Crusades

We have all heard about the Crusades, fought between the states of Christian Europe and the powerful Muslim states.  Historians disagree on the number but most date the 7 major Crusades from 1096 to 1290.  In each case the Pope called on Christians to gather their forces and retake the Holy Land from Muslims.

Jerusalem had been captured in 638 by Muslim leaders who defeated the armies of the Byzantine (eastern Roman) Empire.  As the Byzantine Empire continued to lose ground the Muslim hold over Jerusalem and the lands around it solidified.  Several barbarian invasions and the extensive Viking raids throughout Europe disrupted the Christian states.

But in 1054, the western and eastern Churches split the "one true Church" over differences in religious doctrine.  Then in 1071 the Seljuk Turk army soundly defeated the Byzantine armies at Manzikert, putting the great city of Constantinople at risk.  Pope Urban II, seeking to hold the Turks at bay, and to heal the break between eastern and western Churches, appealed for the First Crusade.

The Crusaders were successful at retaking Jerusalem and the Holy Land.  They set up small kingdoms over which Christian princes ruled.  But, in 1187, the great Muslim Sultan Saladin conquered the Holy Land and captured Jerusalem.  His clemency toward the defenders of the city was famous.

Richard the Lionheart led the Third Crusade and earned some success against Saladin, but was unable to recapture Jerusalem.  The Fourth Crusade in 1204 is most famous for its detour to Constantinople which had promised to pay for the Crusader fleet.  The Crusaders broke into the city and took their payment from the city treasury.

It is worth noting that Jerusalem was under peaceful Muslim rule from time of Saladin's conquest into the 20th century