Transcript Jerusalem
The Crusades A series of eight wars that Europeans fought to free Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims from 1096 – 1270. Christian Europe Byzantine Empire *Jerusalem Islamic Empire How the Crusades Began • Jerusalem was a holy city to three religions and for generations the city was open to visitors of all types . • Suddenly, in 1071A.D., a group of Muslims, called Seljuk Turks, stopped allowing Christian visitors to come into Jerusalem. Many Christians complained to the Church. Pope Urban II calls for action • Twenty four years later, on November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II spoke to a Christian audience in Clermont, France urging his listeners to free the Holy Land (Jerusalem, Israel, and the areas around them) from the Muslim Turks. His words were strong and powerful : " Jerusalem is now held captive by the enemies of Christ, those who do not know God, the heathen (non Christians). Jerusalem wants to be free and begs you to come help! Who will take up this work, who will right these wrongs, who will recover this territory, if you won't ?" Deus Vult! (God wills it!) • After Pope Urban's speech a visiting monk reported that the crowd shouted out "God wills it! God wills it!" They began preparing for war, Holy war. The Christians' Motives • Pope Urban had two reasons for sending western Europeans to war. The first was that Christians in the Byzantine Empire needed extra protection against the Muslim Seljuk Turks. But the more important reason for beginning the crusades was to free the Holy Land from the Muslim infidels ( people who did not believe in Christianity), who were preventing Christians from visiting the holy land. The Peasants take off! • Peasants had several good reasons for going on the crusade. One reason was that the church promised immediate salvation in heaven to anyone killed while helping to recover the Holy Land for Christians. A second reason was that a peasant would not have to pay his rent to his lord while on a crusade. Third, the crusades also offered peasants an adventure. The March to Jerusalem • The journey is long and the peasants are poorly prepared. Many die from starvation and from exposure. Many others are killed as they destroy noble’s farms along the way. Along the way • The uneducated peasants massacre innocent Jews along the way believing them to be the enemy because they are not Christian. A small number get to Constantinople • Hungry, diseased, and exhausted a few of the peasants actually make it to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Slaughter at Civetot • Unfortunately the peasants did not have the training or the weapons needed to fight the Muslim warriors. Most of them were killed at Civetot in Asia Minor by the Seljuk Turkish warriors.