Questions tagged [crusades]
Questions pertaining to a series of religiously-motivated military campaigns undertaken by European armies. Crusades include those sanctioned by the Pope in an effort to restore Christian control of the Holy Lands, but also includes campaigns to eliminate heresy in Europe (e.g. Albigensian Crusade) or the so-called Popular Crusades unsanctioned by the Church.
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What would have kept Clement V from instigating a popular revolt against Philip V?
I am reading this book, "Trial of the Templars" by Malcolm Barber.
I am not a historian, so I do not know to what extent Barber's thesis is right - that the Templars were arrested because ...
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Did the Crusaders try to justify the First Crusade as a defensive war?
Did any Crusaders participating in the First Crusade characterize it as a defensive, rather than aggressive, campaign? If so, what were their arguments for characterizing it this way? How do modern ...
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How did the Crusades change medieval Islamic culture?
Background: It's well known that the crusades initiated an east-west contact that led to an exchange between Europe and the Islamic world. Foreign goods, philosophy, sciences, flowed east to west, and ...
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What is the origin of the name of Kondofrej, Bulgaria?
There is a small village in Western Bulgaria, not very far from the capital Sofia called Кондофрей roughly transliterated as Kondofrey. It is an otherwise completely unremarkable village except that ...
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Were there any rewards for going on a crusade aside from being forgiven for one's biblical sins?
I might have misunderstood this, but from what I gathered the main selling point/reward for going on the various crusades, was absolution for your sins: it didn´t matter what someone had done, if that ...
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Did Crusaders' siege Nablus and then massacre Muslims?
I remember that I have heard in some lecture about some form of a siege over Nablus that ended up in indiscriminate killings of Muslims in the city. I vaguely remember that the events were said to ...
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Why was the knitting needle or the distaff a symbol to show contempt in the Middle Ages?
From Charles MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions, the chapter on the Crusades has the following section:
In most cases, the laugh was turned against them, for when it became known that a man was ...
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Did Saladin speak any European languages?
As the leader of a large coalition force I'm aware he was multilingual, speaking at least Kurdish and Arabic (one site added Turkish) but a European language seems like a longshot. If he did speak one,...
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Are there thirteenth century sources linking the Fifth Crusade to the Book Of Daniel?
Are there any thirteenth century sources (Christian, Islamic, or Jewish) linking (the timing of) the fifth crusade to a possibly self-fulfilling prophecy1 from (the eighth chapter2 of) the Book of ...
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What were women doing at the Battle of Dorylaeum during the First Crusade?
I have just been watching The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge BBC 2012, in which he states that "... girls, delicate and noble...", went into their tents to put on their best clothes, in the hope of ...
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Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
Countless sources claim that the origin of the term terra nullius is from a papal bull issued by Pope Urban II in 1095 called "Terra nullius". Here are a two:
Pramod K. Nayar, The Postcolonial ...
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Was Richard I's imprisonment by Leopold of Austria justified?
I read in Wikipedia and Britannica about Richard I of England regarding his imprisonment and I was perplexed by the fact that a sovereign monarch, and a crusader at that, could be imprisoned by a ...
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Why did the later Crusades seemingly focus more on naval traversal?
I was studying some general Crusade maps and I noticed the first crusades seemed to be more land based as compared to the latter ones and I was wondering exactly why that was (besides just changing ...
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What are the origins of this pendant?
I'm trying to identify the origins of a metal pendant that features some engravings and red semitransparent stones or glass.
The pendant appears Christian in its symbology and came into my possession ...
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Military reforms after the battle of Manzikert?
After the battle of Manzikert and during Alexius's reign was there any attempt towards military reform to go back to the theme peasant-soldier system instead of mercenaries?
In John Julius Norwich's ...
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Is today's Old City of Jerusalem the Jerusalem of the Crusades' period?
In 1099 the Christian crusaders besieged the walled city of Jerusalem and took it. Here is a map of the Old City of Jerusalem today:
It clearly shows the walls (I don't know when they were built) ...
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Was there the idea of "peaceful Crusades"?
Was there the idea of "peaceful Crusades", which had symbolic meanings for pilgrims, or was it just the political invasion of Palestine territory, initiated by religious people (Pope Sylvester II and ...
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What was the military makeup of the Baltic tribes/Lithuania from 1200 to 1500 AD?
There is quite a lot written on the Teutonic Order and its military, but I'm having a harder time finding any good English sources on the military of one of its chief foes, Lithuania and the other ...
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What was the Hospitaller gonfalon like in the 12th and 13th centuries?
The Templar Order had a gonfalon (a military standard of a specific type) of black and white called the beauseant (I have come to prefer the spelling most common in the book I first took it from ...
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Do we know where in Clermont was the second Council of Clermont held?
I know that the second Council of Clermont was (of course) in Clermont, Auvergne but do we know where (in terms of venue) it was held? Which church, hall or public venue that Pope Urban II gave his ...
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Any information about what William Marshall (Guillaume le Marechal) did in the Holy Land?
William Marshall, Knight, Earl, Justiciar and Regent was an extremely important person in British History. His history is well recorded except for one period of his life when he went to the Holy Land ...
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Jerusalem 1187: How would Saladin's army have laid siege to the walls?
BACKGROUND
In fall of 1187 Saladin's "12,000 professional cavalrymen [and] 30,000 volunteers" arrived at Jerusalem and began a two week siege, assaulting the walls with towers, arrows, rocks, and ...
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Was the Vistula delta inhabited by Slavic tribes or Baltic tribes?
Specifically I'm talking about the area in between the Nogat and Vistula river. Googling maps of Old Prussian territory seem to have a mix of including this land and not including it.
This map ...
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Jerusalem 1187: How did ethnicity impact Saladin's army?
This is intended to be the first (and longest) of a series questions about the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187. It was originally one massive question, but the community rightly recommended that I break it ...
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Why did Stephen II of Blois (father of King Stephen of England) abandon the First Crusade in 1098 knowing how much he would lose by doing so?
Having taken the crusader’s vow and raised an army of thousands, why did Stephen II of Blois forsake the enormous prestige associated with crusading and risk shame and accusations of cowardice by ...
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What was Pope Innocent III's response to the Children's crusade led by Stephan of Cloyes?
In 1212, two groups involving children embarked on crusades to the Holy Land. They are generally lumped together and known as the Children's Cruade. They were not true crusades in the sense that the ...
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Did Muslim states hire Western European knights as mercenaries before the Crusades?
In the book Hattin by John France the following claim is made:
The fighting qualities of western knights were widely recognized in
the Mediterranean lands, and they were often employed even by ...
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Why didn't the Christian kingdoms in Hispania participate in the crusades? [closed]
I have read in the history of crusaders that Catholic kingdoms in Europe including England and France and Holy Roman Empire participated in the crusades but not Spain, any clear reason for that? ...
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Please outline how Philip II gained Normandy from the Third Crusade
I saw a video which summarized this, but now I can't find anything close to it. I believe that Philip made some type of agreement with Richard Lionheart before they went on the Crusades. Phillip came ...
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What does the following picture represent in historical context?
This is a picture just sent by one of my friends.
He is trying to convey some message. I didn't get him, neither did I get the picture.
user13279
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Do any sources confirm this quote from Pope Urban II's speech at the Council of Clermont?
according to chronicle of Robert the Monk, Pope Urban II said -
... this land which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by the seas and
surrounded by the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your ...
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How did the crusaders "know" that they found the Holy Blood?
The Basilica of the Holy Blood, a church in Bruges, claims they hold the Holy Blood and the main thesis is that it was brought to Bruges by the Second Crusade. Note that in 1964, Nicolas Huyghebaert ...
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What was the status of peasants who left to join the People's Crusade?
The 1096 People's Crusade were joined mostly by peasants, led by the priest Peter the Hermit independently of their lords. What was the status of these peasants' trip? Were they free to take trips and ...
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Why is Hungary geographically important to travel between Europe and the Middle East?
In learning a little about the People's Crusade and the First Crusade, it seems Hungary is important as a sort of gateway to the east. The crusades must pass through Hungary in order to get to the ...
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Why didn't the knights of Western Europe drive the Moors out of Granada in 1212 when they invaded Iberia?
In 1212, the knights of the Holy Roman Empire, France, and Spain pushed the Moors far down the Iberian Peninsula... but why didn't they go on and drive the Muslims completely off that peninsula? Did ...
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Who is the most recent (non Bush) father son pair who have invaded the Middle East?
Disclaimer: This is NOT meant to incite political debate. I am looking for a historical answer.
Presidents George H W Bush and George W Bush both invaded the Middle East. Before these two, what ...
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Which Muslim factions during the Crusade used the crescent in their flags or banners?
According to NSNoob comments on Did Hungarian Army ever use Crescent banners?
Crescent was used by Muslims since the Crusades.
Wikipedia seems to agree. For example: the article on Star and ...
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Motivations of the the First Crusade [duplicate]
What sort of balance in motivation existed for the first Crusade between answering a plea for assistance from the Byzantine Empire and reclamation of Jerusalem?
Obviously it would vary between ...
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What gift did Saladin send to Richard when he was ill?
What gift did Saladin send to Richard when he was ill?
This is a question I got asked in m H|W and I didn't find it. Please, can anyone help me?
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Why did Baldwin of Boulogne proclaim Edessa a County, not a Kingdom?
[Edessa was] ruled by Thoros, who was officially a vassal of the Turks but in reality acted independently. He did not expect that situation to continue for very much longer without help, so he offered ...
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To What Extent Were St. Augustine's Just War Principles Used In The First Crusade?
The question is mostly self-explanatory; however I want to state I have read a few books so I am aware of abuses and also some of the origins of the Crusade.
So what I am really asking for is ...
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The crusades against the Moors [closed]
It seems to me that recent history portrays the Christian crusaders as evil and brutal for taking back Spain from the Islamic Moors who conquered them and toppled the Spanish government and ruled over ...
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Why didn't "Europe" support the Byzantine Empire against the Turks?
Why didn't Catholic Europe support the Byzantine empire against the Turks? Or did they? How? Yes, there were some differences between the Catholic and Orthodox interpretation of Christianity but the ...
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When and why did Erasmus ask whether the Pope would govern the east better than the Turk?
Owen Chadwick says in The Reformation:
The European powers were more frightened of each other than of the Turk. A certain scepticism began to appear; Erasmus asked cynically whether if a crusade ...
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Where to find a list of participants in The Crusades? [closed]
I am curious as to where a compiled list of participants in The Crusades exist and how would one access this, particularly of European Crusaders but would find it interesting of any records of both ...
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Is there any historical basis for the red/white color scheme of the Assassins?
I recently saw a documentary about the Crusades, and during the scene in which Saladin is almost assassinated by the historical order of Assassins, they are portrayed as wearing plain white clothes ...
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Anthropophagy perpetrated by crusaders?
King Tafur's men reportedly ate human flesh during the first crusade. The same was said of King Richard and his men during the second crusade:
King Richard shall warrant
There is no flesh so ...
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Baldwin IV, the Leper King
Baldwin IV was crowned King of Jerusalem, from 1174 until his death in 1186 at the ripe old age of 24. As a child, his tutor, William of Tyre, discovered he had leprosy.
Understanding that he was the ...
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Where did the Crusaders go after 1291?
With most historians saying the Crusades stopped in 1291, and the disappearance of the Crusader states (Outremer), I'm left to wonder: what happened to the Europeans who had built a life there? Did ...
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What did the Crusaders really wear?
What did those who walked the First Crusade wear? I'm not just talking about the noblemen etc. but also the poor people who allegedly went (or is that a myth?). And how did they dress according to ...
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