The Crusades

The Crusades followed many years of siege and domination or territories. The events were a like a bottle slowly filling up with gas and just waiting to explode. Before the First Crusade, William the conqueror untied England, less than 30 years ago. French was in the process of dividing its’ land into different properties for their sons. Pope Urban II was taking control. He had recently expanded ‘The Truce of God’ where fighting was banned from Sunday to Wednesday. Italy was being invaded to no end, and the Normans had just begun settling. Europe was one big uncontrolled mess.
On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II gave a speech after a church service in France. He subtly asked the men from Western Europe (the Franks) travel east and helps their fellow Christian brothers (the Byzantines) against the vicious attacks from the Muslim Turks. The Muslims had ruled Jerusalem since 638 AD, so he also tried to encourage his men to liberate Jerusalem from the domination of the Muslims. He was surprised when his men took him seriously, because this was the start to the event now referred to as the Crusades.
No on can really tell when the Crusades ended. Since the term is defined as a series of Holy Wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics, there is still some recent evidence that they never ended. Most people believe it lasted until 1700 when the threat from Muslim men slowly vanished. But then others seem to think it ended when the last crusade tax was officially abolished in the Roman Catholic religion. This is still a topic that historians are interested in researching to figure out the truth.


http://www.medievalcrusades.com
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.html#General