The Christian Crusades In Medieval Europe During The Middle Ages

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The Christian Crusades were a series of military campaigns. It occurred in Medieval Europe during the Middle Ages and was sanctioned by the Western Catholic Church. Pope Urban II, the leader of the Western Church initiated the First Crusade in 1096 AD in an attempt to defend against the Muslim conquest of Christian lands. Several thousand Christian followers and knights travelled to Jerusalem to prise the Holy City of Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens. Throughout the centuries, people have always debated over the true driving force of the Christian Crusades, some believing that they were driven by religious devotion and others believe that the driving force behind the Crusades was political and economical benefits. The Christian Crusades were mainly caused by religious devotion, political and economical benefits as Pope Urban II realised that there was an opportunity to regain power over the Byzantine Church and to increase the wealth and power of the Catholic Church as well as to free the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the control of the Saracens.

My first reason for why political and …show more content…

Word of the Seljuk Turks' mistreatment of the Christian pilgrims spread like wildfire since they conquered the Holy City of Jerusalem. Although these events were slightly exaggerated by the Catholic Church as propaganda, over 3000 Christian pilgrims were indeed massacred by the Seljuk Turks and their churches were burned down and destroyed or converted into horse stables. Evidence of this can be found in Pope Urban II's 1095 speech. "(They have) entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanliness..." This shows how devoted the Crusaders were to aid in freeing their suffering kin and land from the cruelty of the

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