the nature of crusading

• a crusade was a holy war fought by christians and, at this time, the main objective of a crusade was to restore the holy land, especially jerusalem, to christian control
• by 1095, the holy land had fallen into the hands of the seljuk turks, who were muslims who the christians were hostile to because of their different faith
• in 1095, the pope called upon christians to rescue jerusalem and the holy land, in other words calling for a crusade against the seljuk turks, known as the first crusade
• in principle, the christian church was against violence, but it was never pacifist, and it developed teachings to explain the circumstances in which christians could fight a war
• according to christian teachings, a war was allowed if it was called by a legitimate authority, like a king or a bishop
• according to christian teachings, a war needed a just cause
• according to christian teachings, a war should be fought with the minimum of violence
• under the christian war circumstances, the war would be a 'just war', however there was still a problem that violence was sinful and could condemn a man to hell
• to prevent a man going to hell from violence in war, he had to seek forgiveness and do penance for his sins, which could be set aside if the man was granted something called an indulgence
• to encourage knights to join the first crusade the pope promised participants a full indulgence that would grant them salvation when they died, and would not have to go to purgatory
• the promise of salvation persuaded many knights in europe to go on crusade and was repeated each time a pope called for a crusade
• although the first crusade achieved its aim with the capture of jerusalem, the holy city was not secure, so in 1187, jerusalem fell to muslim forces and a new crusade was needed to reclaim it
• penance


  a punishment inflicted on oneself to show repentance of wrongdoing or sins
• indulgence


  a king of pardon given by the catholic church that reduces the amount of penance a sinner must perform in life or in purgatory after death. a full indulgence would grant someone direct entry into heaven when they died
• purgatory


  a state of existence , according to catholic teaching, where people were 'purged' of their sins after they die. this purifies them so that they can enter heaven
• after the first crusade, four crusader states were established by the christians, however they were surrounded by enemies and very vulnerable to attack
• the 4 crusader states were weakened by constant bickering and jealously between the main christian lords ruling them, which led them to be ruthlessly exploited by a powerful muslim leader, saladin, who had united the muslins in the region
• in july 1187, saladin defeated the main christian army in the battle hattin, before attacking jerusalem, which fell under his control in october 1187
• pope gregory VIII was shocked when the news reached europe about the fall of jerusalem
• pope gregory VIII issued a papal bull in which e described the horrors of the treatment of christians at the hands of the muslins, and called upon the christians to launch a new crusade and offered a full indulgence for anyone who died on crusade
• papal bull


  an official letter or declaration made by the pope
• the english crusading army was one of the 3 armies that left for the holy land in 1190, the other 2 armies were led by fredrick barbarossa, the holy roman emperor, and philip II, the king of france
• holy roman emperor


  the head of the holy roman empire, an empire that consisted of different states in areas of europe that are now largely in germany and italy
• in total, richard gathered a force of approximately 17,000 men in sicily in 1191, who came from england and the angevin empire
• the majority of the english crusaders were knights and their military households, which included the knights' squires, who were their servants and in training to become knights, and would have outnumbers the knights on the crusade
• among the english crusader knights were men of high rank, such as the earls of leicester and ferrers
• as a whole, the crusader army was highly disciplined and professional, with most knights being experienced fighters
• in addition to the knights and their military households, richard's army included roger of howden, a royal clerk who spent on year on crusade and recorded the experience in his chronicle of the deeds of richard I
• in addition to the knights and their military households, richard's army included leading churchmen including baldwin (archbishop of canterbury), who was sent to the holy land before the crusading army, and hubert walter (bishop of salisbury)
• in addition to the knights and their military households, richard's army included nearly 3,000 welsh archers who volunteered to accompany the crusade, although the delay in setting off meant that considerably fewer actually left for the holy land, these bowmen being highly skilled professionals who fought with longbows
• in addition to the knights and their military households, richard's army included thousands of camp followers, who were civillians who took care of essential tasks for the army, like cooking and nursing, some being wives of the crusaders
• the first and most important reason for joining the crusade was religious, as men responded to pope gregory's call to defend the holy places and win back jerusalem for the christians
• men were attracted to the crusade by the full indulgence that promised forgiveness of sins and entry to heaven
• other churchmen, like archbishop baldwin, also played their part in recruiting volunteers
• baldwin spent a year touring wales encouraging men to 'take the cross', and was said to have enlisted 3,000 crusaders
• take the cross


  christians who took the vow to go on crusade promised to 'take the cross', the sign of the crusade being a cross
• the principle of primogeniture means that fiefs in england and the angevin empire was inherited by the eldest son, so younger sons joined the crusade in hope that they would win land in the crusader states
• crusaders were promised that their debts would be cancelled and, in addition, they did not have to pay the 'saladin tithe' that was collected to fund the crusade
• there was also a chance that crusaders might gain some wealth in the holy land from ransom or loot
• many knights joined the crusade when their feudal overlord joined as a part of their knight service