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The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at seizing Jerusalem and its surrounding territories from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, these expeditions spanned centuries and became a central aspect of European political, religious, and military history.
The Seljuk Empire, a powerful Muslims dynasty, had recently inflicted a devastating defeat on the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert (1071), which led to the loss of most of Anatolia (Asia Minor), the empire’s heartland. By the 1090s, Muslims controlled much of the territory that had once belonged to Byzantium and threatened Constantinople itself. In 1095, after a Byzantine request for aid, Pope Urban II proclaimed the first expedition at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in Western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. Participants came from all over Europe and had a variety of motivations. These included religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations, opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later expeditions were conducted by generally more organised armies, sometimes led by a king. All were granted papal indulgences. Initial successes established four Crusader states: the County of Edessa; the Principality of Antioch; the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and the County of Tripoli. A European presence remained in the region in some form until the fall of Acre in 1291. After this, no further large military campaigns were organised.
Other church-sanctioned campaigns include crusades against Christians not obeying papal rulings and heretics, those against the Ottoman Empire, and ones for political reasons. The struggle against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula–the Reconquista–ended in 1492 with the Fall of Granada. From 1147, the Northern Crusades were fought against pagan tribes in Northern Europe. Crusades against Christians began with the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century and continued through the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century. Crusades against the Ottomans began in the late 14th century and include the Crusade of Varna. Popular crusades, including the Children's Crusade of 1212, were generated by the masses and were unsanctioned by the Church.
Terminology evolved gradually, primarily reflecting the close association between the Crusades and Christian pilgrimage. Early usage favoured terms denoting mobility— ('journey'), ('expedition'), ('passage')—typically accompanied by references to the intended destination, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Other early expressions invoked the cross (), and by around 1250, canon law were distinguishing between campaigns in the Holy Land—crux transmarina ('the cross overseas')—and those within Europe—crux cismarina ('the cross this side of the sea'). Participants, who traditionally sewed a cross onto their garments, came to be known as crucesignati ('those signed with the cross').
Vernacular terminology reflected the ritual of "taking the cross". The earliest attested form, , appeared in Spain in 1212. The Middle English croiserie, derived from Old French, emerged in the 13th–14thcenturies, later supplanted by forms such as croisade and crusado, both influenced by Spanish through French. The modern term crusade was established by 1706. The medievalist Thomas Asbridge notes that the term's conventional use by historians imposes "a somewhat misleading aura of coherence and conformity" on the earliest crusading efforts.
To Muslim observers, such as Ibn Khordadbeh, the remote and less developed Western Europe was merely a source of slaves and raw materials. However, between and , drought and cold spells across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia led to famine and migration. Interfaith tensions escalated, culminating in the temporary destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009. From the 1040s, nomadic Turkomans disrupted the Middle East. In 1055, their leader Tughril I of the Seljuk dynasty assumed authority within the Abbasid Caliphate with Caliph Al-Qa'im's consent. Tughril's nephew Alp Arslan crushed the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, opening Anatolia to Turkoman migration. The Seljuk Empire emerged as a loose federation of provinces ruled by Seljuk princes, Turkoman warlords and Arab emirs. As Byzantine control collapsed, Armenian and Greek strongmen took over frontier cities and fortresses.
From the mid-9thcentury, central authority in Western Europe weakened, and local lords gained power, commanding heavily armoured and holding castles. Their territorial disputes made warfare a regular feature across regions. To protect church property and unarmed groups, church leaders launched the Peace of God movement, threatening offenders with excommunication. As sins permeated daily life, Christians feared damnation. Sinners were expected to confess and undertake priestly prescribed penance. Thousands made the penitential journey to Jerusalem, though attacks on pilgrims became increasingly frequent.
From , the Medieval Warm Period favoured Western Europe, spurring economic and population growth. Within a century, Italian merchants supplanted their Muslim and Jewish rivals as the leading force in Mediterranean trade. In 1031, al-Andalus fragmented into —smaller kingdoms—that could not resist the Reconquista—the expansion of the northern Christian states—prompting intervention by the radical Almoravids from the Maghreb. In southern Italy, Italo-Normans warriors from northern France founded principalities and completed the conquest of Muslim Sicily by 1091.
In the mid-11thcentury, clerics promoting the "liberty of the Church" rose to power in Rome, banning simony and clerical marriage. The popes, regarded as successors to Saint Peter in Rome, claimed papal supremacy over Christendom, but Eastern Christian leaders rejected this. Combined with long-standing liturgical and theological differences, this led to mutual excommunications in 1054 and ultimately the division between the Catholic West and Orthodox East. Reformist clerics' rejection of Laity control triggered the Investiture Controversy with secular powers. Popes had already courted allies by offering spiritual rewards, and the Controversy revived interest in the theology of just war, first articulated by Augustine in the 5thcentury. Theologians, under Pope Gregory VII's auspices, concluded that dying in a just war equated to Christian martyr. Still, the idea of penitential warfare drew sharp criticism from anti-papal figures like Sigebert of Gembloux.
By this time, the Seljuk Empire had descended into civil war following the deaths of Vizier Nizam al-Mulk and Sultan Malik-Shah I in 1092. Malik-Shah's brother Tutush I contested the succession of Malik-Shah's son Berkyaruq. Although Tutush was killed in battle in 1095, his sons Ridwan and Duqaq, seized control of the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Damascus, respectively, while Tutush's former mamluk (slave soldier), Yaghi-Siyan, maintained his rule over Antioch. In Anatolia, the breakaway Seljuk prince Kilij Arslan I founded the independent Sultanate of Rum, while an autonomous Turkoman clan, the Danishmendids, seized control of the north.
Meanwhile, Fatimid Egypt faced its own succession crisis after the deaths of Caliph al-Mustansir and his vizier Badr al-Jamali. Al-Jamali's son and successor al-Afdal Shahanshah installed al-Mustansir's youngest son al-Musta'li as caliph bypassing the eldest son Nizar. Although Nizar was murdered, his supporters rejected al-Musta'li's legitimacy and established a new branch of radical Shi'a Islam—the Nizaris, also known as the Assassins.
Urban held further councils in France, and set 15August—two weeks after the harvest began—as the campaign's start date. His message spread mainly through those present at Clermont, leaving much of Western Europe unaware of the crusade. He also urged Catalan counts not to join, granting them equal spiritual rewards for fighting the Almoravids, marking an early instance of Iberian Crusades.
Several contingents departed before the harvest, from March 1096. Walter and Peter each led forces of 10,000–15,000. While travelling, Peter threatened Jewish communities in pursuit of provisions. King Coloman of Hungary granted market access, but during their passage the host, by then people, plundered the border town of Zemun. Entering Byzantine territory in June, their continued looting provoked imperial raids, causing severe losses. Meanwhile Folkmar and Gottschalk's 15,000-strong host was destroyed by Coloman on Hungary's western frontier in July. A parallel rising under the Swabian count Emicho launched the anti-Jewish Rhineland massacres in western Germany, beginning at Speyer on 3May 1096. Despite episcopal efforts at protection, his force spread anti-semitic violence until Hungarian troops dispersed it in mid-July.
Walter reached Constantinople on 20July, Peter on 1August. Distrustful of their disorder, Emperor Alexios shipped them across the Bosporus to Anatolia. Germans captured the Seljuk fortress of Xerigordos, but it was retaken by the Turkomans on 29September. Kilij Arslan destroyed the crusaders at Civetot on 21October; Peter survived with a few followers.
At Constantinople, tensions with the Byzantines resulted in skirmishes. Emperor Alexios demanded oaths from the crusader leaders to return former Byzantine lands before allowing passage into Anatolia. The crusading host numbered 60,000–100,000, including 30,000non-combatants and up to 7,000knights. Exploiting Seljuk distractions, the crusaders and Byzantines captured Nicaea in June 1097 and advanced toward Antioch, once a Byzantine provincial capital in Syria. They repelled Kilij Arslan's lightly armoured cavalry at the Battle of Dorylaeum.
After a gruelling march, crusaders reached Antioch and began the city's prolonged siege in October 1097. During this time, Baldwin of Boulogne—Godfrey's brother—left with 100knights and, with Armenian support, seized fortresses and the city of Edessa, founding the first Crusader state, the County of Edessa, in March 1098. The Seljuk general Kerbogha assembled a 40,000-strong army in Iraq, but arrived in June after Bohemond had secured Antioch through collusion with a guard. The crusaders massacred the Muslim inhabitants and some of the native Christians. Despite famine, disease, and desertion, they—encouraged by the mystic Peter Bartholomew—defeated Kerbogha at the Battle of Antioch on 28June 1098.
The march on Jerusalem was halted due to intense summer heat and a plague that claimed Adhemar of Le Puy's life. In the Byzantines' absence, Bohemond persuaded the other leaders to recognise his rule over Antioch, establishing a new Crusader state, the Principality of Antioch. The crusade resumed under pressure from the common soldiers in November. After massacring the defenders of Maarat al-Numan, the crusaders were granted safe passage by local Muslim rulers. They reached Jerusalem, then held by a Fatimid governor, on 7June 1099. The siege stalled until Genoese craftsmen arrived with supplies. Their siege towers enabled the crusaders to conquer the city on 15July. Over the next two days, they slaughtered the population and looted the city. Godfrey was elected Jerusalem's first Western ruler, while Arnulf of Chocques, a Norman priest, was named the first Latin patriarch. Meanwhile, al-Afdal mobilised Egyptian troops to retake the city, but the crusaders—roughly 9,000infantry and 1,200knights—defeated his army at the Battle of Ascalon on 12August. With their Crusade vow fulfilled, most crusaders returned home, leaving Godfrey with just 300knights and 2,000foot soldiers.
Vitale I Michiel, Doge of Venice, soon arrived with over 200ships. After Godfrey's unexpected death on 18July 1100, the Venetians helped Tancred take Haifa. Daimbert, seeking to make Jerusalem an ecclesiastical lordship, lost support when Bohemond was captured by the Danishmendid Gazi Gümüshtigin in August. Meanwhile, Godfrey's followers invited Baldwin of Boulogne to succeed him. Before going to Jerusalem, Baldwin granted Edessa to his cousin Baldwin of Bourcq, then seized Jerusalem and forced Daimbert to crown him king on Christmas Day. Within nine months, he captured Arsuf and Caesarea with Genoese aid, and defeated a superior Egyptian force at the First Battle of Ramla.
They were soon joined by French and German forces led by William IX of Aquitaine, William II of Nevers, Welf I of Bavaria, the widowed Marchioness Ida of Austria, and Archbishop Thiemo. Reaching Constantinople in June, they met Raymond of Saint-Gilles. Ignoring his and Stephen's warnings, the Lombards pressed to free Bohemond. Joined by other crusaders, they advanced into eastern Anatolia, but were crushed at the Battle of Mersivan in August by a coalition of Turkoman rulers. William of Nevers' army, heading south, was almost destroyed at Heraclea, where a third mainly German force was also routed. Ida vanished, later giving rise to tales she became mother of the powerful Turkoman ruler Zengi.
The failure of the 1101 Crusade shattered crusader invincibility, with Westerners chiefly blaming Byzantines. Few survived. William of Aquitaine, Welf, and Stephen regrouped at Antioch, aiding Raymond and Genoese allies in capturing Tartus. Some, including Stephen, reached the Holy Land, where he died at the Second Battle of Ramla on 17May 1102. On that occasion Egyptians caught the crusaders by surprise, but survivors redeemed themselves at the Battle of Jaffa ten days later.
Seeking support in the West, Bohemond left Tancred in charge of Antioch in autumn 1104. Pope Paschal named Bishop Bruno of Segni as papal legate to promote a crusade for Jerusalem in France. Though highly regarded, Bohemond drew only lesser nobles like Hugh of Le Puiset and Robert of Vieux-Pont to take the cross. He then chose to invade the Byzantine Empire from Italy, accusing the Byzantines of heresy. In October 1107, he besieged the fortress of Dyrrachium, but Alexios had reinforced its defences, allied with Venetians, and, with Turkoman mercenaries, blockaded Bohemond's army. Bohemond had to withdraw and accept Byzantine suzerainty over Antioch in the 1108 Treaty of Devol, but Tancred did not implement the treaty.
Raymond of Saint Gilles began the Siege of Tripoli in 1103 but died within two years. A dispute between his son Bertrand of Toulouse and cousin William Jordan was resolved by King Baldwin at the Council of Tripoli. Soon after, Frankish forces with Genoese aid seized the city in July 1109. William Jordan was killed, leaving Bertrand sole ruler of the County of Tripoli.
Tripoli's fall alarmed the Muslim world. The Seljuk sultan Muhammad I Tapar ordered Mawdud, of Mosul to invade, but his campaigns of 1110–13 failed amid desertions. In 1115 his successor Aqsunqur also failed at Edessa. That year Toghtekin sheltered his kinsman Ilghazi, angering the Sultan. Toghtekin allied with Tancred's successor in Antioch, Roger, who defeated the Sultan's army at the Battle of Sarmin on 14September 1115. Meanwhile, Ridwan's death in 1113 sparked a succession crisis in Aleppo, enabling Roger to exact tribute from the city.
Amid famine and military disaster, Jerusalem's leaders met at the Council of Nablus in 1120, issuing decrees against sexual offences such as sodomy and relations with Muslims. Patriarch Warmund approved Hugues de Payens' knightly confraternity, whose members vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, and protection of pilgrims. This marked the birth of the military orders. Baldwin II installed them in the former Al-Aqsa Mosque, identified by the Franks as Solomon's Temple, whence their name Knights Templar.
Seeking aid, BaldwinII sent envoys to the West. Pope Paschal urged the Venetian doge Domenico Michiel to lead a naval expedition. As regent Baldwin prioritised Antioch's defence, though it was unpopular in Jerusalem. After Ilghazi's death, his nephew Belek Ghazi captured Joscelin and, in April 1123, Baldwin himself. In his absence Patriarch Warmund concluded the with Venice, securing the conquest of Tyre on 7July 1124. Baldwin returned to Jerusalem in April 1125.
In preparation for a major offensive against Damascus, BaldwinII of Jerusalem sent envoys to Europe to raise troops and arrange the marriage of his heir, Melisende. Her betrothal to Fulk V of Anjou included the promise of joint succession. In May 1128 Toghtekin of Damascus died, succeeded by his son Buri, while Zengi reunited Aleppo with Mosul.
Fulk arrived in May 1129 and married Melisende. Though lacking papal sanction, the Crusade of 1129 drew some 60,000warriors. The Franks invaded Damascene territory in November, but a sortie routed their foragers. On hearing of this, the main force withdrew, perhaps also driven by a violent storm.
In 1136, Fulk arranged Constance's marriage to the French Raymond of Poitiers. The next year Raymond did homage to Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos, but John's campaigns against Aleppo and Shaizar failed. Zengi took Homs, but his assault on Damascus was repelled by the city's new ruler Unur allied with Fulk. Fulk died in a hunting accident on 10November 1143. His reign saw the Hospitallers evolve from a nursing confraternity into a military order. The widowed Melisende resisted sharing power with their son BaldwinIII.
News of Edessa's fall reached Pope Eugenius III through Bishop Hugh of Jabala and Armenian clergy. He responded with the bull on 1December 1145, granting remission of sins, protection of property, and debt suspension to those who took the cross—establishing the model for later crusade bulls. Louis VII of France, troubled by guilt over a massacre in a church, declared his intention to lead a crusade. At Vézelay in 1146 the Cistercians abbot Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded many French nobles to join.
Bernard went on preaching across France and Germany. In the Rhineland, anti-semitic pogroms incited by the monk Radulf ended only after Bernard recalled him. In a Christmas sermon Bernard persuaded Conrad III of Germany to take the cross at Speyer. When Saxon lords resisted abandoning war against the pagan Wends, he convinced Pope Eugenius to issue the bull in April 1147, extending crusade indulgences to the Wendish Crusade, later seen as the first Northern Crusade. The Pope also named Iberia as a crusading target. A critic to the Wendish campaign, Helmold of Bosau later described the Second Crusade as fought in three theatres—the Holy Land, the Baltic and Iberia. Despite leadership by nobles such as the Saxon duke Henry the Lion, the crusaders failed against the Wendish prince Niklot.
The crusaders departed for the Holy Land in May and June 1147. A distinctive feature was the prominent presence of women: LouisVII was joined by his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and her household, while regulations for the crusader fleet mention wives. The fleet of 150ships carried about 10,000crusaders from northwestern Europe. They aided Afonso I of Portugal in his successful Siege of Lisbon in October 1147 and Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in capturing Tortosa in December 1148, but only a small contingent reached the Holy Land.
The German army, with many pilgrims, retraced the First Crusade's route through Hungary and the Balkans. Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, fearing attack, made peace with Mesud I, Sultan of Rum. Roger II of Sicily invaded the Balkans, heightening Byzantine suspicion of a coordinated western action. After clashes at Constantinople, the Germans crossed into Anatolia without waiting for the French. On 25October 1147 Mesud's forces crushed them at the Battle of Dorylaeum; many died, but Conrad, wounded, escaped into Byzantine territory.
The French reached Constantinople in October 1147. Clashes followed, and Bishop Godefroy of Langres urged LouisVII to seize the city, but he advanced into Anatolia. The crusaders endured shortages, desertions and raids while wintering at Ephesus. At Antalya Louis and his knights sailed for Syria on Byzantine ships; most left behind perished, deserted or were enslaved.
Louis reached Antioch on 19March 1148. Raymond of Poitiers urged an attack on Aleppo and Shaizar, but Louis pressed on to Jerusalem, despite Eleanor—Raymond's niece—supporting her uncle. At Acre he joined Conrad, who had arrived by sea from Constantinople. The Council of Acre resolved to besiege Damascus, beginning on 24July. Though Conrad repelled attacks, Damascene raids and news of Nur al-Din's approaching reinforcements soon forced the crusaders to abandon the siege. A plan to attack Ascalon, the last Fatimid port, also collapsed, and the crusaders withdrew from the Holy Land. The failure gravely weakened crusading fervour in Europe. Conrad blamed Jerusalem's leaders, while others, including Bernard of Clairvaux, accused the Byzantines.
In 1151 Assassins murdered RaymondII of Tripoli and his son RaymondIII succeeded him. The following year, BaldwinIII of Jerusalem deposed his mother Melisende. He captured Ascalon in 1153, completing the conquest of the coast. He arranged the marriage of the French crusader Raynald of Châtillon to Constance of Antioch. Between 1154 and 1157, Nur al-Din blockaded Damascus, forced Abaq to withdraw, and took Shaizar, uniting Muslim Syria. The Franks failed to retake Shaizar despite the support of Thierry of Flanders, a veteran of the Second Crusade. In 1159 Emperor ManuelI invaded Syria, halting Nur al-Din's advance, but Raynald was captured by Turkomans in 1160/61.
The childless BaldwinIII died of illness on 10February 1163. His brother Amalric's succession was made conditional on the annulment of his marriage to Agnes of Courtenay. Their children, Sibylla and Baldwin, nevertheless were recognised as legitimate. In Antioch, BohemondIII, son of Constance and Raymond of Poitiers, took power and expelled his mother.
Under Amalric, the wealthy but divided Egypt became the main battleground with Nur al-Din. Between 1163 and 1169, Amalric launched five campaigns, but Nur al-Din's forces blocked his conquest. In early 1169, the Fatimid caliph al-Adid appointed Nur al-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh as ; on his death, his nephew Saladin succeeded him. Amalric renewed the Byzantine alliance, but their joint invasion of Egypt failed. In September 1171, Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate, but soon quarrelled with Nur al-Din. In response to Amalric's appeals, LouisVII of France imposed a levy—one penny on every pound of property and income—for the Holy Land over five years. His initiative was soon matched by Henry II of England.
In 1174, Nur al-Din and Amalric both died, leaving underage heirs: as-Salih and the leper BaldwinIV. In his final years, Nur al-Din had made the conquest of Jerusalem the chief aim of jihad, inspiring a new Muslim literary genre, the Merits of Jerusalem. The struggle for his legacy was won by Saladin, who took Damascus in 1174, Aleppo in 1183, and compelled the Zengid dynasty ruler of Mosul, Izz al-Din, to submit in 1186. As early as 1176, the Abbasid caliph al-Mustadi urged Saladin to renew the against the Franks, but he instead fought his Muslim rivals. Once he secured much of the Near East, however, he needed a new target to furnish his troops with plunder.
Jerusalem's leaders sought Western support by marrying Baldwin's heir Sibylla to William of Montferrat, a kinsman of German and French royalty, but he died in 1177. That year Philip I of Flanders led a futile armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and a Byzantine–Frankish invasion of Egypt failed amid disputes over its future. Before his death Baldwin designated Sibylla's posthumous son by William, BaldwinV his successor. On the child's death in 1186, Sibylla and her second husband Guy of Lusignan seized power with the support of leading figures, including Raynald of Châtillon, by then lord of Transjordan. Their rival, RaymondIII, allied with Saladin, granting his troops free passage through Galilee.
Pope Gregory VIII launched the new crusade with the bull Audita tremendi on 29October 1187. The English prince Richard was the first to take the cross. Pope Gregory appointed Joscius of Tyre to preach in France and Henry of Albano in Germany. On 22January 1189 Joscius reconciled Philip II of France and Henry II of England at Gisors, where both kings and many nobles took the cross. such as Conon of Béthune also spread the message of the bull. To fund the crusade, the "Saladin tithe"—a levy of 10% on income and movable goods—was imposed in England and France. On 27March 1188 Emperor FrederickI swore his oath at the ('Court of Christ') in Mainz. The English, French, and part of the German host chose the sea route, but Frederick resolved to march overland.
Frederick set out in May 1189 with troops. By then Frankish control was reduced to Tyre, Antioch, Tripoli, and the fortresses of Beaufort, Margat, and Krak des Chevaliers. Saladin had freed Guy in May 1188, but Conrad barred him from Tyre. Gathering men, Guy laid siege to Acre in August 1189 with Pisan naval support, his army reinforced by arriving western contingents. Fearing a German–Seljuk alliance, Emperor IsaacII denied Frederick safe passage. Frederick retaliated by attacking Byzantine towns, forcing Isaac in March 1190 to allow transport into Anatolia on Genoese and Pisan ships. Despite Turkoman raids and scarce supplies, the Germans briefly took Konya, capital of Rum, but the crusade collapsed when Frederick drowned in the river Saleph on 10June 1190. His son Frederick of Swabia failed to sustain morale: many deserted or died, and only remnants reached Acre in October.
Franco-English tensions persisted until HenryII's death in July 1189. RichardI succeeded and swiftly prepared for the crusade, raising further funds by exacting a taillage from the Jews. He met with PhilipII at Vézelay on 4July 1190 before departing. Richard's host numbered , while the French force was smaller, as many had already left under Henry of Champagne. Richard hired ships in Marseille, Philip in Genoa, and both sailed to Sicily. There Richard seized Messina, compelling the new Sicilian king Tancred of Lecce to pay a substantial sum. From Sicily the French sailed directly to Acre, arriving on 20April. A storm drove several English ships onto Cyprus, where the local Byzantine ruler Isaac Komnenos seized the wrecks and captives. Richard conquered the island before reaching Acre on 6June 1191.
Meanwhile, the long siege caused a deadly plague at Acre, killing Queen Sibylla. As Guy's kingship relied on her, her death voided his claim. Supported by French and German crusaders and the papal legate Ubaldo of Pisa, Conrad married Sibylla's half-sister Isabella on 24November 1190. Guy refused to abdicate and sought Richard's backing. The siege intensified with the arrival of two royal armies, and on 12July 1191 the defenders surrendered without Saladin's approval, under safe-conduct terms. Richard's and Philip's banners rose on Acre's walls, but when LeopoldV of Austria raised his flag, Richard tore it down. Stricken by illness, PhilipII soon withdrew from the crusade. Acre's surrender required Saladin to free 1,600Frankish prisoners and return the True Cross within a month; when he failed, Richard ordered 2,700–3,000Muslim captives executed. From Acre, Richard advanced south, defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, and secured Jaffa.
News that Richard's brother John was attempting to seize England reached the Holy Land, prompting Richard to plan his return. On 20April 1192 he recognised Conrad's claim to the remnant Kingdom of Jerusalem and granted Cyprus to Guy as compensation. Conrad was assassinated eightdays later, and his pregnant widow Isabella soon married Henry of Champagne, a kinsman of both the French and English kings. In June Richard advanced towards Jerusalem, but the crusaders halted at Bayt Nuba, away, fearing defeat, and withdrew to the coast. Saladin counterattacked at Jaffa, but Richard relieved the town. Peace talks begun the previous year led to the Treaty of Jaffa on 2September, a three-year truce confirming Frankish control of the coast between Tyre and Jaffa and allowing Christian pilgrims access to the holy sites of Palestine. Richard left Palestine on 9 October 1192 but was captured in Austria by LeopoldV. In 1193 he was handed to Emperor HenryVI, who freed him for a ransom of 100,000marks.
The Third Crusade, with its heavy naval use, set a model for later expeditions: sea travel limited non-combatants and eased army supply. Though no campaign matched its scale, new plans arose. Emperor HenryVI, after taking the Kingdom of Sicily from Tancred, revived Norman ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean. He took the cross in April 1195, and Pope Celestine III authorised preaching a new crusade in Germany. By then Leo I of Cilician Armenia and Aimery of Lusignan, Guy's successor in Cyprus, had recognised Henry's suzerainty.
Henry planned to recruit 3,000mercenaries and demanded tribute from the new Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos to fund the venture. Alexios levied the heavy ('German tax'), raising over 7,000pounds of silver, but payment ended when Henry died of illness on 28September 1197. Earlier, the ailing emperor had named his marshal Henry of Kalden, and the imperial chancellor Bishop Conrad of Hildesheim to lead the crusade. German forces sailed from southern Italian ports between March and September. That same month al-Adil captured Jaffa, but the crusaders took Botrun, Sidon and Beirut before abandoning the campaign when Henry's death reached Palestine in February 1198.
During the crusade, Aimery of Cyprus and LeoI of Cilicia Armenia were crowned kings by imperial envoys. After marrying the widowed IsabellaI of Jerusalem, Aimery was also crowned king of Jerusalem in January 1198. He soon prolonged the truce with the Ayyubids until 1204. The same year the German nursing confraternity that had run a hospital at Acre since the Third Crusade assumed military functions, forming the Teutonic Knights.
Innocent pressed on with plans for a crusade to the Holy Land. He sent his legate Peter Capuano to mediate peace between England and France, but talks ended when RichardI died in April 1199. By then Innocent had tasked the preacher Fulk of Neuilly with promoting the crusade in France. To fund it, he imposed a 2.5% extraordinary levy on clerical income. Theobald III of Champagne was the first to take the cross on 28November, followed by his cousin Louis of Blois and, in February 1200, his brother-in-law Baldwin IX of Flanders. They secretly agreed to strike Egypt first, concealing the plan to avoid rank-and-file opposition. Six envoys, including Geoffrey of Villehardouin—later the crusade's chronicler—were appointed to hire a fleet. They agreed with Doge Enrico Dandolo that Venice would build, by June 1202, a fleet for 33,500crusaders for 85,000marks (over 20tons of silver). After Theobald's unexpected death in May 1201, Boniface of Montferrat, linked to royal houses in East and West, became leader.
The crusade faltered when only a third of the expected force gathered at Venice; many embarked elsewhere or failed to keep their vows. The Venetians had invested heavily but the crusaders could not pay the agreed sum. To recover losses, Dandolo proposed attacking Zadar, a Christian city in Dalmatia under King Emeric of Hungary, himself a sworn crusader. Despite papal prohibition and protests from some, including Simon de Montfort, the leaders agreed and captured Zara for Venice in November 1202.
While wintering there, Alexios Angelos, son of the deposed Emperor IsaacII, offered to reunite the Byzantine Church with Rome, pay 200,000marks, and supply 10,000troops if restored to Constantinople. Though only recently absolved for attacking a Christian city, the leaders accepted and diverted the expedition, prompting several hundred dissenters to quit or sail directly to the Holy Land. The army reached Constantinople in June 1203 and began the siege. Their first assault in July forced Emperor AlexiosIII to flee; IsaacII was restored and his son crowned co-emperor as AlexiosIV. Alexios raised only 100,000marks and promised more if the crusaders stayed until March, which a , attended by both commanders and knights, accepted. As he failed to pay, the crusaders began plundering. Losing support, AlexiosIV and Isaac were deposed by the aristocrat Alexios Doukas, crowned AlexiosV in February 1204.
Lacking supplies, the crusader leaders resolved to attack Constantinople after agreeing on how to divide its spoils and partition the empire. Their first assault failed, but clergy kept morale with sermons branding the Byzantines schismatics "worse than the Jews". The second attack, on 12April, succeeded and the Sack of Constantinople lasted for days. The crusaders massacred thousands, desecrated holy sites and seized the city's movable wealth. Relics were taken in great numbers to Western churches. The brutality shocked contemporaries, including the Pope and the Muslim scholar The Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates contrasted Saladin's clemency in Jerusalem with the crusaders' slaughter of Orthodox Christians in Constantinople.
A committee of six Venetian and six French crusaders elected Baldwin of Flanders as the first Latin Emperor. Boniface of Montferrat received Macedonia and Thessaly, founding the Kingdom of Thessalonica; his vassals created the Duchy of Athens in Attica and the Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese. Venice gained many Aegean islands, including Crete, and thereafter thereafter a Venetian cleric was appointed as Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. Frankish control of former Byzantine lands proved precarious. Baldwin died in Bulgarian captivity after defeat at the Battle of Adrianople in 1205, and Boniface was killed fighting Bulgarians in 1207. Greek resistance centred on three Byzantine successor states: Epirus, Nicaea, and Trebizond. From the Crusader states' view, the Fourth Crusade was almost a failure: only about a fifth of those who took the cross around 1200 reached the Holy Land—enabling Aimery of Jerusalem to extend the 1198 truce for six years in 1204—while most participants in Constantinople's sack returned home without going east.
The medievalist Andrew Jotischky sees Innocent's crusade policy as "pragmatic reactions to problems". One challenge was Catharism, a dualist religious movement in southern France. He launched the Albigensian Crusade against them in 1208, denouncing the Cathars as "more evil" than Muslims.
Popular zeal for crusading persisted, though recent failures drew criticism of noble-led campaignsexpeditions. Petition processions for Iberian Christians resisting the Muslim revivalist Almohads and preaching against the Cathars stirred fervour in central France and the Rhineland in the early 1210s. In 1212 this produced popular movements later called the "Children's Crusade". Sources conflict and mix myth with moral tales, but agree the participants were children and youths seeking to retake Jerusalem, but none reached the Holy Land.
The expedition's terms were set at the Fourth Lateran Council in November 1215. Crusaders were to gather at Brindisi or Messina in southern Italy by 1June 1217, when the 1212 truce ended. A 5% levy on clerical income across Europe for threeyears was imposed, and Innocent pledged 30,000pounds of silver. The appeal failed in France, preoccupied with the Albigensian Crusade, but found support elsewhere. Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI of Austria took the cross. FrederickII, Innocent's protégé in the German throne dispute, also vowed to join though had not yet defeated Otto of Brunswick Oliver of Paderborn, a crusade preacher, toured the Low Countries recounting visions such as three crosses in the sky, while Jacques de Vitry won over Genoese patricians through their wives. During preparations Innocent died on 16July 1216, but his successor, HonoriusIII, carried on his policy.
Hungarian and Austrian crusaders embarked at the Dalmatian port of Spalato on Venetian ships rather than the more distant southern Italian harbours. By late September they reached Acre, where John of Brienne, Hugh I of Cyprus, and Bohemond IV of Antioch joined them. After a failed siege of Mount Tabor, AndrewII deemed his vow fulfilled and, with most Hungarians, withdrew. Frisian, German, and Italian forces then joined, and in May 1218 the army advanced on Damietta, a thriving Nile Delta port. The city's subsequent siege saw a shifting host as Western contingents arrived and others departed. John of Brienne was chosen commander but soon challenged by the papal legate Pelagio Galvani.
In late August the crusaders seized the Tower of the Chain, guarding the Delta. Al-Adil reportedly died of shock; his son al-Kamil offered to restore the pre-1187 borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (excluding Transjordan) for withdrawal. On learning of the offer, al-Kamil's brother al-Mu'azzam dismantled Jerusalem's walls, but the crusaders rejected the offer as the kingdom was indefensible without the fortresses over the Jordan. In August 1219, the mystic Francis of Assisi met al-Kamil, seeking to convert him to Christianity unsuccessfully. Prophecies promised victory and aid from the mythical Prester John, fuelled by distorted reports of the Mongol conquests in Central Asia.
Damietta fell to the crusaders in November 1219, but its possession soon sparked renewed conflict between John of Brienne and Pelagius. A year later Frederick reaffirmed his crusading vow at his imperial coronation in Rome. The first German forces arrived under Louis I of Bavaria in 1221. That July, ignoring Frederick's orders, Louis and Pelagius advanced towards Cairo, but al-Kamil, aided by his brothers al-Muʿazzam and al-Ashraf, forced a northward retreat. With the Nile in flood, he opened the sluices, flooding their route. Trapped, the crusaders accepted terms: Damietta was surrendered for safe conduct and an eight-year truce. Al-Kamil re-entered the city in September as the crusaders withdrew. The sudden collapse shocked Western Christendom. Many blamed Pelagius for the disastrous final campaign, while others—including returning crusaders and Honorius—condemned Frederick for failing to honour his vow.
In 1226 tensions between al-Kamil and al-Mu'azzam grew so severe that al-Kamil sent an envoy to Frederick, offering Jerusalem's return to the Christians for aid against his rival. In March 1227 Pope Honorius died and the energetic GregoryIX succeeded him. He soon clashed with Frederick over papal rights in Sicily, though preparations for the crusade continued. To win Lombard support Frederick used force, yet many eagerly joined, including the German noble LouisIV of Thuringia, the Italian aristocrat Thomas of Acerra, and the English bishop Peter des Roches. Several crusaders sailed from Brindisi on 15August 1227. Frederick followed on 8September with knights and 10,000infantry but fell ill and returned to southern Italy. Enraged, Pope Gregory excommunicated him before the end of the month. Learning of Frederick's illness and excommunication, many crusaders in the Holy Land abandoned the campaign; the rest repaired coastal fortifications. They also seized Sidon and built Montfort Castle near Acre after al-Mu'azzam died in November 1227.
Disregarding papal demands to seek absolution before resuming the crusade, Frederick resolved to lead an expedition to the Holy Land. As Isabella died shortly after giving birth to their son, Conrad, he departed only in late June 1228. Reaching Cyprus, an imperial fief, he deposed John of Ibelin, regent for the underage King HenryI, and demanded fealty from BohemondIV of Antioch and Tripoli, who refused. Frederick landed at Acre on 7September. As the Hospitallers, the Templars, and devout crusaders would not follow an excommunicated leader, he used intermediaries to issue orders. He renewed talks with al-Kamil, displaying tolerance toward Islam and notable learning. On 18February 1229 the Treaty of Jaffa ceded Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and other key cities to the Christians, while preserving the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa Mosque as Muslim places of worship; it also established a ten-year truce, excluding Antioch, Tripoli, and the Hospitaller and Templar lands. Though gaining more than any earlier crusade, the treaty drew sharp criticism. Visiting Jerusalem, Frederick entered Muslim shrines and on 18May crowned himself king in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Meanwhile, with papal backing, John of Brienne invaded southern Italy, compelling Frederick to abandon his eastern campaign in May. He landed at Brindisi in June and, by the end of October, had driven his former father-in-law back into papal territory.
Frederick reconciled with the papacy in May 1230. The following year Frederick appointed Richard Filangieri as (deputy) in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Supported by the Teutonic Knights, Pisans, and some local nobles, Filangieri seized Tyre, but most Jerusalemite barons, led by John of Ibelin and backed by the Genoese and HenryI of Cyprus, resisted. Upon John's death in 1236, his son Balian of Beirut assumed command of the resistance.
Pope Gregory called for a new crusade in separate encyclicals to the English and French in 1234. The expedition was to depart for the Holy Land when the 1229 truce expired in 1239. He ordered taxation of clerical income and promoted commuting crusading vows for cash. He also proposed the establishment of a garrison in Palestine, to be maintained for ten years and financed by lay contributions in return for partial crusade indulgences. Mendicant friars preached the crusade, but bishops held the funds, which were distributed by papal authorisation to aristocrats who had taken the cross. In France, Theobald IV of Champagne (also king of Navarre), Hugh IV of Burgundy, and Peter of Dreux were among the nobles who joined. Most had earlier rebelled against Blanche of Castile, regent for King LouisIX of France, and by taking the cross gained church protection. Louis aided them with gifts, loans, and authorised them to fight under the royal banner. In England, several nobles hostile to royal authority enlisted, including Richard of Cornwall—one of Europe's wealthiest men—and his brother-in-law Gilbert Marshal; the army also attracted former enemies such as Simon de Montfort and Richard Siward.
In the late 1230s the Crusader states faced little threat from their Muslim neighbours. After al-Kamil's death in 1238, a two-year struggle followed before his son As-Salih Ayyub secured Egypt. He recruited new troops, stationed on a Nile island, forming the Bahri ("river") . By contrast, the Latin Empire came under pressure from a Bulgarian–Nicaean alliance. Pope Gregory tried to divert crusaders to Constantinople, but only a few—among them Humbert V de Beaujeu and Thomas of Marle—agreed. By their arrival in 1239, the anti-Latin coalition had collapsed, and the crusaders mounted only minor raids in Thrace.
The French crusaders offered command to FrederickII, who promised that he or his son Conrad would join. Yet his bid to assert power in Lombardy led to renewed conflict with Pope Gregory, who excommunicated him in March 1239. The French reached Acre that September. Leadership was divided, and in November an Egyptian force routed a contingent at the Battle of Gaza. The defeat emboldened An-Nasir Dawud, Ayyubid emir of Damascus, to sack Jerusalem and dismantle its walls. The divided Ayyubids failed to exploit success; Ismail of Damascus, Ayyub's uncle, even offered to cede Beaufort, Tiberias, and Saphet, then held by Dawud. It is unclear if the offer was accepted, as Theobald of Champagne and Peter of Dreux abandoned the crusade after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in September 1241.
The English force, knights and additional troops, arrived in October 1240. Richard of Cornwall, FrederickII's brother-in-law, sided with the pro-imperialist faction in Jerusalem, favouring alliance with Egypt over Damascus. Ayyub, via his ally Dawud, offered to restore Jerusalem to the Franks and release the prisoners taken at Gaza. Richard accepted the proposal, which also upheld Ismail's earlier concessions, expanding the kingdom to its widest extent since 1187. With the agreement secured, the crusade ended in May 1241.
The Mongols secured their position in Middle Eastern politics by defeating Kaykhusraw II, Sultan of Rum, at the Battle of Köse Dağ in June 1243. The Seljuks of Rum, the Ayyubids of Aleppo, and the Cilician Armenians soon accepted Mongol suzerainty, while Bohemond V of Antioch refused and warned Emperor Frederick and the newly elected Pope Innocent IV of the growing threat. Meanwhile, Ayyub of Egypt allied with fugitive Khwarazmian soldiers who had settled in Anatolia and Iraq. His rival, Ismail of Damascus, aligned with the Franks and sent forces to Gaza, prompting some 10,000Khwarazmian horsemen to join Ayyub. Advancing south, they massacred thousands of Christians and sacked Jerusalem in July 1244. Shortly after, they joined the Egyptian army and crushed the Damascene–Frankish force at the Battle of La Forbie on 17October. Thousands of Frankish troops were killed, leaving the kingdom virtually defenceless.
Reports of Jerusalem's sack had scarcely reached Europe when LouisIX of France took the cross in December 1244. Recently recovered from severe illness, he was, according to contemporary accounts, inspired by a visionary experience to make the vow. Within two months Pope Innocent issued a new crusading bull and tasked Cardinal Odo of Châteauroux with preaching the crusade in France. Promising spiritual rewards, Odo urged the nobility to emulate the heroism of their forebears in the First and Third Crusades. Among the earliest to take the cross were Louis's brothers Robert of Artois, Alphonse of Poitiers, and Charles of Anjou. Elsewhere in Europe support was weaker: Henry III of England, recently defeated by Louis, barred Bishop Galeran of Beirut from preaching in his realm, while Haakon IV of Norway declined Louis's invitation despite having earlier taken the cross.
Exiled in Lyon following his conflict with Emperor Frederick, Pope Innocent convened the First Council of Lyon in summer 1245 to plan a new crusade and address the state of the Latin Empire and the Mongol threat. Funds came from indulgence sales, donations, and a clerical tax; Louis added royal taxes and enforced Jewish contributions, totalling over 1,500,000 in official accounts. At the council Frederick was deposed, but Louis forbade preaching a crusade against him in France. Meanwhile, war in the Levant continued: Ayyub expelled Ismail from Damascus in late 1245 and seized Galilee from the Franks in 1246. That year Alice died and was succeeded as regent by her son HenryI of Cyprus.
In preparation for the crusade, Louis stockpiled food and wine in Cyprus, largely imported from Apulia with Emperor Frederick's approval. The fleet was supplied by Genoa and Marseilles, with extra ships built even in distant Scottish ports. It assembled at the new harbour of Aigues-Mortes, where thousands of volunteers—archers and foot soldiers—sought to enlist, but Louis refused them. The fleet sailed on 25August 1248. The crusaders wintered in Cyprus, where plague killed many, though reinforcements, including Geoffrey II of Achaea with 400knights, strengthened their ranks. They left Cyprus on 30May 1249 and captured Damietta a week later. By then Ayyub was in poor health, yet the crusaders delayed advancing for months, fearing the Nile floods and awaiting reinforcements. They moved towards Cairo only days before Ayyub died on 23November 1249. His death was concealed as envoys summoned his heir Turanshah from Iraq.
Egyptians blocked the crusaders from crossing the Nile to Al Mansurah, a key garrison town, with Greek fire. On 6February 1251 Robert of Artois led a surprise assault across a ford. The Egyptian commander Fakhr al-Din was killed, but Robert's forces were trapped in Al Mansurah's narrow streets and almost all were slain despite Louis's attempt to aid them. On 24February Turanshah took power, blockading the crusaders' camp and unleashing famine and plague. Too weakened to retreat to Damietta, Louis surrendered on 6April. Turanshah ordered the slaughter of the poor and sick but released the rest, including Louis, for 800,000 and Damietta's surrender. Before this could be completed, he was assassinated by the Bakhri , who feared replacement by his own followers. With their backing Shajar al-Durr, Ayyub's widow, assumed power, while Turanshah's treaty remained in force. With Templar help, half the ransom (400,000bezants) was paid, and Damietta evacuated before Louis and much of his army sailed for Acre on 6May. The rest was secured by hostages.
When news of Louis's defeat reached France, a charismatic preacher known as the "master of Hungary" proclaimed a new crusade. Claiming to bear a letter from the Virgin Mary to shepherds, he rallied followers from northern France and Flanders to free the Holy Land. This movement, later called the Shepherds' Crusade, attacked Jews in central France before royal forces dispersed it in June 1250. After the Egyptian defeat, most French crusaders, including Louis's surviving brothers, abandoned the campaign, but Louis remained in Palestine with troops. He rebuilt Caesarea, Jaffa and Sidon, and fortified Acre's suburb using revenue from a crusader tax on the French clergy. Though Louis held no legal claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, still nominally ruled by the absent Conrad, his authority went unchallenged. After Emperor FrederickII died in December 1250, Conrad succeeded him in Sicily and Germany but was soon targeted by the political crusade proclaimed against his father.
Amid struggles between factions and Ayyubid princes, Louis opened negotiations with the Egyptian leaders in early 1252. They pledged to free hostages and restore much of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but the pact failed that April when they made peace with An-Nasir Yusuf, Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo and Damascus. As unrest grew in France, Louis resolved to return. Before leaving the Holy Land on 24April 1254, he secured a ten-year truce with An-Nasir and left a garrison of 100knights at Acre under the distinguished soldier Geoffrey of Sergines.
Louis's return to France in 1254 left a power vacuum in Jerusalem. The regent HenryI had been succeeded by his infant son HughII in Cyprus the previous year. Soon after Louis's departure King Conrad died; his two-year-old son Conradin, though residing in Bavaria, was recognised as king of Jerusalem. In 1255 Jerusalemite barons agreed a ten-year truce with Egypt, but next year rivalry between Venice and Genoa sparked the War of Saint Sabas, dividing merchant communities, military orders and the aristocracy in the Crusader states. In 1258 the child HughII was named regent for Conradin, with his mother Plaisance of Antioch acting for him.
As some Mongols followed the Eastern Syriac (Nestorian) Church, hopes of alliance led popes and LouisIX to send envoys to the Great Khans, who instead demanded submission. In 1258 Hulegu, the Mongol , sacked Baghdad and ended the Abbasid Caliphate. BohemondVI of Antioch–Tripoli accepted Mongol suzerainty and joined their army to seize Damascus in 1260. Jerusalem's leaders, distrusting the Mongols, persuaded Pope Alexander IV to excommunicate Bohemond and proclaim an anti-Mongol crusade. Qutuz executed Hulegu's envoys, prompting a Mongol advance under the Christian commander Kitbuqa. Qutuz and Baybars reconciled and routed the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260; they then occupied Muslim Syria. Baybars murdered Qutuz in October and assumed power in Egypt.
Baybars allied with Hulegu's rival Berke Khan of the Golden Horde and from 1261 raided the Crusader states. He sacked Saint Symeon in 1262, destroyed the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and Acre's suburbs in 1263. After Hulegu's death in 1265 he launched a systematic conquest: seizing and razing Caesarea, Haifa and Arsuf, capturing Safed, and taking Jaffa, Beaufort and Antioch by 1268. His campaigns often included massacres of Christians.
Meanwhile, as the historian Jean Richard notes, "those who wanted to earn the crusade indulgence did not lack opportunities" in Europe. The papacy, regarding Emperor FrederickII's heirs as its main foes, used crusade proclamations to tax clerical revenues. After King Conrad's death his half-brother Manfred of Sicily became the target of a crusade. In northern Italy the Ghibelline (anti-papal) brothers Ezzelino and Alberico da Romano were crushed. The Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople prompted a crusade against Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but the exiled Latin emperor BaldwinII did not gain support. Only small contingents reached the Holy Land, among them French troops under Olivier de Termes, who replaced Geoffrey of Sergines in 1264, and Odo of Nevers with fiftyknights in 1265.
In 1264 Pope Urban IV granted Sicily to Charles of Anjou, who secured it by defeating Manfred at the Battle of Benevento in February 1266. Conradin—Manfred's nephew—tried to recover southern Italy but was crushed by a crusade at the Battle of Tagliacozzo in August 1268 and executed. Two rivals then claimed the throne of Jerusalem: HughIII, successor to HughII in Cyprus, and his aunt Maria of Antioch. The Jerusalemite barons backed Hugh, but Maria maintained her claim.
Funding came from a three-year, 10 % clerical levy, legacies, indulgence sales and plunder from Jewish bankers. Louis financed vassals with gifts and loans. He persuaded the English crown prince Edward to take the cross despite HenryIII's objections, and won James I of Aragon's pledge by diplomacy. Louis's leadership strengthened during the long after Clement's death in November 1268. He hired Genoese ships and mediated peace between Genoa and Venice. James sailed first from Barcelona on 4September 1269, but a storm scattered his fleet and he soon abandoned the crusade. His two illegitimate sons, Fernando Sánchez and Pedro Fernández, reached Acre with fewer than 200knights that October. They joined the French garrison, but were ambushed by Baybars.
Over 10,000French crusaders sailed from Aigues-Mortes on 2July 1270. Louis chose to attack Tunis, capital of the new Hafsid dynasty in North Africa. Some historians, including Peter Lock, attribute this to his brother Charles of Anjou, while others, such as Christopher Tyerman, see it as Louis's own plan to secure a base for invading Egypt. The crusaders reached North Africa on 18July and captured Carthage, but plague ravaged the camp. Louis died on 25August, the day Charles arrived. Charles assumed command and on 1November made peace with the Caliph Muhammad: the crusaders withdrew for 210,000gold ounces and rights to Christian worship and proselytism. English crusaders landed at Tunis as the French departed on 10November. The fleets regrouped at Trapani, but a storm wrecked most ships.
Philip III of France, Louis's successor, and Charles abandoned the crusade, but the English continued with Frisians and other small groups. These sailed to Acre, while the English wintered in Sicily, reaching Acre only on 9May 1271. Meanwhile Baybars seized Chastel Blanc from the Templars and Krak des Chevaliers and Gibelacar from the Hospitallers. Edward mounted no major operations; in June Baybars took Montfort Castle, the Franks' last inland stronghold, from the Teutonic Knights. On 12May 1272 Baybars accepted an almost eleven-year truce, and Edward—now king of England—sailed from Acre in late September.
The Second Council of Lyon opened on 7May 1274. GregoryX proclaimed a new crusade, setting 1278 as the departure date and funding it by taxing clerical income for six years. The plan drew criticism: the troubadour Folquet de Lunel accused the pope of seeking to divert crusading zeal against Christian foes. Threatened by Charles of Anjou's ambitions, Emperor MichaelVIII acknowledged papal supremacy but failed to enforce church union at home. Gregory ordered Charles to renew his truce with Byzantium, and talks began on Byzantine participation in the crusade. In 1275 PhilipIII, the new German king Rudolf of Habsburg and his rival Ottokar II of Bohemia took the cross, but preparations collapsed with Gregory's death next year. Yet the crusade tax remained in force.
The subsequent period, as the historian Norman Housley observes, "was dominated by the ambitions of Charles of Anjou". In 1277 Charles purchased Maria of Antioch's claim to Jerusalem. Her rival HughIII had withdrawn to Cyprus, and the barons of Jerusalem did homage to Charles. In 1279 the Bahri veteran Qalawun seized power in Mamluk Egypt. Facing revolts and a Mongol invasion of Syria, he renewed the truce with the Crusader states in 1281. That year Charles, backed by Pope Martin IV after MichaelVIII failed to implement the 1274 church union, pursued an anti-Byzantine policy. Martin granted crusade indulgences for Charles's planned campaign, but the Sicilian Vespers—a popular uprising—forced him to recall his troops in 1282. As Peter III of Aragon backed the rebels, Martin proclaimed a crusade against Aragon, diverting funds raised for the Holy Land.
The withdrawal of Charles's troops let HughIII recover Tyre and Beirut. Meanwhile Qalawun defeated the Mongols at the Second Battle of Homs and resumed against the Franks, seizing the Hospitallers' last fortress, Margat, taking Latakia and capturing Tripoli by 1289. Tripoli's fall shocked the West. Pope Nicholas IV sent 4,000 and 13galleys to Acre; EdwardI of England dispatched troops to strengthen its defences. A new crusade was preached, prompting a of 3,540Italian infantry. In August 1290 they attacked Muslims at Acre despite the truce. In retaliation Qalawun's son, al-Ashraf Khalil, besieged and took Acre on 28May 1291. The last Frankish mainland strongholds soon fell, the final, Château Pèlerin, surrendering on 14August. The conquests brought massacres and enslavement, with only a few escaping to Cyprus.
Amid frequent wars among Catholic powers, the crusade declined into a mainly political instrument. In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed crusades against his enemies, the Colonna family cardinals and Frederick III of Sicily. His taxation of clergy provoked conflict with France, leading to the Pope's seizure by French troops in 1303. French influence grew, and the papal court moved to Avignon. In 1307 French officers arrested all Templars on charges of corruption and heresy; Pope Clement V could not prevent the dissolution of their Order in 1312. The Templar trials prompted new crusade plans, notably by the French William of Nogaret and Pierre Dubois. In 1314 PhilipIV took the cross with his sons and son-in-law Edward II of England, but his death next year ended the plan. Philip VI of France, the first Valois king, revived Levantine crusade proposals, but the Hundred Years' War stopped preparations in 1336. The final crusade for the Holy Land, the Alexandrian Crusade, was led by Peter I of Cyprus: in October 1365 crusaders sacked the Egyptian port of Alexandria but withdrew after a week.
Elsewhere crusading endured. In Iberia campaigns ended in 1492 with the fall of the Muslim Emirate of Granada to Castile and Aragon. In the Baltic, the Teutonic Knights waged anti-pagan wars, drawing crusaders from France, Germany and England until the 1410s. After the Reformation the papacy occasionally granted indulgences against Protestants, but more often Catholic powers formed papally sponsored against the Ottoman Empire into the 17thcentury.
Right-wing circles in the western world have drawn opposing parallels, considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the crusades. Crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric are presented as an appropriate response. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy.
After the fall of Acre, the crusades continued through the 16th century. Principal references on this subject are the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the CrusadesSetton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer). (1969). A history of the Crusades. 2d Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. and Norman Housley's The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar.Housley, Norman (1992). The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar. Oxford University Press. Complete bibliographies are also given in these works.
These histories have provided evolving views of the Crusades as discussed in detail in the Historiography writeup in Crusading movement. Modern works that serve as secondary source material are listed in the Bibliography section below and need no further discussion here.Secondary Bibliography. In Phillips, J. Holy Warriors (2009).
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