The Three Crusades :: essays research papers

The Three CrusadesThere were collar Crusades and they all took differentroutes from western Europe to Palestine. THE FIRST CRUSADE - The first crusade began in A.D. 1095. Pope Urban II mounted a platform outside the church atClermont, France. The crowd shouted Deus vult in response tothe popes plea. Knights and peasants alike vowed to join theexpedition to the Holy Land. For knights, the Crusade was awelcome chance to prosecute their fighting skills. For peasants,the Crusade meant freedom from feudal bonds while on theCrusade. All were promised immediate salvation in heaven ifthey were killed freeing the Holy Land from non-Christians. fortuity and the possibility of wealth were other reasons tojoin the Crusade. The First Crusade heightened already existinghatred of non-Christians and marked 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 traveled separately from west ern Europe to theeastern Mediterranean. On the way, many 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 desert travel as well as quarrels among theirleaders. In June A.D. 1099, the Crusaders finally reached thecity. afterward the siege of almost two months Jerusalem fell. Crusaders swarmed into the city and killed most of its Muslimand Jewish inhabitants. The success of the First Crusadereinforced the authority of the Church and fortify 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 relativelymore ripe civilizations of the Byzantines and theMuslims would continue for the next 100 years and become majorfactor in ending the cultural isolation of western Europe.THE SECOND CRUSADE - slight than 50 years after the FirstCrusade, the Seljuks conquered part of the Crusader states inPalestine. Pope Eugenius IV called for a Second Crusade toregain the territory. Eloquent sermons by the monk Bernard ofClairvaux persuaded King Louis VII 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 VII and Conrad III quarreled constantly andwere ineffective militarily. They were easily frustrated by theSeljuks.THE THIRD CRUSADE - A diplomatic and forceful leader namedSaladin united the Muslim forces and then captured Jerusalem inA.D. 1187.