Crusades

I am overjoyed to be sitting next to the one and only Pope Urban II for an interview about the beginning of the Crusades.  I will then conduct a short interview with Saladin for the latter part of the Crusades.  Today's date is 1099 AD.

Q: How did the Crusades begin?

A: For many years now, there have been constant conflicts with my Christian people and the Muslims.   Around 1095, I received an urgent message from the current Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I.  He desperately needed Christian soldiers to fight the Muslim Turks who were invading our Holy Land of Jerusalem.  Despite the fact that we popes and emperors did not usually get along, I agreed to call for knights to fight the Muslims.  "From Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople comes a grievous report.. An accursed race.. has violently invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire."  Those were my words exactly, as I called for a Holy War to recover our Holy Land.

Q: How did the First Crusade work?

A: Beginning in 1096, thousands of knights, barons, and nobles willing to fight for our land from the non-believers set out to fight the Muslims.  In 1099, with our Christian spirits high and army strong, we defeated the Muslim Turks and regained Jerusalem, but this war was no where near finished.

Interview with Saladin:

Q:  Explain the Second and Third Crusades.

A: Hello, I am the Saladin, a prominent Muslim leader in the Crusades. In 1187, I led the Muslims to a capture of Jerusalem in the Second Crusade.  We had just previously captured the important city of Edessa, and this allowed us to gain the Holy Land.  We triumphed again from 1189-1192 in the Third Crusade.  The Christian Europeans were losing steam, and we were on a role.  Although we did have control of the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, out of pity I decided to open Jerusalem for brief Christian pilgrimages.

Aftermath:

During the Fourth Crusade, Christians just became weaker and weaker, beginning to turn on people of their own religion.  The Crusades were not nearly as successful as Pope Urban II would have hoped.  Following the many Crusades, there was a lasting effect of religious rivalry between the Christians and Muslims.  Other effects of the Crusades were: expansion of European trade and economy, more power given to the monarch, as well as even more papal supremacy for the pope, and this also was the beginning of worldwide exploration.

Thank you Pope Urban II and Saldin!