Crusaders and crusades. Crusaders: saints or robbers? The knights were called crusaders because they wore

Prerequisites

In the east

However, one negative trait has spread among Christians since apostolic times - “lukewarmness” (Rev. 3:16), which manifested itself in the fact that some Christians began to believe that there are commandments in the Gospel that are supposedly very difficult to fulfill, which are not all “ can accommodate." For example, not everyone is able to give away all their possessions to the poor (Matthew 19:21), (Acts 5:1-11), or not everyone is capable of strict celibacy (1 Cor. 7:25-40), (Rom. 8: 8), (2 Tim. 2:4). The same “optionality” extended to the above-mentioned commandments of Christ about non-resistance to evil[source?].

The Crusades in the East against Muslims lasted continuously for two centuries, until the very end of the 13th century. They can be considered as one of the most important stages of the struggle between Europe and Asia, which began in ancient times and has not ended to this day. They stand alongside such facts as the Greco-Persian Wars, the conquests of Alexander the Great in the East, the invasion of Europe by the Arabs and then the Ottoman Turks. The Crusades were not accidental: they were inevitable, as a form of contact determined by the spirit of the times between two different worlds, not separated by natural barriers. The results of this contact turned out to be extremely important for Europe: in the history of European civilization, the Crusades created an era. The contrast between the two worlds, Asian and European, which was vividly felt earlier, has become especially acute since the advent of Islam created a sharp religious contrast between Europe and the East. The collision of both worlds became inevitable, especially since both Christianity and Islam equally considered themselves called to dominate the whole world. The rapid successes of Islam in the first century of its existence threatened European Christian civilization with serious danger: the Arabs conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, northern Africa, and Spain. The beginning of the 8th century was a critical moment for Europe: in the East, the Arabs conquered Asia Minor and threatened Constantinople, and in the West they tried to penetrate the Pyrenees. The victories of Leo the Isaurian and Charles Martel saved Europe from immediate danger, and the further spread of Islam was stopped by the political disintegration of the Muslim world that soon began, which until then was terrible precisely because of its unity. The caliphate was fragmented into parts that were at war with each other.

First Crusade (1096-1099)

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

The idea of ​​returning the Holy Land, however, was not completely abandoned in the West. In 1312, Pope Clement V preached the crusade at the Council of Vienne. Several sovereigns promised to go to the Holy Land, but no one went. A few years later, the Venetian Marino Sanuto drafted a crusade and presented it to Pope John XXII; but the time of the Crusades passed irrevocably. The Kingdom of Cyprus, reinforced by the Franks who fled there, retained its independence for a long time. One of its kings, Peter I (-), traveled all over Europe with the aim of starting a crusade. He managed to conquer and rob Alexandria, but he could not keep it for himself. Cyprus was finally weakened by the wars with Genoa, and after the death of King James II, the island fell into the hands of Venice: James's widow, the Venetian Caterina Cornaro, after the death of her husband and son, was forced to cede Cyprus to her hometown (). Republic of St. Mark owned the island for almost a century, until the Turks took it from her. Cilician Armenia, whose fate since the first crusade was closely connected with the fate of the crusaders, defended its independence until 1375, when the Mameluke Sultan Ashraf subjugated it to his rule. When the Ottoman Turks established themselves in Asia Minor, transferred their conquests to Europe and began to threaten the Christian world with serious danger, the West tried to organize crusades against them as well.

Reasons for the failure of the Crusades

Among the reasons for the unsuccessful outcome of the Crusades in the Holy Land, the feudal nature of the crusader militias and the states founded by the crusaders is in the foreground. To successfully fight the Muslims, unity of action was required; Meanwhile, the crusaders brought feudal fragmentation and disunity with them to the East. The weak vassalage in which the crusader rulers were from the king of Jerusalem did not give him the real power that was needed here, on the border of the Muslim world.

"Knight's castle in the Middle Ages" - Donjon. A spear. Chain mail. Tournament. Code of Knightly Honor. The dwelling of a feudal lord. Feudal lords. Establishment of feudal society. Feudal lord. In the knight's castle. Coat of arms. The home of the owner of the castle. Lock. Let's work with the textbook. Knight.

"Knights and castles in the Middle Ages" - Statue of Giotto. The rise of wall painting. Miniature. Branle. Middle Ages. Printing press. Knight Tournament. Portrait of Giotto. Esau before Isaac. B. Thorvaldsen. Portrait of Johannes Gutenberg.

"Castles" - Equipment of a knight. Knight's code of honor. Usually the castle was built on a hill or high rock. In the knight's castle. At first, castles were built from wood, and then they began to be built from stone. Only after long service were those who distinguished themselves knighted. Knight Tournament. Interior of the castle. A drawbridge was often thrown across the moat. Tournaments were organized by kings and noble feudal lords. A knight is a mounted warrior.

“Medieval knights and castles” - How many pairs of skis the store received. The knights were sensitive about preserving their honor. Enemies had to climb the walls to get into the castle. Why were there many younger sons of feudal lords among the crusaders? Blitz – tournament “In the Knight's Castle”. Correct spelling of city names. The goal of the first crusades was the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher. It's taken away. The owner of a large land holding.

"Chivalry" - Customs and morals. Chivalry. Horse warrior. Knighting ceremony. Coat of arms. Stages of becoming a knight. Knight's coats of arms. Chain mail. Origins of medieval chivalry. Friedrich Nietzsche. Courtliness. Components of the coat of arms. Lock.

“Times of Knights” - Chivalry. Many cities were formed: Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow, which still exist today. It seems that the huge cathedral is weightless. Polytheism, or polytheism, gave way to monotheism-monotheism. Middle Ages. New gods appeared and the old ones were forgotten. Knighting. Tournaments. Sailors discovered America and Australia. As society developed, people's beliefs also changed. The Middle Ages were a time of knights and castles.

Stories of knights loyal to the king, a beautiful lady and military duty have been inspiring men to exploits and people of art to creativity for many centuries.

Ulrich von Liechtenstein (1200-1278)

Ulrich von Liechtenstein did not storm Jerusalem, did not fight the Moors, and did not participate in the Reconquista. He became famous as a knight-poet. In 1227 and 1240 he made travels, which he described in the courtly novel “Serving the Ladies.”

According to him, he walked from Venice to Vienna, challenging every knight he met to battle in the name of Venus. He also created The Ladies' Book, a theoretical work on love poetry.

Lichtenstein's "Serving the Ladies" is a textbook example of a courtly novel. It tells how a knight sought the favor of a beautiful lady. To do this, he had to amputate his little finger and half of his upper lip, defeat three hundred opponents in tournaments, but the lady remained adamant. Already at the end of the novel, Lichtenstein concludes “that only a fool can serve indefinitely where there is nothing to count on for reward.”

Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199)

Richard the Lionheart is the only king knight on our list. In addition to the well-known and heroic nickname, Richard also had a second one - “Yes and No.” It was invented by another knight, Bertrand de Born, who christened the young prince so for his indecisiveness.

Already being king, Richard was not at all involved in governing England. In the memory of his descendants, he remained a fearless warrior who cared about personal glory more than the well-being of his possessions. Richard spent almost the entire time of his reign abroad.

He took part in the Third Crusade, conquered Sicily and Cyprus, besieged and took Acre, but the English king never decided to storm Jerusalem. On the way back, Richard was captured by Duke Leopold of Austria. Only a rich ransom allowed him to return home.

After returning to England, Richard fought with the French king Philip II Augustus for another five years. Richard's only major victory in this war was the capture of Gisors near Paris in 1197.

Raymond VI (1156-1222)

Count Raymond VI of Toulouse was an atypical knight. He became famous for his opposition to the Vatican. One of the largest feudal lords of Languedoc in Southern France, he patronized the Cathars, whose religion was professed by the majority of the population of Languedoc during his reign.

Pope Innocent II excommunicated Raymond twice for refusing to submit, and in 1208 he called for a campaign against his lands, which went down in history as the Albigensian Crusade. Raymond offered no resistance and publicly repented in 1209.

However, in his opinion, the demands on Toulouse that were too cruel led to another rift with the Catholic Church. For two years, from 1211 to 1213, he managed to hold Toulouse, but after the defeat of the crusaders at the Battle of Mur, Raymond IV fled to England, to the court of John the Landless.

In 1214 he again formally submitted to the pope. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council, which he attended, deprived him of his rights to all lands, leaving only the Marquisate of Provence to his son, the future Raymond VII.

William Marshal (1146-1219)

William Marshal was one of the few knights whose biography was published almost immediately after his death. In 1219, a poem entitled The History of William Marshal was published.

The marshal became famous not because of his feats of arms in wars (although he also took part in them), but because of his victories in knightly tournaments. He gave them sixteen whole years of his life.

The Archbishop of Canterbury called the Marshal the greatest knight of all time.

Already at the age of 70, Marshal led the royal army in a campaign against France. His signature appears on the Magna Carta as the guarantor of its observance.

Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376)

Eldest son of King Edward III, Prince of Wales. He received his nickname either because of his difficult character, or because of the origin of his mother, or because of the color of his armor.

The “Black Prince” gained his fame in battles. He won two classic battles of the Middle Ages - at Cressy and at Poitiers.

For this, his father especially noted him, making him the first Knight of the new Order of the Garter. His marriage to his cousin, Joanna of Kent, also added to Edward's knighthood. This couple was one of the brightest in Europe.

On June 8, 1376, a year before his father's death, Prince Edward died and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. The English crown was inherited by his son Richard II.

The Black Prince left his mark on culture. He is one of the heroes of Arthur Conan Doyle's dilogy about the Hundred Years' War, a character in Dumas's novel "The Bastard de Mauleon".

Bertrand de Born (1140-1215)

The knight and troubadour Bertrand de Born was the ruler of Périgord, owner of the castle of Hautefort. Dante Alighieri portrayed Bertrand de Born in his "Divine Comedy": the troubadour is in Hell, and holds his severed head in his hand as punishment for the fact that in life he stirred up quarrels between people and loved wars.

And, according to Dante, Bertrand de Born sang only to sow discord.

De Born, meanwhile, became famous for his courtly poetry. In his poems, he glorified, for example, Duchess Matilda, the eldest daughter of Henry II and Alienora of Aquitaine. De Born was familiar with many troubadours of his time, such as Guilhem de Bergedan, Arnaut Daniel, Folke de Marseglia, Gaucelme Faidit and even the French trouvère Conon of Bethune. Towards the end of his life, Bertrand de Born retired to the Cistercian Abbey of Dalon, where he died in 1215.

Godfrey of Bouillon (1060-1100)

To become one of the leaders of the First Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon sold everything he had and gave up his lands. The pinnacle of his military career was the storming of Jerusalem.

Godfrey of Bouillon was elected the first king of the Crusader kingdom in the Holy Land, but refused such a title, preferring the title of baron and Defender of the Holy Sepulcher.

He left orders to crown his brother Baldwin king of Jerusalem in the event that Godfrey himself died - this is how an entire dynasty was founded.

As a ruler, Godfrey took care of expanding the boundaries of the state, imposed taxes on the emissaries of Caesarea, Ptolemais, Ascalon and subjugated the Arabians on the left side of the Jordan to his power. On his initiative, a law was introduced that was called the Jerusalem Assisi.

He died, according to Ibn al-Qalanisi, during the siege of Acre. According to another version, he died of cholera.

Jacques de Molay (1244-1314)

De Molay was the last Master of the Knights Templar. In 1291, after the fall of Acre, the Templars moved their headquarters to Cyprus.

Jacques de Molay set himself two ambitious goals: he wanted to reform the order and convince the pope and European monarchs to launch a new Crusade to the Holy Land.

The Templar Order was the richest organization in the history of medieval Europe, and its economic ambitions were beginning to thwart European monarchs.

On October 13, 1307, by order of King Philip IV the Fair of France, all French Templars were arrested. The order was officially banned.

The last Master of the Tramplars remained in history thanks in part to the legend of the so-called “curse of de Molay.” According to Geoffroy of Paris, on March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay, having mounted the fire, summoned the French king Philip IV, his adviser Guillaume de Nogaret and Pope Clement V to God's court. Already shrouded in clouds of smoke, he promised the king, adviser and pope that they will survive it for no more than a year. He also cursed the royal family to the thirteenth generation.

In addition, there is a legend that Jacques de Molay, before his death, founded the first Masonic lodges, in which the prohibited Order of the Templars was to be preserved underground.

Jean le Maingre Boucicaut (1366-1421)

Boucicault was one of the most famous French knights. At 18 he went to Prussia to help the Teutonic Order, then he fought against the Moors in Spain and became one of the heroes of the Hundred Years' War. During the truce in 1390, Boucicaut competed in a knight's tournament and took first place in it.

Boucicault was a knight errant and wrote poems about his valor.

His was so great that King Philip VI made him Marshal of France.

At the famous Battle of Agincourt, Boucicault was captured and died in England six years later.

Sid Campeador (1041(1057)-1099)

The real name of this famous knight was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. He was a Castilian nobleman, a military and political figure, a national hero of Spain, a hero of Spanish folk legends, poems, romances and dramas, as well as the famous tragedy of Corneille.

The Arabs called the knight Sid. Translated from folk Arabic, “sidi” means “my master.” In addition to the nickname "Sid", Rodrigo also earned another nickname - Campeador, which translates as "winner".

Rodrigo's fame was forged under King Alfonso. Under him, El Cid became commander-in-chief of the Castilian army. In 1094, Cid captured Valencia and became its ruler. All attempts by the Almorravids to reconquer Valencia ended in their defeats in the battles of Cuarte (in 1094) and Bairen (in 1097). After his death in 1099, Sid became a folk hero, sung in poems and songs.

It is believed that before the final battle with the Moors, El Cid was mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow. His wife dressed Compeador's body in armor and mounted it on a horse so that his army would maintain its morale.

In 1919, the remains of Cid and his wife Doña Jimena were buried in the Burgos Cathedral. Since 2007, Tisona, a sword that supposedly belonged to Sid, has been located here.

William Wallace (c. 1272-1305)

William Wallace is a national hero of Scotland, one of the most important figures in its wars of independence in 1296-1328. His image was embodied by Mel Gibson in the film “Braveheart”.

In 1297, Wallace killed the English Sheriff of Lanark and soon established himself as one of the leaders of the Scottish rebellion against the English. On September 11 of the same year, Wallace's small army defeated a 10,000-strong British army at Stirling Bridge. Most of the country was liberated. Wallace was knighted and declared Guardian of the Realm, ruling on behalf of Balliol.

A year later, the English king Edward I again invaded Scotland. On July 22, 1298, the Battle of Falkirk took place. Wallace's forces were defeated and he was forced into hiding. However, a letter from the French king to his ambassadors in Rome dated November 7, 1300 has been preserved, in which he demands that they provide support to Wallace.

Guerrilla warfare continued in Scotland at this time, and Wallace returned to his homeland in 1304 and took part in several clashes. However, on August 5, 1305, he was captured near Glasgow by English soldiers.

Wallace rejected accusations of treason at trial, saying: “I cannot be a traitor to Edward, because I was never his subject.”

On August 23, 1305, William Wallace was executed in London. His body was beheaded and cut into pieces, his head was hung on the Great London Bridge, and his body parts were exhibited in Scotland's largest cities - Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth.

Henry Percy (1364-1403)

For his character, Henry Percy received the nickname "hotspur" (hot spur). Percy is one of the heroes of Shakespeare's historical chronicles. Already at the age of fourteen, under the command of his father, he participated in the siege and capture of Berwick, and ten years later he himself commanded two raids on Boulogne. In the same 1388, he was knighted of the Garter by King Edward III of England and took an active part in the war with France.

For his support of the future king Henry IV, Percy became constable of the castles of Flint, Conwy, Chester, Caernarvon and Denbigh, and was also appointed justiciar of North Wales. At the Battle of Homildon Hill, Hotspur captured Earl Archibald Douglas, who commanded the Scots.

The outstanding military leader of the Hundred Years' War, Bertrand Deguclin, in his childhood bore little resemblance to the future famous knight.

According to the troubadour Cuvelier from Tournai, who compiled Du Guesclin’s biography, Bertrand was “the ugliest child in Rennes and Dinant” - with short legs, too broad shoulders and long arms, an ugly round head and dark “boar” skin.

Deguclin entered the first tournament in 1337, at the age of 17, and later chose a military career - as researcher Jean Favier writes, he made war his craft “as much out of necessity as out of spiritual inclination.”

Bertrand Du Guesclin became most famous for his ability to storm well-fortified castles. His small force, supported by archers and crossbowmen, stormed the walls using ladders. Most castles, which had small garrisons, could not withstand such tactics.

After the death of Du Guesclin during the siege of the city of Chateauneuf-de-Randon, he was given the highest posthumous honor: he was buried in the tomb of the French kings in the Church of Saint-Denis at the feet of Charles V.

John Hawkwood (c. 1320-1323 -1394)

The English condottiere John Hawkwood was the most famous leader of the “White Company” - a detachment of Italian mercenaries of the 14th century, who served as the prototype for the heroes of Conan Doyle’s novel “The White Company”.

Along with Hawkwood, English archers and foot-at-arms appeared in Italy. For his military merits, Hawkwood received the nickname l'acuto, "cool", which later became his name - Giovanni Acuto.

Hawkwood's fame was so great that the English king Richard II asked the Florentines for permission to bury him in his homeland in Hedingham. The Florentines returned the ashes of the great condottiere to their homeland, but ordered a tombstone and a fresco for his empty grave in the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

The Crusaders, that is, participants in armed crusades to the Holy Land (Palestine), became one of the most important components of medieval European civilization. That is why they are still of interest not only from a historical or military point of view, but also as a kind of cultural phenomenon. Meanwhile, the fact is often left aside that the crusaders were not only feudal knights or professional warriors, but also all those who accepted the call for the liberation of the Holy Land.

Dad won't say anything bad...

By the end of the 11th century, a complex geopolitical situation had developed in the Old World: the Pope was experiencing difficulties with European monarchs, at least two of whom (the French king and the German emperor) entered into open confrontation with him. On the other hand, the Byzantine Empire was in a difficult situation - it was being pressed from the East by the warlike Seljuk Turks. Finally, certain changes were also observed in Palestine: in Jerusalem, where Christian shrines and, first of all, the Holy Sepulcher were located, the Turks also gained dominance. And if Christian pilgrims had never had any problems with Muslim Arabs before, now persistent rumors began to be heard in Europe about the oppression of Christians in the Holy Land and even about the desecration of shrines.

This whole complex of events and processes gave rise to the Crusades and Crusaders. The Byzantine emperor turned to the Pope for help, asking him to become an intermediary in organizing military assistance from European knights against the Seljuks. The Pope saw this as an excellent opportunity to restore his slightly shaken prestige: through organizing military assistance to Byzantium, he wanted to restore his control over the Eastern Christians, who, in fact, separated from the Holy See in the middle of the century.

In addition, in Europe there was growing indignation against the Seljuks due to growing rumors about the oppression of Christians in Palestine. As a result, when Pope Urban II arrived at the church council in Clermont in November 1095, many secular nobility gathered here. At the end of the council, the pope issued a call to carry out a military campaign against the Gentiles who had captured Jerusalem, to liberate the Holy Sepulcher and deliver Christians from oppression. The Pope promised the participants of the campaign absolution and, as a reward for a charitable deed, paradise in the afterlife. This is how the Crusades began and the Crusaders appeared.

Crusaders - knights and more

In history textbooks, especially school ones, you can read picturesque descriptions of how many of the listeners of the speech of Urban II, inspired by his call to a holy cause, right there in Clermont, sewed crosses onto their clothes as a sign of their readiness to go on a crusade and called themselves Crusaders. The religious enthusiasm to fight with the Gentiles for the Holy Sepulcher was really present and many actually put crosses on their clothes - but no one spoke about “crusades” and “crusaders” then.

The fact is that in the Middle Ages these expressions themselves were not used: “crusade” as a designation for a military campaign in the Holy Land and “crusader” as a designation for its participant. Both “crusades” and “crusaders” are the invention of European historians of the 17th-18th centuries, who needed some contemporary terms to denote these phenomena. What is now called the Crusades was called differently by their participants and contemporaries - a trip to Jerusalem, a path or journey to the Holy Land, a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher, a path along the path of the Lord, and so on. “Crusaders” were also called differently: soldiers of Christ, Jerusalemites, people of God, and the like.

The Crusaders consisted of two categories of participants in the Crusades.

The first is well known to everyone - these are the feudal knights, the basis and elite of the medieval army. True, here we must remember that the knights who became crusaders and went on a military campaign against the Gentiles were of two types. First of all, it was a poor knighthood, professional military men who did not have their own property (mostly younger sons in noble families who did not receive any inheritance). Urban II addressed them with an appeal to forget their cramped circumstances and past crimes and go on a crusade, firstly, to receive forgiveness of their sins and gain paradise, and secondly, in order to receive booty in the rich lands of the East. The fact is that poor knighthood was the main destabilizing element of European society of that time: possessing weapons and military skills, it earned its living by ordinary robberies.

The second part of the knights were large feudal lords who had considerable wealth and many vassals, but in Europe they did not have the opportunity to realize their power ambitions. They joined the crusaders, hoping to seize lands in the East and found their own states. But the crusaders, at least in the First Crusade , there were not only knights, there were also huge crowds of commoners and poor people. They were inspired by the preaching of the ascetic Peter of Amiens, who called them to a good deed and the acquisition of the Kingdom of God, and by the promises of Urban II. The Pope promised this category deliverance from European poverty and oppression: since on the fertile lands conquered from the Gentiles it will be possible to begin a new life, satisfying and fruitful.

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

How and why did it start?

Nowadays, they like to talk about the greed of secular feudal lords, thirsting for rich booty and new possessions, about the need to call landless knights-errant (read: robbers) to order... yes, that was also the case. But let’s take a closer look at what was happening in Palestine. After all, Christians lived there too... what was their life like?

1009 Caliph Hakim ordered the destruction of all Christian churches, starting with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and ordered Christians to constantly wear a copper cross weighing about 5 kg around their necks, and forced Jews to drag a block in the shape of a calf’s head behind them. True, in 1020 such outright persecutions stopped (and the Byzantines restored the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 1048), but it did not become much easier for Christians - both those who lived there permanently and those who went on pilgrimage... however, the latter could It’s easy to fall into the category of the first: having become a victim of robbers, you could lose all your money - and there was simply nothing to return home with (the same could happen to a prisoner released for a ransom).

However, such people still had to be grateful to fate - unlike, for example, the pilgrims led by Bishop Gunther, who in the spring of 1065 became victims of an Arab attack. Those few of them who had weapons eventually gave up resistance, begging the leader for a truce - but this did not save them from reprisals... This incident is notable only for the large number of victims - and there were many similar 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), yet 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 indignation than we have now - the murders of Russian children by American adoptive parents 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 start 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 national identity did not yet exist - and the place that national solidarity occupies in our country was then occupied by religious solidarity).

In a word, when in 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II made his famous speech with the call to “quickly hasten to the rescue of our brothers living in the East,” the people to whom his call reached were by no means only with a desire to plunder... There were also those of course - but alas, a certain percentage of “human dirt” always sticks to any cause - even the most noble one.

One way or another, about 300,000 people took part in the First Crusade, which began in 1096. It was headed by the entire flower of chivalry of those times: Raymond IV of Toulouse, brother of the French king Hugo de Vermandois, Duke of Normandy Robert Curtgeus, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Tarentum and his nephew Tancred. This very first campaign was perhaps the most successful: the crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum, captured Antioch (founding a Christian state there), helped the Armenian ruler Thoros recapture the region of Edessa (though they did nothing to save Thoros during the rebellion - and Baldwin of Boulogne became the ruler of Edessa... the County of Edessa existed until 1144), and achieved their main goal - they took Jerusalem. To preserve the conquests, it was decided to appoint Godfrey of Bouillon as King of Jerusalem - but he did not consider it possible to accept the royal crown where the Savior accepted 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, Godfrey’s brother) 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.

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 exterminating Christians in the East.

Truly difficult times for Christians in Palestine began 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 response 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) is the same one who shortly before defeated the Christians at Hattin and took Jerusalem. Even his enemies respected him for such “knightly virtues”, valued in Europe as courage and generosity towards the enemy. And Saladin turned out to be worthy of his opponents: they never managed 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, he was not worthy to see it... True, the crusaders managed to recapture Accra, which now became 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 crusader movement was the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). It all started with the fact that the Venetians, having promised to provide ships, at the last moment charged such a price for them that there was not enough money. In payment of the debt, the Venetian don Enrique Dandolo suggested that the leaders of the crusaders provide 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 Angelos, the son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac Angelos, appeared at the crusaders' 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 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 everyone - God will distinguish his own”) refused to fight with Christians (even if not Catholics) and withdrew their troops, but most of the crusaders were tempted by Alexei’s promises. Constantinople was taken, the throne was returned to Isaac. True, the blind, elderly emperor no longer held real power...

However, Alexey didn’t have much more than that. In any case, he could not fulfill his promises: firstly, the treasury turned out to be empty (through the efforts of the escaped usurper), and secondly, his subjects were not at all happy with the uninvited rescuers... Ultimately, Isaac would have been overthrown again, Alexei would have been killed - and the new the ruler did not want to have anything to do 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 reprisals against civilians and outright sacrilege: neither the tombs of the emperors nor the temples were spared, where everything that was valuable was taken out (and the holy relics were simply scattered), mules were brought to the temples and horses to carry 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 in relation to Constantinople it was still possible to sew some kind of ideological lining - the fight against the “Orthodox heresy” (however, as we have already seen it, and it didn’t “work” for 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 had become too sinful... and such a thing could only be done by those who are sinless. And only children are sinless!

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

Subsequently, 4 more Crusades took place: in 1217, 1228, 1248 and 1270 - but the crusader movement never managed to rise to the heights of the First Crusade: there were more and more strife between the crusaders themselves, less and less successes in the Holy Land... The Saracens conquered Christian possessions in the East one after another - and the finale was the capture of Tripoli in 1289 - this meant the end of Christian states in the Holy Land.

The very idea of ​​the crusading movement was further disgraced by the Crusades in Europe: 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 Rus' (when with the crusaders Prince Alexander Nevsky fought successfully), as well as the Albigensian Crusade - when, under the pretext of fighting the Cathar heresy, the lands of Occitania were captured and plundered...

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