Personal Experiences: My Experience Of The Crusades

Hi, I am the Crusades. The first happening of me was in 1095; Pope Urban II started the first of many. He started the first Crusades to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims. Along with getting the Muslims out of Jerusalem, Urban wanted to get the Turks out of the Byzantine Empire. Urban convinced many of the knights in Western Europe to come along on the First Crusade. Many of the knights came because they might have committed sin and want to be forgiven by god and they thought that they might get rich by taking wealth from Jerusalem. Also, the pope told them that if they die while fighting they would go to heaven because they died fighting for god. During the first part of me, the first knights reached Jerusalem by 1099. They crushed the Muslims but they didn’t just kill men, the Crusaders also killed many women and children. During the second part of me, the Muslims captured one of the colonies, but the Christians were able to get it back. After the second part of me, a Muslim leader started a Jihad, an Islamic holy war, which was when the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem. There was a third part of me and King Richard of England led me. The Christians won a couple of battles but the Muslims managed to keep a hold on Jerusalem. By 1291, the Muslims had all of the Holy Lands. Although I was pretty much unsuccessful, I did have a huge impact on Western Europe. When all of the soldiers came back home, they told

captivating stories about the places and people they saw. This made people interested in culture for one of the first times. This exposure helped start the Renaissance. Because of me, I helped bring classical texts back to Western Europe, expand certain cities, and improved technology. Around 1000-1100 Western Europe’s towns started to expand greatly. These Medieval towns were disgusting. They smelt like garbage, had no sanitation, and caused a lot of diseases. In these growing towns, guilds started to form. The main purpose was to keep a monopoly. They barely traded with foreigners and made sure uniform pricing was in place. With all of these people creating things for the guilds to look after, the middle class started to grow tremendously. In France they called them the bourgeoisie. The middle class was made of mostly bankers, artisans, and merchants. Most people during the Middle Ages were not able to read/write. As the towns got bigger, a need for educated officials made people eager to learn. Most of the literature was written in the vernacular (language of everyday speech) of the author. Now, instead of using Latin, most people used the language their country used. Some of the most popular pieces of literature written in vernacular were The Divine Comedy and The Canterbury Tales. With stories being written in vernacular languages, more people could access them. As towns grew and trade started to prosper, power shifted from nobles to kings and queens. Henry I strengthened the English Monarchy. The court system started under Henry II. He started common law throughout the entire kingdom.
Eleanor of Aquitaine had inherited Aquitaine when her dad died.

When she was 15, she married Louis VII, the heir of the French throne. When she couldn’t give him a male child, King Louis VII ended the marriage. She regained Aquitaine. Soon after she married Henry II, king of England. When they got married, Henry II had more land in France then the king of France did. Although Henry II did own a lot of land, he did some things that did not make the archbishop Thomas Becket unhappy. He didn’t like how Henry II made priests under the authority of the royal

courts.
The Hundred Years’ War was a very important, long war. It was from 1337-1453, until the French proclaimed victory. There was a lot of background to this story and it starts with William the Conqueror. William became a king in 1066. After his victory in a battle, he combined Normandy with France and England. When Henry II got the land of Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor, England controlled a large portion of France. A French king, Phillip II got most of the land back from England. But they French wanted all of their land back. When Charles IV died, he didn’t want his nephew taking over because he was associated with England, so they appointed his cousin Phillip. Edward (the nephew) wanted to fight because he thought the crown should be his and was afraid Phillip would be a threat to his land in France. For a long time, the English were doing well until Joan of Arc came along. During the war she convinced him to give her power of his troops. She led them to victory but was captured by rivals and killed. After the Hundred Years’ War, France was doing good. In England on the other hand, they got into a war called the Wars of the Roses, where they were battling for the throne.
During 1469 in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella were king and queen. They were very strict when it came to religion. They created the Spanish Inquisition which was if you weren’t Catholic you would be punished and tried as a heretic. This strengthened Spain but limited contact with other countries.
As you can see, I, the Crusades was one of the major starting points of the Late Middle Ages. I started conflicts, developed/undeveloped cities, and shaped Europe.