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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Crusades</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Expeditions undertaken, in fulfilment of a solemn vow, to deliver the Holy Places from Mohammedan tyranny."> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="04543c.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/c.htm">C</a> > Crusades</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Crusades</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p><a href="../images/04543cdx.jpg"><img alt="Image" align=left src="../images/04543cdt.jpg"></a> The Crusades were expeditions undertaken, in fulfilment of a solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>, to deliver the Holy Places from <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> tyranny.</p> <p>The origin of the word may be traced to the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> made of cloth and worn as a badge on the outer garment of those who took part in these enterprises. <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Medieval</a> writers use the terms <em>crux</em> (<em>pro cruce transmarina</em>, Charter of 1284, cited by <a href="../cathen/05181b.htm">Du Cange</a> s.v. <em>crux</em>), <em>croisement</em> (Joinville), <em>croiserie</em> (<a href="../cathen/10511a.htm">Monstrelet</a>), etc. Since the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> the meaning of the word <em>crusade</em> has been extended to include all <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> undertaken in pursuance of a <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>, and directed against <a href="../cathen/08002b.htm">infidels</a>, i.e. against <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>, <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>, or those under the ban of <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunication</a>. The <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> waged by the <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spaniards</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moors</a> constituted a continual crusade from the eleventh to the sixteenth century; in the north of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> crusades were organized against the <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussians</a> and <a href="../cathen/09292a.htm">Lithuanians</a>; the extermination of the <a href="../cathen/01267e.htm">Albigensian heresy</a> was due to a crusade, and, in the thirteenth century the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> preached crusades against John Lackland and <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a>. But modern literature has abused the word by applying it to all <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> of a <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religious</a> character, as, for instance, the expedition of Heraclius against the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a> in the seventh century and the conquest of <a href="../cathen/13497b.htm">Saxony</a> by <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the crusade corresponds to a political conception which was realized in <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> only from the eleventh to the fifteenth century; this supposes a union of all peoples and sovereigns under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>. All crusades were announced by preaching. After pronouncing a solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>, each warrior received a <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> from the hands of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> or his <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">legates</a>, and was thenceforth considered a soldier of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Crusaders were also granted <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgences</a> and temporal privileges, such as exemption from civil jurisdiction, inviolability of persons or lands, etc. Of all these <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> undertaken in the name of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, the most important were the Eastern Crusades, which are the only ones treated in this article.</p> <h2>Division</h2> <p>It has been customary to describe the Crusades as eight in number:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>the first, 1095-1101;</li><li>the second, headed by Louis VII, 1145-47;</li><li>the third, conducted by <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a> and <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard Coeur-de-Lion</a>, 1188-92;</li><li>the fourth, during which <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> was taken, 1204;</li><li>the fifth, which included the conquest of <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a>, 1217;</li><li>the sixth, in which <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a> took part (1228-29); also <a href="../cathen/14634c.htm">Thibaud de Champagne</a> and <a href="../cathen/13045a.htm">Richard of Cornwall</a> (1239);</li><li>the seventh, led by <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a>, 1249-52;</li><li>the eighth, also under <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a>, 1270. </li></ul></div> <p>This division is arbitrary and excludes many important expeditions, among them those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In reality the Crusades continued until the end of the seventeenth century, the crusade of <a href="../cathen/09181b.htm">Lepanto</a> occurring in 1571, that of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> in 1664, and the crusade of the Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a> to <a href="../cathen/03244d.htm">Candia</a>, in 1669. A more scientific division is based on the history of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> settlements in the East; therefore the subject will be considered in the following order:</p> <blockquote><p><a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#I">I. Origin of the Crusades;</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#II"><br>II. Foundation of Christian states in the East;</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#III"><br>III. First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87);</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#IV"><br>IV. Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade against Saint-Jean d'Acre (1192-98);</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#V"><br>V. The crusade against Constantinople (1204);</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#VI"><br>VI. The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52);</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#VII"><br>VII. Final loss of the Christian colonies of the East (1254-91);</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#VIII"><br>VIII. The fourteenth-century crusade and the Ottoman invasion;</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#IX"><br>IX. The crusade in the fifteenth century;</a> <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#X"><br>X. Modifications and survival of the idea of the crusade.</a></p></blockquote> <h2 id="i">Origin of the Crusades</h2> <p>The origin of the Crusades is directly traceable to the moral and political condition of <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christendom</a> in the eleventh century. At that time <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> was divided into numerous states whose sovereigns were absorbed in tedious and petty territorial disputes while the emperor, in theory the temporal head of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, was wasting his strength in the quarrel over <a href="../cathen/08084c.htm">Investitures</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> alone had maintained a just estimate of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15179a.htm">unity</a>; they realized to what extent the interests of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> were threatened by the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> tribes, and they alone had a foreign policy whose traditions were formed under <a href="../cathen/09160c.htm">Leo IX</a> and <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">Gregory VII</a>. The reform effected in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and the <a href="../cathen/11451b.htm">papacy</a> through the influence of the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">monks of Cluny</a> had increased the prestige of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">Roman pontiff</a> in the eyes of all <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> nations; hence none but the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> could inaugurate the international movement that culminated in the Crusades. But despite his eminent authority the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> could never have persuaded the Western peoples to arm themselves for the conquest of the Holy Land had not the immemorial relations between <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> and the West favoured his design. <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europeans</a> listened to the voice of <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> because their own inclination and historic traditions impelled them towards the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>.</p> <p>From the end of the fifth century there had been no break in their intercourse with the Orient. In the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> period colonies of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrians</a> had introduced the religious <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>, art, and culture of the East into the large cities of <a href="../cathen/06395b.htm">Gaul</a> and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. The <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christians</a> in turn journeyed in large numbers to <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, Palestine, and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, either to visit the Holy Places or to follow the <a href="../cathen/01767c.htm">ascetic life</a> among the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the <a href="../cathen/14561a.htm">Thebaid</a> or <a href="../cathen/14011a.htm">Sinai</a>. There is still extant the <a href="../cathen/08254a.htm">itinerary</a> of a <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> from <a href="../cathen/02682a.htm">Bordeaux</a> to <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, dated 333; in 385 <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> and <a href="../cathen/11582a.htm">St. Paula</a> founded the first <a href="../cathen/10472a.htm">Latin monasteries</a> at <a href="../cathen/02533a.htm">Bethlehem</a>. Even the Barbarian invasion did not seem to dampen the ardour for <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimages</a> to the East. The <em>Itinerary of St. Silvia</em> (<a href="../cathen/13794a.htm">Etheria</a>) shows the organization of these expeditions, which were directed by <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> and escorted by armed troops. In the year 600, <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a> had a <a href="../cathen/07475b.htm">hospice</a> erected in <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> for the accommodation of pilgrims, sent <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a> to the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/14011a.htm">Mount Sinai</a> ("Vita Gregorii" in "Acta SS.", March 11, 132), and, although the deplorable condition of <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Christendom</a> after the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> invasion rendered this intercourse more difficult, it did not by any means cease.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>As early as the eighth century <a href="../cathen/01505a.htm">Anglo-Saxons</a> underwent the greatest hardships to visit <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. The journey of <a href="../cathen/15644c.htm">St. Willibald</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/05364a.htm">Eichstädt</a>, took seven years (722-29) and furnishes an <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the varied and severe trials to which pilgrims were subject (Itiner. Latina, 1, 241-283). After their conquest of the West, the Carolingians endeavoured to improve the condition of the Latins settled in the East; in 762 <a href="../cathen/11662b.htm">Pepin the Short</a> entered into negotiations with the Caliph of Bagdad. In <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, on 30 November, 800, the very day on which <a href="../cathen/09157b.htm">Leo III</a> invoked the arbitration of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, ambassadors from Haroun al-Raschid delivered to the <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">King of the Franks</a> the keys of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>, the banner of <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jersualem</a>, and some precious <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> (Einhard, "Annales", <em>ad an.</em> 800, in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", I, 187); this was an acknowledgment of the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> protectorate over the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> of <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. That churches and monasteries were built at <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne's</a> expense is attested by a sort of a census of the monasteries of <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> dated 808 ("Commemoratio de Casis Dei" in "Itiner. Hieros.", I, 209). In 870, at the time of the <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> of Bernard the Monk (Itiner. Hierosol., I, 314), these institutions were still very prosperous, and it has been abundantly proved that <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a> were sent regularly from the West to the Holy Land. In the tenth century, just when the political and social order of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> was most troubled, <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, actuated by devotion and a taste for adventure, were wont to visit <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">pray</a> at the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a> without being molested by the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>. Suddenly, in 1009, Hakem, the Fatimite Caliph of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, in a fit of madness ordered the destruction of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a> and all the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> establishments in <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. For years thereafter <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> were cruelly <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecuted</a>. (See the recital of an eyewitness, Iahja of Antioch, in Schlumberger's "Epopée byzantine", II, 442.) In 1027 the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> protectorate was overthrown and replaced by that of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperors, to whose diplomacy was due the reconstruction of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> quarter was even surrounded by a wall, and some <a href="../cathen/01379a.htm">Amalfi</a> merchants, vassals of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek emperors</a>, built <a href="../cathen/07475b.htm">hospices</a> in <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> for pilgrims, e.g. the Hospital of St. John, cradle of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Order of Hospitallers</a>.</p> <p>Instead of diminishing, the enthusiasm of <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christians</a> for the <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> to <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> seemed rather to increase during the eleventh century. Not only princes, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, but even men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> of the humbler classes undertook the holy journey (<a href="../cathen/06574b.htm">Radulphus Glaber</a>, IV, vi). Whole armies of pilgrims traversed <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, and in the valley of the Danube <a href="../cathen/07475b.htm">hospices</a> were established where they could replenish their provisions. In 1026 Richard, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Saint-Vannes, led 700 pilgrims into Palestine at the expense of Richard II, Duke of <a href="../cathen/11104a.htm">Normandy</a>. In 1065 over 12,000 <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germans</a> who had crossed <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> under the command of Günther, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02242c.htm">Bamberg</a>, while on their way through Palestine had to seek shelter in a ruined fortress, where they defended themselves against a troop of Bedouins (<a href="../cathen/08758a.htm">Lambert of Hersfeld</a>, in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", V, 168). Thus it is evident that at the close of the eleventh century the route to Palestine was familiar enough to <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christians</a> who looked upon the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a> as the most venerable of <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> and were ready to brave any peril in order to visit it. The memory of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne's</a> protectorate still lived, and a trace of it is to be found in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> legend of this emperor's journey to Palestine (Gaston Paris in "Romania", 1880, p. 23).</p> <p>The rise of the Seljukian Turks, however, compromised the safety of pilgrims and even threatened the independence of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> and of all <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>. In 1070 <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> was taken, and in 1071 Diogenes, the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek</a> emperor, was defeated and made captive at Mantzikert. <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> and all of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> became the prey of the Turks. <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> succumbed in 1084, and by 1092 not one of the great <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> sees of <a href="../cathen/01777b.htm">Asia</a> remained in the possession of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. Although separated from the communion of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> since the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">schism of Michael Cærularius</a> (1054), the emperors of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> implored the assistance of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>; in 1073 letters were exchanged on the subject between Michael VII and <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">Gregory VII</a>. The <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">pope</a> seriously contemplated leading a force of 50,000 men to the East in order to re-establish <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">Christian unity</a>, repulse the Turks, and rescue the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>. But the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the crusade constituted only a part of this magnificent plan. (The letters of <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">Gregory VII</a> are in P.L., CXLVIII, 300, 325, 329, 386; cf. Riant's critical discussion in Archives de l'Orient Latin, I, 56.) The conflict over the <a href="../cathen/08084c.htm">Investitures</a> in 1076 compelled the <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">pope</a> to abandon his projects; the Emperors Nicephorus Botaniates and Alexius Comnenus were unfavourable to a <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">religious union</a> with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; finally <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> broke out between the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> and the Normans of the Two Sicilies.</p> <p>It was <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Pope Urban II</a> who took up the plans of <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">Gregory VII</a> and gave them more definite shape. A letter from Alexius Comnenus to Robert, Count of Flanders, recorded by the chroniclers, Guibert de Nogent ("Historiens Occidentaux des Croisades", ed. by the Académie des Inscriptions, IV, 131) and <a href="../cathen/07519b.htm">Hugues de Fleury</a> (in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", IX, 392), seems to imply that the crusade was instigated by the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperor, but this has been proved false (Chalandon, Essai sur le règne d'Alexis Comnène, appendix), Alexius having merely sought to enroll five hundred <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flemish</a> <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> in the imperial army (Anna Comnena, Alexiad., VII, iv). The honour of initiating the crusade has also been attributed to <a href="../cathen/11775b.htm">Peter the Hermit</a>, a <a href="../cathen/07280a.htm">recluse</a> of Picardy, who, after a <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> to <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and a <a href="../cathen/15477a.htm">vision</a> in the church of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>, went to <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> and was commissioned by him to preach the crusade. However, though eyewitnesses of the crusade mention his preaching, they do not ascribe to him the all-important rôle assigned him later by various chroniclers, e.g. <a href="../cathen/01261d.htm">Albert of Aix</a> and especially <a href="../cathen/15639a.htm">William of Tyre</a>. (See Hagenmeyer, Peter der Eremite Leipzig, 1879.) The <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the crusade is chiefly attributed to <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Pope Urban II</a> (1095), and the motives that actuated him are clearly set forth by his contemporaries: "On beholding the enormous injury that all, <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> or <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">people</a>, brought upon the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian Faith</a> . . . at the news that the <a href="../cathen/13224b.htm">Rumanian</a> provinces had been taken from the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by the Turks, moved with compassion and impelled by the <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, he crossed the mountains and descended into <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">Gaul</a>" (Foucher de Chartres, I, in "Histoire des Crois.", III, 321). Of course it is possible that in order to swell his forces, Alexius Comnenus solicited assistance in the West; however, it was not he but the <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">pope</a> who agitated the great movement which filled the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greeks</a> with anxiety and terror.</p> <h2 id="ii">Foundation of Christian states in the east</h2> <p>After travelling through <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a> and the south of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> convoked a <a href="../cathen/12164c.htm">council</a> at <a href="../cathen/04053a.htm">Clermont-Ferrand</a>, in Auvergne. It was attended by fourteen <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a>, 250 <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and 400 <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>; moreover a great number of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> and men of all conditions came and encamped on the plain of Chantoin, to the east of <a href="../cathen/04053a.htm">Clermont</a>, 18-28 November, 1095. On 27 November, the <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">pope</a> himself addressed the assembled multitudes, exhorting them to go forth and rescue the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>. Amid wonderful enthusiasm and cries of "<a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> wills it!" all rushed towards the <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">pontiff</a> to pledge themselves by <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> to depart for the Holy Land and receive the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> of red material to be worn on the shoulder. At the same time the <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">pope</a> sent letters to all <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> nations, and the movement made rapid headway throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. Preachers of the crusade appeared everywhere, and on all sides sprang up disorganized, undisciplined, penniless hordes, almost destitute of equipment, who, surging eastward through the valley of the Danube, plundered as they went along and <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murdered</a> the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> in the German cities. One of these bands, headed by Folkmar, a German <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">cleric</a>, was slaughtered by the <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungarians</a>. <a href="../cathen/11775b.htm">Peter the Hermit</a>, however, and the German <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knight</a>, Walter the Pennyless (Gautier Sans Avoir), finally reached <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> with their disorganized troops. To save the city from plunder Alexius Comnenus ordered them to be conveyed across the Bosporus (August, 1096); in <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> they turned to pillage and were nearly all slain by the Turks. Meanwhile the regular crusade was being organized in the West and, according to a well-conceived plan, the four principal armies were to meet at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>.</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li><a href="../cathen/06624b.htm">Godfrey of Bouillon</a>, Duke of Lower Lorraine at the head of the people of <a href="../cathen/09362a.htm">Lorraine</a>, the <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germans</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> from the north, followed the valley of the Danube, crossed <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, and arrived at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, 23 December, 1096.</li><li>Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, Robert Courte-Heuse, Duke of Normandy, and Count Stephen of Blois, led bands of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> and <a href="../cathen/11104a.htm">Normans</a> across the Alps and set sail from the ports of Apulia for Dyrrachium (<a href="../cathen/05209a.htm">Durazzo</a>), whence they took the "Via Egnatia" to <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> and assembled there in May, 1097.</li><li>The <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> from the south, under the leadership of <a href="../cathen/12669c.htm">Raymond of Saint-Gilles</a>, Count of <a href="../cathen/14795b.htm">Toulouse</a>, and of Adhemar of Monteil, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Puy and <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a>, began to fight their way through the longitudinal valleys of the Eastern Alps and, after bloody conflicts with the Slavonians, reached <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> at the end of April, 1097.</li><li>Lastly, the Normans of Southern <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, won over by the enthusiasm of the bands of crusaders that passed through their country, embarked for Epirus under the command of Bohemond and <a href="../cathen/14442b.htm">Tancred</a>, one being the eldest son, the other the nephew, of <a href="../cathen/07072b.htm">Robert Guiscard</a>. Crossing the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a>, they succeeded in reaching <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, 26 April, 1097.</li></ul></div> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The appearance of the crusading armies at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> raised the greatest trouble, and helped to bring about in the future irremediable misunderstandings between the <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Greeks</a> and the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Christians</a>. The unsolicited invasion of the latter alarmed Alexius, who tried to prevent the concentration of all these forces at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> by transporting to <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> each Western army in the order of its arrival; moreover, he endeavoured to extort from the leaders of the crusade a promise that they would restore to the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek Empire</a> the lands they were about to conquer. After resisting the imperial entreaties throughout the winter, <a href="../cathen/06624b.htm">Godfrey of Bouillon</a>, hemmed in at Pera, at length consented to take the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> of fealty. Bohemond, Robert Courte-Heuse, Stephen of Blois, and the other crusading chiefs unhesitatingly assumed the same <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a>; <a href="../cathen/12669c.htm">Raymond of St-Gilles</a>, however, remained obdurate.</p> <p>Transported into <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, the crusaders laid siege to the city of <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a>, but Alexius negotiated with the Turks, had the city delivered to him, and prohibited the crusaders from entering it (1 June, 1097). After their victory over the Turks at the battle of <a href="../cathen/05136b.htm">Dorylæum</a> on 1 July, 1097, the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> entered upon the high plateaux of <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>. Constantly harrassed by a relentless enemy, overcome by the excessive heat, and sinking under the weight of their leathern armour covered with iron scales, their sufferings were wellnigh intolerable. In September, 1097, <a href="../cathen/14442b.htm">Tancred</a> and Baldwin, brothers of <a href="../cathen/06624b.htm">Godfrey of Bouillon</a>, left the bulk of the army and entered <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> territory. At <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tarsus</a> a feud almost broke out between them, but fortunately they became reconciled. <a href="../cathen/14442b.htm">Tancred</a> took possession of the towns of Cilicia, whilst Baldwin, summoned by the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, crossed the Euphrates in October, 1097, and, after marrying an <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> princess, was proclaimed Lord of <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>. Meanwhile the crusaders, revictualled by the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a> of the Taurus region, made their way into <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> and on 20 October, 1097, reached the fortified city of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, which was protected by a wall flanked with 450 towers, stocked by the Ameer Jagi-Sian with immense quantities of provisions. Thanks to the assistance of carpenters and engineers who belonged to a <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> fleet that had arrived at the mouth of the Orontes, the crusaders were enabled to construct battering-machines and to begin the siege of the city. Eventually Bohemond negotiated with a Turkish chief who surrendered one of the towers, and on the night of 2 June, 1098, the crusaders took <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> by storm. The very next day they were in turn besieged within the city by the army of Kerbûga, Ameer of Mosul. Plague and famine cruelly decimated their ranks, and many of them, among others Stephen of Blois, escaped under cover of night. The army was on the verge of giving way to discouragement when its spirits were suddenly revived by the discovery of the <a href="../cathen/08773a.htm">Holy Lance</a>, resulting from the <a href="../cathen/05154a.htm">dream</a> of a Provençal <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> named Pierre Barthélemy. On 28 June, 1098, Kerbûga's army was effectually repulsed, but, instead of marching on <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> without delay, the chiefs spent several months in a quarrel due to the rivalry of <a href="../cathen/12669c.htm">Raymond of Saint-Gilles</a> and Bohemond, both of whom claimed the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>. It was not until April, 1099, that the march towards <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> was begun, Bohemond remaining in possession of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> while <a href="../cathen/12669c.htm">Raymond</a> seized on Tripoli. On 7 June the crusaders began the siege of <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. Their predicament would have been serious, indeed, had not another <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> fleet arrived at <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a> and, as at <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, furnished the engineers necessary for a siege. After a general procession which the crusaders made barefooted around the city walls amid the insults and incantations of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> sorcerers, the attack began 14 July, 1099. Next day the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> entered <a href="../cathen/08355a.htm">Jerusalem</a> from all sides and slew its inhabitants regardless of age or sex. Having accomplished their <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> to the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>, the <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> chose as lord of the new conquest <a href="../cathen/06624b.htm">Godfrey of Bouillon</a>, who called himself "Defender of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>". They had then to repulse an <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> army, which was defeated at <a href="../cathen/01766b.htm">Ascalon</a>, 12 August, 1099. Their position was nevertheless very insecure. Alexius Comnenus threatened the principality of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, and in 1100 Bohemond himself was made prisoner by the Turks, while most of the cities on the coast were still under <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> control. Before his death, 29 July, 1099, <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> once more proclaimed the crusade. In 1101 three expeditions crossed <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> under the leadership of Count Stephen of Blois, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, and Welf IV, Duke of Bavaria. All three managed to reach <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>, but were massacred by the Turks. On his release from prison Bohemond attacked the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a>, but was surrounded by the imperial army and forced to acknowledge himself the vassal of Alexius. On Bohemond's death, however, in 1111, <a href="../cathen/14442b.htm">Tancred</a> refused to live up to the treaty and retained <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>. <a href="../cathen/06624b.htm">Godfrey of Bouillon</a> died at <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> 18 July, 1100. His brother and successor, Baldwin of Edessa, was <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> King of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> in the <a href="../cathen/02325a.htm">Basilica</a> of <a href="../cathen/02533a.htm">Bethlehem</a>, 25 December, 1100. In 1112, with the aid of <a href="../cathen/11117b.htm">Norwegians</a> under Sigurd Jorsalafari and the support of <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a>, <a href="../cathen/12110a.htm">Pisan</a>, and <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetian</a> fleets, Baldwin I began the conquest of the ports of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, which was completed in 1124 by the capture of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>. <a href="../cathen/01766b.htm">Ascalon</a> alone kept an <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> garrison until 1153.</p> <p><a href="../images/04543cax.jpg"><img alt="Image" align=right src="../images/04543cat.jpg"></a></p> <p>At this period the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states formed an extensive and unbroken territory between the Euphrates and the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> frontier, and included four almost independent principalities: the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a>, the Countship of Tripoli, the Principality of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, and the Countship of Rohez (<a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>). These small states were, so to speak, the common property of all <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> and, as such, were subordinate to the authority of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. Moreover, the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> merchants established in the newly conquered cities soon gained the upper hand. The authority of the sovereigns of these different principalities was restricted by the fief-holders, vassals, and under-vassals who constituted the Court of Lieges, or Supreme Court. This assembly had entire control in legislative matters; no statute or <a href="../cathen/09066a.htm">law</a> could be established without its consent; no baron could be deprived of his fief without its decision; its jurisdiction extended over all, even the king, and it controlled also the succession to the throne. A "Court of the Burgesses" had similar jurisdiction over the citizens. Each fief had a like tribunal composed of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> and citizens, and in the ports there were police and mercantile courts (see <a href="../cathen/02001a.htm">ASSIZES OF JERUSALEM</a>). The authority of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> also helped to limit the power of the king; the four <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> sees of <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, <a href="../cathen/03134b.htm">Cæsarea</a>, <a href="../cathen/02537a.htm">Bessan</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11777b.htm">Petra</a> were subject to the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, similarly seven suffragan <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">sees</a> and a great many <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, among them Mount Sion, <a href="../cathen/11244b.htm">Mount Olivet</a>, the <a href="../cathen/14495a.htm">Temple</a>, <a href="../cathen/08503a.htm">Josaphat</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>. Through rich and frequent donations the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> became the largest property-holders in the kingdom; they also received from the crusaders important estates situated in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. In spite of the aforesaid restrictions, in the twelfth century the King of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> had a large income. The customs <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> established in the ports and administered by natives, the tolls exacted from caravans, and the monopoly of certain industries were a fruitful source of revenue. From a military point of view all vassals owed the king unlimited service as to time, though he was obliged to compensate them, but to fill the ranks of the army it was necessary to enroll natives who received a life annuity (<em>fief de soudée</em>). In this way was recruited the light cavalry of the "Turcoples", armed in <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracenic</a> style. Altogether these forces barely exceeded 20,000 men, and yet the powerful vassals who commanded them were almost independent of the king. So it was that the great need of regular troops for the defence of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> dominions brought about the creation of a unique institution, the <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">religious orders of knighthood</a>, viz.: the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>, who at first did <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> in the Hospital of St. John founded by the aforesaid merchants of <a href="../cathen/01379a.htm">Amalfi</a>, and were then organized into a militia by Gérard du Puy that they might fight the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a> (1113); and the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, nine of whom in 1118 gathered around Hugues de Payens and received the Rule of St. Bernard. These members, whether <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> drawn from the nobility, bailiffs, clerks, or <a href="../cathen/03579b.htm">chaplains</a>, pronounced the three monastic <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> but it was chiefly to the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a> that they pledged themselves. Being favoured with many spiritual and temporal privileges, they easily gained recruits from among the younger sons of <a href="../cathen/06058c.htm">feudal</a> houses and acquired both in Palestine and in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> considerable property. Their castles, built at the principal strategic points, Margat, Le Crac, and <a href="../cathen/14785a.htm">Tortosa</a>, were strong citadels protected by several concentric enclosures. In the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a> these <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a> virtually formed two independent commonwealths. Finally, in the cities, the public power was divided between the native citizens and the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> colonists, <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a>, <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a>, <a href="../cathen/12110a.htm">Pisans</a>, and also the <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseillais</a> who, in exchange for their services, were given supreme power in certain districts wherein small self-governing communities had their consuls, their churches, and on the outskirts their farm-land, used for the cultivation of cotton and sugar-cane. The <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a> ports were regularly visited by <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> fleets which obtained there the spices and silks brought by caravans from the Far East. Thus, during the first half of the twelfth century the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states of the East were completely organized, and even eclipsed in wealth and prosperity most of the Western states.</p> <h2 id="iii">First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87)</h2> <p><a href="../images/04543cbx.jpg"><img alt="Image" align=left src="../images/04543cbt.jpg"></a></p> <p>Many dangers, unfortunately, threatened this prosperity. On the south were the Caliphs of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, on the east the Seljuk Ameers of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, Hamah and <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, and on the north the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperors, eager to realize the project of Alexius Comnenus and bring the Latin states under their power. Moreover, in the presence of so many enemies the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states lacked cohesion and discipline. The help they received from the West was too scattered and intermittent. Nevertheless these Western <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, isolated amid <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> and forced, because of the torrid climate, to lead a life far different from that to which they had been accustomed at home, displayed admirable bravery and energy in their efforts to save the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> colonies. In 1137 John Comnenus, Emperor of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, appeared before <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> with an army, and compelled Prince Raymond to do him homage. On the death of this potentate (1143), Raymond endeavoured to shake off the irksome yoke and invaded <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> territory, but was hemmed in by the imperial army and compelled (1144) to humble himself at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> before the Emperor Manuel. The <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Principality of Edessa</a>, completely isolated from the other <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states, could not withstand the attacks of Imad-ed-Din, the prince, or <em>atabek</em>, of Mosul, who forced its garrison to capitulate 25 December, 1144. After the assassination of Imad-ed-Din, his son Nour-ed-Din continued hostilities against the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states. At news of this, Louis VII of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, and a great number of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, moved by the exhortations of <a href="../cathen/02498d.htm">St. Bernard</a>, enlisted under the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> (Assembly of Vézelay, 31 March, 1146). The <a href="../cathen/02498d.htm">Abbot of Clairvaux</a> became the apostle of the crusade and conceived the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of urging all <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> to attack the <a href="../cathen/08002b.htm">infidels</a> simultaneously in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, and beyond the Elbe. At first he met with strong opposition in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. Eventually Emperor Conrad III acceded to his wish and adopted the standard of the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> at the Diet of Spires, 25 December, 1146. However, there was no such enthusiasm as had prevailed in 1095. Just as the crusaders started on their march, King Roger of Sicily attacked the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a>, but his expedition merely checked the progress of Nour-ed-Din's invasion. The sufferings endured by the crusaders while crossing <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> prevented them from advancing on <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a>. They contented themselves with besieging <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, but were obliged to retreat at the end of a few weeks (July, 1148). This defeat caused great dissatisfaction in the West; moreover, the conflicts between the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greeks</a> and the crusaders only confirmed the general opinion that the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> was the chief obstacle to the success of the Crusades. Nevertheless, Manuel Comnenus endeavoured to strengthen the bonds that united the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> to the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> principalities. In 1161 he <a href="../cathen/09707a.htm">married</a> Mary of Antioch, and in 1167 gave the hand of one of his nieces to Amalric, King of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. This alliance resulted in thwarting the progress of Nour-ed-Din, who, having become master of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> in 1154, refrained thenceforth from attacking the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> dominions.</p> <p>King Amalric profited by this respite to interpose in the affairs of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, as the only remaining representatives of the Fatimite dynasty were children, and two rival viziers were disputing the supreme power amid conditions of absolute <a href="../cathen/01452a.htm">anarchy</a>. One of these disputants, Shawer, being exiled from <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, took refuge with Nour-ed-Din, who sent his best general, Shírkúh, to reinstate him. After his conquest of Cairo, Shírkúh endeavoured to bring Shawer into disfavour with the caliph; Amalric, taking advantage of this, allied himself with Shawer. On two occasions, in 1164 and 1167, he forced Shírkúh to evacuate <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>; a body of <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> was stationed at one of the gates of Cairo, and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> paid a tribute of 100,000 dinárs to the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a>. In 1168 Amalric made another attempt to conquer <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, but failed. After ordering the assassination of Shawer, Shírkúh had himself proclaimed Grand Vizier. At his death on 3 March, 1169, he was succeeded by his nephew, Salah-ed-Dîn (Saladin). During that year Amalric, aided by a <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> fleet, invaded <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> once more, but was defeated at <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a>. Saladin retained full sway in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and appointed no successor to the last Fatimite caliph, who died in 1171. Moreover, Nour-ed-Din died in 1174, and, while his sons and nephews disputed the inheritance, Saladin took possession of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> and conquered all Mesopotamia except Mosul. Thus, when Amalric died in 1173, leaving the royal power to Baldwin IV, "the Leprous", a child of thirteen, the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a> was threatened on all sides. At the same time two factions, led respectively by Guy de Lusignan, brother-in-law of the king, and <a href="../cathen/12669c.htm">Raymond</a>, Count of Tripoli, contended for the supremacy. Baldwin IV died in 1184, and was soon followed to the grave by his nephew Baldwin V. Despite lively opposition, Guy de Lusignan was <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> king, 20 July, 1186. Though the struggle against Saladin was already under way, it was unfortunately conducted without order or discipline. Notwithstanding the truce concluded with Saladin, Renaud de Châtillon, a powerful feudatory and lord of the trans-Jordanic region, which included the fief of Montréal, the great castle of Karak, and Aïlet, a port on the <a href="../cathen/12688a.htm">Red Sea</a>, sought to divert the enemy's attention by attacking the holy cities of the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>. Oarless vessels were brought to Aïlet on the backs of camels in 1182, and a fleet of five galleys traversed the <a href="../cathen/12688a.htm">Red Sea</a> for a whole year, ravaging the coasts as far as <a href="../cathen/01141d.htm">Aden</a>; a body of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> even attempted to seize Medina. In the end this fleet was destroyed by Saladin's, and, to the great joy of the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> prisoners were put to death at <a href="../cathen/10099a.htm">Mecca</a>. Attacked in his castle at Karak, Renaud twice repulsed Saladin's forces (1184-86). A truce was then signed, but Renaud broke it again and carried off a caravan in which was the sultan's own sister. In his exasperation Saladin invaded the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a> and, although Guy de Lusignan gathered all his forces to repel the attack, on 4 July, 1187, Saladin's army annihilated that of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> on the shores of <a href="../cathen/14716b.htm">Lake Tiberias</a>. The king, the grand master of the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Temple</a>, Renaud de Châtillon, and the most powerful men in the realm were made prisoners. After slaying Renaud with his own hand, Saladin marched on <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. The city capitulated 17 September, and <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a>, <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, and Tripoli were the only places in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> that remained to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>.</p> <h2 id="iv">Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade against Saint-Jean d'Acre</h2> <p>The news of these events caused great consternation in <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, and <a href="../cathen/06795a.htm">Pope Gregory VIII</a> strove to put a stop to all dissensions among the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes. On 21 January, 1188, <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a>, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and <a href="../cathen/07220b.htm">Henry II, Plantagenet</a>, became reconciled at Gisors and took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>. On 27 March, at the Diet of <a href="../cathen/09550a.htm">Mainz</a>, <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Frederick Barbarossa</a> and a great number of German <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> made a <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> to defend the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> cause in Palestine. In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, <a href="../cathen/12110a.htm">Pisa</a> made peace with <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a>, <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> with the King of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, and William of Sicily with the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a>. Moreover, a Scandinavian fleet consisting of 12,000 warriors sailed around the shores of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, when passing <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>, it helped to capture Alvor from the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>. Enthusiasm for the crusade was again wrought up to a high pitch; but, on the other hand, diplomacy and royal and princely schemes became increasingly important in its organization. <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Frederick Barbarossa</a> entered into negotiations with Isaac Angelus, Emperor of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, with the Sultan of <a href="../cathen/07619a.htm">Iconium</a>, and even with Saladin himself. It was, moreover, the first time that all the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> forces were united under a single leader; Saladin, while the holy <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> was being preached, organized against the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> something like a counter-crusade. <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Frederick Barbarossa</a>, who was first ready for the enterprise, and to whom chroniclers attribute an army of 100,000 men, left <a href="../cathen/12657a.htm">Ratisbon</a>, 11 May, 1189. After crossing <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> he took the Balkan passes by assault and tried to outflank the hostile movements of Isaac Angelus by attacking <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. Finally, after the sack of <a href="../cathen/01161a.htm">Adrianople</a>, Isaac Angelus surrendered, and between 21 and 30 March, 1190, the <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germans</a> succeeded in crossing the Strait of Gallipoli. As usual, the march across <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> was most arduous. With a view to replenishing provisions, the army took <a href="../cathen/07619a.htm">Iconium</a> by assault. On their arrival in the Taurus region, <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Frederick Barbarossa</a> tried to cross the Selef (Kalykadnos) on horseback and was drowned. Thereupon many German princes returned to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>; the others, under the emperor's son, Frederick of Swabia, reached <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> and proceeded thence to <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>. It was before this city that finally all the crusading troops assembled. In June, 1189, King Guy de Lusignan, who had been released from captivity, appeared there with the remnant of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> army, and, in September of the same year, the Scandinavian fleet arrived, followed by the <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">English</a> and <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flemish</a> fleets, commanded respectively by the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> and Jacques d'Avesnes. This heroic siege lasted two years. In the spring of each year reinforcements arrived from the West, and a veritable <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> city sprang up outside the walls of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a>. But the winters were disastrous to the crusaders, whose ranks were decimated by disease brought on by the inclemency of the rainy season and lack of food. Saladin came to the assistance of the city, and communicated with it by means of carrier pigeons. Missile-hurtling machines (<em>pierrières</em>), worked by powerful machinery, were used by the crusaders to demolish the walls of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a>, but the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> also had strong artillery. This famous siege had already lasted two years when <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a>, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard Coeur de Lion</a>, King of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, arrived on the scene. After long deliberation they had left Vézelay together, 4 July, 1190. <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> embarked at <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>, <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip</a> at <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a>, and they met at Messina. During a sojourn in this place, lasting until March, 1191, they almost quarrelled, but finally concluded a treaty of peace. While <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip</a> was landing at <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a>, <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> was shipwrecked on the coast of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, then independent under Isaac Comnenus. With the aid of Guy de Lusignan, <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> conquered this island. The arrival of the Kings of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a> before <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a> brought about the capitulation of the city, 13 July 1191. Soon, however, the quarrel of the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> and <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">English</a> kings broke out again, and <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a> left Palestine, 28 July. <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> was now leader of the crusade, and, to punish Saladin for the non-fulfilment of the treaty conditions within the time specified, had the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> hostages put to death. Next, an attack on <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> was meditated, but, after beguiling the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by negotiations, Saladin brought numerous troops from <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. The enterprise failed, and <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> compensated himself for these reverses by brilliant but useless exploits which made his name legendary among the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>. Before his departure he sold the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Island of Cyprus</a>, first to the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, who were unable to settle there, and then to Guy de Lusignan, who renounced the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a> in favour of Conrad of Montferrat (1192). After a last expedition to defend <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a> against Saladin, <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard</a> declared a truce and embarked for <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, 9 October, 1192, but did not reach his <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">English</a> realm until he had undergone a humiliating captivity at the hands of the Duke of Austria, who avenged in this way the insults offered him before <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>While Capetians and Plantagenets, oblivious of the Holy War, were settling at home their territorial disputes, <a href="../cathen/07233a.htm">Emperor Henry VI</a>, son of <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Barbarossa</a>, took in hand the supreme direction of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> politics in the East. Crowned King of the Two Sicilies, 25 December, 1194, he took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> at <a href="../cathen/02295a.htm">Bari</a>, 31 May, 1195, and made ready an expedition which, he thought, would recover <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and wrest <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> from the usurper Alexius III. Eager to exercise his imperial authority he made Amaury de Lusignan King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> and Leo II King of <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenia</a>. In September, 1197, the German crusaders started for the East. They landed at <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> and marched on <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, but were detained before the little town of Tibnin from November, 1197, to February 1198. On raising the siege, they learned that <a href="../cathen/07233a.htm">Henry VI</a> had died, 28 September, at <a href="../cathen/10216a.htm">Messina</a>, where he had gathered the fleet that was to convey him to <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. The <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germans</a> signed a truce with the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>, but their future influence in Palestine was assured by the creation of the <a href="../cathen/14541b.htm">Order of the Teutonic Knights</a>. In 1143, a German pilgrim had founded a <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> for his fellow-countrymen; the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> who served it moved to <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a> and, in 1198, were organized in imitation of the plan of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>, their rule being approved by <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> in 1199.</p> <h2 id="v">The crusade against Constantinople (1204)</h2> <p><a href="../images/04543ccx.jpg"><img alt="Image" align=right src="../images/04543cct.jpg"></a></p> <p>In the many attempts made to establish the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states the efforts of the crusaders had been directed solely toward the object for which the Holy War had been instituted; the crusade against <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> shows the first deviation from the original purpose. For those who strove to gain their ends by taking the direction of the crusades out of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope's</a> hands, this new movement was, of course, a triumph, but for <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> it was a source of perplexity. Scarcely had <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> been elected <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, in January, 1198, when he inaugurated a policy in the East which he was to follow throughout his pontificate. He subordinated all else to the recapture of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and the reconquest of the Holy Land. In his first <a href="../cathen/05413a.htm">Encyclicals</a> he summoned all <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> to join the crusade and even negotiated with Alexius III, the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperor, trying to persuade him to re-enter the Roman communion and use his troops for the liberation of Palestine. Peter of Capua, the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a>, brought about a truce between <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a> and <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard Coeur de Lion</a>, January, 1199, and popular preachers, among others the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> <a href="../cathen/06157a.htm">Foulques of Neuilly</a>, attracted large crowds. During a tournament at Ecry-sur-Aisne, 28 November, 1199, <a href="../cathen/14634c.htm">Count Thibaud de Champagne</a> and a great many <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>; in southern <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, Martin, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Pairis, near Colmar, won many to the crusade. It would seem, however, that, from the outset, the <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">pope</a> lost control of this enterprise. Without even consulting <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a>, the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, who had elected <a href="../cathen/14634c.htm">Thibaud de Champagne</a> as their leader, decided to attack the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and in March, 1201, concluded with the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Republic of Venice</a> a contract for the transportation of troops on the Mediterranean. On the death of Thibaud the crusaders chose as his successor Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, and cousin of Philip of Swabia, then in open conflict with the <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">pope</a>. Just at this time the son of Isaac Angelus, the dethroned Emperor of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, sought refuge in the West and asked <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> and his own brother-in-law, Philip of Swabia, to reinstate him on the imperial throne. The question has been raised whether it was pre-arranged between Philip and Boniface of Montferrat to turn the crusade towards <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, and a passage in the "Gesta Innocentii" (83, in P.L., CCXIV, CXXXII) indicates that the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> was not new to Boniface of Montferrat when, in the spring of 1202, he made it <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">known</a> to the <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">pope</a>. Meanwhile the crusaders assembled at <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> could not pay the amount called for by their contract, so, by way of exchange, the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> suggested that they help recover the city of <a href="../cathen/15752a.htm">Zara</a> in <a href="../cathen/04606b.htm">Dalmatia</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> accepted the proposal, and, after a few days' siege, the city capitulated, November, 1202. But it was in vain that <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> urged the crusaders to set out for Palestine. Having obtained <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> for the capture of <a href="../cathen/15752a.htm">Zara</a>, and despite the opposition of Simon of Montfort and a part of the army, on 24 May, 1203, the leaders ordered a march on <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. They had concluded with Alexius, the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> pretender, a treaty whereby he promised to have the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greeks</a> return to the Roman communion, give the crusaders 200,000 marks, and participate in the Holy War. On 23 June the crusaders' fleet appeared before <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>; on 7 July they took possession of a suburb of Galata and forced their way into the Golden Horn; on 17 July they simultaneously attacked the sea walls and land walls of the Blachernæ. The troops of Alexius III made an unsuccessful sally, and the usurper fled, whereupon Isaac Angelus was released from prison and permitted to share the imperial dignity with his son, Alexius IV. But even had the latter been sincere he would have been powerless to keep the promises made to the crusaders. After some months of tedious waiting, those of their number cantoned at Galata lost patience with the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greeks</a>, who not only refused to live up to their agreement, but likewise treated them with open hostility. On 5 February, 1204, Alexius IV and Isaac Angelus were deposed by a revolution, and Alexius Murzuphla, a usurper, undertook the defence of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> against the Latin crusaders who were preparing to besiege <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> a second time. By a treaty concluded in March, 1204, between the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> and the crusading chiefs, it was pre-arranged to share the spoils of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek Empire</a>. On 12 April, 1204, <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> was carried by storm, and the next day the ruthless plundering of its <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a> and palaces was begun. The masterpieces of antiquity, piled up in public places and in the Hippodrome, were utterly destroyed. <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">Clerics</a> and <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, in their eagerness to acquire famous and priceless <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a>, took part in the sack of the churches. The <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> received half the booty; the portion of each crusader was determined according to his rank of baron, <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knight</a>, or bailiff, and most of the churches of the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">West</a> were enriched with ornaments stripped from those of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. On 9 May, 1204, an electoral college, formed of prominent crusaders and <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a>, assembled to elect an emperor. <a href="../cathen/04619a.htm">Dandolo</a>, Doge of <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a>, refused the honour, and Boniface of Montferrat was not considered. In the end, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was elected and solemnly <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> in St. Sophia. <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> and the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">empire</a> were divided among the emperor, the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a>, and the chief crusaders; the Marquis of Montferrat received <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a> and Macedonia, with the title of king; Henry of Flanders became Lord of Adramyttion; Louis of Blois was made Duke of <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a>, and fiefs were bestowed upon six hundred <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>. Meanwhile, the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> reserved to themselves the ports of Thrace, the Peloponnesus, and the islands. Thomas Morosini, a <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetian</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, was elected <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarch</a>.</p> <p>At the news of these most extraordinary events, in which he had had no hand, <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> bowed as in submission to the designs of <a href="../cathen/12510a.htm">Providence</a> and, in the interests of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, determined to make the best of the new conquest. His chief aim was to suppress the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greek schism</a> and to place the forces of the new Latin Empire at the service of the crusade. Unfortunately, the Latin Empire of Constantinople was in too precarious a condition to furnish any material support to the papal policy. The emperor was unable to impose his authority upon the barons. At <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a>, not far from <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, the former <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> Government gathered the remnant of its authority and its followers. Theodore Lascaris was proclaimed emperor. In <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, Joannitsa, Tsar of the Wallachians and <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">Bulgarians</a>, invaded Thrace and destroyed the army of the crusaders before <a href="../cathen/01161a.htm">Adrianople</a>, 14 April, 1205. During the battle the Emperor Baldwin fell. His brother and successor, Henry of Flanders, devoted his reign (1206-16) to interminable conflicts with the <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">Bulgarians</a>, the Lombards of <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/06735a.htm">Greeks</a> of <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>. Nevertheless, he succeeded in strengthening the Latin conquest, forming an alliance with the <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">Bulgarians</a>, and establishing his authority even over the feudatories of Morea (Parliament of Ravennika, 1209); however, far from leading a crusade into Palestine, he had to solicit Western help, and was obliged to sign treaties with Theodore Lascaris and even with the Sultan of <a href="../cathen/07619a.htm">Iconium</a>. The <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greeks</a> were not reconciled to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Church of Rome</a>; most of their <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> abandoned their <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">sees</a> and took refuge at <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a>, leaving their churches to the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> named to replace them. <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greek</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> were replaced by <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> monasteries, commanderies of <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a> and <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03582b.htm">chapters</a> of canons. With a few exceptions, however, the native population remained hostile and looked upon the Latin conquerors as foreigners. Having failed in all his attempts to induce the barons of the Latin Empire to undertake an expedition against Palestine, and understanding at last the cause of failure of the crusade in 1204, <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> resolved (1207) to organize a new crusade and to take no further notice of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. Circumstances, however, were unfavourable. Instead of concentrating the forces of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, the <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">pope</a> himself disbanded them by proclaiming (1209) a crusade against the <a href="../cathen/01267e.htm">Albigenses</a> in the south of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and against the Almohades of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> (1213), the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a> of <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussia</a>, and John Lackland of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>. At the same time there occurred outbursts of <a href="../cathen/10663b.htm">mystical</a> emotion similar to those which had preceded the first crusade. In 1212 a young shepherd of Vendôme and a youth from <a href="../cathen/04116a.htm">Cologne</a> gathered thousands of children whom they proposed to lead to the conquest of Palestine. The movement spread through <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. This "Children's Crusade" at length reached <a href="../cathen/02787e.htm">Brindisi</a>, where merchants sold a number of the children as slaves to the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moors</a>, while nearly all the rest died of hunger and exhaustion. In 1213 <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> had a crusade preached throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and sent Cardinal Pelagius to the East to effect, if possible, the return of the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greeks</a> to the fold of <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">Roman unity</a>. On 25 July, 1215, <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a>, after his victory over Otto of Brunswick, took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> at the tomb of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> at <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aachen</a>. On 11 November, 1215, <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> opened the <a href="../cathen/09018a.htm">Fourth Lateran Council</a> with an exhortation to all the faithful to join the crusade, the departure being set for 1217. At the time of his death (1216) <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Pope Innocent</a> felt that a great movement had been started.</p> <h2 id="vi">The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52)</h2> <p>In <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, however, the preaching of the crusade met with great opposition. Temporal princes were strongly averse to losing jurisdiction over their subjects who took part in the crusades. Absorbed in political schemes, they were unwilling to send so far away the military forces on which they depended. As early as December, 1216, <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a> was granted a first delay in the fulfilment of his <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>. The crusade as preached in the thirteenth century was no longer the great enthusiastic movement of 1095, but rather a series of irregular and desultory enterprises. Andrew II, King of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, and Casimir, Duke of <a href="../cathen/12225a.htm">Pomerania</a>, set sail from <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> and <a href="../cathen/14207a.htm">Spalato</a>, while an army of Scandinavians made a tour of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. The crusaders landed at <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> in 1217, but confined themselves to incursions on <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a> territory, whereupon Andrew of Hungary returned to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. Receiving reinforcements in the spring of 1218, John of Brienne, King of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, resolved to make an attack on the Holy Land by way of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. The crusaders accordingly landed at <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a> in May, 1218, and, after a siege marked by many deeds of heroism, took the city by storm, 5 November, 1219. Instead of profiting by this victory, they spent over a year in idle quarrels, and it was not until May 1221, that they set out for Cairo. Surrounded by the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a> at Mansurah, 24 July, the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> army was routed. John of Brienne was compelled to purchase a retreat by the surrender of <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a> to the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>. Meanwhile <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Emperor Frederick II</a>, who was to be the leader of the crusade, had remained in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and continued to importune the <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">pope</a> for new postponements of his departure. On 9 November, 1225, he married Isabelle of Brienne, heiress to the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a>, the ceremony taking place at <a href="../cathen/02787e.htm">Brindisi</a>. Completely ignoring his father-in-law, he assumed the title of King of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. In 1227, however, he had not yet left for Palestine. <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">Gregory IX</a>, elected <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> 19 March, 1227, summoned <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick</a> to fulfil his <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>. Finally, 8 September, the emperor embarked but soon turned back; therefore, on 29 September, the <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">pope</a> <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> him. Nevertheless, <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick</a> set sail again 18 June, 1228, but instead of leading a crusade he played a game of diplomacy. He won over Malek-el-Khamil, the Sultan of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, who was at <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> with the Prince of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, and concluded a treaty with him at <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, February, 1229, according to the terms of which <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, <a href="../cathen/02533a.htm">Bethlehem</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a> were restored to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. On 18 March, 1229, without any religious <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a>, <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick</a> assumed the royal crown of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> in the church of the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>. Returning to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, he became reconciled to <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">Gregory IX</a>, August, 1230. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pontiff</a> ratified the Treaty of <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, and <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick</a> sent <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> into <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> to take possession of the cities and compel all feudatories to do him homage. A struggle occurred between Richard Filangieri, the emperor's marshal, and the barons of Palestine, whose leader was Jean d'Ibelin, Lord of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>. Filangieri vainly attempted to obtain possession of the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Island of Cyprus</a>. and, when Conrad, son of <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a> and Isabelle of Brienne, came of age in 1243, the High Court, described above, named as regent Alix of Champagne, Queen of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>. In this way German power was abolished in Palestine.</p> <p>In the meantime Count Thibaud IV of Champagne had been leading a fruitless crusade in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> (1239). Similarly the Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a> and <a href="../cathen/13045a.htm">Richard of Cornwall</a>, brother of the King of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, who had undertaken to recover <a href="../cathen/01766b.htm">Ascalon</a>, concluded a truce with <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> (1241). <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> was now threatened with a most grievous disaster. After conquering <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> under Jenghiz Khan appeared in 1241 on the frontiers of <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>, routed the army of the Duke of <a href="../cathen/13790b.htm">Silesia</a> at Liegnitz, annihilated that of Bela, King of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, and reached the Adriatic. Palestine felt the consequences of this invasion. The <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> had destroyed the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a> Empire of Kharizm in Central <a href="../cathen/01777b.htm">Asia</a>. Fleeing before their conquerors, 10,000 Kharizmians offered their services to the Sultan of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, meanwhile seizing <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a> as they passed by, in September, 1244. The news of this catastrophe created a great stir in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, and at the <a href="../cathen/09476b.htm">Council of Lyons</a> (June-July, 1245) <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">Pope Innocent IV</a> proclaimed a crusade, but the lack of harmony between him and the <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Emperor Frederick II</a> foredoomed the <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">pontiff</a> to disappointment. Save for <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">Louis IX</a>, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, who took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> in December, 1244, no one showed any willingness to lead an expedition to Palestine. On being informed that the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> were well-disposed towards <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">Innocent IV</a> sent them Giovanni di Pianocarpini, a <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01766c.htm">Nicolas Ascelin</a>, a <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominican</a>, as ambassadors. Pianocarpini was in Karakorum 8 April, 1246, the day of the election of the great khan, but nothing came of this first attempt at an alliance with the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>. However, when <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a>, who left <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> 12 June, 1248, had reached the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Island of Cyprus</a>, he received there a friendly embassy from the great khan and, in return, sent him two <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominicans</a>. Encouraged, perhaps, by this alliance, the King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> decided to attack <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. On 7 June, 1249, he took <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a>, but it was only six months later that he marched on Cairo. On 19 December, his advance-guard, commanded by his brother, Robert of Artois, began imprudently to fight in the streets of Mansurah and were destroyed. The king himself was cut off from communication with <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a> and made prisoner 5 April, 1250. At the same time, the Ajoubite dynasty founded by Saladin was overthrown by the Mameluke militia, whose ameers took possession of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a> negotiated with the latter and was set at liberty on condition of surrendering <a href="../cathen/04615b.htm">Damietta</a> and paying a ransom of a million gold bezants. He remained in Palestine until 1254; bargained with the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> ameers for the deliverance of prisoners; improved the equipment of the strongholds of the kingdom, <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>, <a href="../cathen/03134b.htm">Cæsarea</a>, <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, and <a href="../cathen/13776a.htm">Sidon</a>; and sent <a href="../cathen/13217a.htm">Friar William of Rubruquis</a> as ambassador to the great khan. Then, at the news of the death of his mother, Blanche of Castile, who had been acting as regent, he returned to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. Since the crusade against <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>, a new <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> state, the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Kingdom of Cyprus</a>, had been formed in the Mediterranean opposite <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> and became a valuable point of support for the crusades. By lavish distribution of lands and franchises, Guy de Lusignan succeeded in attracting to the island colonists, <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, men-at-arms, and civilians; his successors established a government modelled after that of the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a>. The king's power was restricted by that of the High Court, composed of all the <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, vassals, or under-vassals, with its seat at <a href="../cathen/11071c.htm">Nicosia</a>. However, the fiefs were less extensive than in Palestine, and the feudatories could inherit only in a direct line. The <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Island of Cyprus</a> was soon populated with <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> colonists who succeeded in winning over the <a href="../cathen/06735a.htm">Greeks</a>, upon whom they even imposed their language. Churches built in the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> style and fortified castles appeared on all sides. The Cathedral of St. Sophia in <a href="../cathen/11071c.htm">Nicosia</a>, erected between 1217 and 1251, was almost a copy of a church in Champagne. Finally, commercial activity became a pronounced characteristic of the cities of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05781b.htm">Famagusta</a> developed into one of the busiest of Mediterranean ports.</p> <h2 id="vii">Final loss of the Christian colonies of the east (1254-91)</h2> <p>No longer aided by funds from the West, and rent by internal disorders, the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> colonies owed their temporary <a href="../cathen/13407a.htm">salvation</a> to the changes in <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a> policy and the intervention of the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a>. The <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> drove the <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> from <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> and treated the city as conquered territory; in a battle where <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> fought against <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, and in which <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a> were pitted against <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, 20,000 men perished. In revenge the <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> allied themselves with Michael Palæologus, Emperor of <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a>, whose general, Alexius Strategopulos, had now no trouble in entering <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> and overthrowing the Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, 25 July, 1261. The conquest of the Caliphate of <a href="../cathen/02202c.htm">Bagdad</a> by the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> (1258) and their invasion of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, where they seized <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> and <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, terrified both <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> and <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>; but the Mameluke ameer, Bibars the Arbelester, defeated the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> and wrested <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> from them in September, 1260. Proclaimed sultan in consequence of a conspiracy, in 1260, Bibars began a merciless <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> on the remaining <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states. In 1263 he destroyed the church at <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a>; in 1265 took <a href="../cathen/03134b.htm">Cæsarea</a> and <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, and finally captured <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> (May, 1268). The question of a crusade was always being agitated in the West, but except among men of a religious turn of mind, like <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a>, there was no longer any earnestness in the matter among <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> princes. They looked upon a crusade as a political instrument, to be used only when it served their own interests. To prevent the preaching of a crusade against <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, Michael Palæologus promised the <a href="../cathen/04019a.htm">pope</a> to work for the <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">union of the Churches</a>; but Charles of Anjou, brother of <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a>, whom the conquest of the Two Sicilies had rendered one of the most powerful princes of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, undertook to carry out for his own benefit the Eastern designs hitherto cherished by the Hohenstaufen. While Mary of Antioch, granddaughter of Amaury II, bequeathed him the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> she claimed to have to the crown of <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, he signed the treaty of Viterbo with Baldwin II (27 May, 1267), which assured him eventually the inheritance of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. In no wise troubled by these diplomatic combinations, <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a> thought only of the crusade. In a parliament held at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, 24 March, 1267, he and his three sons took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>, but, despite his example, many <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> resisted the exhortations of the preacher <a href="../cathen/07542a.htm">Humbert de Romans</a>. On hearing the reports of the missionaries, <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">Louis</a> resolved to land at <a href="../cathen/15088a.htm">Tunis</a>, whose prince he hoped to <a href="../cathen/04347a.htm">convert</a> to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. It has been asserted that <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a> was led to <a href="../cathen/15088a.htm">Tunis</a> by Charles of Anjou, but instead of encouraging his brother's ambition the saint endeavoured to thwart it. Charles had tried to take advantage of the <a href="../cathen/15248b.htm">vacancy</a> of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> between 1268 and 1271 in order to attack <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, the negotiations of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> with Michael Palæologus for <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">religious union</a> having heretofore prevented him. <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a> received the embassy of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek emperor</a> very graciously and ordered Charles of Anjou to join him at <a href="../cathen/15088a.htm">Tunis</a>. The crusaders, among whom was Prince Edward of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, landed at <a href="../cathen/03385a.htm">Carthage</a> 17 July, 1270, but the plague broke out in their camp, and on 25 August, <a href="../cathen/09368a.htm">St. Louis</a> himself was carried off by the scourge. Charles of Anjou then concluded a treaty with the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, and the crusaders reimbarked. Prince Edward alone, determined to fulfil his <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a>, and set out for <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>; however, after a few razzias on <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracenic</a> territory, he concluded a truce with Bibars.</p> <p>The field was now clear for Charles of Anjou, but the election of <a href="../cathen/06798a.htm">Gregory X</a>, who was favourable to the crusade, again frustrated his plans. While the emissaries of the King of the Two Sicilies traversed the Balkan peninsula, the new <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> was awaiting the <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">union</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western</a> and <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Churches</a>, which event was solemnly proclaimed at the <a href="../cathen/09476c.htm">Council of Lyons</a>, 6 July, 1274; Michael Palæologus himself promised to take the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>. On 1 May, 1275, <a href="../cathen/06798a.htm">Gregory X</a> effected a truce between this sovereign and Charles of Anjou. In the meantime Philip III, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the King of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, and the King of <a href="../cathen/03410b.htm">Aragon</a> made a <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> to go to the Holy Land. Unfortunately the death of <a href="../cathen/06798a.htm">Gregory X</a> brought these plans to nought, and Charles of Anjou resumed his scheming. In 1277 he sent into <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> Roger of San Severino, who succeeded in planting his banner on the castle of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Acre</a> and in 1278 took possession of the principality of <a href="../cathen/01101c.htm">Achaia</a> in the name of his daughter-in-law Isabelle de Villehardouin. Michael Palæologus had not been able to effect the <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">union</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greek clergy</a> with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and in 1281 <a href="../cathen/09724a.htm">Pope Martin IV</a> <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> him. Having signed an alliance with <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a>, Charles of Anjou prepared to attack <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, and his expedition was set for April, 1283. On 30 March, 1282, however, the revolt known as the <a href="../cathen/15384a.htm">Sicilian Vespers</a> occurred, and once more his projects were defeated. In order to subdue his own rebellious subjects and to wage <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> against the King of <a href="../cathen/03410b.htm">Aragon</a>, Charles was at last compelled to abandon his designs on the East. Meanwhile Michael Palæologus remained master of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, and the Holy Land was left defenceless. In 1280 the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> attempted once more to invade <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, but were repulsed by the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptians</a> at the battle of Hims; in 1286 the inhabitants of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> expelled Charles of Anjou's seneschal and called to their aid Henry II, King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>. Kelaoun, the successor of Bibars, now broke the truce which he had concluded with the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, and seized Margat, the stronghold of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>. Tripoli surrendered in 1289, and on 5 April, 1291, Malek-Aschraf, son and successor of Kelaoun, appeared before <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> with 120,000 men. The 25,000 <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> who defended the city were not even under one supreme commander; nevertheless they resisted with heroic valour, filled breaches in the wall with stakes and bags of cotton and wool, and communicated by sea with King Henry II, who brought them help from <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>. However, 28 May, the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> made a general attack and penetrated into the town, and its defenders fled in their ships. The strongest opposition was offered by the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, the garrison of whose fortress held out ten days longer, only to be completely annihilated. In July, 1291, the last <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> towns in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> capitulated, and the <a href="../cathen/08361a.htm">Kingdom of Jerusalem</a> ceased to exist.</p> <h2 id="viii">The fourteenth century crusade and the Ottoman invasion</h2> <p>The loss of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> did not lead the princes of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> to organize a new crusade. Men's minds were indeed, as usual, directed towards the East, but in the first years of the fourteenth century the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of a crusade inspired principally the works of theorists who saw in it the best means of reforming <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>. The treatise by Pierre Dubois, law-officer of the crown at <a href="../cathen/04455b.htm">Coutances</a>, "De Recuperatione Terræ Sanctæ" (Langlois, ed., Paris, 1891), seems like the work of a dreamer, yet some of its views are truly modern. The establishment of peace between <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes by means of a tribunal of arbitration, the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of making a <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> prince hereditary emperor, the secularization of the <a href="../cathen/14257a.htm">Patrimony of St. Peter</a>, the consolidation of the Orders of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a> and <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, the creation of a disciplined army the different corps of which were to have a special uniform, the creation of schools for the study of <a href="../cathen/11302c.htm">Oriental languages</a>, and the intermarriage of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> maidens with <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a> were the principal <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> it propounded (1307). On the other hand the writings of men of greater activity and wider experience suggested more practical methods for effecting the conquest of the East. Persuaded that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> defeat in the Orient was largely due to the mercantile relations which the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> cities <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> and <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a> continued to hold with the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, these authors sought the establishment of a commercial blockade which, within a few years, would prove the ruin of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and cause it to fall under <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> control. For this purpose it was recommended that a large fleet be fitted out at the expense of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes and made to do police <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> on the Mediterranean so as to prevent smuggling. These were the projects set forth in the memoirs of Fidentius of Padua, a <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> (about 1291, Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, 7247); in those of King Charles II of <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a> (1293, Bib. Nat., <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, 6049); <a href="../cathen/10433a.htm">Jacques de Molay</a> (1307, <a href="../cathen/02242a.htm">Baluze</a>, ed., Vitæ paparum Avenion., II, 176-185); Henry II, King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> (Mas-Latrie, ed., Histoire de Chypre, II, 118); Guillaume d'Adam, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Sultanieh (1310, Kohler, ed., Collect. Hist. of the Crusades, Armenian Documents, II); and Marino Sanudo, the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetian</a> (Bongars, ed., Secreta fidelium Crucis, II). The consolidation of the <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a> was also urged by Charles II. Many other memoirs, especially that of Hayton, King of <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenia</a> (1307, ed. Armenian Documents, I), considered an alliance between the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> of <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> indispensable to success. In fact, from the end of the thirteenth century many missionaries had penetrated into the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongolian Empire</a>; in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, as well as in <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a>, their propaganda flourished. <a href="../cathen/06221a.htm">St. Francis of Assisi</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12670c.htm">Raymond Lully</a> had hoped to substitute for the warlike crusade a peaceable <a href="../cathen/04347a.htm">conversion</a> of the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. <a href="../cathen/12670c.htm">Raymond Lully</a>, born at Palma, on the <a href="../cathen/09556b.htm">Island of Majorca</a>, in 1235, began (1275) his "Great Art", which, by means of a universal method for the study of <a href="../cathen/11302c.htm">Oriental languages</a>, would equip missionaries to enter into controversies with the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> doctors. In the same year he prevailed upon the King of Majorca to found the College of the Blessed Trinity at Miramar, where the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a> could learn the <a href="../cathen/11302c.htm">Oriental languages</a>. He himself translated <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">catechetical</a> treatises into Arabic and, after spending his life travelling in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> trying to win over to his <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> and kings, suffered <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> at Bougie, where he had begun his work of evangelization (1314). Among the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> this propaganda encountered insurmountable difficulties, whereas the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a>, some of whom were still members of the <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian Church</a>, received it willingly. During the pontificate of <a href="../cathen/08431a.htm">John XXII</a> (1316-34) permanent <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominican</a> and <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> missions were established in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a>, Tatary and <a href="../cathen/15095a.htm">Turkestan</a>, and in 1318 the <a href="../cathen/01694b.htm">Archbishopric</a> of Sultanieh was created in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>. In <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a> Giovanni de Monte Corvino, created <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Cambaluc (Peking), organized the <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">religious hierarchy</a>, <a href="../cathen/10458a.htm">founded monasteries</a>, and <a href="../cathen/04347a.htm">converted</a> to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> men of note, possibly the great khan himself. The account of the journey of Blessed Orderic de Pordenone (Cordier, ed.) across <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a>, between 1304 and 1330, shows us that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> had gained a foothold in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a>, Central <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a>, and Southern <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a>.</p> <p>By thus leading up to an alliance between <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> and <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, the crusade had produced the desired effect; early in the fourteenth century the future development of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in the East seemed assured. Unfortunately, however, the internal changes which occurred in the West, the weakening of the political influence of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, the indifference of temporal princes to what did not directly affect their territorial interests rendered unavailing all efforts towards the re-establishment of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> power in the East. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> endeavoured to insure the blockade of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> by prohibiting commercial intercourse with the <a href="../cathen/08002b.htm">infidels</a> and by organizing a squadron for the prevention of smuggling, but the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> and <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> defiantly sent their vessels to <a href="../cathen/01299d.htm">Alexandria</a> and sold <a href="../cathen/14039a.htm">slaves</a> and military stores to the Mamelukes. Moreover, the consolidation of the <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a> could not be effected. By causing the suppression of the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a> at the <a href="../cathen/15423a.htm">Council of Vienne</a> in 1311, <a href="../cathen/12004a.htm">King Philip the Fair</a> dealt a cruel blow to the crusade; instead of giving to the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a> the immense wealth of the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, he confiscated it. The <a href="../cathen/14541b.htm">Teutonic Order</a> having established itself in <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussia</a> in 1228, there remained in the East only the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>. After the capture of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>, Henry II, King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, had offered them shelter at Limasol, but there they found themselves in very straitened circumstances. In 1310 they seized the <a href="../cathen/13024b.htm">Island of Rhodes</a>, which had become a den of pirates, and took it as their permanent abode. Finally, the contemplated alliance with the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> was never fully realized. It was in vain that Argoun, Khan of <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, sent the <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, Raban Sauma, as ambassador to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and the princes of the West (1285-88); his offers elicited but vague replies. On 23 December, 1299, Cazan, successor to Argoun, inflicted a defeat upon the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> at Hims, and captured <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, but he could not hold his conquests, and died in 1304 just as he was preparing for a new expedition. The princes of the West assumed the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> in order to appropriate to their own use the <a href="../cathen/14741b.htm">tithes</a> which, for the defrayal of crusade expenses, they had levied upon the property of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. For these sovereigns the crusade had no longer any but a fiscal interest. In 1336 King Philip VI of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, whom the <a href="../cathen/02430a.htm">pope</a> had appointed leader of the crusade, collected a fleet at <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a> and was preparing to go to the East when the news of the projects of <a href="../cathen/05321a.htm">Edward III</a> caused him to return to <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>. <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">War</a> then broke out between <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, and proved an insurmountable obstacle to the success of any crusade just when the combined forces of all <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> would have been none too powerful to resist the new storm gathering in the East. From the close of the thirteenth century a band of <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman Turks</a>, driven out of Central <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a> by <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongol</a> invasions, had founded a military state in <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a> and now threatened to invade <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. They captured Ephesus in 1308, and in 1326 Othman, their sultan, established his residence at Broussa (Prusa) in Bithynia under Ourkhan, moreover, they organized the regular foot-guards of janizaries against whom the undisciplined troops of Western <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> could not hold out. The <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> entered <a href="../cathen/11070a.htm">Nicomedia</a> in 1328 and <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicæa</a> in 1330; when they threatened the Emperors of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, the latter renewed negotiations with the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> with a view towards the reconciliation of the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">Greek</a> and <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Roman Churches</a>, for which purpose Barlaam was sent as ambassador to <a href="../cathen/02158a.htm">Avignon</a>, in 1339. At the same time the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> Mamelukes destroyed the port of Lajazzo, commercial centre of the Kingdom of Armenia Minor, where the remnants of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> colonies had sought refuge after the taking of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a> (1337). The commercial welfare of the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> themselves was threatened; with their support <a href="../cathen/04023a.htm">Pope Clement VI</a> in 1344 succeeded in reorganizing the maritime league whose operations had been prevented by the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> between <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>. <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a>, the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>, and the King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> all sent their contingents, and, on 28 October, 1344, the crusaders seized Smyrna, which was confided to the care of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>. In 1345 reinforcements under Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, appeared in the Archipelago, but the new leader of the crusade was utterly disqualified for the work assigned him; unable to withstand the piracy of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> ameers, the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> concluded a truce with them in 1348. In 1356 the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottomans</a> captured <a href="../cathen/03183c.htm">Gallipoli</a> and intercepted the route to <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>.</p> <p>The cause of the crusade then found an unexpected defender in Peter I, King of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, who, called upon by the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenians</a>, succeeded in surprising and storming the city of Adalia on the Cilician coast in 1361. Urged by his chancellor, Philip de Méziéres, and Pierre Thomas, the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a>, Peter I undertook a voyage to the West (1362-65) in the hope of reviving the enthusiasm of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes. <a href="../cathen/15214a.htm">Pope Urban V</a> extended him a magnificent welcome, as did also John the Good, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, who took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> at <a href="../cathen/02158a.htm">Avignon</a>, 20 March, 1363; the latter's example was followed by <a href="../cathen/05321a.htm">King Edward III</a>, the Black Prince, Emperor Charles IV, and Casimir, King of <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>. Everywhere King Peter was tendered fair promises, but when, in June, 1365, he embarked at <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> he was accompanied by hardly any but his own forces. After rallying the fleet of the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>, he appeared unexpectedly before the Old Port of <a href="../cathen/01299d.htm">Alexandria</a>, landed without resistance, and plundered the city for two days, but at the approach of an <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> army his soldiers forced him to retreat, 9-16 October, 1365. Again in 1367 he pillaged the ports of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, Tripoli, <a href="../cathen/14785a.htm">Tortosa</a>, <a href="../cathen/08794a.htm">Laodicea</a>, and <a href="../cathen/08268a.htm">Jaffa</a>, thus destroying the commerce of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. Later, in another voyage to the West, he made a supreme effort to interest the princes in the crusade, but on his return to <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> he was assassinated, as the result of a conspiracy. Meanwhile the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottomans</a> continued their progress in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, taking <a href="../cathen/12017a.htm">Philippopolis</a> in 1363 and, in 1365, capturing <a href="../cathen/01161a.htm">Adrianople</a>, which became the capital of the sultans. At the solicitation of <a href="../cathen/15214a.htm">Pope Urban V</a>, Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> and on 15 August, 1366, his fleet seized <a href="../cathen/03183c.htm">Gallipoli</a>; then, after rescuing the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek</a> emperor, John V, held captive by the <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">Bulgarians</a>, he returned to the West. In spite of the heroism displayed during these expeditions, the efforts made by the crusaders were too intermittent to be productive of enduring results. Philippe de Méziéres, a friend and admirer of Pierre de Lusignan, eager to seek a remedy for the ills of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, dreamed of founding a new militia, the Order of the Passion, an organization whose character was to be at once <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerical</a> and <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military</a>, and whose members, although <a href="../cathen/09707a.htm">married</a>, were to lead an almost <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> life and <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrate</a> themselves to the conquest of the Holy Land. Being well received by <a href="../cathen/03625a.htm">Charles V</a>, Philippe de Méziéres established himself at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> and propagated his <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> among the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> nobility. In 1390 Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>, and at the instigation of the <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> went to besiege el-Mahadia, an <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">African</a> city on the coast of <a href="../cathen/15088a.htm">Tunis</a>. In 1392 Charles VI, who had signed a treaty of peace with <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a>, appeared to have been won over to the crusade project just before he became <a href="../cathen/08041a.htm">deranged</a>. But the time for expeditions to the Holy Land was now passed, and henceforth <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> was forced to defend itself against <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman</a> invasions. In 1369 John V, Palæologus, went to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and <a href="../cathen/01044d.htm">abjured</a> the <a href="../cathen/13535a.htm">schism</a>; thereafter the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> worked valiantly for the preservation of the remnants of the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> and the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states in the Balkans. Having become master of <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">Servia</a> at the battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Sultan Bajazet imposed his sovereignty upon John V and secured possession of <a href="../cathen/11793a.htm">Philadelphia</a>, the last <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greek</a> city in <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia Minor</a>. Sigismund, King of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, alarmed at the progress of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>, sent an embassy to Charles VI, and a large number of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> lords, among them the Count of <a href="../cathen/10778a.htm">Nevers</a>, son of the Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, enlisted under the standard of the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> and, in July 1396, were joined at Buda by <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">English</a> and German <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>. The crusaders invaded <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">Servia</a>, but despite their prodigies of valeur Bajazet completely routed them before <a href="../cathen/11070c.htm">Nicopolis</a>, 25 September, 1396. The Count of <a href="../cathen/10778a.htm">Nevers</a> and a great many lords became Bajazet's prisoners and were released only on condition of enormous ransoms. Notwithstanding this defeat, due to the misguided ardour of the crusaders, a new expedition left Aiguesmortes in June, 1399, under the command of the Marshal Boucicault and succeeded in breaking the blockade which the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> had established around <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. Moreover, between 1400 and 1402, John Palæologus made another voyage to the West in quest of reinforcements.</p> <h2 id="ix">The crusade in the fifteenth century</h2> <p>An unlooked-for event, the invasion by Timur and the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a>, saved <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> for the time being. They annihilated Bajazet's army at <a href="../cathen/01464b.htm">Ancyra</a>, 20 July, 1402, and, dividing the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman Empire</a> among several princes, reduced it to a state of vassalage. The Western rulers, Henry III, King of <a href="../cathen/03410b.htm">Castile</a>, and Charles VI, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, sent ambassadors to Timur (see the account by Ruy Gonçales de Clavijo, Madrid, 1779), but the circumstances were not favourable, as they had been in the thirteenth century. The national revolt of the <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">Chinese</a> that overthrew the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongol</a> dynasty in 1368 had resulted in the destruction of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> missions in Farther <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a>; in Central <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a> the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongols</a> had been converted to <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedanism</a>, and Timur showed his hostility to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by taking <a href="../cathen/14060b.htm">Smyrna</a> from the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>. Marshal Boucicault took advantage of the dejection into which the <a href="../cathen/10479b.htm">Mongol</a> invasion had thrown the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> powers to sack the ports of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, Tripoli, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, and <a href="../cathen/13776a.htm">Sidon</a> in 1403, but he was unable to retain his conquests; while Timur, on the other hand, thought only of obtaining possession of <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a> and returned to Samarkand, where he died in 1405. The civil wars that broke out among the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman</a> princes gave the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperors a few years' respite, but Murad II, having re-established the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> power, besieged <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> from June to September in 1422, and John VIII, Palæologus, was compelled to pay him tribute. In 1430 Murad took <a href="../cathen/14633a.htm">Thessalonica</a> from the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a>, forced the wall of the Hexamilion, which had been erected by Manuel to protect the Peloponnesus, and subdued <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">Servia</a>. The <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the crusade was always popular in the West, and, on his death-bed, Henry V of <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">England</a> regretted that he had not taken <a href="../cathen/08364a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. In her letters to Bedford, the regent, and to the Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Joan of Arc</a> alluded to the union of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>, and the popular <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> expressed in the poetry of <a href="../cathen/03723a.htm">Christine de Pisan</a> was that, after having delivered <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Maid of Orleans</a> would lead Charles VII to the Holy Land. But this was only a dream, and the civil wars in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the crusade against the <a href="../cathen/07585a.htm">Hussites</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/04288a.htm">Council of Constance</a>, prevented any action from being taken against the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>. However, in 1421 Philip the Good, Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, sent Gilbert de Lannoy, and in 1432, Bertrand de la Brocquière, to the East as secret emissaries to gather information that might be of value for a future crusade. At the same time negotiations for the <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">religious union</a> which would facilitate the crusade were resumed between the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine</a> emperors and the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>. Emperor John VIII came in person to attend the <a href="../cathen/02334b.htm">council</a> convoked by <a href="../cathen/05601a.htm">Pope Eugene IV</a> at <a href="../cathen/06046a.htm">Ferrara</a>, in 1438. Thanks to the good will of <a href="../cathen/02527b.htm">Bessarion</a> and of <a href="../cathen/08188a.htm">Isidore of Kiev</a>, the two <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek</a> <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> whom the <a href="../cathen/05601a.htm">pope</a> had elevated to the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinalate</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02334b.htm">council</a>, which was transferred to <a href="../cathen/06111a.htm">Florence</a>, established harmony on all points, and on 6 July, 1439, the reconciliation was solemnly proclaimed. The reunion was received in bad part by the Greeks and did not induce the Western princes to take the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a>. Adventurers of all nationalities enrolled themselves under the command of <a href="../cathen/03546a.htm">Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini</a> and went to <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> to join the armies of <a href="../cathen/07564b.htm">János Hunyady</a>, Waywode of <a href="../cathen/15022a.htm">Transylvania</a>, who had just repulsed the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> at Hermanstadt, of Wladislaus Jagello, King of <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>, and of George Brankovitch, Prince of <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">Servia</a>. Having defeated the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> at Nish, 3 November, 1443, the allies were enabled to conquer <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">Servia</a>, owing to the defection of the <a href="../cathen/01253b.htm">Albanians</a> under George Castriota (Scanderbeg), their national commander. Murad signed a ten years' truce and abdicated the throne, 15 July, 1444, but <a href="../cathen/03546a.htm">Giuliano Cesarini</a>, the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a>, did not favour peace and wished to push forward to <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>. At his instigation the crusaders broke the truce and invaded <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">Bulgaria</a>, whereupon Murad again took command, crossed the Bosporus on <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoese</a> galleys, and destroyed the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> army at Varna, 10 November, 1444. This defeat left <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> defenceless. In 1446 Murad succeeded in conquering Morea, and when, two years later, <a href="../cathen/07564b.htm">János Hunyady</a> tried to go to the assistance of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> he was beaten at Kosovo. Scanderbeg alone managed to maintain his independence in Epirus and, in 1449, repelled a <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> invasion. Mohammed II, who succeeded Murad in 1451, was preparing to besiege <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> when, 12 December, 1452, Emperor Constantine XII decided to proclaim the <a href="../cathen/15132a.htm">union of the Churches</a> in the presence of the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legates</a>. The expected crusade, however, did not take place; and when, in March, 1453, the armed forces of Mohammed II, numbering 160,000, completely surrounded <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Greeks</a> had only 5000 soldiers and 2000 Western <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, commanded by Giustiniani of <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a>. Notwithstanding this serious disadvantage, the city held out against the enemy for two months, but on the night of 28 May, 1453, Mohammed II ordered a general assault, and after a desperate conflict, in which Emperor Constantine XII perished, the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> entered the city from all sides and perpetrated a frightful slaughter. Mohammed II rode over heaps of corpses to the church of St. Sophia, entered it on horseback, and turned it into a mosque.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The capture of "New Rome" was the most appalling calamity sustained by <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> since the taking of <a href="../cathen/01110b.htm">Saint-Jean d'Acre</a>. However, the agitation which the news of this event caused in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> was more apparent than genuine. Philip the Good, Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, gave an allegorical entertainment at <a href="../cathen/09251a.htm">Lille</a> in which <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm"><em>Holy Church</em></a> solicited the help of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> who pronounced the most extravagant <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> before <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and a pheasant (<em>sur le faisan</em>). <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">Æneas Sylvius</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/13779a.htm">Siena</a>, and <a href="../cathen/08452a.htm">St. John Capistran</a>, the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a>, preached the crusade in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> and <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>; the Diets of <a href="../cathen/12657a.htm">Ratisbon</a> and <a href="../cathen/06237a.htm">Frankfort</a> promised assistance, and a league was formed between <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a>, <a href="../cathen/06111a.htm">Florence</a>, and the Duke of <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a>, but nothing came of it. <a href="../cathen/03187a.htm">Pope Callistus III</a> succeeded in collecting a fleet of sixteen galleys, which, under the command of the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01661c.htm">Aquileia</a>, guarded the Archipelago. However, the defeat of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> before <a href="../cathen/02407a.htm">Belgrade</a> in 1457, due to the bravery of <a href="../cathen/07564b.htm">János Hunyady</a>, and the bloody conquest of the Peloponnesus in 1460 seemed finally to revive <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> from its torpor. Æneas Sylvius, now <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> under the name of <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">Pius II</a>, multiplied his exhortations, declaring that he himself would conduct the crusade, and towards the close of 1463 bands of crusaders began to assemble at <a href="../cathen/01463d.htm">Ancona</a>. The Doge of <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> had yielded to the <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">pope's</a> entreaties, whereas the Duke of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a> was satisfied with sending 2000 men. But when, in June, 1464, the <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">pope</a> went to <a href="../cathen/01463d.htm">Ancona</a> to assume command of the expedition, he fell sick and died, whereupon most of the crusaders, being unarmed, destitute of ammunition, and threatened with starvation, returned to their own countries. The <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> were the only ones who invaded the Peloponnesus and sacked <a href="../cathen/02043b.htm">Athens</a>, but they looked upon the crusade merely as a means of advancing their commercial interests. Under <a href="../cathen/14032b.htm">Sixtus IV</a> they had the presumption to utilize the papal fleet for the seizure of merchandise stored at <a href="../cathen/14060b.htm">Smyrna</a> and Adalia; they likewise purchased the claims of Catherine Cornaro to the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Kingdom of Cyprus</a>. Finally, in 1480, Mohammed II directed a triple attack against <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. In <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> <a href="../cathen/10066b.htm">Matthias Corvinus</a> withstood the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> invasion, and the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Knights of Rhodes</a>, conducted by <a href="../cathen/02067b.htm">Pierre d'Aubusson</a>, defended themselves victoriously, but the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> succeeded in gaining possession of <a href="../cathen/11351c.htm">Otranto</a> and threatened <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> with conquest. At an assembly held at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and presided over by <a href="../cathen/14032b.htm">Sixtus IV</a>, ambassadors from the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes again promised help; but the condition of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> would have been critical indeed had not the death of Mohammed II occasioned the evacuation of <a href="../cathen/11351c.htm">Otranto</a>, while the power of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> was impaired for several years by civil wars among Mohammed's sons. At the time of Charles VIII's expedition into <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> (1492) there was again talk of a crusade; according to the plans of the King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the conquest of <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a> was to be followed by that of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> and the East. For this reason <a href="../cathen/01289a.htm">Pope Alexander VI</a> delivered to him Prince Djem, son of Mohammed II and pretender to the throne, who had taken refuge with the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Hospitallers</a>. When <a href="../cathen/01289a.htm">Alexander VI</a> joined <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> and Maximilian in a league against Charles VIII, the official object of the alliance was the crusade, but it had become impossible to take such projects as seriously meant. The leagues for the crusade were no longer anything but political combinations, and the preaching of the Holy War seemed to the people nothing but a means of raising money. Before his death, Emperor Maximilian took the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> at <a href="../cathen/10247a.htm">Metz</a> with due solemnity, but these demonstrations could lead to no satisfactory results. The new conditions that now controlled <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> rendered a crusade impossible.</p> <h2 id="x">Modifications and survival of the idea of the crusade</h2> <p>From the sixteenth century <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> policy was swayed exclusively by state interests; hence to statesmen the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of a crusade seemed antiquated. <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and <a href="../cathen/08364a.htm">Jerusalem</a> having been conquered by Sultan Selim, in 1517, <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">Pope Leo X</a> made a supreme effort to re-establish the peace essential to the organization of a crusade. The King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/03625a.htm">Emperor Charles V</a> promised their co-operation; the King of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> was to besiege <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a> with 300 ships, and the <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">pope</a> himself was to conduct the expedition. Just at this time trouble broke out between <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a> and <a href="../cathen/03625a.htm">Charles V</a>; these plans therefore failed completely. The leaders of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> were unfavourable to the crusade, and <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Luther</a> declared that it was a <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> to make <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> upon the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> because <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> had made them His instruments in punishing the <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a> of His people. Therefore, although the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the crusade was not wholly lost sight of, it took a new form and adapted itself to the new conditions. The <em>Conquistadores</em>, who ever since the fifteenth century had been going forth to discover new lands, considered themselves the auxiliaries of the crusade. The Infante Don Henrique, <a href="../cathen/06374a.htm">Vasco da Gama</a>, <a href="../cathen/04140a.htm">Christopher Columbus</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01270c.htm">Albuquerque</a> wore the <a href="../cathen/04517a.htm">cross</a> on their breast and, when seeking the means of doubling <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">Africa</a> or of reaching <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a> by routes from the East, thought of attacking the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> in the rear; besides, they calculated on the alliance of a fabulous sovereign said to be a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>, <a href="../cathen/12400b.htm">Prester John</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, moreover, strongly encouraged these expeditions. On the other hand, among the Powers of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> the House of Austria, which was mistress of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, where it was directly threatened by the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>, and which had supreme control of the Mediterranean, realized that it would be to its advantage to maintain a certain interest in the crusade. Until the end of the seventeenth century, when a diet of the German princes was held at <a href="../cathen/12657a.htm">Ratisbon</a>, the question of <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> against the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> was frequently agitated, and <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Luther</a> himself, modifying his first opinion, exhorted the German nobility to defend <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> (1528-29). The <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> in <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> always partook of the character of a crusade and, on different occasions, the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> nobles enlisted under the imperial banner. Thus the Duke of Mercoeur was authorized by <a href="../cathen/07225a.htm">Henry IV</a> to enter the <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungarian</a> service. In 1664 <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">Louis XIV</a>, eager to extend his influence in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, sent the emperor a contingent which, under the command of the Count of Coligny, repulsed the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> in the battle of St. Gothard. But such demonstrations were of no importance because, from the time of <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a>, the kings of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, to maintain the balance of power in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> against the House of Austria, had not hesitated to enter into treaties of alliance with the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>. When, in 1683, Kara Mustapha advanced on <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a> with 30,000 <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> or Tatars, <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">Louis XIV</a> made no move, and it was to <a href="../cathen/14061c.htm">John Sobieski</a>, King of <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>, that the emperor owed his safety. This was the supreme effort made by the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> in the West. Overwhelmed by the victories of Prince Eugene at the close of the seventeenth century, they became thenceforth a passive power.</p> <p>On the Mediterranean, <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a> and <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a> beheld their commercial monopoly destroyed in the sixteenth century by the discovery of new continents and of new water-routes to the Indies, while their political power was absorbed by the House of Austria. Without allowing the crusaders to deter them from their continental enterprises, the Hapsburgs dreamed of gaining control of the Mediterranean by checking the Barbary pirates and arresting the progress of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>. When, in 1571, the <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Island of Cyprus</a> was threatened by the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottomans</a>, who cruelly massacred the garrisons of <a href="../cathen/05781b.htm">Famagusta</a> and <a href="../cathen/11071c.htm">Nicosia</a>, these towns having surrendered on stipulated terms, <a href="../cathen/12130a.htm">Pope Pius V</a> succeeded in forming a league of maritime powers against Sultan Selim, and secured the co-operation of <a href="../cathen/12002a.htm">Philip II</a> by granting him the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to <a href="../cathen/14741b.htm">tithes</a> for the crusade, while he himself equipped some galleys. On 7 October, 1571, a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> fleet of 200 galleys, carrying 50,000 men under the command of Don Juan of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, met the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman</a> fleet in the Straits of <a href="../cathen/09181b.htm">Lepanto</a>, destroyed it completely, and liberated thousands of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. This expedition was in the nature of a crusade. The <a href="../cathen/12130a.htm">pope</a>, considering that the victory had saved <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, by way of commemorating it instituted the <a href="../cathen/13189a.htm">feast of the Holy Rosary</a>, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of October. But the allies pushed their advantages no further. When, in the seventeenth century, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> superseded <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> as the great Mediterranean power, she strove, despite the treaties that bound her to the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>, to defend the last remnants of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> power in the East. In 1669 <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">Louis XIV</a> sent the Duke of Beaufort with a fleet of 7000 men to the defence of <a href="../cathen/03244d.htm">Candia</a>, a <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetian</a> province, but, notwithstanding some brilliant sallies, he succeeded in putting off its capture for a few weeks only. However, the diplomatic action of the kings of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> in regard to <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Christians</a> who were <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> subjects was more efficacious. The regime of "Capitulations", established under <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a> in 1536, renewed under <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">Louis XIV</a> in 1673, and Louis XV in 1740, ensured <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> religious freedom and the jurisdiction of the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> ambassador at <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>; all <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western</a> pilgrims were allowed access to <a href="../cathen/08364a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and to the <a href="../cathen/07425a.htm">Holy Sepulchre</a>, which was confided to the care of the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a>. Such was the <em>modus vivendi</em> finally established between <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedan</a> world.</p> <p>Notwithstanding these changes it may be said that, until the seventeenth century, the <a href="../cathen/07672a.htm">imagination</a> of <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christendom</a> was still haunted by the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the Crusades. Even the least chimerical of statesmen, such as Père Joseph de Tremblay, the confidential friend of <a href="../cathen/13047a.htm">Richelieu</a>, at times cherished such hopes, while the plan set forth in the memorial which <a href="../cathen/09134b.htm">Leibniz</a> addressed (1672) to <a href="../cathen/09371a.htm">Louis XIV</a> on the conquest of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> was that of a regular crusade. Lastly, there remained as the respectable relic of a glorious past the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem</a>, which was founded in the eleventh century and continued to exist until the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>. Despite the valiant efforts of their grand master, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> had driven them from <a href="../cathen/13024b.htm">Rhodes</a> in 1522, and they had taken refuge in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. In 1530 <a href="../cathen/03625a.htm">Charles V</a> presented them with the <a href="../cathen/09574a.htm">Isle of Malta</a>, admirably situated from a strategic point of view, whence they might exercise surveillance over the Mediterranean. They were obliged to promise to give up <a href="../cathen/09574a.htm">Malta</a> on the recovery of <a href="../cathen/13024b.htm">Rhodes</a>, and also to make <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> upon the Barbary pirates. In 1565 the <a href="../cathen/07477a.htm">Knights of Malta</a> withstood a furious attack by the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>. They also maintained a squadron able to put to flight the Barbary pirates. Recruited from among the younger sons of the noblest <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a> of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, they owned immense estates in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> as well as in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, and when the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> broke out, the order quickly lost ground. The <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> it held in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> was confiscated in 1790, and when, in 1798, the Directory undertook an expedition to <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>, <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Bonaparte</a>, in passing, seized the <a href="../cathen/09574a.htm">Isle of Malta</a>, whose <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> had themselves under the protection of the Czar, Paul I. The city of Valetta surrendered at the first summons, and the order disbanded; however, in 1826 it was reorganized in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> as a charitable association.</p> <p>The history of the Crusades is therefore intimately connected with that of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> and the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. These Holy Wars were essentially a papal enterprise. The <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of quelling all dissensions among <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, of uniting them under the same standard and sending them forth against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a>, was conceived in the eleventh century, that is to say, at a time when there were as yet no organized states in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, and when the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> was the only potentate in a position to know and understand the common interests of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>. At this time the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> threatened to invade <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantine Empire</a> seemed unable to withstand the enemies by whom it was surrounded. <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> then took advantage of the veneration in which the holy places were held by the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Christians of the West</a> and entreated the latter to direct their combined forces against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> and, by a bold attack, check their progress. The result of this effort was the establishment of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> states in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>. While the authority of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> remained undisputed in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, they were in a position to furnish these <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> colonies the help they required; but when this authority was shaken by dissensions between the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> and the empire, the crusading army lost the unity of command so essential to success. The maritime powers of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, whose assistance was indispensable to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> armies, thought only of using the Crusades for political and economic ends. Other princes, first the Hohenstaufen and afterwards Charles of Anjou, followed this precedent, the crusade of 1204 being the first open rebellion against the <a href="../cathen/12231b.htm">pontifical</a> will. Finally, when, at the close of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, all <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> monarchy had been definitively cast aside, when state policy was the sole influence that actuated the Powers of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, the crusade seemed a respectable but troublesome survival. In the fifteenth century <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> permitted the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> to seize <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, and princes were far less concerned about their departure for the East than about finding a way out of the fulfilment of their <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> as crusaders without losing the good opinion of the public. Thereafter all attempts at a crusade partook of the nature of political schemes.</p> <p>Notwithstanding their final overthrow, the Crusades hold a very important place in the history of the world. Essentially the work of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, these Holy Wars first of all helped to strengthen <a href="../cathen/12231b.htm">pontifical</a> authority; they afforded the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> an opportunity to interfere in the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> between <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> princes, while the temporal and spiritual privileges which they conferred upon crusaders virtually made the latter their subjects. At the same time this was the principal reason why so many civil rulers refused to join the Crusades. It must be said that the advantages thus acquired by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> were for the common safety of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>. From the outset the Crusades were defensive <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> and checked the advance of the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mohammedans</a> who, for two centuries, concentrated their forces in a struggle against the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> settlements in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>; hence <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> is largely indebted to the Crusades for the maintenance of its independence. Besides, the Crusades brought about results of which the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> had never dreamed, and which were perhaps the most, important of all. They re-established traffic between the East and West, which, after having been suspended for several centuries, was then resumed with even greater energy; they were the means of bringing from the depths of their respective provinces and introducing into the most civilized <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asiatic</a> countries Western <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>, to whom a new world was thus revealed, and who returned to their native land filled with novel <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>; they were instrumental in extending the commerce of the Indies, of which the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> cities long held the monopoly, and the products of which transformed the material life of the West. Moreover, as early as the end of the twelfth century, the development of general culture in the West was the direct result of these Holy Wars. Finally, it is with the Crusades that we must couple the origin of the geographical explorations made by <a href="../cathen/12217a.htm">Marco Polo</a> and Orderic of Pordenone, the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italians</a> who brought to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> the knowledge of continental <a href="../cathen/01782a.htm">Asia</a> and <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a>. At a still later date, it was the spirit of the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> crusader that animated <a href="../cathen/04140a.htm">Christopher Columbus</a> when he undertook his perilous voyage to the then unknown America, and <a href="../cathen/06374a.htm">Vasco de Gama</a> when he set out in quest of <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a>. If, indeed, the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> civilization of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> has become universal culture, in the highest sense, the glory redounds, in no small measure, to the Crusades.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes"><em>See also</em> <a href="../cathen/04543x.htm">BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES</a>.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Bréhier, L.</span> <span id="apayear">(1908).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Crusades.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Bréhier, Louis.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Crusades."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 4.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1908.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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