The Crusades

Key Concepts The Crusades- another manifestation of the religious enthusiasm that seized Europe in the High Middle ages mounted against the Muslins. The first widespread attacks on the Jews occurred during the Crusades.

Chronology The Crusades Pope Urban II call for a crusade at Clermont1095 First Crusade Fall of Edessa1144 Second Crusade Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem1187 Third Crusade Fourth Crusade-sack of Constantinople1204 Children’s Crusade1212 Fifth Crusade Sixth Crusade1228 Seventh Crusade Eighth Crusade1270 Surrender of Acre-end of Christian presence1291

Children’s Crusade During the year of 1212 Stephen of Cloyes French peasant lad who became persuaded that Jesus Christ had commanded him to lead a crusade of children and come to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. Conquer Holy Land by force.

Children’s Crusade During the year of 1212 Nicholas of Cologne German lad who preached the same message as Stephen and declared children could do better than grown men. Unlike the French, the Germans were to achieve their aim by peaceful conversion of the Muslims.

German route French route ?????

Results French Crusade: (30,000)Led by Stephen himself, it started in Vendôme to Marseilles. It was a painful journey. The summer was unusually hot. They depended on charity for their food, and the drought left little to spare in the country, and water was scarce. Many of the children died. The remaining children embarked on the ships provided by the merchants sailing to Palestine. A few days out they had run into bad weather, and two of the ships were wrecked on the island of San Pietro, off the south- west corner of Sardinia, and all the passengers were drowned. The five ships that survived the storm found themselves soon afterwards surrounded by a Saracen squadron from Africa and were sold into captivity. Many were never heard from again. German Crusade: (50,000)Led by Nicholas himself, set out up the Rhine to Basle and through western Switzerland, past Geneva, to cross the Alps by Mont Cenis pass. It was an arduous journey for the children, and their losses were heavy. Less than a third of the company that left Cologne appeared before the walls of Genoa. There two ships bound for Palestine agreed to take several of the children, who embarked and who perhaps reached Palestine; but nothing is known of their fate. Nicholas, however, still awaited a miracle, and trudged on with his faithful followers in Rome. At Rome Pope Innocent III received them. The Pope told them they must go home.

Significance The children's expedition marked at once the culmination and the decline of the crusading movement. "These children," said the Pope, referring to the young crusaders, "reproach us with having fallen asleep, whilst they were flying to the assistance of the Holy Land."

Fact or Fiction A study published in 1977 cast doubt on the existence of these events and many historians now believe that they were not (or not primarily) children but multiple bands of "wandering poor" in Germany and France, some of whom tried to reach the Holy Land and others who never intended to do so. Early versions of events, of which there are many variations told over the centuries, are largely fictional.

Works Cited dieval/childrenscrusade.html crusade.html ml Raedts, Peter. "The Children's Crusade of 1212." Journal of Medieval History, 3 (1977)

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