THE CRUSADES . Friends, all of you heard of the CRUSADES or the HOLY WARS. I AM GIVING BELOW A SMALL ACCOUNT OF THE crusades which I read in a book,--QEST FOR THE PAST., WHICH IS AS FOLLOWS--- In 1095, POPE URBAN- II appealed for soldiers to march eastwards in order to help their fellow CHRISTIANS throw off the MUSLIM yoke. THE APPEAL SPARKED OFF A RESPONSE GREATER THAN EXPECTED. Shouting, “ DEUS LE VOLT” ( GOD wills it ), thousands of noblemen, knights and commoners vowed to recapture the HOLY LAND, specially JERUSALEM. Though the name CRUSADE was later applied to unite military campaigns such as that pagan slaves, it primarily refers to the attempts in the 11 th,12 th, and 13 th centuries to conquer or defend JERUSALEM. There were no fewer than nine of these, but only the original expedition of 1096-99 was entirely successful. It was called CRUSADE, because all the participants had a CROSS sewn into their clothes. After recapturing JERUSALEM in 1099, the CRUSADERS declared JERUSALEM A KINGDOM AND DECLARED duke of Lorraine as its first king. In 1144, the MUSLIMS captured EDASSA, a part of the new kingdom and it was this loss that sparked off the second CRUSADE. This CRUSADE was led by the king of FRANCE and the emperor of GERMANY, but failed to achieve its aim. EDASSA remained in MUSLIM hands AND IN 1187, JERUSALEM, fell to SALADIN, SULTAN OF EGYPT., thus bringing on the third CRUSADE with 3 monarchs—PHILIP OF FRANCE, RICHARDS-THE LION HEART of ENGLAND and the GERMAN EMPEROR—all following the CROSS. This time also nothing permanent was achieved. The GERMAN emperor drowned in a river on his way , PHILIP quarrelled with RICHARDS and went back to FRANCE and RICHARDA who captured the part ACRE in PALESTINE, but could not regain JERUSALEM, was himself captured and held for ransom by LEOPOLD of AUSTRIA on his way home. The 4th CRUSADE of 1202-04 never got near the HOL LAND, but was diverted to attack and loot the wealthy city of CONSTANTINOPOLE ( now ISTANBUL ). Eight years later thousands of boys and girls, most of them not yet in their teens, also set off for the east, led by a FRENCH shepherd boy, who was convinced that unarmed innocence would prevail where armed might had failed. Most of the participants either died on their way or might have ended up in the slave market of NORTHERN AFRICA. The 6th CRUSADE, A LARGELY PEACEFUL EXPEDITION THAT NEGOTIATED a truce with the MUSLIMS and a temporary return of JERUSALEM TO Christianity IN 1228, but the city was once again surrendered to the MUSLIMS in 1244. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 13:52:59 +0000