Crusades#Terminology

The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at seizing Jerusalem and its surrounding territories from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, these expeditions spanned centuries and became a central aspect of European political, religious, and military history.

In 1095, after a Byzantine request for aid, Pope Urban II proclaimed the first expedition at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in Western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. Participants came from all over Europe and had a variety of motivations. These included religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations, opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later expeditions were conducted by generally more organised armies, sometimes led by a king. All were granted papal indulgences. Initial successes established four Crusader states: the County of Edessa; the Principality of Antioch; the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and the County of Tripoli. A European presence remained in the region in some form until the fall of Acre in 1291. After this, no further large military campaigns were organised.

Other church-sanctioned campaigns include crusades against Christians not obeying papal rulings and heretics, those against the Ottoman Empire, and ones for political reasons. The struggle against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula–the Reconquista–ended in 1492 with the Fall of Granada. From 1147, the Northern Crusades were fought against pagan tribes in Northern Europe. Crusades against Christians began with the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century and continued through the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century. Crusades against the Ottomans began in the late 14th century and include the Crusade of Varna. Popular crusades, including the Children's Crusade of 1212, were generated by the masses and were unsanctioned by the Church.

The Crusades were military campaigns undertaken by Western Christians to reclaim the Holy Land, or Palestine, from Muslim control between the 11th and 13th centuries.^[1][2] Launched by the papacy with promises of spiritual reward, they were occasionally accompanied by unauthorised movements—driven by popular zeal—commonly referred to as popular crusades. In scholarly usage, the term is frequently applied more broadly to include papally authorised conflicts in other regions, conducted within the wider framework of the crusading movement.^[3][4][5]

Terminology evolved gradually, primarily reflecting the close association between the Crusades and Christian pilgrimage. Early usage favoured terms denoting mobility—iter ('journey'), via ('road'), expeditio ('expedition')—typically accompanied by references to the intended destination, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or Jerusalem.^[6] Other early expressions invoked the cross (crux), and by around 1250, canon lawyers were distinguishing between campaigns in the Holy Land—crux transmarina ('the cross overseas')—and those within Europe—crux cismarina ('the cross this side of the sea'). Participants, who traditionally sewed a cross onto their garments, came to be known as crucesignati ('those signed with the cross').^{[note 1][8]}

Vernacular terminology reflected the ritual of "taking the cross".^[8] The earliest attested form, crozada, appeared in Spain in 1212. Nevertheless, linguistic variations persisted well into the early modern era. In the 14th century, the theorist Philippe de Mézières characterised the campaigns as "the hunt of God ... to capture the rich prize," while the 17th-century historian Thomas Fuller referred to them as "holy wars".^[6] The Middle English croiserie, derived from Old French, emerged in the 13th–14th centuries, later supplanted by forms such as croisade and crusado, both influenced by Spanish through French. The modern term crusade was established by 1706.^[9] The medievalist Thomas Asbridge notes that the term's conventional use by historians imposes "a somewhat misleading aura of coherence and conformity" on the earliest crusading efforts.^[10] The Crusader states of Syria and Palestine were known as the "Outremer" from the French outre-mer, or "the land beyond the sea".^[11]

Sites linked to Jesus's ministry became popular pilgrimage destinations in Roman Palestine. Christian emperors built churches at these locations, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, marking Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection.^[12] In 395, the Roman Empire split into eastern and western halves. The Western Roman Empire had fragmented into smaller kingdoms by 476,^[13] but the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire survived, though it lost vast territories to the rising Islamic Caliphate in the 7th century.^[14][15] Islamic expansion was motivated by jihad, or holy war.^[16] Jerusalem fell to Caliph Umar in 638,^[17] and Muslim forces conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula after 711.^[16] Christians under Muslim rule were dhimmi—legally protected but socially subordinate.^[18][19] Islam's ideological unity fractured over disputes about leadership. The Shi'a believed authority belonged to the descendants of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, while the Sunni majority rejected the Alids' hereditary claim.^[20] By the mid-10th century, three rival caliphates had emerged: the Umayyads in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), the Shi'ite Fatimids in Egypt, and the Abbasids in the Middle East.^[21][22]

To Muslim observers, the remote and less developed Western Europe was merely a source of slaves and raw materials.^[23] However, between c. 950 and c. 1070, drought and cold spells across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia led to famine and migration. Interfaith tensions escalated, culminating in the temporary destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009.^[24] From the 1040s, nomadic Turkomans disrupted the Middle East. In 1055, their leader Tughril I of the Seljuk clan assumed authority within the Abbasid Caliphate with Caliph Al-Qa'im's consent.^[25][26] Tughril's nephew Alp Arslan crushed the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, opening Anatolia to Turkoman settlement.^[27][28] The Seljuk Empire emerged as a loose federation of provinces ruled by Seljuk princes, Turkoman warlords and Arab emirs. As Byzantine control collapsed, Armenian and Greek strongmen took over frontier cities and fortresses.^[29]

From the mid-9th century, central authority in Western Europe weakened, and local lords gained power, commanding heavily armoured knights and holding castles.^[30][31] Their territorial disputes made warfare a regular feature across regions.^[32] To protect Church property and unarmed groups, Church leaders launched the Peace of God movement, threatening offenders with excommunication.^[33][34] As sins permeated daily life, Christians feared damnation. Sinners were expected to confess and undertake priestly prescribed penance.^[35] Thousands made the penitential journey to Jerusalem, though attacks on pilgrims became increasingly frequent.^[36] From c. 1000, the Medieval Warm Period favoured Western Europe, spurring economic and population growth.^[37][38] Within a century, Italian merchants supplanted their Muslim and Jewish rivals as the leading force in Mediterranean trade.^[39] In 1031, al-Andalus fragmented into taifas—smaller kingdoms—that could not resist the Reconquista—the expansion of the northern Christian states—prompting intervention by the radical Almoravids from the Maghreb. In southern Italy, Norman warriors from northern France founded principalities and completed the conquest of Muslim Sicily by 1091.^[40]

In the mid-11th century, clerics promoting the "liberty of the Church" rose to power in Rome, banning simony and clerical marriage. The popes, as successors to Saint Peter in Rome, claimed supremacy over Christendom, but Eastern Christian leaders rejected this.^[41][42] Combined with long-standing liturgical and theological differences, this led to mutual excommunications in 1054 and ultimately the division between the Catholic West and Orthodox East.^[43][44] Reformist clerics' rejection of lay control triggered the Investiture Controversy with secular powers.^[45] Popes had already courted allies by offering spiritual rewards,^[46] and the Controversy revived interest in the theology of just war, first articulated by Augustine in the 5th century. Theologians, under Pope Gregory VII's auspices, concluded that dying in a just war equated to martyrdom. Still, the idea of penitential warfare drew sharp criticism from anti-papal figures like Sigebert of Gembloux.^[47]

By the late 11th century, the development of Christian just war theory, increasing aristocratic piety, and the popularity of penitential journeys to the Holy Land paved the way for armed pilgrimages. Meanwhile, Church reforms strengthened papal authority, enabling it to channel anxiety over sin and hopes of remission into a papally orchestrated war.^[48] In 1074, Gregory VII was the first pope to plan a campaign against the Turkomans, though it was never launched.^[49] In March 1095, his successor, Urban II, received envoys from Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested military aid at the Council of Piacenza.^[50] The Byzantines had been calling for assistance for a couple of decades and finally convinced the papacy to take action in the 1090s.^[51]

By this time, the Seljuk Empire had descended into civil war following the deaths of Vizier Nizam al-Mulk and Sultan Malik-Shah I in 1092. Malik-Shah's brother Tutush I contested the succession of Malik-Shah's son Berkyaruq. Although Tutush was killed in battle in 1095, his sons Ridwan and Duqaq, seized control of the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Damascus, respectively, while Tutush's former mamluk (slave soldier), Yaghi-Siyan, maintained his rule over Antioch.^[52] In Anatolia, the breakaway Seljuk prince Kilij Arslan I founded the independent Sultanate of Rum, while an autonomous Turkoman clan, the Danishmendids, seized control of the north.^[50][53]

Meanwhile, Fatimid Egypt faced its own succession crisis after the deaths of Caliph al-Mustansir and his vizier al-Jamali. Al-Jamali's son and successor al-Afdal Shahanshah installed al-Mustansir's youngest son al-Musta'li as caliph bypassing the eldest son Nizar. Although Nizar was murdered, his supporters rejected al-Musta'li's legitimacy and established a new branch of radical Shi'a Islam—the Nizaris, also known as the Assassins.^[54]

In July 1095, Urban began a tour of France, visiting parishes and negotiating with local elites. He concluded it with the Council of Clermont, where on 27 November he called for an anti-Turkoman military campaign.^[55] His speech survives in four versions, three by eyewitnesses: Robert of Rheims, Baldric of Dol, and Fulcher of Chartres. Most accounts depict him urging support for eastern Christians, calling for arms in defence of the faith, promising spiritual rewards, and condemning sin—especially the knights' violence.^[56] The nature of these rewards is ambiguous: some sources mention the lifting of penance, others full remission of sin.^[57][58]

Urban's appeal strongly resonated.^[59] According to Robert of Rheims, the crowd cried Deus vult! ('God wills it!'), expressing their fervour.^[60][61] The ritual of "taking the cross" was introduced on the spot as a symbol of crusading vow. Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy was the first to take the cross, and was appointed papal legate the next day.^[62] Urban continued his tour, holding further councils. He set 15 August—the Feast of the Assumption—as the campaign's start date, two weeks after the harvest began.^[63] His message spread mainly through the French clergy present at Clermont, leaving much of Western Europe unaware of the crusade before its departure.^[64] He also urged four Catalan counts not to join, granting them equal spiritual rewards for fighting the Almoravids.^[65]

Urban intended to restrict participation to trained warriors, but popular enthusiasm proved uncontrollable.^[66] The charismatic preacher Peter the Hermit travelled through French regions, like Champagne and Lorraine, Urban had avoided,^[67] reportedly bearing a heavenly letter urging the expulsion of "pagans" from the Holy Land.^[68] He gathered thousands, primarily peasants and poor townspeople, alongside some nobles such as Walter Sans Avoir.^[67] In Germany, other preachers, including Folkmar and Gottschalk, assembled similarly heterogeneous groups.^[69]

Several contingents departed prematurely, before the harvest.^[70] Walter and Peter each led forces of 10,000–15,000 from March 1096.^[71] Peter continued preaching en route and, in his pursuit of provisions, threatened Jewish communities. Although King Coloman of Hungary granted market access to the crusaders, Peter's now 20,000-strong contingent plundered the Hungarian border town of Zemun before entering the Byzantine Empire in June.^[72] There, regional Byzantine forces responded to continued looting with regular raids that inflicted severe losses.^[72] Meanwhile, the combined forces of Folkmar and Gottschalk—numbering over 15,000—were nearly annihilated by Coloman's army at Hungary's western frontier in July.^[73][74]

In a separate wave, the Swabian count Emicho led the Rhineland massacres against Jewish communities in the western Germany. First, on 3 May 1096, his followers assaulted the community of Speyer, killing those who resisted forced conversion. Despite efforts by local bishops to offer protection, anti-Jewish violence spread until Emich's forces were dispersed by Hungarian troops near Moson c. 15 July.^[75]

Walter's contingent arrived in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople on 20 July, followed by Peter's on 1 August.^[71] Emperor Alexios, concerned by their lack of discipline, transported them across the Bosporus to Anatolia. After French raids near Nicaea, the Germans captured the fortress of Xerigordos on 18 September. In response, the Turks recaptured the fortress after the Siege of Xerigordos on 29 September, and a further counterattack by Kilij Arslan virtually destroyed them at the Battle of Civetot on 21 October. Peter was among the few to survive.^[76]

No crowned ruler joined the First Crusade, largely because of tensions with the Church.^[77] The first major noble to depart was Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of France. Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, set off in August 1096 with his vassals and German lords. Bohemond of Taranto, an Italo-Norman veteran of anti-Byzantine campaigns, departed in late October, while Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse and the wealthiest participant, led the largest force.^[78][79] Other key figures included Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy; his brother-in-law, Stephen of Blois; and Robert II, Count of Flanders.^[80] As the historian Thomas Madden observed, their armies were "a curious mix of rich and poor, saints and sinners", driven by both spiritual and material aims.^[81] A knight's participation often cost four years' income, funded by loans or donations; those lacking means joined noble retinues.^[82]

At Constantinople, tensions with the Byzantines led to skirmishes. Emperor Alexios demanded oaths from the crusader leaders to return former Byzantine lands before allowing their passage into Anatolia.^[83] Estimates place the total crusading force between 60,000 and 100,000, including 30,000 non-combatants and up to 7,000 knights.^[84][85] Exploiting Kilij Arslan’s preoccupation with a border conflict against the Danishmendids, the crusaders and their Byzantine allies defeated the Seljuks at the Siege of Nicaea, surrendering to Alexios in June 1097. By month's end, the crusaders set out toward Antioch, previously a Byzantine provincial capital in Syria. Kilij Arslan attempted to stop them at the Battle of Dorylaeum but his lightly armoured cavalry was repelled.^[86]

After a gruelling journey, c. 40,000 crusaders reached Antioch in late October 1097.^[85] The Siege of Antioch lasted several months due to limited resources on both sides, but the crusaders eventually prevailed.^[87][88] During this time, Baldwin of Boulogne—Godfrey's brother—departed for the east with 100 knights. With local Armenian support, he captured key fortresses and took Edessa, establishing the first Crusader state in March 1098.^[89][90] Meanwhile, the Seljuk general Kerbogha assembled a 40,000-strong relief force in Iraq. However, by the time he reached Antioch in early June, the city had already fallen, thanks to Bohemond's arrangement with a guard commander. The crusaders massacred the city's Muslim population and some of the native Christians.^[91][92] Despite suffering heavy losses from starvation, disease, and desertion, the crusaders—motivated by the mystic Peter Bartholomew—inflicted a decisive defeat on Kerbogha's army at the Battle of Antioch on 28 June 1098.^[93]

The march on Jerusalem was halted due to intense summer heat and a plague that claimed Adhemar of Le Puy's life. In the Byzantines' absence, Bohemond persuaded the other leaders to recognise his rule over Antioch despite Raymond's opposition. The crusade only resumed under pressure from the common soldiers in November.^[94] After massacring the defenders of Ma'arra, the crusaders were granted safe passage by local Muslim rulers. They reached Jerusalem, then held by a Fatimid governor, on 7 June 1099. The Siege of Jerusalem stalled until Genoese craftsmen arrived with supplies. Their siege towers enabled the crusaders to conquer the city on 15 July. Over the next two days, they slaughtered the population and looted the city. Godfrey was elected Jerusalem's first Western ruler, while Arnulf of Chocques, a Norman priest, was named the first Latin patriarch.^[95][84] Meanwhile, al-Afdal mobilised c. 20,000 Egyptian troops to retake the city. On 12 August, the crusaders—roughly 9,000 infantry and 1,200 knights—launched a surprise attack at the Battle of Ascalon, decisively defeating his army. With their vow fulfilled, most crusaders returned home, leaving Godfrey with just 300 knights and 2,000 foot soldiers.^[96]

The historian Malcolm Barber notes that the Crusader states' creation "committed western Europeans to crusading for the foreseeable future".^[97] In the century after the First Crusade, the resurgence of Muslim unity shaped Middle Eastern history.^[98] During the first half of this period, the Franks sought Western military aid only four times; between 1149 and 1186, they made at least sixteen such appeals.^[99]

The Italian merchant republics had agreed to send naval forces for the crusade but required time to prepare their fleets.^[100] The Pisan fleet—120 ships—arrived under Archbishop Daimbert in September 1099. As papal legate, Daimbert deposed Arnulf and became patriarch, installed on Christmas Day when Godfrey and Bohemond did homage to him. Meanwhile, Tancred, Bohemond's nephew, had completed the conquest of Galilee.^[101]

Vitale I Michiel, Doge of Venice, arrived with over 200 ships. As Godfrey died unexpectedly on 18 July 1100,^[102][103] the Venetians aided Tancred in taking Haifa.^[104] Daimbert aimed to make Jerusalem an ecclesiastical lordship with Bohemond's support, but Godfrey's followers invited Baldwin to claim his brother's inheritance as Baldwin I of Jerusalem, the first king. Daimbert was thwarted when Bohemond was captured by the Danishmendid Gazi Gümüshtigin c. 15 August. Before leaving for Jerusalem, Baldwin invested his cousin, Baldwin of Bourcq, with Edessa. He then seized Jerusalem and persuaded Daimbert to crown him king on Christmas Day. Within nine months, he captured Arsuf and Caesarea with Genoese support,^[105][106] and repelled an Egyptian invasion with a surprise attack, despite superior enemy numbers at the First Battle of Ramla.^[107]

Shortly after the capture of Antioch, crusader leaders wrote to senior European clerics, urging them to rally oath-breakers. In December 1100, Urban's successor Paschal II called for a new crusade. Nicknamed the "Crusade of the Faint-Hearted", it included deserters like Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois. The first contingent, led by Anselm, Archbishop of Milan, and Albert of Biandrate, left Lombardy in September 1100.^[108][109] The Lombards reportedly aimed to conquer Baghdad or Egypt,^[110] and attacked the imperial Blachernae Palace in Constantinople before being ferried to Anatolia in early 1101.^[111]

They were soon joined by French and German forces under powerful nobles and prelates, including William IX of Aquitaine, William II of Nevers, Welf I of Bavaria, the widowed Marchioness Ida of Austria, and Archbishop Thiemo of Salzburg. Reaching Constantinople in June, they met Raymond of Saint-Gilles. Ignoring the veteran Raymond's and Stephen's warnings, the Lombards resolved to free Bohemond. Joined by other crusaders, they advanced into eastern Anatolia, capturing Ankara before being crushed at the Battle of Mersivan in August by the united forces of Kilij Arslan, Gazi Gümüshtigin, and Ridwan. William of Nevers' army, heading south after Ankara, was almost destroyed at Heraclea. A third army, mainly Germans, was also routed there. Among the losses was Ida, whose disappearance inspired tales she became mother to the Turkoman ruler Zengi.^[112][113]

The 1101 Crusade's failure shattered the image of crusader invincibility, showing their inability to conquer substantial territory. Westerners primarily held Byzantines responsible for the collapse.^[110] Few crusaders survived the massacres. William of Aquitaine, Welf, and Stephen regrouped at Antioch, later aiding Raymond and his Genoese allies in taking Tortosa. Some, including Stephen, reached the Holy Land, where he fell fighting Fatimid forces at the Second Battle of Ramla on 17 May 1102.^[114] On that occasion, the Egyptians caught the overconfident crusaders by surprise, but the survivors redeemed themselves at the Battle of Jaffa ten days later.^[115]

Bohemond secured his release by ransom, exploiting Danishmendid–Seljuk conflict. He supported Baldwin II of Edessa in an attack on Harran, but in May 1104, Jikirmish, atabeg (governor) of Mosul, defeated them at the Battle of Harran. Baldwin was captured, and Bohemond made Tancred governor of Edessa.^[116][117] Jikirmish's victory allowed Ridwan to retake border fortresses, while the Byzantines expelled Antiochene garrisons from Cilicia.^[118]

Seeking support in the West, Bohemond left Tancred in charge of Antioch in autumn 1104. Pope Paschal named Bishop Bruno of Segni as papal legate to promote an Iter Hierosolymitanum ('Crusade for Jerusalem') in France. Though highly regarded, Bohemond drew only lesser nobles like Hugh of Le Puiset and Robert of Vieux-Pont to take the cross. He then chose to invade the Byzantine Empire from Italy, calling the Byzantines heretics in a letter to Paschal. In October 1107, he besieged the fortress of Dyrrachium, but Alexios had reinforced its defences, allied with Venetians, and, with Turkoman mercenaries, blockaded Bohemond's army. Bohemond had to withdraw and accept Byzantine suzerainty over Antioch and Edessa in the 1108 Treaty of Devol, but he never returned to Antioch, and Tancred did not implement the treaty.^[119][120]

Baldwin I expanded his realm to secure defence and attract knights with land or rewards. Naval support for seizing coastal cities came mainly from Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians, rewarded with trade privileges. He was successful in his Siege of Acre in 1104, then Beirut and Sidon in 1110.^[121] Sigurd I of Norway, the first crowned monarch to lead an armed pilgrimage, aided in the capture of Sidon. His expedition later inspired popular narratives, some recorded by Snorri Sturluson.^[122] Baldwin's gains were eased by the death of Duqaq, sparking a Damascene power struggle that elevated his atabeg, Toghtekin. In 1105, Toghtekin joined the Egyptian invasion of Jerusalem, but Baldwin repelled them at the Third Battle of Ramla. Around this time, Damascene scholar Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami completed his Book of Struggle, urging Muslim unity in jihad against the Franks.^[123][124]

Raymond of Saint Gilles began the Siege of Tripoli but died in 1105 before its capture four years later. His death provoked a succession dispute between his son Bertrand of Toulouse and cousin William Jordan.^[125] This and tensions between Tancred and Baldwin II of Edessa were settled by Baldwin I at the Council of Tripoli. Soon after, united Frankish forces, aided by the Genoese, seized the city on 12 July 1109. William Jordan was assassinated, leaving Bertrand sole ruler of Tripoli.^[126][127]

Tripoli's fall shocked the Muslim world, prompting Sultan Muhammad I Tapar to order Mawdud, atabeg of Mosul, to invade. Between 1110 and 1113, Mawdud launched three campaigns but failed, hampered by the desertion of Muslim allies. In 1115, his successor Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi failed to take Edessa. That year, Toghtekin sheltered his kinsman Ilghazi, fallen from the sultan's favour, leading Muhammad to dispatch an army against him. In response, Toghtekin allied with Roger of Salerno, Tancred's successor in Antioch, who defeated the Seljuks near Aleppo at the Battle of Sarmin on 14 September 1115.^[128][129]

Baldwin I died of illness during a campaign against Egypt on 2 April 1118. Baldwin of Bourcq succeeded him as Baldwin II of Jerusalem, ceding Edessa to his kinsman Joscelin I of Courtenay.^[130] Ridwan's death in 1113 sparked a succession crisis, enabling Roger to exact tribute from Aleppo. The Aleppans sought Ilghazi's aid, and with Toghtekin's reinforcements he invaded Antiochene territory, inflicting a crushing defeat on Roger's army at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis ('Field of Blood') on 28 June 1119. Roger was killed, and nearly 700 knights and 3,000 infantry were slain or captured. Antioch was saved by Baldwin II, who became regent for the underage, absent Bohemond II, son of Bohemond I.^[131][132]

Alongside the military disaster, famine ravaged the Levant. In this climate, Jerusalem's secular and ecclesiastical leaders met at the Council of Nablus, issuing decrees banning various sexual activities, such as sodomy and relations with Muslims^[133] Patriarch Warmund of Picquigny endorsed a knightly confraternity led by the Frenchman Hugues de Payens, who had vowed poverty, chastity, and obedience, also pledging to protect pilgrims. This marked the birth of the military orders, a new type of religious institution. Baldwin II housed them in the former Al-Aqsa Mosque, identified by the Franks as Solomon's Temple, giving them the name Knights Templar.^[134][135]

Baldwin II sent envoys to the West for aid. In response, Paschal urged the Venetian doge Domenico Michiel to lead a naval campaign to the Holy Land.^[136][137] As regent, Baldwin prioritised Antioch's defence, though it was unpopular in his kingdom. After Ilghazi's death, his nephew Belek Ghazi succeeded him in Aleppo. Belek captured Joscelin in an ambush, and prompted Baldwin to rush to Edessa, where he was captured in April 1123.^[138][139] In his absence, Patriarch Warmund finalised the Pactum Warmundi, an alliance with the Venetians for Tyre's conquest, granting them commercial privileges. Tyre fell on 7 July 1124.^[133] Baldwin was ransomed and returned to his kingdom in April 1125.^[140]

In 1124, Aleppo and Mosul fell under Aqsunqur's rule. The next year, he was defeated by the Crusader states' combined forces at the Battle of Azaz, yet regained significant territory from the Franks before his assassination in 1126.^[141] The same year, Bohemond II assumed power in Antioch, but his conflict with Joscelin of Edessa prevented him from exploiting unrest in Aleppo. In 1127, Zengi became atabeg of Mosul.^[142]

After two failed campaigns against Damascene lands, Baldwin prepared a major offensive, sending envoys to Europe to recruit troops and arrange the marriage of his eldest daughter, Melisende, his heir in the absence of a son. Her betrothal to Fulk V of Anjou came with the promise of joint succession.^{[143][144][142]} In May 1128, Toghtekin died. His son Buri succeeded him but soon faced pressure from two sides when Zengi seized Aleppo in 1128, reuniting it with Mosul.^[143]

Fulk arrived in May 1129 and married Melisende. Though lacking papal sanction, the Crusade of 1129 drew nearly 60,000 warriors. The Franks invaded in November, but a sortie from Damascus routed their foragers. Hearing of the setback, the main Frankish force withdrew hastily, likely also spurred by a violent storm.^[145][146]

In February 1130, Bohemond II was killed in a skirmish. His widow, Alice—daughter of Baldwin II—sought power with Zengi's support, but Baldwin assumed the regency for her daughter by Bohemond, Constance. When Baldwin died on 21 August 1131, Fulk and Melisende succeeded him in Jerusalem. Fulk also secured the regency in Antioch by defeating Alice's allies, Pons of Tripoli and Joscelin II of Edessa.^[147] Muslim pressure on Frankish lands intensified. Zengi plundered Antioch and Edessa, while Buri's successor, Ismail, attacked Jerusalemite and Tripolitan fortresses. Pons was killed in a Damascene raid.^[148]

In 1136, Fulk married Constance to the French noble Raymond of Poitiers.^[149] A year later, Raymond did homage to Emperor John II Komnenos, hoping for his support, but Byzantine assaults on Aleppo and Shaizar failed.^[150] Zengi took Homs, yet his assault on Damascus failed due to an alliance between its new ruler Unur and Fulk.^[151] Fulk died in a hunting accident on 10 November 1143. Melisende, widowed, resisted sharing power with their son, Baldwin III.^[152][153] During his reign, the Knights Hospitaller, formerly a nursing confraternity, rose as a military order, receiving Beth Gibelin from him in 1136 and Krak des Chevaliers from Pons's son Raymond II of Tripoli in 1142.^[154]

In the early 1140s, Zengi fought for dominance against Muslim rivals, especially the Artuqids in Iraq. The Artuqid prince, Kara Arslan, sought help from Joscelin II of Edessa, offering land in exchange. Joscelin accepted the offer, provoking Zengi to begin the Siege of Edessa. The city fell on 26 December 1144; much of its Frankish population was killed or enslaved.^[155][156] Zengi was assassinated in 1146, but when Joscelin briefly regained Edessa, Zengi’s son Nur al-Din forced him out, and the Turkomans massacred many of the fleeing native Christians.^[157][158] Nur al-Din destroyed the fortifications, rendering Edessa's recapture futile,^[159] and secured a marriage alliance with Unur.^[160]

News of Edessa's fall reached Eugenius III through Bishop Hugh of Jabala and Armenian clergy. He responded with the papal bull Quantum praedecessores ('How greatly our predecessors') on 1 December 1145,^[161] granting remission of confessed sins, protection of property and suspension of debts to those who took the cross—establishing the pattern of later crusade bulls.^[162][163] Louis VII of France, troubled by guilt over a massacre in a church by his troops, declared his intention to lead a crusade at Christmas 1145. At an assembly in Vézelay in 1146, the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded many nobles, including descendants of the First Crusaders, to join.^[164][165]

Bernard embarked on an extensive tour to preach the crusade in northern France and Germany. In the Rhineland, incitements by the unruly Cistercian monk Radulf triggered anti-Semitic pogroms, which ceased only when Bernard secured his recall to his monastery. In a Christmas sermon invoking the Last Judgement, Bernard persuaded Conrad III of Germany to take the cross at Speyer.^[166][167] When Saxon lords resisted ending their war against the pagan Wends in favour of a Levantine crusade, Eugenius, on Bernard's advice, issued the bull Divina dispensatione ('By divine dispensation') in April 1147, granting crusade indulgences to participants in the Wendish campaign—later seen as the first of the Northern Crusades. The pope also named Iberia as a potential crusading target.^[168][169] Years later, the priest Helmold of Bosau described the Second Crusade as fought in three theatres of war—the Holy Land, the Baltic and Iberia—and condemned the Wendish campaign for distorting proselytism. Despite leadership by prominent nobles, including the Saxon duke Henry the Lion, the crusaders failed to defeat the Wendish prince Niklot.^[170]

The crusaders set out for the Holy Land in May and June 1147.^[171] A distinctive feature of the Second Crusade was the presence of women: Louis VII was accompanied by his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the ladies of her household, while regulations for the crusader fleet assembling at Dartmouth also indicate the presence of wives.^[172] The fleet of more than 150 ships carried some 10,000 crusaders from across northwestern Europe. They aided Afonso I of Portugal in his successful Siege of Lisbon in October 1147 and Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in the Siege of Tortosa in December 1148, but only a small contingent actually reached the Levant.^[173][174]

The German army, accompanied by many unarmed pilgrims, retraced the route of the First Crusade through Hungary and the Balkans. Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, fearing a German attack on Constantinople, made peace with Sultan Mesud I.^[175] Meanwhile, Roger II of Sicily invaded the Balkans, intensifying Byzantine suspicions of a coordinated western action. After skirmishes with imperial forces at the Battle of Constantinople, the Germans crossed into Anatolia without waiting for the French.^[176] On 25 October 1147, Mesud's forces crushed them at the Battle of Dorylaeum. Many crusaders were killed, but the heavily wounded Conrad fled to Byzantine territory.^[177] The French army reached Constantinople in October 1147.^[178][179] Clashes with Byzantines were frequent, and Bishop Godefroy of Langres urged Louis to seize the city, but he pressed on into Anatolia. The crusaders endured shortages, desertions and constant raids while wintering at Ephesus. At Antalya, Louis and many of his knights embarked on Byzantine ships for Syria; most of those left behind perished, deserted, or were enslaved.^[180][181]

Louis reached Antioch on 19 March 1148.^[182] Raymond of Poitiers urged him to attack Aleppo and Shaizar, but Louis insisted on continuing to Jerusalem, despite Eleanor—Raymond's niece—intervening for her uncle. By the time Louis reached Acre, Conrad who had come from Constantinople by sea was already there.^[183] Soon after, Alfonso Jordan, Count of Toulouse and son of Raymond of Saint-Gilles, died suddenly, sparking rumours that Melisende had poisoned him. At the Council of Acre, the crusader leaders resolved to attack Damascus, and the Siege of Damascus began on 24 July 1148. Although Conrad at first repelled Damascene forces, the defenders harassed the crusaders with constant raids. Nur al-Din sent reinforcements from Aleppo and Mosul. Though they did not approach Damascus, the crusaders abandoned the siege only after a few days. A subsequent decision to attack Ascalon—the last Fatimid port in Palestine—collapsed, and the crusaders withdrew from the Holy Land.^[184] The expedition's failure gravely weakened crusading fervour across Europe. Conrad blamed the leadership of Jerusalem, while others, including Bernard of Clairvaux, held the Byzantines responsible.^[185]

The Muslim powers exerted military pressure on the northern Crusader states. Raymond of Poitiers was killed at the Battle of Inab on 29 June 1149. Nur al-Din then seized Antiochene fortresses and destroyed Tortosa, whereas the Artuqids and the Seljuks of Rum took fortresses in the ruined County of Edessa. Joscelin II of Edessa was captured by Turkoman raiders, and his wife Beatrice of Saone sold what remained of the county to Byzantium in 1150.^[186][187] Meanwhile, the death of Unur ended the Aleppan–Damascene alliance, for his successor, Abaq, allied with the Franks.^[188]

In 1151, Raymond II was murdered by Assassins and succeeded by his son, Raymond III of Tripoli. In Jerusalem, Baldwin III deposed his mother Melisende in April 1152. He was successful in his Siege of Ascalon in August 1153, completing the conquest of the Palestinian coast.^[189][190] Before the city fell, Baldwin agreed to the marriage of the French crusader Raynald of Châtillon and Constance of Antioch.^[191] In 1154, Nur al-Din blockaded Damascus, forcing Abaq to withdraw. After an earthquake killed much of the ruling Banu Munqidh in 1157, he also seized Shaizar, uniting Muslim Syria.^{[192][193][194]} In October 1158, Thierry of Flanders, a veteran of the Second Crusade, joined the Franks in a failed Siege of Shaizar.^[195] Nur al-Din's expansion was checked when Emperor Manuel I invaded Syria, forcing him to reach a truce with the Franks in 1159. The truce soon collapsed as Raynald resumed raiding Muslim lands, but he was captured by Nur al-Din's troops in 1160/61.^[196]

The childless Baldwin III died of illness on 10 February 1163.^[197] His brother Amalric's succession was made conditional on the annulment of his marriage to Agnes of Courtenay. Their children, Sibylla and Baldwin, nevertheless were recognised as legitimate. In Antioch, Bohemond III, son of Constance and her first husband Raymond of Poitiers, took power and expelled his mother.^[198] Nur al-Din attacked Krak des Chevaliers but was repelled by the Franks, aided by French pilgrims, including Hugh VIII of Lusignan, as well as Byzantine and Armenian forces. The following year, however, he defeated the same coalition at the Battle of Harim.^[199]

From the early 1160s, the wealthy but faction-ridden Fatimid Egypt became the main battleground between the Franks of Jerusalem and Nur al-Din. Between 1163 and 1169, Amalric launched five campaigns into Egypt, but Nur al-Din's forces blocked his conquest. In early 1169, the Fatimid caliph al-Adid appointed Nur al-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh as vizier. Upon Shirkuh's death, his nephew Saladin succeeded him. Following al-Adid's death on 13 September 1171, Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate.^[200][201] During this period, Amalric dispatched embassies to the West to call for a new crusade. He also renewed the Byzantine alliance, but the joint Byzantine–Jerusalemite invasion of Egypt in 1169 ended in failure.^[202] In response to Amalric's appeal, Louis VII of France imposed a levy—one penny on every pound of property and income—for the defence of the Holy Land over five years. His initiative was soon matched by Henry II of England.^[203]

In 1174, both Nur al-Din and Amalric died, leaving underage heirs: as-Salih and the leper Baldwin IV.^[204] In his final years, Nur al-Din had made the conquest of Jerusalem the chief aim of jihad, inspiring a new Muslim literary genre, the Merits of Jerusalem, which flourished after his death.^[205][206] The struggle for his legacy was ultimately won by Saladin, who took Damascus in 1174, Aleppo in 1183, and compelled the Zengid ruler of Mosul, Izz al-Din, to submit in 1186.^[207][208] Meanwhile, Turkoman pressure on Byzantium mounted following the Seljuk victory in the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176.^[209]

Jerusalem's leaders sought Western support by marrying Baldwin's heir Sibylla to William of Montferrat, a kinsman of both Frederick I and Louis VII, but William died unexpectedly in 1177.^[210][211] That same year, Philip I of Flanders led an armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and a Byzantine fleet arrived at Acre to launch a joint Byzantine–Frankish invasion of Egypt, but the expedition was abandoned amid disputes over Egypt's future.^[212][213] Shortly before his death, Baldwin designated Sibylla's posthumous son by William, as his heir, stipulating that if the child died prematurely, the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the kings of France and England would decide the succession. Nevertheless, when her son died in 1186, Sibylla and her second husband, Guy of Lusignan, seized power with the support of leading figures, including Raynald of Châtillon, who had become lord of Transjordan following his release. Their rival, Raymond III, allied with Saladin, granting his troops free passage through Galilee.^[214][215]

Disillusioned by the failure of the Second Crusade, the Western powers were unwilling to mount another major expedition to the Holy Land, despite the threat from Saladin. In this climate, only a disastrous defeat in the East could rekindle crusading zeal.^[216][217] The Byzantine government was destabilised by coups in 1183 and 1185, while the massacre of Italian merchants deepened its isolation from the West.^[209] Soon after his accession in 1185, Emperor Isaac II Angelos concluded an anti-Seljuk alliance with Saladin, recognising his claim to Frankish Syria apart from Antioch.^[218] In 1195, a further coup toppled Isaac, bringing his brother Alexios III to power.^[219] As early as 1176, the Abbasid caliph al-Mustadi urged Saladin to renew the jihad against the Franks, but for the next decade he chose instead to fight his Muslim rivals. Once he had secured much of the Near East, however, he needed a new target to provide his troops with opportunities for plunder.^[220]

Despite a truce signed in 1185 still in force, Raynald of Châtillon attacked a Muslim caravan in early 1187, provoking Saladin to muster troops across his empire.^[221][222] The threat prompted a reconciliation between Guy of Lusignan and Raymond III of Tripoli, yet the Jerusalemite field army, exhausted after a long march across arid terrain, was unable to withstand Saladin's assault at the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187.^[223] Raymond and his retinue fled, while others were killed or captured. Saladin ordered the execution of Raynald and the Templars and Hospitallers, but spared other leaders, including Guy.^[224] The defeat left the kingdom defenceless, and after the 12-day Siege of Jerusalem, the Holy City was surrendered to Saladin on 2 October by Balian of Ibelin.^[225] Tyre was among the few strongholds to resist, under the command of the newly arrived crusader Conrad of Montferrat,^[226] who sent Joscius, the city's archbishop, to the West to seek assistance. Saladin's Siege of Tyre, begun on 12 November, was abandoned on 1 January 1188.^[227]

Western Christendom learnt of the disaster from multiple sources, the first reports reaching Italy through Genoese merchants. William II of Sicily swiftly sent c. 50 ships and 200 knights to Syria. Gregory VIII, issued the bull Audita tremendi ('We have heard and tremble') on 29 October 1187, calling for a new crusade. Richard (the Lionheart), Henry II of England's eldest surviving son, was the first to take the cross.^{[227][228][229]} Gregory appointed Joscius to preach in France and the papal legate Henry of Albano in Germany. On 22 January 1189, Joscius brokered a reconciliation between Philip II of France and Henry II at Gisors, where both kings and numerous nobles publicly took the cross.^{[229][227][230]} The crusading bull's message was also disseminated by troubadours such as Conon of Béthune, who composed popular vernacular songs.^[231] To fund the expedition, the "Saladin tithe"—a levy of 10% on income and movable goods—was imposed in England and France.^[232] Emperor Frederick I swore his crusade oath on 27 March 1188 at the Imperial Diet known as Curia Christi ('Court of Christ') in Mainz.^[227][233] While the English, French, and part of the German host chose the sea route, Frederick resolved to march overland, despite having faced its hardships during the Second Crusade.^[232][234]

Frederick set out in May 1189 with an army of c. 15,000 soldiers. By then, Frankish control in Syria was reduced to Tyre, Antioch, Tripoli, and the fortresses of Beaufort, Margat, and Krak des Chevaliers.^[235][236] Saladin had released Guy in May 1188, but Conrad of Montferrat barred the landless king from entering Tyre. Gathering roughly 9,000 troops, Guy laid the Siege of Acre in late August 1189 with Pisan naval support. His army was steadily reinforced by small contingents of crusaders arriving from the West.^{[236][237][238]}

Fearing a German–Seljuk alliance, Isaac II denied safe passage to Frederick's army. In response, Frederick attacked Byzantine towns, compelling Isaac in March 1190 to permit their transport into Anatolia on Genoese and Pisan ships.^[239] Despite incessant Turkoman raids and scarce supplies, the Germans briefly took Konya, the capital of Rum. Yet the crusade ended abruptly when the ageing Frederick drowned while crossing the river Saleph on 10 June.^[240] His son, Frederick of Swabia, failed to sustain morale: many crusaders deserted or died of diseases, and only the remnants of the host reached Acre in October.^[241]

Relations between France and England remained tense until Henry II's death in July 1189. Richard I of England succeeded to the throne and swiftly prepared for the crusade, raising additional funds by exacting a taillage from the Jews.^[242] Richard and Philip met at Vézelay on 4 July 1190 before setting out.^[243] Richard's force numbered c. 17,000,^[244] while the French host was smaller, as many French crusaders under Henry of Champagne had already departed for the Holy Land.^[244][245] Richard hired ships in Marseille, Philip in Genoa, and both sailed to Sicily. There Richard seized Messina, compelling the new Sicilian king, Tancred of Lecce, to pay a substantial sum. From Sicily, the French sailed directly to Acre, arriving on 20 April. A storm, however, drove several English ships onto the coast of Cyprus, where the self-styled emperor Isaac Komnenos seized the wrecks and captured survivors. In response, Richard conquered the island before reaching Acre on 6 June 1191.^[246]

Meanwhile, the protracted siege had unleashed a deadly plague at Acre, which claimed Sibylla. As Guy's kingship rested on her, her death stripped him of his claim. Backed by the French and German crusaders and the papal legate Ubaldo of Pisa, Conrad married Sybilla's half-sister Isabella on 24 November 1190. Guy, however, refused to abdicate and sought Richard's support.^[247] The siege intensified with the arrival of the two royal armies, and on 12 July 1191 the defenders surrendered without Saladin's sanction, under the promise of safe passage. Richard’s and Phillip’s banners were hoisted on the city’s walls and towers, but when Leopold V of Austria raised his own flag, Richard tore it down. Stricken by illness and eager to claim the inheritance of Philip of Flanders, who had died during the siege, Philip II soon withdrew from the crusade. Under the terms of Acre's surrender, Saladin was to release 1,600 Frankish prisoners and return the True Cross, seized at Hattin, within a month. When the deadline passed, Richard ordered the execution of 2,700–3,000 Muslim captives.^[248][249] From Acre, Richard advanced on Jaffa to secure the port closest to Jerusalem, and defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf before capturing Jaffa.^[250]

News that Richard's brother John was attempting to seize control of England reached the Holy Land, prompting Richard to prepare for his return to Europe. On 20 April 1192 he recognised the claim of Conrad of Montferrat to what remained of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and granted Cyprus to Guy of Lusignan as compensation. Conrad was assassinated 8 days later, and his pregnant widow, Isabella, swiftly married Henry of Champagne, a close kinsman of both the French and English kings. In June, Richard advanced towards Jerusalem, but the crusaders halted at Bayt Nuba, thirteen miles from the city, judging the risk of defeat too great, and withdrew to the coast. Meanwhile Saladin began a counteroffensive at the Battle of Jaffa, but Richard relieved the town. Negotiations between their envoys had begun the previous year, and on 2 September, a 3-year truce was agreed to with the Treaty of Jaffa. It confirmed Frankish control of the coast between Tyre and Jaffa and permitted Christian pilgrims to visit the holy sites of Palestine.^[251] Richard departed Palestine on 9 October 1192, but on his journey home he was captured in Austria by the vengeful Leopold V. The following year, Richard was handed over to Frederick's son and successor, Henry VI who released him upon payment of a ransom of 100,000 marks.^[252]

Saladin died of illness on 4 March 1193. His empire soon collapsed, as his eldest son and designated heir, al-Afdal, proved unable to restrain the ambitions of his many Ayyubid kinsmen. Of these, Saladin's brother al-Adil was the most astute, securing control of Damascus in 1196.^[253][254]

The Third Crusade, with its extensive use of naval power, set a precedent for later expeditions: sea travel reduced the number of non-combatants and greatly eased the supply of armies en route.^[255] Although no campaign of comparable scale was launched thereafter, new plans quickly emerged. Emperor Henry VI, having seized the Kingdom of Sicily from Tancred of Lecce, revived his Norman predecessors' ambitions for expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. He took the cross at the town of Bari in April 1195, and Celestine III authorised the preaching of a new crusade in Germany.^[229][256] By then, both Leo I, lord of Cilician Armenia, and Aimery of Lusignan, successor to his brother Guy of Lusignan as ruler of Cyprus, had recognised Henry's suzerainty.^[257]

Henry planned to recruit 3,000 mercenaries and demanded tribute from the new Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos to finance the scheme. Alexios imposed a heavy levy, the Alamanikon ('German tax'), to raise a large sum, more than 7,000 pounds of silver, but was spared payment when Henry succumbed to a lingering illness on 28 September 1197.^[258] Some months earlier, the ailing emperor had appointed Henry of Kalden, the imperial marshal, and Bishop Conrad of Hildesheim, the imperial chancellor, to lead the campaign, known as the Crusade of 1197. German forces sailed from southern Italian ports between March and September. In the same month, al-Adil captured Jaffa, but the crusaders secured Botrun, Sidon, and Beirut, abandoning their campaign only when news of Henry's death reached Palestine in February 1198.^[259]

During the crusade, both Aimery of Cyprus and Leo I of Armenia were crowned kings by imperial representatives. Following his marriage to the widowed Isabella I of Jerusalem, Aimery was also crowned king of Jerusalem in January 1198. He soon extended the truce with the Ayyubid rulers, prolonging it until 1204.^[260] In 1198, the German nursing confraternity that ran a hospital founded at Acre during the Third Crusade assumed military functions, evolving into a new military order, the Teutonic Knights.^[261]

Celestine III was succeeded in 1198 by Innocent III, a learned theologian and jurist. In his first year, he proclaimed a new expedition, but the Anglo-French war and the German throne dispute between Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick prevented the launch of any large-scale overseas campaign.^[262] Markward von Annweiler, a veteran of the Third Crusade, rejected Innocent's claim to serve as regent in the Kingdom of Sicily for the child Frederick, son of Emperor Henry VI. Accusing Markward of endangering the recovery of the Holy Land, Innocent extended crusading indulgence to those who fought him, though only Walter of Brienne, a French claimant to fiefs in southern Italy, joined this campaign, often described as the first "political crusade".^[263][264]

Innocent nonetheless pressed forward with his plans for a crusade to the Holy Land. He sent his legate Peter Capuano to negotiate peace between England and France, but the discussions ended prematurely when Richard I of England died in April 1199. By then Innocent had entrusted the charismatic preacher Fulk of Neuilly with spreading the crusading message in France.^[265] To support the enterprise, he also imposed a 2.5% levy on clerical income, presenting it as an exceptional measure.^[266] Theobald III of Champagne was the first noble to take the cross, at a tournament on 28 November, followed by his cousin Louis of Blois and, in February 1200, his brother-in-law Baldwin IX of Flanders.^[267] They secretly agreed to strike Egypt before advancing on Jerusalem, concealing their plan for fear of opposition from the rank and file. They appointed six envoys—two each—to negotiate the hire of a fleet. Among them was Geoffrey of Villehardouin, who would later chronicle the Fourth Crusade. Their agreement with Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo provided that Venice would construct, by the end of June 1202, a fleet capable of carrying 33,500 crusaders in return for 85,000 marks (over 20 tons of silver). When Theobald died unexpectedly of illness in May 1201, the leaders of the expedition invited Boniface of Montferrat, a Lombard noble connected to royal houses in both East and West, to assume supreme command.^[268][269]

The crusade encountered difficulties when only a third of the expected force gathered at Venice, as many chose other ports of embarkation or failed to honour their vows. The Venetians had committed substantial resources to the project, but the crusaders could not raise the full agreed sum. To salvage the situation, Dandolo proposed a joint attack on Zara, a Christian city in Dalmatia under the suzerainty of Emeric of Hungary, himself a sworn crusader. Despite an explicit papal prohibition and the objections of some, including Simon de Montfort, the crusader leaders accepted the offer and captured the city for Venice after the Siege of Zara in November 1202.^{[270][271][272]}

The crusaders were still wintering at Zara when Alexios Angelos, son of the deposed Emperor Isaac II, approached them with a grand offer. In return for his restoration to Constantinople, he promised submission of the Byzantine Church to Rome, payment of 200,000 silver marks, and the support of 10,000 troops. Although recently absolved for their attack on a Christian city, the crusader leaders agreed to divert the expedition to Constantinople, prompting several hundred dissenters to abandon the crusade or sail directly to the Holy Land.^[273] The main army reached the Byzantine capital in late June 1203 and began the Siege of Constantinople. The crusaders' first assault in July forced Emperor Alexios III to flee. Isaac II was restored to the throne, and his son was crowned co-emperor as Alexios IV. Alexios raised only 100,000 marks, promising further sums if the crusaders remained until March. The proposal was accepted at a parlament attended by the commanders and most of the knights. As Alexios IV failed to raise sufficient funds to pay off the crusaders, they began plundering raids. The young emperor lost support and, together with his father, was deposed by the aristocrat Alexios Doukas, who was crowned Alexios V in February 1204.^[274][275]

Deprived of further supplies, the crusader leaders resolved to attack Constantinople after agreeing on the division of spoils and the partition of the Byzantine Empire. Their first assault failed, but the clergy sustained morale with sermons portraying the Byzantines as schismatics "worse than the Jews". The next attack, on 12 April, succeeded, and the Sack of Constantinople lasted for days.^[276] The crusaders massacred thousands, desecrated holy places, and seized the city's remaining movable wealth. Relics were amassed in great numbers and dispatched to distant churches in the crusaders' homelands. The brutality of the conquest shocked contemporaries, including the Pope and the Muslim scholar Ibn al-Athir.^[277] The Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates emphasised the stark contrast between Saladin's clemency towards Jerusalem's Christian population and the crusaders' ruthless slaughter of Orthodox Christians in Constantinople.^[278]

A committee of six Venetian and six French crusaders elected Baldwin of Flanders as the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Boniface of Montferrat received Macedonia and Thessaly, where he founded the Kingdom of Thessalonica, while his vassals seized Attica and the Peloponnese, establishing the Duchy of Athens and the Principality of Achaea. Venice took control of much of the Aegean islands, including Crete, and thereafter a Venetian cleric was always appointed as Latin Patriarch of Constantinople.^[279]

The Frankish hold over former Byzantine lands remained precarious. Baldwin died in Bulgarian captivity after defeat at the Battle of Adrianople in 1205, and Boniface was killed fighting the Bulgarians in 1207. Greek resistance was led by three Byzantine successor states: Epirus, Nicaea, and Trebizond. Their offensives prompted the papacy to extend crusading indulgences to those defending Frankish Greece, though this gained little support in western Europe.^[280][279] From the perspective of the Crusader states, the Fourth Crusade was nearly a failure: although roughly a fifth of those who took the cross around 1200 reached the Holy Land—allowing Aimery to extend the truce for 6 years in 1204—most who took part in the sack of Constantinople returned home without continuing the journey east.^[281][282]

Following the collapse of the Fourth Crusade, Innocent III soon contemplated a new eastern campaign.^[283] Yet calls for a large-scale crusade had scant prospect amid the protracted German throne dispute and renewed conflict between France and England.^[284] Meanwhile, the Crusader states faced no immediate peril, as divisions within the Ayyubids limited their capacity to act against the Frankish territories.^[285] In 1212, John of Brienne, the new king of Jerusalem, concluded a five-year truce with al-Adil, by then ruler of Egypt and Damascus, and soon dispatched envoys to Rome, asking Innocent to proclaim a new crusade once it expired. He had gained the throne as the husband of Maria of Montferrat, and after her death ruled as regent for their infant daughter Isabella II.^[286]

The medievalist Andrew Jotischky characterises Innocent's crusading policy "as a series of pragmatic reactions to problems as they arose".^[287] Among these challenges was the spread of Catharism—a dualist theology denounced as heresy—in southern France. Innocent launched the Albigensian Crusade against them in 1208, condemning the Cathars as "more evil" than the Muslims.^[288] Over the following two decades the campaigns inflicted widespread devastation, yet Catharism was ultimately eradicated primarily through the work of inquisitors and mendicant friars.^[289][290]

Popular enthusiasm for crusading persisted, while the recent failures sharpened criticism of noble-led expeditions.^[291] Repeated petition processions on behalf of Iberian Christians resisting the Almohads, together with vigorous preaching in favour of anti-Cathar crusades, heightened crusading fervour in central France and the Rhineland in the early 1210s. In 1212 this gave rise to popular movements in both regions, later known collectively as the Children's Crusade.^[292] Sources offer conflicting accounts, rich in myth and moral tales, yet all agree that the participants were children and young people seeking to reclaim Jerusalem—though none reached the Holy Land.^[293]

Unlike in the Levant, crusading in Europe was showing successes. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Reconquista dealt a decisive blow to the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in July 1112. In that same year, Simon de Montfort, by now leader of the Albigensian Crusade, completed the conquest of much of southern France.^[294][295] These victories in Iberia and southern France, together with the spontaneous eruption of crusading zeal in the Children's Crusade, enabled Innocent III to make firm preparations for the Fifth Crusade. He launched it in the bull Quia maior ('Because more'), using the construction of a new Muslim fort on Mount Tabor in Palestine as a pretext.^[283][296] According to historian Thomas Madden, this "impressive document represents the full maturation of the crusading idea".^[283] The Fourth Crusade had revealed the disastrous consequences of poor organisation,^[297] and Innocent concluded that only papal leadership could secure success for any new campaign.^[298] Innocent also broke with the tradition of appealing solely to the military class, extending full indulgence to those who, unable to go in person, financed the journey of a warrior, and granting partial indulgence to those who donated to the cause.^[299]

The expedition's terms were defined at the Fourth Lateran Council in November 1215. Crusaders were instructed to assemble at Brindisi or Messina in southern Italy by 1 June 1217, the date on which the truce of 1212 expired. A 5% levy on clerical income across Europe was imposed for 3 years, and Innocent himself pledged a further 30,000 pounds of silver towards the costs.^[300][301] The appeal was poorly received in France, preoccupied with the Albigensian Crusade, but elsewhere in Europe it proved more effective. Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI of Austria both took the cross. Frederick II, Innocent's protégé in the German throne dispute, likewise declared his intention to join, though he had not yet decisively overcome his rival, Otto IV.^[302] Oliver of Paderborn, a crusade preacher, successfully toured the Low Countries, recounting visions and miracles such as the appearance of three crosses in the sky. Another preacher, Jacques de Vitry, first won over the wives of Genoese patricians before persuading the patricians themselves to take the cross.^[303] Amid preparations for the crusade, Innocent died on 16 July 1216, but his successor, Honorius III, carried on his policy.^[304][305]

Hungarian and Austrian crusaders embarked at the Dalmatian port of Spalato aboard Venetian ships, rather than sailing from the more distant southern Italian harbours. By late September they reached Acre, where John of Brienne, Hugh I of Cyprus, and Bohemond IV of Antioch joined them. After a failed Siege on Mount Tabor, Andrew II declared his crusading vow fulfilled and, with most of the Hungarians, withdrew from the campaign.^[306][307] After Frisian, German, and Italian forces joined the crusade, the army approached Damietta, a thriving port in the Nile Delta, in May 1218. The subsuquent Siege of Damietta saw a constantly shifting host, as new contingents arrived from the West while others departed, believing their vows complete. John of Brienne was elected commander, though his leadership was soon disputed by the papal legate Pelagius, who reached the camp in September.^[308]

Meanwhile, in late August, the crusaders captured the Tower of the Chain, a key fortress guarding the Delta. Al-Adil reportedly died of shock on hearing the news. His son al-Kamil offered to restore the pre-1187 borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, excluding Transjordan, in exchange for the crusaders' withdrawal.^[309] The proposal was declined, as the kingdom was deemed indefensible without the fortresses east of the Jordan. On learning of the offer, al-Kamil's brother al-Mu'azzam dismantled Jerusalem's walls.^[310] In August 1219, the mystic Francis of Assisi met al-Kamil, seeking to convert him to Christianity without success. Within the camp, prophecies circulated predicting victory and the arrival of Christian allies led by the mythical Prester John or his supposed grandson David. Such expectations were encouraged by distorted reports of the Mongol conquests in Central Asia.^[311]

Damietta fell to the crusaders in November 1219, but its occupation soon provoked renewed disputes between John of Brienne and Pelagius.^[312] A year later, Frederick reaffirmed his crusading vow at his imperial coronation in Rome. In 1221, German forces under Louis I of Bavaria began arriving at Egypt. That July, disregarding Frederick's instructions, Louis and Pelagius advanced part of the army towards Cairo; however, reinforced by the forces of his brothers al-Muʿazzam and al-Ashraf, al-Kamil compelled them to retreat northwards. With the Nile in flood, he ordered the sluices opened, inundating their line of march. Trapped and unable to proceed, the crusaders eventually accepted terms: they abandoned Damietta in exchange for safe conduct and an eight-year truce. Al-Kamil re-entered Damietta in September 1221, while the crusaders withdrew from Egypt. The crusade's sudden collapse shocked Western Christendom. Many blamed Pelagius for the disastrous Battle of Mansurah, the final campaign of the crusade, while others–including returning crusaders and Honorius–condemned Frederick for failing to honour the crusading vow he had taken six years earlier.^[313]

By 1218, Frederick II had consolidated his authority in Germany, yet he continued to view Sicily as his true power base. The union of Sicily with the Holy Roman Empire in 1220 posed a direct threat to the papacy, though his relations with Honorius III remained cordial. This was largely due to influential mediators such as Hermann of Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, and Thomas of Capua, head of the papal penitentiary.^[314] Frederick again renewed his crusading vow at a meeting with Honorius at Ferentino in May 1223, fixing June 1225 as the date of departure. At the same meeting, attended also by John of Brienne, agreement was reached on Frederick's marriage to Isabella II of Jerusalem.^[315][316] As the call for a new crusade met with little response, Frederick once more renewed his vow with Honorius' consent at San Germano in March 1225, pledging under threat of excommunication to depart in August 1227.^[317] Despite earlier promises that John would govern the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Frederick claimed the royal title soon after marrying Isabella II of Jerusalem in November 1225. He also exacted oaths of fealty from the barons of Jerusalem.^[318][315]

Meanwhile, tensions between al-Kamil and al-Mu'azzam escalated to such a degree that, in 1226, al-Kamil sent an envoy to Frederick, offering to restore the city of Jerusalem to the Christians in return for support against his rival.^[319] In March 1227 Honorius died, and the energetic Gregory IX succeeded him.^[320] He soon clashed fiercely with Frederick over papal rights in the Sicilian kingdom, yet preparations for the crusade continued.^[321] To secure the Lombard cities' contribution to the crusade, Frederick was compelled to use force, yet many eagerly joined his cause, among them the German noble Louis IV of Thuringia, the Italian aristocrat Thomas of Acerra, and the English bishop Peter des Roches.^[321][322] Several crusaders embarked from Brindisi on 15 August 1227. Frederick followed on 8 September with some 800 knights and 10,000 infantry, but he suddenly fell ill and withdrew to southern Italy. Enraged, Gregory excommunicated him before the end of the month.^[321][315] On hearing of Frederick’s return to southern Italy and his excommunication, many crusaders who had reached the Holy Land abandoned the campaign, while those who remained set about repairing the coastal fortifications.^[323] When al-Mu'azzam died in November 1227, they also seized Sidon and constructed Montfort Castle near Acre.^[324]

Disregarding Gregory's demand to seek absolution before continuing the crusade, Frederick resolved to lead an expedition to the Holy Land. As Isabella died shortly after giving birth to their son, Conrad, Frederick only departed for the crusade in late June 1228.^[325] After arriving in Cyprus, an imperial fief, Frederick deposed the aristocrat John of Ibelin, who had assumed the regency for the island's underage king, Henry I. He also demanded an oath of fealty from Bohemond IV, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli, but Bohemond refused.^[326]

Frederick landed at Acre on 7 September. As the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the most devout crusaders would not obey an excommunicated leader, he was forced to appoint intermediaries to convey his orders. He soon renewed negotiations with al-Kamil. Having grown up in multicultural Sicily, he displayed both tolerance towards Islam and considerable learning. On 18 February 1229, the Treaty of Jaffa, concluded between Frederick and al-Kamil, ceded key cities, including Jerusalem and Bethlehem, to the Christians, but excluded Antioch, Tripoli, and the territories of the Hospitallers and Templars. The agreement preserved the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa Mosque as Muslim places of worship, and established a 10-year truce. Though the treaty secured more for the Kingdom of Jerusalem than any previous crusade, it was sharply criticised by Frederick's opponents. During his visit to Jerusalem, he entered the city's Muslim shrines, and on 18 May placed the royal crown of Jerusalem upon his head in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.^[327][328]

Meanwhile, with papal backing, John of Brienne invaded southern Italy, compelling Frederick to abandon his eastern campaign in May. While staying in Cyprus, Frederick appointed five regents to administer the island, but John of Ibelin swiftly overthrew them. Frederick landed at Brindisi in June and, by the end of October, had driven his former father-in-law back into papal territory.^[329]

By the time Frederick II returned from his eastern campaign, the Treaty of Paris, signed on 12 April 1229, had brought the Albigensian Crusades to an end. Under its terms, Raymond VII of Toulouse agreed to marry his daughter and heir, Joan of Toulouse to Alphonse of Poitiers, the younger brother of Louis IX of France, and also pledged to lead a crusade to the Holy Land.^[330][331] The period likewise witnessed the successes of the Iberian crusades under James I of Aragon—who conquered the Balearic Islands and Valencia by 1238—and Ferdinand III of Castile, who captured Córdoba in 1236.^[332][333] In the Baltic, the Teutonic Knights assumed leadership of the crusade against the pagan Prussians in 1230.^[334] Gregory IX also launched the Drenther and Stedinger Crusades against rebellious peasants, as well as the Bosnian Crusade against dissident Christians in Bosnia.^[335]

Frederick made peace with Gregory, who absolved him of excommunication and recognised his successful crusade. In 1231, he appointed the imperial marshal Richard Filangieri as his bailli (deputy) in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Backed by the Teutonic Knights, the Pisans, and some nobles, Filangieri seized Tyre, but most of the barons of Jerusalem, led by John of Ibelin and supported by the Genoese and Henry I of Cyprus, resisted him. After John's death in 1236, his son Balian of Beirut took over the leadership of the resistance to Frederick.^[336]

Gregory called for a new crusade in separate encyclicals to the English and French in 1234. The campaign was to set out for the Holy Land upon the expiry of the 1229 truce in 1239. He ordered the taxation of clerical income and promoted the commutation of crusading vows for cash. He also proposed the establishment of a garrison in Palestine, to be maintained for ten years and financed by lay contributions in return for partial crusade indulgences. The crusade was preached mainly by mendicant friars, but the funds collected were deposited with the bishops. These were distributed, with papal authorisation, among aristocrats who had taken the cross to finance the raising of their armies.^[337]

In France, Theobald IV of Champagne (also King of Navarre), Hugh IV of Burgundy, and Peter of Dreux were among the nobles who joined the crusade. Most had previously rebelled against Blanche of Castile, regent for her son Louis IX of France, and by taking the cross gained the Church's protection.^[338] Louis supported their preparations with gifts and loans and authorised the crusaders to fight under the French royal banner.^[339] In England, several nobles who had opposed royal authority enlisted, including Richard of Cornwall—one of Europe's wealthiest men—and his brother-in-law Gilbert Marshal. The army also drew former enemies such as Simon de Montfort and Richard Siward.^[340]

In the late 1230s, the Crusader states faced little threat from their Muslim neighbours.^[341] After al-Kamil's death in 1238, a two-year struggle for power ensued before his son, Ayyub, secured control of Egypt. He recruited new mamluk troops and stationed them on a Nile island, giving rise to the Bahri (or "river") mamluks.^[342] By contrast, Frankish Greece came under pressure from a Bulgarian–Nicaean alliance, which led the Latins of Constantinople to seek western support. Gregory attempted to divert some crusaders to Constantinople rather than the Holy Land, but only a few—among them Humbert V de Beaujeu and Thomas of Marle—accepted. When they arrived in Constantinople in 1239, however, the anti-Latin coalition had already collapsed, and the crusaders mounted only minor raids in Thrace.^[343][344]

The French crusaders offered command to Frederick II, who pledged that he or his son, Conrad, would join the expedition. Yet his bid to assert authority in Lombardy drew him into renewed conflict with Gregory, who excommunicated him in March 1239. The French crusaders reached Acre in September 1239. Leadership was fragmented, and in November an Egyptian force routed a crusader contingent at the Battle at Gaza. This defeat emboldened Dawud, the Ayyubid emir of Damascus, to sack Jerusalem and dismantle its fortifications. The divided Ayyubids, however, failed to exploit their successes. Ismail of Damascus, Ayubb's uncle, even offered to cede to the Franks the fortresses of Beaufort, Tiberias and Saphet, all then held by Dawud. It is uncertain whether his proposal was accepted, as Theobald of Champagne and Peter of Dreux abandoned the crusade after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in September 1241.^[345]

The English crusaders, numbering around 600–800 knights and an unspecified force of other warriors, set out in October 1240.^[346][347] As the brother-in-law of Frederick II, Richard of Cornwall was aligned with the pro-imperialist faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, favouring an alliance with Egypt over Damascus. By the time of his arrival, Hugh IV had begun refortifying Ascalon, thereby placing pressure on Ayyub. The sultan responded by offering, through his ally Dawud, the restoration of Jerusalem to the Franks and the release of prisoners taken at Gaza. Richard accepted the proposal, which also upheld Ismail's earlier concessions, thus extending the kingdom to its greatest reach since 1187.^[348][349] With the agreement secured, Richard abandoned the crusade in May 1241.^[350]

The final phase of the Levantine Crusades was marked by Mongol intervention in Middle Eastern politics and the restoration of Muslim unity.^[351] Earlier, the Mongols had invaded Hungary and Poland, prompting Pope Gregory IX in June 1241 to call for a crusade against them, but the German host soon dispersed. The invasion ended unexpectedly later that year when the Great Khan, Ögödei, died, compelling the Mongols to withdraw.^[352]

The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was the first of the two Crusades led by Louis IX of France. Also known as the Crusade of Louis IX to the Holy Land, its objective was to reclaim the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the main seat of Muslim power in the Middle East, then under as-Salih Ayyub, son of al-Kamil. The Crusade was conducted in response to setbacks in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, beginning with the loss of the Holy City in 1244, and was preached by Innocent IV in conjunction with a crusade against emperor Frederick II, the Prussian crusades and Mongol incursions.^[353]

At the end of 1244, Louis was stricken with a severe malarial infection and he vowed that if he recovered he would set out for a Crusade. His life was spared, and as soon as his health permitted him, he took the cross and immediately began preparations.^[354] The next year, the pope presided over First Council of Lyon, directing a new Crusade under the command of Louis. With Rome under siege by Frederick, the pope also issued his Ad Apostolicae Dignitatis Apicem, formally renewing the sentence of excommunication on the emperor, and declared him deposed from the imperial throne and that of Naples.^[355]

The recruiting effort under cardinal Odo of Châteauroux was difficult, and the Crusade finally began on 12 August 1248 when Louis IX left Paris under the insignia of a pilgrim, the Oriflamme.^[356] With him were queen Margaret of Provence and two of Louis' brothers, Charles I of Anjou and Robert I of Artois. Their youngest brother Alphonse of Poitiers departed the next year. They were followed by Hugh IV of Burgundy, Peter Maulcerc, Hugh XI of Lusignan, royal companion and chronicler Jean de Joinville, and an English detachment under William Longespée, grandson of Henry II of England.^[357]

The first stop was Cyprus, arriving in September 1248 where they experienced a long wait for the forces to assemble. Many of the men were lost en route or to disease.^[358] The Franks were soon met by those from Acre including the masters of the Orders Jean de Ronay and Guillaume de Sonnac. The two eldest sons of John of Brienne, Alsonso of Brienne and Louis of Brienne, would also join as would John of Ibelin, nephew to the Old Lord of Beirut.^[359] William of Villehardouin also arrived with ships and Frankish soldiers from the Morea. It was agreed that Egypt was the objective and many remembered how the sultan's father had been willing to exchange Jerusalem itself for Damietta in the Fifth Crusade. Louis was not willing to negotiate with the infidel Muslims, but he did unsuccessfully seek a Franco-Mongol alliance, reflecting what the pope had sought in 1245.^[360]

As-Salih Ayyub was conducting a campaign in Damascus when the Franks invaded as he had expected the Crusaders to land in Syria. Hurrying his forces back to Cairo, he turned to his vizier Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh to command the army that fortified Damietta in anticipation of the invasion. On 5 June 1249 the Crusader fleet began the landing and subsequent siege of Damietta. After a short battle, the Egyptian commander decided to evacuate the city.^[361] Remarkably, Damietta had been seized with only one Crusader casualty.^[362] The city became a Frankish city and Louis waited until the Nile floods abated before advancing, remembering the lessons of the Fifth Crusade. The loss of Damietta was a shock to the Muslim world, and as-Salih Ayyub offered to trade Damietta for Jerusalem as his father had thirty years before. The offer was rejected. By the end of October 1249 the Nile had receded and reinforcements had arrived. It was time to advance, and the Frankish army set out towards Mansurah.^[363]

The sultan died in November 1249, his widow Shajar al-Durr concealing the news of her husband's death. She forged a document which appointed his son al-Muazzam Turanshah, then in Syria, as heir and Fakhr ad-Din as viceroy.^[364] But the Crusade continued, and by December 1249, Louis was encamped on the river banks opposite to Mansurah.^[362] For six weeks, the armies of the West and Egypt faced each other on opposite sides of the canal, leading to the Battle of Mansurah that would end on 11 February 1250 with an Egyptian defeat. Louis had his victory, but a cost of the loss of much of his force and their commanders. Among the survivors were the Templar master Guillaume de Sonnac, losing an eye, Humbert V de Beaujeu, constable of France, John II of Soissons, and the duke of Brittany, Peter Maulcerc. Counted with the dead were the king's brother Robert I of Artois, William Longespée and most of his English followers, Peter of Courtenay, and Raoul II of Coucy. But the victory would be short-lived.^[365] On 11 February 1250, the Egyptians attacked again. Templar master Guillaume de Sonnac and acting Hospitaller master Jean de Ronay were killed. Alphonse of Poitiers, guarding the camp, was encircled and was rescued by the camp followers. At nightfall, the Muslims gave up the assault.^[366]

On 28 February 1250, Turanshah arrived from Damascus and began an Egyptian offensive, intercepting the boats that brought food from Damietta. The Franks were quickly beset by famine and disease.^[367] The Battle of Fariskur fought on 6 April 1250 would be the decisive defeat of Louis' army. Louis knew that the army must be extricated to Damietta and they departed on the morning of 5 April, with the king in the rear and the Egyptians in pursuit. The next day, the Muslims surrounded the army and attacked in full force. On 6 April, Louis' surrender was negotiated directly with the sultan by Philip of Montfort. The king and his entourage were taken in chains to Mansurah and the whole of the army was rounded up and led into captivity.^[366]

The Egyptians were unprepared for the large number of prisoners taken, comprising most of Louis' force. The infirm were executed immediately and several hundred were decapitated daily. Louis and his commanders were moved to Mansurah, and negotiations for their release commenced. The terms agreed to were harsh. Louis was to ransom himself by the surrender of Damietta and his army by the payment of a million bezants (later reduced to 800,000).^[368] Latin patriarch Robert of Nantes went under safe-conduct to complete the arrangements for the ransom. Arriving in Cairo, he found Turanshah dead, murdered in a coup instigated by his stepmother Shajar al-Durr. On 6 May, Geoffrey of Sergines handed Damietta over to the Moslem vanguard. Many wounded soldiers had been left behind at Damietta, and contrary to their promise, the Muslims massacred them all. In 1251, the Shepherds' Crusade, a popular crusade formed with the objective to free Louis, engulfed France.^[369] After his release, Louis went to Acre where he remained until 1254. This is regarded as the end of the Seventh Crusade.^[353]

After the defeat of the Crusaders in Egypt, Louis remained in Syria until 1254 to consolidate the crusader states.^[370] A brutal power struggle developed in Egypt between various Mamluk leaders and the remaining weak Ayyubid rulers. The threat presented by an invasion by the Mongols led to one of the competing Mamluk leaders, Qutuz, seizing the sultanate in 1259 and uniting with another faction led by Baibars to defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut. The Mamluks then quickly gained control of Damascus and Aleppo before Qutuz was assassinated and Baibers assumed control.^[371]

Between 1265 and 1271, Baibars drove the Franks to a few small coastal outposts.^[372] Baibars had three key objectives: to prevent an alliance between the Latins and the Mongols, to cause dissension among the Mongols (particularly between the Golden Horde and the Persian Ilkhanate), and to maintain access to a supply of slave recruits from the Russian steppes. He supported Manfred of Sicily's failed resistance to the attack of Charles and the papacy. Dissension in the crusader states led to conflicts such as the War of Saint Sabas. Venice drove the Genoese from Acre to Tyre where they continued to trade with Egypt. Indeed, Baibars negotiated free passage for the Genoese with Michael VIII Palaiologos, Emperor of Nicaea, the newly restored ruler of Constantinople.^[373] In 1270 Charles turned his brother King Louis IX's crusade, known as the Eighth Crusade, to his own advantage by persuading him to attack Tunis. The crusader army was devastated by disease, and Louis himself died at Tunis on 25 August. The fleet returned to France. Prince Edward, the future king of England, and a small retinue arrived too late for the conflict but continued to the Holy Land in what is known as Lord Edward's Crusade.^[374] Edward survived an assassination attempt, negotiated a ten-year truce, and then returned to manage his affairs in England. This ended the last significant crusading effort in the eastern Mediterranean.^[375]

The years 1272–1302 include numerous conflicts throughout the Levant as well as the Mediterranean and Western European regions, and many crusades were proposed to free the Holy Land from Mamluk control. These include ones of Gregory X, Charles I of Anjou and Nicholas IV, none of which came to fruition. The major players fighting the Muslims included the kings of England and France, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Sicily, the three Military Orders and Mongol Ilkhanate. The end of Western European presence in the Holy Land was sealed with the fall of Tripoli and their subsequent defeat at the siege of Acre in 1291. The Christian forces managed to survive until the final fall of Ruad in 1302.^[376]

The Holy Land would no longer be the focus of the West even though various crusades were proposed in the early years of the fourteenth century. The Knights Hospitaller would conquer Rhodes from Byzantium, making it the center of their activity for a hundred years. The Knights Templar, the elite fighting force in the kingdom, was disbanded. The Mongols converted to Islam, but disintegrated as a fighting force. The Mamluk sultanate would continue for another century. The Crusades to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land were over.^[377]

The military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from Muslims provided a template for warfare in other areas that also interested the Latin Church. These included the 12th to 15th century Reconquista, the conquest of Muslim Al-Andalus by Spanish Christian kingdoms; 12th to 15th century German Northern Crusades expansion into the pagan Baltic region; the suppression of non-conformity, particularly in Languedoc during what has become called the Albigensian Crusade and for the Papacy's temporal advantage in Italy and Germany that are now known as political crusades. In the 13th and 14th centuries there were also unsanctioned, but related popular uprisings to recover Jerusalem known variously as Shepherds' or Children's crusades.^[378]

Urban II equated the crusades for Jerusalem with the ongoing Catholic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and crusades were preached in 1114 and 1118, but it was Pope Callixtus II who proposed dual fronts in Spain and the Middle East in 1122. In the spring of 1147, Eugene authorised the expansion of his mission into the Iberian peninsula, equating these campaigns against the Moors with the rest of the Second Crusade. The successful siege of Lisbon, from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was followed by the six-month siege of Tortosa, ending on 30 December 1148 with a defeat for the Moors.^[379] In the north, some Germans were reluctant to fight in the Holy Land while the pagan Wends were a more immediate problem. The resulting Wendish Crusade of 1147 was partially successful but failed to convert the pagans to Christianity.^[380] By the time of the Second Crusade the three Spanish kingdoms were powerful enough to conquer Islamic territory – Castile, Aragon, and Portugal.^[381] In 1212 the Spanish were victorious at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa with the support of foreign fighters responding to the preaching of Innocent III. Many of these deserted because of the Spanish tolerance of the defeated Muslims, for whom the Reconquista was a war of domination rather than extermination.^[382] In contrast the Christians formerly living under Muslim rule called Mozarabs had the Roman Rite relentlessly imposed on them and were absorbed into mainstream Catholicism.^[383] Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, was completely suppressed in 1492 when the Emirate of Granada surrendered.^[384]

In 1147, Pope Eugene III extended Calixtus's idea by authorising a crusade on the German north-eastern frontier against the pagan Wends from what was primarily economic conflict.^[385][386] From the early 13th century, there was significant involvement of military orders, such as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Order of Dobrzyń. The Teutonic Knights diverted efforts from the Holy Land, absorbed these orders and established the State of the Teutonic Order.^[387][388] This evolved the Duchy of Prussia and Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in 1525 and 1562, respectively.^[389]

By the beginning of the 13th century papal reticence in applying crusades against the papacy's political opponents and those considered heretics had abated. Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against Catharism that failed to suppress the heresy itself but ruined the culture of the Languedoc.^[390] This set a precedent that was followed in 1212 with pressure exerted on the city of Milan for tolerating Catharism,^[391] in 1234 against the Stedinger peasants of north-western Germany, in 1234 and 1241 Hungarian crusades against Bosnian heretics.^[390] The historian Norman Housley notes the connection between heterodoxy and anti-papalism in Italy.^[392] Indulgence was offered to anti-heretical groups such as the Militia of Jesus Christ and the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[393] Innocent III declared the first political crusade against Frederick II's regent, Markward von Annweiler, and when Frederick later threatened Rome in 1240, Gregory IX used crusading terminology to raise support against him. On Frederick II's death the focus moved to Sicily. In 1263, Pope Urban IV offered crusading indulgences to Charles of Anjou in return for Sicily's conquest. However, these wars had no clear objectives or limitations, making them unsuitable for crusading.^[394] The 1281 election of a French pope, Martin IV, brought the power of the papacy behind Charles. Charles's preparations for a crusade against Constantinople were foiled by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who instigated an uprising called the Sicilian Vespers. Instead, Peter III of Aragon was proclaimed king of Sicily, despite his excommunication and an unsuccessful Aragonese Crusade.^[395] Political crusading continued against Venice over Ferrara; Louis IV, King of Germany when he marched to Rome for his imperial coronation; and the free companies of mercenaries.^[396]

The Latin states established were a fragile patchwork of petty realms threatened by Byzantine successor states – the Despotate of Epirus, the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond. Thessaloniki fell to Epirus in 1224, and Constantinople to Nicaea in 1261. Achaea and Athens survived under the French after the Treaty of Viterbo.^[397] The Venetians endured a long-standing conflict with the Ottoman Empire until the final possessions were lost in the Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War in the 18th century. This period of Greek history is known as the Frankokratia or Latinokratia ("Frankish or Latin rule") and designates a period when western European Catholics ruled Orthodox Byzantine Greeks.^[398]

The major crusades of the 14th century include: the Crusade against the Dulcinians; the Crusade of the Poor; the Anti-Catalan Crusade; the Shepherds' Crusade; the Smyrniote Crusades; the Crusade against Novgorod; the Savoyard Crusade; the Alexandrian Crusade; the Despenser's Crusade; the Mahdia, Tedelis, and Bona Crusades; and the Crusade of Nicopolis.

The threat of the expanding Ottoman Empire prompted further crusades of the 15th century. In 1389, the Ottomans defeated the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo, won control of the Balkans from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, in 1396 defeated French crusaders and King Sigismund of Hungary at the Nicopolis, in 1444 destroyed a crusading Polish and Hungarian force at Varna, four years later again defeated the Hungarians at Kosovo and in 1453 captured Constantinople. The 16th century saw growing rapprochement. The Habsburgs, French, Spanish and Venetians and Ottomans all signed treaties. Francis I of France allied with all quarters, including from German Protestant princes and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.^[399]

Anti-Christian crusading declined in the 15th century, the exceptions were the six failed crusades against the religiously radical Hussites in Bohemia and attacks on the Waldensians in Savoy.^[400] Crusading became a financial exercise; precedence was given to the commercial and political objectives. The military threat presented by the Ottoman Turks diminished, making anti-Ottoman crusading obsolete in 1699 with the final Holy League.^[401][402]

The Crusades created national mythologies, tales of heroism, and a few place names.^[403] Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of political Islam encouraging ideas of a modern jihad and a centuries-long struggle against Christian states, while secular Arab nationalism highlights the role of western imperialism.^[404] Modern Muslim thinkers, politicians and historians have drawn parallels between the crusades and political developments such as the establishment of Israel in 1948.^[405]

Right-wing circles in the western world have drawn opposing parallels, considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the crusades. Crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric are presented as an appropriate response. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy.^[406]

The historiography of the Crusades is concerned with their "history of the histories" during the Crusader period. The subject is a complex one, with overviews provided in Select Bibliography of the Crusades,^[407] Modern Historiography,^[408] and Crusades (Bibliography and Sources).^[409] The histories describing the Crusades are broadly of three types: (1) The primary sources of the Crusades,^[410] which include works written in the medieval period, generally by participants in the Crusade or written contemporaneously with the event, letters and documents in archives, and archaeological studies; (2) secondary sources, beginning with early consolidated works in the 16th century and continuing to modern times; and (3) tertiary sources, primarily encyclopedias, bibliographies and genealogies.^[407]

The primary sources for the Crusades are generally presented in the individual articles on each Crusade and summarised in the list of sources for the Crusades.^[411] For the First Crusade, this includes the original Latin chronicles, including the Gesta Francorum, works by Albert of Aachen and Fulcher of Chartres, the Alexiad by Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, the Complete Work of History by Muslim historian Ali ibn al-Athir, and the Chronicle of Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa. Many of these and related texts are found in the collections Recueil des historiens des croisades (RHC) and Crusade Texts in Translation. The work of William of Tyre, Historia Rerum in Partibus Transmarinis Gestarum, and its continuations by later historians complete the foundational work of the traditional Crusade.^[412] Some of these works also provide insight into the later Crusades and Crusader states. Other works include:

• Eyewitness accounts of the Second Crusade by Odo of Deuil and Otto of Freising. The Arab view from Damascus is provided by ibn al-Qalanisi.
• Works on the Third Crusade such as Libellus de Expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum expeditione, the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, and the works of Crusaders Tageno and Roger of Howden, and the narratives of Richard of Devizes, Ralph de Diceto, Ralph of Coggeshall and Arnold of Lübeck. The Arabic works by al-Isfahani and al-Maqdisi as well as the biography of Saladin by Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad are also of interest.
• The Fourth Crusade is described in the Devastatio Constantinopolitana and works of Geoffrey of Villehardouin, in his chronicle De la Conquête de Constantinople, Robert de Clari and Gunther of Pairis. The view of Byzantium is provided by Niketas Choniates and the Arab perspective is given by Abū Shāma and Abu'l-Fida.
• The history of the Fifth and Sixth Crusades is well represented in the works of Jacques de Vitry, Oliver of Paderborn and Roger of Wendover, and the Arabic works of Badr al-Din al-Ayni.
• Key sources for the later Crusades include Gestes des Chiprois, Jean de Joinville's Life of Saint Louis, as well as works by Guillaume de Nangis, Matthew Paris, Fidentius of Padua and al-Makrizi.

After the fall of Acre, the crusades continued through the 16th century. Principal references on this subject are the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades^[413] and Norman Housley's The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar.^[414] Complete bibliographies are also given in these works.^{[citation needed]}

The secondary sources of the Crusades began in the 16th century, with one of the first uses of the term crusades by 17th century French historian Louis Maimbourg in his Histoire des Croisades pour la délivrance de la Terre Sainte.^[415][416] Other works of the 18th century include Voltaire's Histoire des Croisades,^[417] and Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, excerpted as The Crusades, A.D. 1095–1261.^[418] This edition also includes an essay on chivalry by Walter Scott, whose works helped popularize the Crusades. Early in the 19th century, the monumental Histoire des Croisades was published by the French historian Joseph François Michaud, a major new narrative based on original sources.^[419][420]

These histories have provided evolving views of the Crusades as discussed in detail in the Historiography writeup in Crusading movement. Modern works that serve as secondary source material are listed in the Bibliography section below and need no further discussion here.^[421]

Three such works are: Louis Bréhier's multiple works on the Crusades in the Catholic Encyclopedia;^[422] the works of Ernest Barker in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition), later expanded into a separate publication;^[423][424] and The Crusades: An Encyclopedia (2006), edited by historian Alan V. Murray.^[425]

• A History of the Crusades: list of contributions
• Bibliography of the Crusades: modern works
• Chronologies of the Crusades
• Criticism of crusading
• Historians and histories of the Crusades
• History of Christianity
• History of the Knights Hospitaller in the Levant
• History of the Knights Templar
• Military history of the Crusader states
• Women in the Crusades