Crusade

The term of crusade

At the end of the 11th century appear the armed pilgrimages, whose Latin name “ iter hierosolymitanum ” (voyage from Jerusalem) does not distinguish them from the individual pilgrimages. It is under this name which the contemporaries could indicate what we call the first crusades, or under that of peregrinatio , “pilgrimage”. Later are also employed the terms of auxilium ground sancte , “assistance with the Holy Land”, expeditio , transitio, “general passage” (national armies) and “particular passage” (specific, particular forwardings).

The term of crusade appears only tardily in French: The Trésor of the French language makes go up the expression “oneself cruisier” (to cross) with the Vie of St Thomas the martyr of Guernes of Bridge-Holy-Maxence gone back to 1174, and the term of “crusade” to the Chroniques of Chastellain gone back to before 1475, noting that it is about a substitute of close terms such as “crossing”, “croisery” or “cruising” which are older, without one being able to announce them before the end of the 12th century; The historical Dictionary of the French language notes a first appearance of the word about 1460 and also notes that it derives from “crossing”, that one meets before the end of the 12th century. However, former French “croiesery” appears in the chronicle of Robert de Clari during the Fourth crusade (1204) while one finds Spanish cruzada in a charter in Navarre of 1212. Actually, all these terms are substantives of the adjective crucesignatus , cross (literally, marked by the cross) which appears to him in the chronicle of Albert of Aix (undoubtedly written, for its first part, since 1106) or of the verb crucesignare , to take the cross, which is frequent at the 12th century.

It is thus clear that what we call “first crusade” was not called thus by its contemporaries. From the Moslem point of view, the crusades are not perceived besides like an innovation, but like the continuation of the fight against the Roman Empire of the East, which had lasted for several centuries. However, it is as obvious as the contemporaries were very early aware that the crusade was not a simple pilgrimage armed nor an military operation like the others but well a different reality, combining the characteristics of the pilgrimage with Jerusalem with the requirements of a war for the defense of the faith.

Historical context

brief historical Context :

1009 : Destruction of Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, higher holy place of Christianity, by the caliph fatimide Al-Hakim;

1054 : Schism between Christians of the East and Occident;

1076 : Catch of Jerusalem by the Turks;

1096 : First crusade.

See also: Arab, Turks and Cross: synoptic rapid

The conquest of the Palestine by the Arab S (Jerusalem was taken in 638) hardly affected the Pèlerinage towards the Christian holy places, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. However in 1009 the Caliph fatimide of the Cairo, Al-Hakim, made destroy the the Holy Sepulchre. Its successor allowed the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it, and the pilgrimage was again authorized.

With the defeat of the Byzantine empire at the time of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Turkish S Seldjoukides make captive the emperor Romain IV, the Byzantine patriarch, then take Jerusalem in 1078. Among the arguments called upon in particular by Pierre the Hermit, the main thing is that the Turkish S had prohibited with the Christian pilgrims the access to the Holy City. However, Robert Mantran counts several pilgrimages, including six between the years 1085 and 1092, which were held without the sources not mentioning particular difficulties.

With the council of Pleasure of June 1095, the ambassadors of the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnène claim with the Westerners a military aid to fight against the Turks. The letter gone back to 1095 addressed by Alexis Comnène to the count Robert II of Flanders, calling the Help! after a apocalyptic description of the situation of the Christians under the Moslem yoke (…) is a forgery. Alexis Comnène hoped however indeed which the Occident sends to him of the soldiers that it could have engaged as mercenaries to continue his operations of reconquest in Asia Mineure.

In parallel, the Roman Church tries to leave the crisis which she underwent at the beginning of the 10th century. The Clergé lost of its prestige: it lends itself to the Simonie S and the Nicolaïsme and thus saps the moral authority of the Church. The primary goals of the council of Clermont are thus to try to continue the work started by Gregoire VII in order to restore a certain rigor: Urbain II is resulting from the movement clunisien and reaffirms the great principles enacted by its predecessors: the “Truce of God” and the “Peace of God”. The last years of the 11th century are a succession bad harvests and the people, encouraged by certain preachers, see there a divine punishment and a call to penitence. The call to the crusade is the occasion to weld Christendom in a crowned search and to offer to the lords the occasion “to purify their heart”. Indeed, a plenary indulgence (discharge of all the sins) is granted to those which undertake the voyage. It makes it possible moreover to restore a certain peace by offering a discharge system to the quarrelsome impulses of noble Europeans who can thus appease their thirst for conquest and wealth very of ensuring the safety of their heart.

Reputation and evaluation

In Western Europe, the crusades were regarded traditionally as heroic efforts, but all the historians are not agreement on this vision of the things. In the Muslim world, the crusades are regarded as cruel and wild attacks Christians against the Islam. Currently, certain speeches of integrist Islamic use the word crusade in this context as for the actions of the West against them. The Orthodoxie sees also the crusades like attacks by the West, because of the bag of Constantinople during the fourth crusade in 1204.

There is an interesting agreement between the terms crusade and Jihad . In the West the term crusade has positive connotations (for example in policy one could use the formula crusade against drugs ) whereas the term jihad has negative connotations, associated with a fanatic Holy war. In the Muslim world, the term jihad has positive connotations which also include a direction of personal and spiritual fight against oneself , whereas the term crusade has the negative connotations described above.

One did not underline enough the role of Norman/Vikings or rather of their descendants in the organization, the development and the control of the crusades: Godefroy de Bouillon and Robert de Flandres were directly parents or combined to the Normans big families. After their recognition of papal sovereignty, the Norman ones of the South of Italy and Sicily played a political role and " technique" essence. Richard Lion-hearted is well-known… There was a guard " besides; varègue" (Scandinavians of Russia) near the Byzantine emperor since the 9° century. Varègues, then the Norman ones of Southern Italy had launched attacks against Constantinople in IXe and Xe S. and still in 1043.

Actually all the actions of cross were not heroic. They made atrocities not only against the Musulmans but also against the Juif S and the Christian. For example the fourth crusade never arrived to Palestine, but instead of that it put at bag Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Byzantine empire. Many relics and stolen objects in Constantinople are still with the the Vatican, Venice, and elsewhere. This crusade worsened resentments between orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Byzantine Empire recovers finally Constantinople in 1261, but its power was not found, and the empire was overcome by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

Chronology of the crusades

Crusade of Leon IX against the Norman ones, 1053

By definition, a crusade is a military forwarding made in a religious intention. The military forwarding of the pope Leon IX, in June 1053, against the Norman ones which occupied the south of Italy, can be considered, for this reason, like indeed a Christian crusade.

To the call of the inhabitants of the town of Bénévent, besieged by the Norman ones, with at their head Richard count d' Aversa, the pope Leon IX goes to Germany to request military forces from the emperor Henri III. This last convenes in Worms in December 1052 a Diet whose members grant to him with against heart, 3000 souabes, the best soldiers of the Germanic empire. Leon IX then multiplies the diplomatic steps with the empire of Byzance which in its turn offers to him the support of the Argyros general and his army. After having excommunicated all the Norman ones of Italy, Leon IX decides definitively to drive out them. He succeeds in for his crusade, of which he will take the command personally, also raising many counts and Italian barons who will take the weapons in the name of the cross. The Norman ones had at their head, Onfroi de Hauteville which was car proclaimed count de Pouille and had made Melfi its fortified town. He was assisted by all his brothers and half-brothers whose among the latter, Robert de Hauteville says Guiscard, as well as the many Breton ones. The battle took place with Civitate in Pouille on June 23rd, 1053 close to the Fortore river. In spite of the very clear numerical superiority of the crusaders, Hauteville will be victorious. The pope will be held during nearly one year by the Norman ones in the town of Bénévent which it will leave on a stretcher to die in Rome a few weeks later in 1054.

First crusade (1096 - 1099)

Second crusade (1147 - 1148)

Third crusade (1189 - 1192)

Fourth crusade (1200 - 1204)

Albigensian Crusade (1209)

Crusades of the children (1212)

Fifth crusade (1217 - 1221)

Sixth crusade (1228 - 1229)

Seventh crusade (1248 - 1254)

Crusade of Pastoureaux (1251)

Eighth crusade (1270)

Ninth crusade (1271 - 1272)

Assessment and consequences of the crusades in Europe

First great persecutions against the Jews

With many regards, the year 1096 marked a turning for the European Judaism. The call to the crusade of the pope Urbain II in 1095 did not encourage the crowd of faithful Christians to tackle the Jewish communities of the Rhine (indicated in Hebrew under the name of " Ashkenaz " אשכנז) but they was well victims. In margin of the official crusade, preachers indicated them with popular vindication. The Juif S were in front of the alternative to convert or to die as a martyr.
Encircled by the stray (in Hebrew to' im תועים), without any hope, of the mothers and the fathers chose to cut the throat of their own children, with the image of Abraham ready to sacrifice his/her only son Isaac, rather than to see them apostasier.
A witness, Rabbi Solomon bar Siméon, reports as follows:

While passing by the villages where Jews were, they said one to the other: " here that we walk by long roads to the research of the house of idolatry and to draw revenge on the Ismaélite S, and here the Jews, whose ancestors killed it and crucifièrent it for nothing, which lives among us. We avenge for them initially, and erase to them number of the nations, which one does not remember any more of the name Israel, or although they are as us and believe in the wire of the impurity. "
Les epithet used here is not those of the Christians, but Rabbin which " speak in their nom"

Compared to those of Germany, the communities of France and England were, according to the Hebraic chronicles, relatively saved at the time of the second crusade (1146) thanks to the intervention of Bernard de Clairvaux. Bernard defines the position of the Church thus:

the Jews have the hope to be saved, because one day will come where their eyes will be dessilleront and where they will convert. The same does not apply for Islam from there: the Moslems will never convert. For them it is one language, that of the exterminating sword.

However, of the attacks against the Jews, of the massacres, plunderings, the forced apostasies were held with Worms, Mainz, Bacharach and Würzburg, Strasbourg and Aschaffenbourg. At that time, the Jews of Germany still had the right to carry weapons. Rabbi Éphraïm bar Jacob of Bonn reports that the castle of Wolkenburg, emptied its inhabitants not Juifs and of his military garrison, was entrusted to the Jewish community of Cologne, of which the major part could thus be saved.
Four Hebrew chronicles treat tragic first and second crusades and their consequences for the Jewish communities:

chronicles of Rabbi Solomon bar Siméon

chronicles of Rabbi Eliézer bar Nathan

the anonymity of Mainz

" a book of the souvenir" of Rabbi Éphraïm bar Jacob of Bonn who relates to the second crusade

See also AV HaRahamim, an elegy with the memory of the martyrs of the Crusades

Military adaptations

The frank knights were confronted in the East with climatic conditions and unusual adversaries. The torrid climate and dryness, the sandy or rocky ground, the pouring rain of the autumn, put at severely tested men, equipment and mountings. The Moslem, fast riders and badgering with their arrows the knights, equipped slightly, incontestably had the advantage on the Western knights. Those adapted equipment and tactic, which enabled them to remain nearly two centuries in the East.

A certain number of adaptations aim at limiting the heating to the sun: several authors announce many deaths due to the Insolation. The heaume was often replaced by the iron hat, length Haubert by a shorter coat of mail, the haubergeon, or by the gambeson (stuffed clothing worn under the coat of mail, to deaden the shocks). In the same way, with the covers the armours and the horses cover, to limit the heating to the sun. The horses turcomans are also bought (or stolen) in great number, to replace the horses killed with the combat or died. The local armament, as excellent quality (the arms manufacturers of Damas had excellent reputation), also serves to replace the weapons which the European combatants lost or broke.

In a broader way, the use of the Turkish mass, which makes it possible to smash the parts of armor, spreads in Europe after the crusades. It involves the abandonment of the Heaume at flat top, replaced by the convex helmets, deviating the blows.

The principal military adaptations are located however in the tactics. The fatal effectiveness of the assembled archers, who often aimed at the horses of the Francs, pushed with a questioning of the combat based on research of the frontal shock. The more frequent recourse to the infantry, protecting the horses behind long shields, and with the archers and especially with the principal rafters, more powerful and precis which the archers, allowed to compete with the Moslem riders. Units of assembled principal rafters are also created, as well as units of indigenous light cavalry, the Turcopole S, very useful also for the information.

But the favorite tactics, the massive load creating the rupture of the enemy army, are not abandoned, and the heavy armament either. On the one hand, the heavy practices and expenditure in this armament made that it was difficult to give up them. In addition, the heavy armament generally ensured an unquestionable superiority Christian combatants in numerical inferiority. Lastly, by choosing the moment of the combat so that the combatants do not await of weapons under the sun, and so that the combat is short, Europeans had sometimes excellent results.

Cultural exchanges

The interest of the Western well-read men for Arab and ancient science is former to the crusades: The states resulting from the Spanish Marche are in direct contact with the Muslim world. their emancipation with respect to the frank empire pushes them to trade with the Califat of Cordoue. Thus as of 985 the Comté of Barcelona profits from a push of technical and cultural development. The monastic development and that of the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle will make it possible to fix written knowledge and to diffuse them in whole Europe. The kings of Navarre and León thus make maintain the roads and build bridges. Reception facilities for the pilgrims who flow per tens of thousands are organized along the ways of Saint-Jacob. Thus, the mathematician and clerk Gerbert d' Aurillac (938? - 1003) - more known as pope Sylvestre II - had brought back from Spain the figures known as “Arab” of Indian origin of which the Zero. The very strong development of the religious orders and the broad recourse to the monks Convers support the diffusion of the artisanal and agricultural techniques in the campaigns. It results from it a population increase and technique in occident at the 11th century which makes possible the crusades. However, they are the occasion to multiply and look further into this knowledge. With the crusades the scientific and philosophical spirit of Occident develops the study and the criticism of works arabo-Moslems. Robert Grossetête), Albert Large the (1200? - 1280), the first Roger Bacon) and Thomas d' Aquin), inter alia, take this route, without their step being attached more to the crusades only with the contacts with Spain and Sicily Moslem women.

See too

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