movement's continuing existence.

Criticism

Early criticism of crusading and the conduct of crusaders is evident. While the concept itself was seldom questioned in the 12th and 13th centuries, there were vigorous objections to crusades targeting heretics and Christian secular powers. The assault on Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and the diversion of resources against Church enemies in Europe, such as the Albigensian heretics and the Hohenstaufen, drew condemnation. Troubadours in southern France expressed discontent with expeditions, lamenting the neglect of the Holy Land. The behavior of participants was seen as falling short of the expectations of a holy war, with chroniclers and preachers decrying instances of sexual immorality, greed, and arrogance. Western Europeans attributed failures and setbacks, such as those during the First Crusade and the defeat of the kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin by Saladin, to human frailty. Gerhoh of Reichersberg linked the shortcomings of the Second Crusade to the arrival of the Antichrist and accused the movement of fostering increased puritanism.

In response to criticism, the movement implemented ceremonial processions, calls for reform, bans on gambling and extravagance, and restrictions on the participation of women. The Würzburg Annals condemned the conduct of the crusaders, attributing it to diabolical influence. The defeat of Louis IX of France at the Battle of Mansurah in 1250 triggered debates on crusading in sermons and writings, including Humbert of Romans's work De praedicatione crucis—concerning the preaching of the cross. Humbert raised doubts about the method of forcible conversion.

Later century

Prominent critics such as Matthew Paris in Chronica Majora and Richard of Mapham, the dean of Lincoln, voiced notable concerns at the council. The military orders, especially the Teutonic Order, faced censure for their arrogance, greed, luxurious lifestyles funded by their wealth, and inadequate deployment of forces in the Holy Land. Internal conflicts between the Templars and Hospitallers, as well as among Christians in the Baltic, hindered collaborative efforts. The Church perceived military actions in the East as less effective due to the independence of these orders and their perceived reluctance to engage in combat with Muslims, with whom critics believed they maintained overly cordial relations. A minority perspective, advocated by Roger Bacon and others, argued that aggressive actions, particularly in the Baltic, impeded the conversion efforts.

The movement continued to exhibit traits of innovation, commitment, resilience, and flexibility by consolidating methods of organisation and finance, which facilitated its survival. One of Pope Gregory X's objectives was the reunification of the Latin and Greek churches, which he viewed as essential for a new crusade. Gregory created a complex tax gathering system for the funding of crusading, dividing Latin Christendom in 1274 into twenty-six collectorates. Each of these was under the direction of a general collector who further delegated the assessment of tax liability to reduce fraud. The vast amounts raised by this system led to clerical criticism of obligatory taxation.

14th century

Start of the Directorium ad passagium faciendum, in a French translation by Jean de Vignay, from a manuscript of the 1330s

Between the councils of Lyon in 1274 and Vienna in 1314, there existed over twenty treatises concerning the recovery of the Holy Land. These were instigated by Popes who, following the lead of Innocent III, sought counsel on the matter. This led to unfulfilled strategies for the blockading Egypt and possible expeditions to establish a foothold that would pave the way for full-scale crusades with professional armies. Discussions among writers often revolved around the intricacies of Capetian and Aragonese dynastic politics. Periodic bursts of popular crusading occurred throughout the decades, spurred by events like the Mongol victory at Homs and grassroots movements in France and Germany. Despite numerous obstacles, the papacy's establishment of taxation, including a six-year tithe on clerical incomes, to fund contracted professional crusading armies, represented a remarkable feat of institutionalisation.

Beginning in 1304 and lasting the entire 14th century, the Teutonic Order used the privileges Innocent IV had granted in 1245 to recruit crusaders in Prussia and Livonia, in the absence of any formal crusade authority. Knightly volunteers from every Catholic state in western Europe flocked to take part in campaigns known as Reisen, or journeys, as part of a chivalric cult. Commencing in 1332, the numerous Holy Leagues in the form of temporary alliances between interested Christian powers, were a new manifestation of the movement. Successful campaigns included the capture of Smyrna in 1344, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and the recovery of territory in the Balkans between 1684 and 1697.

After the Treaty of Brétigny between England and France, the anarchic political situation in Italy prompted the curia to begin issuing indulgences for those who would fight the merceneries threatening the pope and his court at Avignon. In 1378, the Western Schism split the papacy into two and then three, with rival Popes declaring crusades against each other. The growing threat from the Ottoman Turks provided a welcome distraction that would unite the papacy and divert the violence to another front. By the end of the century, the Teutonic Order's Reisen had become obsolescent. Commoners had limited interaction with crusading beyond the preaching of indulgences, the success of which depended on the preacher's ability, local powers' attitudes, and the extent of promotion. However, there is no evidence that the failure to organize anti-Turkish crusading was due to popular apathy or hostility rather than to finance and politics.

15th century

Eugenius IV became Pope in 1431 and entered into ecumenical negotiation with the Byzantine Empire. John V Palaiologos's discussions with Eugenius led to an announcmentt of unification of the Latin, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Nestorian, and Cypriot Maronite churches. In return the Byzantines received military assistance. Between 1440 and 1444, Eugenius coordinated efforts to defend Constantinople from the Turks. However, this strategy failed in a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Varna in November 1444. The fall of Constantinople to Mehmed II in 1453 marked the beginning of a twenty-eight-year expansion of the sultanate.

Pius II suggested to Mehmed II the possibility of converting to Christianity and emulating the legacy of Constantine. Despite coming close to organizing an anti-Turkish crusade in 1464, his plans ultimately failed. Throughout his papacy and those of his immediate successors, the raised funds and military resources were insufficient, poorly timed, or misallocated for effective action against the Turks. This was despite:

• the commissioning of advisory tracts reconsidering the political, financial, and military issues;
• Frankish rulers exiled from the Holy Land who toured Christendom's courts seeking assistance;
• individuals, such as Cardinal Bessarion, dedicating themselves to the crusading movement; and
• the continued levying of church taxes and preaching of indulgences.

Warfare was now more professional and costly. This was driven by factors including contractual recruitment, increased intelligence and espionage, a greater emphasis on naval warfare, the grooming of alliances, new and varied tactics to deal with different circumstances and opposition, and the hiring of experts in siege warfare. There was disillusionment and suspicion of how practical the objectives of the movements were. Lay sovereigns were more independent and prioritized their own objectives. The political authority of the papacy was reduced by the Western Schism, so popes such as Pius II and Innocent VIII found their congresses ignored. Politics and self-interest wrecked any plans. All of Europe acknowledged the need for a crusade to combat the Ottoman Empire, but effectively all blocked its formation. Popular feeling is difficult to judge: actual crusading had long since become distant from most commoners' lives. One example from 1488 saw Wageningen parishioners influenced by their priest's criticism of crusading to such a degree they refused to allow the collectors to take away donations. This contrasts with chronicle accounts of successful preaching in Erfurt at the same time and the extraordinary response for a crusade to relieve Belgrade in 1456.

Around the end of the 15th century, the military orders were transformed. Castile nationalized its orders between 1487 and 1499. In 1523, the Hospitallers retreated from Rhodes to Crete and Sicily and in 1530 to Malta and Gozo. The State of the Teutonic Order became the hereditary Duchy of Prussia when the last Prussian master, Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach, converted to Lutheranism and became the first duke under oath to his uncle the Polish king.

16th century

In the 16th century, the rivalry between Catholic monarchs prevented anti-Protestant crusades, but individual military actions were rewarded with crusader privileges, including Irish Catholic rebellions against English Protestant rule and the Spanish Armada's attack on England under Queen Elizabeth I. In 1562, Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, became the hereditary Grand Master of the Order of Saint Stephen, a Tuscan military order he founded, which was modelled on the knights of Malta. The Hospitallers remained the only independent military order with a positive strategy. Other orders continued as aristocratic corporations while lay powers absorbed local orders, outposts, and priories. Political concerns provoked self-interested polemics that mixed the legendary and historical past. Humanist scholarship and theological hostility created an independent historiography. The rise of the Ottomans, the French Wars of Religion, and the Protestant Reformation encouraged the study of crusading. Some Roman Catholic writers considered the crusades gave precedents for dealing with heretics. It was thought that the crusaders were sincere, but there was increasing uneasiness with considering war as a religious exercise as opposed to having a territorial objective.

17th century and later

Crusading continued in the 17th century, mainly associated with the Hapsburgs and the Spanish national identity. Crusade indulgences and taxation were used in support of the Cretan War (1645–1669), the Battle of Vienna, and the Holy League (1684). Although the Hospitallers continued the military orders in the 18th century, the crusading movement soon ended in terms of acquiescence, popularity, and support.

The French Revolution resulted in widespread confiscations from the military orders, which were now largely irrelevant, apart from minor effects in the Hapsburg Empire. The Hospitallers continued acting as a military order from its territory in Malta until the island was conquered by Napoleon in 1798. In 1809, Napoleon went on to suppress the Order of St Stephen, and the Teutonic Order was stripped of its German possessions before relocating to Vienna. At this point, its identity as a military order ended.

In 1936, the Catholic Church in Spain supported the coup of Francisco Franco, declaring a crusade against Marxism and atheism. Thirty-six years of National Catholicism followed, during which the idea of Reconquista as a foundation of historical memory, celebration, and Spanish national identity became entrenched in conservative circles. Reconquista lost its historiographical hegemony when Spain restored democracy in 1978, but it remains a fundamental definition of the medieval period within conservative sectors of academia, politics, and the media because of its strong ideological connotations.

Legacy

Inspired by the first crusades, the crusading movement defined late medieval western culture and had an enduring impact on the history of the western Islamic world. This influence was in every area of life across Europe. Christendom was geopolitical, and this underpinned the practice of the medieval Church. These ideas arose with the encouragement of the reformists of the 11th century and declined after the Reformation. The ideology of crusading continued after the 16th century with the military orders but dwindled in competition with other forms of religious war and new ideologies.

Some historians have maintained that the Latin states in the Holy Land were the first experiment in western European colonialism, seeing the Outremer as a "Europe Overseas". Certainly by the mid-19th century, the crusader states that had existed in the East were both a nationalist rallying point and emblematic of European colonialism. This is a contentious issue, as others maintain that the Latin settlements in the Levant did not meet the accepted definition of a colony, that of territory politically directed by or economically exploited for the benefit of a homeland. Writers at the time did refer to colonists and migration, this means that academics find the concept of a religious colony useful, defined as territory captured and settled for religious reasons whose inhabitants maintain contact with their homelands due to a shared faith, and the need for financial and military assistance. That said, the crusading movement led directly to the occupation of the Byzantine Empire by western colonists after the Fourth Crusade. In Venetian Greece, the relationship with Venice and the political and economic direction the city provided matches the more conventional definition of colonialism. In fact, its prosperity and relative safety drained settlers from the Latin East, which weakened the religious colonies of the Levant.

The raising, transporting, and supply of large armies led to a flourishing trade between Europe and the Outremer. The Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice flourished, planting profitable trading colonies in the eastern Mediterranean. The crusades consolidated the papal leadership of the Latin Church, reinforcing the link between the Catholic Church, feudalism, and militarism, and increased the tolerance of the clergy for violence. Muslim libraries contained classical Greek and Roman texts that allowed Europe to rediscover pre-Christian philosophy, science, and medicine. Opposition to the growth of the system of indulgences became a catalyst for the Reformation in the early 16th century. The crusades also had a role in the formation and institutionalisation of the military and the Dominican orders as well as of the Medieval Inquisition.

The behaviour of the crusaders in the eastern Mediterranean area appalled the Greeks and Muslims, creating a lasting barrier between the Latin world and the Islamic and Eastern Christian regions. This became an obstacle to the reunification of the Christian churches and fostered a perception of Westerners as defeated aggressors. Many historians argue that the interaction between the Latin Christian and Islamic cultures played an ultimately positive part in the development of European civilization and the Renaissance. Relations between Europeans and the Islamic world stretched across the entire length of the Mediterranean Sea, leading to an improved perception of Islamic culture in the West. But this broad area of interaction also makes it difficult for historians to identify the specific sources of cultural cross-fertilisation.

Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of political Islam, encouraging ideas of modern jihad and long struggle, while secular Arab nationalism highlights the role of Western imperialism. Muslim thinkers, politicians, and historians have drawn parallels between the crusades and modern political developments such as the League of Nations mandates to govern Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, then the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Right-wing circles in the Western world have drawn opposing parallels, considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the crusades. Advocates present crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric as an appropriate response, even if only for propaganda. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy. Some historians, such as Thomas F. Madden, argue that modern tensions result from a constructed view of the crusades created by colonial powers in the 19th century, which provoked Arab nationalism. For Madden, the crusades are a medieval phenomenon in which the crusaders were engaged in a defensive war on behalf of their co-religionists.

Historiography

Main articles: Historiography of the Crusades and Islamic views on the crusades

The description and interpretation of crusading began with accounts of the First Crusade. The image and morality of the first expeditions served as propaganda for new campaigns. The understanding of the crusades was based on a limited set of interrelated texts. Gesta Francorum (Exploits of the Franks) created a papist, northern French, and Benedictine template for later works that contained a degree of martial advocacy that attributed both success and failure to God's will. This clerical view was challenged by vernacular adventure stories based on the work of Albert of Aachen. William of Tyre expanded Albert's writing in his Historia, which was completed by 1200. His work described the warrior state the Outremer became as a result of the tension between the providential and the worldly. Medieval crusade historiography predominately remained interested in moralistic lessons, extolling the crusades as moral and cultural norms. Academic crusade historian Paul Chevedden argued that these accounts are anachronistic, in that they were aware of the success of the First Crusade. He argues that, to understand the state of the crusading movement in the 11th century, it is better to examine the works of Urban II who died unaware of the outcome.

Independent historiography emerged in the 15th century and was informed by humanism and hostility to theology. This grew in popularity in the 16th century, encouraged by events such as the rise of the Ottoman Turks, the French Wars of Religion, and the Protestant Reformation. Traditional crusading provided illustrations of ways to achieve redemption that were, in turn, disparaged as papal idolatry and superstition. War against the infidel was laudable, but crusading movement doctrines were not. Popes persisted in issuing crusade bulls for generations, but international laws of war that discounted religion as a cause were developed. A nationalist view developed, providing a cultural bridge between the papist past and Protestant future based on two dominant themes for crusade historiography: firstly, intellectual, or religious disdain; and secondly, national, or cultural admiration. Crusading now had only a technical impact on contemporary wars but provided imagery of noble and lost causes. Opinions of crusading moved beyond the judgment of religion and increasingly depicted crusades as models of the distant past that were either edifying or repulsive.

18th century Age of Enlightenment philosopher historians narrowed the chronological and geographical scope to the Levant and the Outremer between 1095 and 1291. There were attempts to set the number crusades at eight while others counted five large expeditions that reached the eastern Mediterranean – 1096–1099, 1147–1149, 1189–1192, 1217–1229, and 1248–1254. In the absence of an Ottoman threat, influential writers considered crusading in terms of anticlericalism, viewing crusading with disdain for its apparent ignorance, fanaticism, and violence. By the 19th century, crusade enthusiasts disagreed with this view as being unnecessarily hostile and ignorant.

Increasingly positive views of the Middle Ages developed in the 19th century. A fascination with chivalry developed to support the moral, religious, and cultural mores of established society. In a world of unsettling change and rapid industrialization, nostalgic escapist apologists and popular historians developed a positive view of crusading. Jonathan Riley-Smith considers that much of the popular understanding of the crusades derives from the 19th century novels of Sir Walter Scott and the French histories of Joseph François Michaud. Michaud married admiration of supremacist triumphalism – supporting the nascent European commercial and political colonialism of the Middle East – to the point where the Outremer were "Christian colonies". The Franco-Syrian society in the Outremer became seen as benevolent, an attractive idea justifying the French mandates in Syria and Lebanon. In 1953, Jean Richard described the kingdom of Jerusalem as "the first attempt by the Franks of the West to found colonies". In the absence of widespread warfare, 19th century Europe created a cult of war based on the crusades, linked to political polemic and national identities. After World War I, crusading no longer received the same positive responses; war was now sometimes necessary but not good, sanctified, or redemptive. Michaud's viewpoint provoked Muslim attitudes. The crusades had aroused little interest among Islamic and Arabic scholars until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the penetration of European power.

Jonathan Riley-Smith straddles the two schools regarding the motives and actions of early crusaders. The definition of a crusade remains contentious. Historians accept Riley-Smith's view that "everyone accepted that the crusades to the East were the most prestigious and provided the scale against which the others were measured". There is disagreement whether only those campaigns launched to recover or protect Jerusalem were proper crusades or whether those wars to which popes applied temporal and spiritual authority were equally legitimate. Today, crusade historians study the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and even the Atlantic, and crusading's position in, and derivation from, host and victim societies. Chronological horizons have crusades existing into the early modern world, e.g. the survival of the Order of St. John on Malta until 1798. The academic study of crusading in the West has integrated mainstream theology, the Church, law, popular religion, aristocratic society and values, and politics. The Muslim context now receives attention from Islamicists. Academics have replaced disdain with attempts to situate crusading within its social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and political context. Historians employ a wide range of evidence, including charters, archaeology, and the visual arts, to supplement chronicles and letters. Local studies have lent precision as well as diversity.

Fragment of a haggada from the Cairo genizah. The Cairo Genizah documents, retrieved in 1896–1897 from the Ben Ezra synagogue, offer significant examples of Judeo-Arabic, spanning various genres.

The Byzantines harboured a negative perspective on holy warfare, failing to grasp the concept of the Crusades and finding them repugnant. Although some initially embraced Westerners due to a common Christianity, their trust soon waned. With a pragmatic approach, the Byzantines prioritised strategic locations such as Antioch over sentimental objectives like Jerusalem. They couldn't comprehend the merging of pilgrimage and warfare. The advocacy for infidel eradication by St. Bernard and the militant role of the Templars would deeply shock them. Suspicions arose among the Byzantines that Westerners aimed for imperial conquest, leading to growing animosity. Despite occasionally using the term "holy war" in historical contexts, Byzantine conflicts were not inherently holy but perceived as just, defending the empire and Christian faith. War, to the Byzantines, was justified solely for the defence of the empire, in contrast to Muslim expansionist ideals and Western knights' notion of holy warfare to glorify Christianity.

Scholars like Carole Hillenbrand assert that within the broader context of Muslim historical events, the Crusades were considered a marginal issue when compared to the collapse of the Caliphate, the Mongol invasions, and the rise of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, supplanting Arab rule. Arab historians, influenced by historical opposition to Turkish control over their homelands, adopted a Western perspective on the Crusades. Syrian Christians proficient in Arabic played a vital role by translating French histories into Arabic. The first modern biography of Saladin was authored by the Ottoman Turk Namık Kemal in 1872, while the Egyptian Sayyid Ali al-Hariri produced the initial Arabic history of the Crusades in response to Kaiser Wilhelm II's visit to Jerusalem in 1898. The visit triggered a renewed interest in Saladin, who had previously been overshadowed by more recent leaders like Baybars. The reinterpretation of Saladin as a hero against Western imperialism gained traction among nationalist Arabs, fueled by anti-imperialist sentiment. The intersection of history and contemporary politics is evident in the development of ideas surrounding jihad and Arab nationalism. Historical parallels between the Crusades and modern political events, such as the establishment of Israel in 1948, have been drawn. In contemporary Western discourse, right-wing perspectives have emerged, viewing Christianity as under threat analogous to the Crusades, using crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric for propaganda purposes. Madden argues that Arab nationalism absorbed a constructed view of the Crusades created by colonial powers in the 19th century, contributing to modern tensions. Madden suggests that the crusading movement, from a medieval perspective, engaged in a defensive war on behalf of co-religionists.

See also

• History of the Jews and the Crusades
• List of principal crusaders
• List of Crusader castles
• Women in the Crusades
• Criticism of crusading

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Further reading

• Cobb, Paul M. (2014). The Race for Paradise : an Islamic History of the Crusades. Oxford University Press.
• Flori, Jean (2005). "Ideology and Motivations in the First Crusade". In Nicholson, Helen J. (ed.). Palgrave Advances in the Crusades. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 15–36. doi:10.1057/9780230524095_2. ISBN 978-1-4039-1237-4.
• Horowitz, Michael C. (2009). "Long Time Going:Religion and the Duration of Crusading". International Security. 34 (27). MIT Press: 162–193. doi:10.1162/isec.2009.34.2.162. JSTOR 40389216. S2CID 57564747. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
• Kedar, Benjamin Z. (1998). "Crusade Historians and the Massacres of 1096". Jewish History. 12 (2): 11–31. doi:10.1007/BF02335496. S2CID 153734729.
• Kostick, Conor (2008). The Social Structure of the First Crusade. Brill.
• Maier, C. (2000). Crusade Propaganda and Ideology: Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511496554. ISBN 978-0-521-59061-7.
• Polk, William R. (2018). Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North. Yale University Press.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2001). "The crusading movement". In Hartmann, Anja V.; Hauser, Beatrice (eds.). War, Peace and World Orders in European History. Routledge. pp. 127–140. ISBN 978-0-415-24440-4.
• Tuck, Richard (1999). The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820753-5.
• Tyerman, Christopher (1995). "Were There Any Crusades in the Twelfth Century?". The English Historical Review. 110 (437). Oxford University Press: 553–577. doi:10.1093/ehr/CX.437.553. JSTOR 578335.