“Years ago cries and shouts were heard from great crowds, as Pope Urban II gave a speech at the Council of Clermont, urging hundreds of Christians all over Europe to take up arms and aid the Greeks in the recovery of Palestine from the Muslims” (Halsall). This speech resulted in 200 years of constant hostility and gory battles between the Christians seeking the return of their land and the Muslims, intent on keeping it (Trueman). Even though the wars were fought for religious reasons, the events that occurred during them were hardly religious.
The very first crusade began in 1095 (history.com). Over the course of the next 200 years there were eight more major crusades and two minor ones (Trueman). The Christians who first set out to fight for Jerusalem wore red fabric crosses that earned them the name, Crusaders, from the Latin word crux (Trueman). These Christians were told to “take up their crosses and fight for their Holy Land, Jerusalem” (Alchin). The wars were mostly against the Muslims living in and around Jerusalem, but they also attacked Jews and others who had stolen Christian land or possessions in the past (history.com).
The armies marching toward Jerusalem were fairly diverse. Although, they were all Christians following Pope Urban’s call for war, this was not everyone’s main reason for joining in the series of battles. According to howstuffworks.com, some religious and obedient individuals joined for devotion to the Pope and his wishes, but many were thinking of themselves and their own wishes. Various people joined for the prospect of being a military hero, others wanted land and money that could be stolen from the towns they destroyed, and still others joined because of promises of absolution from sin and eternal g...
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Dana C. Munro, “The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095”, The American Historical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jan., 1906), pp. 231-242
Foss explains, “What Urban needed was an enterprise, clearly virtuous in serving the ends of Christiandome… in these moments of reflection, the popes mind turned towards Jerusalem.” Urban II reflects back on the first taking of the Holy City after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire in 1071, and begins to question what his people know about the Turkish race and really the ideology of Islamic thought. Foss goes on to examine the ignorance of westerners and needed to be “reminded [by the pope] of the infamous heathens, their cruelty and hatred of Christians,” hoping this would justify the first Holy Crusade. However, Foss identifies the creativity of the Pope’s language to persuade the knights and army of the people to embark on the Holy Crusade based on the Muslims cruel actions turned onto their fellow Christians. Claiming the Muslims “Killed captives by torture…poor captives were whipped…and others were bound to the post and used as a target for arrows.” Foss examines the Popes words as an effective effort of persuasion in creating an army of crusaders to help clean “…Holy places, which are now treated with ignominy and polluted with Filthiness” and any sacrifice in Jerusalem is a “promise of a spiritual reward… and death for
The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.
Among some of the largest conflicts in the world stand the Crusades; a brutal conflict that lasted over 200 years and was debatably one of the largest armed religious conflicts in the history of humankind. Since this is so clearly an event of importance, historians have searched vigorously for the true answer as to why the crusades began. Ultimately, because of accusatory views on both the sides of the Christians and of the Muslims, the two groups grew in such hatred of each other that they began to act in deep discrimination of each other. Moreover, Christian motives seemed to be driven mostly by the capture of Jerusalem, the dark ages of Europe and the common-folks desperation for land, wealth, and a spot in heaven. What seems to be continually
In 1095, Pope Urban II called the first crusade. Happening between 1096 and 1099, the first crusade was both a military expedition and a mass movement of people with the simple goal of reclaiming the Holy Lands taken by the Muslims in their conquests of the Levant. The crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. However, there has been much debate about whether the First Crusade can be considered an ‘armed pilgrimage’ or whether it has to be considered as a holy war. This view is complicated due to the ways in which the Crusade was presented and how the penitential nature of it changed throughout the course of the Crusade.
The conquest to pursue war against Sejul Turks, who were Sunni Muslims, began when Crusaders realized the Jerusalem had not been under Christian control in 461 years. This was shocking because Christianity has spread throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in Late Antiquity. After Muslims captured Jerusalem in 1076, any Christian who wanted to pay a visit to the city of Jerusalem faced many obstacles because Muslim soldiers made it very dangerous for them to do so. Jerusalem is very important to Christians because it has lots of biblical references. In Europe the Pope along with the Papacy has assumed the power of utili...
In 1095, Jerusalem was a flourishing city that was the main powerhouse for three religions; all three religions wanted complete control over the holy land. These three religions were Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and all three religions were known to use Jerusalem as a place of religious reasons. But in turn, the best part about Jerusalem was the political power it held. Pope Urban’s demand for power and Jewish Israel’s desire to control Palestinians are the factors in the political conflict over the holy land.
The pope recruited people from southern Italy to Lombardy, France to Normandy, Flanders to Western Germany, Denmark and other places while on his preaching tour. Despite entering a war, people joined crusades for various reasons and benefits. The reason people joined the Crusades were for beliefs such as, “the certainties of faith; fear of damnation; temporal self-image; material, social, and supernatural profit; the attraction of warfare for a military aristocracy; an unequivocally good cause…” (Tyerman, the Crusades: A Very Short Introduction, p.14). People also went on crusades to clear themselves of their sins by serving God across the territories. People participated in crusades to gain privileges. Participating in the crusades granted families privileges such as church protection, property, interest repayments on debt and more. To gain these privileges, people had to swear a vow to an adoption of a cross, be blessed by a priest, and have the symbol be shown on clothing. In total, between 50,000 and 70,000 men had reached Asia Minor in the participation of the First Crusade with the motivation to spread their religion and conquer
Contrary to many commonly held notions about the first crusade, in his book, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, Jonathan Riley-Smith sets out to explain how the idea of crusading thought evolved in the first crusade. In his book, Riley-Smith sets out five main arguments to show how these ideas of crusading evolved. Firstly, he argues that Pope Urban’s original message was conventional, secondly that a more positive reaction was drawn from the laity (due to the ideas surrounding Jerusalem), thirdly, that the original message of crusading had changed because of the horrible experiences of the first crusaders, fourth, that due to these experiences the crusaders developed their own concept of what a crusade was, and lastly, that these ideas were refined by (religious) writers and turned into an acceptable form of theology. Riley-Smith makes excellent points about the crusade; however, before one can delve directly into his argument, one must first understand the background surrounding the rise of the first crusade.
Those that answered the call were peasants, beggars, the poor looking for riches, and the unknown looking for glory. What started out as a pilgrimage to help fellow Christians secure their borders and repel foreign invaders soon became the first of many Holy Wars for the Kingdom of God. During The First Crusade, peasants and knights alike fought for God and glory, travelling east towards Jerusalem. In 1099, Christian forces reached Jerusalem and prepared for recapture. The western crusaders attacked the city and gained control of it.
The emperor of the Byzantine Emperor was upset with Turks encroaching on his empire. He went to the Pope Urban II and complained. He made up atrocities about the Turks. In 1096, The Pope Urban II promoted the Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbaric Turks. These crusades lasted till the 13th century. In the process, Jews were persecuted and lots of looting took place. Many countries took interest in the Crusades because they were ready for travel and adventure. They wanted to expand trade with the Middle and Far East and so the Crusades gave them a chance to open up trade routes with those countries. They used Christianity to justify the Crusades. In reality, they wanted to expand trade and gain more territorial land.
The crusades in the middle ages were a long-lasting series of vigorous wars between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land, Jerusalem. The crusades lasted for almost two hundred years. They began in 1099 and approximately ended in 1291. (What were the motives, and causes of these gruesome wars?) is the first question one might ask. To properly answer this question, I am about to analyze the first four crusades that had began in 1099 and ended in 1212.
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penance" (Campbell p.14). A pilgrimage to the Holy Land was not an easy task to
Ullmann, Walter. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: Routledge, 2003.