History UsefulNotes / TheCrusades

* ''Interlude'': In 1254, far to the east of Palestine, the Muslim lands of Persia fell to the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} Mongol]] [[HordesFromTheEast horde]] under Hulagu Khan, grandson of UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan through his youngest legitimate son Tolui. The Ilkhanate founded by Hulagu threw its weight around for a few years, but in 1260 was defeated by the forces of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine. Significantly, between 1254 and 1260, the Crusader states tried to get Mongol support against the Mamluks, but never got anything concrete, and after Ain Jalut Mongol power could not/would not reach the Levant. (The reason being that Hulagu's cousin [[UsefulNotes/YuanDynasty Kublai]] won an election--mainly against Hulagu--that got Mongol power directed at the complete conquest of China, but neither the Crusaders nor the Mamluks knew that.)

* The Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229): Far and away the bloodiest of all crusades, concentrated on the practitioners of the Cathar sect in Languedoc which ultimately crushed it. Reports of casualties range from 200,000 to 1,000,000. Famous for Arnaud Amalric's famous dictum at the massacre at Béziers.

* ''Interlude'': In 1254, far to the east of Palestine, the Muslim lands of Persia fell to the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} Mongol]] [[HordesFromTheEast horde]] under Hulagu Khan, grandson of UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan through his youngest son Tolui. The Ilkhanate founded by Hulagu threw its weight around for a few years, but in 1260 was defeated by the forces of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine. Significantly, between 1254 and 1260, the Crusader states tried to get Mongol support against the Mamluks, but never got anything concrete, and after Ain Jalut Mongol power could not/would not reach the Levant. (The reason being that Hulagu's cousin [[UsefulNotes/YuanDynasty Kublai]] won an election--mainly against Hulagu--that got Mongol power directed at the complete conquest of China, but neither the Crusaders nor the Mamluks knew that.)

* '''The Seventh Crusade''': Lasting from 1248 to 1254 under Louis IX of France, this was an utter disaster after Louis and thousands of his troops were captured by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah. He was freed after payment of a large ransom. No significant territory changed hands.

* '''The Ninth Crusade''': The "last" crusade lasting from 1271-1272. It saw [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Prince Edward "Longshanks"]], son and heir of UsefulNotes/HenryIII of England (and thus not yet ''[[Film/{{Braveheart}} Malleus Scottorum]]''), attempt to reclaim Acre himself after his father had declined to join Louis IX on his crusade. Despite impressive victories over Baibars, Edward withdrew to England because of pressing concerns at home and inability to resolve the internal conflicts within the remaining Outremer holdings. The crusading zeal was nearly burned out by this point, and with the end of efforts to recapture the Holy Land the last Crusader states fell to the Muslims.

* '''The Ninth Crusade''': The "last" crusade lasting from 1271-1272. It saw [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Prince Edward "Longshanks"]], son and heir of Henry III of England (and thus not yet ''[[Film/{{Braveheart}} Malleus Scottorum]]''), attempt to reclaim Acre himself after his father had declined to join Louis IX on his crusade. Despite impressive victories over Baibars, Edward withdrew to England because of pressing concerns at home and inability to resolve the internal conflicts within the remaining Outremer holdings. The crusading zeal was nearly burned out by this point, and with the end of efforts to recapture the Holy Land the last Crusader states fell to the Muslims.

* '''The Ninth Crusade''': The "last" crusade lasting from 1271-1272. It saw Prince Edward, son of Henry III of England (and the future Edward I) attempt to reclaim Acre himself after his father had declined to join Louis IX on his crusade. Despite impressive victories over Baibars, Edward withdrew to England because of pressing concerns at home and inability to resolve the internal conflicts within the remaining Outremer holdings. The crusading zeal was nearly burned out by this point, and with the end of efforts to recapture the Holy Land the last Crusader states fell to the Muslims.

* '''The Third Crusade:''' Also known as the Crusade of the Three Kings. After the Second Crusade had ended, Turkish emir Nur ad-Din, Zengi's son, took control of Damascus, unified Syria, and subjected Egypt to his rule. When Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general in Egypt, the Kurd Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, better known as Saladin, seized power and became his successor. Now commanding a unified Muslim front, Saladin defeated the King of Jerusalem's army in 1187 at the Battle of Hattin, conquered Acre, and headed towards Jerusalem itself; the city, not being able to stand against Saladin's army, surrendered after being put under siege. The fall of Jerusalem after it had been nearly a century in Christian hands caused widespread alarm across Europe, and a new Crusade was called to retake her. King [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard I "The Lionheart"]] of England[[note]]Who semi-relevantly was Eleanor of Aquitaine's son--and her favourite one at that[[/note]] and King Philippe II "Augustus" of France suspended their war with each other and joined the crusade. Friederich I "Barbarossa" of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire also answered the call, but his crusade was cut short when he drowned in the River Saleph in Turkey on his way to Outremer; a tiny fraction of his army straggled on under the command of Leopold, Archduke of Austria. Philippe and Richard arrived in Acre in 1190 and 1191 respectively (Richard having paused along the way to be married and to conquer UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}}) and recaptured the city. However, after a falling-out in the Crusader leadership (Richard had jilted Philippe's sister, threw Leopold's banner off the walls of Acre, and was supposedly complicit in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin assassination]] of the King of Jerusalem), Philippe and Leopold left the Holy Land, while Richard carried on the campaign, defeating Saladin again at Arsuf and Jaffa. However, it became apparent to Richard that he would not be able to hold Jerusalem with his remaining forces; moreover, Philippe, back in Europe, was already plotting against him with Richard's brother, John. Richard therefore reached an agreement with Saladin which allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims into the city, and afterwards pulled back his army and set forth to England. As ill-luck would have it, he was forced to make his way home through the domains of Leopold of Austria -- where he was recognized, seized, and held ransom in the castle of Dürrenstein by Leopold and his overlord, Barbarossa's son, the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Emperor]] Henry VI.

* '''The Second Crusade:''' Initially the Muslim leaders did not do anything about the Crusaders, as they had internal conflicts to deal with, and a period of relative calm followed in the Holy Lands between the Muslim and Christian population. Eventually, however, Muslim forces under Zengi, the Turkish Atabeg ("Count Palatine", more or less) of Mosul (in what is now northern UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}) finally organized and retook the city of Edessa in 1144; a second crusade was launched to defend the new kingdoms. They had great success in the Mediterranean but failed to win any major battles in the Levant. King Louis VII of France and the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Holy Roman Emperor Konrad II]] returned to their countries (although not before Louis led a completely futile and idiotic attack on Damascus--one of the few Arab ''allies'' of the Crusaders). This crusade was supposedly enlivened by the spectacle of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of the King of France, conducting with her ladies-in-waiting a sort of pageant of "women-warriors" (as well as being accused of carrying on an ''affaire'' with her uncle(!), Raymond of Antioch).
* '''The Third Crusade:''' Also known as the Crusade of the Three Kings. After the Second Crusade had ended, Turkish emir Nur ad-Din, Zengi's son, took control of Damascus, unified Syria, and subjected Egypt to his rule. When Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general in Egypt, the Kurd Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, better known as Saladin, seized power and became his successor. Now commanding a unified Muslim front, Saladin defeated the King of Jerusalem's army in 1187 at the Battle of Hattin, conquered Acre, and headed towards Jerusalem itself; the city, not being able to stand against Saladin's army, surrendered after being put under siege. The fall of Jerusalem after it had been nearly a century in Christian hands caused widespread alarm across Europe, and a new Crusade was called to retake her. King [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard I "The Lionheart"]] of England[[note]]Who semi-relevantly was Eleanor of Aquitaine's son--and her favorite one at that[[/note]] and King Philippe II "Augustus" of France suspended their war with each other and joined the crusade. Friederich I "Barbarossa" of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire also answered the call, but his crusade was cut short when he drowned in the River Saleph in Turkey on his way to Outremer; a tiny fraction of his army straggled on under the command of Leopold, Archduke of Austria. Philippe and Richard arrived in Acre in 1190 and 1191 respectively (Richard having paused along the way to be married and to conquer UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}}) and recaptured the city. However, after a falling-out in the Crusader leadership (Richard had jilted Philippe's sister, threw Leopold's banner off the walls of Acre, and was supposedly complicit in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin assassination]] of the King of Jerusalem), Philippe and Leopold left the Holy Land, while Richard carried on the campaign, defeating Saladin again at Arsuf and Jaffa. However, it became apparent to Richard that he would not be able to hold Jerusalem with his remaining forces; moreover, Philippe, back in Europe, was already plotting against him with Richard's brother, John. Richard therefore reached an agreement with Saladin which allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims into the city, and afterwards pulled back his army and set forth to England. As ill-luck would have it, he was forced to make his way home through the domains of Leopold of Austria -- where he was recognized, seized, and held ransom in the castle of Dürrenstein by Leopold and his overlord, Barbarossa's son, the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Emperor]] Henry VI.

* '''The Third Crusade:''' Also known as the Crusade of the Three Kings. After the Second Crusade had ended, Turkish emir Nur ad-Din, Zengi's son, took control of Damascus, unified Syria, and subjected Egypt to his rule. When Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general in Egypt, the Kurd Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, better known as Saladin, seized power and became his successor. Now commanding a unified Muslim front, Saladin defeated the King of Jerusalem's army in 1187 at the Battle of Hattin, conquered Acre, and headed towards Jerusalem itself; the city, not being able to stand against Saladin's army, surrendered after being put under siege. The fall of Jerusalem after it had been nearly a century in Christian hands caused widespread alarm across Europe, and a new Crusade was called to retake her. King [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard I "The Lionheart"]] of England and King Philippe II "Augustus" of France suspended their war with each other and joined the crusade. Friederich I "Barbarossa" of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire also answered the call, but his crusade was cut short when he drowned in the River Saleph in Turkey on his way to Outremer; a tiny fraction of his army straggled on under the command of Leopold, Archduke of Austria. Philippe and Richard arrived in Acre in 1190 and 1191 respectively (Richard having paused along the way to be married and to conquer UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}}) and recaptured the city. However, after a falling-out in the Crusader leadership (Richard had jilted Philippe's sister, threw Leopold's banner off the walls of Acre, and was supposedly complicit in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin assassination]] of the King of Jerusalem), Philippe and Leopold left the Holy Land, while Richard carried on the campaign, defeating Saladin again at Arsuf and Jaffa. However, it became apparent to Richard that he would not be able to hold Jerusalem with his remaining forces; moreover, Philippe, back in Europe, was already plotting against him with Richard's brother, John. Richard therefore reached an agreement with Saladin which allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims into the city, and afterwards pulled back his army and set forth to England. As ill-luck would have it, he was forced to make his way home through the domains of Leopold of Austria -- where he was recognized, seized, and held ransom in the castle of Dürrenstein by Leopold and his overlord, Barbarossa's son, the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Emperor]] Henry VI.

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns that took place between the [[TheHighMiddleAges 11th and 13th centuries]], most famously against the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslims]], or Saracens, to reconquer the Holy Land (modern-day UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}}, UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and a part of UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, more or less), but it also included other conflicts, such as the campaigns against the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista Moors in Spain]] as well as pagans in the Baltics, and the Albigensian [[TheHeretic heretics]]. The word "Crusade" is a coinage from a later era. During the era, the expeditions were described as ''iter'' or ''peregrenatio'' which means "pilgrimage". The warriors going to the Holy Land saw their duty as essentially religious in nature, a holy quest to a holy place, defeating and crushing heathens and heretics, earning glory in earth and a place in heaven. The word "Crusade" comes from ''croisade'' which referred to the practice of stitching a cross on garments, a heraldic practice which metaphorically certainly fits the era. Arab historians of the medieval era simply called it "the Frankish Wars", while modern historians returning to the Crusades after their experience with colonialism and Arab nationalism, also call it Crusades (or "campaigns of the cross" or ''ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya''--"Campaigns/Operations of the Cross"--with the word ''ṣalībiyyūn''--"Those of the Cross" or, well, "Crusaders"--used to describe Crusaders and Westerners in general).

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns that took place between the [[TheHighMiddleAges 11th and 13th centuries]], most famously against the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslims]], or Saracens, to reconquer the Holy Land (modern-day UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}}, UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and a part of UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, more or less), but it also included other conflicts, such as the campaigns against the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista Moors in Spain]] as well as pagans in the Baltics, and the Albigensian [[TheHeretic heretics]]. The word "Crusade" is a coinage from a later era. During the era, the expeditions were described as ''iter'' or ''peregrenatio'' which means "pilgrimage". The warriors going to the Holy Land saw their duty as essentially religious in nature, a holy quest to a holy place, defeating and crushing heathens and heretics, earning glory in earth and a place in heaven. The word "Crusade" comes from ''croisade'' which referred to the practice of stitching a cross on garments, a heraldic practice which metaphorically certainly fits the era. Arab historians of the medieval era simply called it "the Frankish Wars", while modern historians returning to the Crusades after their experience with colonialism and Arab nationalism, also call it Crusades (or "campaigns of the cross" or ''ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya'' with the word ''ṣalībiyyūn'' used to describe Crusaders and Westerners in general).

* Creator/PiersAnthony's [[Literature/IncarnationsofImmortality ''For Love of Evil'']] portrays some of the horrors of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of southern France, as does his ''Tarot'' trilogy.

* The French {{edutainment|Show}} ConfessionCams ConfessionCam parody web-series ''WebVideo/ConfessionsDHistoire'' has two episodes covering, respectively, the First and Third Crusades. With much BlackComedy.

Naturally, the movement extended to a much bigger and more complex set of conflicts and there would be several other crusades being called in the following centuries. Although religious fervor was certainly a big factor, the motives, progress, and effects of the various Crusades are deeper and more various than most people think, so perhaps you are better off reading Wiki/TheOtherWiki (among other places) if you want to know more. Nevertheless, here is an overview of the more important crusades―the first through the fifth, which had the approval and blessing of the then reigning [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Popes]], to get you started.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The background lore details a distant time in the past when the Republic was taken over by an [[FantasticRacism human supremacist cult]] known as Pius Dea that venerated a deity only known as
[[CrystalDragonJesus the Goddess]] and they fought an series of wars against aliens in general. Initially, they gained great support due to targeting the Hutts since they were launching slave raids into Republic territory, but soon they escalate into an [[MotiveDecay all-out war against all aliens]] and end up alienating the Jedi Order with their actions. If the parallels with the Crusades weren't obvious enough, their battle cry was "The Goddess Wills It" an parallel with historical Crusader war cry "Deus Vult".

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The background lore details a distant time in the past when the Republic was taken over by an [[FantasticRacism human supremacist cult]] known as Pius Dea that venerated a deity only known as [[CrystalDragonJesus the Goddess]] and they fought an series of wars against aliens in general. Initially, they gained great support due to targeting the Hutts since they were launching slave raids into Republic territory, but soon they escalate into an [[MotiveDecay all-out war against all aliens]] and end up alienating the Jedi Order with their actions. If the parallels with the Crusades weren't obvious enough, their battle cry was "The Goddess Wills It" an parallel with historical Crusader war cry "Deus Vult".

* The Savoyard crusade (1366–67): The growing Ottoman threat to Europe saw Pope Urban V call yet another crusade in order to provide assistance to the weakening Byzantines. After taking Gallipoli though the crusade somehow morphed into an invasion of Bulgaria. And by the time that little excursion was finished not enough crusading spirit remained among the troops to make further incursions against the Ottomans.

Naturally, the movement extended to a much bigger and more complex set of conflicts and there would be several "crusades" being called in the folowing centuries. Although religious fervor was certainly a big factor, the motives, progress, and effects of the various Crusades are deeper and more various than most people think, so perhaps you are better off reading Wiki/TheOtherWiki (among other places) if you want to know more. Nevertheless, here is an overview of the more important crusades―the first through the fifth, which had the approval and blessing of the then reigning [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Popes]], to get you started.

* The Smyrniote crusades (1343–1351). Two separate crusades sent out by Pope Clement VI against the Anatolian Emirate of Aydin in order to protect Christian merchants from Turkish piracy. While the crusades were successful in capturing the city of Smyrna that was their target. It was at a huge cost and failed to do much regarding the wider piracy issue.

Naturally, the movement extended to a much bigger and more complex set of conflicts. Although religious fervor was certainly a big factor, the motives, progress, and effects of the various Crusades are deeper and more various than most people think, so perhaps you are better off reading Wiki/TheOtherWiki (among other places) if you want to know more. Nevertheless, here is an overview of the more important crusades―the first through the fifth, which had the approval and blessing of the then reigning [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Popes]], to get you started.

* '''The Ninth Crusade''': The last crusade, from 1271-1272, saw Edward, son of Henry III of England (the future Edward I of England), attack Acre. Despite impressive victories over Baibars, Edward withdraw to England because of pressing concerns at home and inability to resolve the internal conflicts within the remaining Outremer holdings. The crusading zeal was nearly burned out by this point, and with the end of efforts to recapture the Holy Land the last Crusader states fell to the Muslims.

!! European Crusades

These wars and their associated events had a powerful and lasting effect, despite the fact that the Crusaders left Palestine by the fourteenth century. The Western Catholics, who already had something of a taste for Eastern luxuries, got even more of a taste for them after living in the East for a while--and the Italians, who ferried them between Western Europe and the Levant, got ''massive'' experience in sailing (which helped in the 15th century craze for exploration, and [[UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus we all know where that led]]) and Middle Eastern trade contacts up the wazoo (which gave the Italian city-states the means to fund UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance once TheBlackDeath was over).[[note]]One of the main sources of funding for the Renaissance was money from the trade with Egypt, which turned ''extremely'' lucrative in the late 14th century on account of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansa_Musa Mansa Musa]]'s complete misinformation respecting the price of goods in Cairo. The Italian trade with Egypt was in large part a byproduct of the Crusades.[[/note]] The Crusades also led to the development of Catholic "just war" theory, and reintroduced the idea of a ChurchMilitant to the West--which promptly turned it on the East, when UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights went and conquered/converted the Baltic (giving the side effect of completing the Christianization of Europe).[[note]]Well, except for Muslim Spain.[[/note]] The Muslim world, which had long been locked in a period of infighting, got something to unite it; the end result was larger, stronger Muslim states, and--with UsefulNotes/{{Saladin}}'s conquest of the Fatimid Empire--the end of Shiism as a significant political force for the next three hundred years (when the Safavids converted UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} under UsefulNotes/IsmailI). And as for Byzantium--well, scroll down to see what the Fourth Crusade did to them.

* '''The First Crusade:''' In 1096, after [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope Urban II]] had called for military action at the Council of Clermont in central France, the mainly Frankish, Norman and Lombard Crusader forces, led by Bohémond de Hautevillle, his nephew Tancrède, Raymond de Toulouse, Godefroy de Bouillon, and other noblemen, after being warily received in Constantinople and pledging to restore lost territories to the Byzantines, sailed to Anatolia and began conquering the Seljuk-occupied land. All the while being faced by grave deprivation of food and water, they reached Jerusalem in 1099; the city refused to surrender and a lengthy siege began, with Jews and Muslims fighting side by side to repel the attackers, the native Christians having been expelled from the city before the siege. After the city was taken, the soldiers massacred all inhabitants of a city that refused to lay down arms (so that, we are told, their horses waded in blood up to the fetlocks), though some commanders managed to control their men and allowed the remaining citizens to surrender. Still, much of the city was destroyed and most of its civilian inhabitants were killed or expelled. Afterwards, the consolidation of the crusader states was completed, with the barons dividing the territory of Palestine (or as they called it, ''Outremer'' ― the "Land ''Beyond the Sea''") among them. Godfrey of Bouillon became the first "Frankish" ruler of Jerusalem, though refusing the crown and title of a King and preferring to be known merely as "Defender of the Holy Sepulcher".
* '''The Second Crusade:''' Initially the Muslim leaders did not do anything about the Crusaders, as they had internal conflicts to deal with, and a period of relative calm followed in the Holy Lands between the Muslim and Christian population. Eventually, however, Muslim forces under Zengi, the Turkish Atabeg ("Count Palatine", more or less) of Mosul (in what is now northern UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}) finally organized and retook the city of Edessa in 1144; a second crusade was launched to defend the new kingdoms. They had great success in the Mediterranean but failed to win any major battles in Palestine. King Louis VII of France and the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Holy Roman Emperor Konrad II]] returned to their countries (although not before Louis led a completely futile and idiotic attack on Damascus--one of the few Arab ''allies'' of the Crusaders). This crusade was supposedly enlivened by the spectacle of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of the King of France, conducting with her ladies-in-waiting a sort of pageant of "women-warriors" (as well as being accused of carrying on an ''affaire'' with her uncle(!), Raymond of Antioch).

* '''The Sixth Crusade:''' In 1228 [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire the Holy Roman Emperor]] Friederich II (called ''Stupor Mundi'', "Wonder of the World") landed in Palestine; through a spectacularly unexpected coup of diplomacy, he reached a peace agreement with the ruler of Egypt and seized the rule of Christian Jerusalem for himself. A section of the kingdom, including Nazareth and Bethlehem as well as the Christian parts of the Holy City itself, was delivered to the crusaders for a period of ten years ―, until some Muslims who were not content with their leaders' decision to allow the crusaders back into Jerusalem put the city under siege and expelled the remaining Christian forces in 1244. This is the last time the crusaders would maintain any actual control of Jerusalem itself.

* '''The Ninth Crusade''': The last crusade, from 1271-1272, saw Edward, son of Henry III of England (the future Edward I of England) attack Acre in Palestine. Despite impressive victories over Baibars, Edward withdraw to England because of pressing concerns at home and inability to resolve the internal conflicts within the remaining Outremer holdings. The crusading zeal was nearly burned out by this point, and with the end of efforts to recapture the Holy Land the last Crusader states fell to the Muslims.

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns that took place between the [[TheHighMiddleAges 11th and 13th centuries]], most famously against the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslims]], or Saracens, to reconquer the Holy Land (modern-day UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} and UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, more or less), but it also included other conflicts, such as the campaigns against the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista Moors in Spain]] as well as pagans in the Baltics, and the Albigensian [[TheHeretic heretics]]. The word "Crusade" is a coinage from a later era. During the era, the expeditions were described as ''iter'' or ''peregrenatio'' which means "pilgrimage". The warriors going to the Holy Land saw their duty as essentially religious in nature, a holy quest to a holy place, defeating and crushing heathens and heretics, earning glory in earth and a place in heaven. The word "Crusade" comes from ''croisade'' which referred to the practice of stitching a cross on garments, a heraldic practice which metaphorically certainly fits the era. Arab historians of the medieval era simply called it "the Frankish Wars", while modern historians returning to the Crusades after their experience with colonialism and Arab nationalism, also call it Crusades (or "campaigns of the cross" or ''ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya'' with the word ''ṣalībiyyūn'' used to describe Crusaders and Westerners in general).

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* A more generalized Creator/MarvelComics character with roots in the Crusades is Arthur Blackwood, a minor villain who literally calls himself the Crusader. An ex-seminary student of unstable mind, Blackwood eventually had a vision of one of his ancestors, who is identified as having served in the Crusades (in which Crusade and in what role is not specified). Being bequeathed a suit of knightly armor and a sword by said ancestors, Blackwood went on to become a ranting TautologicalTemplar villain to heroes such as ComicBook/TheMightyThor, ComicBook/LukeCageHeroForHire and Nate Grey the ComicBook/XMan (who was at the time being referred to as 'the Mutant Messiah').

* '''The Fourth Crusade:''' In 1199, [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope Innocent III]] initiated another crusade to save the remaining Christian territories in the Holy Land through Egypt. After the failure of the Third Crusade, his call was largely ignored by the most powerful monarchs of the time, who were preoccupied in their own conflicts with each other. Nonetheless, those crusaders who heeded his call assembled in Venice, which had offered ships to transport them. However, the Venetians refused to transport the soldiers until the latter had paid in full, as the Venetians had devoted great expenses to preparing the expedition. The famous blind Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, perceived an opportunity to use the crusaders to crush the city of Zara, which had rebelled against Venice. The papal legate reluctantly authorized this, deeming it necessary to prevent the failure of the Crusade, but when Pope Innocent found out, he was alarmed and forbade the attack against fellow Christians under threat of excommunication; it nonetheless duly took place anyway. To make matters worse, one of the crusade leaders, Boniface of Montferrat, had left Venice earlier to meet with the son of the recently deposed Byzantine emperor Isaakios II Angelos, Alexios IV Angelos, who offered money, ships, and men to help the crusaders -- if Boniface and his men would in turn sail to Byzantium and topple the reigning emperor Alexios III Angelos (brother and usurper of Isaakios II, and thusly the uncle of Alexios IV). This unsavory bargain ended in the infamous sacking of Constantinople in 1204 after Alexious IV couldn't come up with the money he'd been promised (and to be fair, he did try) and division of the Byzantine Empire, marking the definitive point where the Crusades lost their original intent and making the schism between western and eastern Christianity all but absolute. Following crusades would be largely engineered by monarchs more for political than religious motivations; by the end of it almost none of the Fourth Crusade reached the Holy Land and the Pope excommunicated everyone who participated in it.

* '''The Second Crusade:''' Initially the Muslim leaders did not do anything about the Crusaders, as they had internal conflicts to deal with, and a period of relative calm followed in the Holy Lands between the Muslim and Christian population. Eventually, however, Muslim forces under Zengi, the Turkish Atabeg ("Viscount", more or less) of Mosul (in what is now northern UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}) finally organized and retook the city of Edessa in 1144; a second crusade was launched to defend the new kingdoms. They had great success in the Mediterranean but failed to win any major battles in Palestine. King Louis VII of France and the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Holy Roman Emperor Konrad II]] returned to their countries (although not before Louis led a completely futile and idiotic attack on Damascus--one of the few Arab ''allies'' of the Crusaders). This crusade was supposedly enlivened by the spectacle of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of the King of France, conducting with her ladies-in-waiting a sort of pageant of "women-warriors" (as well as being accused of carrying on an ''affaire'' with her uncle(!), Raymond of Antioch).