European Christian Perception Of The Crusades

Why did Pope Urban II call the First Crusade in 1095 When Alexius I appealed for aid in the Council of Piacenza in March 1095, it wasn’t surprising that the First Crusade occurred only a few months afterwards, as it was considered by historians “premediate” and resulted from the long-existing opposition to many factors. Building up towards 1095, Christendom was perceived to be threatened both externally by heretical military expansions and internally by the destructive knightly class and the concern for Jerusalem, while Urban was resolute to maximise the papacy’s power, and his own success, through setting the Christian agenda. Since 9th Century, Christendom had been threatened religiously and militarily by heresies, providing Urban in 1095

The greatly needed stability for the Holy Roman Empire motivated the political leaders for the undertaking of the Christian Crusades. At this time the Holy Roman Empire was a poverish and the majority of the people who were in the middle and lower class were not able to live comfortably. In addition the government was not strong enough to advance let alone support the people. The fairly new feudalist government created a separation within the classes the made the lower class serfs, Middle class knight and the upper class lords and kings fight for mobility and power. In result of this violence and chaos erupted.

The crusades impacted the way we live today in many ways. In the outcome, there were both positives and negatives associated with the crusades. It was violent, deceased many, and turned cities into ruins but it also was a job opportunity for merchants and brought many new luxuries to certain places. Some motivation for people to fight in the crusades were different than its organizers. The original reason many wanted to come fight in the crusades is that it would relieve them of all of their sins.

1) The Albigensian Crusade is an example of one religion trying to remove the threat of another religion out of fear that one ideology would affect the other. This crusade is called to be one of the first genocides in European history for its gruesomeness and lack of humanistic behaviours. The Catholics of Northern France set up military campaigns to remove the perceived threat in Southern France. That threat to the Catholics at the time was the spread of Catharism.

Some of the benefits a of the crusades can be a positive but mostly negative. Document five states that they were many battles between the colonies and some traded along the ways of the movement between the countries. This is relevant because even though there were some of the positive impacts,they were still other things that made it incomparable between them. Document seven,it states that the crusades were hard to maintain and often abused christians and jews.

The Crusades were a violent series of battles that Christians fought against Muslims in order to gain back the holy land, Jerusalem. The Christians felt threatened by the intimidating rule of the Islamic Empire, and their response was the first Crusade. These attacks continued and grew unsuccessful throughout many years, and are often due to the intense bond between Christians and God, however there are other influences, like wealth and power. Some argue also that the actions committed during these events were not necessarily “barbaric”, considering the historical time period. The Crusades should be remembered as a series of attacks with a variety of motives and influences that were violent and barbaric.

The end of the 11th century was the beginning of the first campaign called Crusade, which was later followed by other crusades. It was a period of great fighting for the lands and religious ideologies between Christians and Muslims. In other words it was a period of big changes, when thousands of peasants and soldiers died and a lot of towns were devastated. The first crusade was the biggest movement of Christians to Holy land. In comparison with other campaigns it was the most successful.

The Crusades Even though, Crusader States in the Holy Land were unsustainable because of political instability. Long term problems were caused by Western presence in the Outremer1 and the political situation in Europe throughout the period. In Europe, the form of political dissension among the leaders of the various crusades caused everything to fall. They were many causes to the Crusades unsustainability like, ongoing tension between the Normans and the Byzantine Empire2 which culminated in the Norman defeat at Durazzo in 1107. The other main arguments include the lack of support for Jerusalem, as well as the lack of manpower, the debatable lack of strong leadership, and to a certain extent the arrogance of the Crusaders.

When investigating my question, what were the politics that started the first Crusade, I had to utilize a couple methods that historians use when investigating a topic. Those methods used by historians are the heuristic method, which is the identification of a source's relevance to a topic, and criticism; an evaluation of the values and limitations one's resource possesses. I used the heuristic method when searching for relevant material to use in my investigation, leading me to scrutinize resources used in my paper. I, also, used criticism when I evaluated my primary resources in the first portion of this investigation. Personally, I think scrutiny is important because it keeps the investigation honest.

Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont in 1095 was a call to crusade given outdoors to the nobles, commoners and church leaders of the Western European Christians (the Franks). The people were moved by this speech and it changed history, launching the first crusade to capture Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks. After hearing Pope Urban II’s speech, thousands of Western European Christians were moved to embark on the dangerous journey and fight in the crusade. I believe the main reasons they were moved and persuaded to fight was; 1) they felt it was their Christian duty, 2) Pope Urban promised them absolution for their sins and 3) they felt compelled to defend Christianity, their holy land and the Eastern Christians.

A crusade was a medieval military expedition, there were several created by the Europeans to get back the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. There were four European crusades talked about; 1st Crusade, 2nd Crusade, 3rd Crusade, and the Children’s Crusade. The 1st Crusade began in 1096 when Pope Urban II agreed to help take back the Holy Lands of Jerusalem from Muslims or the Turks. There were many battles throughout Western Europe, Byzantine and Islam which were mostly won by Christians.

The purpose of the Crusades were for political and economic gain because of the military threat from the Muslims, potential resulting success, and control of Jerusalem. One of the political and economic benefits of the Crusades was the defeat of Muslim enemies. In Pope Urban II’s 1095 speech that asked for recruits, it stated, “They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire” (Document 1). Pope Urban II wanted Christians to go to the Middle East to fight because Arabs and Turks attacked their fellow Christians and conquered Christian land.

The Crusades were successful failures because they did not meet many of their goals, but left lasting effects. The Crusades was an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to regain the Holy Lands from the Muslims. They believed they were fighting for god and all sins would be forgiven and defend the Byzantine Empire from the Turks. The first Crusade (1096 -1099) was successful for the Christians because they had a clear and organized religious based purpose. Crusaders the Christian armies were able to hold Jerusalem and in the process led to a massacre of Jews.

The Muslim people were the ones being attacked and had opposing viewpoints of what was going on. The views of the crusades were vastly different from two of the largest religious groups of their time, the Christians and the Muslims. The Christians looked at the crusade as their religious and personal mission and duty. After all, the Christians were the ones who were leading the crusades and they were the ones who were the biggest advocates of them.

The Crusades were expeditions done by the Roman Catholic Church in alliance with Middle-Age Kingdoms and Empires. There were a total of nine Crusades during the period of 1095 to 1291, led by Saladin, Richard I "the Lionheart" of England, Pope Urban II, Frederick I the Holy Roman Emperor, etc. At first, the Crusades were a way to fight back the Muslims for their conquest of Jerusalem. The idea of the Crusade was a very good marketing strategy by Pope Urban II. It was told that any Crusader would be rewarded a place in heaven, and forgiven their sins.