Hi Rasputin
Good review.
The Wikipedia article over-generalizes.
During the first crusade, at least, most of the nobility were landless second and third sons who were seeking their own place in the sun (no kings went on the first crusade). The church's big reason behind promoting the first crusade was to get the large number of unemployed soldiers out of Western Europe. A recent spate of pilgrims (tourists) being robbed or taken hostage en route to the middle east pilgrimage sites (tourist destinations) was another reason.
So, the image of a mob of religious fanatics setting off for Jesus is an over-simplification.
The thinking of the first crusading army as a mob is not off the mark. The Crusaders of 1099 experienced a series of extraordinary lucky breaks (against the Turks in Asia Minor and against the Egyptians at Damascus and later at Jerusalem). This fantastic luck contributed to them believing that they had god on their side.
Source: Sir Stephen Runciman's "The History of the Crusades" Vol I.
I know far less about the later Crusades. By the third crusade, when Richard the Lionheart and St Louis (the first wave of royal crusaders) entered the fray, the middle east was a mesh of petty kingdoms, some Muslem and some Christian, shifting alliances between each other. The interlopers from Europe (ie. Louis and Richard) were there for glory, didn't understand the subtlety of the political situation, and skirmished with the Christians' Muslem allies. Saladin and his predecessor, Nur ad Din, wielding awesome military might and forcing alliances from the Christian-friendly muslems annihilated the Christian forces in battle after battle.*
* My knowledge of the third crusade is hazier than the first, because I never finished Runciman's "The History of the Crusades" vol 2. The subsequent crusades were sloppy campaigns to regain what was lost in the middle east. One crusading army even sacked Constantinople. Another was butchered to the last man in Asia Minor.
A major ally to the Western Europeans were the Genoese, who profited much from holding monopoly over the sea trade routes from the Levant, and also made money transporting soldiers and migrants to and from the Levant.
The crusades make really good reading.
-Tim
Well the ones that sacked Constantinople were rouges.
They joined the Crusade, but quite just outside of Constantinople.
I believe the men got bored and many people were breaking off and continuing on their own.
So in order to keep them together and to keep them interested they attacked the city.
The First Crusade was not so much luck as the Muslims were surprised and scattered at the time.
The Muslim invasions that had swept threw North Africa and the Middle east, had met little or no resistance along the way.
They would invade a couple towns, threaten everyone to become Muslim or die, then move on.
When they reached the Holy Land, they met the Turks who had very much the same culture.
The Turks adopted the Religion willingly, and suddenly the Muslims were extreamly powerful.
But It didn't work out quite that way. The Turks adopted the religion, and true there were alot of them after that.
But they were spread thin, and there were many groups within the Muslim territories.
Often they fought one another for power.
So when a HUGE resistance appeared, they were completely unprepared. They were swept aside quite easily.
Only after 200 years did they finally band together under the leadership of Saladin.
The second Crusade was called after Saladin retook Jerusalem,
But it lacked the same amount of people as the first, and was very unorganized.
Thus is failed drastically.
The third Crusade, (though not a total success) was better organized then the second and had large numbers of men like the first.
It is called the Kings Crusade because the Kings of Europe finally grew interested and decided the Muslim advance had to be stopped.
The English King Richard the LionHeart, The German Emperor, and the French pooled together and marched to Jerusalem.
The German Emperor drowned and most of his army fled, but they still had the English and French.
They never were able to take the city, but they stopped Saladin's supply lines
And eventually made a shaky truce which allowed Pilgrims to enter the Holy City. (One of the main goals of the Crusades.)
