1. The Crusades “It is God’s will!”

2. The Beginning 11 th -13 th centuries Euro-Christians out to regain the Holy Land known as Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem symbol

3. The Players Alexis I asks for European help against the Seljuk Turks (Muslims).

4. “The Golden Opportunity” Pope Urban II calls upon his religious warriors at the Council of Clermont to defeat the “infidels”.

5. The call to God “All who die…whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission [forgiveness] of sins.”

6. Early Crusade The first groups to go were made up of French soldiers, and they reached Jerusalem in June 1099. The takeover was quite brutal and many of the locals were massacred.

7. The fight cannot end here 1140s-Muslims take back Jerusalem and the call in Europe becomes frantic for more of God’s warriors Bernard of Clairvaux asks the French king Louis VII and the German emperor Conrad III to assist in the retaking of Jerusalem

8. Saladin 1187-Jerusalem has fallen to the Muslim hands during the Third Crusade.

9. Negotiations The Third Crusade was informally known as the “King’s Crusade” due to the prominence of European royalty fighting. Phillip II of France Richard I of England Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor

10. Other Crusades Children’s Crusade 1212-A young boy leads almost 20,000 children from France & Germany towards the Holy Land. The mass number of children were a result from so many adults running off to war, or dying in the chaos of battle.

11. A complete waste of time? In total, there were 9 crusades into the Holy Land of Jerusalem. By the end of the 13 th century, Europe and its Christians began to seek out what the real purpose of the fight was for, after their losses became too great. WHAT DO YOU THINK?