Introduction to the First Crusades
The First Crusade was a military campaign initiated by Western Christendom between 1096 and 1099 to recover the Muslim-occupied Holy Land of Levant, culminating in the 1099 Crusades' capture of Jerusalem. In 1095, Pope Urban II initially called on Western volunteers to go to the Byzantine Empire to defend against the Seljuk invasion from Anatolia in response to the Byzantine Emperor Alexei I's request for help. Later, the purpose of the crusades gradually evolved to retake the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem and liberate Eastern Christianity from the Rulers of Islam. During the Crusades, the Westerners established four Crusader states in the Levant: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the Kingdom of Edessa. Because of the Crusaders' enthusiasm for Jerusalem, a holy city that had not been under Catholic control for 461 years, they refused to return the land they had seized to the Byzantine Empire. The First Crusade was a Christian response to the expansion of Muslim power, and in the nearly two hundred years that followed, the Second Crusade to the Ninth Crusade came. At the same time, the Crusades indirectly reopened international trade that had declined since the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Crusades
A brief history of the events of the First Crusade
The First Crusade (27 November 1095 – 15 July 1099) consisted of two teams. Originally, the crusade was scheduled to depart on the day of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary, on August 15, 1096, but in February of that year, a procession was already eager to embark on the journey, the first of which was led by the hermit Peter of the Monastery of Amiens in France, and walter the "poor man", and this crusade was composed of 20,000 poor peasants, called the "Peasant Crusade". This peasant army was formed in the promise of Pope Urban II and first set out on a crusade in April 1096. It traveled through Hungary and Byzantium to Asia Minor, but soon after the crusade, which was dominated by peasants, thousands of people died of illness on the way. This army was undisciplined and committed atrocities of forced conversion to Christianity and the killing of Jews. Although the army reached Constantinople, it was slaughtered by the Seljuks in Asia Minor. Another crusade organized by European nobles set out in August of the same year, and in August of the same year, Hugues, Duke of Vermande, brother of King Philip I of France, and other feudal lords led the main crusader force of 25,000-30,000 people. The great merchants of Genoa and Venice also formed a supply fleet for the Crusaders. In April 1097, the crusaders reached Constantinople, received supplies from the Byzantine Emperor Alexei I, and crossed the sea into Asia Minor. In June of that year, the Crusaders captured Nicea, and on July 1 of the same year, the Crusaders inflicted a heavy blow on the Seljuk Turks at Dorileum (Battle of Dorileum). The Crusaders then took advantage of the victory to march into Syria and capture Edessa. In June 1098, the Crusaders captured the city of Antioch and came to relieve the siege (the siege of Antiochus) with few victories and many defeats. In January–June 1099, the Crusaders approached Jerusalem, and after a 40-day siege, the city was liberated by the Crusaders on 18 July. Subsequently, the Crusaders defeated the Fatimid counterattack at the Battle of Ashkelon with inferior forces. The Crusaders celebrated their victory with fanatical prayers and trampling on bloodied Muslim corpses on horseback. The Crusaders then established four crusader states: the Kingdom of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1144 AD, the Muslims again conquered the kingdom of Edessab.
Capture of Jerusalem
The result of the First Crusade
The First Crusade was the only complete victory over the Muslims in the Crusader Wars of the East in 200 years, the reconquest of the Holy City of Jerusalem and the recapture of the Lord's Holy Sepulchre, which caused an unprecedented sensation in the Western Christian world at that time, and was also a great victory that Pope Urban II had never imagined until his death. Naturally, it has been recited throughout Christendom, and many military clergy and later church chroniclers have tried to record this battle, praising the power of Christ and reciting it like a miracle. At the same time, this war and the subsequent establishment of the Latin East affected the entire pattern of the Eastern Mediterranean, such as a stone stirring up thousands of waves, which was strongly concerned by all parties. Byzantine, Armenian, Turkic, Arab, historians of various religious backgrounds and different positions and origins all wrote statements detailing the matter for reflection. The First Crusade was undoubtedly one of the most well-documented and well-documented historical events of the Middle Ages. The First Crusade established the Kingdom of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the four "Crusader States" of tripoli in Palestine, and the Kingdom of Armenia of Chiricia, composed of Armenian refugees, became allies of the Crusaders. Those crusaders who returned to Western Europe who had reached Jerusalem were seen as heroes. For example, in recognition of Robert of Flanders, he was given the title of "Hierosolymitanus". After the death of Godfrey of Bouillon, his life became legendary. In Western Europe, many political situations were significantly affected by the departure of certain figures from their homelands to participate in the Crusades. For example, after Robert Kossos joined the Crusades, he was succeeded to the throne in England by his younger brother Henry I, which indirectly led to the Battle of Tansbury in 1106. At the same time, the establishment of the Crusader state greatly alleviated the pressure on the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuks, who also recovered part of Theatolian lands with the help of the Crusaders, and spent a relatively peaceful and prosperous period in the 12th century. The influence of the First Crusade on Muslim dynasties in the east was slow but important. In 1092, after the death of Malik Sha i, the Seljuk Empire was in turmoil and division, and byzantium's plea for help from the Catholic Church left the Seljuks facing the coordinated defenses of the Latin state. East-West cooperation struggled for decades, but the lands on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, from Egypt to Syria to Baghdad, were under the control of Muslim states, with various voices calling for the expulsion of the Crusaders, culminating in the later Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin connecting the surrounding areas and recovering Jerusalem.