at it’s heightat it’s height

Medieval EuropeMedieval Europe

Kandice Price8th Grade

Kandice Price8th Grade

Section 1: The Crusades

I. Call for a crusade

Jerusalem was a holy city for people of three faiths: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Jerusalem and the entire region of Palestine fell to Arab invaders in the A.D. 600s; mostly Muslims, the Arabs tolerated people of other religions.

❖ In the late A.D. 1000s, the Seljuk Turls took Jerusalem , and the hazards of pilgrimage increased; the Byzantine emperor wrote to the pope in A.D. 1095 requesting military aid.

❖ Pope Urban II called for a volunteer army to take Jerusalem and Palestine from the Seljuk Turks; knights and peasants alike vowed to join the expedition to the Holy Land.

The First Crusade marked the onset of a long period of Christian persecution of the Jews; three armies of Crusader knights and volunteers traveled to eastern Mediterranean.

In June A.D. 1099, the Crusaders finally reached Jerusalem; after a siege of almost two months, the city fell, and most of its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants were massacred.

•After Saladin united the Muslim forces to capture Jerusalem in A.D. 1187, the Holy Roman Emperor of Germany and the kings of England and France launched a Third Crusade that was also unsuccessful.

•Saladin refused to return Jerusalem to the Christians but did not allow Christian pilgrimages access.

In the Fourth Crusade of A.d. 1204, Crusaders destroyed city of constantinople, leaving a lasting bitterness between the Eastern orthodox world and western europe and seriously weakening the byzantine empire.

Although western Europeans failed to gain control of Palestine, the Crusaders helped to break down feudalism and increase the authority of kings.

II. Effect of the Crusaders

• Contact with the more advanced Byzantine and Muslim civilizations broadened European views of the world and heightened demand at home for Eastern luxury goods.

• From Muslims, Crusaders learned many useful skills; for Muslims, the arrival of the Crusades provided a common enemy to unite against.