County of Edessa Edessa, located in Armenia, in Celicia, was the most important of the Armenian cities. On the Euphrates, the population was comprised of the Armenian faction (Separated Church) of the Eastern Church. It was actually under the rule of Constantinople, but was in the middle of the expansion of the Seljuk Empire. It was overseen by the Armenian Thoros. He had captured it from the Turks in 1094. Having held it for two years, it was only because of the inability of the Turks to unite against him. Tancred saw Edessa as his chance to cut himself a piece of real estate while his uncle Bohemond was busy with Antioch. But Baldwin of Bouillon (Godfrey's brother) has his eye on Edessa. His answer was to aquire it diplomatically. Baldwin's wife and children had just died in Marash. Baldwin wasted no time. As Baldwin advanced into Ciecelia, Toros sent an embassy to Baldwin. Toros was old, barely holding his conquest, and was childless. The original deal had been to offer Baldwin the opportunity to serve under him, but Baldwin held out for the big prize. He then offered Baldwin all of Edessa. Toros would adopt Baldwin, making him legal heir. The ceremony is repeated in many accounts, and is amusing in each. The original ceremony was meant for a child. Adjusted for a grown man, Toros wore a large shirt, and the two men covered themselves in it, and rubbed bare chested together. This was then repeated with Toros' wife. A conspiracy then hatched, where the rivals of Toros plotted a riot while Baldwin looked away. The mob marched on Toros' palace. Toros offered to abdicate. Baldwin agreed, but confined him to the pa... ... middle of paper ... ... on his rivals. Joscelin ll then took to residing in the old family home at Tell Bashin, instead of the capitol in Edessa. He seemed to enjoy the pleasures of the Court rather than attending to business. He felt secure. He argued with Raymond of Tripoli. They were so openly hostile that they both refused to come to each others aid. This left the door open for Zengi. By 1143 he had treaties in place with most of his Arab rivals. He turned to the Franks again. He suceeded in several cities, and Joscelin ll moved to Aleppo. The capitol of Edessa was empty. Zengi found out, advanced and laid seige to the city in 1144. Joselin appealed to Raymond for support. Raymond refused. Edessa fell in December 1144, and the rest of the country fell after. The first of the Crusader Conquests became the first to be lost.
The First Crusade was propelled in 1095 by Pope Urban II to recover control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims.
For instance, the city was sacked by the Romans in 70 AD, which destroyed most of the city's important religious artifacts. Later, the city was completely destroyed and covered in 135 AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Rubenstein delves deeply into the background of the crusade, as many of the events and ideologies that inspired it are critical to understanding its reasoning and justifications. This sets Rubenstein apart from the Madden textbook, which begins at the council at Claremont and does not provide essential background information. Rubenstein's book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of the Crusades.
The Crusades were a number of military expeditions by Europeans of the Christian faith attempting to recover the Holy Land, Jerusalem, which was then controlled by the powerful Muslim Empire. In his book People of The First Crusade, Michael Foss an independent historian tells the story of the first Crusade in vivid detail illustrating the motives behind this historic event, and what had really occurred towards the end of the eleventh century. The Christian lands of Western Europe were slowly deteriorating from invasions of the North, and the passing of corrupt laws from within the clergy and the high lords. However, these were not the only challenges those of European Christian faith had to face. Islam strengthened after the conversion of the
The first crusade was held only in order to fulfill desire of the Christians of the recapturing the center of the Christian faith-Jerusalem, which has been controlled by the Muslim nation for more than 400 years. This military campaign was followed with severe cruelty and harsh actions against Muslims which cannot be justified with anything but religious and material interest.
In the year 1095 the First Crusade was just beginning. Pope Urban II called Christians to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim oppressors. He promised indulgences and the gift of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven for fighting in the holy war. Those that answered the call were peasants, beggars, the poor looking for riches and the unknown looking for glory. What started out as a pilgrimage to help fellow Christians secure their borders and repel foreign invaders soon became the first of many Holy Wars for the Kingdom of God.
(Lecture 9 notes) Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II vowed to lead a Crusade in 1215, however, due to domestic political reasons postponed his departure. Under pressure from Pope Gregory IX, Frederick and his army finally sailed from Italy, but returned to port within a few days because Frederick had fallen ill. ( A&A 72-74) The pope, angered at this delay excommunicated the emperor. In 1228 Fredrick tried to seize the Holy Land, the unconventional Crusade was led by diplomatic negotiations with the Egyptian sultan. From these negotiations a peace treaty was produced. A couple years later Louis IX, Saint Louis of France, decided that his obligations as a son of the Church outweighed those of his throne, and he left his kingdom for a six-year adventure. Since the base of Muslim power had shifted to Egypt, Louis did not even march on the Holy Land. His plan continued by plotting an attack on Cairo in the spring, which turned into a catastrophe. This was because the Crusaders did not guard their flanks and allowed the enemy to retain control over the water reservoirs, in which the enemy was able to flood the Crusaders out and trap the whole army. Louis was forced to surrender in April
In 1198 the recently elected Pope Innocent III began preaching for another Crusade that would attempt to regain control of the Holy Land, as the Third Crusade left Saladin, a Muslim leader, in control of Jerusalem. Innocent III began preparing for war, and formed an agreement with the Venetians, stating that the Crusaders would pay the Venetians for transportation to the Holy Land. Innocent III overestimated his forces, and needed less supplies than he requested, however, Venice still wanted the full agreed upon amount to be paid. The men tried to pull their money together to pay the entire amount, however they still were well short of the required sum. As a pope, Innocent III did not have the power, wealth, and men that the kings had. At the beginning of the 1200’s the papacy had far less influence than the kings. As the Crusaders were unable to pay, they instead formed an agreement which stated that the Crusaders would help the Venetians take over the Christian city of Zara in order to gain its wealth and supplies, however, “The barons and nobles among the crusaders agreed to what the doge proposed. But no one in the army knew this plan, except the leaders.” (7) This secret arrangement led to dissonance among the Crusaders when word got out, as many people, including Innocent III, despised the idea of harming a fellow Christian in any way. The city o...
The crusades in the middle ages were a long-lasting series of vigorous wars between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land, Jerusalem. The crusades lasted for almost two hundred years. They began in 1099 and approximately ended in 1291. (What were the motives, and causes of these gruesome wars?) is the first question one might ask. To properly answer this question, I am about to analyze the first four crusades that had began in 1099 and ended in 1212.
The First Crusade from 1095 to 1099 has been seen as a successful crusade. The First Crusaders carefully planned out their attacks to help promote religion throughout the lands. As the First Crusade set the example of what a successful crusade should do, the following crusades failed to maintain control of the Holy Land. Crusades following after the First Crusade weren’t as fortunate with maintaining the Holy Land due united forces of Muslims, lack of organization, and lack of religious focus.
Amongst the wars that have been fought in the history of mankind, The Second Crusade can be counted as one of the most disastrous. Completely contrary to the First Crusade, the Second Crusade was lead by two leaders with two un-cohesive agendas. This division of power and lack of military organization ultimately led to the massacre of thousands of Christian Crusaders and crushing losses along the way in the Crusaders' attempts to recapture the cities of Edessa and Damascus. The Second Crusade was the beginning of the fall of power of the Christian Crusaders for the first time in decades.
In 1095, Pope Urban II called the first crusade. Happening between 1096 and 1099, the first crusade was both a military expedition and a mass movement of people with the simple goal of reclaiming the Holy Lands taken by the Muslims in their conquests of the Levant. The crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. However, there has been much debate about whether the First Crusade can be considered an ‘armed pilgrimage’ or whether it has to be considered as a holy war. This view is complicated due to the ways in which the Crusade was presented and how the penitential nature of it changed throughout the course of the Crusade.
A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.
The Crusades and the Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire controlled most of the land on the Mediterranean Sea in the AD 500's. In the 600's, Arab Muslims conquered Palestine, which included Jerusalem and other sacred Christian areas. However, the Arab Rulers allowed Christians to visit the shrines.
In conclusion, the Crusades were a series of wars that lasted over two centuries to gain control over the Holy Land. The First Crusade was the only crusade that was seen as a success. Many cultural, scientific, and commercial exchanges took place as a result of the Crusades and the Crusades had a deep impact on many areas that extended beyond the Holy Land. Eventually, in 1291, the Crusades would finally come to an end but the impact would extend into today’s
That Faulkner’s title for his complicated The Sound and the Fury comes from Macbeth is common knowledge, and reading the novel only confirms Faulkner’s choice as sound. Certainly there is an almost constant desire to behead characters so as to quiet their almost constant “bellering.” The common theme critics identify in the novel is the terrible fall of the Southern aristocracy, yet I cannot help but think that there was not, by that time, far to fall, at least not in the case of the Compson family. Faulkner’s modernist fiction supposedly speaks to the demise of the Old South, a decline encapsulated in the Compson family’s trajectory of self-pity and tragedy. The implication is that this is a family well-entrenched in the aura of the Old South, which suffers a loss of prestige and valor in the dark days following the literal and symbolic muddying of Caddy’s drawers. Indeed, with Quentin’s suicide, the last of the Compson family, in terms of its past, is come to an end – but not because his death is part of a lo...