The Crusades

[skip.knox]

I'll post announcements about new crusades articles on this thread.

The Third Crusade is now live

Third Crusade

This the best-known crusade besides the First. It's got Richard of England, the famous sultan Saladin, assassins and kidnapping and daring rescues. I have yet to read a good novelization of the events, but of course Runciman's recounting is pretty dramatic.

I'm just going to keep on the the crusading stuff for a while. There are the main crusades but I also have essays that trace each Crusader Kingdom individually, plus essays on things like the Albigensian Crusade, and even the fourteenth and fifteenth century crusades. At some point I'll add the Virtual Pilgrimage (whose title feels awfully dated now). So it's going to be some time before I get back to the more general European history stuff.

 

[ChaoticanWriter]

Also... Fredrick Barbarossa, and his massive land army.
... which pretty much fell apart after Fredrick downed in his armor, in a shallow river, in front of his army.
... but not before the last remnants of his army stuffed him in a barrel of vinegar, and marched to Jerusalem.

History is awesome!

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Also, great site!

 

[skip.knox]

Not sure how I neglected to post this, but, the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade, home
article is now live.

Comments and questions are welcome!

 

[skip.knox]

After the Fourth Crusade there's really only one thing to do ... have another!
Fifth Crusade

This one is the closest the Church ever got to actually leading a crusade. It did not end well.

 

[skip.knox]

After a long delay called Finishing the Novel, I'm back to publishing my history essays. This one is on the Sixth Crusade, which was one of the strangest of them all.

Sixth Crusade home

My intent is to publish a new essay every three weeks or so. Not all are on the Crusades, but the next several will be.

 

[skip.knox]

The Seventh Crusade! Seventh and last, except it wasn't really the last and sometimes historians count eight and anyway that doesn't include a bunch of other crusades and ... well, it gets complicated. Before we moderns got obsessed with numbers, the crusades were named after their leaders, so let's be old-fashioned and call this one King Louis' Crusade.

Seventh Crusade, home

 

[skip.knox]

Now that the crusades are over, I bet you thought the essays were done. Not at all! I've just put up an essay on the County of Edessa, a brief history of the first of the Crusader States--and the first to fall.

Knox, Edessa during the Crusades

For all my history essays, consult the Table of Contents.
History by Ellis L. Knox

 

[skip.knox]

I have just published another in my historical series. This one is about the Principality of Antioch.
Antioch during the Crusades
If you have questions, feel free to ask!

For all the history essays, here is the Table of Contents.
History by Ellis L. Knox

 

[Aldarion]

The Seventh Crusade! Seventh and last, except it wasn't really the last and sometimes historians count eight and anyway that doesn't include a bunch of other crusades and ... well, it gets complicated. Before we moderns got obsessed with numbers, the crusades were named after their leaders, so let's be old-fashioned and call this one King Louis' Crusade.

Seventh Crusade, home

Last numbered crusade. I think the last Crusade is one at Varna, and Matthias Corvinus also attempted to lead a Crusade but that failed...

 

[skip.knox]

Yep. For those interested, Norman Houseley has an outstanding book called The Later Crusades. It shows how important crusading was all through the 14th century, how important were the defeats at Nicopolis and Varna, but also how other factors played into a decline in crusading fervor. I think that last crusade (in the sense of having a papal indulgence tied to it) was in the 17thc. And, of course, Dwight Eisenhower rather famously called the invasion of Europe a "great crusade".

I'll be posting an essay on the later crusades, but not for some time yet.

 

[Fëanor]

Many thanks for this, going to start from the beginning right away!