The Crusades
The Crusades were expeditions undertaken, in fulfilment of
a solemn vow, to deliver the Holy Places from Mohammedan tyranny.
The origin of the word may be traced to the cross made of
cloth and worn as a badge on the outer garment of those
who took part in these enterprises. Medieval writers use
the terms crux (pro cruce transmarina, Charter of 1284,
cited by Du Cange s.v. crux), croisement (Joinville),
croiserie (Monstrelet), etc. Since the Middle Ages the
meaning of the word crusade has been extended to
include all wars undertaken in pursuance of a vow, and
directed against infidels, i.e. against Mohammedans,
pagans, heretics, or those under the ban of
excommunication. The wars waged by the Spaniards
against the Moors constituted a continual crusade from
the eleventh to the sixteenth century; in the north of
Europe crusades were organized against the Prussians
and Lithuanians; the extermination of the Albigensian
heresy was due to a crusade, and, in the thirteenth
century the popes preached crusades against John
Lackland and Frederick II. But modern literature has
abused the word by applying it to all wars of a religious character, as, for
instance, the expedition of Heraclius against the Persians in the seventh century
and the conquest of Saxony by Charlemagne.
The idea of the crusade corresponds to a political conception which was realized
in Christendom only from the eleventh to the fifteenth century; this supposes a
union of all peoples and sovereigns under the direction of the popes. All crusades
were announced by preaching. After pronouncing a solemn vow, each warrior
received a cross from the hands of the pope or his legates, and was thenceforth
considered a soldier of the Church. Crusaders were also granted indulgences and
temporal privileges, such as exemption from civil jurisdiction, inviolability of
persons or lands, etc. Of all these wars undertaken in the name of Christendom,
the most important were the Eastern Crusades, which are the only ones treated
in this article.
DIVISION
It has been customary to describe the Crusades as eight in number:
the first, 1095-1101;
the second, headed by Louis VII, 1145-47;
the third, conducted by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion,
1188-92;
the fourth, during which Constantinople was taken, 1204;
the fifth, which included the conquest of Damietta, 1217;
the sixth, in which Frederick II took part (1228-29); also Thibaud de
Champagne and Richard of Cornwall (1239);
the seventh, led by St. Louis, 1249-52;
the eighth, also under St. Louis, 1270.
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 Lepanto occurring in
1571, that of Hungary in 1664, and the crusade of the Duke of Burgundy to
Candia, in 1669. A more scientific division is based on the history of the Christian
settlements in the East; therefore the subject will be considered in the following
order:
I. Origin of the Crusades;
II. Foundation of Christian states in the East;
III. First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87);
IV. Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade
against Saint-Jean d'Acre (1192-98);
V. The crusade against Constantinople (1204);
VI. The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52);
VII. Final loss of the Christian colonies of the East (1254-91);
VIII. The fourteenth-century crusade and the Ottoman invasion;
IX. The crusade in the fifteenth century;
X. Modifications and survival of the idea of the crusade.
I. ORIGIN OF THE CRUSADES
The origin of the Crusades is directly traceable to the moral and political
condition of Western Christendom in the eleventh century. At that time Europe
was divided into numerous states whose sovereigns were absorbed in tedious
and petty territorial disputes while the emperor, in theory the temporal head of
Christendom, was wasting his strength in the quarrel over Investitures. The popes
alone had maintained a just estimate of Christian unity; they realized to what
extent the interests of Europe were threatened by the Byzantine Empire and the
Mohammedan tribes, and they alone had a foreign policy whose traditions were
formed under Leo IX and Gregory VII. The reform effected in the Church and the
papacy through the influence of the monks of Cluny had increased the prestige of
the Roman pontiff in the eyes of all Christian nations; hence none but the pope
could inaugurate the international movement that culminated in the Crusades.
But despite his eminent authority the pope could never have persuaded the
Western peoples to arm themselves for the conquest of the Holy Land had not
the immemorial relations between Syria and the West favoured his design.
Europeans listened to the voice of Urban II because their own inclination and
historic traditions impelled them towards the Holy Sepulchre.
From the end of the fifth century there had been no break in their intercourse with
the Orient. In the early Christian period colonies of Syrians had introduced the
religious ideas, art, and culture of the East into the large cities of Gaul and Italy.
The Western Christians in turn journeyed in large numbers to Syria, Palestine,
and Egypt, either to visit the Holy Places or to follow the ascetic life among the
monks of the Thebaid or Sinai. There is still extant the itinerary of a pilgrimage
from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, dated 333; in 385 St. Jerome and St. Paula
founded the first Latin monasteries at Bethlehem. Even the Barbarian invasion did
not seem to dampen the ardour for pilgrimages to the East. The Itinerary of St.
Silvia (Etheria) shows the organization of these expeditions, which were directed
by clerics and escorted by armed troops. In the year 600, St. Gregory the Great
had a hospice erected in Jerusalem for the accommodation of pilgrims, sent
alms to the monks of Mount Sinai ("Vita Gregorii" in "Acta SS.", March 11, 132),
and, although the deplorable condition of Eastern Christendom after the Arab
invasion rendered this intercourse more difficult, it did not by any means cease.
As early as the eighth century Anglo-Saxons underwent the greatest hardships
to visit Jerusalem. The journey of St. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstädt, took seven
years (722-29) and furnishes an idea 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 Pepin the Short entered into negotiations with the Caliph of
Bagdad. In Rome, on 30 November, 800, the very day on which Leo III invoked
the arbitration of Charlemagne, ambassadors from Haroun al-Raschid delivered to
the King of the Franks the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, the banner of Jersualem,
and some precious relics (Einhard, "Annales", ad an. 800, in "Mon. Germ. Hist.:
Script.", I, 187); this was an acknowledgment of the Frankish protectorate over
the Christians of Jerusalem. That churches and monasteries were built at
Charlemagne's expense is attested by a sort of a census of the monasteries of
Jerusalem dated 808 ("Commemoratio de Casis Dei" in "Itiner. Hieros.", I, 209).
In 870, at the time of the pilgrimage of Bernard the Monk (Itiner. Hierosol., I, 314),
these institutions were still very prosperous, and it has been abundantly proved
that alms were sent regularly from the West to the Holy Land. In the tenth
century, just when the political and social order of Europe was most troubled,
knights, bishops, and abbots, actuated by devotion and a taste for adventure,
were wont to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Holy Sepulchre without being
molested by the Mohammedans. Suddenly, in 1009, Hakem, the Fatimite Caliph
of Egypt, in a fit of madness ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre and
all the Christian establishments in Jerusalem. For years thereafter Christians
were cruelly persecuted. (See the recital of an eyewitness, Iahja of Antioch, in
Schlumberger's "Epopée byzantine", II, 442.) In 1027 the Frankish protectorate
was overthrown and replaced by that of the Byzantine emperors, to whose
diplomacy was due the reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre. The Christian
quarter was even surrounded by a wall, and some Amalfi merchants, vassals of
the Greek emperors, built hospices in Jerusalem for pilgrims, e.g. the Hospital of
St. John, cradle of the Order of Hospitallers.
Instead of diminishing, the enthusiasm of Western Christians for the pilgrimage
to Jerusalem seemed rather to increase during the eleventh century. Not only
princes, bishops, and knights, but even men and women of the humbler classes
undertook the holy journey (Radulphus Glaber, IV, vi). Whole armies of pilgrims
traversed Europe, and in the valley of the Danube hospices were established
where they could replenish their provisions. In 1026 Richard, Abbot of
Saint-Vannes, led 700 pilgrims into Palestine at the expense of Richard II, Duke
of Normandy. In 1065 over 12,000 Germans who had crossed Europe under the
command of Günther, Bishop of Bamberg, while on their way through Palestine
had to seek shelter in a ruined fortress, where they defended themselves against
a troop of Bedouins (Lambert of Hersfeld, 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 Western Christians who looked upon the Holy Sepulchre
as the most venerable of relics and were ready to brave any peril in order to visit
it. The memory of Charlemagne's protectorate still lived, and a trace of it is to be
found in the medieval legend of this emperor's journey to Palestine (Gaston Paris
in "Romania", 1880, p. 23).
The rise of the Seljukian Turks, however, compromised the safety of pilgrims and
even threatened the independence of the Byzantine Empire and of all
Christendom. In 1070 Jerusalem was taken, and in 1091 Diogenes, the Greek
emperor, was defeated and made captive at Mantzikert. Asia Minor and all of
Syria became the prey of the Turks. Antioch succumbed in 1084, and by 1092
not one of the great metropolitan sees of Asia remained in the possession of the
Christians. Although separated from the communion of Rome since the schism
of Michael Cærularius (1054), the emperors of Constantinople implored the
assistance of the popes; in 1073 letters were exchanged on the subject between
Michael VII and Gregory VII. The pope seriously contemplated leading a force of
50,000 men to the East in order to re-establish Christian unity, repulse the Turks,
and rescue the Holy Sepulchre. But the idea of the crusade constituted only a
part of this magnificent plan. (The letters of Gregory VII 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 Investitures in 1076 compelled the pope to abandon his
projects; the Emperors Nicephorus Botaniates and Alexius Comnenus were
unfavourable to a religious union with Rome; finally war broke out between the
Byzantine Empire and the Normans of the Two Sicilies.
It was Pope Urban II who took up the plans of Gregory VII 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, 13l) and Hugues de Fleury
(in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", IX, 392), seems to imply that the crusade was
instigated by the Byzantine emperor, but this has been proved false (Chalandon,
Essai sur le règne d'Alexis Comnène, appendix), Alexius having merely sought
to enroll five hundred Flemish knights in the imperial army (Anna Comnena,
Alexiad., VII, iv). The honour of initiating the crusade has also been attributed to
Peter the Hermit, a recluse of Picardy, who, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and
a vision in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, went to Urban II 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. Albert of Aix and especially
William of Tyre. (See Hagenmeyer, Peter der Eremite Leipzig, 1879.) The idea of
the crusade is chiefly attributed to Pope Urban II (1095), and the motives that
actuated him are clearly set forth by his contemporaries: "On beholding the
enormous injury that all, clergy or people, brought upon the Christian Faith . . . at
the news that the Rumanian provinces had been taken from the Christians by the
Turks, moved with compassion and impelled by the love of God, he crossed the
mountains and descended into Gaul" (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 pope
who agitated the great movement which filled the Greeks with anxiety and terror.
II. FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN STATES IN THE EAST
After travelling through Burgundy and the south of France, Urban II convoked a
council at Clermont-Ferrand, in Auvergne. It was attended by fourteen
archbishops, 250 bishops, and 400 abbots; moreover a great number of knights
and men of all conditions came and encamped on the plain of Chantoin, to the
east of Clermont, 18-28 November, 1095. On 27 November, the pope himself
addressed the assembled multitudes, exhorting them to go forth and rescue the
Holy Sepulchre. Amid wonderful enthusiasm and cries of "God wills it!" all rushed
towards the pontiff to pledge themselves by vow to depart for the Holy Land and
receive the cross of red material to be worn on the shoulder. At the same time
the pope sent letters to all Christian nations, and the movement made rapid
headway throughout Europe. 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 murdered the Jews in the German cities. One
of these bands, headed by Folkmar, a German cleric, was slaughtered by the
Hungarians. Peter the Hermit, however, and the German knight, Walter the
Pennyless (Gautier Sans Avoir), finally reached Constantinople with their
disorganized troops. To save the city from plunder Alexius Comnenus ordered
them to be conveyed across the Bosporus (August, 1096); in Asia Minor 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 Constantinople.
Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine at the head of the people of
Lorraine, the Germans, and the French from the north, followed the valley
of the Danube, crossed Hungary, and arrived at Constantinople, 23
December, 1096.
Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of France, Robert
Courte-Heuse, Duke of Normandy, and Count Stephen of Blois, led bands
of French and Normans across the Alps and set sail from the ports of
Apulia for Dyrrachium (Durazzo), whence they took the "Via Egnatia" to
Constantinople and assembled there in May, 1097.
The French from the south, under the leadership of Raymond of
Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, and of Adhemar of Monteil, Bishop of Puy
and papal legate, began to fight their way through the longitudinal valleys
of the Eastern Alps and, after bloody conflicts with the Slavonians,
reached Constantinople at the end of April, 1097.
Lastly, the Normans of Southern Italy, won over by the enthusiasm of the
bands of crusaders that passed through their country, embarked for
Epirus under the command of Bohemond and Tancred, one being the
eldest son, the other the nephew, of Robert Guiscard. Crossing the
Byzantine Empire, they succeeded in reaching Constantinople, 26 April,
1097.
The appearance of the crusading armies at Constantinople raised the greatest
trouble, and helped to bring about in the future irremediable misunderstandings
between the Greeks and the Latin Christians. The unsolicited invasion of the
latter alarmed Alexius, who tried to prevent the concentration of all these forces
at Constantinople by transporting to Asia Minor 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 Greek Empire the lands they were about
to conquer. After resisting the imperial entreaties throughout the winter, Godfrey
of Bouillon, hemmed in at Pera, at length consented to take the oath of fealty.
Bohemond, Robert Courte-Heuse, Stephen of Blois, and the other crusading
chiefs unhesitatingly assumed the same obligation; Raymond of St-Gilles,
however, remained obdurate.
Transported into Asia Minor, the crusaders laid siege to the city of Nicæa, 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 Dorylæum on 1 July, 1097, the Christians entered upon the high
plateaux of Asia Minor. 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, Tancred and Baldwin, brothers of Godfrey of Bouillon, left the bulk of the
army and entered Armenian territory. At Tarsus a feud almost broke out between
them, but fortunately they became reconciled. Tancred took possession of the
towns of Cilicia, whilst Baldwin, summoned by the Armenians, crossed the
Euphrates in October, 1097, and, after marrying an Armenian princess, was
proclaimed Lord of Edessa. Meanwhile the crusaders, revictualled by the
Armenians of the Taurus region, made their way into Syria and on 20 October,
1097, reached the fortified city of Antioch, 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 Genoese 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 Antioch 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 Holy Lance, resulting from the dream of
a Provençal priest named Pierre Barthélemy. On 28 June, 1098, Kerbûga's army
was effectually repulsed, but, instead of marching on Jerusalem without delay,
the chiefs spent several months in a quarrel due to the rivalry of Raymond of
Saint-Gilles and Bohemond, both of whom claimed the right to Antioch. It was
not until April, 1099, that the march towards Jerusalem was begun, Bohemond
remaining in possession of Antioch while Raymond seized on Tripoli. On 7 June
the crusaders began the siege of Jerusalem. Their predicament would have been
serious, indeed, had not another Jaffa
Genoese fleet arrived at Jaffa and, as at Antioch, 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
Mohammedan sorcerers, the attack began 14 July, 1099. Next day the
Christians entered Jerusalem from all sides and slew its inhabitants regardless of
age or sex. Having accomplished their pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, the
knights chose as lord of the new conquest Godfrey of Bouillon, who called
himself "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre". They had then to repulse an Egyptian
army, which was defeated at Ascalon, 12 August, 1099. Their position was
nevertheless very insecure. Alexius Comnenus threatened the principality of
Antioch, and in 1100 Bohemond himself was made prisoner by the Turks, while
most of the cities on the coast were still under Mohammedan control. Before his
death, 29 July, 1099, Urban II once more proclaimed the crusade. In 1101 three
expeditions crossed Europe under the leadership of Count Stephen of Blois,
Duke William IX of Aquitaine, and Welf IV, Duke of Bavaria. All three managed to
reach Asia Minor, but were massacred by the Turks. On his release from prison
Bohemond attacked the Byzantine Empire, but was surrounded by the imperial
army and forced to acknowledge himself the vassal of Alexius. On Bohemond's
death, however, in 1111, Tancred refused to live up to the treaty and retained
Antioch. Godfrey of Bouillon died at Jerusalem 18 July, 1100. His brother and
successor, Baldwin of Edessa, was crowned King of Jerusalem in the Basilica of
Bethlehem, 25 December, 1100. In 1112, with the aid of Norwegians under
Sigurd Jorsalafari and the support of Genoese, Pisan, and Venetian fleets,
Baldwin I began the conquest of the ports of Syria, which was completed in 1124
by the capture of Tyre. Ascalon alone kept an Egyptian garrison until 1153.
At this period the Christian states formed an
extensive and unbroken territory between the
Euphrates and the Egyptian frontier, and included
four almost independent principalities: the Kingdom
of Jerusalem, the Countship of Tripoli, the
Principality of Antioch, and the Countship of Rohez
(Edessa). These small states were, so to speak,
the common property of all Christendom and, as
such, were subordinate to the authority of the pope.
Moreover, the French knights and Italian 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 law 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 knights and citizens,
and in the ports there were police and mercantile courts (see ASSIZES OF
JERUSALEM). The authority of the Church also helped to limit the power of the
king; the four metropolitan sees of Tyre, Cæsarea, Bessan, and Petra were
subject to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, similarly seven suffragan sees and a great
many abbeys, among them Mount Sion, Mount Olivet, the Temple, Josaphat,
and the Holy Sepulchre. Through rich and frequent donations the clergy became
the largest property-holders in the kingdom; they also received from the
crusaders important estates situated in Europe. In spite of the aforesaid
restrictions, in the twelfth century the King of Jerusalem had a large income. The
customs duties 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 (fief de soudée). In this way was recruited the light cavalry of the
"Turcoples", armed in Saracenic 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 Christian dominions brought about the creation of a unique
institution, the religious orders of knighthood, viz.: the Hospitallers, who at first
did duty in the Hospital of St. John founded by the aforesaid merchants of Amalfi,
and were then organized into a militia by Gérard du Puy that they might fight the
Saracens (1113); and the Templars, nine of whom in 1118 gathered around
Hugues de Payens and received the Rule of St. Bernard. These members,
whether knights drawn from the nobility, bailiffs, clerks, or chaplains, pronounced
the three monastic vows but it was chiefly to the war against the Saracens that
they pledged themselves. Being favoured with many spiritual and temporal
privileges, they easily gained recruits from among the younger sons of feudal
houses and acquired both in Palestine and in Europe considerable property.
Their castles, built at the principal strategic points, Margat, Le Crac, and
Tortosa, were strong citadels protected by several concentric enclosures. In the
Kingdom of Jerusalem these military orders virtually formed two independent
commonwealths. Finally, in the cities, the public power was divided between the
native citizens and the Italian colonists, Genoese, Venetians, Pisans, and also
the Marseillais 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 Syrian ports were regularly visited by Italian 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 Christian states of the East were
completely organized, and even eclipsed in wealth and prosperity most of the
Western states.
III. FIRST DESTRUCTION OF THE CHRISTIAN STATES (1144-87)
Many dangers, unfortunately, threatened this
prosperity. On the south were the Caliphs of
Egypt, on the east the Seljuk Ameers of
Damascus, Hamah and Aleppo, and on the north
the Byzantine 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
Christian states lacked cohesion and discipline. The help they received from the
West was too scattered and intermittent. Nevertheless these Western knights,
isolated amid Mohammedans 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 Christian colonies. In
1137 John Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople, appeared before Antioch 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 Byzantine territory, but was hemmed in by the imperial army and
compelled (1144) to humble himself at Constantinople before the Emperor
Manuel. The Principality of Edessa, completely isolated from the other Christian
states, could not withstand the attacks of Imad-ed-Din, the prince, or atabek, 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 Christian states. At news of this, Louis VII of France, Queen Eleanor of
Aquitaine, and a great number of knights, moved by the exhortations of St.
Bernard, enlisted under the cross (Assembly of Vézelay, 31 March, 1146). The
Abbot of Clairvaux became the apostle of the crusade and conceived the idea of
urging all Europe to attack the infidels simultaneously in Syria, in Spain, and
beyond the Elbe. At first he met with strong opposition in Germany. Eventually
Emperor Conrad III acceded to his wish and adopted the standard of the cross 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 Byzantine Empire, but his expedition merely
checked the progress of Nour-ed-Din's invasion. The sufferings endured by the
crusaders while crossing Asia Minor prevented them from advancing on Edessa.
They contented themselves with besieging Damascus, 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 Greeks and the crusaders only
confirmed the general opinion that the Byzantine Empire was the chief obstacle
to the success of the Crusades. Nevertheless, Manuel Comnenus endeavoured
to strengthen the bonds that united the Byzantine Empire to the Italian
principalities. In 1161 he married Mary of Antioch, and in 1167 gave the hand of
one of his nieces to Amalric, King of Jerusalem. This alliance resulted in
thwarting the progress of Nour-ed-Din, who, having become master of Damascus
in 1154, refrained thenceforth from attacking the Christian dominions.
King Amalric profited by this respite to interpose in the affairs of Egypt, as the
only remaining representatives of the Fatimite dynasty were children, and two
rival viziers were disputing the supreme power amid conditions of absolute
anarchy. One of these disputants, Shawer, being exiled from Egypt, 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 Egypt; a body of
Frankish knights was stationed at one of the gates of Cairo, and Egypt paid a
tribute of 100,000 dinárs to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1168 Amalric made
another attempt to conquer Egypt, 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 Byzantine fleet, invaded Egypt once more, but was defeated
at Damietta. Saladin retained full sway in Egypt 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 Damascus 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 Kingdom of Jerusalem was threatened on all sides. At the
same time two factions, led respectively by Guy de Lusignan, brother-in-iaw of
the king, and Raymond, 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 crowned 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 Red Sea, sought to divert the enemy's attention by attacking the holy
cities of the Mohammedans. Oarless vessels were brought to Aïlet on the backs
of camels in 1182, and a fleet of five galleys traversed the Red Sea for a whole
year, ravaging the coasts as far as Aden; a body of knights even attempted to
seize Medina. In the end this fleet was destroyed by Saladin's, and, to the great
joy of the Mohammedans, the Frankish prisoners were put to death at Mecca.
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 Kingdom of Jerusalem and, although Guy de Lusignan gathered all his forces
to repel the attack, on 4 July, 1187, Saladin's army annihilated that of the
Christians on the shores of Lake Tiberias. The king, the grand master of the
Temple, Renaud de Châtillon, and the most powerful men in the realm were
made prisoners. After slaying Renaud with his own hand, Saladin marched on
Jerusalem. The city capitulated 17 September, and Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli
were the only places in Syria that remained to the Christians.
IV. ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE THE CHRISTIAN STATES AND THE CRUSADE
AGAINST SAINT-JEAN D'ACRE
The news of these events caused great consternation in Christendom, and Pope
Gregory VIII strove to put a stop to all dissensions among the Christian princes.
On 21 January, 1188, Philip Augustus, King of France, and Henry II,
Plantagenet, became reconciled at Gisors and took the cross. On 27 March, at
the Diet of Mainz, Frederick Barbarossa and a great number of German knights
made a vow to defend the Christian cause in Palestine. In Italy, Pisa made peace
with Genoa, Venice with the King of Hungary, and William of Sicily with the
Byzantine Empire. Moreover, a Scandinavian fleet consisting of 12,000 warriors
sailed around the shores of Europe, when passing Portugal, it helped to capture
Alvor from the Mohammedans. 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. Frederick
Barbarossa entered into negotiations with Isaac Angelus, Emperor of
Constantinople, with the Sultan of Iconium, and even with Saladin himself. It was,
moreover, the first time that all the Mohammedan forces were united under a
single leader; Saladin, while the holy war was being preached, organized against
the Christians something like a counter-crusade. Frederick Barbarossa, who was
first ready for the enterprise, and to whom chroniclers attribute an army of
100,000 men, left Ratisbon, 11 May, 1189. After crossing Hungary he took the
Balkan passes by assault and tried to outflank the hostile movements of Isaac
Angelus by attacking Constantinople. Finally, after the sack of Adrianople, Isaac
Angelus surrendered, and between 21 and 30 March, 1190, the Germans
succeeded in crossing the Strait of Gallipoli. As usual, the march across Asia
Minor was most arduous. With a view to replenishing provisions, the army took
Iconium by assault. On their arrival in the Taurus region, Frederick Barbarossa
tried to cross the Selef (Kalykadnos) on horseback and was drowned. Thereupon
many German princes returned to Europe; the others, under the emperor's son,
Frederick of Swabia. reached Antioch and proceeded thence to Saint-Jean
d'Acre. 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 Christian army, and, in September of the
same year, the Scandinavian fleet arrived, followed by the English and Flemish
fleets, commanded respectively by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jacques
d'Avesnes. This heroic siege lasted two years. In the spring of each year
reinforcements arrived from the West, and a veritable Christian city sprang up
outside the walls of Acre. 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
(pierrières), worked by powerful machinery, were used by the crusaders to
demolish the walls of Acre, but the Mohammedans also had strong artillery. This
famous siege had already lasted two years when Philip Augustus, King of
France, and Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England, arrived on the scene. After
long deliberation they had left Vézelay together, 4 July, 1190. Richard embarked
at Marseilles, Philip at Genoa, 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 Philip was landing at Acre, Richard was shipwrecked on
the coast of Cyprus, then independent under Isaac Comnenus. With the aid of
Guy de Lusignan, Richard conquered this island. The arrival of the Kings of
France and England before Acre brought about the capitulation of the city, 13
July 1191. Soon, however, the quarrel of the French and English kings broke out
again, and Philip Augustus left Palestine, 28 July. Richard was now leader of the
crusade, and, to punish Saladin for the non-fulfilment of the treaty conditions
within the time specified, had the Mohammedan hostages put to death. Next, an
attack on Jerusalem was meditated, but, after beguiling the Christians by
negotiations, Saladin brought numerous troops from Egypt. The enterprise failed,
and Richard compensated himself for these reverses by brilliant but useless
exploits which made his name legendary among the Mohammedans. Before his
departure he sold the Island of Cyprus, first to the Templars, who were unable to
settle there, and then to Guy de Lusignan, who renounced the Kingdom of
Jerusalem in favour of Conrad of Montferrat (1192). After a last expedition to
defend Jaffa against Saladin, Richard declared a truce and embarked for Europe,
9 October, 1192, but did not reach his English 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 Saint-Jean d'Acre.
While Capetians and Plantagenets, oblivious of the Holy War, were settling at
home their territorial disputes, Emperor Henry VI, son of Barbarossa, took in
hand the supreme direction of Christian politics in the East. Crowned King of the
Two Sicilies, 25 December, 1194, he took the cross at Bari, 31 May, 1195, and
made ready an expedition which, he thought, would recover Jerusalem and wrest
Constantinople from the usurper Alexius III. Eager to exercise his imperial
authority he made Amaury de Lusignan King of Cyprus and Leo II King of
Armenia. In September, 1197, the German crusaders started for the East. They
landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre and marched on Jerusalem, but were detained before
the little town of Tibnin from November, 1197, to February 1198. On raising the
siege, they learned that Henry VI had died, 28 September, at Messina, where he
had gathered the fleet that was to convey him to Constantinople. The Germans
signed a truce with the Saracens, but their future influence in Palestine was
assured by the creation of the Order of the Teutonic Knights. In 1143, a German
pilgrim had founded a hospital for his fellow-countrymen; the religious who served
it moved to Acre and, in 1198, were organized in imitation of the plan of the
Hospitallers, their rule being approved by Innocent III in 1199.
V. THE CRUSADE AGAINST CONSTANTINOPLE (1204)
In the many attempts made to establish the
Christian states the efforts of the crusaders had
been directed solely toward the object for which
the Holy War had been instituted; the crusade
against Constantinople 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 pope's hands, this new movement was, of
course, a triumph, but for Christendom it was a source of perplexity. Scarcely
had Innocent III been elected pope, 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 Jerusalem and the reconquest of the
Holy Land. In his first Encyclicals he summoned all Christians to join the
crusade and even negotiated with Alexius III, the Byzantine emperor, trying to
persuade him to re-enter the Roman communion and use his troops for the
liberation of Palestine. Peter of Capua, the papal legate, brought about a truce
between Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion, January, 1199, and popular
preachers, among others the parish priest Foulques of Neuilly, attracted large
crowds. During a tournament at Ecry-sur-Aisne, 28 November, 1199, Count
Thibaud de Champagne and a great many knights took the cross; in southern
Germany, Martin, Abbot of Pairis, near Colmar, won many to the crusade. It
would seem, however, that, from the outset, the pope lost control of this
enterprise. Without even consulting Innocent III, the French knights, who had
elected Thibaud de Champagne as their leader, decided to attack the
Mohammedans in Egypt and in March, 1201, concluded with the Republic of
Venice 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 pope.
Just at this time the son of Isaac Angelus, the dethroned Emperor of
Constantinople, sought refuge in the West and asked Innocent III 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 Constantinople, and a
passage in the "Gesta Innocentii" (83, in P. L., CCXIV, CXXXII) indicates that the
idea was not new to Boniface of Montferrat when, in the spring of 1202, he made
it known to the pope. Meanwhile the crusaders assembled at Venice could not
pay the amount called for by their contract, so, by way of exchange, the
Venetians suggested that they help recover the city of Zara in Dalmatia. The
knights accepted the proposal, and, after a few days' siege, the city capitulated,
November, 1202. But it was in vain that Innocent III urged the crusaders to set
out for Palestine. Having obtained absolution for the capture of Zara, and despite
the opposition of Simon of Montfort and a part of the army, on 24 May, 1203, the
leaders ordered a march on Constantinople. They had concluded with Alexius,
the Byzantine pretender, a treaty whereby he promised to have the Greeks 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 Constantinople;
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 Greeks, 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 Constantinople against the Latin
crusaders who were preparing to besiege Constantinople a second time. By a
treaty concluded in March, 1204, between the Venetians and the crusading
chiefs, it was pre-arranged to share the spoils of the Greek Empire. On 12 April,
1204, Constantinople was carried by storm, and the next day the ruthless
plundering of its churches and palaces was begun. The masterpieces of
antiquity, piled up in public places and in the Hippodrome, were utterly
destroyed. Clerics and knights, in their eagerness to acquire famous and
priceless relics, took part in the sack of the churches. The Venetians received
half the booty; the portion of each crusader was determined according to his rank
of baron, knight, or bailiff, and most of the churches of the West were enriched
with ornaments stripped from those of Constantinople. On 9 May, 1204, an
electoral college, formed of prominent crusaders and Venetians, assembled to
elect an emperor. Dandolo, Doge of Venice, refused the honour, and Boniface of
Montferrat was not considered. In the end, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was
elected and solemnly crowned in St. Sophia. Constantinople and the empire
were divided among the emperor, the Venetians, and the chief crusaders; the
Marquis of Montferrat received Thessalonica and Macedonia, with the title of
king; Henry of Flanders became Lord of Adramyttion; Louis of Blois was made
Duke of Nicæa, and fiefs were bestowed upon six hundred knights. Meanwhile,
the Venetians reserved to themselves the ports of Thrace, the Peloponnesus,
and the islands. Thomas Morosini, a Venetian priest, was elected patriarch.
At the news of these most extraordinary events, in which he had had no hand,
Innocent III bowed as in submission to the designs of Providence and, in the
interests of Christendom, determined to make the best of the new conquest. His
chief aim was to suppress the Greek schism 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 Nicæa, not far from Constantinople, the former Byzantine Government
gathered the remnant of its authority and its followers. Theodore Lascaris was
proclaimed emperor. In Europe, Joannitsa, Tsar of the Wallachians and
Bulgarians, invaded Thrace and destroyed the army of the crusaders before
Adrianople, 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 Bulgarians, the Lombards of Thessalonica, and the Greeks of
Asia Minor. Nevertheless, he succeeded in strengthening the Latin conquest,
forming an alliance with the Bulgarians, 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 Iconium. The
Greeks were not reconciled to the Church of Rome; most of their bishops
abandoned their sees and took refuge at Nicæa, leaving their churches to the
Latin bishops named to replace them. Greek convents were replaced by
Cistercian monasteries, commanderies of Templars and Hospitallers, and
chapters 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, Innocent III resolved (1207) to organize a new crusade and to
take no further notice of Constantinople. Circumstances, however, were
unfavourable. Instead of concentrating the forces of Christendom against the
Mohammedans, the pope himself disbanded them by proclaiming (1209) a
crusade against the Albigenses in the south of France, and against the
Almohades of Spain (1213), the pagans of Prussia, and John Lackland of
England. At the same time there occurred outbursts of mystical emotion similar
to those which had preceded the first crusade. In 1212 a young shepherd of
Vendôme and a youth from Cologne gathered thousands of children whom they
proposed to lead to the conquest of Palestine. The movement spread through
France and Italy. This "Children's Crusade" at length reached Brindisi, where
merchants sold a number of the children as slaves to the Moors, while nearly all
the rest died of hunger and exhaustion. In 1213 Innocent III had a crusade
preached throughout Europe and sent Cardinal Pelagius to the East to effect, if
possible, the return of the Greeks to the fold of Roman unity. On 25 July, 1215,
Frederick II, after his victory over Otto of Brunswick, took the cross at the tomb of
Charlemagne at Aachen. On 11 November, 1215, Innocent III opened the Fourth
Lateran Council with an exhortation to all the faithful to join the crusade, the
departure being set for 1217. At the time of his death (1216) Pope Innocent felt
that a great movement had been started.
VI. THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CRUSADES (1217-52)
In Europe, 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, Frederick II was granted a first delay in the fulfilment of
his vow. 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 Hungary, and Casimir, Duke of
Pomerania, set sail from Venice and Spalato, while an army of Scandinavians
made a tour of Europe. The crusaders landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre in 1217, but
confined themselves to incursions on Mussulman territory, whereupon Andrew of
Hungary returned to Europe. Receiving reinforcements in the spring of 1218, John
of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, resolved to make an attack on the Holy Land by
way of Egypt. The crusaders accordingly landed at Damietta 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 Saracens at Mansurah, 24 July, the Christian army was routed. John of
Brienne was compelled to purchase a retreat by the surrender of Damietta to the
Saracens. Meanwhile Emperor Frederick II, who was to be the leader of the
crusade, had remained in Europe and continued to importune the pope for new
postponements of his departure. On 9 November, 1225, he married Isabelle of
Brienne, heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the ceremony taking place at
Brindisi. Completely ignoring his father-in-law, he assumed the title of King of
Jerusalem. In 1227, however, he had not yet left for Palestine. Gregory IX,
elected pope 19 March, 1227, summoned Frederick to fulfil his vow. Finally, 8
September, the emperor embarked but soon turned back; therefore, on 29
September, the pope excommunicated him. Nevertheless, Frederick 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 Egypt, who was at war
with the Prince of Damascus, and concluded a treaty with him at Jaffa, February,
1229, according to the terms of which Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth were
restored to the Christians. On 18 March, 1229, without any religious ceremony,
Frederick assumed the royal crown of Jerusalem in the church of the Holy
Sepulchre. Returning to Europe, he became reconciled to Gregory IX, August,
1230. The pontiff ratified the Treaty of Jaffa, and Frederick sent knights into Syria
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 Beirut. Filangieri
vainly attempted to obtain possession of the Island of Cyprus. and, when Conrad,
son of Frederick II and Isabelle of Brienne, came of age in 1243, the High Court,
described above, named as regent Alix of Champagne, Queen of Cyprus. In this
way German power was abolished in Palestine.
In the meantime Count Thibaud IV of Champagne had been leading a fruitless
crusade in Syria (1239). Similarly the Duke of Burgundy and Richard of Cornwall,
brother of the King of England, who had undertaken to recover Ascalon,
concluded a truce with Egypt (1241). Europe was now threatened with a most
grievous disaster. After conquering Russia, the Mongols under Jenghiz Khan
appeared in 1241 on the frontiers of Poland, routed the army of the Duke of
Silesia at Liegnitz, annihilated that of Bela, King of Hungary, and reached the
Adriatic. Palestine felt the consequences of this invasion. The Mongols had
destroyed the Mussulman Empire of Kharizm in Central Asia. Fleeing before their
conquerors, 10,000 Kharizmians offered their services to the Sultan of Egypt,
meanwhile seizing Jerusalem as they passed by, in September, 1244. The news
of this catastrophe created a great stir in Europe, and at the Council of Lyons
(June-July, 1245) Pope Innocent IV proclaimed a crusade, but the lack of
harmony between him and the Emperor Frederick II foredoomed the pontiff to
disappointment. Save for Louis IX, King of France, who took the cross in
December, 1244, no one showed any willingness to lead an expedition to
Palestine. On being informed that the Mongols were well-disposed towards
Christianity, Innocent IV sent them Giovanni di Pianocarpini, a Franciscan, and
Nicolas Ascelin, a Dominican, 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 Mongols against the Mohammedans.
However, when St. Louis, who left Paris 12 June, 1248, had reached the Island of
Cyprus, he received there a friendly embassy from the great khan and, in return,
sent him two Dominicans. Encouraged, perhaps, by this alliance, the King of
France decided to attack Egypt. On 7 June, 1249, he took Damietta, 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 Damietta 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 Egypt. St. Louis negotiated
with the latter and was set at liberty on condition of surrendering Damietta and
paying a ransom of a million gold bezants. He remained in Palestine until 1254;
bargained with the Egyptian ameers for the deliverance of prisoners; improved the
equipment of the strongholds of the kingdom, Saint-Jean d'Acre, Cæsarea, Jaffa,
and Sidon; and sent Friar William of Rubruquis 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 France. Since the crusade against Saint-Jean
d'Acre, a new Frankish state, the Kingdom of Cyprus, had been formed in the
Mediterranean opposite Syria 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, knights, men-at-arms, and
civilians; his successors established a government modelled after that of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. The king's power was restricted by that of the High Court,
composed of all the knights, vassals, or under-vassals, with its seat at Nicosia.
However, the fiefs were less extensive than in Palestine, and the feudatories
could inherit only in a direct line. The Island of Cyprus was soon populated with
French colonists who succeeded in winning over the Greeks, upon whom they
even imposed their language. Churches built in the French style and fortified
castles appeared on all sides. The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Nicosia, 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 Cyprus,
and Famagusta developed into one of the busiest of Mediterranean ports.
VII. FINAL LOSS OF THE CHRISTIAN COLONIES OF THE EAST (1254-91)
No longer aided by funds from the West, and rent by internal disorders, the
Christian colonies owed their temporary salvation to the changes in Mussulman
policy and the intervention of the Mongols. The Venetians drove the Genoese
from Saint-Jean d'Acre and treated the city as conquered territory; in a battle
where Christians fought against Christians, and in which Hospitallers were pitted
against Templars, 20,000 men perished. In revenge the Genoese allied
themselves with Michael Palæologus, Emperor of Nicæa, whose general,
Alexius Strategopulos, had now no trouble in entering Constantinople and
overthrowing the Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, 25 July, 1261. The conquest of the
Caliphate of Bagdad by the Mongols (1258) and their invasion of Syria, where
they seized Aleppo and Damascus, terrified both Christians and Mohammedans;
but the Mameluke ameer, Bibars the Arbelester, defeated the Mongols and
wrested Syria from them in September, 1260. Proclaimed sultan in consequence
of a conspiracy, in 1260, Bibars began a merciless war on the remaining
Christian states. In 1263 he destroyed the church at Nazareth; in 1265 took
Cæsarea and Jaffa, and finally captured Antioch (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 St. Louis, there was no longer any earnestness in the
matter among European 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 Constantinople, Michael Palæologus promised
the pope to work for the union of the Churches; but Charles of Anjou, brother of
St. Louis, whom the conquest of the Two Sicilies had rendered one of the most
powerful princes of Christendom, 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 rights she claimed to have to
the crown of Jerusalem, he signed the treaty of Viterbo with Baldwin II (27 May,
1267), which assured him eventually the inheritance of Constantinople. In no wise
troubled by these diplomatic combinations, St. Louis thought only of the
crusade. In a parliament held at Paris, 24 March, 1267, he and his three sons
took the cross, but, despite his example, many knights resisted the exhortations
of the preacher Humbert de Romans. On hearing the reports of the missionaries,
Louis resolved to land at Tunis, whose prince he hoped to convert to Christianity.
It has been asserted that St. Louis was led to Tunis 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 vacancy of the Holy See between 1268
and 1271 in order to attack Constantinople, the negotiations of the popes with
Michael Palæologus for religious union having heretofore prevented him. St. Louis
received the embassy of the Greek emperor very graciously and ordered Charles
of Anjou to join him at Tunis. The crusaders, among whom was Prince Edward of
England, landed at Carthage 17 July, 1270, but the plague broke out in their
camp, and on 25 August, St. Louis himself was carried off by the scourge.
Charles of Anjou then concluded a treaty with the Mohammedans, and the
crusaders reimbarked. Prince Edward alone, determined to fulfil his vow, and set
out for Saint-Jean d'Acre; however, after a few razzias on Saracenic territory, he
concluded a truce with Bibars.
The field was now clear for Charles of Anjou, but the election of Gregory X, 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 pope was
awaiting the union of the Western and Eastern Churches, which event was
solemnly proclaimed at the Council of Lyons, 6 July, 1274; Michael Palæologus
himself promised to take the cross. On 1 May, 1275, Gregory X effected a truce
between this sovereign and Charles of Anjou. In the meantime Philip III, King of
France, the King of England, and the King of Aragon made a vow to go to the
Holy Land. Unfortunately the death of Gregory X brought these plans to nought,
and Charles of Anjou resumed his scheming. In 1277 he sent into Syria Roger of
San Severino, who succeeded in planting his banner on the castle of Acre and in
1278 took possession of the principality of Achaia in the name of his
daughter-in-law Isabelle de Villehardouin. Michael Palæologus had not been able
to effect the union of the Greek clergy with Rome, and in 1281 Pope Martin IV
excommunicated him. Having signed an alliance with Venice, Charles of Anjou
prepared to attack Constantinople, and his expedition was set for April, 1283. On
30 March, 1282, however, the revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers occurred, and
once more his projects were defeated. In order to subdue his own rebellious
subjects and to wage war against the King of Aragon, Charles was at last
compelled to abandon his designs on the East. Meanwhile Michael Palæologus
remained master of Constantinople, and the Holy Land was left defenceless. In
1280 the Mongols attempted once more to invade Syria, but were repulsed by
the Egyptians at the battle of Hims; in 1286 the inhabitants of Saint-Jean d'Acre
expelled Charles of Anjou's seneschal and called to their aid Henry II, King of
Cyprus. Kelaoun, the successor of Bibars, now broke the truce which he had
concluded with the Christians, and seized Margat, the stronghold of the
Hospitallers. Tripoli surrendered in 1289, and on 5 April, 1291, Malek-Aschraf,
son and successor of Kelaoun, appeared before Saint-Jean d'Acre with 120,000
men. The 25,000 Christians 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 Cyprus.
However, 28 May, the Mohammedans made a general attack and penetrated into
the town, and its defenders fled in their ships. The strongest opposition was
offered by the Templars, the garrison of whose fortress held out ten days longer,
only to be completely annihilated. In July, 1291, the last Christian towns in Syria
capitulated, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist.
VIII. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY CRUSADE AND THE OTTOMAN
INVASION
The loss of Saint-Jean d'Acre did not lead the princes of Europe 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 idea of a crusade inspired
principally the works of theorists who saw in it the best means of reforming
Christendom. The treatise by Pierre Dubois, law-officer of the crown at
Coutances, "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 Christian princes by means of a tribunal of
arbitration, the idea of making a French prince hereditary emperor, the
secularization of the Patrimony of St. Peter, the consolidation of the Orders of
the Hospitallers and Templars, 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 Oriental languages, and the intermarriage of Christian maidens with
Saracens were the principal ideas 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 Christian defeat
in the Orient was largely due to the mercantile relations which the Italian cities
Venice and Genoa continued to hold with the Mohammedans, these authors
sought the establishment of a commercial blockade which, within a few years,
would prove the ruin of Egypt and cause it to fall under Christian control. For this
purpose it was recommended that a large fleet be fitted out at the expense of
Christian princes and made to do police duty on the Mediterranean so as to
prevent smuggling. These were the projects set forth in the memoirs of Fidentius
of Padua, a Franciscan (about 1291, Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin MSS., 7247);
in those of King Charles II of Naples (1293, Bib. Nat., Frankish MSS., 6049);
Jacques de Molay (1307, Baluze, ed., Vitæ paparum Avenion., II, 176-185);
Henry II, King of Cyprus (Mas-Latrie, ed., Histoire de Chypre, II, 118); Guillaume
d'Adam, Archbishop of Sultanieh (1310, Kohler, ed., Collect. Hist. of the
Crusades, Armenian Documents, II); and Marino Sanudo, the Venetian (Bongars,
ed., Secreta fidelium Crucis, II). The consolidation of the military orders was also
urged by Charles II. Many other memoirs, especially that of Hayton, King of
Armenia (1307, ed. Armenian Documents, I), considered an alliance between the
Christians and the Mongols of Persia indispensable to success. In fact, from the
end of the thirteenth century many missionaries had penetrated into the
Mongolian Empire; in Persia, as well as in China, their propaganda flourished. St.
Francis of Assisi, and Raymond Lully had hoped to substitute for the warlike
crusade a peaceable conversion of the Mohammedans to Christianity. Raymond
Lully, born at Palma, on the Island of Majorca, in 1235, began (1275) his "Great
Art", which, by means of a universal method for the study of Oriental languages,
would equip missionaries to enter into controversies with the Mohammedan
doctors. In the same year he prevailed upon the King of Majorca to found the
College of the Blessed Trinity at Miramar, where the Friars Minor could learn the
Oriental languages. He himself translated catechetical treatises into Arabic and,
after spending his life travelling in Europe trying to win over to his ideas popes
and kings, suffered martyrdom at Bougie, where he had begun his work of
evangelization (1314). Among the Mohammedans this propaganda encountered
insurmountable difficulties, whereas the Mongols, some of whom were still
members of the Nestorian Church, received it willingly. During the pontificate of
John XXII (1316-34) permanent Dominican and Franciscan missions were
established in Persia, China, Tatary and Turkestan, and in 1318 the
Archbishopric of Sultanieh was created in Persia. In China Giovanni de Monte
Corvino, created Archbishop of Cambaluc (Peking), organized the religious
hierarchy, founded monasteries, and converted to Christianity men of note,
possibly the great khan himself. The account of the journey of Blessed Orderic
de Pordenone (Cordier, ed.) across Asia, between 1304 and 1330, shows us that
Christianity had gained a foothold in Persia, India, Central Asia, and Southern
China.
By thus leading up to an alliance between Mongols and Christians against the
Mohammedans, the crusade had produced the desired effect; early in the
fourteenth century the future development of Christianity in the East seemed
assured. Unfortunately, however, the internal changes which occurred in the
West, the weakening of the political influence of the popes, the indifference of
temporal princes to what did not directly affect their territorial interests rendered
unavailing all efforts towards the re-establishment of Christian power in the East.
The popes endeavoured to insure the blockade of Egypt by prohibiting
commercial intercourse with the infidels and by organizing a squadron for the
prevention of smuggling, but the Venetians and Genoese defiantly sent their
vessels to Alexandria and sold slaves and military stores to the Mamelukes.
Moreover, the consolidation of the military orders could not be effected. By
causing the suppression of the Templars at the Council of Vienne in 1311, King
Philip the Fair dealt a cruel blow to the crusade; instead of giving to the
Hospitallers the immense wealth of the Templars, he confiscated it. The Teutonic
Order having established itself in Prussia in 1228, there remained in the East
only the Hospitallers. After the capture of Saint-Jean d'Acre, Henry II, King of
Cyprus, had offered them shelter at Limasol, but there they found themselves in
very straitened circumstances. In 1310 they seized the Island of Rhodes, which
had become a den of pirates, and took it as their permanent abode. Finally, the
contemplated alliance with the Mongols was never fully realized. It was in vain
that Argoun, Khan of Persia, sent the Nestorian monk, Raban Sauma, as
ambassador to the pope 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 Christians at Hims, and captured Damascus, 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 cross in order to appropriate to
their own use the tithes which, for the defrayal of crusade expenses, they had
levied upon the property of the clergy. For these sovereigns the crusade had no
longer any but a fiscal interest. In 1336 King Philip VI of France, whom the pope
had appointed leader of the crusade, collected a fleet at Marseilles and was
preparing to go to the East when the news of the projects of Edward III caused
him to return to Paris. War then broke out between France and England, and
proved an insurmountable obstacle to the success of any crusade just when the
combined forces of all Christendom 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 Ottoman Turks, driven out of Central Asia by Mongol invasions, had
founded a military state in Asia Minor and now threatened to invade Europe. 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 knights could not hold out. The Turks entered Nicomedia in
1328 and Nicæa in 1330; when they threatened the Emperors of Constantinople,
the latter renewed negotiations with the popes with a view towards the
reconciliation of the Greek and Roman Churches, for which purpose Barlaam was
sent as ambassador to Avignon, in 1339. At the same time the Egyptian
Mamelukes destroyed the port of Lajazzo, commercial centre of the Kingdom of
Armenia Minor, where the remnants of the Christian colonies had sought refuge
after the taking of Saint-Jean d'Acre (1337). The commercial welfare of the
Venetians themselves was threatened; with their support Pope Clement VI in
1344 succeeded in reorganizing the maritime league whose operations had been
prevented by the war between France and England. Genoa, the Hospitallers, and
the King of Cyprus all sent their contingents, and, on 28 October, 1344, the
crusaders seized Smyrna, which was confided to the care of the Hospitallers. 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 Turkish ameers, the
Christians concluded a truce with them in 1348. In 1356 the Ottomans captured
Gallipoli and intercepted the route to Constantinople.
The cause of the crusade then found an unexpected defender in Peter I, King of
Cyprus, who, called upon by the Armenians, 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 papal legate, Peter I undertook a
voyage to the West (1362-65) in the hope of reviving the enthusiasm of the
Christian princes. Pope Urban V extended him a magnificent welcome, as did
also John the Good, King of France, who took the cross at Avignon, 20 March,
1363; the latter's example was followed by King Edward III, the Black Prince,
Emperor Charles IV, and Casimir, King of Poland. Everywhere King Peter was
tendered fair promises, but when, in June, 1365, he embarked at Venice he was
accompanied by hardly any but his own forces. After rallying the fleet of the
Hospitallers, he appeared unexpectedly before the Old Port of Alexandria, landed
without resistance, and plundered the city for two days, but at the approach of an
Egyptian army his soldiers forced him to retreat, 9-16 October, 1365. Again in
1367 he pillaged the ports of Syria, Tripoli, Tortosa, Laodicea, and Jaffa, thus
destroying the commerce of Egypt. Later, in another voyage to the West, he
made a supreme effort to interest the princes in the crusade, but on his return to
Cyprus he was assassinated, as the result of a conspiracy. Meanwhile the
Ottomans continued their progress in Europe, taking Philippopolis in 1363 and, in
1365, capturing Adrianople, which became the capital of the sultans. At the
solicitation of Pope Urban V, Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, took the cross and
on 15 August, 1366, his fleet seized Gallipoli; then, after rescuing the Greek
emperor, John V, held captive by the Bulgarians, 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 Christendom, dreamed of founding a new militia, the Order of the
Passion, an organization whose character was to be at once clerical and
military, and whose members, although married, were to lead an almost
monastic life and consecrate themselves to the conquest of the Holy Land. Being
well received by Charles V, Philippe de Méziéres established himself at Paris
and propagated his ideas among the French nobility. In 1390 Louis II, Duke of
Bourbon, took the cross, and at the instigation of the Genoese went to besiege
el-Mahadia, an African city on the coast of Tunis. In 1392 Charles VI, who had
signed a treaty of peace with England, appeared to have been won over to the
crusade project just before he became deranged. But the time for expeditions to
the Holy Land was now passed, and henceforth Christian Europe was forced to
defend itself against Ottoman invasions. In 1369 John V, Palæologus, went to
Rome and abjured the schism; thereafter the popes worked valiantly for the
preservation of the remnants of the Byzantine Empire and the Christian states in
the Balkans. Having become master of Servia at the battle of Kosovo in 1389, the
Sultan Bajazet imposed his sovereignty upon John V and secured possession of
Philadelphia, the last Greek city in Asia Minor. Sigismund, King of Hungary,
alarmed at the progress of the Turks, sent an embassy to Charles VI, and a large
number of French lords, among them the Count of Nevers, son of the Duke of
Burgundy, enlisted under the standard of the cross and, in July 1396, were joined
at Buda by English and German knights. The crusaders invaded Servia, but
despite their prodigies of valeur Bajazet completely routed them before Nicopolis,
25 September, 1396. The Count of Nevers 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 Turks had
established around Constantinople. Moreover, between 1400 and 1402, John
Palæologus made another voyage to the West in quest of reinforcements.
IX. THE CRUSADE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
An unlooked-for event, the invasion by Timur and the Mongols, saved
Constantinople for the time being. They annihilated Bajazet's army at Ancyra, 20
July, 1402, and, dividing the Ottoman Empire among several princes, reduced it
to a state of vassalage. The Western rulers, Henry III, King of Castile, and
Charles VI, King of France, 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 Chinese that
overthrew the Mongol dynasty in 1368 had resulted in the destruction of the
Christian missions in Farther Asia; in Central Asia the Mongols had been
converted to Mohammedanism, and Timur showed his hostility to the Christians
by taking Smyrna from the Hospitallers. Marshal Boucicault took advantage of
the dejection into which the Mongol invasion had thrown the Mohammedan
powers to sack the ports of Syria, Tripoli, Beirut, and Sidon in 1403, but he was
unable to retain his conquests; while Timur, on the other hand, thought only of
obtaining possession of China and returned to Samarkand, where he died in
1405. The civil wars that broke out among the Ottoman princes gave the
Byzantine emperors a few years' respite, but Murad II, having re-established the
Turkish power, besieged Constantinople from June to September in 1422, and
John VIII, Palæologus, was compelled to pay him tribute. In 1430 Murad took
Thessalonica from the Venetians, forced the wall of the Hexamilion, which had
been erected by Manuel to protect the Peloponnesus, and subdued Servia. The
idea of the crusade was always popular in the West, and, on his death-bed,
Henry V of England regretted that he had not taken Jerusalem. In her letters to
Bedford, the regent, and to the Duke of Burgundy, Joan of Arc alluded to the
union of Christendom against the Saracens, and the popular belief expressed in
the poetry of Christine de Pisan was that, after having delivered France, the Maid
of Orleans would lead Charles VII to the Holy Land. But this was only a dream,
and the civil wars in France, the crusade against the Hussites, and the Council of
Constance, prevented any action from being taken against the Turks. However, in
1421 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 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
religious union which would facilitate the crusade were resumed between the
Byzantine emperors and the popes. Emperor John VIII came in person to attend
the council convoked by Pope Eugene IV at Ferrara, in 1438. Thanks to the good
will of Bessarion and of Isidore of Kiev, the two Greek prelates whom the pope
had elevated to the cardinalate, the council, which was transferred to Florence,
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 cross. Adventurers of all
nationalities enrolled themselves under the command of Cardinal Giuliano
Cesarini and went to Hungary to join the armies of János Hunyady, Waywode of
Transylvania, who had just repulsed the Turks at Hermanstadt, of Wladislaus
Jagello, King of Poland, and of George Brankovitch, Prince of Servia. Having
defeated the Turks at Nish, 3 November, 1443, the allies were enabled to
conquer Servia, owing to the defection of the Albanians under George Castriota
(Scanderbeg), their national commander. Murad signed a ten years' truce and
abdicated the throne, 15 July, 1444, but Giuliano Cesarini, the papal legate, did
not favour peace and wished to push forward to Constantinople. At his instigation
the crusaders broke the truce and invaded Bulgaria, whereupon Murad again took
command, crossed the Bosporus on Genoese galleys, and destroyed the
Christian army at Varna, 10 November, 1444. This defeat left Constantinople
defenceless. In 1446 Murad succeeded in conquering Morea, and when, two
years later, János Hunyady tried to go to the assistance of Constantinople he
was beaten at Kosovo. Scanderbeg alone managed to maintain his
independence in Epirus and, in 1449, repelled a Turkish invasion. Mohammed II,
who succeeded Murad in 1451, was preparing to besiege Constantinople when,
12 December, 1452, Emperor Constantine XII decided to proclaim the union of
the Churches in the presence of the papal legates. The expected crusade,
however, did not take place; and when, in March, 1453, the armed forces of
Mohammed II, numbering 160,000, completely surrounded Constantinople, the
Greeks had only 5000 soldiers and 2000 Western knights, commanded by
Giustiniani of Genoa. 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 Turks 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.
The capture of "New Rome" was the most appalling calamity sustained by
Christendom since the taking of Saint-Jean d'Acre. However, the agitation which
the news of this event caused in Europe was more apparent than genuine. Philip
the Good, Duke of Burgundy, gave an allegorical entertainment at Lille in which
Holy Church solicited the help of knights who pronounced the most extravagant
vows before God and a pheasant (sur le faisan). Æneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena,
and St. John Capistran, the Franciscan, preached the crusade in Germany and
Hungary; the Diets of Ratisbon and Frankfort promised assistance, and a league
was formed between Venice, Florence, and the Duke of Milan, but nothing came
of it. Pope Callistus III succeeded in collecting a fleet of sixteen galleys, which,
under the command of the Patriarch of Aquileia, guarded the Archipelago.
However, the defeat of the Turks before Belgrade in 1457, due to the bravery of
János Hunyady, and the bloody conquest of the Peloponnesus in 1460 seemed
finally to revive Christendom from its torpor. Æneas Sylvius, now pope under the
name of Pius II, multiplied his exhortations, declaring that he himself would
conduct the crusade, and towards the close of 1463 bands of crusaders began to
assemble at Ancona. The Doge of Venice had yielded to the pope's entreaties,
whereas the Duke of Burgundy was satisfied with sending 2000 men. But when,
in June, 1464, the pope went to Ancona 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 Venetians were the only ones who invaded the Peloponnesus and sacked
Athens, but they looked upon the crusade merely as a means of advancing their
commercial interests. Under Sixtus IV they had the presumption to utilize the
papal fleet for the seizure of merchandise stored at Smyrna and Adalia; they
likewise purchased the claims of Catherine Cornaro to the Kingdom of Cyprus.
Finally, in 1480, Mohammed II directed a triple attack against Europe. In Hungary
Matthias Corvinus withstood the Turkish invasion, and the Knights of Rhodes,
conducted by Pierre d'Aubusson, defended themselves victoriously, but the Turks
succeeded in gaining possession of Otranto and threatened Italy with conquest.
At an assembly held at Rome and presided over by Sixtus IV, ambassadors from
the Christian princes again promised help; but the condition of Christendom
would have been critical indeed had not the death of Mohammed II occasioned
the evacuation of Otranto, while the power of the Turks was impaired for several
years by civil wars among Mohammed's sons. At the time of Charles VIII's
expedition into Italy (1492) there was again talk of a crusade; according to the
plans of the King of France, the conquest of Naples was to be followed by that of
Constantinople and the East. For this reason Pope Alexander VI delivered to him
Prince Djem, son of Mahommed II and pretender to the throne, who had taken
refuge with the Hospitallers. When Alexander VI joined Venice 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 cross at Metz with
due solemnity, but these demonstrations could lead to no satisfactory results.
The new conditions that now controlled Christendom rendered a crusade
impossible.
X. MODIFICATIONS AND SURVIVAL OF THE IDEA OF THE CRUSADE
From the sixteenth century European policy was swayed exclusively by state
interests; hence to statesmen the idea of a crusade seemed antiquated. Egypt
and Jerusalem having been conquered by Sultan Selim, in 1517, Pope Leo X
made a supreme effort to re-establish the peace essential to the organization of a
crusade. The King of France and Emperor Charles V promised their co-operation;
the King of Portugal was to besiege Constantinople with 300 ships, and the pope
himself was to conduct the expedition. Just at this time trouble broke out
between Francis I and Charles V; these plans therefore failed completely. The
leaders of the Reformation were unfavourable to the crusade, and Luther declared
that it was a sin to make war upon the Turks because God had made them His
instruments in punishing the sins of His people. Therefore, although the idea of
the crusade was not wholly lost sight of, it took a new form and adapted itself to
the new conditions. The Conquistadores, 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, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus,
and Albuquerque wore the cross on their breast and, when seeking the means of
doubling Africa or of reaching Asia by routes from the East, thought of attacking
the Mohammedans in the rear; besides, they calculated on the alliance of a
fabulous sovereign said to be a Christian, Prester John. The popes, moreover,
strongly encouraged these expeditions. On the other hand, among the Powers of
Europe the House of Austria, which was mistress of Hungary, where it was
directly threatened by the Turks, 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 Ratisbon, the question of war against the Turks
was frequently agitated, and Luther himself, modifying his first opinion, exhorted
the German nobility to defend Christendom (1528-29). The war in Hungary always
partook of the character of a crusade and, on different occasions, the French
nobles enlisted under the imperial banner. Thus the Duke of Mercoeur was
authorized by Henry IV to enter the Hungarian service. In 1664 Louis XIV, eager
to extend his influence in Europe, sent the emperor a contingent which, under
the command of the Count of Coligny, repulsed the Turks in the battle of St.
Gothard. But such demonstrations were of no importance because, from the time
of Francis I, the kings of France, to maintain the balance of power in Europe
against the House of Austria, had not hesitated to enter into treaties of alliance
with the Turks. When, in 1683, Kara Mustapha advanced on Vienna with 30,000
Turks or Tatars, Louis XIV made no move, and it was to John Sobieski, King of
Poland, that the emperor owed his safety. This was the supreme effort made by
the Turks in the West. Overwhelmed by the victories of Prince Eugene at the
close of the seventeenth century, they became thenceforth a passive power.
On the Mediterranean, Genoa and Venice 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 Turks. When, in
1571, the Island of Cyprus was threatened by the Ottomans, who cruelly
massacred the garrisons of Famagusta and Nicosia, these towns having
surrendered on stipulated terms, Pope Pius V succeeded in forming a league of
maritime powers against Sultan Selim, and secured the co-operation of Philip II
by granting him the right to tithes for the crusade, while he himself equipped
some galleys. On 7 October, 1571, a Christian fleet of 200 galleys, carrying
50,000 men under the command of Don Juan of Austria, met the Ottoman fleet in
the Straits of Lepanto, destroyed it completely, and liberated thousands of
Christians. This expedition was in the nature of a crusade. The pope, considering
that the victory had saved Christendom, by way of commemorating it instituted
the feast of the Holy Rosary, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of October.
But the allies pushed their advantages no further. When, in the seventeenth
century, France superseded Spain as the great Mediterranean power, she strove,
despite the treaties that bound her to the Turks, to defend the last remnants of
Christian power in the East. In 1669 Louis XIV sent the Duke of Beaufort with a
fleet of 7000 men to the defence of Candia, a Venetian 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 France in regard
to Eastern Christians who were Turkish subjects was more efficacious. The
regime of "Capitulations", established under Francis I in 1536, renewed under
Louis XIV in 1673, and Louis XV in 1740, ensured Catholics religious freedom
and the jurisdiction of the French ambassador at Constantinople; all Western
pilgrims were allowed access to Jerusalem and to the Holy Sepulchre, which
was confided to the care of the Friars Minor. Such was the modus vivendi finally
established between Christendom and the Mohammedan world.
Notwithstanding these changes it may be said that, until the seventeenth
century, the imagination of Western Christendom was still haunted by the idea of
the Crusades. Even the least chimerical of statesmen, such as Père Joseph de
Tremblay, the confidential friend of Richelieu, at times cherished such hopes,
while the plan set forth in the memorial which Leibniz addressed (1672) to Louis
XIV on the conquest of Egypt was that of a regular crusade. Lastly, there
remained as the respectable relic of a glorious past the Order of the Knights of
St. John of Jerusalem, which was founded in the eleventh century and continued
to exist until the French Revolution. Despite the valiant efforts of their grand
master, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, the Turks had driven them from Rhodes in 1522,
and they had taken refuge in Italy. In 1530 Charles V presented them with the
Isle of Malta, admirably situated from a strategic point of view, whence they
might exercise surveillance over the Mediterranean. They were obliged to promise
to give up Malta on the recovery of Rhodes, and also to make war upon the
Barbary pirates. In 1565 the Knights of Malta withstood a furious attack by the
Turks. They also maintained a squadron able to put to flight the Barbary pirates.
Recruited from among the younger sons of the noblest families of Europe, they
owned immense estates in France as well as in Italy, and when the French
Revolution broke out, the order quickly lost ground. The property it held in France
was confiscated in 1790, and when, in 1798, the Directory undertook an
expedition to Egypt, Bonaparte, in passing, seized the Isle of Malta, whose
knights 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 Rome as a charitable association.
The history of the Crusades is therefore intimately connected with that of the
popes and the Church. These Holy Wars were essentially a papal enterprise. The
idea of quelling all dissensions among Christians, of uniting them under the same
standard and sending them forth against the Mohammedans, was conceived in
the eleventh century, that is to say, at a time when there were as yet no
organized states in Europe, and when the pope was the only potentate in a
position to know and understand the common interests of Christendom. At this
time the Turks threatened to invade Europe, and the Byzantine Empire seemed
unable to withstand the enemies by whom it was surrounded. Urban II then took
advantage of the veneration in which the holy places were held by the Christians
of the West and entreated the latter to direct their combined forces against the
Mohammedans and, by a bold attack, check their progress. The result of this
effort was the establishment of the Christian states in Syria. While the authority
of the popes remained undisputed in Europe, they were in a position to furnish
these Christian colonies the help they required; but when this authority was
shaken by dissensions between the priesthood and the empire, the crusading
army lost the unity of command so essential to success. The maritime powers of
Italy, whose assistance was indispensable to the Christian 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 pontifical will. Finally,
when, at the close of the Middle Ages, all idea of the Christian monarchy had
been definitively cast aside, when state policy was the sole influence that
actuated the Powers of Europe, the crusade seemed a respectable but
troublesome survival. In the fifteenth century Europe permitted the Turks to seize
Constantinople, and princes were far less concerned about their departure for the
East than about finding a way out of the fulfilment of their vow as crusaders
without losing the good opinion of the public. Thereafter all attempts at a crusade
partook of the nature of political schemes.
Notwithstanding their final overthrow, the Crusades hold a very important place in
the history of the world. Essentially the work of the popes, these Holy Wars first
of all helped to strengthen pontifical authority; they afforded the popes an
opportunity to interfere in the wars between Christian 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 popes were for the common safety of
Christendom. From the outset the Crusades were defensive wars and checked
the advance of the Mohammedans who, for two centuries, concentrated their
forces in a struggle against the Christian settlements in Syria; hence Europe is
largely indebted to the Crusades for the maintenance of its independence.
Besides, the Crusades brought about results of which the popes 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 Asiatic countries Western knights, to whom a new world
was thus revealed, and who returned to their native land filled with novel ideas;
they were instrumental in extending the commerce of the Indies, of which the
Italian 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 Marco Polo and Orderic of Pordenone, the
Italians who brought to Europe the knowledge of continental Asia and China. At a
still later date, it was the spirit of the true crusader that animated Christopher
Columbus when he undertook his perilous voyage to the then unknown America,
and Vasco de Gama when he set out in quest of India. If, indeed, the Christian
civilization of Europe has become universal culture, in the highest sense, the
glory redounds, in no small measure, to the Crusades.
See also BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES.
LOUIS BRÉHIER
Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter
Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV
Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org