The Crusades:
The Europeans waged war against the Arabs 8 times from 1095-1270. The first and the most successful expedition will be covered here along with the Children's Crusade.
The First Crusade:
1071: Turks take control of Jerusalem. Pilgrims are soon abused, murdered or taken into slavery.
1092: Seljuk Turks assault the Byzantine Empire and appeals are made for help.
1095: Pope Urban II calls for a Crusade to rescue the Holy Land. Misleads the people by offering "everlasting absolution", their sins would be forgiven at death and they would go to heaven. Peter the Hermit led the first wave of �Crusaders�. He recruited undisciplined mobs of peasants who were massacred by the Turks.
The nobles also took up the cause, among them a brother of the French king, the Duke of Normandy and the Count of Flanders. Also leading the Crusade were Godfrey of Bouillion (Duke of Lower Lorraine), his brother Baldwin, Count Raymond of Toulouse, Count Stephen of Blois, and Bohemond who was a Norman prince from southern Italy. In exchange for their participation they would be allowed to take land for themselves from the Turkish-occupied territories they sought to liberate.
The result of the war waged by the Norman, French and Italian Crusaders:
1097: The Crusaders take the Turkish capital of Nicea.
1098: The Crusaders take Antioch.
1099: The Crusaders take Jerusalem.
The Third Crusade:
1187: Arabs take Jerusalem. Saladin defeats King Guy at the battle of Hattin, where the monk-knights known as the Templars and Hospitallers were slain. King Guy was taken prisoner and then released. The Muslim stopped the Christian pilgrims from entering Jerusalem and Pope Urban called for the Crusades. The seige of Acre: Acre, a port city, was protected on two sides by 20' high ramparts and on two sides by the sea. During battle a plague and famine struck the Europeans. They ate grass to survive.
1191: King Richard heads for Acre. His opponents would be Sultan Saladin, his Turks, Saracens and Bedouins.
Frederick Barbarossa, the holy Roman Emperor, left for Jerusalem to join Richard, but drowns and his German army is destroyed at Cilicia. Richard goes to Acre and takes ill. He sinks an Arab ship which was loaded with snakes that the Arabs were going to let loose into the crusader's camp. Acre was conquered in a month. At Acre, Richard joined forces with French King Philip II, who leaves after Acre is taken. Richard also made an enemy of Duke Leopold of Austria. Richard did not think his banner was worthy of being raised with the banners of two kings so he had it torn down.
1192: The march to Joppa on the sea from Acre, then to Ascelon. Captured the fort of the south country of Judah. Routed the Moslems at Ansurf. The knights, in their armor, marched in the heat. Some died where they fell, others went insane, falling from the pack and were murdered. Mamelukes (Caucasian captives indoctrinated in Arab ways) lurked in the woods. Sudanese spearmen drove the foot soldiers back, and the Mamelukes attacked the Hospitallers in the rear of the march. The Crusaders captured Daron, Saladin's land fortress on coast of Palestine. Went to Beirut. Saracens took Jaffa and killed the burgesses. Richard returns with a handful of knights and rescues the city.
Saladin signs 100-year peace treaty. The Arabs called Richard "Melech-Ric" (King
Richard). They feared him so much that they used his name to scare their children into good behavior.
1192: Richard left his men behind and bargained with pirates and smugglers for use of their ships. On his way home, he was shipwrecked on the Adriatic coast near Aquileia, Italy. Since he feared Leopold, he traveled in disguise. Richard's ring was recognized and he was captured in Vienna, and was held for ransom (about 6 million dollars). Located in Durnstein Castle on the Danube. Returned to England almost two years later. From this came the legend of French troubadour Blondel de Nesle, who roamed throughout Austria, singing Richard's favorite song outside of Austrian Castles, hoping that Richard would join him in song.
The Children's Crusade:
1212: 12-year-old shepherd-boy, Stephen of Cloyes claimed he had a letter from Christ, telling him that sea would dry up and allow Stephen and his followers to walk to Jerusalem. 30,000 French boys and girls, none older that 12-years-old joined him. Some died, others turned back.
At Marseilles the sea did not dry up for them. Two merchants in the port, Hugh the Iron and William the Pig, offered several ships to Palestine. Two shipwrecked on the island of San Pietro, off Sardinia, almost total loss of life.
Five ships reached the Saracen port of Bourgie in Algeria and the children were sold into slavery. Some were sent to Egypt where 700 were bought by Governor Al-Kamil and used as interpreters and secretaries. Many were also sent to Baghdad, where 18 were beheaded for refusing to become Moslems. Some children returned to France 18 years later.
Germans told the same lie by a boy named Nicholas. 20,000 left home (although older than the French children). Over the Alps into Genoa, Italy where the Italians did not have food to feed them, sent them home. Some fed by the Bishop of Brindisi, then sent home. Some reached Rome, greeted by pope and sent home. 2,000 returned safely, the others died or were taken as slaves.
The people of Nicholas� village hanged his father. Nicholas and Stephen were unaccounted for.
