Smokeless powder, also referred to as gunpowder, is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to around 55% solid products (mostly potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, and potassium sulfide) for black powder. In addition, smokeless powder does not leave the thick, heavy fouling of hygroscopic material associated with black powder that causes rusting of the barrel.
Despite its name, smokeless powder is not completely free of smoke; while there may be little noticeable smoke from small-arms ammunition, smoke from artillery fire can be substantial.
Invented in 1884 by Paul Vieille, the most common formulations are based on nitrocellulose, but the term was also used to describe various picrate mixtures with nitrate, chlorate, or dichromate oxidizers during the late 19th century, before the advantages of nitrocellulose became evident.
Smokeless powder made autoloading firearms with many moving parts
feasible (which would otherwise jam or seize under heavy black powder
fouling). Smokeless powder allowed the development of modern semi- and
fully automatic firearms and lighter breeches and barrels for artillery.
History
Before
the widespread introduction of smokeless powder the use of gunpowder or
black powder caused many problems on the battlefield. Military
commanders since the Napoleonic Wars
reported difficulty with giving orders on a battlefield obscured by the
smoke of firing. Visual signals could not be seen through the thick
smoke from the gunpowder
used by the guns. Unless there was a strong wind, after a few shots,
soldiers using gunpowder ammunition would have their view obscured by a
huge cloud of smoke. Snipers
or other concealed shooters were given away by a cloud of smoke over
the firing position. Gunpowder produces lower pressures and is about one
third as powerful as smokeless powder.
Gunpowder is also hygroscopic (i.e., it attracts moisture from the
air), making cleaning mandatory after every use. Likewise, gunpowder's
tendency to produce severe fouling causes actions to jam and often makes reloading difficult.
Nitroglycerine and guncotton
Nitroglycerine was synthesized by the Italian chemistAscanio Sobrero in 1847.
It was subsequently developed and manufactured by Alfred Nobel as an
industrial explosive, but even then it was unsuitable as a propellant:
despite its energetic and smokeless qualities, it detonates instead of deflagrating
smoothly, making it more liable to shatter a gun, rather than propel a
projectile out of it. Nitroglycerine is also highly shock-sensitive,
making it unfit to be carried in battlefield conditions.
A major step forward was the invention of guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based material, by German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1846. He promoted its use as a blasting explosive and sold manufacturing rights to the Austrian Empire.
Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the same time was
once again somewhat more unstable. John Taylor obtained an English
patent for guncotton; and John Hall & Sons began manufacture in Faversham.
English interest languished after an explosion destroyed the Faversham factory in 1847. Austrian Baron Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg
built two guncotton plants producing artillery propellent, but it too
was dangerous under field conditions, and guns that could fire thousands
of rounds using black powder would reach the end of their service life
after only a few hundred shots with the more powerful guncotton. Small
arms could not withstand the pressures generated by guncotton.
After one of the Austrian factories blew up in 1862, Thomas Prentice & Company began manufacturing guncotton in Stowmarket in 1863; and British War Office chemist Sir Frederick Abel began thorough research at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills
leading to a manufacturing process that eliminated the impurities in
nitrocellulose making it safer to produce and a stable product safer to
handle. Abel patented this process in 1865 when the second Austrian
guncotton factory exploded. After the Stowmarket factory exploded in
1871, Waltham Abbey began production of guncotton for torpedo and mine
warheads.
Improvements
An extruded stick powder
In 1863, Prussian artillery captain Johann F. E. Schultze patented a small-arms propellant of nitrated hardwood impregnated with saltpeter or barium nitrate.
Prentice received an 1866 patent for a sporting powder of nitrated
paper manufactured at Stowmarket, but ballistic uniformity suffered as
the paper absorbed atmospheric moisture. In 1871, Frederick Volkmann
received an Austrian patent for a colloided version of Schultze powder
called Collodin, which he manufactured near Vienna for use in
sporting firearms. Austrian patents were not published at the time, and
the Austrian Empire considered the operation a violation of the
government monopoly on explosives manufacture and closed the Volkmann
factory in 1875.
In 1882, the Explosives Company at Stowmarket patented an
improved formulation of nitrated cotton gelatinised by ether-alcohol
with nitrates of potassium and barium. These propellants were suitable for shotguns but not rifles, because rifling results in resistance to a smooth expansion of the gas, which is reduced in smoothbore shotguns.
In 1884, Paul Vieille invented a smokeless powder called Poudre B (short for poudre blanche, white powder, as distinguished from black powder) made from 68.2% insoluble nitrocellulose, 29.8% soluble nitrocellulose gelatinized with ether and 2% paraffin. This was adopted for the Lebel rifle chambered in 8×50mmR Lebel. It was passed through rollers to form paper thin sheets, which were cut into flakes of the desired size. The resulting propellant, known as pyrocellulose, contains somewhat less nitrogen than guncotton
and is less volatile. A particularly good feature of the propellant is
that it will not detonate unless it is compressed, making it very safe
to handle under normal conditions. Vieille's powder revolutionized the
effectiveness of small guns because it gave off almost no smoke and was
three times more powerful than black powder. Higher muzzle velocity meant a flatter trajectory
and less wind drift and bullet drop, making 1,000 m (1,094 yd) shots
practicable. Since less powder was needed to propel a bullet, the cartridge
could be made smaller and lighter. This allowed troops to carry more
ammunition for the same weight. Also, it would burn even when wet.
Black powder ammunition had to be kept dry and was almost always stored
and transported in watertight cartridges. Other European countries
swiftly followed and started using their own versions of Poudre B, the
first being Germany and Austria, which introduced new weapons in 1888.
Subsequently, Poudre B was modified several times with various compounds
being added and removed. Krupp began adding diphenylamine as a stabilizer in 1888.
Meanwhile, in 1887, Alfred Nobel obtained an English patent for a smokeless gunpowder he called Ballistite. In this propellant the fibrous structure of cotton (nitro-cellulose) was destroyed by a nitroglycerine solution instead of a solvent. In England in 1889, a similar powder was patented by Hiram Maxim, and in the United States in 1890 by Hudson Maxim.
Ballistite was patented in the United States in 1891. The Germans
adopted ballistite for naval use in 1898, calling it WPC/98. The
Italians adopted it as filite, in cord instead of flake form, but realising its drawbacks changed to a formulation with nitroglycerine they called solenite. In 1891 the Russians tasked the chemist Mendeleev with finding a suitable propellant. He created nitrocellulose gelatinised by ether-alcohol, which produced more nitrogen and more uniform colloidal structure than the French use of nitro-cottons in Poudre B. He called it pyrocollodion.
Close-up of Cordite filaments in a .303 British rifle cartridge (manufactured in 1964)
Britain conducted trials on all the various types of propellant
brought to their attention, but were dissatisfied with them all and
sought something superior to all existing types. In 1889, Sir Frederick Abel, James Dewar
and Dr W Kellner patented (Nos 5614 and 11,664 in the names of Abel and
Dewar) a new formulation that was manufactured at the Royal Gunpowder
Factory at Waltham Abbey. It entered British service in 1891 as Cordite Mark 1. Its main composition was 58% nitroglycerine, 37% guncotton
and 3% mineral jelly. A modified version, Cordite MD, entered service
in 1901, with the guncotton percentage increased to 65% and
nitroglycerine reduced to 30%. This change reduced the combustion
temperature and hence erosion and barrel wear. Cordite's advantages over
gunpowder were reduced maximum pressure in the chamber (hence lighter
breeches, etc.) but longer high pressure. Cordite could be made in any
desired shape or size. The creation of cordite led to a lengthy court battle between Nobel, Maxim, and another inventor over alleged British patent infringement.
The Anglo-American Explosives Company began manufacturing its shotgun powder in Oakland, New Jersey in 1890. DuPont began producing guncotton at Carneys Point Township, New Jersey in 1891. Charles E. Munroe of the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island patented a formulation of guncotton colloided with nitrobenzene, called Indurite, in 1891. Several United States firms began producing smokeless powder when Winchester Repeating Arms Company started loading sporting cartridges with Explosives Company powder in 1893. California Powder Works began producing a mixture of nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose with ammonium picrate as Peyton Powder, Leonard Smokeless Powder Company began producing nitroglycerine–nitrocellulose Ruby powders, Laflin & Rand negotiated a license to produce Ballistite, and DuPont started producing smokeless shotgun powder. The United States Army evaluated 25 varieties of smokeless powder and selected Ruby and Peyton Powders as the most suitable for use in the Krag–Jørgensen service rifle. Ruby was preferred, because tin-plating was required to protect brass cartridge cases from picric acid in the Peyton Powder. Rather than paying the required royalties for Ballistite,
Laflin & Rand financed Leonard's reorganization as the American
Smokeless Powder Company. United States Army Lieutenant Whistler
assisted American Smokeless Powder Company factory superintendent
Aspinwall in formulating an improved powder named W.A. for their
efforts. W.A. smokeless powder was the standard for United States
military service rifles from 1897 until 1908.
In 1897, United States Navy Lieutenant John Bernadou patented a nitrocellulose powder colloided with ether-alcohol. The Navy licensed or sold patents for this formulation to DuPont and the California Powder Works while retaining manufacturing rights for the Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, Maryland constructed in 1900. The United States Army adopted the Navy single-base formulation in 1908 and began manufacture at Picatinny Arsenal.
By that time Laflin & Rand had taken over the American Powder
Company to protect their investment, and Laflin & Rand had been
purchased by DuPont in 1902.
Upon securing a 99-year lease of the Explosives Company in 1903, DuPont
enjoyed use of all significant smokeless powder patents in the United
States, and was able to optimize production of smokeless powder.
When government anti-trust action forced divestiture in 1912, DuPont
retained the nitrocellulose smokeless powder formulations used by the
United States military and released the double-base formulations used in
sporting ammunition to the reorganized Hercules Powder Company. These newer and more powerful propellants were more stable and thus safer to handle than Poudre B.
Characteristics
Hodgdon H110 smokeless pistol powder
The properties of the propellant are greatly influenced by the size
and shape of its pieces. The specific surface area of the propellant
influences the speed of burning, and the size and shape of the particles
determine the specific surface area. By manipulation of the shape it
is possible to influence the burning rate and hence the rate at which
pressure builds during combustion. Smokeless powder burns only on the
surfaces of the pieces. Larger pieces burn more slowly, and the burn
rate is further controlled by flame-deterrent coatings that retard
burning slightly. The intent is to regulate the burn rate so that a more
or less constant pressure is exerted on the propelled projectile as
long as it is in the barrel so as to obtain the highest velocity. The
perforations stabilize the burn rate because as the outside burns inward
(thus shrinking the burning surface area) the inside is burning outward
(thus increasing the burning surface area, but faster, so as to fill up
the increasing volume of barrel presented by the departing projectile). Fast-burning pistol
powders are made by extruding shapes with more area such as flakes or
by flattening the spherical granules. Drying is usually performed under
a vacuum. The solvents are condensed and recycled. The granules are
also coated with graphite to prevent static electricity sparks from causing undesired ignitions.
Smokeless powder does not leave the thick, heavy fouling of hygroscopic material associated with black powder that causes rusting of the barrel (though some primer compounds can leave hygroscopic salts that have a similar effect; non-corrosive primer compounds were introduced in the 1920s).
Faster-burning propellants generate higher temperatures and higher pressures, however they also increase wear on gun barrels.
Nitrocellulose deteriorates with time, yielding acidic
byproducts. Those byproducts catalyze the further deterioration,
increasing its rate. The released heat, in case of bulk storage of the
powder, or too large blocks of solid propellant, can cause self-ignition
of the material. Single-base nitrocellulose propellants are hygroscopic
and most susceptible to degradation; double-base and triple-base
propellants tend to deteriorate more slowly. To neutralize the decomposition products, which could otherwise cause corrosion of metals of the cartridges and gun barrels, calcium carbonate is added to some formulations.
To prevent buildup of the deterioration products, stabilizers
are added. Diphenylamine is one of the most common stabilizers used.
Nitrated analogs of diphenylamine formed in the process of stabilizing
decomposing powder are sometimes used as stabilizers themselves.
The stabilizers are added in the amount of 0.5–2% of the total amount
of the formulation; higher amounts tend to degrade its ballistic
properties. The amount of the stabilizer is depleted with time.
Propellants in storage should be periodically tested for the amount of
stabilizer remaining, as its depletion may lead to auto-ignition of the propellant.
Composition
Propellants using nitrocellulose (detonation velocity 7,300 m/s (23,950 ft/s), RE factor 1.10) (typically an ether-alcohol colloid of nitrocellulose) as the sole explosive propellant ingredient are described as single-base powder.
Propellants mixtures containing nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin (detonation velocity 7,700 m/s (25,260 ft/s), RE factor 1.54) as explosive propellant ingredients are known as double-base powder. Alternatively diethylene glycol dinitrate
(detonation velocity 6,610 m/s (21,690 ft/s), RE factor 1.17) can be
used as a nitroglycerin replacement when reduced flame temperatures
without sacrificing chamber pressure are of importance. Reduction of flame temperature significantly reduces barrel erosion and hence wear.
During the 1930s, triple-base propellant containing nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin or diethylene glycol dinitrate, and a substantial quantity of nitroguanidine
(detonation velocity 8,200 m/s (26,900 ft/s), RE factor 0.95) as
explosive propellant ingredients was developed. These "cold propellant"
mixtures have reduced flash and flame temperature without sacrificing
chamber pressure compared to single- and double-base propellants, albeit
at the cost of more smoke. In practice, triple base propellants are
reserved mainly for large caliber ammunition such as used in (naval) artillery and tank guns,
which suffer from bore erosion the most. During World War II, it had
some use by British artillery. After that war it became the standard
propellant in all British large caliber ammunition designs except
small-arms. Most western nations, except the United States, followed a
similar path.
In the late 20th century new propellant formulations started to
appear. These are based on nitroguanidine and high explosives of the RDX type (detonation velocity 8,750 m/s (28,710 ft/s), RE factor 1.60).
Detonation velocities are of limited value in assessing the
reaction rates of nitrocellulose propellants formulated to avoid
detonation. Although the slower reaction is often described as burning
because of similar gaseous end products at elevated temperatures, the
decomposition differs from combustion in an oxygen
atmosphere. Conversion of nitrocellulose propellants to high-pressure
gas proceeds from the exposed surface to the interior of each solid
particle in accordance with Piobert's law. Studies of solid single- and double-base propellant reactions suggest reaction rate is controlled by heat transfer through the temperature gradient
across a series of zones or phases as the reaction proceeds from the
surface into the solid. The deepest portion of the solid experiencing
heat transfer melts and begins phase transition from solid to gas in a foam zone. The gaseous propellant decomposes into simpler molecules in a surrounding fizz zone. Energy is released in a luminous outer flame zone where the simpler gas molecules react to form conventional combustion products like steam and carbon monoxide. The foam zone acts as an insulator slowing the rate of heat transfer from the flame zone
into the unreacted solid. Reaction rates vary with pressure; because
the foam allows less effective heat transfer at low pressure, with
greater heat transfer as higher pressures compress the gas volume of
that foam. Propellants designed for a minimum heat transfer pressure may
fail to sustain the flame zone at lower pressures.
The energetic components used in smokeless propellants include nitrocellulose (the most common), nitroglycerin, nitroguanidine,
DINA (bis-nitroxyethylnitramine; diethanolamine dinitrate, DEADN; DHE),
Fivonite (2,2,5,5-tetramethylol-cyclopentanone tetranitrate, CyP), DGN (diethylene glycol dinitrate), and acetyl cellulose.
Deterrents (or moderants) are used to slow the burning rate. Deterrents include centralites (symmetrical diphenyl urea—primarily diethyl or dimethyl), dibutyl phthalate, dinitrotoluene (toxic and carcinogenic), akardite (asymmetrical diphenyl urea), ortho-Tolyl urethane, and polyester adipate. Camphor was formerly used but is now obsolete.
Decoppering additives hinder the buildup of copper residues from the gun barrel rifling. These include tin metal and compounds (e.g., tin dioxide), and bismuth metal and compounds (e.g., bismuth trioxide, bismuth subcarbonate, bismuth nitrate, bismuth antimonide); the bismuth compounds are favored as copper dissolves in molten bismuth, forming brittle and easily removable alloy. Lead foil and lead compounds have been phased out due to toxicity.
Wear reduction materials including wax, talc and titanium dioxide are added to lower the wear of the gun barrel liners. Large guns use polyurethane jackets over the powder bags.
Other additives include ethyl acetate (a solvent for manufacture of spherical powder), rosin (a surfactant to hold the grain shape of spherical powder) and graphite (a lubricant to cover the grains and prevent them from sticking together, and to dissipate static electricity).
Flash reduction
Flash reducers dim muzzle flash,
the light emitted in the vicinity of the muzzle by the hot propellant
gases and the chemical reactions that follow as the gases mix with the
surrounding air. Before projectiles exit, a slight pre-flash may occur
from gases leaking past the projectiles. Following muzzle exit, the heat
of gases is usually sufficient to emit visible radiation: the primary
flash. The gases expand but as they pass through the Mach disc, they are
re-compressed to produce an intermediate flash. Hot, combustible gases
(e.g. hydrogen and carbon-monoxide) may follow when they mix with
oxygen in the surrounding air to produce the secondary flash, the
brightest. The secondary flash does not usually occur with small arms.
Nitrocellulose contains insufficient oxygen to completely oxidize
its carbon and hydrogen. The oxygen deficit is increased by addition of
graphite and organic stabilizers. Products of combustion within the gun
barrel include flammable gasses like hydrogen and carbon monoxide. At
high temperature, these flammable gasses will ignite when turbulently
mixed with atmospheric oxygen beyond the muzzle of the gun. During
night engagements, the flash produced by ignition can reveal the
location of the gun to enemy forces and cause temporary night-blindness among the gun crew by photo-bleaching visual purple.
Flash suppressors
are commonly used on small arms to reduce the flash signature, but this
approach is not practical for artillery. Artillery muzzle flash up to
150 feet (46 m) from the muzzle has been observed, and can be reflected
off clouds and be visible for distances up to 30 miles (48 km).
For artillery, the most effective method is a propellant that produces a
large proportion of inert nitrogen at relatively low temperatures that
dilutes the combustible gases. Triple based propellants are used for
this because of the nitrogen in the nitroguanidine.
Flash reducers include potassium chloride, potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, and potassium bitartrate (potassium hydrogen tartrate: a byproduct of wine production formerly used by French artillery).
Before the use of triple based propellants, the usual method of flash
reduction was to add inorganic salts like potassium chloride so their specific heat capacity
might reduce the temperature of combustion gasses and their finely
divided particulate smoke might block visible wavelengths of radiant energy of combustion.
All flash reducers have a disadvantage: the production of smoke.
Smokeless powder may be corned into small spherical balls or extruded
into cylinders or strips with many cross-sectional shapes (strips with
various rectangular proportions, single or multi-hole cylinders, slotted
cylinders) using solvents such as ether. These extrusions can be cut
into short ("flakes") or long pieces ("cords" many inches long). Cannon powder has the largest pieces.
The United States Navy manufactured single-base tubular powder for naval artillery at Indian Head, Maryland, beginning in 1900. Similar procedures were used for United States Army production at Picatinny Arsenal beginning in 1907 and for manufacture of smaller grained Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powders after 1914. Short-fiber cotton linter was boiled in a solution of sodium hydroxide to remove vegetable waxes, and then dried before conversion to nitrocellulose by mixing with concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids.
Nitrocellulose still resembles fibrous cotton at this point in the
manufacturing process, and was typically identified as pyrocellulose
because it would spontaneously ignite in air until unreacted acid was
removed. The term guncotton was also used; although some references
identify guncotton as a more extensively nitrated and refined product
used in torpedo and minewarheads prior to use of TNT.
Unreacted acid was removed from pyrocellulose pulp by a multistage draining and water washing process similar to that used in paper mills during production of chemical woodpulp.
Pressurized alcohol removed remaining water from drained pyrocellulose
prior to mixing with ether and diphenylamine. The mixture was then fed
through a press extruding a long tubular cord form to be cut into grains
of the desired length.
Alcohol and ether were then evaporated from "green" powder grains
to a remaining solvent concentration between 3 percent for rifle
powders and 7 percent for large artillery powder grains. Burning rate is
inversely proportional to solvent concentration. Grains were coated
with electrically conductive graphite to minimize generation of static
electricity during subsequent blending. "Lots" containing more than ten
tonnes of powder grains were mixed through a tower arrangement of
blending hoppers to minimize ballistic differences. Each blended lot was
then subjected to testing to determine the correct loading charge for
the desired performance.
Military quantities of old smokeless powder were sometimes reworked into new lots of propellants. Through the 1920s Fred Olsen
worked at Picatinny Arsenal experimenting with ways to salvage tons of
single-base cannon powder manufactured for World War I. Olsen was
employed by Western Cartridge Company in 1929 and developed a process for manufacturing spherical smokeless powder by 1933.
Reworked powder or washed pyrocellulose can be dissolved in ethyl
acetate containing small quantities of desired stabilizers and other
additives. The resultant syrup, combined with water and surfactants, can be heated and agitated in a pressurized container until the syrup forms an emulsion
of small spherical globules of the desired size. Ethyl acetate
distills off as pressure is slowly reduced to leave small spheres of
nitrocellulose and additives. The spheres can be subsequently modified
by adding nitroglycerine to increase energy, flattening between rollers
to a uniform minimum dimension, coating with phthalate deterrents to retard ignition, and/or glazing with graphite to improve flow characteristics during blending.
The gunpowder empires, or Islamic gunpowder empires, is a collective term coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago, referring to three early modern Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire and the Mughal Empire,
in the period they flourished from mid-16th to the early 18th century.
These three empires were among the most stable empires of the early modern period,
leading to commercial expansion, and patronage of culture, while their
political and legal institutions were consolidated with an increasing
degree of centralization. They stretched from Central Europe and North Africa in the west to Bengal and Arakan in the east. Hodgson's colleague William H. McNeill expanded on the history of gunpowder
use across multiple civilizations including East Asian, South Asian and
European powers in his "The Age of Gunpowder Empires". Vast amounts of
territory were conquered by the gunpowder empires with the use and
development of the newly invented firearms, especially cannon and small arms, in the course of imperial expansion. Like in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder weapons prompted changes such as the rise of centralized monarchical states.
According to G. S. Hodgson, in the gunpowder empires these changes went well beyond military organisation.
The Mughals, based in the Indian subcontinent, inherited in part the Timurid Renaissance, and are recognised for their lavish architecture and for having heralded in Bengal an era of what some describe as proto-industrialization. The Safavids created an efficient and modern state administration for Iran and sponsored major developments in the fine arts. The sultans of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Kaysar-i Rûm, controlled the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and hence were the recognised Caliphs
of Islam; their powers, wealth, architecture, and various contributions
significantly influenced the course of Islamic world history. Hodgson's
colleague William H. McNeill expanded on the history of gunpowder use
across multiple civilizations including East Asian, European, and South
Asian powers in his 1993 work The Age of Gunpowder Empires.
The Hodgson–McNeill concept
The phrase was coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago.
Hodgson used the phrase in the title of Book 5 ("The Second Flowering:
The Empires of Gunpowder Times") of his highly influential three-volume
work, The Venture of Islam (1974). Hodgson saw gunpowder weapons
as the key to the "military patronage states of the Later Middle Period"
which replaced the unstable, geographically limited confederations of Turkic clans that prevailed in post-Mongol times. Hodgson defined a "military patronage state" as one having three characteristics:
first, a legitimization of
independent dynastic law; second, the conception of the whole state as a
single military force; third, the attempt to explain all economic and
high cultural resources as appanages of the chief military families.
Such states grew "out of Mongol notions of greatness", but "[s]uch
notions could fully mature and create stable bureaucratic empires only
after gunpowder weapons and their specialized technology attained a
primary place in military life."
McNeill argued that whenever such states "were able to monopolize
the new artillery, central authorities were able to unite larger
territories into new, or newly consolidated, empires."
Monopolization was key. Although Europe pioneered the development of
new artillery in the fifteenth century, no state monopolized it.
Gun-casting know-how had been concentrated in the Low Countries
near the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine rivers. France and the
Habsburgs divided those territories among themselves, resulting in an
arms standoff. By contrast, such monopolies allowed states to create militarized empires in Western Asia, Russia, and India, and "in a considerably modified fashion" in China, Korea, and Japan.
Recent views on the concept
More
recently, the Hodgson–McNeill "gunpowder empire" hypothesis has been
called into disfavour as a neither "adequate [n]or accurate"
explanation, although the term remains in use.
Reasons other than (or in addition to) military technology have been
offered for the nearly simultaneous rise of three centralized military
empires in contiguous areas dominated by decentralized Turkic tribes.
One explanation, called "Confessionalization" by historians of fifteenth
century Europe, invokes examination of how the relation of church and
state "mediated through confessional statements and church ordinances"
lead to the origins of absolutist polities. Douglas Streusand uses the
Safavids as an example:
The Safavids from the beginning imposed a new religious
identity on their general population; they did not seek to develop a
national or linguistic identity, but their policy had that effect.
One problem of the Hodgson–McNeill theory is that the acquisition of
firearms does not seem to have preceded the initial acquisition of
territory constituting the imperial critical mass of any of the three
early modern Islamic empires, except in the case of the Mughal empire.
Moreover, it seems that the commitment to military autocratic rule
pre-dated the acquisition of gunpowder weapons in all three cases. Nor
does it seem to be the case that the acquisition of gunpowder weapons
and their integration into the military was influenced by which variety
of Islam the particular empire promoted.
Whether or not gunpowder was inherently linked to the existence of any
of these three empires, it cannot be questioned that each of the three
acquired artillery and firearms early in their history and made such
weapons an integral part of their military tactics.
Michael Axworthy has pointed out that the label is misleading in
the case of the Safavids, as unlike contemporary European armies, the
Safavid military mostly used swords, lances, and bows well into the
mid-18th century. It was not until the rule of Nader Shah's Afsharid
dynasty that the majority of Iran's troops would be equipped with
firearms for the first time.
The first of the three empires to acquire gunpowder weapons was the Ottoman Empire. By the 14th century, the Ottomans had adopted gunpowder artillery.
The adoption of the gunpowder weapons by the Ottomans was so rapid that
they "preceded both their European and Middle Eastern adversaries in
establishing centralized and permanent troops specialized in the
manufacturing and handling of firearms."
But it was their use of artillery that shocked their adversaries and
impelled the other two Islamic empires to accelerate their weapons
programs. The Ottomans had artillery at least by the reign of Bayezid I
and used them in the sieges of Constantinople in 1399 and 1402. They
finally proved their worth as siege engines in the successful siege of Salonica in 1430. The Ottomans employed Middle-Eastern as well as European foundries to cast their cannons, and by the siege of Constantinople in 1453, they had large enough cannons to batter the walls of the city, to the surprise of the defenders.
The Ottoman military's regularized use of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their European counterparts. The Janissaries had been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. During the rule of Sultan Mehmed II they were drilled with firearms and became "perhaps the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world." The Janissaries are thus considered the first modern standing armies. The combination of artillery and Janissary firepower proved decisive at Varna in 1444 against a force of Crusaders, Başkent in 1473 against the Aq Qoyunlu, and Mohács in 1526 against Hungary. But the battle which convinced the Safavids and the Mughals of the efficacy of gunpowder was Chaldiran.
The matchlockarquebus began to be used by the Janissary corps by the 1440s. The musket later appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. Damascus steel was later used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the 16th century. At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Janissaries equipped with 2000 tüfenks
(usually translated as musket) "formed nine consecutive rows and they
fired their weapons row by row," in a "kneeling or standing position
without the need for additional support or rest." The Chinese later adopted the Ottoman kneeling position for firing. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets. The Chinese Wu Pei Chih (1621) later described Turkish muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any European or Chinese firearms at the time.
The Dardanelles Gun
was designed and cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali. The Dardanelles
Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a
Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.
Persian Musketeer in time of Abbas I by Habib-Allah Mashadi after Falsafi (Berlin Museum of Islamic Art).
At Chaldiran, the Ottomans met the Safavids in battle for the first time. Sultan Selim I moved east with his field artillery in 1514 to confront what he perceived as a Shia threat instigated by Shah Ismail
in favor of Selim's rivals. Ismail staked his reputation as a
divinely-favored ruler on an open cavalry charge against a fixed Ottoman
position. The Ottomans deployed their cannons between the carts that
carried them, which also provided cover for the armed Janissaries. The
result of the charge was devastating losses to the Safavid cavalry. The
defeat was so thorough that the Ottoman forces were able to move on and
briefly occupy the Safavid capital, Tabriz. Only the limited campaign radius of the Ottoman army prevented it from holding the city and ending the Safavid rule.
Safavid Empire
Although the Chaldiran
defeat brought an end to Ismail's territorial expansion program, the
shah nonetheless took immediate steps to protect against the real threat
from the Ottoman sultanate by arming his troops with gunpowder weapons.
Within two years of Chaldiran, Ismail had a corps of musketeers (tofangchi) numbering 8,000, and by 1521, possibly 20,000. After Abbas the Great reformed the army (around 1598), the Safavid forces had an artillery corps of 500 cannons as well as 12,000 musketeers.
The Safavids first put their gunpowder arms to good use against
the Uzbeks, who had invaded eastern Persia during the civil war that
followed the death of Ismail I. The young shah Tahmasp I headed an army
to relieve Herat and encountered the Uzbeks on 24 September 1528 at Jam,
where the Safavids decisively beat the Uzbeks. The shah's army deployed
cannons (swivel guns on wagons) in the center protected by wagons with
cavalry on both flanks. Mughal emperor Babur described the formation at Jam as "in the Anatolian fashion."
The several thousand gun-bearing infantry also massed in the center as
did the Janissaries of the Ottoman army. Although the Uzbek cavalry
engaged and turned the Safavid army on both flanks, the Safavid center
held (because it was not directly engaged by the Uzbeks). Rallying under
Tahmasp's personal leadership, the infantry of the center engaged and
scattered the Uzbek center and secured the field.
By the time he was invited by the Lodi governor of Lahore Daulat Khan to support his rebellion against Lodi Sultan Ibrahim Khan,
Babur was familiar with gunpowder firearms and field artillery and a
method for deploying them. Babur had employed Ottoman expert Ustad Ali Quli,
who showed Babur the standard Ottoman formation—artillery and
firearm-equipped infantry protected by wagons in the center, and mounted
archers on both wings. Babur used this formation at the First Battle of Panipat
in 1526, where the Afghan and Rajput forces loyal to the Delhi
sultanate, though superior in numbers but without the gunpowder weapons,
were defeated. The decisive victory of the Timurid forces is one reason
opponents rarely met Mughal princes in pitched battle over the course
of the empire's history. The reigns of Akbar The Great, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb have been described as a major height of Indian history. By the time of Aurangzeb, the Mughal army was predominantly composed of Indian Muslims, with tribal elements like the Sadaat-e-Bara forming the vanguard of the Mughal cavalry. The Mughal Empire became a powerful geopolitical entity with at times, 24.2% of the world population. The Mughals inherited elements of Persian culture and art, as did the Ottomans and Safavids.
Indian Muslims maintained the dominance of artillery in India, and even
after the fall of the Mughal empire, various non-Muslim Indian kingdoms
continued to recruit Hindustani Muslims as artillery officers in their
armies.
Mughal musketeer
Gunpowder empires of East Asia
The
three Islamic gunpowder empires are known for their quickly gained
success in dominating the battle fields using their newly acquired
firearms and techniques. East Asian powers and their military success
are commonly overlooked in this subject due to the success of not only
the Islamic empires, but also European empires. The success and
innovation of gunpowder combat in East Asia, however, are worth
mentioning in the same context as that of the Islamic gunpowder empires
for their military advancements.
China
The first
firearms originated in 10th-century China, and there were various ways
that more modern forms of small firearms came to China. During the
golden age of East Asian Piracy between the 1540s and 1560s, it was most
likely that through their battles and other encounters with these
pirates, the Ming dynasty forces inevitably got hold of the weapons and copied them.
It was also likely that a powerful mariner Wang Zhi, who controlled
thousands of armed men eventually surrendered to the Ming in 1558 and
they replicated his weapons. This particular account on arquebus
technology was the first to spark the interest of Ming officials for the
Chinese to broaden their use of these weapons.
Turkish arquebuses may have reached China before Portuguese ones. In Zhao Shizhen's book of 1598, the Shenqipu,
there were illustrations of Ottoman Turkish musketmen with detailed
illustrations of their muskets, alongside European musketeers with
detailed illustrations of their muskets. There was also illustration and description of how the Chinese had adopted the Ottoman kneeling position in firing. Zhao Shizhen described the Turkish muskets as being superior to the European muskets. The Wu Pei Chih (1621) later described Turkish muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any European or Chinese firearms at the time.
The Chinese intensively practiced tactical strategies based on
firearm use which resulted in military success. Qi Jiguang, a revered
Ming military leader, drilled his soldiers to extremes so that their
performance in battle would be successful. In addition, Qi Jiguang also
used innovative battle techniques like the volley, counter march,
dividing into teams, and even encouraged having a flexible formation to
adapt to the battle field.
During the Sino-Dutch War beginning in 1661, Southern Ming commander Zheng Chenggong
(Koxinga) used similar tactics to Qi Jiguang effectively in battle. The
Chinese were able to defeat Dutch forces through their strict adherence
to discipline and their ability to stay in formation. Ultimately, it
was their technique and training that defeated the Dutch weapons.
A soldier from the Qianlong era, holding an arquebus.
In 1631, "Heavy Troops" that could build and operate European-style cannon, The imported cannons in the Qing dynasty had a high reputation such as 'Great General in Red'.
The Manchu elite did not concern themselves directly with guns and
their production, preferring instead to delegate the task to Han-Chinese
craftsmen, who produced for the Qing a similar composite metal cannon
known as the "Shenwei grand general." Cannons and muskets are also widely used in wars known as 'Ten Great Campaigns'.
However, after the Qing gained hegemony over East Asia in the mid-18th
century, the practice of casting composite metal cannons fell into
disuse until the dynasty faced external threats once again in the Opium
War of 1840, at which point smoothbore cannons were already starting to
become obsolete as a result of rifled barrels.
Japan
The Japanese adopted the use of the Portuguese arquebus
in the middle of the 16th century. Multiple accounts have said that
Portuguese men working for Chinese pirates ended up in Japan by chance
and impressed the local ruler with the weapons. Soon after, the Japanese
started mass-producing the Portuguese style weapon for themselves. In
other accounts, this firearm technology may have trickled in to Japan as
early as 1540 from the constant in and out flow of Japanese mercenaries
who could have picked up firearms in their travels. Soon, Japanese
soldiers carrying firearms would greatly outnumber those with other
weapons.
Tonio Andrade
cited that the Military Revolution Model that gave the Europeans so
much military success included the use of superior drilling techniques.
The drilling technique he was speaking of was the musketeer volley
technique.
The volley technique was said to have been invented by Japanese Warlord
Oda Nobunaga. He used the same technique that Japanese archers used,
but the effect that the technique had to allow soldiers to reload at the
same time others could fire was devastating to their enemies.
Korea
Koreans had been using Chinese and self made firearms
as early as the late 14th century. They were also quite adept and
innovative with their strategies on the battlefield. In fact, there were
accounts of Koreans using a type of volley technique in 1447. But the Imjin War between the Japanese against the Koreans and the Ming starting in 1592 and ending in 1598 would change Joseon Korean's
perspective on warfare. While it was a devastating defeat to the
Koreans, this war forced the Koreans to realize that they needed to
adopt the use of the musket as well as Japanese and Chinese methods. The
Koreans quickly issued the musket as the base of their military tactic,
and their musketeers became more than 50 percent of the military by
1594. They trained using manuals based on Qi Jiguang's techniques such
as the volley, while incorporating their own methods too. These events
marked the beginning of a Korean military revolution in which the
Koreans could combat their enemies using modern equipment and methods of
warfare.
There were many instances where the Korean military used their
new techniques effectively. In 1619, the Koreans aided the Ming against
the Manchus, a great military force. While the Koreans and Ming lost, a
Korean unit did exhibit their techniques successful in battle. Then, in
1627 and 1636, the Koreans faced the Manchus alone, again showing their
competency in battle by using their musket tactics. Again, they lost in
battle to the Manchus in both battles.
In 1654 and 1658, the Koreans aided the Qing in battle against the
Russians for control over land in Manchuria. In these instances, the
Koreans showed their superior tactics and were the reason for the
Russians' defeat.
Vietnam
Comparatively
little attention has been made to the use and innovation of gunpowder
in the expansion of Vietnam. There is, in fact, a widespread belief that
the Vietnamese introduced firearms to China, although other scholars
disagree. Regardless, the use of gunpowder technology has left an undeniable mark in Vietnamese history, allowing the "southward march" and significant expansion of Vietnamese territory.
Gunpowder in Europe
Europeans
are said to have pushed gunpowder technology to its limits, improving
the formulas that existed and devising new uses of the substance after
it was introduced to Europe via the Silk Road in the thirteenth century. Europeans were improving gunpowder a century after the first gun was invented in China.
Roger Bacon,
a renowned early European alchemist (1214 – 1292), set forth the
marvels of the world; key among them was the ingredients of gunpowder.
With these ingredients available, European scientists, inventors and
alchemists went on to create corned gunpowder, which had a different
refinement process. It entailed adding a wet substance to the gunpowder
and then drying it as a mixture. With this improved gunpowder
technology, German friar Berthold Schwarz invented the first European cannon in 1353.
Due to constant warfare, europe saw an exponential growth innovation of
gunpowder firearms, making it the most advanced in the whole world.
Europeans improved the gunpowder firearms which had been made in China
and the Middle East, creating much stronger and more durable rifles
using advanced European metalworking techniques. They learned how to calculate the amount of force exerted by the gas contained in a gun's chamber, which led to guns with the power to fire greater distances.
Improved gunpowder from Europe later, in 1520, reached China on a Portuguese ship, though Turkish arquebuses may have reached China before Portuguese ones. The Ottomans and Portuguese introduced the cannon,
improved rifles and other advancements to China, hundreds of years
after gunpowder's original invention in China, bringing gunpowder's
journey through Asia full circle.
In Fiction
Harry Turtledove wrote "Gunpowder Empire", an alternative history novel whose premise is that, had the Roman Empire
survived until the invention of gunpower, it might have become a
"Gunpowder Empire" similar to the above and survived into the 21st
Century.
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to reconquer Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099,
dozens of military campaigns were organised, providing a focal point of
European history for centuries. Crusading declined rapidly after the
15th century.
In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the first expedition at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperorAlexiosI 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,
including religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations,
opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later
expeditions were conducted by generally more organized 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.
The term "crusade" first referred to military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13thcenturies to the Holy Land.
The conflicts to which the term is applied has been extended to include
other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the
Latin Church with varying objectives, mostly religious, sometimes
political. These differed from previous Christian religious wars in that
they were considered a penitential exercise, and so earned participants
remittance from penalties for all confessed sins.
What constituted a crusade has been understood in diverse ways,
particularly regarding the early Crusades, and the precise definition
remains a matter of debate among contemporary historians.
At the time of the First Crusade, iter, "journey", and peregrinatio,
"pilgrimage" were used for the campaign. Crusader terminology remained
largely indistinguishable from that of Christian pilgrimage during the
12thcentury. A specific term for a crusader in the form of crucesignatus—"one signed by the cross"—emerged in the early 12th century. This led to the French term croisade—the way of the cross. By the mid 13thcentury the cross became the major descriptor of the crusades with crux transmarina—"the cross overseas"—used for crusades in the eastern Mediterranean, and crux cismarina—"the cross this side of the sea"—for those in Europe. The use of croiserie, "crusade" in Middle English can be dated to c. 1300, but the modern English "crusade" dates to the early 1700s. The Crusader states of Syria and Palestine were known as the "Outremer" from the French outre-mer, or "the land beyond the sea".
By the end of the 11thcentury the period of Islamic Arab territorial expansion
had been over for centuries. The Holy Land's remoteness from focus of
Islamic power struggles enabled relative peace and prosperity in Syria
and Palestine. Muslim-Western European contact was only more than
minimal in the conflict in the Iberian peninsula.
The Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world were long standing centres
of wealth, culture and military power. They viewed Western Europe as a
backwater that presented little organised threat. By 1025, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II
had extended territorial recovery to its furthest extent. The frontiers
stretched east to Iran. Bulgaria and much of southern Italy were under
control and piracy suppressed in the Mediterranean Sea. The empire's
relationships with its Islamic neighbours were no more quarrelsome than
its relationships with the Slavs or the Western Christians. The Normans in Italy; to the north Pechenegs, Serbs and Cumans; and Seljuk Turks
in the east all competed with the Empire and the emperors recruited
mercenaries—even on occasions from their enemies—to meet this challenge.
The political situation in Western Asia was changed by later
waves of Turkish migration, in particular the arrival of the Seljuk
Turks in the 10thcentury. Previously a
minor ruling clan from Transoxania, they had recently converted to Islam
and migrated into Iran. In two decades following their arrival they
conquered Iran, Iraq and the Near East. The Seljuks and their followers
were from the Sunni tradition. This brought them into conflict in Palestine and Syria with the Fatimids who were Shi'ite.
The Seljuks were nomadic, Turkic speaking and occasionally shamanistic,
very different from their sedentary, Arabic speaking subjects. This
difference and the governance of territory based on political
preference, and competition between independent princes rather than
geography, weakened power structures. In 1071, Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes attempted confrontation to suppress the Seljuks' sporadic raiding, leading to his defeat at the battle of Manzikert.
Historians once considered this a pivotal event but now Manzikert is
regarded as only one further step in the expansion of the Great Seljuk Empire.
The evolution of a Christian theology of war developed from the link of Roman citizenship to Christianity, with citizens were required to fight the empire's enemies. A doctrine of holy war dated from the 4th-century theologian Saint Augustine. He maintained that aggressive war was sinful, but acknowledged a "just war"
could be rationalised if it was proclaimed by a legitimate authority,
was defensive or for the recovery of lands, and without an excessive
degree of violence. Violent acts were commonly used for dispute resolution in Western Europe, and the papacy attempted to mitigate this. Historians have thought that the Peace and Truce of God movements restricted conflict between Christians from the 10thcentury;
the influence is apparent in Urban II's speeches. Other historians
assert that the effectiveness was limited and it had died out by the
time of the crusades. Pope Alexander II developed a system of recruitment via oaths for military resourcing that his successor Pope Gregory VII extended across Europe. In the 11thcentury, Christian conflict with Muslims on the southern peripheries of Christendom was sponsored by the Church, including the siege of Barbastro and the Norman conquest of Sicily. In 1074, GregoryVII
planned a display of military power to reinforce the principle of papal
sovereignty. His vision of a holy war supporting Byzantium against the
Seljuks was the first crusade prototype, but lacked support.
The First Crusade was an unexpected event for contemporary
chroniclers, but historical analysis demonstrates it had its roots in
earlier developments with both clerics and laity recognising Jerusalem's role in Christianity as worthy of penitential pilgrimage. In 1071, Jerusalem was captured by the Turkish warlord Atsiz, who seized most of Syria and Palestine as part of the expansion of the Seljuks
throughout the Middle East. The Seljuk hold on the city was weak and
returning pilgrims reported difficulties and the oppression of
Christians. Byzantine desire for military aid converged with increasing
willingness of the western nobility to accept papal military direction.
In 1095, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza.
He was probably expecting a small number of mercenaries he could
direct. Alexios had restored the Empire's finances and authority but
still faced numerous foreign enemies. Later that year at the Council of Clermont, Urban raised the issue again and preached a crusade. Almost immediately, the French priest Peter the Hermit gathered thousands of mostly poor in the People's Crusade. Traveling through Germany, German bands massacred Jewish communities in the Rhineland massacres during wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities. Jews were perceived to be as much an enemy as Muslims. They were held responsible for the crucifixion,
and were more immediately visible. People wondered why they should
travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were many
closer to home. Quickly after leaving Byzantine-controlled territory on their journey to Nicaea these crusaders were annihilated in a Turkish ambush at the Battle of Civetot.
Conflict with Urban II meant that King Philip I of France and Holy Roman Emperor HenryIV declined participation. Aristocrats from France, western Germany, the Low Countries, Languedoc
and Italy led independent contingents in loose, fluid arrangements
based on bonds of lordship, family, ethnicity and language. The elder
statesman Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse was foremost, rivaled by the relatively poor but martial Italo-NormanBohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred. Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin and forces from Lorraine, Lotharingia, and Germany also joined. These five princes were pivotal to the campaign, which was augmented by a northern French army led by Robert Curthose, Count Stephen II of Blois, and Count Robert II of Flanders.
The total number may have reached as many as 100,000 people including
non-combatants. They traveled eastward by land to Constantinople where
they were cautiously welcomed by the emperor.
Alexios persuaded many of the princes to pledge allegiance to him and
that their first objective should be Nicaea, the capital of the Sultanate of Rum. Sultan Kilij Arslan left the city to resolve a territorial dispute, enabling its capture after the siege of Nicaea and a Byzantine naval assault in the high point of Latin and Greek co-operation.
Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor and Syria before the First Crusade
The
first experience of Turkish tactics, using lightly armoured mounted
archers, occurred when an advanced party led by Bohemond and Robert was
ambushed at the battle of Dorylaeum. The Normans resisted for hours before the arrival of the main army caused a Turkish withdrawal. The army marched for three months to the former Byzantine city Antioch,
that had been in Muslim control since 1084. Starvation, thirst and
disease reduced numbers, combined with Baldwin's decision to leave with
100 knights and their followers to carve out his own territory in Edessa. The siege of Antioch
lasted eight months. The crusaders lacked the resources to fully invest
the city. The residents lacked the means to repel the invaders. Then
Bohemond persuaded a guard in the city to open a gate. The crusaders
entered, massacring the Muslim inhabitants and many Christians amongst
the Greek Orthodox, Syrian and Armenian communities. A force to recapture the city was raised by Kerbogha, the effective ruler of Mosul.
The Byzantines did not march to the assistance of the crusaders after
the deserting Stephen of Blois told them the cause was lost. Alexius
retreated from Philomelium,
where he received Stephen's report, to Constantinople. The Greeks were
never truly forgiven for this perceived betrayal and Stephen was branded
a coward.
Losing numbers through desertion and starvation in the besieged city,
the crusaders attempted a negotiated surrender but were rejected.
Bohemond recognised that the only option was open combat and launched a
counterattack. Despite superior numbers, Kerbogha's army — which was
divided into factions and surprised by the Crusaders commitment—
retreated and abandoned the siege.
Raymond besieged Arqa in February 1099 and sent an embassy to al-Afdal Shahanshah, the vizier of Fatimid Egypt,
seeking a treaty. Adhemar died, leaving the crusade without a spiritual
leader. Raymond failed to capture Arqa and in May led the remaining
army south along the coast. Bohemond retained Antioch and remained,
despite his pledge to return it to the Byzantines. Local rulers offered
little resistance, opting for peace in return for provisions. The
Frankish envoys returned accompanied by Fatimid representatives. This
brought the information that the Fatimids had recaptured Jerusalem. The
Franks offered to partition conquered territory in return for the city.
Refusal of the offer refused made it imperative that the crusade reach
Jerusalem before the Fatimids made it defensible.
The first attack on the city begun on 7 June 1099 failed, and the siege of Jerusalem became a stalemate, before the arrival of craftsmen and supplies transported by the Genoese to Jaffa
tilted the balance. Two large siege engines were constructed and the
one commanded by Godfrey breached the walls on 15 July. For two days the
crusaders massacred the inhabitants and pillaged the city. Historians
now believe the accounts of the numbers killed have been exaggerated,
but this narrative of massacre did much to cement the crusaders'
reputation for barbarism. Godfrey secured the Frankish position by defeating an Egyptian force at the battle of Ascalon on 12 August.
Most of the crusaders considered their pilgrimage complete and returned
to Europe. When it came to the future governance of the city it was
Godfrey who took leadership and the title of Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri,
Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. The presence of troops from Lorraine
ended the possibility that Jerusalem would be an ecclesiastical domain
and the claims of Raymond.
Godfrey was left with a mere 300 knights and 2,000 infantry. Tancred
also remained with the ambition to gain a princedom of his own.
The Islamic world seems to have barely registered the crusade;
certainly, there is limited written evidence before 1130. This may be in
part due to a reluctance to relate Muslim failure, but it is more
likely to be the result of cultural misunderstanding. Al-Afdal
Shahanshah and the Muslim world mistook the crusaders for the latest in a
long line of Byzantine mercenaries, not religiously motivated warriors
intent on conquest and settlement.
The Muslim world was divided between the Sunnis of Syria and Iraq and
the Shi'ite Fatimids of Egypt. The Turks had found unity unachievable
since the death of Sultan Malik-Shah in 1092, with rival rulers in Damascus and Aleppo. In addition, in Baghdad, Seljuk sultan Barkiyaruq and Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir
were engaged in a power struggle. This gave the Crusaders a crucial
opportunity to consolidate without any pan-Islamic counter-attack.
Early 12th Century
The Crusader States in 1135
Urban II died on 29 July 1099, fourteen days after the capture of
Jerusalem by the Crusaders, but before news of the event had reached
Rome. He was succeeded by Pope Paschal II who continued the policies of his predecessors in regard to the Holy Land. Godfrey died in 1100. Dagobert of Pisa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Tancred looked to Bohemond to come south, but he was captured by the Danishmends. The Lorrainers foiled the attempt to seize power and enabled Godfrey's brother, Baldwin, to take the crown.
Paschal II promoted the large-scale Crusade of 1101 in support of the remaining Franks. This new crusade was a similar size to the First Crusade and joined in Byzantium by Raymond of Saint-Gilles. Command was fragmented and the force split in three:
A largely Lombard force was harried by Kilij Arslan's forces and finally destroyed in three days at the battle of Mersivan in August 1101. Some of the leadership, including Raymond, Stephen of Blois and Anselm IV of Milan, survived to retreat to Constantinople.
A force led by William II of Nevers attempted catch up with the Lombards but was caught and routed at Heraclea. The destitute leaders eventually reached Antioch.
The defeat of the crusaders proved to the Muslim world that the
crusaders were not invincible, as they appeared to be during the First
Crusade. Within months of the defeat, the Franks and Fatimid Egypt began
fighting in three battles at Ramla, and one at Jaffa:
In the first on 7 September 1101 Baldwin and around 300 knights narrowly defeated the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah.
In second
on 17 May 1102 al-Afdal's son Sharaf al-Ma'ali and a suprior force
inflicted a major defeat on the Franks. Stephen of Blois and Stephen of
Burgundy from the Crusade of 1101 were among those killed. Baldwin fled
to Arsuf.
Victory at the battle of Jaffa on 27 May 1102 saved the kingdom from virtual collapse.
In the third at Ramla on 28 August 1102 a coalition of Fatimid and Damescene forces were defeated again by Baldwin and 500 knights.
Count Baldwin of Edessa, later king of Jerusalem, and Patriarch Bernard of Valence ransomed Bohemond for 100,000 gold pieces.
Baldwin and Bohemond then jointly campaigned to secure Edessa's
southern front. On 7 May 1104, the Frankish army was defeated by the
Seljuk rulers of Mosul and Mardin at the battle of Harran. Baldwin and his cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay,
were captured. Bohemond and Tancred retreated to Edessa where Tancred
assumed command. Bohemond returned to Italy, taking with him much of
Antioch's wealth and manpower. Tancred revitalised the beleaguered
principality with victory at the battle of Artah on 20 April 1105 over a larger force, led by the Seljuk Ridwan of Allepo. He was now able to secure Antioch's borders and push back his Greek and Muslim enemies. Under Paschal's sponsorship, Bohemond launched a version of a crusade in 1107 against the Byzantines, crossing the Adriatic and besieging Durrës. The siege failed; Alexius hit his supply lines, forcing his surrender. The terms laid out in the Treaty of Devol were never enacted because Bohemond remained in Apulia and died in 1111, leaving Tancred as notional regent for his son Bohemond II. In 1007, the people of Tell Bashir ransomed Joscelin and he negotiated Baldwin's release from Jawali Saqawa,
atabeg of Mosul, in return for money, hostages and military support.
Tancred and Baldwin, supported by their respective Muslim allies,
entered violent conflict over the return of Edessa leaving 2,000 Franks
dead before Bernard of Valence, patriarch of both Antioch and Edessa,
adjudicated in Baldwin's favour.
On 13 May 1110, Baldwin and a Genoese navy captured Beirut. In the same month, Muhammad I Tapar,
sultan of the Seljuk Empire, sent an army to recover Syria, but a
Frankish defensive force arrived at Edessa, ending the short siege of
the city. On 4 December, Baldwin captured Sidon aided by a flotilla of Norwegian pilgrims led by Sigurd the Crusader. Next year, Tancred's extortion from Antioch's Muslim neighbours provoked the inconclusive battle of Shaizar between the Franks and an Abbasid army led by the governor of Mosul, Mawdud. Tancred died in 1112 and power passed to his nephew Roger of Salerno. In May 1113, Mawdud invaded Galilee with Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus. On 28 June this force surprised Baldwin, chasing the Franks from the field at the battle of al-Sannabra. Mawdud was killed by Assassins. Bursuq ibn Bursuq led the Seljuk army in 1115 against an alliance of the Franks, Toghtekin, his son-in-law Ilghazi
and the Muslims of Aleppo. Bursuq feigned retreat and the coalition
disbanded. Only the forces of Roger and Baldwin of Edessa remained, but,
heavily outnumbered, they were victorious on 14 September at the first battle of Tell Danith.
In April 1118, Baldwin I died through illness while raiding in Egypt. His cousin, Baldwin of Edessa, was unanimously elected his successor. In June 1119, Ilghazi, now emir of Aleppo, attacked Antioch with more than 10,000 men. Roger of Salerno's army of 700 knights, 3,000 foot soldiers and a corps of Turcopoles was defeated at the battle of Ager Sanguinis, or field of blood, and Roger was among the many killed. Baldwin II's counter-attack forced the offensive's end, after an inconclusive second battle of Tell Danith.
In January 1120 the secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Outremer gathered at the Council of Nablus. The council laid a foundation of a law code for the kingdom of Jerusalem that replaced common law. The council also heard the first direct appeals for support made to the Papacy and Republic of Venice. They responded with the Venetian Crusade, sending a large fleet that supported the capture of Tyre in 1124. In April 1123, Baldwin II was ambushed and captured by Belek Ghazi while campaigning north of Edessa, along with Joscelin I, Count of Edessa. He was released in August 1024 in return for 80,000 gold pieces and the city of Azaz. In 1129, the Council of Troyes approved the rule of the Knights Templar for Hugues de Payens. He returned to the East with a major force including Fulk V of Anjou. This allowed the Franks to capture the town of Banias during the Crusade of 1129. Defeat at Damascus and Marj al-Saffar ended the campaign and Frankish influence on Damascus for years.
The Levantine Franks sought alliances with the Latin West through the marriage of heiresses to wealthy martial aristocrats. Constance of Antioch was married to Raymond of Poitiers, son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine. Baldwin II's eldest daughter Melisende of Jerusalem
was married to Fulk of Anjou in 1129. When Baldwin II died on 21 August
1131. Fulk and Melisende were consecrated joint rulers of Jerusalem.
Despite conflict caused by the new king appointed his own supporters and
the Jerusalemite nobles attempted to curb his rule the couple were
reconciled and melisende exercised significant influence. When Fulk died
in 1143 she became joint ruler with their son, Baldwin III of Jerusalem. At the same time, the advent of Imad ad-Din Zengi saw the Crusaders threatened by a Muslim ruler who would introduce jihad to the conflict, joining the powerful Syrian emirates in a combined effort against the Franks. He became atabeg of Mosul in September 1127 and used this to expand his control to Aleppo in June 1128.
In 1135, Zengi moved against Antioch and, when the Crusaders failed to
put an army into the field to oppose him, he captured several important
Syrian towns. He defeated Fulk at the battle of Ba'rin of 1137, seizing Ba'rin Castle.
In 1137, Zengi invaded Tripoli, killing the count Pons of Tripoli. Fulk intervened, but Zengi's troops captured Pons' successor Raymond II of Tripoli, and besieged Fulk in the border castle of Montferrand. Fulk surrendered the castle and paid Zengi a ransom for his and Raymond's freedom. John II Komnenos, emperor since 1118, reasserted Byzantine claims to Cilicia and Antioch, compelling Raymond of Poitiers to give homage. In April 1138, the Byzantines and Franks jointly besieged Aleppo and, with no success, began the Siege of Shaizar, abandoning it a month later.
On 13 November 1143, while the royal couple were in Acre, Fulk
was killed in a hunting accident. On Christmas Day 1143, their son Baldwin III of Jerusalem was crowned co-ruler with his mother.
That same year, having prepared his army for a renewed attack on
Antioch, John II Komnenos went hunting wild boar, cutting himself with a
poisoned arrow. He died on 8 April 1143 and was succeeded as emperor by
his son Manuel I Komnenos.
Following John's death, the Byzantine army withdrew, leaving Zengi unopposed. Fulk's death later in the year left Joscelin II of Edessa with no powerful allies to help defend Edessa. Zengi came north to begin the first siege of Edessa, arriving on 28 November 1144.
The city had been warned of his arrival and was prepared for a siege,
but there was little they could do. Zengi realized there was no
defending force and surrounded the city. The walls collapsed on 24
December 1144. Zengi's troops rushed into the city, killing all those
who were unable to flee. All the Frankish prisoners were executed, but
the native Christians were allowed to live. The Crusaders were dealt
their first major defeat.
Zengi was assassinated by a slave on 14 September 1146 and was succeeded in the Zengid dynasty by his son Nūr-ad-Din. The Franks recaptured the city during the Second Siege of Edessa of 1146 by stealth but could not take or even properly besiege the citadel.
After a brief counter-siege, Nūr-ad-Din took the city. The men were
massacred, with the women and children enslaved, and the walls razed.
The fall of Edessa caused great consternation in Jerusalem and
Western Europe, tempering the enthusiastic success of the First Crusade.
Calls for a new crusade – the Second Crusade – were immediate, and was the first to be led by European kings. Concurrent campaigns as part of the Reconquista and Northern Crusades are also sometimes associated with this Crusade. The aftermath of the Crusade saw the Muslim world united around Saladin, leading to the fall of Jerusalem.
The Second Crusade
Eugene III, recently elected pope, issued the bull Quantum praedecessores
in December 1145 calling for a new crusade, one that would be more
organized and centrally controlled than the First. The armies would be
led by the strongest kings of Europe and a route that would be
pre-planned. The pope called on Bernard of Clairvaux
to preach the Second Crusade, granting the same indulgences which had
accorded to the First Crusaders. Among those answering the call were two
European kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Louis, his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and many princes and lords prostrated themselves at the feet of Bernard in order to take the cross. Conrad and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa also received the cross from the hand of Bernard.
Conrad III and the German contingent planned to leave for the
Holy Land at Easter, but did not depart until May 1147. When the German
army began to cross Byzantine territory, emperor Manuel I had his troops
posted to ensure against trouble. A brief Battle of Constantinople
in September ensued, and their defeat at the emperor's hand convinced
the Germans to move quickly to Asia Minor. Without waiting for the
French contingent, Conrad III engaged the Seljuks of Rûm under sultan Mesud I, son and successor of Kilij Arslan, the nemesis of the First Crusade. Mesud and his forces almost totally destroyed Conrad's contingent at the Second Battle of Dorylaeum on 25 October 1147.
The French contingent departed in June 1147. In the meantime, Roger II of Sicily,
an enemy of Conrad's, had invaded Byzantine territory. Manuel I needed
all his army to counter this force, and, unlike the armies of the First
Crusade, the Germans and French entered Asia with no Byzantine
assistance. The French met the remnants of Conrad's army in northern
Turkey, and Conrad joined Louis's force. They fended off a Seljuk attack
at the Battle of Ephesus on 24 December 1147. A few days later, they were again victorious at the Battle of the Meander. Louis was not as lucky at the Battle of Mount Cadmus
on 6 January 1148 when the army of Mesud inflicted heavy losses on the
Crusaders. Shortly thereafter, they sailed for Antioch, almost totally
destroyed by battle and sickness.
The Crusader army arrived at Antioch on 19 March 1148 with the
intent on moving to retake Edessa, but Baldwin III of Jerusalem and the
Knights Templar had other ideas. The Council of Acre
was held on 24 June 1148, changing the objective of the Second Crusade
to Damascus, a former ally of the kingdom that had shifted its
allegiance to that of the Zengids. The Crusaders fought the Battle of Bosra with the Damascenes in the summer of 1147, with no clear winner. Bad luck and poor tactics of the Crusaders led to the disastrous five-day siege of Damascus from 24 to 28 July 1148.
The barons of Jerusalem withdrew support and the Crusaders retreated
before the arrival of a relief army led by Nūr-ad-Din. Morale fell,
hostility to the Byzantines grew and distrust developed between the
newly arrived Crusaders and those that had made the region their home
after the earlier crusades. The French and German forces felt betrayed
by the other, lingering for a generation due to the defeat, to the ruin
of the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land.
In the spring of 1147, Eugene III authorized 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. 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.
The disastrous performance of this campaign in the Holy Land
damaged the standing of the papacy, soured relations between the
Christians of the kingdom and the West for many years, and encouraged
the Muslims of Syria to even greater efforts to defeat the Franks. The
dismal failures of this Crusade then set the stage for the fall of
Jerusalem, leading to the Third Crusade.
Nūr-ad-Din and the rise of Saladin
In the first major encounter after the Second Crusade, Nūr-ad-Din's forces then destroyed the Crusader army at the Battle of Inab on 29 June 1149. Raymond of Poitiers,
as prince of Antioch, came to the aid of the besieged city. Raymond was
killed and his head was presented to Nūr-ad-Din, who forwarded it to
the caliph al-Muqtafi in Baghdad. In 1150, Nūr-ad-Din defeated Joscelin II of Edessa for a final time, resulting in Joscelin being publicly blinded, dying in prison in Aleppo in 1159. Later that year, at the Battle of Aintab, he tried but failed to prevent Baldwin III's evacuation of the residents of Turbessel. The unconquered portions of the County of Edessa would nevertheless fall to the Zengids within a few years. In 1152, Raymond II of Tripoli became the first Frankish victim of the Assassins. Later that year, Nūr-ad-Din captured and burned Tortosa, briefly occupying the town before it was taken by the Knights Templar as a military headquarters.
After the Siege of Ascalon
ended on 22 August 1153 with a Crusader victory, Damascus was taken by
Nūr-ad-Din the next year, uniting all of Syria under Zengid rule. In
1156, Baldwin III was forced into a treaty with Nūr-ad-Din, and later
entered into an alliance with the Byzantine Empire. On 18 May 1157, Nūr-ad-Din began a siege on the Knights Hospitaller contingent at Banias, with the Grand Master Bertrand de Blanquefort captured. Baldwin III was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford
in June. Reinforcements from Antioch and Tripoli were able to relieve
the besieged Crusaders, but they were defeated again that month at the Battle of Lake Huleh.
In July 1158, the Crusaders were victorious at the Battle of Butaiha
Bertrand's captivity lasted until 1159, when emperor Manuel I negotiated
an alliance with Nūr-ad-Din against the Seljuks.
Baldwin III died on 10 February 1163, and Amalric of Jerusalem was crowned as king of Jerusalem eight days later. Later that year, he defeated the Zengids at the Battle of al-Buqaia. Amalric then undertook a series of four invasions of Egypt from 1163 to 1169, taking advantage of weaknesses of the Fatimids. Nūr-ad-Din's intervention in the first invasion allowed his general Shirkuh, accompanied by his nephew Saladin, to enter Egypt. Shawar, the deposed vizier to the Fatimid caliph al-Adid, allied with Amalric I, attacking Shirkuh at the second Siege of Bilbeis beginning in August 1164, following Amalric's unsuccessful first siege in September 1163. This action left the Holy Land lacking in defenses, and Nūr-ad-Din defeated a Crusader forces at the Battle of Harim in August 1164, capturing most of the Franks' leaders.
After the sacking of Bilbeis, the Crusader-Fatimid force was to meet Shirkuh's army in the indecisive Battle of al-Babein
on 18 March 1167. In 1169, both Shawar and Shirkuh died, and al-Adid
appointed Saladin as vizier. Saladin, with reinforcements from
Nūr-ad-Din, defeated a massive Crusader-Byzantine force at the Siege of Damietta in late October. This gained Saladin the attention of the Assassins, with attempts on his life in January 1175 and again on 22 May 1176.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem became king on 5 July 1174 at the age of 13. As a leper he was not expected to live long, and served with a number of regents, and served as co-ruler with his cousin Baldwin V of Jerusalem beginning in 1183. Baldwin IV, Raynald of Châtillon and the Knights Templar defeated Saladin at the celebrated Battle of Montgisard on 25 November 1177. In June 1179 the Crusaders were defeated at the Battle of Marj Ayyub, and in August the unfinished castle at Jacob's Ford fell to Saladin, with the slaughter of half its Templar garrison. However, the kingdom repelled his attacks at the Battle of Belvoir Castle in 1182 and later in the Siege of Kerak of 1183.
The fall of Jerusalem
Baldwin V became sole king upon the death of his uncle in 1185 under the regency of Raymond III of Tripoli. Raymond negotiated a truce with Saladin which went awry when the king died in the summer of 1186. His mother Sibylla of Jerusalem and her husband Guy of Lusignan
were crowned as queen and king of Jerusalem in the summer of 1186,
shortly thereafter. They immediately had to deal with the threat posed
by Saladin.
Despite his defeat at the Battle of al-Fule in the fall of 1183, Saladin increased his attacks against the Franks, leading to their defeat at the Battle of Cresson
on 1 May 1187. Guy of Lusignan responded by raising the largest army
that Jerusalem had ever put into the field. Saladin lured this force
into inhospitable terrain without water supplies and routed them at the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187. One of the major commanders was Raymond III of Tripoli
who saw his force slaughtered, with some knights deserting to the
enemy, and narrowly escaping, only to be regarded as a traitor and
coward. Guy of Lusignan was one of the few captives of Saladin's after the battle, along with Raynald of Châtillon and Humphrey IV of Toron. Raynald was beheaded, settling an old score. Guy and Humphrey were imprisoned in Damascus and later released in 1188.
As a result of his victory, much of Palestine quickly fell to Saladin. The siege of Jerusalem began on 20 September 1187 and the Holy City was surrendered to Saladin by Balian of Ibelin on 2 October. According to some, on 19October 1187, Urban III died upon of hearing of the defeat. Jerusalem was once again in Muslim hands. Many in the kingdom fled to Tyre, and Saladin's subsequent attack at the siege of Tyre beginning in November 1187 was unsuccessful. The siege of Belvoir Castle began the next month and the Hospitaller stronghold finally fell a year later. The sieges of Laodicea and Sahyun Castle in July 1188 and the sieges of al-Shughur and Bourzey Castle in August 1188 further solidified Saladin's gains. The siege of Safed in late 1188 then completed Saladin's conquest of the Holy Land.
The Near East, c. 1190, at the inception of the Third Crusade
The years following the founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were met with multiple disasters. The Second Crusade did not achieve its goals, and left the Muslim East in a stronger position with the rise of Saladin. A united Egypt–Syria led to the loss of Jerusalem itself, and Western Europe had no choice but to launch the Third Crusade, this time led by the kings of Europe.
The news of the disastrous defeat at the battle of Hattin and subsequent fall of Jerusalem gradually reached Western Europe. Urban III died shortly after hearing the news, and his successor Gregory VIII issued the bull Audita tremendi
on 29 October 1187 describing the events in the East and urging all
Christians to take up arms and go to the aid of those in the Kingdom of
Jerusalem, calling for a new crusade to the Holy Land – the Third Crusade – to be led by Frederick Barbarossa and Richard I of England.
Richard the Lionheart on his way to Jerusalem, James William Glass (1850)
Frederick took the cross in March 1188.
Frederick sent an ultimatum to Saladin, demanding the return of
Palestine and challenging him to battle and in May 1189, Frederick's
host departed for Byzantium. In March 1190, Frederick embarked to Asia
Minor. The armies coming from western Europe pushed on through Anatolia,
defeating the Turks and reaching as far as Cilician Armenia. On 10 June 1190, Frederick drowned near Silifke Castle.
His death caused several thousand German soldiers to leave the force
and return home. The remaining German army moved under the command of
the English and French forces that arrived shortly thereafter.
Richard the Lionheart had already taken the cross as the Count of Poitou in 1187. His father Henry II of England and Philip II of France had done so on 21 January 1188 after receiving news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin.Richard I and Philip II of France agreed to go on the Crusade in January 1188. Arriving in the Holy Land, Richard led his support to the stalemated siege of Acre.
The Muslim defenders surrendered on 12 July 1191. Richard remained in
sole command of the Crusader force after the departure of Philip II on
31 July 1191. On 20 August 1191, Richard had more than 2000 prisoners
beheaded at the massacre of Ayyadieh. Saladin subsequently ordered the execution of his Christian prisoners in retaliation.
Richard moved south, defeating Saladin's forces at the battle of Arsuf on 7 September 1191. Three days later, Richard took Jaffa, held by Saladin since 1187, and advanced inland towards Jerusalem.
On 12 December 1191 Saladin disbanded the greater part of his army.
Learning this, Richard pushed his army forward, to within 12 miles from
Jerusalem before retreating back to the coast. The Crusaders made
another advance on Jerusalem, coming within sight of the city in June
before being forced to retreat again. Hugh III of Burgundy,
leader of the Franks, was adamant that a direct attack on Jerusalem
should be made. This split the Crusader army into two factions, and
neither was strong enough to achieve its objective. Without a united
command the army had little choice but to retreat back to the coast.
On 27 July 1192, Saladin's army began the battle of Jaffa,
capturing the city. Richard's forces stormed Jaffa from the sea and the
Muslims were driven from the city. Attempts to retake Jaffa failed and
Saladin was forced to retreat. On 2 September 1192 Richard and Saladin entered into the Treaty of Jaffa,
providing that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control, while
allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and traders to freely visit the
city. This treaty ended the Third Crusade.
Three years later, Henry VI launched the Crusade of 1197.
While his forces were en route to the Holy Land, Henry VI died in
Messina on 28 September 1197. The nobles that remained captured the
Levant coast between Tyre and Tripoli before returning to Germany. The
Crusade ended on 1 July 1198 after capturing Sidon and Beirut.
Conquest of the Orthodox city of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 (BNF Arsenal MS 5090, 15th century)Latin Empire
and Byzantine states in 1205. Green marks Venetian acquisitions; pink
the Byzantine states; purple the Latin Empire and its vassals
In 1198, the recently elected Pope Innocent III announced a new crusade, organised by three Frenchmen: Theobald of Champagne; Louis of Blois; and Baldwin of Flanders. After Theobald's premature death, the Italian Boniface of Montferrat replaced him as the new commander of the campaign. They contracted with the Republic of Venice
for the transportation of 30,000 crusaders at a cost of 85,000 marks.
However, many chose other embarkation ports and only around 15,000
arrived in Venice. The Doge of VeniceEnrico Dandolo proposed that Venice would be compensated with the profits of future conquests beginning with the seizure of the Christian city of Zara.
Pope Innocent III's role was ambivalent. He only condemned the attack
when the siege started. He withdrew his legate to disassociate from the
attack but seemed to have accepted it as inevitable. Historians question
whether for him, the papal desire to salvage the crusade may have
outweighed the moral consideration of shedding Christian blood. The crusade was joined by King Philip of Swabia, who intended to use the Crusade to install his exiled brother-in-law, Alexios IV Angelos, as Emperor. This required the overthrow of Alexios III Angelos, the uncle of AlexiosIV.
Alexios IV offered the crusade 10,000 troops, 200,000 marks and the
reunion of the Greek Church with Rome if they toppled his uncle Emperor Alexios III. When the crusade entered Constantinople, AlexiosIII fled and was replaced by his nephew. The Greek resistance prompted AlexiosIV
to seek continued support from the crusade until he could fulfil his
commitments. This ended with his murder in a violent anti-Latin revolt.
The crusaders were without seaworthy ships, supplies or food. Their only
escape route was through the city, taking by force what Alexios had
promised and the new anti-westerner Byzantine ruler – Alexios V Doukas – denied them. The Sack of Constantinople
involved three days of pillaging churches and killing much of the Greek
Orthodox Christian populace. This sack was not unusual considering the
violent military standards of the time, but contemporaries such as
Innocent III and Ali ibn al-Athir saw it as an atrocity against centuries of classical and Christian civilisation.
The Fifth Crusade
(1217–1221) was a campaign by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem
and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the
sultan al-Adil, brother of Saladin. In 1213, Innocent III called for another Crusade at the Fourth Lateran Council, and in the papal bull Quia maior. Innocent died in 1216 and was succeeded by Honorius III who immediately called on Andrew II of Hungary and Frederick II of Germany to lead a Crusade. Frederick had taken the cross in 1215, but hung back, with his crown still in contention, and Honorius delayed the expedition.
Andrew II left for Acre in August 1217, joining John of Brienne,
king of Jerusalem. The initial plan of a two-prong attack in Syria and
in Egypt was abandoned and instead the objective became limited
operations in Syria. After accomplishing little, the ailing Andrew
returned to Hungary early in 1218. As it became clear that Frederick II
was not coming to the east, the remaining commanders began the planning
to attack the Egyptian port of Damietta.
The fortifications of Damietta were impressive, and included the Burj al-Silsilah – the chain tower – with massive chains that could stretch across the Nile. The siege of Damietta began in June 1218 with a successful assault on the tower. The loss of the tower was a great shock to the Ayyubids, and the sultan al-Adil died soon thereafter. He was succeeded as sultan by his son al-Kamil. Further offensive action by the Crusaders would have to wait until the arrival of additional forces, including legate Pelagius with a contingent of Romans. A group from England arrived shortly thereafter.
By February 1219, the Crusaders now had Damietta surrounded, and
al-Kamil opened negotiations with the Crusaders, asking for envoys to
come to his camp. He offered to surrender the kingdom of Jerusalem, less
the fortresses of al-Karak and Krak de Montréal,
guarding the road to Egypt, in exchange for the evacuation of Egypt.
John of Brienne and the other secular leaders were in favor of the
offer, as the original objective of the Crusade was the recovery of
Jerusalem. But Pelagius and the leaders of the Templars and Hospitallers
refused. Later, Francis of Assisi arrived to negotiate unsuccessfully with the sultan.
In November 1219, the Crusaders entered Damietta and found it
abandoned, al-Kamil having moved his army south. In the captured city,
Pelagius was unable to prod the Crusaders from their inactivity, and
many returned home, their vow fulfilled. Al-Kamil took advantage of this
lull to reinforce his new camp at Mansurah,
renewing his peace offering to the Crusaders, which was again refused.
Frederick II sent troops and word that he would soon follow, but they
were under orders not to begin offensive operations until he had
arrived.
In July 1221, Pelagius began to advance to the south. John of
Brienne argued against the move, but was powerless to stop it. Already
deemed a traitor for opposing the plans and threatened with
excommunication, John joined the force under the command of the legate.
In the ensuing Battle of Mansurah
in late August, al-Kamil had the sluices along the right bank of the
Nile opened, flooding the area and rendering battle impossible. Pelagius had no choice but to surrender.
The Crusaders still had some leverage as Damietta was
well-garrisoned. They offered the sultan a withdrawal from Damietta and
an eight-year truce in exchange for allowing the Crusader army to pass,
the release of all prisoners, and the return of the relic of the True Cross. Prior to the formal surrender of Damietta, the two sides would maintain hostages, among them John of Brienne and Hermann of Salza for the Franks side and a son of al-Kamil for Egypt.
The masters of the military orders were dispatched to Damietta, where
the forces were resistant to giving up, with the news of the surrender,
which happened on 8 September 1221. The Fifth Crusade was over, a dismal
failure, unable to even gain the return of the piece of the True Cross.
The Sixth Crusade
(1228–1229) was a military expedition to recapture the city of
Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade
and involved very little actual fighting. The diplomatic maneuvering of Frederick II
resulted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem regaining some control over
Jerusalem for much of the ensuing fifteen years. The Sixth Crusade is
also known as the Crusade of Frederick II.
Of all the European sovereigns, only Frederick II, the Holy Roman
Emperor, was in a position to regain Jerusalem. Frederick was, like
many of the 13th-century rulers, a serial crucesignatus, having taken the cross multiple times since 1215. After much wrangling, an onerous agreement between the emperor and Pope Honorius III
was signed on 25 July 1225 at San Germano. Frederick promised to depart
on the Crusade by August 1227 and remain for two years. During this
period, he was to maintain and support forces in Syria and deposit
escrow funds at Rome in gold. These funds would be returned to the
emperor once he arrived at Acre. If he did not arrive, the money would
be employed for the needs of the Holy Land. Frederick II would go on the Crusade as king of Jerusalem. He married John of Brienne's daughter Isabella II
by proxy in August 1225 and they were formally married on 9 November
1227. Frederick claimed the kingship of Jerusalem despite John having
been given assurances that he would remain as king. Frederick took the
crown in December 1225. Frederick's first royal decree was to grant new
privileges on the Teutonic Knights, placing them on equal footing as the
Templars and Hospitallers.
After the Fifth Crusade, the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil
became involved in civil war in Syria and, having unsuccessfully tried
negotiations with the West beginning in 1219, again tried this approach, offering return of much of the Holy Land in exchange for military support. Becoming pope in 1227, Gregory IX was determined to proceed with the Crusade.
The first contingents of Crusaders then sailed in August 1227, joining
with forces of the kingdom and fortifying the coastal towns. The emperor
was delayed while his ships were refitted. He sailed on 8 September
1227, but before they reached their first stop, Frederick was struck
with the plague and disembarked to secure medical attention. Resolved to
keep his oath, he sent his fleet on to Acre. He sent his emissaries to
inform Gregory IX of the situation, but the pope did not care about
Frederick's illness, just that he had not lived up to his agreement.
Frederick was excommunicated on 29 September 1227, branded a wanton
violator of his sacred oath taken many times.
Frederick made his last effort to be reconciled with Gregory. It had no effect and Frederick sailed from Brindisi
in June 1228. After a stop at Cyprus, Frederick II arrived in Acre on 7
September 1228 and was received warmly by the military orders, despite
his excommunication. Frederick's army was not large, mostly German,
Sicilian and English.
Of the troops he had sent in 1227 had mostly returned home. He could
neither afford nor mount a lengthening campaign in the Holy Land given
the ongoing War of the Keys with Rome. The Sixth Crusade would be one of negotiation.
After resolving the internecine struggles in Syria, al-Kamil's
position was stronger than it was a year before when he made his
original offer to Frederick. For unknown reasons, the two sides came to
an agreement. The resultant Treaty of Jaffa
was concluded on 18 February 1229, with al-Kamil surrendering
Jerusalem, with the exception of some Muslim holy sites, and agreeing to
a ten-year truce.
Frederick entered Jerusalem on 17 March 1229 and received the formal
surrender of the city by al-Kamil's agent and the next day, crowned
himself.
On 1 May 1229, Frederick departed from Acre and arrived in Sicily a
month before the pope knew that he had left the Holy Land. Frederick
obtained from the pope relief from his excommunication on 28 August 1230
at the Treaty of Ceprano.
The results of the Sixth Crusade were not universally acclaimed. Two letters from the Christian side tell differing stories,
with Frederick touting the great success of the endeavor and the Latin
patriarch painting a darker picture of the emperor and his
accomplishments. On the Muslim side, al-Kamil himself was pleased with
the accord, but others regarded the treaty as a disastrous event.
In the end, the Sixth Crusade successfully returned Jerusalem to
Christian rule and had set a precedent, in having achieved success on
crusade without papal involvement.
The Crusades of 1239–1241, also known as the Barons' Crusade, were a series of crusades to the Holy Land that, in territorial terms, were the most successful since the First Crusade. The major expeditions were led separately by Theobald I of Navarre and Richard of Cornwall. These crusades are sometimes discussed along with that of Baldwin of Courtenay to Constantinople.
The defeat of the Crusaders at Gaza, depicted in the Chronica majora of Matthew Paris, 13th century
In 1229, Frederick II and the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil, had agreed to a ten-year truce. Nevertheless, Gregory IX, who had condemned this truce from the beginning, issued the papal bull Rachel suum videns
in 1234 calling for a new crusade once the truce expired. A number of
English and French nobles took the cross, but the crusade's departure
was delayed because Frederick, whose lands the crusaders had planned to
cross, opposed any crusading activity before the expiration of this
truce. Frederick was again excommunicated in 1239, causing most
crusaders to avoid his territories on their way to the Holy Land.
The French expedition was led by Theobald I of Navarre and Hugh of Burgundy, joined by Amaury of Montfort and Peter of Dreux. On 1 September 1239, Theobald arrived in Acre, and was soon drawn into the Ayyubid civil war, which had been raging since the death of al-Kamil in 1238. At the end of September, al-Kamil's brother as-Salih Ismail seized Damascus from his nephew, as-Salih Ayyub, and recognized al-Adil II as sultan of Egypt. Theobald decided to fortify Ascalon
to protect the southern border of the kingdom and to move against
Damascus later. While the Crusaders were marching from Acre to Jaffa,
Egyptian troops moved to secure the border in what became the Battle at Gaza.
Contrary to Theobald's instructions and the advice of the military
orders, a group decided to move against the enemy without further delay,
but they were surprised by the Muslims who inflicted a devastating
defeat on the Franks. The masters of the military orders then convinced
Theobald to retreat to Acre rather than pursue the Egyptians and their
Frankish prisoners. A month after the battle at Gaza, an-Nasir Dā'ūd, emir of Kerak,
seized Jerusalem, virtually unguarded. The internal strife among the
Ayyubids allowed Theobald to negotiate the return of Jerusalem. In
September 1240, Theobald departed for Europe, while Hugh of Burgundy
remained to help fortify Ascalon.
On 8 October 1240, the English expedition arrived, led by Richard of Cornwall.
The force marched to Jaffa, where they completed the negotiations for a
truce with Ayyubid leaders begun by Theobald just a few months prior.
Richard consented, the new agreement was ratified by Ayyub by 8 February
1241, and prisoners from both sides were released on 13 April.
Meanwhile, Richard's forces helped to work on Ascalon's fortifications,
which were completed by mid-March 1241. Richard entrusted the new
fortress to an imperial representative, and departed for England on 3
May 1241.
In July 1239, Baldwin of Courtenay, the young heir to the Latin
Empire, travelled to Constantinople with a small army. In the winter of
1239, Baldwin finally returned to Constantinople, where he was crowned
emperor around Easter of 1240, after which he launched his crusade.
Baldwin then besieged and captured Tzurulum, a Nicaean stronghold seventy-five miles west of Constantinople.
Although the Barons' Crusade returned the kingdom to its largest
size since 1187, the gains would be dramatically reversed a few years
later. On 15 July 1244, the city was reduced to ruins during the siege of Jerusalem and its Christians massacred by the Khwarazmian army. A few months later, the Battle of La Forbie
permanently crippled Christian military power in the Holy Land. The
sack of the city and the massacre which accompanied it encouraged Louis IX of France to organize the Seventh Crusade.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
As-Salih Ayyub 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. Remarkably, Damietta had been seized with only one Crusader casualty.
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.
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. But the Crusade continued, and by December 1249, Louis was encamped on the river banks opposite to Mansurah. 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.
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.
Louis IX being taken prisoner at the Battle of Fariskur (Gustave Doré)
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. 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.
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). 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 in 1251, with the objective to free Louis, engulfed France. After his release, Louis went to Acre where he remained until 1254. This is regarded as the end of the Seventh Crusade.
After the defeat of the Crusaders in Egypt, Louis remained in Syria until 1254 to consolidate the crusader states. 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.
Between 1265 and 1271, Baibars drove the Franks to a few small coastal outposts.
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 MichaelVIII Palaiologos, Emperor of Nicaea, the newly restored ruler of Constantinople. In 1270 Charles turned his brother King LouisIX'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 25August. 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.
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.
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.
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,
would be disbanded and its knights imprisoned or executed. 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.
Map of the branches of the Teutonic Order in Europe c. 1300. Shaded area is sovereign territory.
The military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13thcenturies
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 and 13thcentury conquest of Muslim Al-Andalus by Spanish Christian kingdoms; 12th to 15thcentury 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.
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 authorized 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. 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. By the time of the Second Crusade the three Spanish kingdoms were powerful enough to conquer Islamic territory – Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. 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. 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. Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, was completely suppressed in 1492 when the Emirate of Granada surrendered.
Miniatures showing Pope Innocent III excommunicating, and the crusaders massacring, Cathars (BL Royal 16 G VI, fol. 374v, 14thcentury)
By the beginning of the 13thcentury
Papal reticence in applying crusades against the papacy's political
opponents and those considered heretics. Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against Catharism that failed to suppress the heresy itself but ruined the culture the Languedoc. This set a precedent that was followed in 1212 with pressure exerted on the city of Milan for tolerating Catharism, in 1234 against the Stedinger peasants of north-western Germany, in 1234 and 1241 Hungarian crusades against Bosnian heretics. The historian Norman Housley notes the connection between heterodoxy and anti-papalism in Italy. Indulgence was offered to anti-heretical groups such as the Militia of Jesus Christ and the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 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. The 1281 election of a French pope, MartinIV,
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. 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.
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. 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 18thcentury. 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 OrthodoxByzantine Greeks.
Anti-Christian crusading declined in the 15thcentury, the exceptions were the six failed crusades against the religiously radical Hussites in Bohemia and attacks on the Waldensians in Savoy.
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.
Prior to the 11thcentury, the Latin Church
had developed a system for the remission and absolution of sin in
return for contrition, confession, and penitential acts. Reparation
through abstinence from martial activity still presented a difficulty to
the noble warrior class. It was revolutionary when Gregory VII offered
absolution of sin earned through the Church-sponsored violence in
support of his causes, if selflessly given at the end of the century.This was developed by subsequent Popes into the granting of plenary
indulgences that reduced all God-imposed temporal penalties. The papacy developed "Political Augustinianism"
into attempts to remove the Church from secular control by asserting
ecclesiastical supremacy over temporal polities and the Orthodox Church.
This was associated with the idea that the Church should actively
intervene in the world to impose "justice".
A distinct ideology promoting and regulating crusading is
evidenced in surviving texts. The Church defined this in legal and
theological terms based on the theory of holy war and the concept of
pilgrimage. Theology merged the Old Testament Israelite wars instigated
and assisted by God with New Testament Christocentric views. Holy war
was based on ancient ideas of just war. The fourth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo had Christianised this, and it eventually became the paradigm
of Christian holy war. Theologians widely accepted the justification
that holy war against pagans was good, because of their opposition to
Christianity.
The Holy Land was the patrimony of Christ; its recovery was on behalf
of God. The Albigensian Crusade was a defence of the French Church, the
Northern Crusades were campaigns conquering lands beloved of Christ's
mother Mary for Christianity.
Inspired by the First Crusade, the crusading movement went on to
define late medieval western culture and impacted the history of the
western Islamic world. Christendom was geopolitical, and this underpinned the practice of the medieval Church. Reformists of the 11thcentury urged these ideas which declined following the Reformation. The ideology continued after the 16thcentury with the military orders but dwindled in competition with other forms of religious war and new ideologies.
The military orders were forms of a religious order first established
early in the twelfth century with the function of defending Christians,
as well as observing monastic vows. The Knights Hospitaller had a medical mission in Jerusalem since before the First Crusade, later becoming a formidable military force supporting the crusades in the Holy Land and Mediterranean. The Knights Templar were founded in 1119 by a band of knights who dedicated themselves to protecting pilgrims enroute to Jerusalem. The Teutonic Knights were formed in 1190 to protect pilgrims in both the Holy Land and Baltic region.
The Hospitallers and the Templars became supranational
organisations as papal support led to rich donations of land and revenue
across Europe. This, in turn, led to a steady flow of new recruits and
the wealth to maintain multiple fortifications in the crusader states.
In time, they developed into autonomous powers in the region. After the fall of Acre the Hospitallers relocated to Cyprus, then ruled Rhodes until the island was taken by the Ottomans in 1522. While there was talk of merging the Templars and Hospitallers in by Clement V,
but ultimately the Templars were charged with heresy and disbanded. The
Teutonic Knights supported the later Prussian campaigns into the
fifteenth century.
12th-century Knights Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers
in Syria, one of the first castles to use concentric fortification,
i.e. concentric rings of defence that could all operate at the same
time. It has two curtain walls and sits on a promontory.
According
to the historian Joshua Prawer no major European poet, theologian,
scholar or historian settled in the crusader states. Some went on
pilgrimage, and this is seen in new imagery and ideas in western poetry.
Although they did not migrate east themselves, their output often
encouraged others to journey there on pilgrimage.
Historians consider the crusader military architecture of the
Middle East to demonstrate a synthesis of the European, Byzantine and
Muslim traditions and to be the most original and impressive artistic
achievement of the crusades. Castles were a tangible symbol of the
dominance of a Latin Christian minority over a largely hostile majority
population. They also acted as centres of administration.
Modern historiography rejects the 19th-century consensus that
Westerners learnt the basis of military architecture from the Near East,
as Europe had already experienced rapid development in defensive
technology before the First Crusade. Direct contact with Arab
fortifications originally constructed by the Byzantines did influence
developments in the east, but the lack of documentary evidence means
that it remains difficult to differentiate between the importance of
this design culture and the constraints of situation. The latter led to
the inclusion of oriental design features such as large water reservoirs
and the exclusion of occidental features such as moats.
Typically, crusader church design was in the French Romanesque
style. This can be seen in the 12th-century rebuilding of the Holy
Sepulchre. It retained some of the Byzantine details, but new arches and
chapels were built to northern French, Aquitanian, and Provençal
patterns. There is little trace of any surviving indigenous influence in
sculpture, although in the Holy Sepulchre the column capitals of the south facade follow classical Syrian patterns.
In contrast to architecture and sculpture, it is in the area of
visual culture that the assimilated nature of the society was
demonstrated. Throughout the 12thand 13thcenturies
the influence of indigenous artists was demonstrated in the decoration
of shrines, paintings and the production of illuminated manuscripts.
Frankish practitioners borrowed methods from the Byzantines and
indigenous artists and iconographical practice leading to a cultural
synthesis, illustrated by the Church of the Nativity.
Wall mosaics were unknown in the west but in widespread use in the
crusader states. Whether this was by indigenous craftsmen or learnt by
Frankish ones is unknown, but a distinctive original artistic style
evolved.
Manuscripts were produced and illustrated in workshops housing
Italian, French, English and local craftsmen leading to a
cross-fertilisation of ideas and techniques. An example of this is the Melisende Psalter,
created by several hands in a workshop attached to the Holy Sepulchre.
This style could have both reflected and influenced the taste of patrons
of the arts. But what is seen is an increase in stylised,
Byzantine-influenced content. This extended to the production of icons,
unknown at the time to the Franks, sometimes in a Frankish style and
even of western saints. This is seen as the origin of Italian panel
painting.
While it is difficult to track illumination of manuscripts and castle
design back to their origins, textual sources are simpler. The
translations made in Antioch are notable, but they are considered of
secondary importance to the works emanating from Muslim Spain and from
the hybrid culture of Sicily.
Finance of the Crusades
Crusade finance and taxation left a legacy of social, financial, and
legal institutions. Property became available while coinage and precious
materials circulated more readily within Europe. Crusading expeditions
created immense demands for food supplies, weapons, and shipping that
benefited merchants and artisans. Levies for crusades contributed to the
development of centralised financial administrations and the growth of
papal and royal taxation. This aided development of representative
bodies whose consent was required for many forms of taxation.
The Crusades strengthened exchanges between Oriental and Occidental
economic spheres. The transport of pilgrims and crusaders notably
benefitted Italian maritime cities, such as the trio of Venice, Pisa,
and Genoa. Having obtained commercial privileges in the fortified places
of Syria, they became the favoured intermediaries for trade in goods
such as silk, spices, as well as other raw alimentary goods and mineral
products. Trade with the Muslim world was thus extended beyond existing
limits. Merchants were further advantaged by technological improvements,
and long-distance trade as a whole expanded.
The increased volume of goods being traded through ports of the Latin
Levant and the Muslim world made this the cornerstone of a wider Middle
Eastern economy, as manifested in important cities along the trade
routes, such as Aleppo, Damascus, and Acre. It became increasingly
common for European merchants to venture further east, and business was
conducted fairly despite religious differences, and continued even in
times of political and military tensions.
Legacy
The Crusades created national mythologies, tales of heroism, and a few place names. 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.
Modern Muslim thinkers, politicians and historians have drawn parallels
between the crusades and political developments such as the establishment of Israel in 1948.
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.
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, Modern Historiography, and Crusades (Bibliography and Sources). The histories describing the Crusades are broadly of three types: (1) The primary sources of the Crusades,
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.
After the fall of Acre, the crusades continued in through the 16th century. Principal references on this subject are the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades and Norman Housley'sThe Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar. Complete bibliographies are also given in these works.
Secondary sources. 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. Other works of the 18th century include Voltaire'sHistoire des Croisades, and Edward Gibbon'sDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire, excerpted as The Crusades, A.D. 1095–1261. This edition also includes an essay on chivalry by Sir 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.
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.
Tertiary sources. Three such works are: Louis Bréhier's multiple works on the Crusades in the Catholic Encyclopedia; the works of Ernest Barker in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition), later expanded into a separate publication; and The Crusades: An Encyclopedia (2006), edited by historian Alan V. Murray.
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