Crusading movement

Template:Main Template:Further

A page from a centuries-old hand-written codex with a large initial letter in the text — A page from an early 12th-century manuscript of *The City of God* by Augustine

In classical antiquity, Greek philosophers and Roman jurists formulated just war theories that later influenced crusading theology. Aristotle stressed the need for a just end, asserting "war must be for the sake of peace". Roman law required a Template:Transliteration—just cause—and held that only legitimate authorities could declare war, with defence, restitution, and punishment considered acceptable grounds.Template:Sfn Although the Bible—Christianity's core scripture—presents conflicting views on violence,Template:Refn Template:Sfn the 4th-century Christianisation of the Roman Empire gave rise to Christian just war theory. Ambrose, a former imperial official, was the first to equate enemies of the state with those of the Church.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The empire was divided in 395.Template:Sfn Fifteen years later, the sack of the city of Rome led Augustine—Ambrose's student—to write The City of God, a monumental historical study,Template:Sfn in which he argued that the Bible's prohibition on killing did not apply to wars waged with divine approval.Template:Sfn He held that just war must be declared by legitimate authority, pursued for a just cause once peaceful means had failed, and conducted with restraint and good intent.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His reflections were nearly forgotten after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Tripartite world

Template:Further

From the ruins of the Western empire, new Christian kingdoms emerged, largely ruled by Germanic warlords. Among this aristocracy, martial prowess and comradeship were core values. Clergy often praised their violence in pursuit of patronage, though the Church still deemed killing sinful and required penance—typically fasting Template:Sfn—for absolution.Template:Sfn

Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire endured, though much of its territory, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the rapidly expanding Islamic Caliphate by the mid-7thTemplate:Nbspcentury.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Islam's holiest text, the Quran, addresses Template:Transliteration—struggle to spread and defend the faith.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the early 8thTemplate:Nbspcentury, Muslim forces entered Europe, conquering much of the Iberian Peninsula. Christians under Muslim rule had to pay a special tax, the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn As conquests stabilized, a threefold civilisational order emerged: a fragmented Western Europe, a weakened Byzantium, and an expansionist Islamic world.Template:Sfn

Holy wars and piety

Christian resistance to Muslim advance led to the creation of the small Kingdom of Asturias in north-western Iberia. Over time, this resistance evolved into an expansionist movement, regarded by locals as divinely sanctioned. In the 9thTemplate:Nbspcentury, repeated invasions by non-Christian groups across Western Europe revived the notion of holy war:Template:Sfn conflict authorized by a spiritual leader, pursued for religious aims, and rewarded with salvation.Template:Sfn Leo IV was the first pope to promise salvation in 846 to those defending the papal territories.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

As warfare became constant, a new military class of mounted warriors emerged. Known as Template:Transliteration in contemporary texts, they specialized in weapons like the heavy lance.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn To restrain their violence, church leaders launched the Peace of God movement.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ironically, efforts to curb bloodshed also militarized the Church, as bishops increasingly raised armies to enforce the Peace.Template:Sfn

With weak central authority, regional strongmen seized control of parishes and abbeys, often appointing unfit clergy. Believers feared such irregularities invalidated sacraments,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn heightening anxiety over damnation.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Sinners were expected to confess and perform penance to be reconciled with the Church. Since penance could be burdensome, priests began offering indulgences—commuting penance into acts like almsgiving or pilgrimage.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Among these acts, penitential journeys to Palestine held special value, as the region was the setting of Jesus's ministry Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to mark his crucifixion and resurrection.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Church reforms

Fear of damnation spurred reform movements within the Church, which was regarded as the channel through which divine grace was dispensed. In 910, Cluny Abbey's foundation charter set a precedent by granting monks the right to freely elect their abbot. The Cluniac Reform spread rapidly, backed by aristocrats who valued the monks' prayers for their souls.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Cluniac houses answered solely to papal authority.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The popes, viewed as the successors of Peter the Apostle, claimed supremacy over the Church, citing Jesus's praise for his apostle.Template:Sfn In reality, Roman noble families controlled the papacy until Emperor [[Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor|HenryTemplate:NbspIII]] entered Rome in 1053. He appointed clerics who launched the Gregorian Reform for the "liberty of the church", banning simony—the sale of church offices—and giving cardinals, senior clergy, the sole right to elect the pope.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Andrew Latham, a scholar of international relations, argues that the Gregorian Reform placed the Western Church in conflict with "a range of social forces within and beyond Christendom".Template:Sfn By then, divisions in theology and liturgy between Western and Eastern mainstream Christianity had deepened,Template:Refn leading to mutual excommunications in 1054 and the eventual split between the western Roman Catholic and eastern Orthodox Churches, although communion was not entirely severed.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

A spiritual revival took root as new monastic communities like the Carthusians and Cistercians emerged and the Rule of Saint Augustine spread among secular clergy. Christocentrism—a renewed focus on Christ's life and sufferings—also shaped the period, inspiring itinerant preachers who often defied episcopal authority.Template:Sfn

Prelude to the Crusades

Template:Main Template:See also

Four major powers dominated the Mediterranean Template:Circa: the Umayyads in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), the Fatimids in Egypt, the Abbasids (nominally) in the Middle East, and the Byzantine Empire. Within decades, all experienced serious crises, especially in the east, where climate anomalies triggered famine and instability.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In contrast, climate change benefitted Western Europe, fuelling economic and population growth.Template:Sfn

Weakened by internal conflict, Al-Andalus fractured into small states, vulnerable to Christian expansion—a process called the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn The historian Thomas Madden describes it as "the training ground" for the crusades, blending pilgrimage with anti-Muslim warfare.Template:Sfn In Egypt and Palestine, repeated failure of the Nile's floods led to famine and interreligious tension. In 1009, the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre,Template:Refn Template:Sfn though it was later rebuilt with Byzantine support.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, Turkoman migrations from Central Asia destabilized the Middle East. The Turkoman chief Template:Nowrap, of the Seljuk clan, seized Baghdad in 1055;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn his successor, Alp Arslan, defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1072, opening Anatolia to Turkoman settlement.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

As traditional powers declined, Italian merchants gained control of Mediterranean trade.Template:Sfn The Normans, originating in northern France, conquered southern Italy and Sicily by 1091.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Their expansion threatened papal interests, prompting Pope Leo IX to launch a military campaign against them. Although his campaign failed, he had promised absolution to its participantsTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn—a sign of the reform papacy's willingness to invoke spiritual incentives for warfare.Template:Sfn

For Western warriors, warfare offered a path to land and power.Template:Refn Template:Sfn These ambitions often aligned with reformist popes, who granted absolution to those fighting Muslim powers in Sicily and Iberia.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn As these territories were once Christian, papal attention soon turned to Palestine. Pope GregoryTemplate:NbspVII proposed a campaign to reclaim Jerusalem in 1074, though it never materialized.Template:Sfn Two years later, disputes over papal and royal authority ignited the Investiture Controversy, reviving interest in just war theory.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Anselm of Lucca, a canon lawyer, compiled Augustine's writings to argue that war aimed at preventing sin could be an act of love. The theologian Bonizo of Sutri considered those who died in such wars martyrs.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn These ideas shaped the notion of penitential warfare: the belief that fighting for a just cause could serve as penance.Template:Sfn

Crusading campaigns

The fusion of classical just war theory, biblical views on warfare, and Augustine's teaching on legitimate violence provided the Western Church with an ideological framework for military engagement.Template:Sfn By the late 11thTemplate:Nbspcentury, amid religious revival and heightened concern over sin, the papacy was well positioned to mobilize the warrior class's values, particularly loyalty.Template:Sfn

First Crusade

A miniature depicting a walled town with arrow men on the walls, and a siege tower and dozens of soldiers attacking the town — Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade (a miniature from a 14th-century manuscript about the Crusades to the Holy Land)

Facing Turkoman incursions, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos sought military aid from Pope Urban II in 1095. Seeing this as a chance to reassert papal authority, Urban called for a campaign against the Turkomans at the Council of Clermont, offering spiritual rewards to participants.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The historian Jonathan Riley-Smith views this as a "revolutionary appeal" that linked warfare to pilgrimage.Template:Sfn

Urban's appeal sparked unexpected enthusiasm. In early 1096, more than 20,000Template:Nbsppoorly organized Crusaders set off in what became the People's Crusade. Most perished or were massacred en route.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A second wave followed between August and October in that year, comprising at least 30,000Template:Nbspwarriors and as many non-combatants, led by prominent aristocrats including Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Bohemond of Taranto, and Godfrey of Bouillon.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They advanced through fragmented Muslim-held territories and captured the cities of Edessa, Antioch, and Jerusalem by July 1099.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Crusades for the Holy Land

Template:Main Template:Further

The first Crusaders consolidated their conquests into four Crusader states: Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Tripoli. Their defence prompted new campaigns, the first as early as 1101. Several expeditions, especially those led by monarchs, became numbered.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn These campaigns brought about near-continuous warfare in the region, drawing forces from across the wider world, including crusaders from Western Europe, slave soldiers from sub-Saharan Africa, and nomadic horsemen from the Eurasian steppes.Template:Sfn Edessa's fall in 1144 to the Turkoman leader Imad al-Din Zengi triggered the Second Crusade, led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, which failed in 1148.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Zengi's son, Nur al-Din, unified Muslim Syria and dismantled the Fatimid Caliphate. These lands came under the control of Saladin, an ambitious Kurdish general. In 1187, he destroyed the Jerusalemite field army at Hattin and captured most Crusader territory, including the city of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The resulting crisis triggered the Third Crusade, led by Emperor Frederick I, Richard I of England, and Philip II of France. Although Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule, the Crusader states endured, and the Kingdom of Cyprus was founded on former Byzantine territory.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Later Crusades focused on recovering Jerusalem, but the Fourth was diverted by a Byzantine claimant, leading to the sack of Constantinople and the creation of a Latin Empire in Byzantine territory in 1204.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Fifth Crusade against Egypt failed in 1217–21. The Sixth regained Jerusalem in 1229 through negotiations by the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II, but the city was sacked in 1244 by Khwarazmian raiders.Template:Sfn Its loss prompted Louis IX of France to launch the Seventh Crusade in 1248, which ended in defeat.Template:Sfn

After the Mamluks supplanted the Ayyubids—Saladin's family—as the dominant Muslim power in the Levant, Sultans Baybars and Qalawun waged systematic campaigns against the Crusader states, massacring Christian populations. LouisTemplate:NbspIX mounted the Eighth Crusade, but died in 1270, and anarchy followed. In 1291 Qalawun's son Khalil seized the last Crusader strongholds in the Holy Land.Template:Sfn Despite continued proposals to reclaim Jerusalem,Template:Refn efforts were hampered by events such as the Hundred Years' War.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Other theatres of war

The historian Simon Lloyd notes that "crusading was never necessarily tied" to the Holy Land.Template:Sfn As early as 1096, Pope Urban urged Catalan nobles to remain in Iberia, promising equal spiritual rewards.Template:Sfn The First Lateran Council in 1123 officially equated campaigns against the Moors (Iberian Muslims) with Crusades.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn These Iberian Crusades drove Christian expansion, reducing Al-Andalus to the Emirate of Granada by 1248.Template:Refn Template:Sfn

Some crusades emerged from conflict with pagan groups.Template:Sfn In 1107–08, Saxon leaders referred to the pagan Slavic Wends' territory as "Our Jerusalem", though anti-Wendish war was recognized as a crusade only in 1147. From then, northern German, Danish, Swedish, and Polish rulers launched papally sanctioned campaigns against Slavic, Baltic, and Finnic tribes—collectively termed as the Northern Crusades. By the 1260s, leadership had passed to the Teutonic Order's warrior monks.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Crusading zeal also turned against Christian foes of the papacy. "Political crusades" were launched against Emperor FrederickTemplate:NbspII, his heirs, and rebellious papal vassals.Template:Refn Template:Sfn From 1209, Pope InnocentTemplate:NbspIII targeted heretics—Christians who rejected Church doctrineTemplate:Sfn—and Crusades were proclaimed after 1261 against the restored Byzantine Empire.Template:Sfn

Later crusades

Despite internal divisions, the Template:Transliteration continued, ending with the conquest of Granada by Castile and Aragon in 1492.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the early 14thTemplate:Nbspcentury, Template:Transliteration—seasonal anti-pagan raids in the Baltic—became a hallmark of chivalric culture.Template:Sfn The historian Eric Christiansen called these "an interminable crusade".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the Western Mediterranean, popes also proclaimed crusades against Christian enemies, including Aragon, Sicily, and rogue mercenaries. During the Western Schism (1378–1417), rival popes called crusades against each other's supporters.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Extensive piracy in the Mediterranean revived anti-Muslim crusading in the mid-14thTemplate:Nbspcentury.Template:Refn Template:Sfn International campaigns targeted the rising Ottoman Empire but failed to stop the fall of Constantinople in 1453.Template:Sfn The Hussite Wars reignited anti-heretical crusades in 1420,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and the Reformation saw indulgences granted to Catholics fighting Protestants, including Irish forces opposing Queen Template:Nowrap.Template:Sfn Although the Reformation weakened papal authority, the papacy continued to promote crusades, helping form anti-Ottoman "holy leagues" well into the early 18thTemplate:Nbspcentury.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Theory and theology

Pope UrbanTemplate:NbspII's call at Clermont introduced a remarkably novel concept for most listeners.Template:Sfn Though Western Christians had accepted divinely sanctioned warfare, its full theological and legal justification was still evolving.Template:Sfn Urban emphasized the expedition's military character, but his envoys largely presented it as a pilgrimage.Template:Sfn

Initially seen as a unique event prompted by divine intervention, the expanding movement soon required stronger legal foundations.Template:Sfn The Template:Transliteration, an influential collection of church law, permitted warfare Template:Circa—but only against heretics.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Within decades, jurists like Huguccio extended this to Muslims, citing just intent, recovery of Christian lands, and retaliation for violence.Template:Sfn Crusades outside the Holy Land were often justified by the perceived spiritual importance of those regions, prompting writers like Arnold of Lübeck to depict Livonia as Mary the Virgin's dowry.Template:Sfn Although originally framed as defensive, the Northern Crusades soon focused on conversion,Template:Sfn while Crusades against anti-papal Christians were portrayed as essential to safeguard the Holy Land.Template:Sfn

Soon after Clermont, the chronicler Guibert of Nogent wrote that "God has instituted in our times holy wars" so that both knights and commoners might gain salvation.Template:Sfn Yet the nature of the spiritual rewards granted to the First Crusaders remains unclear. Some sources mention cancellation of temporal penance, others full remission of sins.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Pope Urban referred to Template:Transliteration ("remission of sins") in one letter, and in another promised absolution of all penance to those travelling to the Holy Land "only for the salvation of their souls", provided they confessed.Template:Sfn His successors used similar phases, such as Template:Transliteration ("absolution of sins") and Template:Transliteration ("forgiveness of sins").Template:Sfn

Theological debate on indulgences began Template:Circa. Peter Abelard sharply criticized the practice, although most later theologians accepted it.Template:Sfn The Fourth Lateran Council codified Crusade indulgences in 1215, declaring that "sins repented by heart and confessed with mouth" would be remitted. The theological basis remained unsettled until Template:Circa, when the "Treasury of Merit" doctrine emerged, which held that the Church could grant indulgences from merit earned through Christ and the martyrs.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Occasionally, offenders of particular crimes—such as arsonists, violators of trade embargoes with Muslims, and assailants of clergy—were granted indulgence.Template:Sfn Debate over the scope of the indulgence continued, with Bonaventure arguing that indulgences did not apply to those dying before fulfilling their vow, and Thomas Aquinas maintaining that penitent crusaders who confessed would attain salvation even if they died before departing.Template:Sfn

Crusaders

Crusaders' motives are inherently difficult to determine. Although contemporary sources emphasize religious fervour, secular ambitions also played a role because holding conquests required sustained Western presence.Template:Refn Many participants enlisted for pay.Template:Sfn Most saw no contradiction between piety and material gain, such as booty.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Some sought fame; others, as noted by the historian Jonathan Phillips, the appeal of long-distance travel.Template:Sfn Some criminals escaped harsher punishment by taking the cross.Template:Refn Template:Sfn The medievalist Andrew Jotischky suggests figures like the robber baron Thomas of Marle saw crusading as an opportunity for unpunished violence.Template:Sfn

Knights and aristocrats

Born into the French nobility, Pope Urban directed his appeal at Clermont to the country's military elite.Template:Sfn By then, the Template:Transliteration—once a broad category—had become a distinct warrior caste, though knighthood would not be fully equated with nobility until the late 12thTemplate:Nbspcentury.Template:Sfn Aristocrats valued visible piety, and crusading offered a new outlet for what Madden calls their "simple and sincere love of God".Template:Sfn

The warrior lifestyle entailed habitual sin, yet offered few chances for penance. Barefoot pilgrimages stripped knights of their symbols—arms and warhorses. Urban's message allowed them to maintain their identity without jeopardizing salvation.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Crusade rhetoric mirrored their values, invoking vassalage and honour.Template:Sfn Preachers cast Christ as a feudal lord, summoning knights to defend his stolen patrimony as Template:Transliteration ("Christ's warriors").Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Crusading decisions were often collective, made within noble households led by influential lords.Template:Sfn Success brought prestige, and crusading kin could make participation a family tradition.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Yet failure meant disgrace or financial ruin.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Even in the Late Middle Ages, chivalric ideals fuelled two expeditions: the 1390 Barbary Crusade and the 1396 Crusade of Nicopolis.Template:Sfn

Clergy

Although violence conflicted with their vocation, clerics often joined crusades.Template:Sfn At Clermont, Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy was the first to vow the journey to Jerusalem.Template:Sfn The Fourth Lateran Council explicitly permitted clerics to join for up to three years without forfeiting their benefices.Template:Sfn Secular clergy typically served as chaplains or administrators;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn senior churchmen led troops.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Influential prelates also helped initiate the Northern Crusades.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Despite vows like Template:Transliteration ("stability of place"), monks joined too.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Cistercians and Premonstratensians even took up arms occasionally, especially in the Baltic.Template:Refn Template:Sfn

Patricians

Urban elites played a vital role in several crusades.Template:Sfn Fleets from Genoa, Pisa, and Venice helped establish and secure the Crusader states,Template:Refn gaining in return commercial privileges and city quarters.Template:Sfn The city of Lübeck supported the conquest of Prussia.Template:Sfn Iberian towns owed military service under royal charters—often replaced by a special tax called Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Template:Main Template:See also

During the Fourth Crusade, Doge Enrico Dandolo convinced fellow leaders to capture Zadar, a Catholic city in Dalmatia, and later advocated the assault on Constantinople. After its sack, Venice gained control of several Aegean islands, establishing patrician-led lordships.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Marino Sanudo Torsello, a Venetian writer, became a key crusading theorist,Template:Sfn and proposed a naval alliance against Aegean pirates, uniting Catholic powers with Genoese and Venetian island lords.Template:Sfn Pope John XXII endorsed the plan in 1334.Template:Sfn

Commoners

The historian Christopher Tyerman observes that crusading was "as much as a phenomenon of artisans as of knights, of carpentry as much as of castle". Commoners filled essential roles in Crusader armies as foot soldiers, sailors, archers, engineers, and squires. They were typically young men of modest means who joined for pay.Template:Sfn

Following Clermont, Pope Urban barred clergy from accepting vows from those unable to fight and annulled existing ones.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, the People's Crusade consisted almost entirely of unarmed commoners,Template:Sfn inspired by charismatics like Peter the Hermit.Template:Sfn In the First Crusade's noble-led armies, the number of non-combatants nearly matched the number of fighters. The historian Conor Kostick describes them "a slice of European society on the march".Template:Sfn Chroniclers like Raymond of Aguilers called common Crusaders as Template:Transliteration ("the poor or defenceless") and saw their presence as vital for divine favour.Template:Sfn Unlike nobles, captured commoners were often tormented or killed rather than ransomed.Template:Sfn

Grassroots crusading zeal later inspired mass movements known as popular crusades.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn These included the 1212 Children's Crusade, led by two charismatic boys;Template:Refn the 1251 and 1320 Shepherds' Crusades, the former sparked by a letter allegedly from the Virgin Mary; and the 1309 Crusade of the Poor. None reached the Holy Land, and both Shepherds' Crusades were forcibly disbanded.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In 1456, a peasant Crusader army helped repel the Ottomans at the Siege of Belgrade. This success encouraged future efforts to mobilize peasants in anti-Ottoman crusades, but in 1514 a crusading peasant army in Hungary turned on their lords.Template:Sfn

Enemies and contacts

Except for the Mongols, the Crusaders rarely faced unfamiliar enemies. These foes were cast as aggressors, thereby providing a just cause for war against them.Template:Sfn Conquest and colonisation created multi-ethnic societies, making interethnic relations integral.Template:Sfn In Iberia and the Crusader states, relations with natives followed the pre-conquest Template:Transliteration model.Template:Sfn

Muslims

Muslim legal experts divided the world into Template:Transliteration (the Muslim world) and Template:Transliteration (non-Muslim lands). Border regions like Syria and Iberia became Template:Transliteration battlegrounds, attracting military volunteers—Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration—from across Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Accounts on Christian experiences in the Holy Land on the eve of the Crusades vary.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Attacks on pilgrims likely shaped perceptions of danger,Template:Sfn though Asbridge highlights that interfaith violence mirrored broader political and social turmoil.Template:Sfn

Western Christians often mislabelled Muslims as idol-worshippers or heretics.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Until Template:Circa, massacres of Muslims in conquered towns were common.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Violence was presented as a response to the Muslim occupation of the holy places and the oppression of Christians.Template:Sfn

Later, Crusaders rarely sought conversions, instead levying a poll tax akin to the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Church law imposed various restrictions on Muslims, though enforcement is poorly documented.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In the Crusader states, most Muslims—Arabic-speaking farmers—lived in self-governed communities under Islamic law.Template:Sfn In Iberia, Template:Transliteration—Muslims under Christian rule—also faced second-class status.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Initially, few Muslims grasped the Crusades' religious nature. The Damascene scholar Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami was the first to frame them as part of broader "Frankish", or Westerner, expansion.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He interpreted their success as divine punishment for neglecting Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Zengi was among the era's first Muslim leaders receiving Template:Transliteration honours. Later rulers likewise invoked religious motives in anti-Frankish campaigns.Template:Sfn In Iberia, the Almoravids and the Almohads strongly supported Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, pragmatic Christian–Muslim alliances remained common throughout the period.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Eastern Christians

The liberaton of eastern Christians was declared a central aim of the First Crusade, yet initial encounters proved disappointing.Template:Sfn Emperor Alexios, anticipating disciplined mercenaries or manageable allies, was unsettled by the Crusaders' influx, and secured oaths guaranteeing the return of reconquered Byzantine lands.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, Bohemond retained Antioch—a former Byzantine provincial capital—for himself.Template:Sfn

Soon after Antioch's capture, Crusader leaders described local Christians as "heretics" in a letter to Pope Urban.Template:Sfn In 1099, Catholic clergy temporalily excluded native clerics from officiating at the Holy Sepulchre.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In the Crusader states, Eastern Christians paid a poll tax, signalling their subordinate status, although their self-governance was reinforcedTemplate:Sfn and some retained considerable landholdings.Template:Sfn

Orthodox Christians, or Melkites, formed the majority of Palestine's native Christian population and were also prominent in northern Syria.Template:Sfn Regarded as schismatics rather than heretics, they received limited recognition. Although most Orthodox bishops had fled Palestine before 1099, scattered references suggest the presence of an Orthodox hierarchy under Frankish rule.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Monasticism experienced a revival under Byzantine patronage.Template:Sfn

Unlike the Catholics and Orthodox, certain eastern Christian communities rejected the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon. Among them, the Armenians—concentrated in northern Syria and Cilicia Template:Sfn—were most respected by the Franks, thanks to their autonomous lordships.Template:Sfn Many welcomed the Crusaders, and Armenian aristocrats formed marriage alliances with them. This cooperation led to a tenuous church union with Rome (1198)Template:Sfn and ultimately to the Frankish Lusignans' rule over Cilician Armenia.Template:Sfn Syriac (or Jacobite) Christians, mainly rural and Arabic-speaking, were viewed with suspicion and condescension;Template:Sfn yet the Jacobite patriarch Michael the Syrian praised Frankish religious tolerance contrasting it with Byzantine policy.Template:Sfn Another distinct group, the Maronites of Mount Lebanon, entered into communion with Rome, forming the first Eastern Rite Catholic Church in 1181.Template:Sfn

Byzantine–Frankish relations were variable.Template:Sfn Following the Fourth Crusade, successor states like Epiros and Nicaea led Greek resistance, although temporary Greek–Frankish alliances were not uncommon.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In Frankish Greece, many Greek Template:Transliteration (aristocrats) retained lands and fought alongside Franks. Peasants suffered harsher conditions than under Byzantine rule.Template:Sfn Orthodox bishops refusing papal supremacy were replaced by Catholic appointees, but Greek monasteries received papal protection.Template:Sfn Latin conquest reinforced Orthodox identity, and persistent local resistance ultimately thwarted attempts to church reunification.Template:Refn Template:Sfn

In northeastern Europe, Catholic and Orthodox churches coexisted in major trade centres, and the schism did not impede dynastic intermarriage. Catholic missionary activity only intensified after the Fourth Crusade. Despite occasional alliances between Crusaders and Rus' leaders, lasting control over Rus' lands was never achieved.Template:Sfn

Pagans

Trade in raw materials and slaves had long connected Christian and pagan communities in the Baltic region, although rivalry over trade routes often sparked armed conflict.Template:Sfn From Template:Circa, intensified German colonisation and unequal access to resources triggered more frequent clashes between the Wends and their Christian neighbours.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In 1146, while promoting the Second Crusade, the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux encountered Saxon reluctance to abandon anti-Wendish campaigns. Adopting their perspective, he convinced Template:Nowrap to proclaim the Wendish Crusade.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Wends' structured society—with principalities, towns, and a priestly hierarchy—eased their eventual integration into Christendom.Template:Refn Template:Sfn

Further east, the Old Prussians, Latvians, and Curonians had long resisted Christianisation. They lived in rural communities led by strongmen who thrived on trade and raiding.Template:Sfn Crusaders employed coercion, bribery, and promises of protection to gain converts among them;Template:Sfn and papal legates sought to protect these converts from exploitation but achieved little.Template:Refn Template:Sfn

The Lithuanians, largely taxpaying peasants under native lords, unified in the 13thTemplate:Nbspcentury under Grand Prince Mindaugas. Baptized in 1253, he received a royal crown from Pope Innocent IV but later reverted to paganism.Template:Sfn In 1386, Grand Prince Jogaila married Queen Jadwiga of Poland, becoming King WładysławTemplate:NbspII. The subsequent mass conversion of Lithuanians to Catholicism eroded the Teutonic Knights' justification for crusade. In 1410, Polish-Lithuanian forces decisively defeated the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald. The Template:Transliteration waned, with the last non-German Crusaders entering the Baltic in 1413.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In the eastern Baltic, Finnic peoples lived in small rural communities, sustained by farming, slave-raiding, and fur-hunting.Template:Sfn Legend has it that Eric IX of Sweden led a crusade to Finland in the 1150s, but the earliest confirmed expedition was authorized by Pope Gregory IX in 1237.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Danish Crusaders conquered Estonia in 1219, but by mid-century, German knights and burghers dominated the region's politics.Template:Sfn

Western dissidents

Catholic churchmen saw heresy as a fundamental threat to the faith and to salvation,Template:Sfn but the Gregorian Reform did not satisfy those seeking a purer, simpler Christianity.Template:Sfn Increased trade carried dualist ideologies westward. These movements distinguished between an incorruptible God and an evil creator of the material world. In Western Europe, their adherents became known as Cathars or Albigensians.Template:Sfn In 1179, the Third Lateran Council granted indulgences to those who fought heretics.Template:Sfn Yet, in southern France, Cathars were deeply embedded in Occitan society, and local elites were unwilling to act against heretical friends or kin.Template:Sfn

In 1207, Pope InnocentTemplate:NbspIII urged Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, to eradicate heresy. His reluctance or inability to comply led to excommunication by the papal legate Peter of Castelnau, who was soon murdered. In response, Innocent declared a crusade.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Northern French crusaders invaded Occitania, committing atrocities against both Cathars and Catholics.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Though the campaigns strengthened French influence, they failed to eliminate heresy. That was eventually achieved by mendicant friars, inquisitors and secular authorities.Template:Sfn

The Stedinger Crusade in northern Germany targeted peasants accused of heresy for refusing to pay the tithe (church tax).Template:Sfn Hungarian rulers led two failed crusades into Bosnia, allegedly home to a Cathar antipope.Template:Sfn In contrast, the radical Template:Transliteration in northern Italy were swiftly crushed by crusading forces.Template:Sfn

Mongols

A drawing depicting horsemen holding spears, with a severed head on one of the spears, at the gates of a fortress defended by arrowmen — Mongols displaying the severed head of the Silesian prince Henry the Pious after the Battle of Legnica (from a mid-15th-century *Legend* of his mother St Hedwig)

In 1206, Temüjin was proclaimed Genghis Khan, uniting the Mongol tribes under the belief in a divine destiny to conquer the world.Template:Sfn Western Europeans first learned of the earliest Mongol conquests during the Fifth Crusade.Template:Sfn Some tribes followed the Eastern Syriac (Nestorian) Church,Template:Sfn which had split from mainstream Christianity.Template:Sfn Fragmentary reports of Mongol advances revived legends of Prester John, a mythical Eastern Christian ruler viewed as a potential ally against Islam.Template:Sfn

The Mongol invasion of Eastern and Central Europe in 1239–42 shocked Western Christendom. Although Pope GregoryTemplate:NbspIX called for a crusade, the Mongols withdrew from Europe following the death of Ögedei Khan, Genghis's successor, in 1242.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the Middle East, Mongol forces sacked Baghdad and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258. Seeking protection, Hethum I of Cilician Armenia and Bohemond VI of Antioch submitted to Hulegu, the Mongol Template:Transliteration (ruler of the Middle East). The Ilkhanate's expansion ended in 1260 when Mamluk forces defeated Hulegu's army in the Battle of Ain Jalut.Template:Sfn

Jews

Roman legislation under Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, and Augustine's theology shaped Western Christian views of Judaism. Constantine upheld Judaism's legality but imposed restrictions on its practitioners; Augustine asserted that Jews were divinely preserved yet punished with dispersion for rejecting Jesus.Template:Sfn

Jewish migration to Western Europe coincided with the pre-Crusade economic boom.Template:Sfn Coming from developed Islamic economies, Jewish merchants brought advanced commercial expertise. Free from canon law's anti-usury rules, they came to dominate moneylending, fuelling antisemitism.Template:Sfn Local rulers valued Jewish economic contributions and offered protection, though often fragile.Template:Sfn

Organized pogroms began in the Rhineland during the First Crusade, reportedly driven by vengeance for Christ's death and desire for Jewish property.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Jerusalem, Crusaders massacred Jews,Template:Sfn though communities in other towns—such as Tyre and Ascalon—survived. Jewish pilgrimage to the Holy Land intensified, with hundreds of western Jews settling there during the Crusades era.Template:Sfn Although Pope Calixtus II's bull Template:Transliteration forbade violence against Jews, crusade preaching repeatedly incited antisemitic pogroms.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Women

Women were involved in the crusading movement from the outset.Template:Sfn Though popes discouraged female participation, women always accompanied the armies as servants.Template:Sfn Washerwomen received special papal approval early on.Template:Sfn Women needed permission from a father or husband to join a crusade, whereas men, from 1209, could go without their wives' consent. Occasionally, high-ranking women led troops or conducted key diplomatic negotiations.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In the Baltic, female settlers helped defend towns and villages.Template:Sfn Sex workers also followed the armies but were often expelled during purification efforts.Template:Sfn

Gender bias prevailed on all sides.Template:Sfn Christian chroniclers highlighted women's supportive roles—delivering water or stone missiles—but rarely mentioned female fighters.Template:Sfn Muslim and Byzantine writers, in contrast, often depicted armed Crusader women as symbols of barbarity.Template:Sfn Muslim sources also condemned the freedoms women enjoyed in Frankish societies.Template:Sfn Crusaders were expected to abstain from sex; and women, including wives, were often expelled before major battles.Template:Sfn

Women left behind were vulnerable to abuse by kin or neighbours.Template:Refn Some Crusaders made formal arrangements with relatives or religious institutions to protect their wives and daughters; others entrusted wives or mothers with managing their estates.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Raids by both Christian and Muslim forces frequently targeted women. After battles or sieges, victors often captured enemy women and children.Template:Sfn The First Crusade was exceptional: crusaders often massacred entire populations of captured towns.Template:Sfn In the Baltic, the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle praised the slaughter of pagan women and children as divinely sanctioned.Template:Sfn Rape of captured women both by crusaders and their enemies was common.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Noblewomen were typically ransomed, albeit for less than men; other women were enslaved or forced into marriage.Template:Sfn

High male mortality in the Crusader states meant that women often inherited fiefs, though they were expected to marry.Template:Sfn Some inherited thrones: between 1186 and 1228, for example, four queens ruled Jerusalem.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In Frankish Greece, the wives of Achaean barons captured at the Battle of Pelagonia formed the "Parliament of Dames" in 1261 to negotiate peace with the Byzantines.Template:Sfn

Crusading in practice

Tyerman notes that crusading "paraded across society in recruitment, funding and social rituals of support". The movement was accompanied by processions, priestly blessings, charity, and artifacts.Template:Sfn

Declaration and promotion

Template:Main Crusades were typically proclaimed by the pope, the sole authority to grant indulgences in his capacity as Vicar of Christ.Template:Sfn Crusade bulls articulated the aims, urged participation, and detailed spiritual and temporal rewards,Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and were read in all Catholic churches from Pope Alexander III's time.Template:Sfn Pope GregoryTemplate:NbspIX authorized the Dominicans to preach Baltic crusades without further approval,Template:Sfn a privilege later extended to the Franciscans and Teutonic clergy.Template:Sfn

Crusades were promoted by clerics. Papal legates addressed nobles at major assemblies. Village and town preaching was unstructured until Pope InnocentTemplate:NbspIII coordinated propaganda through local committees, though subsequent popes preferred less formal methods. From the early 13thTemplate:Nbspcentury, mendicant friars assumed responsibility for preaching. By the century's end, many used manuals by propagandists like Humbert of Romans.Template:Sfn Crusade-promotional sermons often began with moral anecdotes.Template:Sfn

Taking the cross

Template:Main Crusaders took public vows, usually followed by a ceremony where a cloth or silk cross—typically red—was sewn onto their cloak. By "taking the cross", they pledged to follow Christ's call: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This reflected the 11th-century Template:Transliteration ("imitation of Christ") movement.Template:Sfn Pilgrim emblems like a staff and a pouch were often also distributed.Template:Sfn The cross had to be worn by crusaders until their return; premature removal was sanctioned by church authorities,Template:Refn Template:Sfn with rare exceptions like illness, poverty, or incapacity.Template:Sfn By the late 12thTemplate:Nbspcentury, crusaders were widely known as Template:Transliteration ("signed with the cross").Template:Sfn

Privileges

As penitents and armed pilgrims, Crusaders were classed in canon law as provisional clerics under ecclesiastical jurisdiction.Template:Sfn Their early secular privileges are poorly documented. According to a collection of canon law, First Crusaders and their goods were "under the Truce of God". Guibert of Nogent notes that Pope Urban extended protection to crusaders and their households.Template:Sfn In 1107, the canonist Ivo of Chartres still called this legal treatment "new".Template:Refn Template:Sfn The First Lateran Council formalized it, protecting the crusaders' "houses and households" and ordering Template:Transliteration or automatic excommunication for infractions, but enforcement was inconsistent.Template:Sfn Pope EugeniusTemplate:NbspIII also suspended lawsuits against crusaders and interest payment on their debts.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Pope EugeniusTemplate:NbspIII also suspended lawsuits against crusaders and interest payment on their debts,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and authorised them to sell land—including fiefs—without the consent of family members or lords.Template:Sfn

Finances

A middle-aged man wearing a papal triara — Pope Innocent III: by sanctioning the redemption of crusading vows for cash, he created a massive new source of income for crusading (a fresco in St. Benedict's Cave at the Subiaco Abbey, Template:Circa)

The historian Simon Lloyd notes that crusading was "crippingly expensive". Although precise figures are lacking,Template:Refn Template:Sfn estimates suggest that a knight spent over four years' income.Template:Sfn Aristocrats sold commodities or granted civic privileges for cash.Template:Refn Although selling inherited estates was rare, lands were often mortgaged or pledged via vifgage, allowing creditors repayment from property income. Others secured funds through gifts or loans from kin or lords.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In Iberia, Template:Transliteration (tributes from Muslim rulers) helped fund Christian forces.Template:Sfn

An extraordinary tax for Holy Land defence was first introduced in France and England in 1166. The 1188 "Saladin tithe" imposed a tenTemplate:Nbsppercent levy on income and property, though compliance varied.Template:Sfn In 1199, Pope InnocentTemplate:NbspIII ordered church revenues taxed for crusading. Pope Gregory X defined collection procedures in 1274, but clergy often resisted.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

From 1199, donations were also gathered via church chests.Template:Sfn In 1213, InnocentTemplate:NbspIII introduced a new mechanism, allowing anyone—except monks—to vow a crusade and redeem it financially.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This practice of purchasing indulgences continued into the early modern period.Template:Refn With the spread of printing in the mid-15thTemplate:Nbspcentury, indulgence sheets were mass-produced with blanks for beneficiaries' names.Template:Sfn

Warfare

The historian Peter Lock notes that launching "a crusade was no easy task and the time given for preparation was often short". The gathering of pack animals, wagons, war horses, and supplies, like fodder and water, was essential in individual crusades' success, but is poorly documented in contemporary sources.Template:Sfn

Command, strategy and troops

Command during most crusades was divided and uncertain, with desertion common.Template:Sfn Still, morale was often sustained by visions, processions, and relics.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Most Crusaders lacked experience in urban sieges, which were typical of Levantine warfare.Template:Sfn Crusaders generally avoided pitched battles in which defeat risked catastrophic losses.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Siege warfare used trebuchets, towers, and battering rams. Muslim defenders employed Greek fire, countered by crusaders with vinegar-soaked hides.Template:Sfn From the late 13thTemplate:Nbspcentury, strategic planning for Holy Land campaigns distinguished between an initial campaign (Template:Transliteration) to secure a foothold and the full-scale Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Heavily armoured knights formed the Crusader armies' backbone.Template:Sfn The historian John France calls them the "masters of close-quarter warfare". In the east, they primarily confronted mounted archers and relied on infantry, particularly bowmen and spearmen, for support.Template:Sfn Franks also employed native light cavalry, or Turcopoles, to harass enemy troops.Template:Sfn In the north, Teutonic Knights deployed converted Prussians for raids on pagan settlements.Template:Sfn Spanish almogavars—agile raiders—fought with daggers, short lances, and darts.Template:Sfn

Naval support came mainly from Italian city-states and the Byzantines in the Levant. Egypt maintained the sole Muslim fleet in the region, but its small vessels posed little threat to Western dominance. After Emperor FrederickTemplate:NbspI's failed overland expedition, major Levantine crusades were done by sea.Template:Sfn In the north, large Christian merchant ships, carrying up to 500Template:Nbsppeople, easily outmatched Baltic long-ships and raiding vessels.Template:Sfn

Military architecture

Throughout conquered territories, castles served military and administrative functions, merging Western and local designs. In the Levant, early Norman-style towers gave way to the local Template:Transliteration layout of walled courtyards, which evolved into concentric castles with layered defences.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Spur castles on rocky hills, with towers and a keep, represent—according to Phillips—"the most spectacular examples of Frankish military architecture".Template:Refn Template:Sfn In Iberia, over 2,000Template:Nbspcastles were raised along frontiers.Template:Sfn The Teutonic Knights first built timber blockhouses in the Baltic, but by Template:Circa switched to stone, then brick for its availability and lower cost.Template:Sfn

Military orders

Tyerman argues that the military orders were "crusading's most original contribution to the institutions of medieval Christendom". These religious communities followed monastic rules but were committed to armed defence of Christianity.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first emerged when the French noble Hugues de Payens and fellow knights pledged to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. Taking the monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience in 1119, they formed a confraternity. They became known as the Knights Templar after their headquarters in the former Al-Aqsa Mosque, associated with the Temple of Solomon.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The idea of warrior-monks aligned with contemporary chivalric and ecclesiastical ideals.Template:Sfn By Template:Circa, Bernard of Clairvaux praised the Templars as a "new knighthood".Template:Sfn Their model inspired other groups, especially in borderlands of Latin Christianity.Template:Sfn In the Holy Land, nursing confraternities became militarized, giving rise to orders such as the Knights Hospitaller, Teutonic Knights, Knights of Saint Thomas, and Lazarists.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Iberia, royal patronage supported orders, such as Calatrava, Santiago, Alcántara, and Aviz. In the Baltic, bishops founded the Sword Brothers and the Order of Dobrzyń, both later absorbed by the Teutonic Order.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Military orders were structured by function: knight-brothers and Template:Lang (military servants} fought; priest-brothers provided spiritual care; nobles could temporarily join for spiritual rewards.Template:Sfn The Templars and Hospitallers grew into transnational institutions, led by elected grand masters and owning estates throughout Western Christendom.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Their convent networks facilitated the flow of goods and cash, with the Templars especially active in finance.Template:Sfn

The orders were occasionally criticized for greed, pride, or adopting non-Christian customs.Template:Sfn After the Crusader states fell, criticism increased because many orders lost their justification for existence. The Knights Templar, focused solely on fighting Muslims, faced intense scrutiny.Template:Sfn In 1307, Philip IV of France ordered their mass arrest on charges of apostasy, idolatry, and sodomy. Despite the lack of physical evidence, the Order was dissolved at the Council of Vienne in 1312.Template:Sfn The Hospitallers survived but shifted focus to naval defence in the Mediterranean. The Teutonic Knights endured under Habsburg leadership in Germany despite pressures by the Reformation. In Iberia, the military orders gradually secularized, aligning with the crown of Spain and Portugal.Template:Sfn

New states

The crusading movement fostered the creation of new states on the fringes of Latin Christendom. The historian Robert Bartlett describes these states as "autonomous replicas, not dependencies, of western and central European polities".Template:Sfn

Crusader states and Cyprus

The four Crusader states established Catholic rule in the LevantTemplate:Sfn and strengthened commercial links between the region and Catholic Europe.Template:Sfn Their limited economic surpluses were directed chiefly towards military needs.Template:Sfn Edessa, the earliest and weakest, fell after a failed alliance with Zengi's Muslim rivals, the Artuqids.Template:Sfn Internal strife undermined Jerusalem, leaving it vulnerable to Saladin's conquest, though the Third Crusade regained much of the coast. Antioch and Tripoli entered union after a succession war.Template:Sfn After FrederickTemplate:NbspII's Crusade, absentee monarchs left Jerusalem under regents, sometimes chosen by their opponents.Template:Sfn By the Mamluk advance, the Frankish East had fragmented into competing lordships and communes.Template:Sfn

Cyprus, a day's sail from Syria, was a vital crusading base and refuge.Template:Sfn From 1269, its kings claimed Jerusalem, although the Sicilian Angevins contested this from 1277.Template:Sfn The Black Death and shifting trade routes led to decline Template:Circa. A Cypriot Crusade on Alexandria provoked Genoese reprisals, leading to the sack of the main port of Cyprus, Famagusta. After the Lusignan dynasty ended in 1474, the island passed to Venice but fell to the Ottomans in 1570–71.Template:Sfn

Frankish Greece

Months before the sack of Constantinople, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade agreed to partition the Byzantine Empire: an elected emperor would receive a quarter, the rest go to other Frankish leaders and Venice.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn More stable than the Crusader states, Frankish Greece attracted more Western settlers.Template:Sfn Demand for wheat, olive oil, and silk enriched the lords of the Peloponnese in Greece, turning the court of the Villehardouin princes of Achaea into a centre of chivalric life.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Under Angevin protection, Achaea survived the Byzantine revival until the Despotate of the Morea annexed it in 1430. Achaea's former vassal, the Duchy of Athens, was first seized by mutinous Catalan mercenaries, and later by the Acciaioli, a Florentine banking dynasty, but fell to the Ottomans in 1460.Template:Sfn Despite Ottoman pressure, Venice retained parts of its overseas empire into the 18thTemplate:Nbspcentury.Template:Sfn

Order states

The Teutonic Order was granted Kulmerland in Prussia by a Polish duke in the 1220s, soon gaining autonomy over future conquests. In 1237, the Teutonic Knights seized Livonia through merger with the Sword Brothers.Template:Sfn After the Crusader states fell, the Order focused on the Baltic,Template:Sfn attracting German settlers with land and privileges. After the Battle of Grunwald, Polish incursions, and internal strife weakened its control, and by 1438, Livonia acted independently.Template:Sfn Prussia became a Protestant duchy in 1525, Livonia in 1561.Template:Sfn

The Hospitallers captured the island of Rhodes from the Byzantines in 1306–1309.Template:Sfn It was heavily fortified using income from overseas estates.Template:Sfn Rhodes resisted Mamluk and Ottoman attacks but was taken by the Ottoman Sultan [[Suleiman the Magnificent|SuleimanTemplate:NbspII]] in 1522.Template:Sfn In 1530, Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|CharlesTemplate:NbspV]] granted the Hospitallers the islands of Malta and Gozo.Template:Sfn They withstood the 1565 Great Siege of Malta, but lost the islands to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798.Template:Sfn

Criticism

Opponents of the Gregorian Reform, such as Sigebert of Gembloux, condemned penitential warfare, but their voice was lost in the euphoria following the First Crusade.Template:Sfn The concept was equally alien to Byzantines; Princess Anna Komnene openly scorned the Crusades and their participants.Template:Sfn Mainstream Catholic criticism targeted specific aspects such as the risks posed by crusaders' absences.Template:Sfn The rise of military orders also drew objections from those who viewed monasticism as incompatible with knighthood.Template:Sfn Millenarian thinkers like Joachim of Fiore saw the Crusades as transient, predicting the Muslims' voluntarily conversion.Template:Sfn

As the Crusades spread geographically, criticism intensified, especially over campaigns against Christians for diverting focus from the Holy Land.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Some Occitan troubadours even equated anti-heretic crusaders with Muslim foes.Template:Sfn The Levantine crusades' failure prompted the chronicler Salimbene di Adam to conclude they lacked divine support.Template:Sfn Driven by despair, the troubadour Austorc d'Aorlhac and the Templar Ricaut Bonomel approached apostasy in their lyrics.Template:Sfn In 1274, Humbert of Romans produced a full rebuttal to anti-Crusade critics.Template:Sfn

From the Reformation, anti-Catholic theologians attacked crusading.Template:Sfn Martin Luther denounced indulgences and papal authority.Template:Sfn Though he initially viewed the Ottoman threat as divine retribution, the 1529 Siege of Vienna led him to support a major Christian campaign.Template:Sfn The Catholic theologian Erasmus also criticized indulgence preaching and clerical involvement in warfare.Template:Sfn

Architecture

The destruction of Christian shrines by the Turkomans featured prominently in Pope Urban's speech at Clermont. After capturing Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Nazareth—three of Christendom's holiest sites—the Franks launched ambitious construction programmes.Template:Sfn The archaeologist Denys Pringle observes that a "coherent and distinctive" architectural style emerged, shaped by the abundance of stone, scarcity of timber, and preference for flat-roofed designs.Template:Sfn The medievalist Steve Tibble terms it the "architecture of fear", characterised by the absence of staircases in favour of movable ladders, the use of heavy timber bolts, and windows secured with iron bars.Template:Sfn

The most remarkable project was the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, redesigned in the style of Western pilgrimage churches to enclose the Aedicule, Calvary, and Christ's Prison within one complex.Template:Sfn The fusion of local and Western architectural traditions is well illustrated by the Armenian Cathedral of Saint James.Template:Sfn Coastal towns had multi-storey houses in Western Mediterranean style, with shops or loggias below and residences above. Frankish settlers often lived in newly founded villages laid out in rectangular plans.Template:Sfn

Western architectural development is especially visible in Cyprus. The Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia (now Selimiye Mosque) was built in early Gothic, though with terraced roofs. The Venetian governors' palace in Famagusta features a Renaissance façade. Urban eastern Christian churches also adopted Western styles.Template:Sfn In Frankish Greece, monastic orders and nobles erected Gothic monasteries and rebuilt existing buildings in Gothic style,Template:Refn and Gothic features also appeared in Epirus.Template:Refn Template:Sfn In the Baltic, public buildings reflected Western styles, characterized by simplicity and precision.Template:Sfn

Arts

In the three northern Crusader states, figurative art survives almost solely on coinage,Template:Refn whereas Jerusalem left a much richer artistic legacy.Template:Sfn These artefacts reveal significant Byzantine influence,Template:Sfn although the earliest surviving decorations exhibit Western stylistic features.Template:Refn Template:Sfn By the mid-12thTemplate:Nbspcentury, both the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity were decorated with mosaics.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Western artists working on illuminated manuscripts in Jerusalem also embraced Byzantine aesthetics.Template:Sfn The finest example is the Melisende Psalter, commissioned by King Fulk for Queen Melisende Template:Circa.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Jotischky describes Frankish sponsorship of icons as perhaps the clearest sign of "Byzantine tastes in crusader arts", with surviving works primarily housed in Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai and in Cyprus.Template:Sfn

From Frankish Greece, little remains. A cycle of frescoes portraying Francis of Assisi survives in Istanbul's Kalenderhane Mosque,Template:Sfn and a wall painting of Saints Anthony and James in a gatehouse at Acronauplia.Template:Sfn In the Baltic, the celibate or endogamous elites rejected local traditions, preserving a distinctly Catholic and German culture.Template:Sfn

Literature

Coinciding with the "Twelfth-Century Renaissance", the movement inspired a remarkable range of literary works,Template:Sfn including what historian Elizabeth Lapina describes as "an unusually large and varied body" of narrative sources.Template:Sfn

Chronicles

Early accounts of the First Crusade revived the tradition of comprehensive military history last seen in antiquity.Template:Sfn The Deeds of the Franks, completed by 1104, became the basis for later accounts by Raymond of Aguilers, Fulcher of Chartres, and Robert of Rheims. These pro-papal writers portrayed Pope Urban as the key instigator, although the German chronicler Albert of Aachen credited Peter the Hermit.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Although the First Crusade remained the most extensively recorded, subsequent expeditions inspired new works by Odo of Deuil, Otto of Freising, and Oliver of Paderborn.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Whereas early narratives were in Latin, three chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade—Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Robert of Clari, and Henri de Valenciennes—wrote in Old French.Template:Sfn Many chroniclers focused on individual crusaders.Template:Refn Template:Sfn Several authors blended prose and verse in the hybrid Template:Transliteration form.Template:Sfn

A distinct literary genre emerged around the Crusader states. William of Tyre's chronicle sought to rally Western support and sustain Frankish morale.Template:Sfn The Chronicle of the Morea, central to Frankish Greece's history, survives in French, Greek, Aragonese, and Italian.Template:Sfn In the Baltic, the chronicler Henry of Livonia sympathized with Christianized natives, whereas the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle glorified Crusader brutality.Template:Sfn

Songs