The time of the crusades. The Crusades are the unfulfilled dream of the Middle Ages. It is customary to refer to the period from the 1st century as the Middle Ages. BC to the XIV century. AD This era has no clear time boundaries, and historians define the time frame of this period in different ways.

CRUSADES
(1095-1291), a series of military campaigns in the Middle East undertaken by Western European Christians in order to free the Holy Land from Muslims. The Crusades were the most important stage in the history of the Middle Ages. All social strata of Western European society were involved in them: kings and commoners, the highest feudal nobility and clergy, knights and servants. People who took the vow of the crusader had different motives: some sought to get rich, others were attracted by a thirst for adventure, and still others were driven exclusively by religious feelings. The crusaders sewed red pectoral crosses on their clothes; when returning from a campaign, the signs of the cross were sewn on the back. Thanks to legends, the crusades were surrounded by an aura of romance and grandeur, knightly spirit and courage. However, tales of the gallant knights-crusaders abound in exaggeration beyond measure. In addition, they overlook the "insignificant" historical fact that, despite the valor and heroism shown by the crusaders, as well as the proclamations and promises of the popes and confidence in the rightness of their cause, Christians never managed to liberate the Holy Land. The crusades only led to the fact that Muslims became the undisputed rulers of Palestine.
Causes crusades. The crusades began with the popes, who were nominally considered the leaders of all enterprises of this kind. Popes and other inspirers of the movement have promised heavenly and earthly rewards to all those who endanger their lives for the sake of a holy cause. The volunteer campaign was particularly successful due to the religious fervor that was then prevalent in Europe. Whatever the personal motives for participation (and in many cases they played an essential role), the soldiers of Christ were confident that they were fighting for a just cause.
Conquests of the Seljuk Turks. 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. Immigrants from Central Asia, at the beginning of the century, the Seljuks penetrated into the regions controlled by the Arabs, 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 boundaries 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 Aegean, to conquer Syria and Palestine, and in 1078 (other dates are indicated) to take Jerusalem. The Muslim threat forced the Byzantine emperor to seek help from Western Christians. The fall of Jerusalem was extremely disturbing to Christendom.
Religious motives. The conquests of the Seljuk Turks coincided with a general religious revival in Western Europe in the 10-11th centuries, which was largely initiated by the activities of the Benedictine monastery of Cluny in Burgundy, founded in 910 by the Duke of Aquitaine Guillaume the Pious. Thanks to the efforts of a number of abbots, who persistently called for the cleansing of the church and the spiritual transformation of Christendom, 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 "unfaithful Turk" was portrayed as a defiler of holy places, 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.
Economic incentives. For many kings and barons, the Middle East was a world of vast possibilities. Land, income, power and prestige - all of 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 feudal lords, especially in the north of France, could not count on participation in the division of their father's lands. By taking part in the crusade, they could hope for the acquisition of land and position in society, which their older, more fortunate brothers possessed. The Crusades gave the peasants the opportunity to free themselves from lifelong serfdom. As servants and cooks, the peasants formed a wagon train of the Crusader troops. For purely economic reasons, European cities were interested in the crusades. For centuries, the Italian cities of Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice have battled Muslims for dominance over the western and central Mediterranean. By 1087, the Italians drove Muslims out of southern Italy and Sicily, established settlements in North Africa and took control of the western waters Mediterranean Sea... They made maritime and land incursions into the Muslim territories of North Africa, seeking by force trade privileges from local residents. For these Italian cities, the Crusades meant only the transfer of hostilities from the western Mediterranean to the eastern.
START OF CROSS TRAVELS
The beginning of the Crusades was proclaimed at the Clermont Cathedral 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 hinder the church and clergy. On November 26, when the cathedral had already completed its work, Urban addressed a huge audience, probably numbering several thousand representatives of the highest nobility and clerics, and called for the start of a war against unfaithful Muslims in order to liberate the Holy Land. In his speech, the Pope emphasized the holiness of Jerusalem and the Christian relics of Palestine, spoke about the plunder and desecration that they were subjected to by the Turks, and painted a picture of numerous attacks on pilgrims, and also mentioned the danger facing the Christian brothers in Byzantium. Then Urban II urged the audience to take up the holy cause, promising everyone who went on a campaign, absolution, and everyone who laid down his head in it - a place in paradise. The Pope called on the barons to stop destructive civil strife and turn their zeal to a godly cause. He made it clear that the crusade will provide the knights with ample opportunities to gain land, wealth, power and glory - all at the expense of the Arabs and Turks, with whom the Christian army can easily get rid of. The response to the speech was the cries of the audience: "Deus vult!" ("God wants it!"). These words became the battle cry of the crusaders. Thousands of people immediately made a vow that they would go to war.
The first crusaders. Pope Urban II ordered the clergy to spread his appeal throughout Western Europe. Archbishops and bishops (the most active among them was Ademar de Puy, who took upon himself the spiritual and practical leadership of the preparation of 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, the preachers aroused such religious fervor in the peasants that neither the owners nor the local priests could restrain them, they threw themselves off in thousands and set off on their way without supplies and equipment, having not the slightest idea of the distance and hardships of the path, in naive confidence, that God and the leaders will see to it that they do not get lost, as well as their daily bread. These hordes marched across the Balkans to Constantinople, expecting that the Christian brothers would welcome them as champions of a holy cause. However, the locals greeted them coolly or even contemptuously, and then the western peasants began to plunder. In many places, real battles were fought 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 Bosphorus 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. On three main routes, by land and by sea, they arrived in Constantinople during 1096 and 1097. The campaign was led by feudal barons, including Duke Gottfried 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 on land, took away food and fodder from the local population, besieged and plundered several Byzantine cities, and repeatedly clashed with the Byzantine troops. The presence in and around the capital of a 30,000-strong army, 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 commanders of the crusaders intensified. Relations between the emperor and the knights continued to deteriorate as Christians advanced eastward. The Crusaders suspected that the Byzantine guides were deliberately luring them into ambushes. The army was completely unprepared for the sudden raids of the enemy cavalry, which managed to hide before the knightly heavy cavalry rushed in pursuit. Lack of food and water exacerbated the hardships of the campaign. Wells along the way were often poisoned by Muslims. Those who endured these hardest trials were rewarded with a first victory when Antioch was besieged and taken in June 1098. Here, according to some testimonies, one of the crusaders discovered a shrine - a spear with which a Roman soldier pierced the side of the crucified Christ. It is reported that this discovery greatly inspired Christians and contributed greatly to their further victories. The fierce war lasted another year, and on July 15, 1099, after a siege that lasted a little more than a month, the crusaders took Jerusalem and betrayed its entire population, Muslims and Jews, to the sword.

Kingdom of Jerusalem. After a long dispute, Gottfried of Bouillon was elected king of Jerusalem, who, however, unlike his less modest and less religious successors, chose the unassuming title of "defender of the Holy Sepulcher." Gottfried and his successors came under 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 itself. 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 did) only in the event of a military threat. Many princes made friends with the Arabs and Byzantines, despite the fact that such a policy weakened the position of the kingdom as a whole. In addition, 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 a papal legate, the highest cleric in the Holy Land, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was an extremely influential figure here.

Population. The population of the kingdom was very diverse. In addition to the Jews, many other nations were present here: Arabs, Turks, Syrians, Armenians, Greeks, etc. Most of the crusaders were immigrants from England, Germany, France and Italy. Since there were more Frenchmen, the crusaders were collectively called Franks.
Coastal cities. During this time, at least ten important centers of commerce and trade were developed. Among them are Beirut, Akra, Sidon and Jaffa. Italian merchants established their own administrations in the coastal cities in accordance with the privileges or awards of authority. As a rule, they had their own consuls (heads of administration) and judges here, acquired their own coin and system of measures and weights. Their legislative codes also extended to the local population. As a rule, Italians made 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 Italians, and near the city they set up 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 get a profit. Some went so far as to even put Quranic sayings on coins.
Spiritual knightly orders. The backbone of the crusader army was formed by two knightly orders - the knights-templars (Templars) and the knights of St. John (Johannites or Hospitallers). They consisted mainly of the lower strata of the feudal nobility and the younger offspring of aristocratic families. Initially, these orders were created to protect temples, shrines, roads leading to them, and pilgrims; also provided 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 the military, their members, along with the military oath, took monastic vows. The orders were able to replenish their ranks in Western Europe and receive financial assistance from those Christians who could not take part in the crusade, but were eager to help the holy cause. Due to such contributions, the Templars in the 12-13 centuries. essentially turned into a powerful banking house, carrying out financial intermediation between Jerusalem and Western Europe. They subsidized religious and commercial enterprises in the Holy Land and gave loans here to feudal nobility and merchants in order to get them already in Europe.
FOLLOWING CRUSHES
2nd Crusade (1147-1149). When in 1144 Edessa was captured by the Muslim ruler of Mosul Zengi and news of this reached Western Europe, the head of the Cistercian monastic order Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded the German emperor Conrad III (ruled 1138-1152) and King Louis VII of France (ruled 1137-1180) to undertake a new crusade. This time, Pope Eugene III issued in 1145 a special bull about the crusades, which contained precisely formulated provisions guaranteeing the protection of the church to the families of the crusaders and their property. The forces that were attracted to participate in the campaign were enormous, however, due to the lack of interaction and a well-thought-out campaign plan, the campaign ended complete failure... Moreover, he gave rise to the Sicilian king Roger II to raid the Byzantine possessions in Greece and on the islands of the Aegean Sea.

3rd crusade (1187-1192). If the Christian commanders were constantly in strife, then the Muslims, under the leadership of Sultan Salah ad-din, united into a state stretching from Baghdad to Egypt. Salah ad-din easily defeated the disunited Christians, in 1187 he took Jerusalem and established control over the entire Holy Land, with the exception of a few coastal cities. The 3rd Crusade was led by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (ruled 1152-1190), the French king Philip II Augustus (ruled 1180-1223) and the English king Richard I the Lionheart (ruled 1189-1199). The German emperor drowned in Asia Minor while crossing the river, and only a few of his warriors reached the Holy Land. Two other monarchs who were rivals in Europe brought their strife 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 the Duchy of Normandy from him. Richard the Lionheart remained the sole leader of the crusade. The feats he performed here gave rise to legends that surrounded his name with an aura of glory. Richard conquered Akra and Jaffa from the Muslims and concluded an agreement with Salah ad-din on the unhindered admission of pilgrims to Jerusalem and to some other shrines, but he could not achieve more. Jerusalem and the former Kingdom of Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule. The most significant and contractual achievement of Richard in this campaign was his conquest of Cyprus in 1191, where as a result an independent Kingdom of Cyprus emerged, which existed until 1489.

4th Crusade (1202-1204). The 4th crusade, announced by Pope Innocent III, was set off mainly by the French and Venetians. The vicissitudes of this campaign are described in the book of the French military leader and historian Geoffroy Villardouin, 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 number, could not pay for the chartered ships and equipment. Then the Venetians suggested to the French that, as a payment, they helped them in an attack on the port city of Zadar in Dalmatia, subject to the Hungarian king, which was Venice's main rival on the Adriatic. The original plan - to use Egypt as a staging ground for an attack on Palestine - was temporarily delayed. Having learned about the plans of the Venetians, the Pope forbade the campaign, but the expedition took place and cost its participants the excommunication. In November 1202, the combined army of the Venetians and the French attacked Zadar and plundered it thoroughly. After that, 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 Angel to the throne. A plausible excuse was also found: the crusaders could expect that in gratitude the emperor would give them money, people and equipment for an expedition to Egypt. Ignoring the pope's prohibition, the crusaders arrived at the walls of Constantinople and returned the throne to Isaac. However, the question of paying the promised reward hung in the air, and after an uprising took place 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 from April 13, 1204. The greatest cultural values were destroyed, 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 seated. The empire that existed until 1261 of all the Byzantine lands included only Thrace and Greece, where the French knights received feudal fiefs as a reward. The Venetians, on the other hand, owned the Constantinople harbor with the right to collect duties and achieved a trade monopoly within the Latin Empire and on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Thus, they gained the most from the crusade, but its participants never made it to the Holy Land. The Pope tried to extract his own benefits from the current situation - he removed the excommunication from the crusaders and took the empire under his patronage, hoping to strengthen the alliance of the Greek and Catholic churches, but this alliance 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 the attempts to reclaim 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 accomplish what adults could not achieve by force of arms. The religious fervor of teenagers was fueled by parents and parish priests. The Pope and the higher clergy opposed the enterprise, but could not stop it. Several thousand French children (possibly up to 30,000), led by the shepherd Etienne from Clois near Vendome (Christ appeared to him and handed a letter to the king), arrived in Marseille, where they were loaded onto ships. Two ships sank during a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, while the other 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, made their way to Italy on foot. When 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 almost all of them died on the way back. There is also another version of these events. According to her, French children and adults, headed by Etienne, first arrived in Paris and asked King Philip II Augustus to equip 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 on their way to Italy. Some arrived in Venice, others in Genoa, and a small group reached Rome, where Pope Innocent freed them from their vows. Some of the children showed up in Marseille. Be that as it may, most of the children disappeared without a trace. Perhaps in connection with these events in Germany, the famous legend of the Pied Piper from Gammeln arose. 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 "Crusade of Children" actually means the movement of the poor (serfs, farm laborers, day laborers) who had gathered in a crusade and who had already failed in Italy.
5th Crusade (1217-1221). At the 4th Lateran Council in 1215, Pope Innocent III announced 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, King of Hungary Andrew (Endre) II, and others. In Palestine, military operations were sluggish, but in 1218, when new reinforcements from Europe arrived, the crusaders shifted the direction of the attack to Egypt and captured the city of Damietu, located on the seashore. The Egyptian sultan offered the Christians to cede Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta, but the papal legate Pelagius, who was awaiting the approach of the legendary Christian "King David" from the east, did not give his consent. 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 "diplomatic", was led by Frederick II Hohenstaufen, the 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 re-conquered by the Muslims.
7th Crusade (1248-1250). It was headed by the French King Louis IX the Saint. A military expedition against Egypt ended in a crushing defeat. The crusaders took Damietta, but on the way to Cairo they were utterly defeated, and Louis himself was captured and was 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 directed the attack on Tunisia in North Africa. The crusaders ended up in Africa during the hottest time of the year and survived the plague that killed the king himself (1270). With his death, this campaign ended, which became the last attempt of Christians to liberate the Holy Land. Military expeditions of Christians 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, which embodied this faith, in including the Reconquista - the seven-century conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims.
RESULTS OF CRUSHWAYS
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. Perhaps the Crusades did delay the Turkish conquest of Byzantium, but they could not prevent the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantine Empire was in decline for a long time. Her final death meant the appearance of the Turks on the European political scene. The destruction of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 and the Venetian trade monopoly dealt a fatal blow to the empire, from which it could not recover even after its rebirth in 1261.
Trade. The merchants and artisans of Italian cities benefited most from the Crusades, who provided the Crusader armies with equipment, provisions and transport. In addition, Italian cities, primarily Genoa, Pisa and Venice, were enriched by the 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 - silk, 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 quest led to the discovery of America. The Crusades also played an extremely important role in the birth 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 has proven to be controversial. If the first campaigns helped to 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 turned out to be above religious considerations, forcing the crusaders to disregard papal prohibitions and enter into business and even friendly contacts with Muslims.
Culture. It was once considered that it was the Crusades that brought Europe to the Renaissance, but now this estimate seems to be overestimated to most historians. What they undoubtedly gave to the man of the Middle Ages was a broader view of the world and a better understanding of its diversity. The crusades are widely reflected in the literature. An innumerable number of poems have been written 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), which describes the exploits of Richard the Lionheart, or, presumably, the Song of Antioch (Le chanson d "Antioche), composed in Syria, dedicated to the 1st Crusade. The 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. The conquest of Constantinople by Villardouin remains the most authoritative source for the study of the 4th Crusade. The best medieval work in the genre of biography is considered by many to be the biography of King Louis IX, created by Jean de Joinville. recreating the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1144 to 1184 (the year of the author's death).
LITERATURE
The era of the crusades. M., 1914 Zaborov M. Crusades. M., 1956 Zaborov M. Introduction to the historiography of the crusades (Latin chronography of the XI-XIII centuries). M., 1966 Zaborov M. Historiography of the Crusades (XV-XIX centuries). M., 1971 M. Zaborov History of the Crusades in documents and materials. M., 1977 Zaborov M. Cross and sword. M., 1979 Zaborov M. Crusaders in the East. M., 1980

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

Educational institution

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

Test

on the history of the middle ages

on the topic: Crusades

2nd year students, group "B" (OZO)

Faculty of History

Elena Strekha

Introduction

1 reasons for the crusades

2 the beginning of the crusades

Subsequent crusades

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Crusades are usually called military expeditions of Western European Christians in order to reclaim and protect the main Christian shrines in Palestine. Their participants sewed a cross on their cloaks - a symbol of Christianity. They received the forgiveness of all their sins from the popes. It was the Catholic Church, or rather the papacy, that organized the Crusades. It is customary to count the time of the crusades from 1096 (the beginning of the first of them) and end in 1270 (the last, the Eighth campaign) or 1291, when the Muslims took the last stronghold of the crusaders in the East - the Akru fortress. After the first crusades in Palestine, the papacy began to use the crusading idea in the fight against heretics and even against rebellious kings. Crusades were organized in the 14th and 15th centuries, in particular against the Turks, but these were already isolated episodes. The mass crusading movement existed precisely at the end of the 11th - the end of the 13th century.

The Crusades were, of course, religious wars of Christians against Muslims, but their reasons and nature 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 the Muslims and itself sought help. Of course, the papacy hoped that such support from Western European co-religionists would help overcome church schism and spread the papal primacy to Eastern Christians.

1. Causes of the Crusades

The crusades began with the popes, who were nominally considered the leaders of all enterprises of this kind. Popes and other inspirers of the movement have promised heavenly and earthly rewards to all those who endanger their lives for the sake of a holy cause. The volunteer campaign was particularly successful due to the religious fervor that was then prevalent in Europe. Whatever the personal motives for participation (and in many cases they played an essential 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. Natives of Central Asia, at the beginning of the century, the Seljuks penetrated into the regions controlled by the Arabs, 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 boundaries 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 in 1078 (other dates indicate) take Jerusalem.

The Muslim threat forced the Byzantine emperor to seek help from Western Christians. The fall of Jerusalem was extremely disturbing to Christendom.

The conquests of the Seljuk Turks coincided in time 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 Guillaume the Pious. Thanks to the efforts of a number of abbots, who persistently called for the cleansing of the church and the spiritual transformation of Christendom, the abbey became a very influential force in the spiritual life of Europe.

At the same time in the XI century. the number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land increased. The "unfaithful Turk" was portrayed as a defiler of holy places, 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 was a world of vast possibilities. Land, income, power and prestige - all of this, they believed, would be the reward for the liberation of the Holy Land. Due to the expansion of the practice of inheritance on the basis of primogeniture, many of the younger sons of feudal lords, especially in northern France, could not count on participating in the division of their paternal lands. Having taken part in the crusade, they could already hope for the acquisition of land and position in society, which their older, more successful brothers possessed.

The Crusades gave the peasants the opportunity to free themselves from lifelong serfdom. As servants and cooks, the peasants formed a wagon train of the Crusader troops.

For purely economic reasons, European cities were interested in the crusades. For centuries, the Italian cities of Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice have battled Muslims for dominance over the western and central Mediterranean. By 1087, the Italians had driven Muslims out of southern Italy and Sicily, established settlements in North Africa, and took control of the western Mediterranean. They made maritime and land incursions into the Muslim territories of North Africa, seeking by force trade privileges from local residents. For these Italian cities, the Crusades meant only the transfer of hostilities from the Western Mediterranean to the Eastern.

2. The beginning of the crusades

The beginning of the Crusades was proclaimed at the Clermont Cathedral 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 hinder the church and clergy. On November 26, when the cathedral had already completed its work, Urban addressed a huge audience, probably numbering several thousand members of the highest nobility and clergy, and called for the start of a war against infidel Muslims in order to liberate the Holy Land. In his speech, the Pope emphasized the holiness of Jerusalem and the Christian relics of Palestine, spoke about the plunder and desecration that they were subjected to by the Turks, and painted a picture of numerous attacks on pilgrims, and also mentioned the danger facing the Christian brothers in Byzantium. Then Urban II called on the listeners to take up the holy cause, promising everyone who went on a campaign, absolution, and everyone who laid down his head in it - a place in paradise. The Pope called on the barons to stop destructive civil strife and turn their zeal to a godly cause. He made it clear that the crusade will provide the knights with ample opportunities to gain land, wealth, power and glory - all at the expense of the Arabs and Turks, with whom the Christian army can easily get rid of.

The response to the speech was the cries of the audience: "Deus vult!" ("God wants it!"). These words became the battle cry of the crusaders. Thousands of people immediately made a vow that they would go to war.

Pope Urban II ordered the clergy to spread his appeal throughout Western Europe. Archbishops and bishops (the most active among them was Ademar de Puy, who took upon himself the spiritual and practical leadership of the preparation of 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, the preachers aroused such religious fervor in the peasants that neither the owners nor the local priests could restrain them, they threw themselves off in thousands and set off on their way without supplies and equipment, having not the slightest idea of the distance and hardships of the path, in naive confidence, that God and the leaders will see to it that they do not get lost, as well as their daily bread. These hordes marched across the Balkans to Constantinople, expecting that the Christian brothers would welcome them as champions of a holy cause.

However, the locals greeted them coolly or even contemptuously, and then the western peasants began to plunder. In many places, real battles were fought 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 Bosphorus 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. On three main routes, by land and by sea, they arrived in Constantinople during 1096 and 1097. The campaign was led by feudal barons, including Duke Gottfried 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 on land, took away food and fodder from the local population, besieged and plundered several Byzantine cities, and repeatedly clashed with the Byzantine troops. The presence in and around the capital of a 30,000-strong army, 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 commanders of the crusaders intensified.

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

After a long dispute, Gottfried of Bouillon was elected king of Jerusalem, who, however, unlike his less modest and less religious successors, chose the unassuming title of "defender of the Holy Sepulcher." Gottfried and his successors came under 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 itself. 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 did) only in the event of a military threat. Many princes made friends with the Arabs and Byzantines, despite the fact that such a policy weakened the position of the kingdom as a whole. In addition, 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 a papal legate, the highest cleric in the Holy Land, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was an extremely influential figure here.

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

During this time, at least ten important centers of commerce and trade were developed. Among them are Beirut, Akra, Sidon and Jaffa. Italian merchants established their own administrations in the coastal cities in accordance with the privileges or awards of authority. As a rule, they had their own consuls (heads of administration) and judges here, acquired their own coin and system of measures and weights. Their legislative codes also extended to the local population.

As a rule, Italians made 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 Italians, and near the city they set up 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 get a profit. Some went so far as to even put Quranic sayings on coins.

The backbone of the crusader army was formed by two knightly orders - the knights-templars (Templars) and the knights of St. John (Johannites or Hospitallers). They consisted mainly of the lower strata of the feudal nobility and the younger offspring of aristocratic families. Initially, these orders were created to protect temples, shrines, roads leading to them, and pilgrims; also provided 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 the military, their members, along with the military oath, took monastic vows. The orders were able to replenish their ranks in Western Europe and receive financial assistance from those Christians who could not take part in the crusade, but were eager to help the holy cause.

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

3. Subsequent crusades

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

The forces that were attracted to participate in the campaign were enormous, but due to the lack of interaction and a well-thought-out campaign plan, the campaign ended in complete failure. Moreover, he gave rise to the Sicilian king Roger II to raid the Byzantine possessions in Greece and on the islands of the Aegean Sea.

3rd crusade (1187-1192). If the Christian commanders were constantly in strife, then the Muslims, under the leadership of Sultan Salah ad-din, united into a state stretching from Baghdad to Egypt. Salah ad-din easily defeated the disunited Christians, in 1187 he took Jerusalem and established control over the entire Holy Land, with the exception of a few coastal cities.

The First Crusade was led by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (ruled 1152-1190), the French king Philip II Augustus (ruled 1180-1223) and the English king Richard I the Lionheart (ruled 1189-1199). The German emperor drowned in Asia Minor while crossing the river, and only a few of his warriors reached the Holy Land. Two other monarchs who were rivals in Europe brought their strife 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 the Duchy of Normandy from him.

Richard the Lionheart remained the sole leader of the crusade. The feats he performed here gave rise to legends that surrounded his name with an aura of glory. Richard conquered Akra and Jaffa from the Muslims and concluded an agreement with Salah ad-din on the unhindered admission of pilgrims to Jerusalem and to some other shrines, but he could not achieve more. Jerusalem and the former Kingdom of Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule. The most significant and long-term achievement of Richard in this campaign was his conquest of Cyprus in 1191, where as a result an independent Kingdom of Cyprus emerged, which existed until 1489.

4th Crusade (1202-1204). The 4th crusade, announced by Pope Innocent III, was set off mainly by the French and Venetians. The vicissitudes of this campaign are described in the book of the French military leader and historian Geoffroy Villardouin "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 number, could not pay for the chartered ships and equipment. Then the Venetians suggested to the French that, as a payment, they helped them in an attack on the port city of Zadar in Dalmatia, subject to the Hungarian king, which was Venice's main rival on the Adriatic. The original plan - to use Egypt as a staging ground for an attack on Palestine - was temporarily delayed.

Having learned about the plans of the Venetians, the Pope forbade the campaign, but the expedition took place and cost its participants the excommunication. In November 1202, the combined army of the Venetians and the French attacked Zadar and plundered it thoroughly. After that, 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 Angel to the throne. A plausible excuse was also found: the crusaders could expect that in gratitude the emperor would give them money, people and equipment for an expedition to Egypt.

Ignoring the pope's prohibition, the crusaders arrived at the walls of Constantinople and returned the throne to Isaac. However, the question of paying the promised reward hung in the air, and after an uprising took place 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 from April 13, 1204. The greatest cultural values were destroyed, 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 seated.

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

The Pope tried to extract his own benefits from the current situation - he removed the excommunication from the crusaders and took the empire under his patronage, hoping to strengthen the alliance of the Greek and Catholic churches, but this alliance 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 the attempts to reclaim 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 accomplish what adults could not achieve by force of arms.

The religious fervor of teenagers was fueled by parents and parish priests. The Pope and the higher clergy opposed the enterprise, but could not stop it. Several thousand French children (possibly up to 30,000), led by the shepherd Etienne from Clois near Vendome (Christ appeared to him and handed a letter to the king), arrived in Marseille, where they were loaded onto ships.

Two ships sank during a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, while the other 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, made their way to Italy on foot. When 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 almost all of them died on the way back.

There is also another version of these events. According to her, French children and adults, headed by Etienne, first arrived in Paris and asked King Philip II Augustus to equip 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 on their way to Italy. Some arrived in Venice, others in Genoa, and a small group reached Rome, where Pope Innocent freed them from their vows. Some of the children showed up in Marseille. Be that as it may, most of the children disappeared without a trace. Perhaps in connection with these events in Germany, the famous legend of the Pied Piper from Gammeln arose.

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 "Crusade of Children" actually means the movement of the poor (serfs, farm laborers, day laborers) gathered in a crusade, who have already failed in Italy.

5th Crusade (1217-1221). At the 4th Lateran Council in 1215, Pope Innocent III announced 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, King of Hungary Andrew (Endre) II, and others. In Palestine, military operations were sluggish, but in 1218, when new reinforcements from Europe arrived, the crusaders shifted the direction of the attack to Egypt and captured the city of Damietu, located on the seashore.

The Egyptian sultan offered the Christians to cede Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta, but the papal legate Pelagius, who was awaiting the approach of the legendary Christian "King David" from the east, did not give his consent. 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 "diplomatic", was led by Frederick II Hohenstaufen, the 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 re-conquered by the Muslims.

7th Crusade (1248-1250). It was headed by the French King Louis IX the Saint. A military expedition against Egypt ended in a crushing defeat. The crusaders took Damietta, but on the way to Cairo they were utterly defeated, and Louis himself was captured and was 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 directed the attack on Tunisia in North Africa. The crusaders ended up in Africa during the hottest time of the year and survived the plague that killed the king himself (1270). With his death, this campaign ended, which became the last attempt of Christians to liberate the Holy Land.

Military expeditions of Christians 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, which embodied this faith, in including the Reconquista - the seven-century conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims.

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.

Perhaps the Crusades did delay the Turkish conquest of Byzantium, but they could not prevent the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantine Empire was in decline for a long time. Her final death meant the appearance of the Turks on the European political scene. The destruction of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 and the Venetian trade monopoly dealt a fatal blow to the empire, from which it could not recover even after its rebirth in 1261.

Trade

The merchants and artisans of Italian cities benefited most from the Crusades, who provided the Crusader armies with equipment, provisions and transport. In addition, Italian cities, primarily Genoa, Pisa and Venice, were enriched by the 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 - silk, 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 quest led to the discovery of America. The Crusades also played an extremely important role in the birth 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 to 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 turned out to be above religious considerations, forcing the crusaders to disregard papal prohibitions and enter into business and even friendly contacts with Muslims.

Culture

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

The crusades are widely reflected in the literature. An innumerable number of poems have been written 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), which describes the exploits of Richard the Lionheart, or, presumably, the Song of Antioch (Le chanson d "Antioche), composed in Syria, dedicated to the 1st Crusade. The new artistic material, born of the Crusades, also penetrated into ancient legends, and thus the early medieval cycles about Charlemagne and King Arthur were continued.

One of the most significant medieval chronicles was the book of Archbishop William of Tire, written in Latin, The History of Acts in the Overseas Lands (Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum), which vividly and authentically recreates 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); ed. V.A. Fedosik and I.O. Evtukhova. - Minsk: Ed. BSU Center, 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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Despite the fact that the crusades did not achieve their goal and ended in collapse, they created an entire era in European history and had a huge impact on many countries.

Byzantine Empire.

The Crusades were able to delay the conquest of Byzantium by the Turks, but they were unable to prevent the fall of Constantinople in 1453. For a long time, the Byzantine Empire was in decline. The final appearance of the Turks in the political arena is associated with its collapse. The destruction of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 and the Venetian trade monopoly dealt a fatal blow to the empire, from which it could not recover even after its rebirth in 1261.

Trade

Merchants and artisans, who supplied the army of the crusaders with equipment, transport, and provisions, benefited greatly from the crusades. Also, many foreign cities have been enriched by the trade monopoly in the Mediterranean.

Feudalism and the Church

The impact of the Crusades on the authority of the church has proven to be controversial. If the first campaigns helped to 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 turned out to be above religious considerations, forcing the crusaders to disregard papal prohibitions and enter into business and even friendly contacts with Muslims.

Culture

The crusades are widely reflected in the literature. An innumerable number of poems have been written 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, which describes the exploits of Richard the Lionheart, or the Song of Antioch, supposedly composed in Syria, dedicated to the 1st Crusade. New artistic material, born of the Crusades, penetrated into ancient legends. So, the early medieval cycles about Charlemagne and King Arthur were continued.

The Crusades also stimulated the development of historiography. The conquest of Constantinople by Villardouin remains the most authoritative source for the study of the 4th Crusade. Many consider the biography of King Louis IX, created by Jean de Joinville, to be the best medieval work in the genre of biography. One of the most significant medieval chronicles was the book by Archbishop Wilhelm of Tire, "The History of Acts in the Overseas Lands," written in Latin, which vividly and authentically recreates the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1144 to 1184.

The Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1272, are an important part of the Middle Ages taught in a 6th grade history course. These were military-colonial wars in the countries of the Middle East under the religious slogans of the struggle of Christians against "infidels", that is, Muslims. It is not easy to speak briefly about the crusades, since only the most important ones are distinguished by eight.

Reasons and reason for the crusades

Palestine, which belonged to Byzantium, was conquered by the Arabs in 637. It has become a place of pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims. The situation changed with the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1071 they interrupted the pilgrimage routes. The Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos appealed to the West for help in 1095. This was the reason for organizing the campaign.

The reasons that prompted people to participate in a dangerous event were:

the desire of the Catholic Church to expand its influence in the East and increase wealth;
the desire of monarchs and nobles to expand their territories;
peasants' hopes for land and freedom;
the desire of merchants to establish new trade relations with the countries of the East;
religious upsurge.

In 1095, at the Clermont Cathedral, Pope Urban II called for the liberation of the holy lands from the yoke of the Saracens (Arabs and Seljuk Turks). Many knights immediately accepted the cross and declared themselves warlike pilgrims. Later, the leaders of the campaign were determined.

Rice. 1. Call of Pope Urban II to the crusaders.

Participants of the crusades

In the crusades, a group of main participants can be distinguished:

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large feudal lords;
petty European knights;
merchants;
bourgeois artisans;
peasants.

The name "crusades" comes from the images of the cross sewn onto the clothes of the participants.

The first echelon of the crusaders was made up of the poor, led by the preacher Peter of Amiens. In 1096 they arrived in Constantinople and, without waiting for the knights, crossed over to Asia Minor. The consequences were dire. The poorly armed and untrained peasant militia was easily defeated by the Turks.

The beginning of the crusades

There were several Crusades aimed at Muslim countries. The first crusaders set out in the summer of 1096. In the spring of 1097 they crossed over to Asia Minor and captured Nicaea, Antioch, and Edessa. In July 1099, the crusaders entered Jerusalem, staging a brutal massacre of Muslims here.

On the occupied lands, the Europeans created their own states. By the 30s. XII century. the crusaders lost several cities and territories. The king of Jerusalem turned to the Pope for help, and he called on the European monarchs for a new crusade.

Basic hikes

The table "Crusades" will help to systematize the information

*Hike*	*Participants and organizers*	*Main goals and results*
1 crusade (1096 - 1099)	The organizer is Pope Urban II. Knights from France, Germany, Italy	The desire of the popes to extend their power to new countries, Western feudal lords - to acquire new possessions and increase income. Liberation of Nicaea (1097), capture of Edessa (1098), capture of Jerusalem (1099). Creation of the state of Tripoli, the principality of Antioch, the county of Edessa, the Kingdom of Jerusalem
2nd crusade (1147 - 1149)	Led by Louis VII of the French and German Emperor Conrad III	Loss of Edessa by the Crusaders (1144). Complete failure of the crusaders
3rd crusade (1189 - 1192)	Led by the German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French king Philip II Augustus and the English king Richard I the Lionheart	The goal of the campaign is to return Jerusalem, captured by the Muslims. have failed.
4 crusade (1202 - 1204)	The organizer is Pope Innocent III. French, Italian, Germanic feudal lords	The brutal plundering of Christian Constantinople. The collapse of the Byzantine Empire: the Greek states - the Epirus kingdom, the Nicene and Trebizond empires. The Crusaders created the Latin Empire
Child (1212)		Thousands of children died or were sold into slavery
5 crusade (1217 - 1221)	Duke of Austria Leopold VI, King of Hungary Andras II, and others	A campaign was organized to Palestine and Egypt. The offensive in Egypt and in the negotiations on Jerusalem failed due to the lack of unity in leadership.
6 crusade (1228 - 1229)	German King and Roman Emperor Frederick II Staufen	March 18, 1229 Jerusalem as a result of the conclusion of a treaty with the Egyptian sultan, but in 1244 the city again passed to the Muslims.
7 crusade (1248 - 1254)	French King Louis IX Saint.	Hike to Egypt. The defeat of the crusaders, the capture of the king, followed by ransom and return home.
8 crusade (1270-1291)	Mongol troops	The last and unfortunate one. The knights lost all possessions in the East, except for Fr. Cyprus. Destruction of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean

Rice. 2. Crusaders.

The second campaign took place in 1147-1149. It was led by the German Emperor Konrad III Staufen and the French King Louis VII. In 1187, Sultan Saladin defeated the crusaders and captured Jerusalem, which was fought off by King Philip II Augustus of France, King Frederick I Barbarossa of Germany and King Richard I the Lionheart of England.

The fourth was organized against Orthodox Byzantium. In 1204, the crusaders mercilessly plundered Constantinople, staging a massacre of Christians. In 1212, 50,000 children were sent to Palestine from France and Germany. Most of them became slaves or died. In history, the adventure is known as the "Children's Crusade".

After a report to the Pope on the fight against the heresy of the Cathars in the Languedoc region, a series of military campaigns took place from 1209 to 1229. This is the Albigensian or Qatari crusade.

The fifth (1217-1221) was the great failure of the Hungarian king Endre II. In the sixth (1228-1229) the cities of Palestine were handed over to the crusaders, but already in 1244 they finally lost Jerusalem for the second time. To save those who remained there, a seventh campaign was proclaimed. The crusaders were defeated, and the French king Louis IX was captured, where he remained until 1254.In 1270, he led the eighth - the last and extremely unsuccessful crusade, the stage of which from 1271 to 1272 is called the ninth.

Crusades of Russia

The ideas of the Crusades also penetrated into the territory of Russia. One of the directions foreign policy its princes - wars with unbaptized neighbors. The campaign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1111 against the Polovtsy, who often attacked Russia, was called a cross. In the XIII century, the princes fought with the Baltic tribes, the Mongols.

Consequences of hikes

The crusaders divided the conquered lands into several states:

Kingdom of Jerusalem;
kingdom of Antioch;
County of Edessa;
county of Tripoli.

In the states, the crusaders established feudal orders along the lines of Europe. To protect their possessions in the east, castles were built and spiritual and knightly orders were founded:

hospitallers;
the templars;
Teutons.

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Digging through the Internet, I found an interesting article. Rather, it is an essay by a 4th year student of the Smolensk Pedagogical University Kupchenko Konstantin. Reading about the crusades, I came across a mention of a children's crusade. But I didn’t even suspect that everything was so bad !!! Read to the end, do not be intimidated by the volume.

Children's crusade. How it all began

Gustave Dore The Children's Crusade

Introduction

« It happened just after Easter. We had not yet waited for the Trinity, when thousands of youths set out on the road, abandoning their work and their shelter. Some of them were barely born and were only six years old. For others, it was just right to choose a bride for themselves, but they chose exploit and glory in Christ. They have forgotten the worries entrusted to them. They left the plow with which they had recently blown up the earth; they let go of the wheelbarrow that weighed them down; they left the sheep, next to which they fought against the wolves, and thought about other adversaries, the Mohammedan heresy of the strong ... Parents, brothers and sisters, friends persistently persuaded them, but the firmness of the ascetics was unshakable. Having put on the cross and rallied under their banners, they moved to Jerusalem ... The whole world called them madmen, but they went forward».

This is approximately how medieval sources tell about an event that shook the entire Christian society in 1212. In the sultry dry summer of 1212, an event occurred, which is known as the children's crusade.

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

More than 50 medieval authors mention children's campaigns (sometimes briefly, in one or two lines, sometimes giving them a half-page description); of these, only more than 20 are trustworthy, since they either saw the young crusaders with their own eyes. And the information of these authors is very fragmentary. For example, here is one of the references to the children's crusade in the medieval chronicle:

"The Crusade Called for Children, 1212"

« Children of both sexes, adolescents and adolescents, and not only small children, but also adults, married women and girls went on this expedition - they all walked 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 indulged in any tricks to hit the road. It got to the point that everywhere, in the villages and right in the field, people left their weapons, throwing in place even those that were in their hands, and joined the procession. Many people, seeing in this a sign of true piety, filled with the Spirit of God, hastened to supply the pilgrims with everything they needed, distributing food and everything they needed. The laity fiercely rebuffed the clergy and some others, who possessed a more sound judgment and denounced this walk, reproaching them for unbelief and claiming that they resisted this act more out of envy and avarice than for the sake of truth and justice. Meanwhile, any business started without a proper test of reason and without relying on wise discussion never leads to anything good. And so, when these mad 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 the crafty sailors, they allowed themselves to be taken to other overseas countries. Those who continued the campaign, reaching Rome, found 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 energy was wasted and in vain, although, however, no one could remove from them a vow to make a crusade - only children who had not reached a conscious age, and the elderly, bent under the weight of years, were free from it. So, disappointed and embarrassed, they set off on their way back. Once accustomed to marching from province to province in a crowd, each in his own company and without stopping chanting, they now returned in silence, alone, barefoot and hungry. They were subjected to all kinds of humiliation, and more than one girl was captured by rapists and deprived of innocence».

Religious authors of subsequent centuries, for obvious reasons, bypassed the terrible plot in silence. And enlightened secular writers, even the most evil-speaking and merciless, apparently considered the reminder of the senseless death of almost a hundred thousand children to be "a blow below the belt," an unworthy reception in polemics with churchmen. The venerable historians saw in the absurd enterprise of children only an obvious indisputable stupidity, on the study of which it was inexpedient to expend mental potential. And therefore the children's crusade is given in solid historical research devoted to the crusaders, at best, a few pages between the descriptions of the fourth (1202-1204) and fifth (1217-1221) crusades.

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

Causes of the Crusades.

For quite some time now, Europe had looked with dismay at what was happening in Palestine. The stories of the pilgrims returning from there to Europe about the persecutions and insults they endured in the Holy Land worried the European peoples. Little by little the urge to return Christendom his most precious and revered shrines. But in order for Europe to send numerous hordes of various nationalities to this enterprise over the course of two centuries, it was necessary to have special grounds and a special situation.

There were many reasons in Europe that helped to realize the idea of the Crusades. Medieval society was generally characterized by a religious mood; the crusades were a peculiar 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 expected to increase their profits by expanding trade with the East; the oppressed peasants were freed from serfdom for participating in the crusade and knew that during their absence the church and the state would take care of the families they had left in their homeland; the debtors and defendants knew that during their participation in the crusade they would not be prosecuted by the creditor or the court.

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 reclaim the lost shrine.

Many people of that time came to the conviction that if sin-laden adults cannot return Jerusalem, then innocent children must fulfill this task, since God will help them. And then, to the joy of the pope, a prophet-boy appeared in France, who began to preach a new crusade.

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

In 1200 (or perhaps the next), not far from Orleans, in the village of Cloix (or perhaps elsewhere), a peasant boy named Stephen was born. This is too similar to the beginning of a fairy tale, but it is only a reproduction of the negligence of the chroniclers of that time and the inconsistency in their stories about the children's crusade. However, the fabulous opening is quite appropriate for a story about a fabulous fate. This is what the chronicles tell us about.

Like all peasant children, Stefan helped his parents from an early age - he grazed cattle. He differed from his peers only by a little more piety: Stephen was more often than others in church, he wept bitter than others from the feelings that overwhelmed him during liturgies and processions of the cross. He was shocked by the April "course of the black crosses" - a solemn procession on the day of St. Mark. On this day, prayers were offered for the soldiers who fell in the holy land, for those who were tortured in Muslim slavery. And the boy ignited along with the crowd, furiously cursing the infidels.

On one warm May day in 1212, he met a pilgrim monk who was coming from Palestine and begging for alms.The monk began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened, fascinated. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then suddenly that he was Jesus Christ.

Everything further was like in a dream (or the boy's dream was this meeting). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's one, for "from the lips of infants comes strength against the enemy." There is no need for swords or armor - for the conquest of Muslims, the sinlessness of children and the word of God in their mouths will be enough. Then the numb Stephen took a scroll from the hands of the monk - a letter to the king of France. Then the monk quickly walked away.

Stephen 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 looked in vain (because they were illiterate) at the words of the mysterious scroll. Stefan’s zeal didn’t quench Stefan’s zeal. The next day he packed up his knapsack, took his staff and went to Saint-Denis - to the abbey of Saint Dionysius, patron of France. The boy reasoned correctly that it was necessary to collect volunteers for the children's trip in the place of the greatest gathering of pilgrims.

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

One of the chroniclers testifies " by conscience and truth, " what Stefan was " an early matured villain and a nest of all vices"But these lines were written thirty years after the sad ending of a crazy undertaking, when they began to look for a scapegoat in retrospect. After all, had 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 and the holy fool, as Soviet researchers do. ”He could just be an exalted, trusting boy, quick-witted and eloquent.

On the way, Stephen stayed in towns and villages, where with his speeches he gathered tens and hundreds of people. From numerous repetitions, he ceased to be shy and confused in words. An experienced little orator came to Saint-Denis. The abbey, located nine kilometers from Paris, attracted crowds of thousands of pilgrims. Stephen was well received there: the sanctity of the place disposed to the expectation of a miracle - and here it is: the child Chrysostom. The shepherd boy boldly recounted everything that he had heard from the pilgrims, deftly knocked out a tear from the crowds, which had come just to be moved and cry! "Save, Lord, 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 the unbelievers? And he snatched a scroll from his bosom, and the crowds buzzed when the boy with burning eyes shook before them the immutable command of Christ addressed to the king. Stephen recalled the many signs and wonders given to him by the Lord.

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

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

Pilgrims dispersed to the cities and villages of France. The adults very soon forgot about Stefan. But the children excitedly talked everywhere about their peer - a miracle worker and an orator, striking the imagination of the neighbors' children and taking terrible vows to each other to help Stephen. And now the games of knights and squires were abandoned, the French children began a 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 happy find for the pope, or one of the prelates, or perhaps the pontiff himself, had 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 the disguised envoy of Innocent III - it is now impossible to find out. And it doesn't matter where the idea of the children's crusading movement arose - in the bowels of the papal curia or in the heads of children. Dad grabbed her with an iron grip.

Now everything boded well for the children's hike: the fertility of frogs, the clashes of dog packs, even the beginning drought. Here and there there appeared "prophets" twelve, ten and even eight years old. They all insisted that they were sent by Stephen, although many of them did not see him in the eye. All these prophets healed the possessed and performed other "miracles" ...

The kids formed squads 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 oriflamma - a copy of the banner of St. Dionysius. The children held crosses and lighted candles in their hands, 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, a father or an older brother who fought in Palestine. Some of them died. And now - an opportunity to take revenge on the infidels, gain glory, continue the work of the older generation. And children from noble families enthusiastically joined in new game, flocked under the banners with images of Christ and the Ever-Virgin. Sometimes they became leaders, sometimes they were forced to obey an artistic peer-prophet.

Many girls joined the movement, who also dreamed of the Holy Land, exploits and freedom from parental authority. The leaders did not drive the "girls" - they wanted to collect a bigger army. Many girls disguised themselves as boys for safety and ease of movement.

As soon as Stefan (May has not yet expired!) Announced Wandom 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 Reverend Gray, "to plunder to their heart's content or to pray to their fill," the urban and rural poor, who joined the children "not for Jesus, but for the bread of a bite"; and most of all - thieves, cheaters, various criminal rabble, who hoped to profit from noble children, well equipped for the journey. Many adults sincerely believed in the success of the unarmed expedition and hoped that they would get rich prey. The elders who fell into their second childhood were also with their children. Hundreds of corrupt women swarmed around the offspring of noble families. So the detachments turned out to be marvelously colorful. And in the previous crusades, children, old people, hordes of Magdalene and all sorts of scum participated. 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 did the authorities and, most importantly, the parents look? Everyone was waiting for the children to get mad and calm down.

King Philip II Augustus, a tireless collector of French lands, an insidious and far-sighted politician, initially approved the initiative of the children. Philip wanted to have the Pope on his side in the war with the English king and was not averse to please Innocent III and organize a crusade, but only his power was not enough for that. Suddenly - this idea of children, noise, enthusiasm. Of course, all this should kindle the hearts of the barons and knights with righteous anger against the infidels!

However, the adults did not lose their heads. And children's fuss began to threaten the tranquility of the state. The guys are abandoning their houses, running to Vendome, and in fact they are going to move to the sea! But on the other hand, the pope is silent, the legates are agitating for the campaign ... Cautious Philip II feared to anger the pontiff, but nevertheless turned to the scientists of the recently created Paris University. They answered firmly: the children must be stopped immediately! If necessary - by force, for their campaign is inspired by Satan! Responsibility for stopping the march was removed from him, and the king issued an edict commanding the children to immediately get rid of stupidity from their heads and go home.

However, the royal edict did not impress the children. Childish hearts had a lord more powerful than a king. The matter has gone too far - you can't stop it with a shout. Only the faint-hearted returned home. Peers and barons did not dare to use violence: ordinary people sympathized with this idea of children and would rise to their defense. There would have been riots. After all, the people had just been taught that God's will will allow children without weapons and bloodshed to convert Muslims to Christians and thus free the "Holy Sepulcher" from the hands of the infidels.

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

Therefore, Philip II washed his hands and did not insist on fulfilling his edict.

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

Children put on a kind of uniform: gray simple shirts over short pants and a large beret. But many children could not afford this either: they wore what they were wearing (often barefoot and bareheaded, although the sun almost never set behind the clouds that summer). On the chests of the participants of the campaign, a cloth cross of red, green or black was sewn (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 detachments with singing, banners, crosses cheerfully and solemnly passed through cities and villages, heading to Vendome, only locks and strong oak doors could keep a son or daughter at home. Like a plague swept across the country, taking away tens of thousands of children.

Enthusiastic crowds of onlookers enthusiastically greeted the detachments of children, which further fueled her enthusiasm and ambition.

Finally, some priests realized the danger of this venture. They began to stop the detachments, where they could persuade the children to go home, assured that the thought of a children's campaign was the machinations of the devil. But the guys were adamant, especially since in all major cities they were met and blessed by papal emissaries. Reasonable priests were immediately declared apostates. The superstition of the crowd, the enthusiasm of children and the machinations of the papal curia won common sense... And many of these apostate priests deliberately set out with children doomed to inevitable death, like seven centuries later, teacher Janusz Korczak went with his pupils to 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 with the speed of the pilgrims on foot. Those who went to worship at Saint Denis brought the news to Burgundy and Champagne, from there it reached the banks of the Rhine. In Germany, his "holy youth" was not slow to appear. And there the papal legates zealously set about processing 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 "shoved" his child prodigy into the prophets. It is not known whether the boy's father was rich, but he was undoubtedly driven by low motives. The monk-chronicler, witness of the process of "making" a minor prophet, calls Father Nicholas " mischievous fool". We do not know how much he earned on his son, but after a few months he paid for his son's affairs with his life.

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

Further events developed according to the already tested scenario: Nicholas had a vision of a cross in the clouds, and the voice of the Almighty ordered him to collect the children on a campaign; the crowds greeted the newly appeared boy-prophet; Immediately followed by the healing of the possessed and other miracles, rumors of which spread with incredible speed. Nicholas spoke on the porches of churches, on stones and barrels in the middle of the squares.

Then everything went according to a well-known scheme: adult pilgrims spread the news of the young prophet, children whispered and gathered in teams, marched around the outskirts of different cities and villages finally left - to Cologne. But there were also some peculiarities in the development of events in Germany. Frederick II, himself a young man 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 decisively forbade the idea of children: the country was already shaken by turmoil. Therefore, the children gathered only from the Rhine regions closest to Cologne. The movement snatched from families not one or two children, as in France, but almost everyone, including even six-year-olds and seven-year-olds. It is this little one that already on the second day of the hike will ask the elders to snag, and in the third or fourth week it will start to get sick, die, at best, stay in roadside villages (unknowingly the way back - forever).

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

Detachments of children hurriedly gathered in Cologne. The campaign had to start as soon as possible: the emperor was against, the barons were against, the parents were breaking sticks on the backs of their sons! Just look, the tempting idea will fail!

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

And then came the day of the solemn performance from Cologne. End of June. Under the banner of Nicholas - at least twenty thousand children (according to some chronicles, twice as many). These are mainly boys of twelve years of age and older. No matter how opposed the German barons, but the offspring of noble families in the troops of Nicholas turned out to be more than Stephen'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, there was a burning thirst for revenge for the 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 the field. Wooden crosses, banners, pennants sway over the gray sea. Hundreds of adults - some in cassocks, some in rags - seem to be prisoners of the children's army. Nicholas, the commanders of the detachments, some of the children from noble families will go in carts, surrounded by squires. But many young aristocrats with knapsacks and staffs stand side by side with the last of their slaves.

Mothers of children from distant cities and villages cried and said goodbye. The time has come to say goodbye and sob to the Cologne mothers - their children make up almost half of the participants in the campaign.

But then the trumpet sounded. The children started singing a hymn to the glory of Christ of their own composition, alas, not preserved for us by history. The line moved, trembled - and moved forward to the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, the lamentations of mothers and the murmur of sane people.

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

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

The detachments stretched out for many kilometers. Both routes ran through semi-wild lands. The local people, not numerous even at that time, huddled up to the few fortresses. Wild animals came out of the woods onto the roads. The thickets were teeming with robbers. Dozens of children drowned while crossing rivers. In such conditions, whole groups ran back home. But the ranks of the children's army were immediately replenished with children from roadside villages.

Glory was ahead of the participants in the campaign. But not in all cities they were fed and left to spend the night at least even on the streets. Sometimes they drove away, rightly protecting their children from "infection". The guys happened to be left without alms for a day or two. The edibles from the knapsacks of the weak quickly migrated into the stomachs of those who were stronger and older. Theft in the detachments flourished. Broken women lured money from the offspring of noble and wealthy families, the sharper took away the last penny from the children, luring them to play dice on halts. Discipline in the detachments fell from day to day.

We set off early in the morning. In the very heat, they made a halt in the shade of trees. While they walked, they sang simple hymns. At the halts, they told and listened to stories full of extraordinary adventures and wonders about battles and campaigns, about knights and pilgrims. Surely there were jokes and pranksters among the guys who ran after each other and danced when others fell off their feet after a many-kilometer hike. Surely the children fell in love, quarreled, reconciled, fought for leadership ...

On a bivouac in the foothills of the Alps, near Lake Leman, Nicholas was at the head of the "army" almost half the size of the original. The majestic mountains only for a moment, with their white caps of snow, enchanted children who had never seen anything similar in beauty. Then horror struck the hearts: after all, they had to climb to these white hats!

The inhabitants of the foothills greeted the children warily and sternly. It never crossed their minds to feed the guys. At least they didn't kill the good. The grubs in their knapsacks melted away. 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 threw detachments of Arab robbers here: they settled in these places, not wanting or not being able to return to their homeland. The guys crept along the valley in silence, without songs, dropping their crosses. It would be here and turn them back. Alas, clever conclusions were made only by the rabble who adhered to the children. These scum have already robbed the children and fled, for further promises only death or slavery among the Muslims. The Saracens hacked to death a dozen or two of the guys lagging behind the detachment. But children are already accustomed to such losses: every day they buried or abandoned dozens of their comrades without burial. Malnutrition, fatigue, stress and illness did their part.

Crossing the Alps- without food and warm clothes - became a real nightmare for the participants of the hike. These mountains terrified even adults. To wade along icy slopes, on eternal snows, on stone cornices - not everyone has the strength and courage for this. Merchants with goods, military detachments, and clerics, as needed, were transshipped across the Alps to Rome and back.

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

The descent was an incredible joy. Greens! Silver 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, perked up, thought that all the sorrows were already behind. In this abundant land, they, of course, will be kindly and fattened.

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

After all, there appeared those whose fathers ravaged these abundant lands with raids, desecrated shrines and plundered cities. Therefore, the "German serpents" were not allowed into the Italian cities. Alms were given only by the most compassionate, and even then secretly from the neighbors. Barely three or four thousand children reached Genoa, stealing food along the way and robbing fruit trees.

On Saturday, August 25, 1212 (the only date in the chronicle of the campaign, with which all the chronicles agree), emaciated teenagers stood on the shore genoese harbor... Two monstrous months and a thousand kilometers behind, so many friends are 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 you 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 make way for them. From the first day of campaigning for the campaign, there was no talk of any ships and money.

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

The fathers of the free city received a delegation of children led by several priests (at other moments of the campaign, the role of adult mentors is hushed up by the chroniclers, probably due to their unwillingness to compromise the churchmen who supported this ridiculous venture). The children did not ask for ships, they only asked for permission to spend the night in the streets and squares of Genoa. The city fathers, delighted that they were not being asked for money or ships, allowed the children to stay in the city for a week, and then advised them to return to Germany, pick up, hello.

The participants of the campaign entered the city in picturesque columns, for the first time in many weeks again reveling in everyone's attention and interest. 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 week, let them go home tomorrow! The mob was strongly against the presence of little Germans in Genoa. True, the Pope blessed the campaign, but suddenly these children carry out the insidious plan of the German emperor. On the other hand, the Genoese did not want to let go of such an amount of gratuitous labor, and the children were asked to stay in Genoa forever and become good citizens of the free city.

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

In the morning, Nicholas's column in all its glory lined up at the edge of the surf. The townspeople crowded on the embankment. After the solemn liturgy, chanting psalms, the detachments moved towards the waves. The first rows entered the water up to their knees ... up to the waist ... 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 was rising and hot ... The Genoese, laughing, went home. And the children all did not take their eyes off the sea and sang, sang - until they were hoarse ...

The permit to stay in the city was about to expire. 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 best houses as sons, others were dismantled into service.

But the most stubborn gathered in a field not far from the city. And they began to confer. Who knows where the Lord laid down to open the bottom of the sea to them - maybe not in Genoa. We must go further, look for that place. And it is better to die in sunny Italy than to return home beaten by dogs! And worse than shame - the Alps ...

The heavily thinned detachments of the unlucky young crusaders moved further to the South-East. There was no question of discipline anymore, they went in groups, more precisely, in gangs, getting food by force and cunning. Nicholas is no longer mentioned by the chroniclers - he may have stayed in Genoa.

The horde of adolescents has reached at last Pisa... Being expelled from Genoa was an excellent recommendation for them in Pisa, a city that rivaled Genoa. The sea did not part even here, but the inhabitants of Pisa, in opposition to the Genoese, equipped two ships and sent some of the children to Palestine on them. In the chronicles there is a dull mention of the fact that they safely reached the coast of the holy land. But if this happened, they probably soon died of want and hunger - the Christians there themselves barely made ends meet. The chronicles do not mention any meetings between children-crusaders and Muslims.

In the fall, several hundred German teenagers reached Rome, the poverty and abandonment of which, after the luxury of Genoa, Pisa and Florence, amazed them. Pope Innocent III received the representatives of the little crusaders, praised and then chided them and ordered them to return home, forgetting that their home is a thousand kilometers beyond the accursed Alps. Then, by order of the head of the Catholic Church, the children kissed the cross, that, "having arrived at a perfect age," they would certainly end the interrupted crusade. Now, at the very least, the Pope had several hundred crusaders for the future.

Few of the 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 tell plainly where they had been. The children's crusade resulted in a kind of migration of children - scattering them in other areas of Germany, Burgundy and Italy.

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

In Italy, children managed to poke their Milan, who for fifty years barely recovered from the raid of Barbarossa. From there they barely carried their feet: the Milanese hunted them with dogs like hares.

The sea did not make way for the juvenile crusaders not in Ravenna nor elsewhere. 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 decided to deceive the pontiff and sail to Palestine from the port of Brindisi. And many things simply plodded forward by inertia, not hoping for anything. In the extreme south of Italy that year there was a monstrous drought - the harvest died, the famine was such that, according to the chroniclers, "mothers devoured their children." It is even difficult to imagine what the German children could eat in this region, swollen with hunger, hostile to them.

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

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

Chapter 3. Way of the Cross of French Children

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

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

Stefan subtly captured the mood of the masses of the participants in the campaign and, if necessary, addressed them at halts with an incendiary speech. And then there was such a crowd around his carriage that in this crowd of one or two babies were certainly maimed or trampled to death. In such cases, they hastily erected a stretcher or dug a grave, quickly prayed and hurried on, remembering the victims until the first crossroads. But they discussed for a long time and lively who was lucky to get hold of a piece of St. Stephen's clothes or a splinter from his cart. This exaltation captured even those children who fled from home and joined the crusader "army" not at all for religious reasons. Stephen'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-voiced adolescents could, without the help of adults, cope with a thirty-thousand-strong "army", set up camps in convenient places, organize overnight stays, give the detachments a direction of movement in the mornings.

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, every day they had to lie that by evening the troops would arrive at their destination. 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 is possible to reach the "holy land" only by crossing the sea.

Passed the Tour, Lyon and came to Marseilles almost in full force. The guys covered five hundred kilometers in a month. The ease of the route allowed them to get ahead of the German children and were the first to reach the Mediterranean coast, which, alas, did not part for them.

Disappointed and even offended by God, the children scattered around the city. We spent the night. In the morning they prayed again on the seashore. By evening, several hundred children were missing in the detachments - they moved home.

The days passed. The Marseilles somehow tolerated the crowd of children that had fallen on their heads. Fewer and fewer "crusaders" came out to pray to the sea. The leaders of the campaign looked longingly at the ships in the harbor - if they had money, they would not disdain now the usual way of crossing the sea.

The Marseilles began to murmur. 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 woeful situation of the young crusaders touched two of the city's most eminent merchants - Hugo Ferreus and William Porkus (Hugo the Iron and William the Pig). However, these two devilish figures with their gloomy nicknames are not at all invented by the chronicler. Other sources also mention their names. And out of pure philanthropy, they provided the children with the required amount of ships and provisions.

The miracle that was promised to you, - St. Stephen broadcast from the platform in the city square, - has happened! We just misunderstood the signs of God. It was not the sea that was supposed to part, but the human heart! The will of the Lord is revealed to us in the act of two honorable Marseilles, etc.

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

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

By the next morning, the number of participants in the campaign had significantly diminished. But it was for the best, the rest were tolerably accommodated 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 hold up to seven hundred knights. Thus, we can reasonably assume that there were no less children 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 Marseilles poured out to see the children ashore. After the solemn prayer service, ships under sails, colored with flags, accompanied by the chants and enthusiastic shouts of the townspeople, majestically sailed out of the harbor, and now they disappeared beyond 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 is left in the memory of Europeans about the children's crusade.

Eighteen years have passed since the departure of the young crusaders from Marseilles, and all the deadlines for the return of the participants in the children's campaign have passed.

After the death of Pope Innocent III, two more crusades fizzled out, they managed to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims, having entered into an alliance with the Egyptian sultan ... In a word, life went on. They forgot to think about the missing children. To throw a cry, to raise Europe in search, to find five thousand children who, perhaps, are still alive - this never occurred to anyone. Such a wasteful humanism was not in the customs of that time.

Their mothers have already wept. Children were born visibly and invisibly. And many died. Although, of course, it is difficult to imagine that the hearts of mothers who took their children on a hike did not sore from the bitterness of senseless loss.

In 1230, a monk suddenly appeared in Europe, who had once sailed from Marseilles with his children. To him, for some merits released from Cairo, mothers of children who disappeared during the campaign flocked 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 in Cairo, about seven hundred participants in the campaign were languishing in captivity. Of course, not a single person in Europe touched a finger to ransom the former idols of the ignorant crowds from slavery.

From the stories of the fugitive monk, who quickly flew around the entire continent, parents finally learned about the tragic fate of their missing children. Here's what happened:

The children, crowded in the holds of the ships sailing from Marseille, suffered terribly from stuffiness, seasickness and fear. They feared sirens, leviathans and, of course, storms. It was the storm that fell upon the unfortunate as they passed Corsica and went around Sardinia... The ships were carried to St. Peter Island off the southwestern tip of Sardinia. At dusk, children screamed in horror as the ship was thrown from wave to wave. Dozens of those on deck were washed overboard. The current carried five ships past the reefs. And two flew straight to the coastal cliffs. Two ships with children were blown to pieces.

Fishermen immediately after the shipwreck buried hundreds of children's corpses on an uninhabited island. But such was the disunity of Europe at that time that news of this did not reach either 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 decayed, even its ruins were lost over time ...

Five other ships somehow made it to the African coast. True, nailed them in algerian harbor... But it turned out that it was here that they had 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 design and ensured their personal safety.

What is slavery among the infidels, the children knew from creepy stories, which were carried across Europe by the pilgrims. Therefore, it is impossible to describe their horror when they realized what had happened.

Some of the children were sold out at the Algerian bazaar, and they became slaves, concubines or concubines of rich Muslims. The rest of the guys were loaded onto ships and taken to Alexandria markets... Four hundred monks and priests who were brought to Egypt with their children were fabulously 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 the Christians in the Cairo palace and put him in charge of translating 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 satisfyingly and at ease, only it was impossible to go outside Cairo. While they were settling in 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 only possible to get to Baghdad through Palestine ... Yes, the children stepped on Holy land... But in chains or with ropes around the neck. They saw the majestic walls of Jerusalem. They passed through Nazareth, their bare feet burned the sands of Galilee ... In Baghdad, young slaves were sold out. One of the chronicles tells that the Baghdad Caliph decided to convert them to Islam. And although this event was 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. Boys who have gone through so much suffering for a lofty goal could well have shown unbending will and die martyrs for their faith. There were, according to the chronicles, eighteen of them. The Caliph abandoned his venture and sent the surviving Christian fanatics to slowly dry up in the fields.

In Muslim lands, juvenile crusaders died of disease, beatings, or mastered, 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? About Stephen was heard only before the arrival of his column in Marseille. Nicholas disappeared from sight in Genoa. The third, unnamed, leader of the crusader children 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, forgetting their enthusiasm and delight at the idea of the little madmen, fully agreed with the two-line Latin epigram - literature honored a hundred thousand ruined children with only six words:

To the stupid shore
The mind is childish.

Thus ended one of the worst tragedies in European history.

The material is taken from here http://www.erudition.ru/referat/printref/id.16217_1.html slightly reduced, removed the situation in Europe at the beginning of the XIII 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. Posted by Thea Beckman.