Although the Crusades did not achieve their goal and, begun with general enthusiasm, ended in disaster and disappointment, they constituted an entire era in European history and had a serious impact on many aspects of European life.

Byzantine Empire.
The Crusades may have indeed delayed the Turkish conquest of Byzantium, but they could not prevent the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantine Empire was in a state of decline for a long time. Its final death meant the emergence of the Turks on the European political scene. The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 and the Venetian trade monopoly dealt the empire a mortal blow, from which it could not recover even after its revival in 1261.

Trade.
The biggest beneficiaries of the Crusades were the merchants and artisans of the Italian cities, who provided the crusader armies with equipment, provisions and transport. In addition, Italian cities, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice, were enriched by a trade monopoly in the Mediterranean countries.
Italian merchants established trade relations with the Middle East, from where they exported various luxury goods to Western Europe - silks, spices, pearls, etc. The demand for these goods brought super profits and
stimulated the search for new, shorter and safer routes to the East. Ultimately, this search led to the discovery of America. The Crusades also played an extremely important role in the emergence of the financial aristocracy and contributed to the development of capitalist relations in Italian cities.

Feudalism and the Church.
Thousands of large feudal lords died in the Crusades, in addition, many noble families went bankrupt under the burden of debt. All these losses ultimately contributed to the centralization of power in Western European countries and the weakening of the system of feudal relations.

The impact of the Crusades on the authority of the church was controversial. If the first campaigns helped strengthen the authority of the Pope, who took on the role of spiritual leader in the holy war against Muslims, then the 4th Crusade discredited
the power of the pope even in the person of such an outstanding representative as Innocent III. Business interests often took precedence over religious considerations, forcing the crusaders to disregard papal prohibitions and enter into business and even friendly contacts with Muslims.

Culture.
It was once generally accepted that it was the Crusades that brought Europe to the Renaissance, but now such an assessment seems overestimated to most historians. What they undoubtedly gave the man of the Middle Ages was a broader view of the world and a better understanding of its diversity.
The Crusades were widely reflected in literature. A countless number of poetic works were composed about the exploits of the crusaders in the Middle Ages, mostly in Old French. Among them there are truly great works, such as the History of the Holy War (Estoire de la guerre sainte), describing the exploits of Richard the Lionheart, or the Song of Antioch (Le chanson d'Antioche), supposedly composed in Syria, dedicated to the 1st Crusade New artistic material, born of the Crusades, penetrated into ancient legends.Thus, the early medieval cycles about Charlemagne and King Arthur were continued.
The Crusades also stimulated the development of historiography. Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople remains the most authoritative source for the study of the 4th Crusade. Many consider the best medieval work in the biography genre to be the biography of King Louis IX, created by Jean de Joinville.
One of the most significant medieval chronicles was the book written in Latin by Archbishop William of Tyre, History of Deeds in Overseas Lands (Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum), vividly and reliably recreating the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1144 to 1184 (the year of the author’s death).

While digging on the Internet I found an interesting article. Or rather, this is an essay by a 4th year student at Smolensk Pedagogical University, Kupchenko Konstantin. While reading about the Crusades, I came across a mention of the Children's Crusade. But I didn’t even suspect that everything was so terrible!!! Read to the end, don't be afraid of the volume.

Children's Crusade. How it all began

Gustave Dore's Children's Crusade

Introduction

« It happened right after Easter. Before we even waited for Trinity, thousands of youths set off on their journey, leaving their jobs and their homes. Some of them were barely born and were only in their sixth year. For others, it was time to choose a bride for themselves; they chose feat and glory in Christ. They forgot the worries entrusted to them. They left the plow with which they had recently blasted the ground; they let go of the wheelbarrow that was weighing them down; they left the sheep, next to which they fought against the wolves, and thought about other adversaries, strong in the Mohammedan heresy... Parents, brothers and sisters, friends stubbornly persuaded them, but the firmness of the ascetics was unshakable. Having laid the cross on themselves and rallied under their banners, they moved towards Jerusalem... The whole world called them madmen, but they moved forward».

This is roughly how medieval sources tell the story of the event that shook up the entire Christian community in 1212. In the hot, dry summer of 1212, an event occurred that is known as the Children’s Crusade.

Chroniclers of the 13th century described in detail feudal quarrels and bloody wars, but did not pay close attention to this tragic page of the Middle Ages.

Children's campaigns are mentioned (sometimes briefly, in one or two lines, sometimes devoting half a page to their description) by over 50 medieval authors; Of these, only more than 20 are trustworthy, since they either saw the young crusaders with their own eyes. And the information from these authors is very fragmentary. Here, for example, is one of the references to the children’s crusade in a medieval chronicle:

"Called the Children's Crusade, 1212"

« Children of both sexes, boys and girls, and not only small children, but also adults, married women and girls went on this expedition - they all came in crowds with empty wallets, flooding not only all of Germany, but also the country of the Gauls and Burgundy. Neither friends nor relatives could in any way keep them at home: they resorted to any tricks to get on the road. Things got to the point that everywhere, in villages and right in the fields, people left their guns, throwing down even those they had in their hands, and joined the procession. Many people, seeing this as a sign of true piety, filled with the Spirit of God, hastened to supply the wanderers with everything they needed, distributing food and everything they needed. The clergy and some others who had a more sound judgment and denounced this walk were fiercely rebuffed by the laity, reproaching them for unbelief and claiming that they opposed this act more out of envy and stinginess than for the sake of truth and justice. Meanwhile, any work begun without proper testing by reason and without the support of wise discussion never leads to anything good. And so, when these crazy crowds entered the lands of Italy, they scattered in different directions and scattered throughout the cities and villages, and many of them fell into slavery to the local residents. Some, as they say, reached the sea, and there, trusting in the crafty shipmen, they allowed themselves to be taken to other overseas countries. Those who continued the campaign, having reached Rome, discovered that it was impossible for them to go further, since they did not have support from any authorities, and they finally had to admit that their waste of strength was empty and in vain, although, however, no one could remove from them the vow to commit a crusade - only children who had not reached conscious age and old people bent under the weight of years were free from it. So, disappointed and embarrassed, they set off on their way back. Having once been accustomed to marching from province to province in a crowd, each in his own company and never stopping the chants, they now returned in silence, one by one, barefoot and hungry. They were subjected to all kinds of humiliation, and more than one girl was captured by rapists and deprived of her virginity».

Religious authors of subsequent centuries, for obvious reasons, passed over the terrible plot in silence. And enlightened secular writers, even the most malicious and merciless, apparently considered the reminder of the senseless death of almost one hundred thousand children a “low blow”, an unworthy technique in polemics with clergy. Venerable historians saw in the absurd enterprise of children only obvious, indisputable stupidity, on the study of which it was inappropriate to expend mental potential. And therefore, in solid historical studies devoted to the crusaders, the children's crusade is given, at best, only a few pages between descriptions of the fourth (1202-1204) and fifth (1217-1221) crusades.

So what happened in the summer of 1212?First, let's turn to history, briefly consider the reasons for the Crusades in general and the campaign of children in particular.

Causes of the Crusades.

For quite a long time, Europe looked with alarm at what was happening in Palestine. The stories of pilgrims returning from there to Europe about the persecution and insults they endured in the Holy Land worried the European peoples. Little by little, a conviction was created to return to the Christian world its most precious and revered shrines. But in order for Europe to send numerous hordes of various nationalities to this enterprise for two centuries, it was necessary to have special reasons and a special situation.

There were many reasons in Europe that helped bring the idea of ​​the Crusades to fruition. Medieval society was generally distinguished by its religious mood; the crusades were a unique form of pilgrimage; The rise of the papacy was also of great importance for the crusades. In addition, for all classes of medieval society, the crusades seemed very attractive from a worldly point of view. Barons and knights, in addition to religious motives, hoped for glorious deeds, for profit, for the satisfaction of their ambition; merchants hoped to increase their profits by expanding trade with the East; oppressed peasants were freed from serfdom for participating in the crusade and knew that during their absence the church and state would take care of the families they left behind in their homeland; debtors and defendants knew that during their participation in the crusade they would not be pursued by creditors or courts.

A quarter of a century before the events described below, the famous Sultan Salah ad-Din, or Saladin, defeated the crusaders and cleared Jerusalem of them. The best knights of the Western world tried to return the lost shrine.

Many people of that time came to the conviction: if adults burdened with sins cannot return Jerusalem, then innocent children must complete this task, since God will help them. And then, to the joy of the pope, a child prophet appeared in France and began preaching a new crusade.

Chapter 1. Young preacher of the children's crusade - Stephen of Cloix.

In 1200 (or maybe the next year) near Orleans in the village of Cloix (or maybe in another place) a peasant boy named Stephen was born. This is too similar to the beginning of the fairy tale, but this is only a reproduction of the negligence of the chroniclers of that time and the discrepancy in their stories about the children's crusade. However, a fairy-tale beginning is quite appropriate for a story about a fairy-tale fate. This is what the chronicles tell us.

Like all peasant children, Stefan helped his parents from an early age - he tended cattle. He differed from his peers only in his slightly greater piety: Stefan visited church more often than others, and cried more bitterly than others from the feelings that overwhelmed him during liturgies and religious processions. Since childhood, he was shocked by the April “movement of the black crosses” - a solemn procession on St. Mark’s Day. On this day, prayers were offered for the soldiers who died in the holy land, for those tortured in Muslim slavery. And the boy burst into flames along with the crowd, furiously cursing the infidels.

On one of the warm May days of 1212, he met a pilgrim monk coming from Palestine and asking for alms.The monk began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened in fascination. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then unexpectedly he was Jesus Christ.

Everything that followed was like a dream (or this meeting was the boy’s dream). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's crusade, for "from the mouths of babies comes power against the enemy." There is no need for swords or armor - to conquer Muslims, the sinlessness of children and God's word in their mouths will be enough. Then the numb Stephen accepted a scroll from the hands of the monk - a letter to the King of France. After which the monk quickly left.

Stefan could no longer remain a shepherd. The Almighty called him to a feat. Out of breath, the boy rushed home and dozens of times recounted what had happened to him to his parents and neighbors, who peered in vain (because they were illiterate) at the words of the mysterious scroll. Neither ridicule nor slaps on the head cooled Stefan's zeal. The next day he packed his knapsack, took his staff and headed to Saint-Denis - to the abbey of Saint Dionysius, patron of France. The boy correctly judged that it was necessary to gather volunteers for the children’s hike in the place of the greatest concentration of pilgrims.

And so, early in the morning, a frail boy walked with a knapsack and a staff on a deserted road. The "snowball" started rolling. The boy can still be stopped, restrained, tied up and thrown into the basement to “cool off.” But no one foresaw the tragic future.

One of the chroniclers testifies " according to conscience and truth" that Stefan was" an early matured scoundrel and the nest of all vices"But these lines were written thirty years after the sad ending of the crazy idea, when in hindsight they began to look for a scapegoat. After all, if Stephen had a bad reputation in Cloix, the imaginary Christ would not have chosen him for the role of a saint. It is hardly worth calling Stephen a holy fool, as Soviet researchers do. He could simply be an exalted, trusting boy, quick-witted and eloquent.

Along the way, Stefan stayed in cities and villages, where he gathered dozens and hundreds of people with his speeches. From numerous repetitions, he stopped being timid and confused in his words. An experienced little speaker came to Saint-Denis. The abbey, located nine kilometers from Paris, attracted thousands of crowds of pilgrims. Stefan was received there very well: the holiness of the place was conducive to expecting a miracle - and here it is: the child Chrysostom. The shepherd boy smartly recounted everything he had heard from the pilgrims, deftly knocking tears out of the crowds who had come to be moved and cry! "Lord, save those suffering in captivity!" Stephen pointed to the relics of Saint Dionysius, kept among gold and precious stones, revered by crowds of Christians. And then he asked: is this the fate of the Tomb of the Lord himself, daily desecrated by infidels? And he snatched a scroll from his bosom, and the crowds buzzed when the youth with burning eyes shook before them the immutable command of Christ addressed to the king. Stephen recalled the many wonders and signs that the Lord showed him.

Stephen preached to adults. But in the crowd there were hundreds of children, who were then often taken with them by their elders on their way to holy places.

A week later, the wonderful youth became fashionable, having withstood intense competition with adult talkers and holy fools.His children listened with fervent faith. He appealed to their secret dreams: about military exploits, about travel, about glory, about serving the Lord, about freedom from parental care. And how it flattered the ambition of teenagers! After all, the Lord chose not sinful and greedy adults as his instrument, but their children!

The pilgrims dispersed to the cities and villages of France. The adults quickly forgot about Stefan. But the children excitedly talked everywhere about their peer - a miracle worker and orator, capturing the imagination of the neighboring children and giving each other terrible vows to help Stefan. And now the games of knights and squires have been abandoned, the French children have begun the dangerous game of the army of Christ. The children of Brittany, Normandy and Aquitaine, Auvergne and Gascony, while the adults of all these regions quarreled and fought with each other, began to unite around an idea that was not higher and purer in the 13th century.

The chronicles are silent whether Stephen was a lucky find for the pope, or whether one of the prelates, or perhaps the pontiff himself, planned the appearance of the boy saint in advance. Whether the cassock that flashed in Stephen’s vision belonged to an unauthorized fanatic monk or a disguised messenger of Innocent III is now impossible to find out. And it doesn’t matter where the idea of ​​a children’s crusading movement arose - in the bowels of the papal curia or in children’s heads. Dad grabbed her with an iron grip.

Now everything was a good omen for the children's hike: the fertility of frogs, clashes between packs of dogs, even the beginning of a drought. Here and there “prophets” appeared, twelve, ten, and even eight years old. They all insisted that they were sent by Stefan, although many of them had never seen him. All these prophets healed the possessed and performed other “miracles”...

The children formed troops and marched around the neighborhood, recruiting new supporters everywhere. At the head of each procession, singing hymns and psalms, there was a prophet, followed by an oriflamme - a copy of the banner of St. Dionysius. Children held crosses and lit candles in their hands, and waved smoking censers.

And what a tempting sight it was for the children of the nobility, who watched the solemn procession of their peers from their castles and houses! But almost every one of them had a grandfather, father or older brother who fought in Palestine. Some of them died. And here is an opportunity to take revenge on the infidels, gain glory, and continue the work of the older generation. And children from noble families enthusiastically joined the new game, flocking to banners with images of Christ and the Ever-Virgin. Sometimes they became leaders, sometimes they were forced to obey an honorable peer-prophet.

Many girls also joined the movement, who also dreamed of the Holy Land, exploits and freedom from parental authority. The leaders did not drive away the “girls” - they wanted to gather a larger army. Many girls dressed up as boys for safety and ease of movement.

As soon as Stefan (May had not yet expired!) announced Vendôme as a gathering place, hundreds and thousands of teenagers began to converge there. With them were a few adults: monks and priests, going, in the words of the Monk Gray, “to plunder to their heart’s content or to pray to their heart’s content,” the city and village poor, who joined the children “not for Jesus, but for the sake of a bite of bread”; and most of all - thieves, sharpers, various criminal rabble who hoped to make money at the expense of noble children, well equipped for the journey. Many adults sincerely believed in the success of the campaign without weapons and hoped that they would get rich booty. There were also elders with the children who had fallen into their second childhood. Hundreds of corrupt women hovered around the offspring of noble families. So the detachments turned out to be surprisingly motley. And in the previous crusades, children, old people, hordes of Magdalenes and all sorts of scum took part. But beforethey were only a makeweight, and the core of Christ’s army was made up of barons and knights skilled in military affairs. Now, instead of broad-shouldered men in armor and chain mail, the core of the army was made up of unarmed children.

But where were the authorities and, most importantly, parents looking? Everyone was waiting for the children to stop freaking out and calm down.

King Philip II Augustus, a tireless collector of French lands, an insidious and far-sighted politician, initially approved of the children’s initiative. Philip wanted to have the pope on his side in the war with the English king and was not averse to pleasing Innocent III and organizing a crusade, but he just didn’t have enough power for that. Suddenly - this idea of ​​children, noise, enthusiasm. Of course, all this should ignite the hearts of barons and knights with righteous anger against the infidels!

However, the adults did not lose their heads. And the children's fuss began to threaten the peace of the state. The guys leave their houses, run to Vendôme, and are really going to move to the sea! But on the other hand, the pope remains silent, the legates are agitating for the campaign... The cautious Philip II was afraid of angering the pontiff, but nevertheless turned to the scientists of the newly created University of Paris. They answered firmly: the children must be stopped immediately! If necessary, by force, for their campaign is inspired by Satan! Responsibility for stopping the campaign was removed from him, and the king issued an edict commanding the children to immediately throw nonsense out of their heads and go home.

However, the royal edict did not make an impression on the children. In children's hearts there was a ruler more powerful than a king. Things have gone too far; shouting can no longer stop him. Only the faint-hearted returned home. The peers and barons did not risk using violence: the common people sympathized with this idea of ​​the children and would have risen to their defense. It would not have happened without riots. After all, the people had just been taught that God’s will would allow children to convert Muslims to Christians without weapons or bloodshed and, thus, free the “Holy Sepulcher” from the hands of the infidels.

In addition, the pope declared loudly: “These children serve as a reproach to us adults: while we sleep, they joyfully stand up for the holy land.” Pope Innocent III still hoped to awaken the enthusiasm of adults with the help of children. From distant Rome, he could not see the frenzied children's faces and, probably, did not realize that he had already lost control of the situation and could not stop the children's campaign. The mass psychosis that had gripped the children, skillfully fueled by the clergy, was now impossible to contain.

Therefore, Philip II washed his hands of the matter and did not insist on implementing his edict.

There was a groan of unhappy parents in the country. The funny, solemn children's processions around the area, which so touched the adults, turned into a general flight of teenagers from their families. Few families, in their fanaticism, themselves blessed their children for the disastrous campaign. Most fathers flogged their offspring, locked them in closets, but the children gnawed ropes, undermined walls, broke locks and ran away. And those who could not escape fought in hysterical, refused food, wasted away, fell ill. Willy-nilly, the parents gave up.

The children wore a uniform of sorts: gray simple shirts over short pants and a large beret. But many children could not afford even this: they walked in whatever they were wearing (often barefoot and with their heads uncovered, although the sun almost never set behind the clouds that summer). The participants in the campaign had a cloth cross of red, green or black sewn onto their chests (of course, these units competed with each other). Each detachment had its own commander, flag and other symbols, which the children were very proud of. When the troops with singing, banners, crosses cheerfully and solemnly passed through towns and villages on their way to Vendôme, only locks and strong oak doors could keep their son or daughter at home. It was like a plague swept through the country, killing tens of thousands of children.

Enthusiastic crowds of onlookers vigorously greeted the groups of children, which further fueled their enthusiasm and ambition.

Finally, some priests realized the danger of this idea. They began to stop the detachments where they could persuade the children to go home, assuring them that the idea of ​​a children’s trip was the machinations of the devil. But the guys were adamant, especially since papal emissaries met and blessed them in all major cities. Reasonable priests were immediately declared apostates. The superstition of the crowd, the enthusiasm of children and the machinations of the papal curia defeated common sense. And many of these apostate priests deliberately went with children doomed to inevitable death, like seven centuries later, teacher Janusz Korczak went with his students into the gas chamber of the fascist Treblinka concentration camp.

Chapter 2. Way of the Cross of German children.

The news of the boy prophet Stephen spread throughout the country at the speed of pilgrims on foot. Those who went to worship in Saint-Denis brought the news to Burgundy and Champagne, from there it reached the banks of the Rhine. In Germany, their “holy youth” was not slow to appear. And there the papal legates zealously set about shaping public opinion in favor of organizing a children's crusade.

The boy's name was Nicholas (we only know the Latin version of his name). He was born in a village near Cologne. He was twelve, or even ten years old. At first he was just a pawn in the hands of adults. Nicholas's father energetically pushed his child prodigy into being a prophet. It is not known whether the boy's father was rich, but he was undoubtedly guided by low motives. The chronicler monk, a witness to the process of “making” the child prophet, calls Father Nicholas “ roguish fool“We don’t know how much he earned from his son, but a few months later he paid for his son’s deeds with his life.

Cologne- the religious center of the German lands, where thousands of pilgrims often flocked with their children, was the best place to launch agitation. In one of the churches of the city, the zealously revered relics of the “Three Kings of the East” - the Magi who brought gifts to the infant Christ - were kept. Let us note a detail whose fatal role will become clear later: the relics were capturedFrederick I Barbarossa during his siege of Milan. And it was here, in Cologne, at the instigation of his father, that Nicholas proclaimed himself the chosen one of God.

Further events developed according to an already tested scenario: Nicholas had a vision of a cross in the clouds, and the voice of the Almighty ordered him to gather the children for a hike; the crowds wildly welcomed the newly-minted boy prophet; Immediately followed by his healing of the possessed and other miracles, rumors of which spread with incredible speed. Nicholas spoke on church porches, on stones and barrels in the middle of squares.

Then everything went according to a well-known pattern: adult pilgrims spread the news about the young prophet, children whispered and gathered in teams, marched around the outskirts of different cities and villages and finally left for Cologne. But the development of events in Germany also had its own characteristics. Frederick II, himself still a youth who had just won the throne from his uncle Otto IV, was at that time the pope’s favorite, and therefore could afford to contradict the pontiff. He resolutely forbade the idea of ​​children: the country was already shaken by unrest. Therefore, children gathered only from the Rhineland regions closest to Cologne. The movement snatched from families not just one or two children, as in France, but almost everyone, including even six- and seven-year-olds. It is this little one that, already on the second day of the hike, will begin to ask the elders to take care of them, and in the third or fourth week they will begin to get sick, die, and, at best, stay in roadside villages (due to ignorance of the way back - forever).

The second feature of the German version: among the motives for the children’s campaign, the first place here was occupied not by the desire to liberate the “holy land,” but by the thirst for revenge. Quite a lot of valiant Germans died in the Crusades - families of any rank and status remembered the bitter losses. That is why the detachments consisted almost entirely of boys (although some of them turned out to bedressed as girls), and the sermons of Nicholas and other leaders of local detachments consisted more than half of calls for revenge.

Detachments of children hastily gathered in Cologne. The campaign had to begin as soon as possible: the emperor is against, the barons are against, parents are breaking sticks on the backs of their sons! Just behold, the tempting idea will fall through!

The residents of Cologne showed miracles of patience and hospitality (there was nowhere to go) and provided shelter and food to thousands of children. Most of the boys spent the night in the fields around the city, groaning from the influx of criminal rabble who hoped to profit by joining the children's campaign.

And then the day came for the ceremonial performance from Cologne. End of June. Under the banner of Nicholas there are at least twenty thousand children (according to some chronicles, twice as many). These are mostly boys twelve years old and older. No matter how much the German barons resisted, there were more scions of noble families in Nicholas’s troops than in Stefan’s. After all, there were much more barons in fragmented Germany than in France. In the heart of every noble teenager, brought up on the ideals of knightly valor, a thirst for revenge burned for a grandfather, father or brother killed by the Saracens.

The people of Cologne poured out onto the city walls. Thousands of identically dressed children are lined up in columns in a field. Wooden crosses, banners, and pennants sway over the gray sea. Hundreds of adults - some in cassocks, some in rags - seem to be captives of the children's army. Nicholas, the commanders of the detachments, some of the children from noble families will ride in carts, surrounded by squires. But many young aristocrats with knapsacks and staves stand side by side with the last of their slaves.

Mothers of children from remote towns and villages wept and said goodbye. The time has come for the Cologne mothers to say goodbye and cry - their children make up almost half of the participants in the campaign.

But then the trumpets sounded. The children sang a hymn to the glory of Christ of their own composition, which, alas, has not been preserved for us by history. The formation moved, trembled - and moved forward to the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, the lamentations of mothers and the murmur of sensible people.

An hour passes - and the children's army disappears behind the hills. Only the singing of a thousand voices can still be heard from afar. The Cologne people disperse - proud: they have equipped their children for the journey, and the Franks are still digging!..

Not far from Cologne, Nicholas's army split into two huge columns. One was headed by Nicholas, the other by a boy whose name was not preserved in the chronicles. Nicholas's column moved south along a short route: through Lorraine along the Rhine, through western Swabia and through French Burgundy. The second column reached the Mediterranean along a long route: through Franconia and Swabia. For both of them, the Alps blocked the way to Italy. It would have been wiser to go over the plain to Marseille, but the French children intended to go there, and Italy seemed closer to Palestine than Marseille.

The detachments stretched for many kilometers. Both routes ran through semi-wild regions. The people there, not numerous even at that time, huddled close to a few fortresses. Wild animals came out onto the roads from the forests. The thickets were swarming with robbers. Children drowned in dozens while crossing rivers. In such conditions, entire groups ran back home. But the ranks of the children's army were immediately replenished with children from roadside villages.

Slava was ahead of the participants in the campaign. But not all cities fed them and allowed them to spend the night, even on the streets. Sometimes they drove them away, rightly protecting their children from the “infection”. The boys sometimes went without alms for a day or two. Food from the knapsacks of the weak quickly migrated to the stomachs of those who were stronger and older. Theft in the units flourished. Broken women swindled money from the offspring of noble and wealthy families; sharpers robbed children of their last penny, enticing them to play dice at rest stops. Discipline in the units fell day by day.

We set off early in the morning. In the heat of the day, we took a break in the shade of trees. While they walked, they sang simple hymns. At halts they told and listened to stories full of extraordinary adventures and miracles about battles and campaigns, about knights and pilgrims. Surely among the guys there were jokers and naughty people who ran after each other and danced when others collapsed after a multi-kilometer hike. Surely the children fell in love, quarreled, made peace, fought for leadership...

At a bivouac in the foothills of the Alps, near Lake Leman, Nicholas found himself at the head of an “army” almost half the size of the original. The majestic mountains only for a moment with their white caps of snow enchanted the children, who had never seen anything of such beauty. Then horror gripped their hearts: after all, they had to rise to these white caps!

Residents of the foothills greeted the children warily and sternly. It never occurred to them to feed the children. At least they didn't kill them. The grub in the knapsacks was melting. But that’s not all: in the mountain valleys, German children - many for the first and last time - met... the very Saracens whom they intended to baptize in the holy land! The vicissitudes of the era brought troops of Arab robbers here: they settled in these places, unwilling or unable to return to their homeland. The guys crept along the valley in silence, without songs, lowering their crosses. Here we should turn them back. Alas, only the rabble who clung to the children made smart conclusions. These scum had already robbed the children and fled, because what happened next promised only death or slavery among Muslims. The Saracens killed a dozen or so guys who lagged behind the detachment. But the children were already accustomed to such losses: every day they buried or abandoned dozens of their comrades without burial. Malnutrition, fatigue, stress and illness took their toll.

Crossing the Alps- without food and warm clothes - became a real nightmare for the participants of the hike. These mountains terrified even adults. Making your way along icy slopes, through eternal snow, along stone cornices - not everyone has the strength and courage to do this. When necessary, merchants with goods, military detachments, and clerics crossed the Alps to Rome and back.

The presence of guides did not save careless children from death. The stones cut my bare, freezing feet. Among the snow there were not even berries and fruits to satisfy hunger. The knapsacks were already completely empty. The crossing of the Alps, due to poor discipline, fatigue and weakness of the children, took twice as long as usual! Frostbitten feet slipped and did not obey, the children fell into the abyss. Behind the ridge a new ridge rose. We slept on the rocks. If they found branches for a fire, they warmed themselves. They probably fought over the heat. At night they huddled together to keep each other warm. Not everyone got up in the morning. The dead were thrown on the frozen ground - there was no strength even to cover them with stones or branches. At the highest point of the pass there was a monastery of missionary monks. There the children were slightly warmed up and welcomed. But where could we get food and warmth for such a crowd!

The descent was an incredible joy. Greenery! Silver of the rivers! Crowded villages, vineyards, citrus fruits, the height of a luxurious summer! After the Alps, only every third participant in the campaign survived. But those who remained, having perked up, thought that all the sorrows were already behind them. In this abundant land they will, of course, be caressed and fattened.

But it was not there. Italy met them with undisguised hatred.

After all, those whose fathers tormented these abundant lands with raids, desecrated the shrines and plundered the cities, appeared. Therefore, “German baby snakes” were not allowed into Italian cities. Only the most compassionate people gave alms, and then secretly from their neighbors. Barely three to four thousand children reached Genoa, stealing food and robbing fruit trees along the way.

On Saturday, August 25, 1212 (the only date in the chronicle of the campaign with which all chronicles agree), exhausted teenagers stood on the shore Genoese harbor. Two monstrous months and a thousand kilometers behind, so many friends buried, and now - the sea, and the holy land is just a stone's throw away.

How were they going to cross the Mediterranean? Where were they going to get money for the ships? The answer is simple. They don't need ships or money. The sea - with God's help - must part before them. From the first day of campaigning for the campaign, there was no talk of any ships or money.

Before the children there was a fabulous city - rich Genoa. Having perked up, they again raised high the remaining banners and crosses. Nicholas, who had lost his cart in the Alps and was now walking with everyone else, came forward and made a fiery speech. The boys greeted their leader with the same enthusiasm. Even if they were barefoot and in rags, with wounds and scabs, they reached the sea - the most stubborn, the strongest in spirit. The goal of the hike - the holy land - is very close.

The fathers of the free city received a delegation of children led by several priests (at other times during the campaign, the role of adult mentors is hushed up by the chroniclers, probably due to the reluctance to compromise the clergy who supported this ridiculous idea). The children did not ask for ships, they only asked for permission to spend the night on the streets and squares of Genoa. The city fathers, glad that they were not asked for money or ships, allowed the guys to stay for a week in the city, and then advised them to return to Germany in good health.

The participants of the hike entered the city in picturesque columns, again reveling in everyone’s attention and interest for the first time in many weeks. The townspeople greeted them with undisguised curiosity, but at the same time wary and hostile.

However, the Doge of Genoa and the senators changed their minds: no more weeks, let them get out of the city tomorrow! The mob was resolutely against the presence of little Germans in Genoa. True, the pope blessed the campaign, but suddenly these children are carrying out the insidious plan of the German emperor. On the other hand, the Genoese did not want to let go of so much free labor, and the children were invited to stay in Genoa forever and become good citizens of a free city.

But the participants in the campaign dismissed the proposal, which seemed ridiculous to them. After all, tomorrow is a journey across the sea!

In the morning, Nicholas's column lined up in all its glory at the edge of the surf. The townspeople crowded along the embankment. After the solemn liturgy, singing psalms, the troops moved towards the waves. The first rows entered the water up to their knees... up to their waists... And froze in shock: the sea did not want to part. The Lord did not keep his promise. New prayers and hymns did not help. As time went. The sun rose and became hot... The Genoese, laughing, went home. And the children still did not take their eyes off the sea and sang and sang until they were hoarse...

The permit to stay in the city was expiring. I had to leave. Several hundred teenagers, who had lost hope of the success of the campaign, seized on the offer of the city authorities to settle in Genoa. Young men from noble families were accepted into the best houses as sons, others were taken into service.

But the most stubborn gathered in a field not far from the city. And they began to consult. Who knows where God decided to open the bottom of the sea for them - maybe not in Genoa. We must go further, look for that place. And it’s better to die in sunny Italy than to return to your homeland beaten by dogs! And worse than shame are the Alps...

The greatly depleted detachments of unlucky young crusaders moved further to the South-East. There was no longer any question of discipline; they walked in groups, or rather in gangs, obtaining food by force and cunning. Nicholas is no longer mentioned by chroniclers - perhaps he remained in Genoa.

The horde of teenagers has finally reached Pisa. The fact that they were expelled from Genoa was an excellent recommendation for them in Pisa, a city that rivaled Genoa. The sea did not part here either, but the inhabitants of Pisa, in defiance of the Genoese, equipped two ships and sent some of the children to Palestine on them. There is a vague mention in the chronicles that they safely reached the shore of the holy land. But if this happened, they probably soon died of want and hunger - the Christians there themselves could barely make ends meet. The chronicles do not mention any meetings between child crusaders and Muslims.

In the fall, several hundred German teenagers reached Rome, whose poverty and desolation after the luxury of Genoa, Pisa and Florence struck them. Pope Innocent III received the representatives of the little crusaders, praised them, and then scolded them and ordered them to return home, forgetting that their home was a thousand kilometers beyond the damned Alps. Then, by order of the head of the Catholic Church, the children kissed the cross, saying that, “having reached the age of perfection,” they would certainly finish the interrupted crusade. Now, at the very least, the pope had several hundred crusaders for the future.

Few participants in the campaign decided to return to Germany; most of them settled in Italy. Only a few reached their homeland - after many months, or even years. Due to their ignorance, they did not even know how to really tell where they had been. The Children's Crusade resulted in a kind of migration of children - their dispersion to other regions of Germany, Burgundy and Italy.

The second German column, no less numerous than Nicholas's, suffered the same tragic fate. The same thousands of deaths on the roads - from hunger, fast currents, predatory animals; the most difficult crossing of the Alps - true, through another, but no less destructive pass. Everything was repeated. Only there were even more uncollected corpses left behind: there was almost no general leadership in this column, and within a week the campaign turned into a wandering of uncontrollable hordes of teenagers hungry to the point of brutality. The monks and priests had great difficulty gathering children into groups and somehow restraining them, but this was before the first fight for alms.

In Italy, children managed to stick their noses into Milan, which for fifty years has barely recovered from Barbarossa's raid. They barely escaped from there: the Milanese hunted them with dogs like hares.

The sea did not part for the young crusaders even in Ravenna, nor in other places. Only a few thousand children made it to the very south of Italy. They had already heard about the pope’s decision to stop the campaign and planned to deceive the pontiff and sail to Palestine from the port of Brindisi. And many simply wandered forward by inertia, without hoping for anything. In the extreme south of Italy that year there was a terrible drought - the harvest was destroyed, the famine was such that, according to the chroniclers, "mothers devoured their children." It’s hard to even imagine what German children could eat in this hostile land, swollen with hunger.

Those who miraculously survived and made it to Brindisi, new misadventures awaited. The townspeople assigned the girls who participated in the campaign to sailor dens. Twenty years later, chroniclers will begin to wonder: why are there so many blond, blue-eyed prostitutes in Italy? Boys were captured and turned into semi-slaves; the surviving offspring of noble families were, of course, more fortunate - they were adopted.

Archbishop Brindisi tried to stop this coven. He gathered the remnants of the little martyrs and... wished them a pleasant return to Germany. The “merciful” bishop seated the most fanatical ones on several small boats and blessed them for the unarmed conquest of Palestine. The vessels equipped by the bishop sank almost in sight of Brindisi.

Chapter 3. Stations of the Cross of French Children

More than thirty thousand French children came out when German children were already freezing in the mountains. There was no less solemnity and tears during the farewell than in Cologne.

In the first days of the hike, the intensity of religious fanaticism among the teenagers was such that they did not notice any difficulties along the way. Saint Stephen rode in the best cart, carpeted and covered with expensive carpets. Young high-born adjutants of the leader pranced next to the cart. They happily rushed along the marching columns, conveying instructions and orders from their idol.

Stefan subtly grasped the mood of the masses of participants in the campaign and, if necessary, addressed them at rest stops with an incendiary speech. And then there was such a pandemonium around his cart that in this crush one or two children were certainly maimed or trampled to death. In such cases, they hastily built a stretcher or dug a grave, quickly said a prayer and hurried on, remembering the victims until the first crossroads. But they had a long and lively discussion about who was lucky enough to get hold of a scrap of St. Stephen’s clothing or a sliver of wood from his cart. This exaltation captured even those children who ran away from home and joined the crusading “army” not at all for religious reasons. Stefan's head was spinning from the consciousness of his power over his peers, from incessant praise and boundless adoration.

It is difficult to say whether he was a good organizer - most likely the movement of the detachments was led by the priests accompanying the children, although the chronicles are silent about this. It is impossible to believe that loud-mouthed teenagers could cope with thirty thousand “armies” without the help of adults, set up camps in convenient places, organize overnight stays, and give the troops directions in the morning.

While the young crusaders walked through the territory of their native country, the population everywhere received them hospitably. If children died on the hike, it was almost exclusively from sunstroke. And yet, gradually fatigue accumulated, discipline weakened. To maintain the enthusiasm of the participants in the campaign, they had to lie every day that the detachments would arrive at their destination by evening. Seeing some fortress in the distance, the children excitedly asked each other: “Jerusalem?” The poor fellows forgot, and many simply did not know, that it was possible to reach the “holy land” only by swimming across the sea.

We passed Tours, Lyon and came to Marseilles almost in full force. In a month, the guys walked five hundred kilometers. The ease of the route allowed them to get ahead of the German children and be the first to reach the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which, alas, did not open up for them.

Disappointed and even offended by God, the children scattered around the city. We spent the night. The next morning we prayed again on the seashore. By evening, several hundred children were missing from the detachments - they went home.

Days passed. The Marseilles somehow tolerated the horde of children that fell on their heads. Fewer and fewer “crusaders” came to the sea to pray. The leaders of the expedition looked longingly at the ships in the harbor - if they had money, they would not have disdained now the usual way of crossing the sea.

The Marseilles began to grumble. The atmosphere was heating up. Suddenly, according to the old expression, the Lord looked back at them. One fine day the sea parted. Of course, not in the literal sense of the word.

The sad situation of the young crusaders touched two of the most eminent merchants of the city - Hugo Ferreus and William Porcus (Hugo the Iron and William the Pig). However, these two devilish figures with their gloomy nicknames were not at all invented by the chronicler. Their names are also mentioned by other sources. And out of pure philanthropy, they provided the children with the required number of ships and provisions.

The miracle promised to you, St. Stephen broadcast from the platform in the city square, has happened! We simply misunderstood God's signs. It was not the sea that had to part, but the human heart! The will of God is revealed to us in the actions of two venerable Marseilles, etc.

And again the guys crowded around their idol, again they tried to snatch a piece of his shirt, again they crushed someone to death...

But among the children there were many who tried to quickly get out of the crowd in order to quietly sneak out of blessed Marseille. Medieval boys had heard enough about the unreliability of ships of that time, about sea storms, about reefs and robbers.

By the next morning, the number of participants in the hike had decreased significantly. But it was for the best; those who remained sat comfortably on the ships, clearing their ranks of the faint-hearted. There were seven ships. According to the chronicles, a large ship of that time could accommodate up to seven hundred knights. Thus, we can reasonably assume that no fewer children were placed on each ship. This means that the ships took about five thousand children. With them were no less than four hundred priests and monks.

Almost the entire population of Marseille poured out to see the children off. After the solemn prayer service, ships under sail, decorated with flags, accompanied by chants and enthusiastic cries of the townspeople, majestically sailed from the harbor, and now they disappeared over the horizon. Forever.

For eighteen years nothing was known about the fate of these ships and the children who sailed on them.

Chapter 4. Tragic ending. What remains in the memory of Europeans about the children's crusade.

Eighteen years have passed since the departure of the young crusaders from Marseille. All deadlines for the return of the participants in the children's campaign have passed.

After the death of Pope Innocent III, two more crusades ended, and they managed to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims by entering into an alliance with the Egyptian Sultan... In a word, life went on. They forgot to even think about the missing children. To throw out a cry, to rouse Europe in search, to find five thousand guys who may still be alive - this never occurred to anyone. Such wasteful humanism was not the custom of that time.

The mothers have already cried. Children were born seemingly and invisible. And a lot of people died. Although, of course, it is difficult to imagine that the hearts of the mothers who took their children on a hike were not aching from the bitterness of a senseless loss.

In 1230, a monk who had once sailed from Marseilles with his children suddenly appeared in Europe. Released from Cairo for some merit, mothers of children who had disappeared during the campaign flocked to him from all over Europe. But how much joy did they have from the fact that the monk saw their son in Cairo, that the son or daughter was still alive? The monk said that about seven hundred participants of the campaign were languishing in captivity in Cairo. Of course, not a single person in Europe lifted a finger to redeem the former idols of the ignorant crowds from slavery.

From the stories of the runaway monk, which quickly spread throughout the continent, the parents finally learned about the tragic fate of their missing children. And this is what happened:

The children, crowded in the holds of the ships that sailed from Marseille, suffered terribly from stuffiness, seasickness and fear. They were afraid of sirens, leviathans and, of course, storms. It was the storm that struck the unfortunates when they passed Corsica and went around Sardinia. The ships drifted towards St. Peter's Island at the southwestern tip of Sardinia. At dusk, children screamed in horror as the ship was tossed from wave to wave. Dozens of those on deck were washed overboard. Five ships were carried past the reefs by the current. And two flew straight onto the coastal rocks. Two ships with children were blown to pieces.

Fishermen immediately after the shipwreck buried hundreds of children's corpses on a desert island. But such was the disunity of Europe at that time that news of this did not reach either the French or German mothers. Twenty years later, the children were reburied in one place and the Church of the New Immaculate Infants was erected on their mass grave. The church became a place of pilgrimage. This went on for three centuries. Then the church fell into disrepair, even its ruins were lost over time...

Five other ships somehow made it to the African coast. True, it nailed them in Algiers harbor... But it turned out that this is where they were supposed to sail! They were clearly expected here. Muslim ships met them and escorted them to the port. Exemplary Christians, compassionate Marseilles Ferreus and Porcus donated seven ships because they intended to sell five thousand children into slavery to the infidels. As the merchants correctly calculated, the monstrous disunity between the Christian and Muslim worlds contributed to the success of their criminal plan and ensured their personal safety.

The children knew what slavery among the infidels was from the terrible stories that pilgrims spread throughout Europe. It is therefore impossible to describe their horror when they realized what had happened.

Some of the children were bought up at the Algerian bazaar, and they became slaves, concubines or concubines of wealthy Muslims. The rest of the guys were loaded onto ships and taken to Alexandria markets. The four hundred monks and priests who were brought to Egypt with their children were incredibly lucky: they were bought by the elderly Sultan Malek Kamel, better known as Safadin. This enlightened ruler had already divided his possessions between his sons and had leisure for scholarly pursuits. He settled Christians in the Cairo palace and forced them to translate from Latin into Arabic. The most educated of the learned slaves shared their European wisdom with the Sultan and gave lessons to his courtiers. They lived a satisfying and comfortable life, but they could not go beyond Cairo. While they were settling into the palace, blessing God, the children worked in the fields and died like flies.

Several hundred little slaves were sent to Baghdad. And it was possible to get to Baghdad only through Palestine... Yes, the children did set foot on Holy land. But in shackles or with ropes around the neck. They saw the majestic walls of Jerusalem. They walked through Nazareth, their bare feet burning the sands of Galilee... In Baghdad, the young slaves were sold. One of the chronicles says that the Baghdad caliph decided to convert them to Islam. And although this event is described according to the stencil of that time: they were tortured, beaten, tormented, but not one betrayed their native faith - the story could be true. The boys, who, for the sake of a high goal, went through so much suffering, could well have shown an unbending will and died as martyrs for the faith. There were, according to the chronicles, eighteen of them. The caliph abandoned his idea and sent the remaining Christian fanatics to slowly dry out in the fields.

In Muslim lands, young crusaders died from illness, from beatings, or they settled down, learned the language, gradually forgetting their homeland and relatives. They all died in slavery - not one returned from captivity.

What happened to the leaders of the young crusaders? Stephen was heard of only before his column arrived in Marseille. Nicholas disappeared from sight in Genoa. The third, nameless, leader of the child crusaders disappeared into obscurity.

As for the contemporaries of the children's crusade, then, as we have already said, the chroniclers limited themselves to only a very cursory description of it, and the common people, having forgotten their enthusiasm and delight in the idea of ​​​​the little madmen, fully agreed with the two-line Latin epigram - literature honored the hundred thousand lost children in just six words:

To the shore stupid
The child's mind leads.

Thus ended one of the worst tragedies in European history.

Material taken from here http://www.erudition.ru/referat/printref/id.16217_1.html slightly shortened and removed the situation in Europe at the beginning of the 13th century. and an excursion into the history of the Crusades. The book "The Crusader in Jeans" about the events described above can be found on Librusek. By Thea Beckman.

Educational institution

"Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin"

Test

on the history of the Middle Ages

on the topic of: Crusades

2nd year students, group “B” (OZO)

Faculty of History

Streha Elena Vladimirovna

Introduction

1. Reasons for the Crusades

2. Beginning of the Crusades

Subsequent Crusades

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Crusades are usually called military expeditions of Western European Christians with the goal of conquering and protecting the main Christian shrines in Palestine. Participants sewed a cross onto their cloaks - a symbol of Christianity. They received forgiveness of all their sins from the popes. It was the Catholic Church, or rather the papacy, that was the organizer of the Crusades. The time of the Crusades is usually counted from 1096 (the beginning of the first of them) and ends in 1270 (the last, Eighth Campaign) or 1291, when the Muslims took the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the East - the fortress of Acre. After the first crusades in Palestine, the papacy began to use the crusader idea in the fight against heretics and even rebellious kings. Crusades were organized in the 14th and 15th centuries, in particular against the Turks, but these were isolated episodes. The mass crusader movement existed precisely at the end of the 11th - end of the 13th centuries.

The Crusades were, of course, religious wars of Christians against Muslims, but their reasons and character were much deeper.

The main religious slogan of the Crusades, which the church proclaimed, was the liberation and protection of Christian shrines in Palestine, mainly the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The purpose of the First Crusade was also to help the Orthodox Christians of Byzantium, which suffered greatly from the attack of Muslims and was itself looking for help. Of course, the papacy hoped that such support from Western European co-religionists would help overcome the church schism and spread papal primacy to Eastern Christians.

1. Reasons for the Crusades

The crusades began with the popes, who were nominally considered the leaders of all enterprises of this kind. The popes and other instigators of the movement promised heavenly and earthly rewards to all those who would put their lives in danger for the holy cause. The campaign to recruit volunteers was particularly successful due to the religious fervor that reigned in Europe at the time. Whatever their personal motives for participating (and in many cases they played a vital role), the soldiers of Christ were confident that they were fighting for a just cause.

The immediate cause of the Crusades was the growth of the power of the Seljuk Turks and their conquest of the Middle East and Asia Minor in the 1070s. Coming from Central Asia, at the beginning of the century the Seljuks penetrated into Arab-controlled areas, where they were initially used as mercenaries. Gradually, however, they became more and more independent, conquering Iran in the 1040s, and Baghdad in 1055.

Then the Seljuks began to expand the borders of their possessions to the west, leading an offensive mainly against the Byzantine Empire. The decisive defeat of the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071 allowed the Seljuks to reach the shores of the Aegean Sea, conquer Syria and Palestine, and take Jerusalem in 1078 (other dates are also indicated).

The threat from the Muslims forced the Byzantine emperor to turn to Western Christians for help. The fall of Jerusalem greatly disturbed the Christian world.

The conquests of the Seljuk Turks coincided with a general religious revival in Western Europe in the 10th-11th centuries, which was largely initiated by the activities of the Benedictine monastery of Cluny in Burgundy, founded in 910 by the Duke of Aquitaine, William the Pious. Thanks to the efforts of a number of abbots who persistently called for the purification of the church and the spiritual transformation of the Christian world, the abbey became a very influential force in the spiritual life of Europe.

At the same time in the 11th century. the number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land increased. The “Infidel Turk” was portrayed as a desecrator of shrines, a pagan barbarian, whose presence in the Holy Land is intolerable for God and man. In addition, the Seljuks posed an immediate threat to the Christian Byzantine Empire.

For many kings and barons, the Middle East seemed like a world of great opportunity. Lands, income, power and prestige - all this, they believed, would be the reward for the liberation of the Holy Land. Due to the expansion of the practice of inheritance based on primogeniture, many younger sons of feudal lords, especially in the north of France, could not count on participating in the division of their father's lands. Having taken part in the crusade, they could already hope to acquire land and position in society, which their older, more successful brothers possessed.

The Crusades gave peasants the opportunity to free themselves from lifelong serfdom. As servants and cooks, peasants formed the convoy of the Crusaders.

For purely economic reasons, European cities were interested in the crusades. For several centuries, the Italian cities of Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice battled Muslims for dominance over the western and central Mediterranean. By 1087, the Italians had driven the Muslims out of southern Italy and Sicily, founded settlements in North Africa, and took control of the western Mediterranean. They launched sea and land invasions of Muslim territories in North Africa, forcing trade privileges from local residents. For these Italian cities, the Crusades only meant a transfer of military operations from the Western Mediterranean to the Eastern.

2. The beginning of the Crusades

The beginning of the Crusades was proclaimed at the Council of Clermont in 1095 by Pope Urban II. He was one of the leaders of the Cluny reform and devoted many meetings of the council to discussing the troubles and vices that hindered the church and clergy. On November 26, when the council had already completed its work, Urban addressed a huge audience, probably numbering several thousand representatives of the highest nobility and clergy, and called for a war against infidel Muslims in order to liberate the Holy Land. In his speech, the pope emphasized the sanctity of Jerusalem and the Christian relics of Palestine, spoke of the plunder and desecration to which they were subjected by the Turks, and outlined the numerous attacks on pilgrims, and also mentioned the danger facing Christian brothers in Byzantium. Then Urban II called on his listeners to take up the holy cause, promising everyone who went on the campaign absolution, and everyone who laid down their lives in it - a place in paradise. The pope called on the barons to stop destructive civil strife and turn their ardor to a charitable cause. He made it clear that the crusade would provide the knights with ample opportunities to gain lands, wealth, power and glory - all at the expense of the Arabs and Turks, whom the Christian army would easily deal with.

The response to the speech was the shouts of the listeners: “Deus vult!” (“God wants it!”). These words became the battle cry of the crusaders. Thousands of people immediately vowed that they would go to war.

Pope Urban II ordered the clergy to spread his call throughout Western Europe. Archbishops and bishops (the most active among them was Adhemar de Puy, who took the spiritual and practical leadership of the preparations for the campaign) called on their parishioners to respond to it, and preachers like Peter the Hermit and Walter Golyak conveyed the pope’s words to the peasants. Often, preachers aroused such religious fervor in the peasants that neither their owners nor local priests could restrain them; they took off in thousands and set off on the road without supplies and equipment, without the slightest idea of ​​the distance and hardships of the journey, in naive confidence, that God and the leaders will take care of both that they do not get lost and their daily bread. These hordes marched across the Balkans to Constantinople, expecting to be treated with hospitality by fellow Christians as champions of a holy cause.

However, the local residents greeted them coolly or even with contempt, and then the Western peasants began to loot. In many places, real battles took place between the Byzantines and the hordes from the west. Those who managed to get to Constantinople were not at all welcome guests of the Byzantine Emperor Alexei and his subjects. The city temporarily settled them outside the city limits, fed them and hastily transported them across the Bosporus to Asia Minor, where the Turks soon dealt with them.

1st Crusade (1096-1099). The 1st Crusade itself began in 1096. Several feudal armies took part in it, each with its own commander-in-chief. They arrived in Constantinople by three main routes, by land and sea, during 1096 and 1097. The campaign was led by feudal barons, including Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, Count Raymond of Toulouse and Prince Bohemond of Tarentum. Formally, they and their armies obeyed the papal legate, but in fact they ignored his instructions and acted independently.

The crusaders, moving overland, took food and fodder from the local population, besieged and plundered several Byzantine cities, and repeatedly clashed with Byzantine troops. The presence of a 30,000-strong army in and around the capital, demanding shelter and food, created difficulties for the emperor and the inhabitants of Constantinople. Fierce conflicts broke out between the townspeople and the crusaders; At the same time, disagreements between the emperor and the military leaders of the crusaders worsened.

Relations between the emperor and the knights continued to deteriorate as the Christians moved east. The crusaders suspected that the Byzantine guides were deliberately luring them into ambushes. The army turned out to be completely unprepared for sudden attacks by enemy cavalry, which managed to hide before the knightly heavy cavalry rushed in pursuit. The lack of food and water aggravated the hardships of the campaign. Wells along the way were often poisoned by Muslims. Those who endured these most difficult trials were rewarded with their first victory when Antioch was besieged and taken in June 1098. Here, according to some evidence, one of the crusaders discovered a shrine - a spear with which a Roman soldier pierced the side of the crucified Christ. This discovery is reported to have greatly inspired the Christians and contributed greatly to their subsequent victories. The fierce war lasted another year, and on July 15, 1099, after a siege that lasted little more than a month, the Crusaders took Jerusalem and put its entire population, Muslims and Jews, to the sword.

After much debate, Godfrey of Bouillon was elected king of Jerusalem, who, however, unlike his not so modest and less religious successors, chose the unassuming title of “Defender of the Holy Sepulcher.” Godfrey and his successors were given control of a power united only nominally. It consisted of four states: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem proper. The King of Jerusalem had rather conditional rights in relation to the other three, since their rulers had established themselves there even before him, so they fulfilled their vassal oath to the king (if they performed) only in the event of a military threat. Many sovereigns made friends with the Arabs and Byzantines, despite the fact that such a policy weakened the position of the kingdom as a whole. Moreover, the king's power was significantly limited by the church: since the Crusades were carried out under the auspices of the church and nominally led by the papal legate, the highest cleric in the Holy Land, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was an extremely influential figure there.

The kingdom's population was very diverse. In addition to the Jews, there were many other nations present here: Arabs, Turks, Syrians, Armenians, Greeks, etc. Most of the crusaders came from England, Germany, France and Italy. Since there were more French, the crusaders were collectively called Franks.

At least ten important centers of commerce and trade developed during this time. Among them are Beirut, Acre, Sidon and Jaffa. In accordance with privileges or grants of powers, Italian merchants established their own administration in coastal cities. Usually they had their own consuls (heads of administration) and judges here, acquired their own coins and a system of weights and measures. Their legislative codes also applied to the local population.

As a rule, the Italians paid taxes on behalf of the townspeople to the king of Jerusalem or his governors, but in their daily activities they enjoyed complete independence. Special quarters were allocated for the residences and warehouses of the Italians, and near the city they planted gardens and vegetable gardens in order to have fresh fruits and vegetables. Like many knights, Italian merchants made friends with Muslims, of course, in order to make a profit. Some even went so far as to include sayings from the Koran on coins.

The backbone of the crusader army was formed by two orders of chivalry - the Knights Templar (Templars) and the Knights of St. John (Johnnites or Hospitallers). They included predominantly the lower strata of the feudal nobility and the younger scions of aristocratic families. Initially, these orders were created to protect temples, shrines, roads leading to them and pilgrims; provision was also made for the creation of hospitals and care for the sick and wounded. Since the orders of the Hospitallers and Templars set religious and charitable goals along with military ones, their members took monastic vows along with the military oath. The orders were able to replenish their ranks in Western Europe and receive financial assistance from those Christians who were unable to take part in the crusade, but were eager to help the holy cause.

Due to such contributions, the Templars in the 12-13th centuries. essentially turned into a powerful banking house that provided financial intermediation between Jerusalem and Western Europe. They subsidized religious and commercial enterprises in the Holy Land and gave loans to the feudal nobility and merchants here in order to obtain them in Europe.

3. Subsequent Crusades

2nd Crusade (1147-1149). When Edessa was captured by the Muslim ruler of Mosul, Zengi, in 1144 and news of this reached Western Europe, the head of the Cistercian monastic order, Bernard of Clairvaux, convinced the German Emperor Conrad III (reigned 1138-1152) and King Louis VII of France (reigned 1137-1180) to undertake a new crusade. This time, Pope Eugene III issued a special bull on the Crusades in 1145, which contained precisely formulated provisions that guaranteed the families of the crusaders and their property the protection of the church.

The forces that were able to attract participation in the campaign were enormous, but due to the lack of cooperation and a well-thought-out campaign plan, the campaign ended in complete failure. Moreover, he gave the Sicilian king Roger II a reason to raid Byzantine possessions in Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea.

3rd Crusade (1187-1192). If Christian military leaders were constantly in discord, then Muslims under the leadership of Sultan Salah ad-din united into a state that stretched from Baghdad to Egypt. Salah ad-din easily defeated the divided Christians, took Jerusalem in 1187 and established control over the entire Holy Land, with the exception of a few coastal cities.

The 1st Crusade was led by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (reigned 1152-1190), the French king Philip II Augustus (reigned 1180-1223) and the English king Richard I the Lionheart (reigned 1189-1199). The German emperor drowned in Asia Minor while crossing a river, and only a few of his warriors reached the Holy Land. Two other monarchs who competed in Europe took their disputes to the Holy Land. Philip II Augustus, under the pretext of illness, returned to Europe to try, in the absence of Richard I, to take away the Duchy of Normandy from him.

Richard the Lionheart remained the only leader of the crusade. The exploits he accomplished here gave rise to legends that surrounded his name with an aura of glory. Richard recaptured Acre and Jaffa from the Muslims and concluded an agreement with Salah ad-din on unimpeded access for pilgrims to Jerusalem and some other shrines, but he failed to achieve more. Jerusalem and the former Kingdom of Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule. Richard's most significant and lasting achievement in this campaign was his conquest of Cyprus in 1191, where as a result an independent Kingdom of Cyprus arose, which lasted until 1489.

4th Crusade (1202-1204). The 4th Crusade, announced by Pope Innocent III, was mainly carried out by the French and Venetians. The vicissitudes of this campaign are described in the book of the French military leader and historian Geoffroy Villehardouin, “The Conquest of Constantinople” - the first lengthy chronicle in French literature.

According to the initial agreement, the Venetians undertook to deliver the French crusaders by sea to the shores of the Holy Land and provide them with weapons and provisions. Of the expected 30 thousand French soldiers, only 12 thousand arrived in Venice, who, due to their small numbers, could not pay for the chartered ships and equipment. Then the Venetians proposed to the French that, as payment, they would assist them in an attack on the port city of Zadar in Dalmatia, which was the main rival of Venice in the Adriatic, subject to the Hungarian king. The original plan - to use Egypt as a springboard for an attack on Palestine - was put on hold for the time being.

Having learned about the plans of the Venetians, the pope forbade the expedition, but the expedition took place and cost its participants excommunication. In November 1202, a combined army of Venetians and French attacked Zadar and thoroughly plundered it. After this, the Venetians suggested that the French once again deviate from the route and turn against Constantinople in order to restore the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus to the throne. A plausible pretext was also found: the crusaders could count on that, in gratitude, the emperor would give them money, people and equipment for an expedition to Egypt.

Ignoring the pope's ban, the crusaders arrived at the walls of Constantinople and returned the throne to Isaac. However, the question of payment of the promised reward hung in the air, and after an uprising occurred in Constantinople and the emperor and his son were removed, hopes for compensation melted away. Then the crusaders captured Constantinople and plundered it for three days starting on April 13, 1204. The greatest cultural values ​​were destroyed, and many Christian relics were plundered. In place of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire was created, on the throne of which Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was placed.

The empire that existed until 1261 of all the Byzantine lands included only Thrace and Greece, where the French knights received feudal appanages as a reward. The Venetians owned the harbor of Constantinople with the right to levy duties and achieved a trade monopoly within the Latin Empire and on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Thus, they benefited the most from the crusade, but its participants never reached the Holy Land.

The pope tried to extract his own benefits from the current situation - he lifted the excommunication from the crusaders and took the empire under his protection, hoping to strengthen the union of the Greek and Catholic churches, but this union turned out to be fragile, and the existence of the Latin Empire contributed to the deepening of the schism.

Children's Crusade (1212). Perhaps the most tragic of attempts to return the Holy Land. The religious movement, which originated in France and Germany, involved thousands of peasant children who were convinced that their innocence and faith would achieve what adults could not achieve by force of arms.

The religious fervor of the teenagers was fueled by their parents and parish priests. The pope and the higher clergy opposed the enterprise, but were unable to stop it. Several thousand French children (possibly up to 30,000), led by the shepherd Etienne from Cloix near Vendôme (Christ appeared to him and handed him a letter to give to the king), arrived in Marseilles, where they were loaded onto ships.

Two ships sank during a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, and the remaining five reached Egypt, where the shipowners sold the children into slavery. Thousands of German children (estimated at up to 20 thousand), led by ten-year-old Nicholas from Cologne, headed to Italy on foot. While crossing the Alps, two-thirds of the detachment died from hunger and cold, the rest reached Rome and Genoa. The authorities sent the children back, and on the way back almost all of them died.

There is another version of these events. According to it, French children and adults, led by Etienne, first arrived in Paris and asked King Philip II Augustus to organize a crusade, but the king managed to persuade them to go home. The German children, under the leadership of Nicholas, reached Mainz, here some were persuaded to return, but the most stubborn continued their journey to Italy. Some arrived in Venice, others in Genoa, and a small group reached Rome, where Pope Innocent released them from their vow. Some children showed up in Marseille. Be that as it may, most of the children disappeared without a trace. Perhaps in connection with these events, the famous legend about the rat catcher from Hammeln arose in Germany.

The latest historical research casts doubt on both the scale of this campaign and its very fact in the version as it is usually presented. It has been suggested that the “Children’s Crusade” actually refers to the movement of the poor (serfs, farm laborers, day laborers) who had already failed in Italy and gathered for a crusade.

5th Crusade (1217-1221). At the 4th Lateran Council in 1215, Pope Innocent III declared a new crusade (sometimes it is considered as a continuation of the 4th campaign, and then the subsequent numbering is shifted). The performance was scheduled for 1217, it was led by the nominal king of Jerusalem, John of Brienne, the king of Hungary, Andrew (Endre) II, and others. In Palestine, military operations were sluggish, but in 1218, when new reinforcements arrived from Europe, the crusaders shifted the direction of their attack to Egypt and captured the city of Damiettu, located on the seashore.

The Egyptian Sultan offered the Christians to cede Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta, but the papal legate Pelagius, who was expecting the approach of the legendary Christian “King David” from the east, did not agree to this. In 1221, the crusaders launched an unsuccessful assault on Cairo, found themselves in a difficult situation and were forced to surrender Damietta in exchange for an unhindered retreat.

6th Crusade (1228-1229). This crusade, sometimes called a "diplomatic" crusade, was led by Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa. The king managed to avoid hostilities; through negotiations, he (in exchange for a promise to support one of the parties in the inter-Muslim struggle) received Jerusalem and a strip of land from Jerusalem to Acre. In 1229 Frederick was crowned king in Jerusalem, but in 1244 the city was again conquered by the Muslims.

7th Crusade (1248-1250). It was headed by the French king Louis IX the Saint. The military expedition undertaken against Egypt turned into a crushing defeat. The crusaders took Damietta, but on the way to Cairo they were completely defeated, and Louis himself was captured and forced to pay a huge ransom for his release.

8th Crusade (1270). Not heeding the warnings of his advisers, Louis IX again went to war against the Arabs. This time he targeted Tunisia in North Africa. The crusaders found themselves in Africa during the hottest time of the year and survived a plague epidemic that killed the king himself (1270). With his death, this campaign ended, which became the last attempt of Christians to liberate the Holy Land.

Christian military expeditions to the Middle East ceased after the Muslims took Acre in 1291. However, in the Middle Ages, the concept of “crusade” was applied to various kinds of religious wars of Catholics against those whom they considered enemies of the true faith or the church that embodied this faith, in including the Reconquista - the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims that lasted seven centuries.

Conclusion

military expedition christian crusade

Although the Crusades did not achieve their goal and, begun with general enthusiasm, ended in disaster and disappointment, they constituted an entire era in European history and had a serious impact on many aspects of European life.

Byzantine Empire.

The Crusades may have indeed delayed the Turkish conquest of Byzantium, but they could not prevent the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantine Empire was in a state of decline for a long time. Its final death meant the emergence of the Turks on the European political scene. The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 and the Venetian trade monopoly dealt the empire a mortal blow, from which it could not recover even after its revival in 1261.

Trade

The biggest beneficiaries of the Crusades were the merchants and artisans of the Italian cities, who provided the crusader armies with equipment, provisions and transport. In addition, Italian cities, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice, were enriched by a trade monopoly in the Mediterranean countries.

Italian merchants established trade relations with the Middle East, from where they exported various luxury goods to Western Europe - silks, spices, pearls, etc. The demand for these goods brought super profits and stimulated the search for new, shorter and safer routes to the East. Ultimately, this search led to the discovery of America. The Crusades also played an extremely important role in the emergence of the financial aristocracy and contributed to the development of capitalist relations in Italian cities.

Feudalism and the Church

Thousands of large feudal lords died in the Crusades, in addition, many noble families went bankrupt under the burden of debt. All these losses ultimately contributed to the centralization of power in Western European countries and the weakening of the system of feudal relations.

turned out to be contradictory. If the first campaigns helped strengthen the authority of the Pope, who took on the role of spiritual leader in the holy war against Muslims, then the 4th Crusade discredited the power of the Pope even in the person of such an outstanding representative as Innocent III. Business interests often took precedence over religious considerations, forcing the crusaders to disregard papal prohibitions and enter into business and even friendly contacts with Muslims.

Culture

It was once generally accepted that it was the Crusades that brought Europe to the Renaissance, but now such an assessment seems overestimated to most historians. What they undoubtedly gave the man of the Middle Ages was a broader view of the world and a better understanding of its diversity.

The Crusades were widely reflected in literature. A countless number of poetic works were composed about the exploits of the crusaders in the Middle Ages, mostly in Old French. Among them there are truly great works, such as the History of the Holy War (Estoire de la guerre sainte), describing the exploits of Richard the Lionheart, or the Song of Antioch (Le chanson d'Antioche), supposedly composed in Syria, dedicated to the 1st Crusade New artistic material, born of the Crusades, penetrated into ancient legends.Thus, the early medieval cycles about Charlemagne and King Arthur were continued.

The Crusades also stimulated the development of historiography. Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople remains the most authoritative source for the study of the 4th Crusade. Many consider the best medieval work in the biography genre to be the biography of King Louis IX, created by Jean de Joinville.

One of the most significant medieval chronicles was the book written in Latin by Archbishop William of Tyre, History of Deeds in Overseas Lands (Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum), vividly and reliably recreating the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1144 to 1184 (the year of the author’s death).

Bibliography

1.The era of the Crusades. ? M., 1914.

2.Zaborov M. Crusades. ? M., 1956.

.History of the Middle Ages: textbook. Benefit. At 3 o'clock? Part 2. High Middle Ages. / V.A. Fedosik (and others); edited by V.A Fedosika and I.O. Evtukhova. - Mn.: Ed. Center of BSU, 2008. - 327 p.

.Zaborov M. Historiography of the Crusades (XV-XIX centuries). ? M., 1971.

.Zaborov M. History of the Crusades in documents and materials. ? M., 1977.

.Zaborov M. Cross and sword. ? M., 1979.

.Mozheiko I.V. 1185 East-West. ? M.: Nauka, 1989. ? 524 pp.: ill.

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The Birth of the Crusades

By the beginning of the 11th century, the people inhabiting Europe did not know too much about the rest of the world. For them, the center of all life on earth was the Mediterranean. At the center of this world the Pope ruled as the head of Christianity.

The capitals of the former Roman Empire - Rome and Constantinople - were located in the Mediterranean basin.

The ancient Roman Empire collapsed around 400. into two parts, western and eastern. The Greek part, the Eastern Roman Empire, was called the Middle East or Orient. The Latin part, the Western Roman Empire, was called Occident. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist by the end of the 10th century, while the Eastern Byzantine Empire still existed.

Both parts of the former great empire were located north of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern coast of this elongated body of water was inhabited by Christians, the southern - by peoples professing Islam, Muslims, who even crossed the Mediterranean Sea and settled on the northern shore, in Italy, France and Spain. But now the Christians set out to oust them from there.

There was also no unity in Christianity itself. Since ancient times, very strained relations have existed between Rome, the seat of the western head of the church, and Constantinople, the seat of the eastern one.

A few years after the death of Muhammad (632), the founder of Islam, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula moved north and took possession of vast areas of the Middle East. Now, in the 11th century, Turkic tribes from Central Asia arrived here, threatening the Middle East. In 1701, they defeated the Byzantine army near Manzikert, captured Jewish and Christian shrines not only in Jerusalem itself, but throughout Palestine, and proclaimed Nicaea their capital. These conquerors were the Turkic-speaking Seljuk tribes, who had converted to Islam only a few years earlier.

At the end of the 11th century, a struggle for power broke out between church and state in Western Europe. In March 1088, Urban II, a Frenchman by birth, became Pope. He was going to reform the Roman Catholic Church to make it stronger. With the help of reforms, he wanted to strengthen his claims to the role of the only representative of God on earth. At this time, the Byzantine Emperor Alexei I asked the pope for help in the fight against the Seljuks, and Urban II immediately expressed his readiness to help him.

In November 1095 Not far from the French city of Clermont, Pope Urban II spoke in front of a huge crowd of gathered people - peasants, artisans, knights and monks. In a fiery speech, he called on everyone to take up arms and go to the East to win the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels and cleanse the holy land from them. The Pope promised forgiveness of sins to all participants in the campaign.

The news of the upcoming campaign to the Holy Land quickly spread throughout Western Europe. Priests in churches and holy fools on the streets called for participation in it. Under the influence of these sermons, as well as at the call of their hearts, thousands of poor people took up the holy crusade. In the spring of 1096, from France and Rhineland Germany, they moved in discordant crowds along roads long known to pilgrims: along the Rhine, Danube and further to Constantinople. They were poorly armed and suffered from food shortages. It was a rather wild procession, since along the way the crusaders mercilessly robbed the Bulgarians and Hungarians through whose lands they passed: they took away cattle, horses, food, and killed those who tried to defend their property. With grief in half, having killed many in skirmishes with local residents, in the summer of 1096 the peasants reached Constantinople. The end of the peasants' campaign was sad: in the fall of the same year, the Seljuk Turks met their army near the city of Nicaea and almost completely killed them or, having captured them, sold them into slavery. Out of 25 thousand. Only about 3 thousand of the “armies of Christ” survived.

First Crusade

In the summer of 1096 For the first time in history, a huge Christian army from representatives of many nations marched to the East. This army did not consist of noble knights; peasants inspired by the ideas of the cross and poorly armed townspeople, men and women, also took part in the campaign. In total, united in six large groups, from 50 to 70 thousand people set out on this campaign, most of them traveling most of the way on foot.

From the beginning, separate detachments headed by Pusnynnik and knight Walter, nicknamed Golyak, set out on the campaign. They numbered approximately 15 thousand people. Knight Golyak was followed first of all by the French.

As these peasant crowds marched through Hungary, they had to endure brutal battles with the embittered population. The ruler of Hungary, taught by bitter experience, demanded hostages from the crusaders, which guaranteed fairly “decent” behavior of the knights towards the Hungarians. However, this was an isolated incident. The Balkan Peninsula was plundered by the “soldiers of Christ” who marched through it.

In December 1096 - January 1097. The crusaders arrived at Constantinople. The largest army was led by Raymond of Toulouse; the papal legate Ademar was also in his retinue. Bohemond of Tarentum, one of the most ambitious and cynical leaders of the first crusade, went with an army to the East across the Mediterranean Sea. Robert of Flanders and Stefan of Blausky reached the Bosphorus by the same sea route.

Emperor Alexei I of Byzantium, back in 1095, turned to Pope Urban II with an urgent request to help him in the fight against the Seljuks and Pechenegs. However, he had a slightly different idea of ​​the help he asked for. He wanted to have mercenary soldiers who were paid from his own treasury and obeyed him. Instead, along with the wretched peasant militia, knightly detachments led by their princes approached the city.

It was not difficult to guess that the goals of the emperor - the return of the lost Byzantine lands - did not coincide with the goals of the crusaders. Understanding the danger of such “guests”, trying to use their military zeal for his own purposes, Alexei, through cunning, bribery and flattery, obtained from the majority of the knights a vassal oath and an obligation to return to the empire those lands that would be conquered from the Turks.

The first goal of the knightly army was Nicaea, once the site of large church cathedrals, and now the capital of the Seljuk Sultan Kilych Arslan. October 21, 1096 The Seljuks had already completely defeated the peasant army of the Crusaders. Those peasants who did not fall in battle were sold into slavery. Among the dead was Walter Golyak.

Peter the Hermit had not yet left Constantinople by that time. Now, in May 1097, he and the remnants of his army joined the knights.

Sultan Kilych-Arslan hoped to defeat the new newcomers in the same way, and therefore did not take the approach of the enemy seriously. But he was destined to be severely disappointed. His light cavalry and infantry, armed with bows and arrows, were defeated by the Western cavalry in open battle. However, Nicaea was located in such a way that it was impossible to take it without military support from the sea. Here the Byzantine fleet provided the necessary assistance to the crusaders, and the city was taken. The army of the crusaders moved further and on July 1, 1097.

The Crusaders managed to defeat the Seljuks in the former Byzantine territory of Dorileum (now Eskisehir, Turkey). A little further to the southeast, the army split up, most of them moving towards Caesarea (now Kayseri, Turkey) towards the Syrian city of Antioch. On October 20, the crusaders fought their way through the Iron Bridge on the Orontes River and soon stood under the walls of Antioch. At the beginning of July 1098, after a seven-month siege, the city surrendered. The Byzantines and Armenians helped take the city.

Meanwhile, some French crusaders established themselves in Edessa (now Urfa, Türkiye). Baldwin of Boulogne founded his own state here, stretching on both sides of the Euphrates. This was the first crusader state in the East; several more similar ones subsequently arose to the south of it.

After the capture of Antioch, the crusaders moved south along the coast without any special obstacles and captured several port cities along the way. June 6, 1098 Tancred, the nephew of Bohemond of Tarentum, finally entered with his army into Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. The path to Jerusalem opened before the knights.

Jerusalem was thoroughly prepared for the siege, there were plenty of food supplies, and in order to leave the enemy without water, all the wells around the city were rendered unusable. The crusaders lacked ladders, rams and siege engines to storm the city. They themselves had to extract wood in the vicinity of the city and build military equipment. This took a lot of time and only in July 1099. The crusaders managed to take Jerusalem.

They quickly dispersed throughout the city, grabbing gold and silver, horses and mules, and taking houses for themselves. After this, sobbing with joy, the soldiers went to the tomb of the Savior Jesus Christ and made amends for their guilt before Him.

Soon after the capture of Jerusalem, the Crusaders captured most of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In the occupied territory at the beginning of the 12th century. The knights created four states: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa. Power in these states was built on the basis of a feudal hierarchy. It was headed by the King of Jerusalem; the other three rulers were considered his vassals, but in reality they were independent. The church had enormous influence in the crusader states. She also owned large land holdings. On the lands of the Crusaders in the 11th century. The later spiritual and knightly orders arose: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutons.

With the conquest of the Holy Sepulcher, the main goal of this crusade was achieved. After 1100 the crusaders continued to expand their possessions. From May 1104 they owned Akkon, a large trading center on the Mediterranean Sea. In July 1109 they captured Tripoli and thereby rounded off their possessions. When the Crusader states reached their maximum size, their area extended from Edessa in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south.

The conquests of the first crusade by no means meant the end of the struggle. This was only a temporary truce, since there were still more Muslims than Christians living in the East.

Second Crusade

The Crusader states were surrounded on all sides by the peoples whose territory they had captured. Therefore, it is not surprising that the possessions of the invaders were constantly attacked by the Egyptians, Seljuks and Syrians.

However, Byzantium, at every opportunity, also took part in battles against Christian states in the East.

In 1137 Byzantine Emperor John II attacked and conquered Antioch. The Crusader states were in such discord among themselves that they did not even help Antioch. At the end of 1143 Muslim commander Imad ad-din Zengi attacked the county of Edessa and wrested it from the crusaders. The loss of Edessa caused anger and grief in Europe, for fear arose that the Muslim states would now act on a broad front against the invaders.

At the request of the King of Jerusalem, Pope Eugene III again called for a crusade. Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux took upon himself to organize it. March 31, 1146 in front of the newly erected Church of St. Magdalene in Wezelay, in Burgundy, he exhorted his listeners in fiery speeches to take part in the crusade. Countless crowds followed his call.

Soon the whole army set out on a campaign. The German king Conrad III and the French king Louis VII stood at the head of this army. In the spring of 1147 The crusaders left Regensbukg. The French chose the route through the Mediterranean Sea. The German troops passed through Hungary without any incident and entered the Byzantine lands. When the army of the cross passed through Anatolia, it was attacked by the Seljuks near Dorileum and suffered heavy losses. King Conrad was saved and reached the Holy Land only thanks to the Byzantine fleet.

The French also fared no better than the Germans. In 1148 not far from Laodicea they were subjected to a fierce attack by the Muslims. The help of the Byzantine army turned out to be completely insufficient - apparently, Emperor Manuel, deep down in his soul, wanted the defeat of the crusaders.

Meanwhile, Conrad III, Louis VII, the patriarch and the king of Jerusalem held a secret council about the true goals of the crusade and decided to seize Damascus with all available forces, which promised them rich booty.

But with this decision they only pushed the Syrian ruler into the arms of the Seljuk prince from Aleppo, who was advancing with a large army and with whom Syria had previously had hostile relations.

It soon became clear that the second crusade would not achieve its goal of recapturing lost Edessa. July 3, 1187 near the village of Hittin, west of Lake Gennesaret, a fierce battle broke out. The Muslim army outnumbered the Christian forces. As a result, the crusaders suffered a crushing defeat.

Countless numbers of them were killed in battle, and the survivors were taken prisoner. This defeat had fatal consequences for the Crusader states. They no longer had a combat-ready army. Only a few powerful fortresses in the north remained in Christian hands: Krak des Chevaliers, Chatel Blanc and Margat.

Third Crusade

So Jerusalem fell. This news shocked the entire Christian world. And again in Western Europe there were people ready to fight against Muslims. Already in December 1187 At the Strasbourg Reichstag, the first of them accepted the cross. The following spring, their example was followed by the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. There were not enough ships, so it was decided not to go by sea. Most of the army moved by land, despite the fact that this path was not easy. Previously, treaties were concluded with the Balkan states to ensure unimpeded passage for the crusaders through their territories.

May 11, 1189 the army left Regensburg. It was headed by the 67-year-old Emperor Frederick I. Due to the attacks of the Seljuks and the unbearable heat, the crusaders moved very slowly, and widespread illness began among them. June 10, 1190 The emperor drowned while crossing the mountain river Salef. His death was a heavy blow for the crusaders. They did not have much confidence in the emperor’s eldest son, and therefore many turned back. Only a small number of loyal knights continued their journey under the leadership of Duke Frederick.

French and English units left Vezelay only at the end of July 1190, because discord constantly arose between France and England. Meanwhile, the German army, with the support of the Pisan fleet, besieged Accon. In April 1191 The French fleet arrived in time, followed by the English. Saladin was forced to capitulate and surrender the city. He tried in every possible way to avoid the pre-agreed ransom, and then the English king Richard I the Lionheart did not hesitate to order the death of 2,700 Muslim prisoners. Saladin had to ask for a truce. The winners, following the English king, retreated to the south and headed through Jaffa towards Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was restored, although Jerusalem itself remained in Muslim hands. Akkon was now the capital of the kingdom. The power of the crusaders was limited mainly to a strip of coastline, which began just north of Tire and stretched to Jaffa, and in the east did not even reach the Jordan River.

Fourth Crusade

Next to these unsuccessful enterprises of European knights, the 4th Crusade stands completely apart, which leveled the Orthodox Christian Byzantines with the infidels and led to the destruction of Constantinople.

It was initiated by Pope Innocent III. His primary concern was the position of Christianity in the Middle East. He wanted to try on the Latin and Greek churches again, to strengthen the dominance of the church, and at the same time his own claims to supreme supremacy in the Christian world.

In 1198 he launched a grandiose campaign for another campaign in the name of the liberation of Jerusalem. Papal messages were sent to all European states, but, in addition, Innocent III did not ignore another Christian ruler - the Byzantine Emperor Alexei III. He, too, according to the Pope, should have moved troops to the Holy Land. He diplomatically, but not ambiguously, hinted to the emperor that if the Byzantines were intractable, there would be forces in the West that were ready to oppose them. In fact, Innocent III dreamed not so much of restoring the unity of the Christian Church as of subordinating the Byzantine Greek Church to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Fourth Crusade began in 1202, and Egypt was initially planned as its final destination. The path there lay through the Mediterranean Sea, and the crusaders, despite all the careful preparation of the “holy pilgrimage,” did not have a fleet and therefore were forced to turn to the Venetian Republic for help. From this moment on, the route of the crusade changed dramatically. The Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, demanded a huge sum for the services, and the crusaders were insolvent. Dandolo was not embarrassed by this: he suggested that the “holy army” compensate for the arrears by capturing the Dalmatian city of Zadar, whose merchants competed with the Venetian ones. In 1202 Zadar was taken, the army of the crusaders boarded ships, but... they did not go to Egypt at all, but ended up under the walls of Constantinople. The reason for this turn of events was the struggle for the throne in Byzantium itself. Doge Dandelot, who liked to settle scores with competitors with the hands of the crusaders, conspired with the leader of the “Army of Christ” Boniface of Montferrat. Pope Innocent III supported the enterprise - and the route of the crusade was changed for the second time.

Classical Middle Ages (mid-11th – end of 15th centuries)

In the 11th century feudal production relations are consolidated in most countries of Western Europe and in Byzantium. The previously free rural community takes on the type of dependent or serf community. While small individual peasant farming is preserved, feudal land ownership in the form of patrimony dominates. The bulk of the peasants are already somehow dependent on the feudal lord; their exploitation is carried out both in the form of feudal rent and through various means of non-economic coercion.

The developed, or classical Middle Ages is a period of feudal fragmentation. After the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne, the fragmentation of kingdoms into smaller entities continues, and the feudal lords, standing on the feudal ladder below the kings, have greater power and at the same time become monarchs in their domains.

This is a period of massive urban growth, development of commodity-money relations and the folding of the burghers. Although crafts provide an ever-increasing amount of marketable goods, the bulk of them are oriented towards the needs of the agricultural sector and the entire feudal economy as a whole continues to maintain its agrarian basis.

The national-territorial specifics of the development of feudalism in Europe continue to be determined by physical-geographical factors, as well as historical and ethno-demographic characteristics. Added to this is the phenomenon of the papal state and other territorial entities where secular and spiritual power are combined, and, of course, the unique political and economic role assumed by the central and peripheral institutions of the Christian church.

Papal State and Crusades (1096–1270)

Background of the Papal State

In 752, the Frankish king Pepin the Short, on the basis of the “Donation of Constantine” - a forged document about the donation of Constantine the Great to Pope Sylvester - transferred the Ravenna Exarchate, which he had just conquered from the Lombards, to Pope Stephen II. This controversial combination may have avoided a direct clash with Byzantium, the real contender for this area. Later Pepin

Korotky “rounded up” the papal possessions several times, and as such the Papal States arose in 756.

An attempt to overcome an essentially economic crisis in a combination of secular and spiritual institutions was Cluny reform.

In 931, the monastery at Cluny (Burgundy) was granted the privilege of accepting reformed monasteries under its jurisdiction. Using this precedent, the church began to gradually remove them from subordination to secular power. Under Abbot Odilon (994–1049), the Cluny congregation already included most of the monasteries of France and Burgundy, and in the first half of the 12th century. there were already more than a thousand of them.

An active participant in these reforms, Hildebrand, became pope in 1073 under the name Gregory VII. In his doctrine, theocracy took on the form of a world system organized on absolute monarchical principles, where the clergy, unconditionally subordinate to the pope, dominates secular society. The appointment of bishops previously depended on the highest feudal lord. With the transition to their direct subordination only to Rome, the “supporting frame” of the theocracy was strengthened.

The fight for investiture acquired its highest intensity in the conflict between Hildebrand and the German Emperor Henry IV, whom the master excommunicated twice (1077 and 1080). The fact that the German princes initially took the side of the pope in this conflict reflected an acute crisis of power in feudally fragmented Germany.

In Byzantium, on the contrary, the church was subordinate to the emperors. In the other three catholic patriarchates, the “pentarchies” began in the 7th century. After the Arab conquests, Christian churches fell under the authority of the occupiers, who were antagonistic to them. Their leading bishops, who traditionally bore the title of popes, moved to Constantinople.

Crusades - a series of large-scale long-distance colonial expeditions emanating from the Holy Roman Empire. From 1095–1096 they aimed at the Mediterranean, from 1147 - at the Slavic and other peoples of the Baltic states, and from the campaign of 1209, punitive and conquest expeditions within Western Europe that had religious overtones were also called crusades.

The call for a campaign to liberate the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which Pope Urban II proclaimed in 1095 at the end of the Council of Clermont, was not a spontaneous emotional outburst.

This step, global in its scope and consequences, was a natural stage of geopolitical and economic shifts.

These shifts covered all the states that formed on the territory of the ancient Roman and Persian empires, and by that time were associated as Christian and Muslim civilizations.

The mass enthusiasm with which, almost immediately, already in the spring of 1096, the urban and rural poor, as well as petty knighthood, responded to the pope’s call, testifies to the deep crisis in which the European economy and social relations found themselves by that time. However, it would be incorrect to imagine the crusade as a means deliberately chosen to solve precisely this narrow problem, especially since the initiator was not the secular authorities, but the church.

The economic effect of the new influx of gold into Europe, due to the successes of the first campaigns, is undeniable. However, this consequence, already due to the objectively shallow understanding of economic laws by people of that century, also cannot be retroactively included in the category of deep intentions of the initiators of the campaign against Jerusalem. Moreover, they only superficially understood what world economic ties would be affected by a change in the balance of power in the Mediterranean and what consequences this could entail, at least in the medium term.

The deep, economic background of the first crusades in Palestine was the exhaustion of the growth potential inherent in the feudal mode of production, which came into conflict with the strengthening factor of increasing the needs of not only the ruling, but also the exploited and other working classes.

Comparing the first crusades with the “great migrations of peoples” is not entirely successful. Here, despite some formal similarity in the sign of mass movement to new places of residence, there is a qualitative difference in the final goals and scope of the ethnic group as a subject. Much more similarities can be found with colonization, which covers only a part of the population, motivated in one way or another.

The expansion of the coverage of the population by the corresponding ideas propagated by the church was its institutional structure in the form of a network of monasteries - quasi-urban places of compact mass settlement, which partly compensated for the deficiency of cities as centers of social communications.

State formations, where secular power coincided with spiritual power, were specific to Western Europe and practically unknown in the Eastern Roman Empire. The coronation of Charlemagne by the pope in 800 and the emperor's retaliatory steps to strengthen the economic and political positions of the church in Europe contributed to the decline of secular power and the church. But this also marked the beginning of a long-term rivalry between secular and spiritual institutions of power, which more than once led to wars.

The collapse of the Frankish Empire entailed a decrease in the authority of the Holy See in Rome, the economic basis of which narrowed. Over time, the resources of the extensive growth of the papal state were also exhausted, and in the south its borders abutted the southern part of Italy captured by the Muslims.

The exhaustion of the internal resources of the mode of production was also expressed in a crisis of relative overpopulation, observed both in the excess of peasant labor and on the feudal ladder, intensifying towards its lower levels. The transformation of a lifelong benefice into a hereditary fief led to the establishment majorata – order in which only the eldest son had the right to inherit land. As a result, the number of knights without fiefs grew year by year.

The motives for overpopulation and growing social instability were also heard in the Clermont speech of Urban II: “The land that you inhabit... has become cramped with your large numbers. It is not abundant in wealth and will barely give bread to those who cultivate it. Hence it comes that you are a friend you bite each other and fight with each other... Now your hatred can cease, enmity will fall silent and civil strife will fall asleep... Whoever is sad and poor here will be rich there.”

From this point of view, the first crusade was a political manipulation, thanks to which both the demographic and the “political” components of the forces escalating the urgency of the land issue were simultaneously weakened. By redirecting the power potential of the rival duchies from internecine wars to solving foreign policy problems, the papacy partly contributed to the preservation of its “revenue base” throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

The impact of the outflow of people from Europe on the amount of income from church tithes was minimal: most of the crusaders did not have a stable source of income. On the contrary, there are signs of an intensifying crisis of non-payment of debts by the minor nobility.

In history, the crisis of private land ownership has more than once escalated into debt, and then into mass civil unrest. However, the church did not carry out a complete “sisachthia”: the crusaders’ bad debt was not written off, but only postponed. At the same time, the church guaranteed itself a counter influx of benefits - when going on a campaign, the crusaders bequeathed their property to it.

The second group of reasons belongs to the field of diplomacy and politics. A tight tangle of contradictions and interests of secular and spiritual authorities was intertwined here.

After the division of Charlemagne's empire, Western Europe entered a period of internecine local wars. One of the central problems here was the competition between the future Germany and France, which extended to their relations with a third party - the papal power.

As with the division of the Roman Empire (395), the Christian Church in 1054 found itself split between East and West, between the “Greek” and “Roman” components of European civilization. During this time, opposite types of relationships between spiritual and secular authorities developed in both parts. If in the East the state subjugates the church and integrates it into the apparatus of power as one of the institutions, then in the West, on the contrary, the church succeeds in placing itself above the highest state power (or, in certain cases, combining both types of power in one and the same clergyman).

Like previous schisms, the schism of 1054 arose from the incompatibility of ideas. But the consequences of such seemingly abstract theoretical differences were purely political: this removed the moral and ethical problem of killing a representative of one’s faith (the commandment “thou shalt not kill”), and therefore opened up the possibility of suppressing “wrong believers” by all means, including mass physical destruction . Missionary work has always acted only as a pretext and prologue to ensuring political domination.

Therefore, the mutual anathemas (excommunication) that were exchanged between Pan Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople were tantamount to declaring a state of war, when each side puts the other in an outlaw position.

In the 9th century. For the sake of maintaining stability on the western borders and possessions in Europe, the emperors of Byzantium restrained their patriarchs from overreacting to the deviations of European bishops from general church traditions. In the conditions of the general decline of its authority, which followed the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne, the Western Church also could not escalate for a long time.

But then the geopolitical situation turns against Byzantium: in 1059–1071. she loses her possessions in the southern Apennines, including the port of Bari.

These events are synchronous with the main stages of the biography of Pope Gregory VII (in the world Hildebrand), whose name is associated with the revival of the political power of the Holy See. In the year of the schism (1054), Pope Leo IX sends him as his legate to France. The next pope sends him as legate to Germany.

In 1059, Pope Nicholas II appointed Hildebrand, who knew the balance of power in the main regions of the empire, as governor and immediately carried out a sharp turn of the papacy in relations with the Normans. One of them,

Robert Guiscard, takes the vassal oath to the pope as Duke of Apulia and Calabria (which Byzantium still owns) and in 1060–1071. recaptures from Byzantium its outposts in the south of the Apennines - the themes of Langobardia and Calabria.

In the year of his enthronement (1073), the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine army, and then Hildebrand called for a European campaign against the Turks. But this call was not successful.

The main conflict of the pontificate of Gregory VII was his struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. In 1076, the pope and the emperor mutually deposed each other. In 1080, Henry deposed Hildebrand again and installed an antipope in Rome (Clement III was antipope for 20 years (1080–1100), and controlled Rome for almost 11 years (1084–1094), leaving the city only briefly under pressure military strength of his opponents). Since 1083, the citadels of Rome became the theater of military operations between them. Hildebrand turned to Guiscard for help. The Norman took Rome by storm (in which not only the Normans, but also the Saracens participated), subjected the city to unheard-of violence, and then set it on fire (it was in this fire, and not during the invasions of the barbarians, that most of the ancient buildings perished; thus, between the Lateran and the Colosseum there were no not a single whole building).

Under the cover of Guiscard, Hildebrand fled from the wrath of the Romans to Apulia, where he died in exile, two days before the first anniversary of the shameful assault on Rome. Henry's protege, antipope Clement III, fought with the newly elected popes for several more years. The third of the four popes who were successfully opposed by this antipope for 11 years was Urban II, enthroned in 1088.

Over the next six years, Urban II was forced to wander through southern France and Italy, where two of the four streams of crusaders were later formed. Only on Easter 1094 did mercenaries liberate the Lateran Palace in Rome for him. But Clement III did not even think of leaving the impregnable Castle of the Holy Angel, remaining there for another four years. He was expelled from there only in 1098, i.e. already after Urban gained unconditional popularity in the wake of the successes of the crusade he began.

The beginning of active preparations for the crusade is associated with a meeting between the pope and the Byzantine ambassador, which took place in March 1095 in Piacenza. At the same time, Urban II submitted the request of Emperor Alexios I Comnenos to the council held in Piacenza. About half of the crusaders were Normans from Normandy and Italy, while the rest were dominated by people from modern France. In Germany, even among the peasantry, Peter the Hermit’s calls for a campaign were met with much less enthusiasm.

The starting points for the transition of knighthood to Constantinople were: Normandy, Lorraine, Provence and Southern Italy. In Asia Minor they were reorganized into six armies: from the French and Flemings (Hugo

Vermandois, Robert of Flanders), Lorraineers (Gottfried of Bouillon), Normans (Robert of Normandy), Toulouse and Provence (Bishop Le Puy), Normans of Italy (Bohemond, Tancred).

In the global historical aspect, the First Crusade is one, and not the first, of the links in the general process of expansion of Christian Europe and the displacement of Muslims.

In 1031, due to strife, the Cordoba Caliphate disintegrated, and already in 1085, the king of Leon and Castile, Alfonso VI the Brave, took possession of Toledo. The Normans successfully oust the Mohammedans from southern Italy and Sicily; Moreover, both the crusade and the conquest of England in 1066 fit into one epochal series of Norman conquests.

The largest geopolitical consequence of the First Crusade was the colonization of the Levant, the Mediterranean part of the Middle East. They were founded there County of Edessa (1098–1150), Principality of Antioch (1098–1268), County of Tripoli (1105–1289) and Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291) as part of several vassal lordships - the principality of Galilee, the counties of Jaffa and Ascalon, the lordship of Sidon, Transjordan (fr. Seigneurie d "Outre-Jourdain" etc.

It would be wrong to overestimate the immediate economic consequences of this campaign for Europe. The positive effect of a stable reverse flow of goods could only occur many years later.

According to various sources, no more than 5,000 people actually went on the campaign. But even the poorest knight could not do without a squire; in practice, there were from 4–5 to 7–10 armed “escorts” (milites).

The costs of arming an individual horseman were very high. Chain mail weighing up to 10 kg consisted of 20–25 thousand rings, each of which was made of wire, which was brought together, flattened and riveted by hand. At the peak of the development of heavy cavalry, up to 80 kg of forged sheet metal was required to equip a knight, including 50–60 kg. on the rider. Equipment and especially food were purchased during the campaign; in general, the march initially entailed an outflow of full-fledged metallic money.

From 12 to 20 thousand horse and foot took part in the battles of Antioch and Jerusalem (equities And pedites) warriors (out of 5,000 knights and 30–50 thousand of their servants, not counting women, many died on the way).

Second Crusade (1147–1149) was collected only half a century after the first. In it Germany (led by the Empire

Thor Conrad III) participated on an equal basis with France (King Louis VII). The call for the campaign came from the French monk Bernard Chervo.

The goal of the campaign - to recapture Edessa from the Muslims - was not achieved, and the next year this Christian state ceased to exist.

Third Crusade (1189–1191) was the most representative in the number and level of monarchs who led their expeditionary forces: the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (after his death - Leopold of Austria), the King of France Philip Augustus and the King of England Richard I the Lionheart.

It was also the most numerous, which stemmed from the reason that again set the armies on a long journey: Saladdin took Jerusalem and thereby crossed out the main ideological result of the first campaign. However, it was not possible to achieve the same success again, and the Holy Sepulcher remained in the hands of the “infidels.”

Military successes - the capture of Cyprus by Richard I and the lifting of the two-year siege from the city of Accra only delayed the inglorious end of the adventure with the colonization of the Middle East. The agreement between the glorious English king and Saladin on allowing Christians to visit holy places for three years contained an indirect recognition of the military superiority of Muslims and a renunciation of forceful attempts to return the Holy Sepulcher.

Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), proclaimed by Pope Innocent III, already falls out of the chain of adventures that were at least formally tied to the demand for control over Christian values. His goals were purely commercial and political. Like subsequent campaigns, it was directed against other Christian states, and primarily Byzantium, with the goal of eliminating competitors in the Mediterranean.

The result of the campaign was the capture of Byzantium in 1204 by the crusaders, after which for more than half a century the capital of Eastern Christians was in the hands of the “Latins”. This accelerated the fall of Byzantium, which was more developed at that time, and with it the last outpost of Christian culture in Asia Minor.

• The World History. Encyclopedia. T. 3. M.: Publishing house polit, lit-ry, 1957. P. 331.