So who are they crusaders who, from the end of the 11th century until the completion of the Middle Ages, or even later, became the main active force Western Europe? In the main section of the site we want to pay attention to this particular issue, here we will consider the roots, causes and consequences of these phenomena. So, some overview analytics on the historical period.

After the conquest of Palestine by the Seljuk Turks, stories began to appear in Europe more and more often, disturbing the mind and conscience incredibly, about the myriad of atrocities and crimes of Muslims in relation to Christian holy places, about the cruel treatment and persecution of believers in Christ. The Byzantine emperor Alexei the First Komnenos issued a cry to the peoples of Western Europe for help and support from their brothers and sisters of the same faith, living on lands enslaved by infidels. It happened in 1094. The Catholic head, Pope Urban II, despite the confrontation with the Byzantine, supported the idea, and a papal bull was proclaimed on the release of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. It was his preaching that ignited in the hearts of Catholics the “noble anger” of revenge and the religious zeal of many nations found its channel and direction. All this incendiary message was enough for a century and a half - the armed pilgrimage of the European combined Christian army to the Palestinian shores did not stop for a year, all participants in the campaigns strove to liberate the Holy Land. Over time, they received the name "cross". The participants were sewn red crosses on their clothes, hence the self-name came from, which took root over time and then referred only to the crusader knights, which is historically not true. All participants in the campaign against Palestine were considered crusaders. However, tradition is sometimes stronger than logic.

By the twelfth century, Europe had a fortunate combination of circumstances available to muster a large army for crusades. According to the laws of geopolitics, they were perceived as a means to cleanse overpopulated Europe, made it possible to direct the energy of people dissatisfied with their economic and social situation, the aggression of semi-criminal and criminal circles, to direct in line with a fair "holy war" to the achievement of a particular task facing the Pope or the king of a more significant state at that moment. High Christian ideals made it possible to ennoble the dark and ignorant people, to instill in them at least distant norms of morality and responsibility. The second promise from the inspirers was the untold riches of the Eastern lands, to enrich themselves along the way with the introduction of Christian values, or the release of their relics - what could confuse the medieval crusader here? Never mind. Then there were their own rules and views on the situation, as now, by the way, the Western mentality is much different from ours. The church pursued an increase in its influence, the acquisition of lands that were fertile and yielding an unprecedented harvest, a combination of the need for a religious feat / atonement for sins and its own personal benefit - these are the main levers of control of the Catholic clergy. The crusades became the ideal embodiment of the connection of all this diverse kaleidoscope.

The crusaders, at first singly and separately, and then more and more organized, created their campaigns, then whole orders of crusader knights were formed, some for the protection and defense of pilgrimages in the holy lands, and others as armed military brigades, for the capture and enslavement of recalcitrant lands. The history of the crusaders is multifaceted, it includes a huge period of time. In terms of influence on the life of modern Europe, there are no more such examples. The crusaders continue to exist today, they are not warlike, but secrets, and are closed within the framework of their own historical knowledge and heritage of the past. To get acquainted with their history and offer in our section.

Crusades ... these words seem to us an integral part of the Middle Ages - meanwhile, in the Middle Ages such a term did not exist (it was introduced by historians of the New Age), and then they simply said about those who went to the Holy Land to fight the infidels - "accepted the cross" ... or they called them "pilgrims", just like those who went there on a pilgrimage - after all, the crusade was for medieval people a kind of pilgrimage - however, with weapons in their hands ...

How and why did it start?

In our time, they like to talk about greed and secular feudal lords, thirsting for rich booty and new possessions, about the need to call landless knights errant (read: robbers) to order ... yes, it also happened. But still, let's take a closer look at what happened in Palestine. After all, Christians also lived there ... what was their life like?

1009 year. Caliph Hakim ordered the destruction of all Christian churches, starting with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, while Christians were obliged to constantly wear a copper cross weighing about 5 kg around their necks, and Jews to drag a calf-shaped chopping block behind them. True, in 1020 such outright persecution ceased (and the Byzantines restored the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 1048), but it did not become much easier for Christians - both for those who lived there permanently and for those who went on pilgrimage ... however, the latter could it is easy to go into the category of the first: becoming a victim of robbers, one could lose all the money - and there was simply nothing to return home to (the same could happen with a prisoner released for a ransom).

However, such people still had to be grateful to fate - in contrast, for example, to the pilgrims led by Bishop Günther, who in the spring of 1065 fell victim to the attack of the Arabs. Those few of them who had weapons eventually gave up resistance, begging the leader for a truce - but this did not save them from reprisal ... This incident is remarkable only for the large number of victims - and there were many such cases. Those who were not killed could be sold into slavery. It was unthinkable to refuse pilgrimages - although it was not obligatory (like the Hajj for Muslims), nevertheless, every Christian of that time considered it his duty to touch the land that remembers the Savior ...

Information then did not spread as quickly as it does now - and yet news of such events reached the Christian world - and caused no less outrage than we do now - the murder of Russian children by American adopters or the massacre of Kosovo Serbs. But then there was neither the UN nor international tribunals - and where we are waiting for some kind of reaction from international institutions The man of the Middle Ages could only act. The immediate impetus for the beginning of the crusading movement was the invasion of the Seljuk Turks into Christian Byzantium - and the request of the Byzantine emperor for help (let's not forget that in the Middle Ages there was no national self-consciousness yet - and the place that national solidarity occupies in us was then occupied by religious solidarity).

In a word, when in 1095, at the cathedral in Clermont, Pope Urban II made his famous speech with an appeal to “hurry up quickly to the rescue of our brothers living in the East”, people who reached his call were by no means only a desire to rob ... There were also such, of course - but alas, a certain percentage of "human dirt" always sticks to any business - even the most noble.

One way or another, about 300,000 people took part in the First Crusade, which began in 1096. It was headed by the whole color of chivalry of those times: Raymond IV of Toulouse, brother of the French king Hugh de Vermandois, Duke of Normandy Robert Kurtgoz, Gottfried of Bouillon, Bohemond of Tarentum and his nephew Tancred. This very first campaign was, perhaps, the most successful: the Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorilei, captured Antioch (founding a Christian state there), helped the Armenian ruler Thoros to recapture the region of Edessa (although they did nothing to save Thoros during the rebellion - and Baldwin of Boulogne became the ruler of Edessa ... the county of Edessa lasted until 1144), and achieved their main goal - they took Jerusalem. To preserve the conquests, it was decided to appoint Gottfried of Bouillon as King of Jerusalem - but he did not consider it possible to accept the royal crown where the Savior received the crown of thorns, and limited himself to the title of "defender of the Holy Sepulcher". True, the subsequent rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (starting with Baldwin, brother of Gottfried) did not hesitate to call themselves kings ... In addition to the principality of Antioch, the county of Edessa and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, another Christian state was founded - the county of Tripolitan.

The failures began with the Second Campaign undertaken in 1147 after the fall of the Principality of Edessa, the main outpost of Christians in the East. This campaign was poorly organized, defeat followed defeat - and the only result of the campaign was the confidence of Muslims in the possibility of destroying Christians in the East.

Really hard times for Christians in Palestine came in 1187, when, through the “efforts” of the mediocre king of Jerusalem, Guido de Lusignan, the Christian army was defeated at Hattin, and then the Muslims captured several Christian possessions: Accra, Jaffa, Beirut and finally Jerusalem.

The answer to these events was the Third Crusade (1189-1192), which was led by four powerful monarchs: Richard I the Lionheart, Frederick I Barbarossa, the French king Philip II Augustus and the Austrian Duke Leopold V. Their main opponent was the Sultan of Egypt and Syria Salah -ad-Din (known in Europe as Saladin) - the one who shortly before this defeated the Christians at Hattin and took Jerusalem. He was respected even by enemies - for such "knightly virtues" valued in Europe as courage and generosity to the enemy. And Saladin turned out to be worthy opponents: they failed to take Jerusalem ... they say that King Richard was advised to climb the hill from which Jerusalem is visible, but Richard refused: he believed that since he could not recapture the holy city, then he was not worthy to see him ... True, the crusaders managed to recapture Accra, which has now become the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In addition, another Christian state was founded - the Kingdom of Cyprus, which existed until 1489.

But perhaps the most shameful event in the history of the crusade was the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). It all started with the fact that the Venetians, having promised to provide ships, at the last moment raised such a price for them that there was not enough money. On account of the debt, the Venetian Don Enrique Dandolo offered the leaders of the crusaders to render a service to Venice, namely ... to defeat Zadar - a city in Dalmatia (of course, Christian), which competed with Venice - which was done. We must pay tribute to Pope Innocent III - he excommunicated everyone who took part in this, but soon canceled the excommunication, leaving it in force only in relation to the Venetian instigators.

Then Alexei Angel, the son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac Angel, appeared in the crusader camp and asked for help in returning the throne to his father. He promised a generous reward, and most importantly - the transfer of the Byzantine Church (Orthodox) under the authority of the papal throne. The question was left to the discretion of the pope, the pope - as a smart politician - reminded the crusaders of the main goal of their expedition, but did not say a firm “no” ... in the language of diplomacy, this meant “yes” - and the crusaders moved to Constantinople. In fairness, it should be noted that some of the leaders of the crusaders (in particular, Simon de Montfort - the one who is most often remembered in connection with the massacre of the Cathars and the phrase "Kill all - the Lord will distinguish his own") refused to fight the Christians (even if not Catholics) and withdrew their troops, but most of the crusaders were tempted by the promises of Alexei. Constantinople was taken, the throne was returned to Isaac. True, the blind, aged emperor no longer wielded real power...

However, Alexei had not much more than her. In any case, he could not fulfill his promises: firstly, the treasury turned out to be empty (through the efforts of an escaped usurper), and secondly, the subjects were by no means happy with uninvited rescuers ... In the end, Isaac would be overthrown again, Alexei would be killed - and the new the ruler did not want to deal with the crusaders. And then they decided that they would take their own.

A new assault on Constantinople followed, and then a barbaric robbery, accompanied by the massacre of civilians and outright sacrilege: neither the tombs of the emperors nor the temples were spared, where everything that was valuable was carried out (and the holy relics were simply scattered), mules were brought into the temples and horses to take out the loot. The mockery of Orthodox shrines reached the point that street girls were brought into churches and forced to dance naked on the holy thrones.

One can only guess how all this was explained to those ordinary participants in the campaign who went not to rob, but “for an idea” ... and if it was still possible to sew some kind of ideological lining on Constantinople - the fight against “Orthodox heresy” (however, as we already seen, and it didn’t “work” with everyone) - how was the defeat of Zadar explained to them?

It is probably not surprising that after these events in Europe they began to doubt that the reconquest of the Holy Land was possible - Christians became too sinful ... and only those who are sinless can do such a thing. And only children are sinless!

If the idea is worn, then there will certainly be someone who implements it ... The 12-year-old shepherd Etienne saw in a dream Christ, who commanded him to go on a holy cause - the liberation of the Holy Land. Of course, there were adults who, as they would say now, “unwound” this case - and in 1212 the “army” of French and German teenagers set off. Many died on the way to the sea - and for those who reached it, the sea for some reason did not part (as expected). Merchants came to the rescue, providing ships to the young crusaders. But the merchants had their own plans: those children who did not die during the storm, they sold into slavery...

Subsequently, 4 more Crusades took place: in 1217, in 1228, in 1248 and 1270 - but the crusading movement did not manage to rise to the heights of the First Crusade: there were more and more strife between the crusaders themselves, less and less success in the Holy Land... The Saracens conquered the Christian possessions in the East one after another - and the final was the capture of Tripoli in 1289 - this meant the end of the Christian states in the Holy Land.

The Crusades in Europe further disgraced the very idea of ​​the crusading movement: the crusades against the Slavs in the lands beyond the Laba River (now the Elbe) in 1147, the crusades in the Baltic states, Estonia, Finland - and, of course, to Russia (when with the crusaders Prince Alexander Nevsky successfully fought), as well as the Albigensian Crusade - when, under the pretext of fighting the heresy of the Cathars, the lands of Occitania were captured and plundered ...

The crusading movement would be most correctly characterized by one well-known saying of the time: “We wanted the best - it turned out as always” ... is it really the eternal fate of mankind - to vulgarize, dishonor and turn any idea into a complete opposite?

In order to imagine this or that historical fact, one must first clearly understand its background. In November 1095, Urban II convened an ecclesiastical council in France, at Clermont, which was attended by 14 archbishops, 200 bishops and 400 abbots. The Council decided to organize a Crusade to the East - "for the sake of the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem."
So the bishops proclaimed the beginning of the crusade. Western Europe, which was under the constant threat of starvation and death from it (see European chronicles and read European fairy tales, not only folklore, but also, for example, the Brothers Grimm, Hoffmann and others), shed part of its excess population. Landless peasants, impoverished knights, who had nothing in their souls, “except for ambition and a sharp saber,” rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean to look for a better life. Of course, at the expense of the local population. Their first destination was the Christian countries of Hungary and Bulgaria. Their "manners" can be judged by the fact that Hungarian king(by the way, a Catholic, like the crusaders) further agreed to let them pass through their lands, only after taking hostages from their midst.
From 1096 to 1099 these crowds marched from Constantinople to Jerusalem. Along the way, they were everywhere "an example of high morality and virtue." An example of this is the description by one of the crusaders of the capture of the rich Syrian city of Maara. "In Maar, ours boiled pagans (the crusaders used the last word to call all their enemies - Muslims, Jews, various heretics, by which they understood Eastern Christians) in cauldrons, and put children on skewers, fried and ate," writes the Frankish chronicler Raul de Kaen . "Faranj (the Franks, the Arabic collective name for Western Europeans) have superiority in courage and fury in battle, but nothing else, just as animals have superiority in strength and aggressiveness," wrote the Syrian aristocrat Osama. The Arabs will never forget the "cannibalism" of the crusaders - a fact confirmed by the knight Albert d'Ex ("Our ate not only Turks and Saracens, but also dogs"). In the literature of those years, the crusaders are described as terrible cannibals. to their seemingly natural allies - the local Christian population. Arriving here, including under the pretext of protecting Christians, the crusaders often exterminated them on a par with Muslims. For example, in the city of Edessa, a significant part of which were Armenians, who at first welcomed of their co-religionists, the Armenian aristocracy was simply slaughtered by the “liberators” a little later.
Thus, by June 7, 1099, the remnants of the 300,000th detachment of the crusader army, instilling fear and horror in the local population, having lost more than half of their composition along the way, approached Jerusalem. According to the chroniclers, the Holy City with a population of 70,000 was guarded by a thousand Egyptian garrison, to whose aid local residents came.
The anonymous Italo-Norman chronicle of the 11th century “The Acts of the Franks and other Jerusalemites” describes the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders on July 15, 1099. “And so we approached Jerusalem on Tuesday, 8 days before the June ides. Robert of Normandy besieged Jerusalem from the north side, near the church of the first martyr St. Stephen, where he was stoned for Christ. Count Robert of Flanders adjoined the Duke of Normandy. From the west, the city was besieged by the dukes Gottfried and Tancred. From the south, fortified on Mount Zion, Count Saint-Gilles led the siege. On Friday, July 15, we rushed to the fortifications. There was such a massacre that ours were up to the ankles in blood. Other chroniclers, of course, from among the crusaders (the local population was completely exterminated, so they could not describe anything) mention mountains of severed arms, legs and heads, mockery of the bodies of the dead. The same chroniclers-witnesses report the fact of the murder of all the inhabitants - Muslims, Jews, Nestorian Christians.
Three states were formed - Jerusalem, Antioch and Edessa, headed by noble feudal lords - the leaders of the crusaders. But the neighboring Muslim rulers could not put up with such a neighborhood and acted as soon as they could behave towards their newly-minted neighbor - a maniac killer with a penchant for cannibalism. The fight against the crusaders was initially led by the emirs of Mosul from the Turkic Zangi dynasty - Imad ad-Din and Nur ad-Din. Later, this banner was picked up by their former commander of Kurdish origin, Yusuf Salah ad-Din ibn Ayyub (known in Europe as Saladin), who seized power in Egypt and abolished the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty there.
In 1187, the Muslim troops under the command of Salah ad-Din defeated the crusaders near the Lake of Tiberias, after which Jerusalem was surrendered to the inhabitants under the terms of an agreement concluded between the victorious Muslims and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
October 2, 1187 Salah ad-Din enters Jerusalem. He orders: no massacre, no robbery. No Christian, Frankish or Oriental, should be offended. And the poor can leave without ransom. No ransom! Treasurer al-Asfahani becomes furious when he sees how the patriarch of Jerusalem takes out carts loaded with gold, carpets, jewelry: "We allowed them to carry away their property, but not the treasures of churches and monasteries. They must be stopped!" Salah al-Din refuses: "We must fulfill the agreements that we have signed. So Christians will talk everywhere about the good deeds with which we showered them."
On the evening of October 9, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the imam gives praise to God and "Salah ad-Din Yusuf, the son of Ayyub, who returned to this nation its trampled dignity." In the very mosque of Al-Aqsa, from the location of which the prophet Muhammad once made a journey to the seventh heaven, and which the crusaders of our time are stubbornly trying to destroy. The history of Al-Aqsa and its liberation has another significant meaning for Russian Muslims - the fact is that the majority of Salah ad-Din's troops were Mamluks. Mamluk divisions - Kipchaks and Circassians (the Circassians mean not only the Adyghes, but also the rest of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus), were formed from purchased slaves who were brought up as warriors. The main source of replenishment of the Mamluks were countless internecine wars, the stunning steppes of Desht-i-Kypchak (from Altai to the south of modern Ukraine) and the mountains of the Caucasus. In the process of upbringing, these boys were not only taught to fight, they were given the necessary knowledge of Islam (our ancestors, with the exception of the Bulgars, were not yet Muslims then). Subsequently, not only military leaders and government officials, but also scientists and poets came out of the Mamluks. In a matter of years, the Mamluks seized power in Egypt and continued to rule this rich country With ancient culture for many centuries. From them came famous sultans Baybars and Kotuz, who stopped the advance of the Mongols and destroyed the crusaders.
And what about the crusaders? Some stayed. Their descendants are considered Lebanese and Palestinian Catholics. Some converted to Islam, and the descendants of those who adopted the religion that their ancestors fought against still live in this region. A lot of them left. Having once arrived in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria in search of a "better life", they completely forgot how to work. At the same time, one cannot deny them the ability to fight - this was their only craft. After the collapse of their states, they were forced to return to historical homeland, to Western Europe. But even there, landlessness and poverty awaited them. Usually from people like that gangs of robbers and robbers are gathering together ... The Pope of Rome has put them to good use - he sent them on a new crusade - to the shores of the Baltic Sea, the lands of the Prussians, Balts, Finns and Slavs.

Ahmad MAKAROV

At the end of May 1212, unusual wanderers suddenly descended on the German city of Cologne on the banks of the Rhine. A whole crowd of children filled the city streets. They knocked on the doors of houses and asked for alms. But these were no ordinary beggars. Cloth black and red crosses were sewn on the clothes of the children, and to the questions of the townspeople they answered that they were going to the Holy Land in order to liberate the city of Jerusalem from the infidels. The little crusaders were led by a boy of ten years old, who carried an iron cross in his hands. The boy's name was Niklas, and he told how an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that Jerusalem would not be liberated by mighty kings and knights, but by unarmed children, who would be led by the Lord's will. By the grace of God, the sea will part, and they will come on dry land to the Holy Land, and the Saracens, fearful, will retreat before this army. Many wished to become followers of the little preacher. Not listening to the exhortations of their fathers and mothers, they set off on their journey to liberate Jerusalem. Crowds and small groups of children went south to the sea. The Pope himself glorified their campaign. He said: “These children serve as a reproach to us adults. While we sleep, they are happy to stand up for the Holy Land.”

But in fact, there was little joy in all this. On the road, children died of hunger and thirst, and for a long time the peasants found the corpses of little crusaders along the roads and buried them. The end of the campaign was even sadder: of course, the sea did not part before the children who had difficulty reaching it, and enterprising merchants, as if undertaking to transport pilgrims to the Holy Land, simply sold the children into slavery.

But not only children thought about the liberation of the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulcher, located, according to legend, in Jerusalem. Having sewn crosses on shirts, cloaks and banners, peasants, knights, kings rushed to the East. This happened in the 11th century, when the Seljuk Turks, having captured almost all of Asia Minor, in 1071 became the masters of Jerusalem, the holy city of Christians. For Christian Europe, this was terrible news. The Europeans considered the Muslim Turks not only "subhuman" - worse! - minions of the devil. The Holy Land, where Christ was born, lived and martyred, now turned out to be inaccessible to pilgrims, and yet a pious journey to the shrines was not only a commendable deed, but could also become an atonement for sins both for a poor peasant and for a noble lord. Soon rumors began to reach about the atrocities committed by the "damned non-Christs", about the brutal torments to which they allegedly subjected the unfortunate Christians. The European Christian looked with hatred towards the East. But troubles also came to the lands of Europe itself.

End of the 11th century became the hardest time for Europeans. Beginning in 1089, many misfortunes befell them. Plague visited Lorraine, an earthquake occurred in Northern Germany. Harsh winters gave way to summer drought, after which floods occurred, crop failure gave rise to famine. Entire villages died out, people engaged in cannibalism. But no less than from natural disasters and diseases, the peasants suffered from unbearable requisitions and extortion from seniors. Driven to despair, whole villages fled wherever they looked, while others went to monasteries or sought salvation in a hermit life.

The feudal lords also did not feel confident. Unable to be satisfied with what the peasants gave them (many of whom were killed by hunger and disease), the lords began to seize new lands. There were no more free lands left, so large lords began to take away estates from small and medium feudal lords. On the most insignificant occasion, internecine strife broke out, and the owner, expelled from his estate, joined the ranks of the landless knights. The younger sons of noble masters also remained without land. The castle and land were inherited only by the eldest son - the rest were forced to share horses, weapons and armor among themselves. Landless knights indulged in robbery, attacking weak castles, and more often ruthlessly robbing the already impoverished peasants. Monasteries that were not ready for defense were especially desired prey. United in gangs, noble gentlemen, like simple robbers, roamed the roads.

An evil and turbulent time has come in Europe. A peasant whose crops were burned by the sun, and a robber knight whose house; a senior who does not know where to get the means for a life worthy of his position; a monk, longingly looking at the monastery economy ruined by “noble” robbers, not having time to bury those who died from hunger and disease, all of them turned their eyes to God in confusion and grief. Why is he punishing them? What mortal sins have they committed? How to redeem them? And is it not because the wrath of the Lord overtook the world that the Holy Land - the place of atonement for sins - is trampled on by the "servants of the devil", the damned Saracens? Again the eyes of the Christians turned to the East, not only with hatred, but also with hope.

In November 1095, not far from the French city of Clermont, Pope Urban II addressed a huge crowd of people gathered - peasants, artisans, knights and monks. In a fiery speech, he called on everyone to take up arms and go to the East in order to win back the tomb of the Lord from the infidels and cleanse the Holy Land from them. The Pope promised forgiveness of sins to all participants in the campaign. People met his call with shouts of approval. Shouts of "God wants it!" repeatedly interrupted the speech of Urban II. Many already knew that the Byzantine Emperor Alexei I Komnenos turned to the Pope and the European kings with a request to help him repel the onslaught of the Muslims. Helping the Byzantine Christians to defeat the "infidels" will, of course, be a charitable deed. The liberation of Christian shrines will be a real feat, bringing not only salvation, but also the mercy of the Almighty, who will reward his army. Many of those who listened to the speech of Urban II immediately took a vow to go on a campaign and, as a sign of this, attached a cross to their clothes.

The news of the upcoming campaign in the Holy Land quickly spread throughout Western Europe. Priests in churches and holy fools on the streets called to take part in it. Under the influence of these sermons, as well as at the call of their hearts, thousands of the poor rose up in the holy campaign. In the spring of 1096, from France and Rhineland Germany, they moved in discordant crowds along roads that have long been known to pilgrims: along the Rhine, Danube and further to Constantinople. The peasants went with their families and all their meager belongings, which fit in a small cart. They were poorly armed and suffered from food shortages. It was a rather wild procession, since on the way the crusaders mercilessly robbed the Bulgarians and Hungarians, through whose lands they passed: they took away cattle, horses, food, killed those who tried to protect their property. Being barely familiar with the final destination of their journey, the poor, approaching some big city, they asked, “Is this not the Jerusalem where they are going?”. With grief in half, putting many in skirmishes with local residents, in the summer of 1096 the peasants reached Constantinople.

The appearance of this unorganized, hungry crowd did not at all please Emperor Alexei Comnenus. The ruler of Byzantium hurried to get rid of the poor crusaders by ferrying them across the Bosporus to Asia Minor. The end of the campaign of the peasants was sad: in the autumn of the same year, the Seljuk Turks met their army near the city of Nicaea and almost completely killed them or, capturing them, sold them into slavery. Of the 25 thousand "hosts of Christ", only about 3 thousand survived. The surviving miserable crusaders-poor returned to Constantinople, from where some of them began to return home, and some remained to wait for the arrival of the crusaders-knights, hoping to fulfill this vow to the end - to free shrines, or at least find a quiet life in a new place.

The crusader knights set out on their first campaign when the peasants began their sad journey through the lands of Asia Minor - in the summer of 1096. Unlike the latter, the seniors were well prepared for the upcoming battles and the difficulties of the path - they were professional warriors, and they were accustomed to prepare for battle. History has preserved the names of the leaders of this army: the Lorraine who spoke first were led by Duke Gottfried of Bouillon, the Normans of Southern Italy were led by Prince Bohemond of Tarentum, and the knights of Southern France were led by Raymond, Count of Toulouse. Their troops were not a single cohesive army. Each feudal lord who went on a campaign led his squad, and after his lord, the peasants who had escaped from their homes again dragged along with their belongings. The knights on the way, like the poor who passed before them, were engaged in robbery. The ruler of Hungary, taught by bitter experience, demanded hostages from the crusaders, which

Crusaders.

1. 1st crusade (1096-1099).

2. 4th crusade (1202-1204).

new" behavior of the knights in relation to the Hungarians. However, this was an isolated case. The Balkan Peninsula was plundered by the "Christ warriors" who marched across it.

In December 1096 - January 1097. The crusaders arrived at Constantinople. They behaved with those whom they were actually going to protect, to put it mildly, unfriendly: there were even several military skirmishes with the Byzantines. Emperor Alexei put into play all the unsurpassed diplomatic art that glorified the Greeks so much - just to protect himself and his subjects from unbridled "pilgrims". But even then, that mutual hostility between the Western European lords and the Byzantines, which later would bring death to the great Constantinople, was clearly manifested. For the crusaders who came, the Orthodox inhabitants of the empire, although they were Christians, were (after the church schism in 1054) not brothers in faith, but heretics, which is not much better than infidels. In addition, the ancient majestic culture, traditions and customs of the Byzantines seemed incomprehensible and deserving of contempt to the European feudal lords - the near-distant descendants of the barbarian tribes. The knights were infuriated by the grandiloquent style of their speeches, and wealth caused simply wild envy. Understanding the danger of such "guests", seeking to use their military zeal for their own purposes, Alexei Komnenos, by cunning, bribery and flattery, obtained from most of the knights a vassal oath and an obligation to return to the empire those lands that would be recaptured from the Turks. After that, he sent "Christ's army" to Asia Minor.

The disparate forces of the Muslims could not resist the onslaught of the crusaders. Capturing fortresses, they passed through Syria and moved to Palestine, where in the summer of 1099 they took Jerusalem by storm. In the captured city, the crusaders committed a brutal massacre. The killing of civilians was interrupted for the time of prayer, and then began again. The streets of the "holy city" were littered with dead bodies and covered in blood, and the defenders of the "Holy Sepulcher" prowled, taking away everything that could be carried away.

Shortly after the capture of Jerusalem, the crusaders took possession of most of the eastern Mediterranean coast. In the occupied territory at the beginning of the XII century. four states were created by the knights: the kingdom of Jerusalem, the county of Tripoli, the principality of Antioch and the county of Edessa, - the lords began to equip their lives in new places. Power in these states was based on the feudal hierarchy. It was headed by the King of Jerusalem, the other three rulers were considered his vassals, but in fact they were independent. The church had a huge influence in the states of the crusaders. She also owned large land holdings. Church hierarchs were among the most influential lords in the new states. On the lands of the crusaders in the XI century. spiritual and knightly orders, which later became famous, arose: the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutons (see Art. "Knightly Orders").

In the XII century. under pressure from Muslims who began to rally, the crusaders began to lose their possessions. In an effort to resist the onslaught of the infidels, the European knights in 1147 undertook the 2nd crusade, which ended in failure. The 3rd crusade that followed (1189-1192) ended just as ingloriously, although

The battle of the crusaders with the Muslim

army near Antioch.

From a 13th century miniature.

It was led by three warrior kings: the German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French king Philip II Augustus and the English king Richard I the Lionheart. The reason for the performance of European seniors was the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by Sultan Salah ad-Din (see the article “Richard I the Lionheart”). The campaign was accompanied by continuous troubles: at the very beginning, while crossing a mountain stream, Barbarossa drowned; the French and English knights were tirelessly at enmity with each other; and in the end, it was not possible to free Jerusalem. True, Richard the Lionheart obtained some concessions from the Sultan - the crusaders were left with a piece of the Mediterranean coast, and Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit Jerusalem for three years. Of course, it was difficult to call it a victory.

Next to these unsuccessful enterprises of the European knights, the 4th Crusade (1202-1204) stands completely apart, which equalized the Byzantine Orthodox Christians with the infidels and led to the death of “noble and beautiful Constantinople”. It was initiated by Pope Innocent III. In 1198, he launched a grand campaign for another campaign in the name of the liberation of Jerusalem. Papal letters were sent to all European states, but, in addition, Innocent III did not ignore another Christian ruler - the Byzantine emperor Alexei III. He, too, according to the Pope, had to move troops into the Holy Land. In addition to reproaching the emperor for indifference to the cause of the liberation of Christian shrines, the Roman high priest in his message raised an important and old question - about the union (unification of the divided church in 1054). In fact, Innocent III dreamed not so much of restoring the unity of the Christian Church, but of subordinating the Byzantine Greek Church to the Roman Catholic. Emperor Alexei understood this perfectly well - as a result, neither an agreement nor even negotiations came out. Dad was angry. He diplomatically but unequivocally hinted to the emperor that in the event of the intractability of the Byzantines in the West, there would be forces ready to oppose them. Innocent III did not frighten - indeed, European monarchs looked at Byzantium with greedy interest.

The 4th crusade began in 1202, and Egypt was originally planned as its final destination. The way there lay through the Mediterranean Sea, and the crusaders, despite all the thoroughness of the preparation of the "holy pilgrimage", did not have a fleet and therefore were forced to turn to the Venetian Republic for help. From that moment on, the route of the crusade changed dramatically. The Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, demanded a huge sum for his services, and the crusaders turned out to be insolvent. Dandolo was not embarrassed by this: he offered the “holy army” to compensate for the arrears by capturing the Dalmatian city of Zadar, whose merchants competed with the Venetian ones. In 1202, Zadar was taken, the crusader army embarked on ships, but ... did not go to Egypt at all, but ended up under the walls of Constantinople. The reason for this turn of events was the struggle for the throne in Byzantium itself. Doge Dandolo, who liked to settle scores with competitors (Byzantium competed with Venice in trade with eastern countries) with the hands of the crusaders, conspired with the leader of the "army of Christ" Boniface of Montferrat. Pope Innocent III supported the enterprise - and the route of the crusade was changed for the second time.

Having laid siege to Constantinople in 1203, the crusaders achieved the restoration of Emperor Isaac II to the throne, who promised to pay generously for support, but turned out to be not so rich as to keep his word. Enraged by this turn of affairs, the "liberators of the Holy Land" in April 1204 stormed Constantinople and subjected it to pogrom and plunder. Capital great empire and Orthodox Christianity was devastated and put on fire. After the fall of Constantinople, part of Byzantine Empire. On its ruins, a new state arose - the Latin Empire, created by the crusaders. It did not last long, until 1261, until it collapsed under the blows of the conquerors.

After the fall of Constantinople, calls to go and liberate the Holy Land subsided for a while, until the children of Germany and France in 1212 set off on this feat, which turned out to be their death. The four crusades of the knights to the East that followed did not bring success. True, during the 6th campaign, Emperor Frederick II managed to liberate Jerusalem, but the “infidels” after 15 years

regained what was lost. After the failure of the 8th crusade of the French knights in North Africa and the death of the French King Louis IX there, the appeals of the Roman pontiffs to new “feats in the name of the faith of Christ did not find a response. The possessions of the crusaders in the East were gradually captured by Muslims, until at the very end of the 13th century. The Kingdom of Jerusalem did not cease to exist.

True, in Europe itself, the crusaders existed for a long time. By the way, those were also crusaders. German dog knights who were defeated on Lake Peipus by Prince Alexander Nevsky. Popes up to the 15th century organized crusades in Europe in the name of the extermination of heresies. But these were only echoes of the past. The tomb of the Lord remained with the "infidels", this loss was accompanied by huge sacrifices - how many paladins remained forever in the Holy Land? But along with the returning crusaders, new knowledge and skills came to Europe, windmills, cane sugar, and even such a habitual custom for us to wash our hands before eating. So, having shared a lot and taking thousands of lives in payment, the East did not yield a single step to the West. The great battle that lasted 200 years ended in a draw.

Crusades - an armed movement of the peoples of the Christian West to the Muslim East, expressed in a number of campaigns over the course of two centuries (from the end of the 11th to the end of the 13th) with the aim of conquering Palestine and liberating the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidels; it is a powerful reaction of Christianity against the power of Islam (under the caliphs) that was growing stronger at that time and a grandiose attempt not only to take possession of the once Christian areas, but in general to widen the limits of the dominance of the cross, this symbol of the Christian idea. Participants in these trips crusaders, wore a red image on the right shoulder cross with a saying from Holy Scripture (Luke 14, 27), thanks to which the campaigns got their name crusades.

Causes of the Crusades (briefly)

Performance in was scheduled for August 15, 1096, but before the preparations for it were over, crowds of ordinary people, led by Peter the Hermit and the French knight Walter Golyak, set off on a campaign through Germany and Hungary without money and supplies. Indulging in robbery and all sorts of outrages along the way, they were partly exterminated by the Hungarians and Bulgarians, partly reached the Greek empire. The Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos hastened to transport them across the Bosporus to Asia, where they were finally killed by the Turks at the Battle of Nicaea (October 1096). The first disorderly crowd was followed by others: thus, 15,000 Germans and Lorraine, led by the priest Gottschalk, went through Hungary and, having engaged in beating Jews in the Rhine and Danube cities, were exterminated by the Hungarians.

The crusaders set off on the first crusade. Miniature from a manuscript by Guillaume of Tyre, 13th century.

The real militia set out on the First Crusade only in the autumn of 1096, in the form of 300,000 well-armed and excellently disciplined warriors, led by the most valiant and noble knights of that time: next to Gottfried of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, the main leader, and his brothers Baldwin and Eustathius (Estachem), shone; Count Hugh of Vermandois, brother of the French king Philip I, Duke Robert of Normandy (brother of the English king), Count Robert of Flanders, Raymond of Toulouse and Stephen of Chartres, Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, Tancred of Apulism and others. As papal governor and legate, the army was accompanied by Bishop Ademar of Monteil.

Participants of the First Crusade arrived by various routes to Constantinople, where the Greek emperor Alexei forced from them a fealty oath and a promise to recognize him as a feudal lord of future conquests. At the beginning of June 1097, the crusader army appeared before Nicaea, the capital of the Seljuk sultan, and after the capture of the latter, it was subjected to extreme difficulties and hardships. Nevertheless, they took Antioch, Edessa (1098) and, finally, on June 15, 1099, Jerusalem, which at that time was in the hands of the Egyptian sultan, who unsuccessfully tried to restore his power and was utterly defeated at Ascalon.

The capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1099. Miniature of the XIV or XV centuries.

Influenced by the news of the conquest of Palestine in 1101, a new army of crusaders moved to Asia Minor, led by the Duke of Welf of Bavaria from Germany and two others, from Italy and France, amounting to a total army of 260,000 people and exterminated by the Seljuks.

Second Crusade (briefly)

The Second Crusade - Briefly, Bernard of Clairvaux - Brief Biography

In 1144, Edessa was taken by the Turks, after which Pope Eugene III declared Second crusade(1147-1149), freeing all the crusaders not only from their sins, but at the same time from their obligations regarding their fief masters. The dreamy preacher Bernard of Clairvaux managed, thanks to his irresistible eloquence, to attract King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Hohenstaufen to the Second Crusade. Two troops, totaling, according to the assurances of Western chroniclers, about 140,000 armored horsemen and a million foot soldiers, set out in 1147 and headed through Hungary and Constantinople and Asia Minor. Edessa was abandoned, and the attempt to attack Damascus failed. Both sovereigns returned to their possessions, and the Second Crusade ended in complete failure.

Crusader states in the East

Third Crusade (briefly)

Reason for Third Crusade(1189–1192) was the conquest of Jerusalem on October 2, 1187 by the powerful Egyptian sultan Saladin (see the article The Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin). Three European sovereigns participated in this campaign: Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, French king Philip II Augustus and English Richard the Lionheart. The first to march on the Third Crusade was Frederick, whose army increased to 100,000 along the way; he chose the path along the Danube, along the way he had to overcome the intrigues of the incredulous Greek emperor Isaac Angelus, who was only prompted by the capture of Adrianople to give free passage to the crusaders and help them cross over to Asia Minor. Here Frederick defeated the Turkish troops in two battles, but soon after that he drowned while crossing the Kalikadn (Salef) River. His son, Frederick, led the army further through Antioch to Akka, where he found other crusaders, but soon died. The city of Akka in 1191 surrendered to the French and English kings, but the discord that opened between them forced the French king to return to his homeland. Richard remained to continue the Third Crusade, but, desperate in the hope of conquering Jerusalem, in 1192 he concluded a truce with Saladin for three years and three months, according to which Jerusalem remained in the possession of the Sultan, and the Christians received the coastal strip from Tyre to Jaffa, as well as the right to free visiting the Holy Sepulcher.

Frederick Barbarossa - crusader

Fourth Crusade (briefly)

For more details, see separate articles Fourth Crusade, Fourth Crusade - briefly and Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders

Fourth Crusade(1202-1204) was originally aimed at Egypt, but its participants agreed to assist the exiled emperor Isaac Angelus in his quest to regain the Byzantine throne, which was crowned with success. Isaac soon died, and the crusaders, deviating from their goal, continued the war and took Constantinople, after which the leader of the Fourth Crusade, Count Baldwin of Flanders, was elected emperor of the new Latin Empire, which lasted, however, only 57 years (1204-1261).

Members of the Fourth Crusade near Constantinople. Miniature to the Venetian manuscript of Villehardouin's History, c. 1330

Fifth Crusade (briefly)

Ignoring the strange Cross hiking children in 1212, caused by the desire to test the reality of the will of God, Fifth Crusade one can name the campaign of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria to Syria (1217–1221). At first, he walked sluggishly, but after the arrival of new reinforcements from the West, the crusaders moved to Egypt and took the key to access this country from the sea - the city of Damietta. However, an attempt to capture the large Egyptian center of Mansour was not successful. The knights left Egypt, and the Fifth Crusade ended with the restoration of the former borders.

Assault by the crusaders of the Fifth campaign of the tower of Damietta. Painter Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, c. 1625

Sixth Crusade (briefly)

sixth crusade(1228–1229) committed by the German Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. For the long delay in starting the campaign, the pope excommunicated Frederick from the church (1227). The next year, the emperor nevertheless went to the East. Taking advantage of the strife of the Muslim rulers there, Frederick started negotiations with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil on the peaceful return of Jerusalem to the Christians. To back up their demands with a threat, the emperor and the Palestinian knights besieged and took Jaffa. Threatened also by the Sultan of Damascus, al-Kamil signed a ten-year truce with Frederick, returning to the Christians Jerusalem and almost all the lands once taken from them by Saladin. At the end of the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II was crowned in the Holy Land with the crown of Jerusalem.

Emperor Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil. 14th century miniature

The violation of the truce by some pilgrims led a few years later to the resumption of the struggle for Jerusalem and to its final loss by the Christians in 1244. Jerusalem was taken from the crusaders by the Turkic tribe of the Khorezmians, who were ousted from the Caspian regions by the Mongols during the movement of the latter to Europe.

Seventh Crusade (briefly)

The fall of Jerusalem caused Seventh Crusade(1248–1254) Louis IX of France, who, during a serious illness, vowed to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. In August 1248 the French crusaders sailed to the East and spent the winter in Cyprus. In the spring of 1249 the army of Saint Louis landed in the Nile Delta. Due to the indecision of the Egyptian commander Fakhreddin, she took Damietta almost without difficulty. After lingering there for several months in anticipation of reinforcements, the crusaders moved to Cairo at the end of the year. But at the city of Mansura, the Saracen army blocked their path. After hard efforts, the participants of the Seventh Crusade were able to cross the branch of the Nile and even break into Mansura for a while, but the Muslims, taking advantage of the separation of the Christian detachments, inflicted great damage on them.

The crusaders should have retreated to Damietta, but due to false notions of knightly honor, they were in no hurry to do so. They were soon surrounded by large Saracen forces. Having lost many soldiers from disease and hunger, the participants in the Seventh Crusade (almost 20 thousand people) were forced to surrender. Another 30 thousand of their comrades died. Christian captives (including the king himself) were released only for a huge ransom. Damietta had to be returned to the Egyptians. Sailing from Egypt to Palestine, St. Louis spent about 4 years in Akka, where he was engaged in securing Christian possessions in Palestine, until the death of his mother Blanca (regent of France) recalled him to his homeland.

Eighth Crusade (briefly)

Due to the complete failure of the Seventh Crusade and the constant attacks on the Christians of Palestine by the new Egyptian (Mamluk) Sultan Baybars the same king of France, Louis IX the Saint, undertook in 1270 Eighth(And last) cross hike. The crusaders at first thought again to land in Egypt, but the brother of Louis, king of Naples and Sicily Charles of Anjou, persuaded them to sail to Tunisia, which was an important commercial rival of southern Italy. Coming ashore in Tunisia, the French participants in the Eighth Crusade began to wait for the arrival of Charles' troops. A plague broke out in their cramped camp, from which Saint Louis himself died. Mor caused such losses to the crusader army that Charles Anjou, who arrived shortly after the death of his brother, chose to stop the campaign on the terms of the payment of indemnity by the ruler of Tunisia and the release of Christian captives.

Death of Saint Louis in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Painter Jean Fouquet, c. 1455-1465

End of the Crusades

In 1286, Antioch went to Turkey, in 1289 - Lebanese Tripoli, and in 1291 - Akka, the last major possession of Christians in Palestine, after which they were forced to abandon the rest of the possessions, and the whole Holy Land was united again in the hands of the Mohammedans. Thus ended the Crusades, which cost the Christians so many losses and did not reach the originally intended goal.

Results and consequences of the Crusades (briefly)

But they did not remain without a profound influence on the entire structure of the social and economic life of the Western European peoples. The consequence of the Crusades can be considered the strengthening of the power and importance of the popes, as their main instigators, further - the rise royalty due to the death of many feudal lords, the emergence of independence of urban communities, which, thanks to the impoverishment of the nobility, received the opportunity to buy benefits from their fief owners; the introduction in Europe of crafts and arts borrowed from the eastern peoples. The result of the Crusades was an increase in the class of free farmers in the West, thanks to the liberation from serfdom of the peasants participating in the campaigns. The crusades contributed to the success of trade, opening up new routes to the East; favored the development geographical knowledge; expanding the scope of intellectual and moral interests, they enriched poetry with new subjects. Another important result of the Crusades was the promotion to the historical stage of the secular knighthood, which constituted an ennobling element of medieval life; their consequence was also the emergence of spiritual knightly orders (Johnnites, Templars and Teutons), which played an important role in history. (For more details, see separate articles