The Three Crusades :: essays research papers

The Three CrusadesThere were three Crusades and they all took oppositeroutes from westward Europe to Palestine. THE FIRST CRUSADE - The first crusade began in A.D. 1095. Pope Urban II mounted a platform outdoor(a) the church atClermont, France. The crowd shouted Deus vult in response tothe pontiffs plea. Knights and peasants alike vowed to join theexpedition to the Holy Land. For knights, the Crusade was awelcome chance to employ their fighting skills. For peasants,the Crusade meant freedom from feudalistic bonds while on theCrusade. All were promised immediate salvation in enlightenment ifthey were killed freeing the Holy Land from non-Christians. Adventure and the possibility of wealth were other(a) reasons tojoin the Crusade. The start Crusade heightened already existinghatred of non-Christians and attach the onset of a long period ofChristian persecution of the Jews. During the First Crusade,which began in A.D. 1096, three armies of Crusader knights andvolunteers travele d separately from western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. On the way, many a(prenominal) of them killed Jewsand sometimes massacred entire Jewish communities. Thethree armies finally met in Constantinople in A.D. 1097. Fromthere the Crusaders made their way to Jerusalem, enduring thehardships of scourge travel as well as quarrels among theirleaders. In June A.D. 1099, the Crusaders finally reached thecity. aft(prenominal) the siege of almost two months Jerusalem fell. Crusaders swarmed into the city and killed most of its Islamicand Jewish inhabitants. The success of the First Crusadereinforced the authority of the church and strengthened theself-confidence of western Europeans. The religious zeal of theCrusaders soon cooled, however, and many knights returnedhome. Those who stayed set up feudal states in Syria andPalestine. Contact between the Crusaders and the comparativelymore sophisticated civilizations of the Byzantines and theMuslims would continue for the next 100 years and drop dead majorfactor in ending the cultural isolation of western Europe.THE SECOND CRUSADE - Less than 50 years after the FirstCrusade, the Seljuks conquered part of the Crusader states inPalestine. Pope Eugenius IV called for a minute of arc Crusade toregain the territory. Eloquent sermons by the monk Bernard ofClairvaux persuaded King Louis cardinal of France and Holy RomanEmperor Conrad III to lead armies to Palestine. The SecondCrusade, which lasted from A.D. 1147 to A.D. 1149, wasunsuccessful. Louis septenary and Conrad III quarreled constantly andwere ineffective militarily. They were easily defeated by theSeljuks.THE leash CRUSADE - A diplomatic and forceful leader namedSaladin united the Muslim forces and then captured Jerusalem inA.D. 1187.