3. Second Crusade

If we recall the character of the Norman conquerors, such as Rollo, who established his dominions in Normandy, and Robert Guiscard, who established himself in Italy; if we take into account the policies and means that these princes used to achieve their goals, then we will be able to understand and evaluate the actions of Bohemond. Bohemond considered himself no lower than Rollon and Robert Guiscard and wanted to repeat in Asia the deeds that his ancestors had accomplished in Europe. Bohemond was already close to achieving this historical task. Owning strong army, he rounded out his principality of Antioch; there were small states that belonged to Turkish emirs; but these emirs could not offer strong resistance to Bohemond, since they were weakened by the war with the crusaders, and their forces were also separated by internal strife. But Bohemond’s aspirations had a tragic outcome, which adversely affected the entire Christian cause. Bohemond attacked a dangerous rival in the person of Danishmend Melik-Ghazi, emir of Sivas (on Halys). Left behind the crusaders, the Danishmends managed to strengthen themselves so much that after the final weakening of the Iconian Sultan, they became the main stronghold of Islam in Asia in 1101. The appearance of this force was completely new and unexpected for Bohemond.

When Bohemond, at the request of the Armenian prince Gabriel in Malatia, went to war against Melik-Gazi, he, against expectation, met with a strong Turkish detachment, suffered complete defeat, was captured with many knights and taken prisoner to Neocaesarea, where he was kept for about four years (1101–1104 ). This captivity was important for all Christian lands in Asia: Christians were left without their leader and were left to their own forces among a hostile Mohammedan population. Bohemond, while in captivity of Melik-Ghazi, quite possibly became his political mentor and teacher. No matter how rude Danishmend was, he understood the value of his captive. When the Byzantine emperor wanted to ransom Bohemond, Melik-Ghazi demanded a huge sum of money. The Greek government was ready to make any sacrifice just to get rid of the formidable Norman. But then Bohemond was saved by a completely random circumstance: Melik-Ghazi and Kilij-Arslan quarreled among themselves over how the ransom sum for Bohemond should have been divided between them. Bohemond took advantage of this circumstance to expose them to danger from Byzantine Emperor. He found out to them that Tsar Alexei, having taken possession of it, would get rid of a strong and formidable enemy and then direct all his forces against them; that if they value the actual ransom amount, then it will be paid to them by his friends - the princes of Jerusalem and Edessa; what in in this case What is more important is not money, but political interests, in achieving which he can provide a great service to the entire Turkish people by uniting with them against the Byzantine emperor. Bohemond promised the Turkish leaders all of Western Asia, but only reprimanded Antioch for himself. The Byzantine commissioner Gregory Taronit, who negotiated with the Turkish princes for the ransom of Bohemond, was involved in deception and therefore did not inform the Byzantine emperor that the negotiations had taken a turn unfavorable for Byzantium. Melik-Ghazi, having received a ransom for Bohemond from an Armenian prince, freed him and escorted him to Tarsus. (The few coins that have survived from this time give us a very curious and highest degree precious material for understanding the state of affairs in this era. The coins belong to the Danishmend kingdom; on one side it is depicted, on the other side it is engraved in Greek letters: “Melik-Gazi, king of Romania and Anatolia” - a highly significant phenomenon; it directly characterizes Melik-Gazi for us. He was not like those wild Turkish conquerors who burned, devastated and destroyed everything that was outside of Islam. Melik-Ghazi pursued the principle of religious tolerance, granting political freedom to the subordinate peoples, leaving them inviolable Greek language and Greek writing. In these coins, at present, there is the only indication of the political role that Danishmend played in Western Asia and which was acquired by him, without any doubt, at the inspiration of such an intelligent politician as Bohemond.)

Returning to Antioch, Bohemond gathered into his hands all the threads of the political movement. He formed a large alliance, in which both Mohammedan and Christian forces participated, and first of all directed his blow against the emir of Mossul and Aleppo, who most oppressed the Christians while he was in captivity. Although the funds collected by Bohemond were significant, the result was far from meeting his expectations: the Christian princes suffered a complete defeat at the Battle of Garran (1104). This defeat was very important for the fate of the Christian principalities in the East; it aroused new hopes in the Muslims and Greeks and brought the very existence of the crusaders to the brink of destruction. Moreover, no favorable change in circumstances was foreseen in the future, because Christians did not maintain solidarity among themselves; Enmity and mistrust continued to grow between the leaders of the two tribes of Normans and Provencals. The Provencals, in the absence of Bohemond, with the help of the Greek emperor, took possession of Tripoli - a circumstance that was very undesirable for Bohemond, since the close proximity of the Provencals could seriously threaten the fate of the Principality of Antioch. In addition, Bohemond had reason to be distrustful of the Provencals also because throughout the entire crusade they defended the interests of the Byzantine king, Bohemond’s sworn enemy. After the fatal defeat for Christians at Garran, any attempt on the part of Bohemond, in the sense of weakening Byzantine or Muslim power in Asia, seemed impossible and untimely, for the forces of the Christians were extremely weakened. The King of Jerusalem, who by his position should have played a leading role among Christians and stood at the head of every enterprise aimed at weakening the enemies of Christ, the King of Jerusalem, “the defender of the Holy Sepulcher,” was deprived of all power, all authority. If anyone had any means left to fight, they were concentrated in the hands of the Antioch prince. But he cared little about general interests, pursuing his own personal goals. Thus the political horizon of Christians was gloomy; An accidental circumstance helped them out.

To fulfill his cherished dream, Bohemond drew up an extensive and far-sighted plan. Finding the available resources of Christians insufficient to fight the two forces, Muslim and Greek, he decided to call new forces from Europe for this fight. He informed the princes that they were currently experiencing a very dangerous time for themselves. “But dangerous times,” he consoled, “excites us to great plans and enterprises. I believe that you can remain alone in Antioch; I will go to Europe and attract new forces for the fight.” But Bohemond was far from planning a Second Crusade; the ambitious and selfish prince pursued one personal goal - to destroy the Byzantine emperor in Asia. This plan is clear from the actions of Bohemond when he was captured by the Muslims, as well as from subsequent circumstances. There was no small difficulty in carrying out this plan. The Greek emperor, as if sensing that such a plan could arise in the mind of an enterprising Norman, ordered Greek military ships to cruise off the coast of Asia Minor. There is a legend, which Anna Komnena also repeats: in order to deceive the vigilance of the Greeks, Bohemond allegedly ordered himself to be placed in a coffin, and thus the ship carrying the living dead managed to unhindered pass the defensive line that the Greek ships formed off the coast of Asia Minor. From the island of Corfu, Bohemond sent a letter full of threats to the Greek emperor.

In Italy, Bohemond received an enthusiastic welcome as a hero and fighter for a holy cause. Pope Paschal II, a kind and trusting man, Bohemond's patron, gave him letters of recommendation to the French and German kings and allowed him to preach a campaign against the schismatic Greeks. It was not for nothing that Bohemond spent three years in Europe. His well-deserved fame as the best leader of the Crusades grew in the eyes of Europeans and brought him the desired success. The French king married him to one of his daughters (Constance), and gave the other to Tancred, thereby Bohemond established connections with crowned European persons. His sermon had complete success in Lombardy, France and Germany. By the beginning of 1107, having returned to southern Italy, he began to wait for the union of the forces he had recruited. The coastal cities of Genoa, Venice and Pisa offered a fleet at his service. In the spring of 1107, a large (over 30 thousand) militia gathered in southern Italy, abundantly supplied with weapons and food supplies. This squadron should have caused serious fear to the Greeks. Thus, in the name of the idea of ​​​​the destruction of Byzantine rule and the conquest of the Greek empire, Germany, France, the north and south of Italy united under the banner of Bohemond.

The militia, led by a Norman leader, went straight to the Byzantine possessions and besieged the city of Drach ( Dyrrhachium). In 1081 Robert Guiscard attacked the Byzantine possessions, but since then circumstances have largely changed in favor of the Empire. As a result of the victories won by the crusaders in the East, Byzantium got rid of the enemy that threatened it in Asia, and Emperor Alexius, having significant naval and land forces, had every opportunity to defend his western possessions. Drach turned out to be a very strong and fortified city, to capture which it was necessary to make even greater preparations: build stairs, battering machines, towers, but the crusaders had no forest. Added to this was the fact that the Greek fleet deprived the crusaders of the opportunity to transport food supplies. The Crusaders began to suffer hardships; a murmur arose among the army; They demanded from Bohemond that he should not waste time uselessly in the siege of one city, but would lead the army further. Similar internal and external position affairs forced Bohemond to end the siege and begin negotiations with the Byzantine emperor. Tsar Alexei knew his enemy well and therefore used all caution and perseverance in the negotiations. In 1108 a peace was concluded, humiliating for the ambition of the Norman prince. He had to renounce all his plans, his claims to Cilicia, Laodicea and the Provencal possessions, pledged to hand over Antioch to the Byzantine king if he did not leave behind a male generation, and, what is even more humiliating, even use force against his brother if he did not agreed to these terms. This ends Bohemond's activity. Since 1108 he no longer plays any role. Perhaps he wanted to repeat his attempt again, but this time he did not meet the same enthusiasm in Europe that he had found earlier. And the circumstances were completely different. Pope Paschal was in a fight with the German Emperor Henry V, engaged in a difficult and risky struggle; this time the Pope looked differently at Bohemond’s cause and not only did not support him, but even entered into relations with the Byzantine king and was ready to make major concessions to him regarding southern Italy to get help from him in the fight against the Emperor. Bohemond died in 1111.

Assessing the activities of Bohemond, we must admit that he brought a lot of harm to the entire Christian cause in the East, that he was the main culprit of all the disasters, failures and losses of the crusaders. Christians in the East had to pursue one goal: while firmly maintaining solidarity among themselves, they had to conclude a strong alliance with the Byzantine Empire and direct all their forces towards the Muslims. Meanwhile, the fatal mistake of the Christians was their competition among themselves and their enmity with Byzantium, and the strongest responsibility in this regard falls on Bohemond. With his ambition, he created antagonism between the Byzantine Empire and the crusaders. He was the first to introduce into practice that strange technique that the Byzantine emperors later resorted to: he was the first to begin to enter into friendly alliances with the people against whom the entire crusader movement was directed.

In view of the wrong direction given to the crusade through the fault of Bohemond, and taking into account the too insignificant forces that the leaders remaining in the East had at their disposal, the question naturally arises: how did the principalities of Antioch, Jerusalem and Edessa founded by the crusaders hold on?

The main wave of crusaders, which flowed to the west, fueled a sense of competition there with their stories about the exploits and successes that the crusaders had in Asia. True, these same stories spoke about the dangers and hardships to which the crusaders were exposed; but the knightly families, who did not own lands in the West and had no hope of acquiring military glory and booty in their homeland, willingly succumbed to dreams of glorifying themselves with military exploits and acquiring independent possessions. Thus, the crusaders returning to their homeland from Asia revived religious enthusiasm and a sense of military honor in their European compatriots. The result of this is a surge of new waves Western peoples to the East. The first movement followed in 1101. The barons of Italy, France and partly Germany formed a strong militia, which was only partly, in the person of its very few individual leaders, imbued with religious enthusiasm; most knights had ambitious goals. This detachment, reaching 300 thousand people, headed to Asia in the usual way, which all the crusaders went through Constantinople. The fate of this militia is very sad: its leaders, having learned that the main support of Eastern Christians - Bohemond - was captured by the Muslims, wanted to free Bohemond by force. In skirmishes with Kilij-Arslan and the Sultan of Cappadocia Danishmend, they were almost all destroyed; only a very small part of them reached Antioch and Jerusalem and supported the weakened forces of Tancred and Baudouin.

Another great movement occurred in 1107, under the leadership of Bohemond; as we saw above, Bohemond’s detachment suffered a complete failure at Drach, and only part of it reached Syria.

Italian trading cities: Genoa, Venice and Pisa - saw the Crusades as a means of spreading their trade. These cities already owned trading posts on many islands of the Mediterranean Sea; now, taking advantage of the crusader movement, they founded their trading posts in Syria and Palestine and supplied the crusaders with warships. The crusaders owe their best successes to the military forces and the help of Italian cities. Particularly strong enthusiasm gripped northern Italy and southern France at this time, which sent numerous detachments. Thus, throughout the 12th century, the movement of knights from West to East took place and the influx of new forces consistently continued, which provided great support to Christians who acquired independent possessions in the East. This was the first means by which the Christian principalities held on.

The second means that supported Eastern Christians against the pressure of Muslims was knightly orders of a religious-military nature. The origin of these orders is as follows. Pious people founded charitable institutions in Jerusalem - almshouses, hospitals, the purpose of which was to provide assistance to both poor pilgrims and the native Christian population: all the poor who did not have their own means of living, and all those who needed supervision and care were received here . This was the purpose of these institutions back in the 11th century; in the 12th century they set themselves new tasks and new goals.

Baudouin assigned a place to one of these monastic brotherhoods near Solomon's Temple. This brotherhood, which owned significant funds, expanded its original tasks, setting itself the goal of supporting the falling Christian principalities in the East; Thus, this brotherhood acquired a purely military character: “ Milites templi", Templars. One of the members of this brotherhood, Hugo of Payenne, went to the West and, stocking himself with letters from the pope, recruited proselytes into the order. German Emperor and English king made rich donations, which enabled the Templar Order to form significant military forces. The knights of this order, distinguished by their good weapons, constituted the best Christian army in the East. Their distinctive clothing - a white cloak with a red cross - terrified Muslims.

Next to the Order of the Templars, another military monastic order– hospitalists. The first purpose of this brotherhood was charity. When the Templars transformed their order into monastic knighthood, the Hospitalists (otherwise called Johannites) followed their example; Their distinctive clothing is a black cloak with a white cross. These orders gained a decisive predominance in the affairs and destinies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and were a powerful factor in the struggle of Christians with Muslims.

Even more significant was the third means that supported the Christian kingdoms in the East. The Provençal barons could not forget that their overlord, the Duke of Toulouse, was a prince in Tripoli; The princes and barons of Lorraine were in exactly the same position relative to the East: two of the Lorraine princes had principalities in the East - one of Edessa, the other of Jerusalem. The connection between Lorraine and Provence with the three mentioned principalities of Asia Minor was alive and maintained by the exchange of relations. Of particular importance was the event of 1131, when the Lorraine line ended in Jerusalem. Baudouin, King of Jerusalem, had previously taken a very smart step: he connected the line of the Lorraine house with one of the most powerful count families in the West; he betrothed his daughter Melisinda to Fulk, Count of Anjou and Maine. The counties of Anjou and Maine, which surrounded the ancestral domains of the French royal house (Capeting), were much more extensive than the royal domains; the counts of Anjou and Mena far surpassed the Capetians in their power. Baudouin, offering the hand of his daughter to one of the most powerful feudal French rulers, linked the interests of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with the interests of the Angevin house, which owned all of central France; Now not only southern France, but also middle France was interested in the affairs of the Principality of Jerusalem. But this union promised enormous political benefits for the entire Christian East in the near future. It was after the end of William the Conqueror's line in England that the English crown was offered to the Angevin house, and Fulk's son became king of England. When half of France, all of Great Britain and Kingdom of Jerusalem, the House of Angevin declared its claim to the Norman crown. The importance of this alliance for the Christian principalities in the East will be quite clear if we say that only thanks to it the Second Crusade could take place in the middle of the 12th century.

The transition of the Principality of Jerusalem to the power of the House of Angevin also had internal meaning for Jerusalem itself. Fulk wanted to give the principality of Jerusalem the structure that was in his lands. The basic laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem are known as the Assizes ( Les assistances de Jerusalem). Usually the structure of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the origin of the Assizes are attributed to the Baudouins. But the Assizes are purely feudal in nature, they are a copy of feudal charters Western Europe. There is no doubt that such a structure could only be given to Jerusalem by a prince who was fully familiar with the feudal system of Western Europe; Fulk had his possessions in the state where the feudal regime was best developed, and therefore the “urban structure and legal system” should be attributed to his time. Although the existence of Christian principalities was ensured by the influx of military forces from the West, caused by a community of interests, their internal situation was far from consistent with the goals and benefits of European Christianity. One cannot read the history of these principalities between the First and Second Crusades without regret. While their entire goal was to weaken the strong centers of the Muslim East - Aleppo, Mossul and Baghdad, the Christian principalities were corroded internal struggle and petty intrigues: in each principality the vassals were at odds with their overlords.

Serious danger threatened Eastern Christians from Byzantine Empire. We saw that Alexei Comnenus also declared war on Antioch. The reign of his successor John Komnenos represented a series of conquests in Asia Minor, with the goal of capturing Antioch. The Prince of Antioch gives a vassal oath to John Comnenus, who was already heading with military forces to Jerusalem. At the same time, the emir of Mossul, Imadeddin Zengi, a relative of Kerbugi, took Eddesa by storm (1144). This last circumstance, in connection with the threatening situation assumed by Emperor John Comnenus, put the Christians in such a desperate situation that only emergency help from Western Europe could save them.

Part 1

The policy of Christian princes in the East pursued a false goal - the destruction of Byzantine rule in Asia and the weakening of the Greek element, which naturally had to be counted on in the destruction of Muslims. This policy led to the fact that the Muslims, weakened and pushed into Asia as a result of the First Crusade, strengthened again and began to threaten Christian possessions from Mesopotamia. One of the most powerful Muslim emirs, the emir of Mossul-Imad-ed-Din Zengi, began to seriously threaten the advanced principalities. In 1144, Zengi made a strong attack, which ended with the capture of Edessa and the fall of the Principality of Edessa. This dealt a very sensitive blow to all of Eastern Christianity: the Principality of Edessa constituted an outpost against which waves of Muslim raids were broken; in the Principality of Edessa there was a stronghold that protected the entire Christian world. At the time when Edessa fell under the blows of the Muslims, other Christian principalities were either in a cramped position or were busy with issues of a purely selfish nature and therefore, just as they could not give help to the Principality of Edessa, they were not able to replace its importance for Christians. In Jerusalem, not long before, King Fulk died, the same one who united the interests of the Principality of Jerusalem with the interests of his own French possessions. After his death, a widow, Queen Melisinde, guardian of Baudouin III, became the head of the kingdom; the disobedience of the vassal princes deprived her of every opportunity and means even to protect her own possessions - Jerusalem was in danger and could not give help to Edessa. As for Antioch, Prince Raymond started an unfortunate war with Byzantium, which ended in complete failure for him, and thus also could not provide help to Edessa.

The rumor of the fall of Edessa made a strong impression in the West and especially in France. France throughout the period of the Crusades was distinguished by its responsiveness to the interests of Christians in the East; from France most of the knights went to the East; France, more than other European states, felt connections with the East, for there were princes of French origin in Edessa, Jerusalem, and Tripoli.

And yet, conditions did not seem favorable for raising a new crusade in Western Europe. First of all, at the head of the Roman church there was a person who was far from equal to the contemporary of the first campaign. In 1144, Eugene III sat on the Roman throne, a man who was not distinguished by great willpower, energy, or intelligence, and who did not have broad political views. Eugene III would have had to, taking advantage of the powerful position of the church, to take over the defense of the East Asian principalities, but by this time the position of the pope, even in Italy itself, was far from powerful; the Roman throne was a victim of parties. Eugene III had recently defeated the antipope, needed the help of the German king and urgently called him to Italy. In addition, he was threatened by a new trend in Rome that would finally overthrow his authority. A preacher, a representative of the philosophical and political school, Arnold of Brescian, a student of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, acted in Rome. Both Arnold of Brescian and his famous teacher came from the famous monastic congregation of the monastery of Cluny and were exponents of the ideas disseminated by this monastery. Arnold was as much a political philosopher as a preacher. His political views were based on democratic principles. He fought with all the forces of his eloquence and influence against the temporal power of the pope and against the abuses that had crept into the church system of that time. Arnold was followed by a number of monastic preachers who spread the same ideas. Arnold's sermon raised a storm against the pope. By the same time, the urban movement, with its democratic character, was particularly energetic in Italy. At the head of the cities was not the archbishop, not secular feudal lords and nobles, but the people; The ancient form of government - the Senate and the people - was resurrected, even the ancient term " senatus populuaque Romanus"Instead of the outdated system, instead of vassalage and suzerainty, communes were put forward, which were extremely unfavorable towards the spiritual princes. The German king Conrad III was also put in difficult circumstances by the fight with the Welfs; he, in turn, waited for support from Rome, hoping that the pope would send him the crown and thereby strengthen his precarious position on the throne. Thus, it was impossible to hope that the pope or the king would take the initiative of the Second Crusade. This initiative had to be sought elsewhere.

After the defeat of Edessa, a significant part of secular and clergy came from the East to Italy and France; here they outlined the state of affairs in the East and excited the masses with their stories. In France, the king was Louis VII; a knight at heart, he felt connected to the East and was inclined to undertake a crusade. The king, like all his contemporaries, was influenced strong influence that literary movement that penetrated deeply throughout France and spread even throughout Germany. The literary movement implied here constitutes an extensive cycle of poetic tales contained in the songs of knights and nobility. This oral creativity, extensive and varied, glorified the exploits of the fighters of Christianity, clothed them in fantastic images, telling about the disasters of Christians in the East, kept the people in an excited state and inflamed their passions. The upper strata - spiritual and secular princes - were not alien to his influence. Louis VII, before deciding to take such an important step as a trip to the Holy Land, asked the opinion of Abbot Suger, his educator and adviser, who, without dissuading the king from his good intentions, advised him to take all measures to ensure proper success of the enterprise. Louis wanted to know the mood of the people and the clergy. The spiritual policy of the 12th century was in the hands of St. Bernard, abbot of the newly founded monastery of Clairvaux. Bernarda is extremely imposing and authoritative. His majestic figure, gaunt face, ardent fiery speech - all this gave him invincible strength and enormous influence, which no one could resist. Bernard was already well known throughout Europe: he was more than once in Rome the decider of the case of one or another pope. He had already been offered episcopal and archbishop's positions more than once, but he always refused promotions and thereby benefited even more in the eyes of his contemporaries; He was the most strident opponent of Abelard, and was unfavorable towards the sermons and actions of his student Arnold of Brescian. The French king turned to this authority, as a moral force, asking Bernard to take part in raising Europe to the crusade: Bernard did not take on such an important matter; he gave advice to contact dad. Eugene III approved the king's plan and instructed St. Bernard preached a sermon on the crusade, providing him with an appeal to to the French people. In 1146 St. Bernard attended a state meeting in Burgundy (Vézelay), he sat next to King Louis, put a cross on him and made a speech in which he invited him to arm himself in defense of the Holy Sepulcher against the infidels. Thus, from 1146 the question of the crusade was resolved from the point of view of the French. South and middle France moved a large army, which was quite sufficient to repel the Muslims.

A fatal step and a big mistake on the part of St. Bernard was that he, intoxicated by the success he had in France, decided to take the matter further, to arouse the idea of ​​​​a crusade outside France - in Germany. The movement itself reached the Rhine, where it expressed itself in an extremely harsh, namely anti-Semitic movement. Rumors about this reached St. Bernard and were very unpleasant for him and required, in his opinion, his personal presence in this country. Appearing beyond the Rhine, Bernard severely condemned the clergy who did not restrain the passions of the people with their authority; but he did not stop there and went further. He planned to attract Germany to the crusade, which could introduce new elements into this movement that were not in harmony with those that were in France. Conrad III, before the arrival of Bernard, showed no inclination to rise to the defense of holy places. Abbot Clairvaux knew Conrad's mood and set out to convert him.

Part 2

Conrad's conversion took place in a picture setting. On the eve of 1147, Bernard was invited to celebrate New Year's Day with Conrad. After the solemn mass, Bernard delivered a speech that had such power and influence on the minds that to the listeners it seemed like a word coming from the lips of the Savior Himself. Having outlined in extremely vivid colors the plight of Christians in the East, he, on behalf of the Savior Himself, addressed the following speech to Conrad: “O man! I gave you everything that I could give: power, authority, all the fullness of spiritual and physical strength; What use have you made of all these gifts to serve Me? You do not even protect the place where I died, where I gave salvation to your soul; soon the pagans will spread throughout the whole world, saying where their God is.” - "Enough! - the king exclaimed, shedding tears. “I will serve the One who redeemed me.” Bernard's victory was decisive over the intractability of the Germans, over Conrad's indecisiveness.

The decision of Conrad III to participate in the Second Crusade resonated very vividly throughout the entire German nation. Since 1147, the same animated general movement began in Germany as in France. It goes without saying that this business was extremely tempting for Bernard’s personal glory: throughout Germany there were stories about the power and influence of his word, about his decisive victory over the king, increasing the glory of his exploits, raising his authority in the eyes of his contemporaries. But bringing the Germans into the Second Crusade was extremely detrimental to the outcome of the Second Crusade. The participation of the Germans changed the further course of the whole matter and led to the sad results that ended the Second Crusade.

In the 12th century, alliances, sympathies or antipathies of states were of great importance for the success of all external political enterprises. The French nation, led by its king, fielded significant forces. Both King Louis VII himself and the feudal French princes showed much sympathy for the cause of the Second Crusade; a detachment of up to 70 thousand gathered. The goal that the Second Crusade was to achieve was clearly outlined and strictly defined. His task was to weaken the Emir of Mosul Zengi and take Edessa from him. This task could have been successfully completed by one French army, consisting of a well-armed army, which along the way was doubled in size by the volunteers who arrived. If the crusader militia of 1147 had consisted only of the French, it would have taken a different route, shorter and safer than the one it chose under the influence of the Germans. The French, in the political system of that era, represented a completely isolated nation, whose immediate interests were inclined towards Italy. The Sicilian king Roger II and the French king were on close terms. As a result, it was most natural for the French king to choose the route through Italy, from where he could, using the Norman fleet and also the fleet of the trading cities, which, as we saw earlier, were such energetic assistants in the First Crusade, conveniently and quickly arrive in Syria. This path seemed shorter and more convenient simply because it led the crusaders not to the hostile possessions of the Muslims, but to those lands of Syria and Palestine that already belonged to Christians; this path, therefore, would not only not require any sacrifices from the crusader militia, but, on the contrary, would promise it completely favorable results. In addition, the route through southern Italy also had the advantage that the Sicilian king could join the militia. Louis VII, having communicated with Roger II, was ready to move through Italy.

The German king was the bearer of completely opposite political ideas. The constant desire of the German nation to take possession of southern Italy forced each German king to consider his task unfinished until he visited Italy and Rome, received the imperial crown from the pope, and the oath of allegiance from the Italian population. From this side, the aspirations of the German kings directly threatened the interests of Norman influence in southern Italy and, at the moment, the interests of the Sicilian king Roger II. The strength of the Sicilian king was due to the weak influence of the German emperor in Italy. Naturally, Roger II was far from on favorable terms with the emperor; There could be no union between the two nations, Germanic and Norman. But in the era under review, things were much worse. Conrad least of all set out to enter into alliances with Western European powers; on the contrary, shortly before he concluded an alliance with Byzantium. The alliance of the German king with the Byzantine emperor concealed the fulfillment of the task that Alexei Comnenus tried to accomplish during the First Crusade: the German king and the Byzantine king had the full opportunity to take the crusader movement into their own hands and lead it to the implementation of their tasks. The participation of the French king in the Second Crusade complicated and complicated the solution of this task; but nevertheless, Conrad III and Manuel Comnenus still had every opportunity to jointly direct the movement towards a common Christian goal and play a major role in this movement.

When the question of the route and means of movement arose, the German king proposed choosing the path that the first German crusaders followed - to Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Thrace and Macedonia. The Germans insisted that the French king also move this way, motivating their proposal by the fact that it was better to avoid a division of forces, that the movement through the possessions of an allied and even related sovereign with the German king was completely protected from all kinds of accidents and surprises, and that with the Byzantine king they had begun negotiations on this issue, the favorable outcome of which Conrad had no doubt.

In the summer of 1147, movement through Hungary began; Conrad led the way, and a month later Louis followed.

Roger of Sicily, who had not previously declared his intention to participate in the Second Crusade, but who, however, could not remain indifferent to its outcome, demanded that Louis fulfill the agreement concluded between them - to direct the route through Italy. Louis hesitated for a long time, but yielded to an alliance with the German king. Roger realized that if he now took part in the campaign, his position would be completely isolated. He equipped ships and armed himself, but not in order to assist the general movement; he began to act at his own peril in accordance with the Norman policy regarding the East; The Sicilian fleet began to plunder the islands and coastal lands belonging to Byzantium, the shores of Illyria, Dalmatia and southern Greece. Devastating the Byzantine possessions, the Sicilian king took possession of the island of Corfu and at the same time, in order to successfully continue his naval operations against Byzantium and to secure himself from African Muslims, he concluded an alliance with the latter.

Thus, the crusading movement was placed in the most unfavorable position at the very beginning. On the one hand, the Western king attacked the Byzantine possessions at the very time when the crusaders were approaching Constantinople; on the other hand, an alliance was formed between the Christian king and the Muslims, an alliance directly hostile to the success of the Crusades. The policy of the Norman king immediately resonated in the distant East. A mass of people who did not want to obey the German and French kings and did not recognize any authority over themselves took part in the crusade militia. No matter how much the kings wanted to safely bring their army to Constantinople, without arousing murmuring in the native population with robberies and violence, it was difficult for them to maintain order and discipline in their army: the volunteers who joined the militia separated from the army, robbed, insulted and committed violence residents. This could not but create misunderstandings between the Byzantine king and the German king, and mutual displeasure and reproaches for non-fulfillment of treaties and conventions began. In Thrace it even came down to open clashes. The crusaders complained that food supplies and fodder were delivered to them late; The Byzantines accused the crusaders of robbery. Although the Byzantine king was confident in Conrad’s favor, the lack of discipline in the crusade army and the weak authority of the king were no secret to him. Tsar Manuel was afraid that Conrad would not be able to curb the violent and rebellious crowd, that this crowd, greedy for profit, could begin robberies and violence in the sight of Constantinople and cause serious unrest in the capital. Therefore, Manuel tried to remove the crusader militia from Constantinople and advised Conrad to cross to the Asian coast of Gallipoli. This would really be better, because it would prevent many different misunderstandings and clashes. But the crusaders made their way to Constantinople by force, accompanying their path with robberies and violence. In September 1147, the danger to Byzantium from the crusaders was serious: irritated Germans stood at the walls of Constantinople, betraying everything to plunder; in two or three weeks it was necessary to expect the arrival of the French crusaders; the combined forces of both could threaten Constantinople with serious troubles. At the same time, news reached the Byzantine king about the capture of Corfu, about the attacks of the Norman king on the coastal Byzantine possessions, about the alliance of Roger II with the Egyptian Muslims.

Under the influence of the danger threatening on all sides, Manuel took a step that fundamentally undermined the tasks and goals proposed by the Second Crusade - he entered into an alliance with the Seljuk Turks; True, this was not an offensive alliance, it had the goal of securing the empire and threatening the Latins in case the latter decided to threaten Constantinople. Nevertheless, this alliance was very important in the sense that it made it clear to the Seljuks that they would have to reckon with only one Western militia. By concluding this alliance with the Iconian Sultan, Manuel made it clear that he did not view the Seljuks as enemies. Protecting his personal interests, he washed his hands, allowing the crusaders to act at their own risk with their own forces and means. Thus, two Christian-Muslim alliances were formed against the crusader militia: one - directly hostile to the crusader militia - is the alliance of Roger II with the Egyptian Sultan; the other - the alliance of the Byzantine king with the Iconian sultan - was not in the interests of the crusade. All this was the reason for the failures that ended the Second Crusade.

Manuel hastened to satisfy Conrad and transported the Germans to the opposite bank of the Bosphorus. It is unlikely that at this time the Byzantine king could ensure the further course of affairs on Asian territory. The crusaders gave themselves their first rest in Nicaea, where serious misunderstandings had already occurred. A detachment of fifteen thousand separated from the German militia and, at their own peril, headed for by sea to Palestine. Conrad and the rest of the army chose the path taken by the first crusader militia - through Dorylaeum, Iconium, Heraclea. In the first battle (October 26, 1147), which took place in Cappadocia, near Dorylaeum, the German army, taken by surprise, was completely defeated, most of the militia died or were captured, very few returned with the king to Nicaea, where Conrad began to wait French. Almost at the same time that Conrad suffered a terrible defeat, Louis VII was approaching Constantinople. The usual clashes took place between the French army and the Byzantine government. Knowing the sympathies between Louis VII and Roger II, Manuel did not consider it safe for the French to remain in Constantinople for a long time. In order to quickly get rid of them and force the knights to take the feudal oath, Tsar Manuel used a trick. A rumor was spread among the French that the Germans, who had crossed into Asia, were rapidly moving forward, step by step winning brilliant victories; so the French will have nothing to do in Asia. The competition of the French was excited; they demanded that they be transported as quickly as possible across the Bosphorus. Here, on the Asian coast, the French learned about the unfortunate fate German troops; In Nicaea, both kings met, Louis and Conrad, and decided to continue their journey together, in a faithful alliance.

Since the path from Nicaea to Dorylaeum was covered with corpses and drenched in Christian blood, both kings wanted to spare the army from the painful spectacle and therefore went around the route to Adramytium, Pergamon and Smyrna. This path was extremely difficult, slowing down the movement of the army; By choosing this path, the kings hoped to encounter less danger from the Muslims here. Their hopes, however, were not justified: the Turkish riders kept the crusader army in constant tension, slowed down the journey, robbed, and repulsed people and convoys. In addition, the lack of food supplies and fodder forced Louis to abandon a lot of pack animals and luggage. The French king, not foreseeing all these difficulties, took with him a large retinue; his train, in which his wife Eleanor also participated, was extremely brilliant, magnificent, and did not correspond to the importance of the enterprise, associated with such difficulties and dangers. The crusader militia moved very slowly, losing a lot of people, pack animals and luggage along the way.

Part 3

At the beginning of 1148, both kings arrived in Ephesus with pitiful remnants of the army, while when crossing the militia across the Bosphorus, the Byzantines, of course exaggeratedly, numbered it up to 90 thousand. In Ephesus, the kings received a letter from the Byzantine emperor, in which the latter invited them to Constantinople to rest. Conrad went by sea to Constantinople, and Louis, with with great difficulty Having reached the seaside city of Antalya, he begged ships from the Byzantine government and, with the remnants of the army, arrived in Antioch in March 1148. The events narrated, one might say, exhaust the result of the Second Crusade; the huge armies of kings melted under the blows of the Muslims; and the kings, French and German, united for one goal, soon diverged and began to pursue opposing goals.

Raymond of Antioch received the French very cordially: a series of festivities and celebrations followed, in which the French Queen Eleanor played a leading role. An intrigue was not slow to emerge, which did not remain without influence on the general course of affairs: Eleanor entered into a relationship with Raymond. It goes without saying that Louis felt insulted, humiliated, he lost energy, inspiration and desire to carry out the work he had begun. But there were circumstances that had an even worse impact on the Second Crusade. Stay of Conrad III in Constantinople in the winter of 1147 48 was accompanied by a cooling between him and the Byzantine emperor. In the spring of 1148, Conrad set off from Constantinople to Asia Minor, but not to Antioch to join the French king, but straight to Jerusalem. For both Raymond and Louis, the news was extremely unpleasant that Conrad had abandoned the tasks of the crusade and devoted himself to the interests of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin III, the king of Jerusalem, prompted Conrad to become the head of an army, which the Kingdom of Jerusalem could field up to 50 thousand, and undertake a campaign against Damascus. This enterprise should be considered extremely incorrect and erroneous, and it was not included in the scope of the second crusade. The movement against Damascus in the interests of the Principality of Jerusalem ended with very sad results. In Damascus, it is true, there was a rather formidable force, but the entire center of gravity of the Muslim East, all the power and danger for Christians, was concentrated at that time not in Damascus, but in Mosul. The Emir of Mossul, Zengi, and no one else conquered Edessa and threatened the rest of the Christian possessions. After the death of Zengi, his son Nuredin (Nur-ed-Din) sat in Mossul, who acquired very large, albeit sad, fame in the Eastern Christian chronicles, as the most implacable and formidable enemy of Antioch and Tripoli. It goes without saying that if he was not weakened in 1148, he could subsequently become a formidable, fatal force for everything. Eastern Christianity. In Jerusalem they did not understand this. The German king became the head of an army of fifty thousand and headed against Damascus. This caused an anti-Christian coalition: the emir of Damascus entered into an alliance with Nuredin. Politics of Christians in the East given time When they did not have significant military forces, they had to be very careful: when entering into a fight with any Muslim center, the Christians had to fight for sure, so as not to raise coalitions against themselves from the Muslims. Meanwhile, Conrad and Baldwin III walked with their eyes closed and did not bother to familiarize themselves with local conditions. Damascus found itself fortified with strong walls and protected by a significant garrison; the siege of Damascus required a long time and considerable effort. The Christian army directed its forces against that part of the city that seemed weaker. Meanwhile, rumors spread in the camp that Nuredin was coming from the north to the rescue of Damascus. Conrad and a handful of Germans did not lose hope of the surrender of Damascus. But in the Christian camp there was treason, which, however, has not yet been sufficiently clarified, although it is mentioned by many chroniclers. As if the King of Jerusalem, the Patriarch and the knights, bribed with Muslim gold, spread rumors that Damascus was invincible from the side from which the crusaders approached it. As a result, the besiegers moved to the other side of the city, which was truly impregnable. After spending quite a long time in a useless siege, threatened from the north by Nuredin, the Christians had to retreat from Damascus without achieving anything. This failure had a heavy impact on the knightly king Conrad and the entire army. There was no desire to continue the work of the Second Crusade, that is, to go further north and, in alliance with Antioch, wage war against the main enemy - the Emir of Mosul. Conrad's energy and knightly enthusiasm weakened, and he decided to return to his homeland. In the fall of 1148, he arrived in Constantinople on Byzantine ships, and from there at the beginning of 1149 he returned to Germany, having essentially done nothing for the cause of Christians in the East, but, on the contrary, disgraced himself and the German nation.

Louis VII, as a young man with great knightly enthusiasm, did not dare, like Conrad, to abandon the work he had begun so quickly. But at the same time, given the difficult situation, he did not dare to take vigorous measures. In his retinue there were people who did not consider the task of the crusade completed and, considering returning back a demeaning act for knightly honor, advised him to remain in Antioch and wait for reinforcements, that is, the arrival of new forces from the West to rescue Edessa. But there were also those who, pointing to the example of Conrad, persuaded the king to return to his homeland; Louis VII succumbed to the influence of the latter and decided to return. At the beginning of 1149, he crossed to southern Italy on Norman ships, where he had a meeting with the Norman king and arrived in France in the fall of 1149.

Thus, the Second Crusade, which seemed so brilliant and promised so much at the beginning, was accompanied by completely insignificant results. The Muslims not only were not weakened, but, on the contrary, inflicting one defeat after another on the Christians, destroying entire crusader armies, they gained greater confidence in their own abilities, their energy increased, and they began to have hopes of destroying Christianity in Asia Minor. In the East there were sharp clashes between the Germans and the French. The German army was humiliated in the eyes of other nations by its fatal failures. Even after the defeat of Conrad III, the Germans were the subject of ridicule for the French; therefore, the Second Campaign showed that collaboration the French and Germans are impossible in the future. This campaign also revealed discord between Palestinian and European Christians. For Eastern Christians, fifty years of exposure to Muslim influence did not pass without cultural consequences. Thus, fundamental discord emerged between the Europeans who settled in Asia and the new crusaders arriving here from Europe; they mutually began to misunderstand each other. Mercantile character, bribery, licentiousness, debauchery have become a distinctive feature of the morals of Palestinian Christians.

The failure of the Second Crusade had a strong impact on the French nation, in whose memory the echo of this failure remains for a long time. It should have been a stain on the honor of the church; in particular, it undermined the authority of St. Bernard, as well as the pope: Bernard raised the masses of the people, he called the crusade a matter pleasing to God, and predicted a good outcome. After the shameful failures, a strong murmur arose against Bernard: Bernard was not a prophet, they said, but a false prophet; and the pope who gave his blessing is not a representative of the church, but the Antichrist. The pope blamed all the responsibility on Bernard, the latter said that he acted on the orders of the pope.

A highly interesting trend was emerging by this time among the Romance peoples: they began to weigh, especially the French, the circumstances of the First and Second Campaigns, and began to find out what were the shortcomings of their organization and the reasons for their failure. The conclusion was simple: it was impossible to achieve the goal of the campaigns because the schismatic Byzantine kingdom stood on the road; this obstacle must first be destroyed. This trend, which emerged in the middle of the 12th century, then gained more and more supporters in the West. Thanks to the gradual spread of this idea among the masses of the people, the Fourth Crusade, in which the Venetians, Normans and partly the French took part, went not directly to the East, but to Constantinople and achieved a brilliant result: it ended with the capture of Constantinople and the transformation of Byzantium into a Latin empire.

The result of the Second Campaign was especially upset by the young Louis VII. Returning to his homeland, Louis came to the realization of the need to correct his mistake, to wash away the stain from his name. A council was convened, at which the issue of a new campaign was again discussed and, very surprisingly, there were again a mass of people who, overwhelmed with religious enthusiasm, were again ready to go to the Holy Land. Something even more amazing happened: St. Bernard began to say that the upcoming campaign would be successful. Voices began to be heard at the cathedral that the recent campaign was unsuccessful because St. Bernard. A proposal was made to entrust him with leading a new campaign. Dad accepted the news of this without sympathy. He called Bernard himself a madman, and in an official document he characterized such an attitude towards the matter as stupidity. After this, Louis also cooled somewhat towards the planned campaign.

Of the detailed features, it is necessary to point out two more points related to the Second Crusade, which show that in 1149 the religious idea of ​​​​the campaign completely receded into the background. If during the First Crusade religious enthusiasm was still visible in some princes, now it completely declines. The era of the Second Crusade includes two campaigns that are completely separate from the main movement. When the movement to the Holy Land began for the second time, some North German princes, like Henry the Lion, Albrecht the Bear and others, realized that they had no need to seek a fight with the infidels in the distant East, that next to them there were a mass of Wends, pagan peoples of Slavic origin, who until now have not accepted Christian preachers. The North German princes turned to Rome, and the pope allowed them to direct their weapons against the Slavs. The closest persons, Henry the Lion and Albrecht the Bear, were local counts, princes of Saxony. The task of the Saxon tribe, starting with Charlemagne, was cultural and religious expansion into the Slavic tribes, between the Elbe and the Oder. It is difficult to say that this struggle was carried out exclusively in the interests of religious ones. She also had in mind goals of a purely economic nature: the Saxon princes sought to acquire new lands for colonization and thereby contribute to the spread of the German element in the East. Once the land is conquered, the ruler of the region - the margrave - appears, missionaries and colonists appear. Albrecht the Bear was the Margrave of Brandenburg, which arose on Slavic lands. For the campaign against the Slavs, an army was formed, reaching up to 100 thousand people. The representative of the Vendian Slavs at that time was the Bodrichi prince Niklot, who could offer only weak resistance to the Germans. The result of the campaign, approved by the church, accompanied by terrible cruelties, murders and robbery, was that the Germans acquired an even stronger position in the Slavic lands. The second point we mentioned is this. Some of the Norman, French and English knights were carried by a storm to Spain. Here they offered their services to Alfonso, the Portuguese king, against the Muslims and captured Lisbon in 1148. Many of these crusaders remained forever in Spain, and only a very small part went to the Holy Land, where they took part in the unsuccessful campaign against Damascus.

Rollon- first Duke of Normandy (d. 932), from a noble Norwegian family. From 876, at the head of his squad, he constantly devastated the north of France, until King Charles III the Simple ceded to him the territory of Normandy and Brittany. Charles III's daughter Giselle became his wife. He paid respects to the king and accepted, receiving the name Robert at baptism.

Melik-Gazi, emir of Sivas (on Halys) (1106–1135) - son and heir of Muhammad I from the Danishmend family, known for its intransigence towards the crusaders.

The daughter of Philip I from his first marriage to Bertha of Holland, Constance, having divorced Count Hugo I of Champagne in 1104, two years later was married to Prince Bohemond I of Antioch; youngest daughter Philip I by Bertrada de Montfort Cecilia became the wife of Tancred of Apulia, and after his death in 1112 she married Pont de Saint-Gilles, Count of Tripolitan.

Henry V(1081–1125) - German king and emperor since 1105, son of Henry IV and continuer of his policy in the struggle for investiture with the papacy. During a campaign in Italy in 1111, he captured Pope Paschal II with several cardinals, after which he achieved his coronation and recognition of the right of investiture. Upon returning to Germany, he waged a fierce struggle with his secular and spiritual opponents. In 1122 he concluded the Concordat of Worms with Pope Calixtus II, according to which the emperor renounced the right of spiritual investiture, but could be present at the elections of German bishops and allocate them with crown lands as fiefs (secular investiture).

Bernard of Clairvaux(1090–1153) – theologian and mystic, one of the most influential spiritual authorities of his time; canonized by the Catholic Church in 1174. Abbot of the monastic community in Clairvaux since 1115. He was distinguished by extreme orthodoxy, defended dogmatics and condemned scholasticism for its rationalistic tendencies. One of the main inspirers of the Second Crusade.

Cluny Congregation arose with the founding in 910 of the monastery of Cluny in Upper Burgundy, subordinate directly to the pope. It was known for its strict Benedictine rule, which became a model for all European monasteries. The center of the so-called “Cluny movement” for the cleansing of the church. In the second half of the 12th century. The Cluniac congregation already owned 2,000 monasteries in Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Poland, but most of all in France. She had great spiritual and political power; twelve cardinals and several popes emerged from her, including Gregory VII (see note 16 to Chapter II). From the 12th century began to gradually lose influence, but ceased to exist only in 1790.

In 1143, the Romans, rebelling against Pope Innocent II, declared the independence of Rome from the pope, the restoration of the Roman Republic and created a new government, calling it Senate; the city was headed by the so-called patrician (Giordano Pierleoni). Senators were, of course, elected not from the common people, but from wealthy citizens.

Conrad III(1093–1152), son of Frederick of Swabia from the Hohenstaufen family, was elected king of Germany in 1138, despite the presence of a strong rival - Henry the Proud from the Welf family, but was not crowned with the imperial crown, since he never made it to Rome.

Welfs- a prominent feudal family in Germany, which rose to prominence in the 12th century. thanks to the activities of Henry IX the Black, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony (d. 1126). His son Henry X the Proud (d. 1139) was married to Gertrude, daughter of Emperor Lothair of Saxony, who made him heir to his family lands and hoped to pass on the crown to him. However, the German princes, fearing the power of the Welfs, chose Konrad Hohenstaufen as king (see note 10), who managed to establish himself on the throne.

Celestine II and Arnold of Brescia. The story of his love for Heloise, the niece of one of the Parisian canons, became the cause of many of his misadventures. He described his life in the famous book “The History of My Disasters.”

Roger II Guiscard (1093–1154) - the first king of Sicily from the Norman dynasty, son of Roger I and nephew of Robert Guiscard (see note 28 to Chapter III). In the struggle of Pope Innocent II with antipope Anacletus II in 1130, he supported the latter, and he granted him the royal title. Then Innocent himself organized a campaign against Roger, suffered defeat and was forced to admit it. He united Sicily, Apulia and Capua under his rule, successfully fought with the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos (see note 14), taking away most of his Italian possessions.

Manuel I Komnenos(c. 1122–1180) - Byzantine emperor from 1143, son of. He entered into an alliance with Conrad III against Roger II, who attacked Byzantium in 1143, but the German king, busy either with a crusade or with the fight against internal opponents, never did. Foreign policy during his reign was carried out with varying success: on the one hand, the conquest of the Serbs and the annexation of Dalmatia in the 1150s, on the other, the defeat of the Byzantines in southern Italy by the Sicilians, an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Egypt, and finally, a terrible defeat at Myriokephalon from the Seljuks in 1176 ., when the emperor himself barely escaped capture.

Alienora– Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122–1204), daughter and sole heir of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aenora de Chatellerault; Duchess of Aquitaine from 1137. In the same year she became the wife of King Louis VII of France, whom she accompanied on the second crusade, leading a detachment of noble ladies. Her frivolous behavior aroused the king's intense jealousy, and upon returning to France, a church council dissolved their marriage (1152). Together with her, Louis VII lost the territory of the vast Aquitaine, which, as a result of the duchess’s second marriage (1152) with Count Henry of Anjou, the future king of England Henry II Plantegenet (1154), became part of the English state. The dispute over the Aquitaine inheritance between England and France found its final resolution only during the Hundred Years' War. For her intrigues against Henry II, the queen was imprisoned (1173–1189). Freed by her eldest son Richard I the Lionheart, she ruled England during his crusade.

Raymond of Antioch(1099–1149) - Raymond de Poitiers, prince of Antioch from 1136, uncle of Alienora of Aquitaine.

Nureddin(Nur ad-Din) - Nur ad-Din Mahmud, “the torch of faith” (1118–1174), son of the Mosul atabek Imad ad-Din Zengi I (see note 61 to Chapter II), whom he succeeded in 1146. He owned Aleppo and Edessa. He successfully fought the crusaders, defeating King Amalric (Amori) I of Jerusalem.

Heinrich Lev- Duke of Bavaria and Saxony from the Welf family (1129–1195), son of Henry X the Proud, succeeded his uncle Welf VII in 1142. He expanded his possessions to the east at the expense of the Slavs, annexed Mecklenburg and Pomerania, becoming one of the most powerful feudal lords in Germany. For refusing to provide military assistance to Emperor Frederick I against the Lombards, he was expelled from his possessions by decision of the Reichstag and in 1181 fled to the English king Henry II, whose daughter Matilda he was married to. He returned to Germany in 1188, but, refusing to go on the third crusade under the emperor, was expelled again. Returning a few months later, he tried to recapture his possessions by force. His son Otto, Duke of Lüneburg-Brunswick, managed to achieve the imperial crown in 1198, but was unable to secure it for the Welfs.

Brandenburg– a medieval German principality that arose as a result of the conquest of the Wendish lands by the German princes; The name comes from the Gavolian settlement of Branibor. Albrecht the Bear re-conquered these lands, already conquered by the Germans in 928 and again lost to them in 983.

Alfonso, Portuguese king– Alfonso I the Conqueror (c. 1109–1185), son of the first ruler of Portugal, Count Henry of Burgundy from the Capetian family, whom he succeeded in 1112. After the victory over Castile and the Arabs in 1139, he proclaimed himself king, and was later recognized by the pope (1142 .). At the end of 1147, with the help of the crusaders, he captured Lisbon. His entire reign was marked by a successful fight against the Moors.

The Third Crusade is the third campaign of the crusaders to the Holy Land with the aim of expelling the infidels from it. It was organized by Pope Gregory VIII. The Third Crusade began in 1189 and ended four years later.

Reasons for the trip

Participants of the hike

There is information about the number of crusader troops. Sources say that initially the army of Richard the Lionheart numbered about 8 thousand well-trained warriors. The army of the French king was small - only 2 thousand soldiers. However, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa led a huge army of 100 thousand soldiers from all over the empire.

The German army was able to correct the situation in the Holy Land. This army would be enough to completely rid it of the presence of Muslims. But a terrible event happened: the emperor drowned in the river, after which some of the soldiers returned to Europe, and only a small part of it reached the Holy Land, but their small number did not in any way affect the outcome of the campaign.

Fighting in the Holy Land

When European monarchs landed on the shores of Acre in 1191, the situation could radically change. But even here difficulties arose between French and English monarchs enmity broke out, the reason for it was both personal hostility and the situation with the capture of Cyprus. Richard captured Cyprus with his own hands and refused to share it with the French, since the treaty provided for the division of captured territories only among Muslims. For these reasons, the two armies could not unite.

But, despite this, Acre was still besieged. The Crusaders did not allow the Muslims to send provisions to the city, due to which the defenders' forces were greatly depleted. Under threat of starvation, the garrison of Acre began to think about surrendering the city into the hands of the crusaders. And finally, on July 12 of the same year, the Muslims surrendered the city. It was during the siege of Acre that it was founded Warband, which was first supposed to help poor Germans.

After the capture of Acre, disagreements between the monarchs intensified even more, everything came to the point that the French monarch and his army left Acre and went back to France. Thus, Richard the Lionheart was left alone with Saladin's huge army.

After capturing Acre, Richard and his army moved to the Muslim city of Arfus. During the campaign, he was attacked by a Muslim army. The infidels showered the crusaders with arrows. Then Richard built his troops in such a way that the cavalry was placed in the center, and the infantry with large shields was built around it, creating a kind of “boxes”. With the help of such a battle formation, the crusaders moved forward, ignoring the Muslim archers. But the Knights Hospitaller could not stand it and went on the attack. Richard managed to wait a moment, and he ordered all forces to launch a decisive attack, which ended in victory for the crusaders.
After the victory, the Crusader army moved towards Jerusalem. The crusaders crossed the desert, after which they were severely exhausted. Having approached the city, the crusaders had no strength left to besiege Jerusalem. Then Saladin invited the crusaders to leave without a fight if they left Jerusalem. Richard retreated to Acre and there executed several thousand civilians of Arab origin, Saladin responded in kind.

The Third Crusade was drawing to a close. Richard did not want to go to Jerusalem again, but there was always a reason to return to Acre. When the French monarch planned to seize the lands of England, then ruled by Richard's brother John, Richard made a truce with Saladin and decided to return to save his crown. In 1192, Richard left the Holy Land and the Third Crusade came to an end.

While returning home, Richard was captured by Leopold V and imprisoned for two years. Richard emerged from captivity only after England paid a ransom of 23 tons of silver.

Consequences of the Third Crusade

The campaign ended with the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Richard's power was undermined and all of England was endangered. Disagreements with France intensified, and Richard himself was captured, for which England ransomed him and thereby suffered economic losses.

The Muslims thereby strengthened their position in the Holy Land, and the personality of Saladin became a cult; after the victory over the crusaders, many Muslims joined him and were ready for a new invasion of the crusaders.

Third crusade(1189 - 1192) was initiated by Popes Gregory VIII and (after the death of Gregory VIII) Clement III.
In this Crusade Holy land Four of the most powerful European monarchs took part - the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French King Philip II Augustus, the Austrian Duke Leopold V and the English King Richard I the Lionheart.
The position of Christian states on holy land after Second Crusade remained in the same condition in which it was before 1147.
In the Christian states of Palestine themselves, internal decay is noticeable, which the neighboring Muslim rulers take advantage of. The laxity of morals in the principalities of Antioch and Jerusalem is revealed especially sharply after the end of Second Crusade.
In the early 80s of the 12th century in the Kingdom of Jerusalem on holy land 40,000-50,000 people lived, of which no more than 12,000 were Latins (Christians with Western European roots). The rest were the indigenous inhabitants of this country: “Eastern” Christians, Muslims, Jews, Samaritans. 5

On holy land power and influence increased military monastic orders(Templars and Hospitallers), they had at their disposal the vast majority of Christian castles and fortresses, which only they could effectively defend.
Theoretically, the defense of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was the responsibility of all Western European Christianity, but in reality, after the failure Second Crusade in 1148, the Latin states had to rely only on their own strength. Their rulers needed a large number of professional warriors and financial support, and not foreign hordes of warlike crusaders, who went home, agitating the Muslim world. 5

While Palestine gradually passed into the hands of Nuredin, in the north the claims of the Byzantine king Manuel I Komnenos increased, who did not lose sight of the centuries-old Byzantine policy and used all measures to reward himself at the expense of the weakened Christian principalities.
Knight at heart, a highly energetic man who loved glory, King Manuel was ready to implement the policy of restoring the Roman Empire within its old limits. He repeatedly undertook campaigns to the East, which were very successful for him.
His policy tended to gradually unite the Principality of Antioch with Byzantium. This is evident, among other things, from the fact that after the death of his first wife, the sister of King Conrad III, Manuel married one of the Antioch princesses. The resulting relations were eventually to bring Antioch under Byzantine rule. 4
Thus, both in the south, due to the successes of the Muslims, and in the north, due to the claims of the Byzantine king, the Christian principalities holy land in the second half of the 12th century, a near end threatened.
The self-confidence of the military elite Latin states still fed on the experience of easy victories First Crusade, which, on the one hand, had a positive effect on the morale of Christians, but on the other hand, became one of the main reasons for the military catastrophe that soon broke out.
After power over Egypt passed to Saladin, Islamic rulers began a targeted struggle against the “Franks” (as all Europeans living in the Middle East were called here).
An important change in the Middle East was the revival of the concept of “jihad,” “war against infidels,” long dormant but revived by Sunni Muslim theologians of the 12th century. "Jihad" became an organized campaign to reconquer holy land, as well as crusade set the goal of conquering it.
Muslims, however, did not seek to convert the enemy by sword, since Islam never condoned forced conversion. However, the 12th century saw a hardening of the religious position of Islam, greater intolerance and increased pressure on local Eastern Christians. Sunni Muslims applied the same principles to the Muslim minority, the Shiites. 5
Saladin was a wise tactician and politician. He was aware of the strength of his enemies, just as he was aware of his own weaknesses. were strong when they stuck together, but as there were endless power struggles between them, Saladin managed to win over some of the barons to his side, and then began to pit them against each other.
Little by little he plunged the states crusaders into complete isolation, uniting first with the Seljuks and then with Byzantium. It was to his advantage that crusaders don't get along with each other.
The then king of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV, was a weak and sick ruler; he suffered from leprosy, that is, leprosy, which was very common in the East.
The military threat was growing, but the truce between Christians and Muslims had not yet expired. In 1184-1185 crusaders sent envoys to Europe to explain the seriousness of the situation there. In the West they have already begun to collect money, but until the Muslims used weapons, there were no calls for a new crusade on Holy land.
In the spring of 1187, even before the truce expired, one of the Frankish barons Renaud of Chatillon (Reynald de Chatillon) treacherously attacked a Muslim caravan transporting goods from Damascus to Egypt. He had previously robbed Muslim pilgrims going to Mecca and destroyed port cities on the Red Sea. And since Renault did not want to compensate for the damage, Saladin declared war.

Before the significant losses of territory that followed the Battle of Hattin, the Kingdom of Jerusalem had a fairly significant army. According to the registers of the time of King Baudouin IV, in the feudal militia of the kingdom there were 675 knights and 5025 sergeants, not counting the Turcopoles and mercenaries.
In total, the kingdom could field over 1,000 knights, including contingents sent from the County of Tripoli (200 knights) and the Principality of Antioch (700 knights). A certain number of knights could always be recruited from those who arrived in Holy land pilgrims.
In addition, the Templars kept holy land a permanent order contingent of over 300 knights and several hundred sergeants and turcopols. Also the Hospitallers, who back in 1168 promised to give 500 knights and 500 Turcopoles to help the king invade Egypt (although it remains unclear where they could gather such forces, since their order contingent in the Middle East also numbered no more than 300 brother knights) . The number of troops could also be increased by local native militia. 5
Saladin bet on a full-scale battle before the Christians climbed out of the waterless plateau and reached Lake Tiberias. The proposed battle site, of course, had already been inspected by Saladin's scouts. His plan of action was quite simple: the enemy should not reach the water, the infantry should be separated from the cavalry and both parts of the troops should be completely destroyed.
Further events proceeded almost in full accordance with Saladin's plans, except for the fact that a significantly larger number of Christians escaped from the battlefield than he had expected. 5
On July 3 (4), 1187, a fierce battle broke out near the village of Hattin (Khyttin) (the Battle of Hattin or the Battle of Tiberias) between crusaders and Muslims. Saladin's Muslim army outnumbered the Christian forces.
The Christian army left the camp in the usual order: the cavalry was covered by rows of infantry, as well as archers and crossbowmen, ready to push back the presumptuous Muslims with counterattacks.
The first attacks of Saladin's army were repulsed by it, but many horses were lost. But, more importantly, the Christian infantry wavered and began to leave their formations in large numbers and retreat to east direction. Muslim sources claim that the thirsty infantrymen fled towards Lake Tiberias, despite the fact that it was much further away than the source at Hattin, and therefore there was no need to make such a move. long journey to get drunk. Christian chroniclers explain this movement of the masses crusader infantry with her desire to find refuge from the enemy on the Horns of Hattin.
The morale of the infantrymen was so depressed that they only looked indifferently at the battle that the Christian cavalry continued to wage around the three tents set up at the foot of the Horns. Despite the repeated orders of King Guido and the exhortations of the bishops to protect the Holy Cross, they stubbornly refused to go down, answering: “We will not go down and fight, because we are dying of thirst.” 5
Meanwhile, the unprotected horses knights-crusaders were struck down by enemy arrows, and already most of them knights fought on foot.
It remains unknown when the Holy Cross was captured by the Saracens, but the fact that this was done by the warriors of Taqi ad-Din is beyond doubt. Some sources indicate that Taqi ad-Din launched a powerful attack on the Christians after allowing Count Raymond to break through the line Muslim troops. During this attack, the Bishop of Acre who held the Cross was killed, but before the holy relic fell into the hands of Taqi al-Din, it was intercepted by the Bishop of Lydda.
Other sources believe that after the death of the Bishop of Acre, the Bishop of Lydda moved the shrine to the southern Horn, where it was eventually captured during one of the last attacks carried out by the troops of Taqi ad-Din. However, whenever this happened, with the loss of the relic, the spirit of the Christian troops was completely crushed. 5
At the Battle of Hattin crusaders suffered a crushing defeat. Countless numbers of them were killed in battle, and the survivors were taken prisoner.
Among the captured Christians were King Guido de Lusignan, his brothers Geoffroy de Lusignan and Constable Amalrich (Amaury) de Lusignan, Margrave Guillemo de Montferrat, Reynald de Chatillon, Humphred de Toron, Master of the Templar Order Gerard de Ridfort, Master of the Order of Hospitallers Garnes ( Gardner) de Naplus (apparently temporarily leading the Order after the death of Roger de Moulin until the election of a new master; Garnier himself officially took this post only three years later, in 1190), Bishop of Lydda, many other barons, as well as Renault of Chatillon.
Even before the battle, Saladin vowed to personally cut off the head of this truce breaker. This is apparently what happened. 2
All Turcopoles who were captured, as having betrayed the Muslim faith, were executed right on the battlefield. The remaining prisoners arrived in Damascus on July 6, where Saladin made a decision that left a bloody stain on his vaunted humanity.
All captured Templars and Hospitallers were given a choice: either convert to Islam or
die.
Conversion on pain of death was against Muslim law, but in this case the knights of the spiritual orders seemed to Saladin to be a kind of Christian assassins and thus too dangerous to be pardoned.
Therefore, 250 knights who refused to convert to Islam were slaughtered. Only a few warrior monks committed an act of apostasy...
The remaining barons and knights were released for ransom, and most crusaders of humble origin and infantrymen were sold into slavery.
The Battle of Hattin was won as a result of the tactical superiority of the Muslim side, since Saladin forced his enemy to fight in a place, at a time favorable to him, and under conditions favorable to him. 5
The defeat at the Battle of Hattin was fatal consequences for states crusaders. They no longer had a combat-ready army and Saladin could now operate unhindered in Palestine.
According to the Arab chronicler, he captured 52 cities and fortresses.
On July 10, 1187, the important port of Akkon was taken by Saladin's troops, Ascalon fell on September 4, and two weeks later the siege of Jerusalem began, which surrendered in early October.
In contrast crusaders Saladin did not carry out a massacre in the defeated city and released Christians from it for a ransom. As a ransom, Saladin took 10 gold dinars per man, 5 gold dinars per woman and 1 gold dinar per child.
Those persons who did not pay the ransom were enslaved by Saladin. So no a hundred years have passed since crusaders captured Jerusalem, and it was already lost by them. This testified, first of all, to the hatred that crusaders inspired to themselves in the East. 6
Muslim warriors again took possession of their shrine - the al-Aqsa Mosque. Saladin's triumph was limitless. Even such impregnable fortresses as Krak and Krak de Montreal could not withstand the onslaught of the Muslims.
In Krak, the French even exchanged their wives and children for food supplies, but this did not help them either. Only a few powerful fortresses in the north remained in the hands of Christians: Krak des Chevaliers, Chatel Blanc and Margat...
In order to save the remaining territories on holy land and recapture Jerusalem, the third, most famous crusade.
It was necessary to maintain both the honor of the church and the spirit of all Western Christianity. Despite any difficulties and obstacles, the pope took under his protection the idea of ​​raising the Third crusade. In the near future, several definitions were compiled with the goal of spreading the idea of crusade across all Western countries.
The cardinals, shocked by the events on holy land, gave the pope their word to take part in raising the campaign and, preaching it, go through bare feet in Germany, France and England. The pope decided to use all church means to facilitate participation in the campaign, if possible, for all classes. To this end, an order was made to stop internal wars, knights The sale of fiefs was facilitated, the collection of debts was postponed, and it was announced that any assistance in the liberation of the Christian East would be accompanied by the remission of sins. 2
Mandatory tax directly related to the Third crusade, there was the famous Saladin tithe (1188). This tax was also introduced in France and England, and it was distinguished by the fact that it was much higher than the previous ones, namely, one tenth of the annual income and movable property of all subjects, both laymen and clergy and monks. They just didn't pay tax crusaders, who received tithes from each of their vassals who did not go on a campaign.
Saladin's tithe brought in enormous income - one chronicler writes that 70,000 pounds were collected in England alone, although he may be exaggerating. In France, the introduction of this tax encountered resistance, which prevented Philip II from receiving an equally significant amount. Moreover, Philip even had to promise that neither he nor his successors would no longer impose such a tax on their subjects, and, apparently, they kept this promise. 7
And yet the funds for the third crusade Quite a lot was collected...
In the spring of 1188, the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa decided to participate in the Third crusade to the Holy Land.
There were not enough ships, so it was decided not to go by sea. Most of The troops moved overland, despite the fact that this path was not easy. Previously, treaties were concluded with the Balkan states to ensure crusaders unhindered passage through their territories. This greatly annoyed the Byzantine emperor.
On May 11, 1189, the army left Regensburg, it was huge, up to 100,000 people, although this figure may be overestimated. It was headed by the 67-year-old Emperor Frederick I.
And Frederick's son Heinrich sailed with Italian fleet who was supposed to help crusaders cross the Dardanelles to Asia Minor.
In Anatolia crusaders entered the lands of the Seljuks. Before this, they concluded an agreement with the Turkish ruler of Konya on free passage through his lands. But in the meantime, the Sultan of Konya was overthrown by his own son, and the previous treaty became invalid.
Due to Seljuk attacks and unbearable heat crusaders moved forward very slowly. Among them, widespread illness began.
The importance of Frederick I Barbarossa was fully appreciated by Saladin and he awaited his arrival in Syria with fear. Indeed, Germany seemed ready to correct all the mistakes of previous crusades and restore the dignity of the German name in the East, as an unexpected blow destroyed all good hopes...
On June 10, 1190, Emperor Barbarossa drowned while crossing the mountain river Salef. His death was a heavy blow to the Germans. crusaders.
The Germans have special confidence in Frederick, the eldest son of Barbarossa. crusaders there was none, and therefore many turned back. Only a small number of faithful knights continued its journey under the leadership of Duke Frederick. On October 7, they approached Akkon (Acre) and besieged it. 2
In the winter of 1190-1191. famine began to rage in the besieged city...

For the success of the Third crusade big influence was attended by the English king Richard I the Lionheart. Richard, a highly energetic, lively, irritable man, acting under the influence of passion, was far from the idea of ​​a general plan; he sought first of all knightly exploits and glory. His very preparations for the campaign reflected his character traits too clearly.
Richard surrounded himself with a brilliant retinue and knights, for his army, according to contemporaries, he spent as much in one day as other kings spent in a month. When getting ready to go on a campaign, he transferred everything into money; he either leased out his possessions, or mortgaged them and sold them. Thus he actually raised enormous funds; his crusader The army was well-armed. It would seem that good funds and a large armed army should have ensured the success of the enterprise...
Part of the English army left England on ships, while Richard himself crossed the English Channel to join the French king Philip II Augustus and direct his way through Italy. This movement began in the summer of 1190.
Both kings intended to go together, but the large number of troops and the difficulties that arose during the delivery of food and fodder forced them to separate.
The French king led the way and in September 1190 arrived in Sicily and stopped in Messina, waiting for his ally. When the English king arrived here, the movement of the allied army was delayed by the considerations that it was inconvenient to begin a campaign by sea in the fall; Thus, both troops spent the autumn and winter in Sicily until the spring of 1191. 2
Meanwhile, Richard, upon arrival in Sicily, declared his claims to the Norman possessions. In fact, he justified his right by the fact that the deceased William II was married to Joanna, the daughter of the English king Henry II and the sister of Richard himself. The temporary usurper of the Norman crown, Tancred, held William's widow in honorable custody.
Richard demanded that his sister be given to him and forced Tancred to give him a ransom for the fact that the English king left him the actual possession of the Norman crown. This fact, which aroused enmity between the English king and the German emperor, was of great importance for everything that followed.
All this clearly showed the French king that he would not be able to act according to the same plan as the English king. Philip considered it impossible, in view of the critical state of affairs in the East, to remain further in Sicily; in March 1191 he boarded ships and crossed over to Syria.
The main goal that the French king strove for was the city of Ptolemais (French and German form - Accon, Russian - Acre). This city during the period from 1187-1191 was the main point on which the views and hopes of all Christians were concentrated. On the one hand, all the forces of Christians were directed to this city, on the other, Muslim hordes were drawn here.
All Third crusade concentrated on the siege of this city; when the French king arrived here in the spring of 1191, it seemed that the French would give the main direction of affairs.
King Richard did not hide the fact that he did not want to act in concert with Philip, relations with whom especially cooled after the French king refused to marry his sister.
The fleet, which sailed from Sicily in April 1191, was captured by a storm, and the ship carrying the new bride, Princess Berengaria of Navarre, was thrown onto the island of Cyprus.
The island of Cyprus was at this time in the power of Isaac Komnenos, who revolted from the Byzantine emperor of the same name. Isaac Comnenus, usurper of Cyprus, did not distinguish between friends and enemies of the emperor, but pursued his own selfish interests; he declared the bride of the English king his captive. Thus, Richard had to start a war with Cyprus, which was unexpected and unexpected for him and which required a lot of time and effort from him.
Having taken possession of the island, Richard chained Isaac Comnenus in silver chains; A series of celebrations began that accompanied the triumph of the English king: for the first time, the British acquired territorial possession in the Mediterranean Sea. But it goes without saying that Richard could not count on long-term possession of Cyprus, which was located at such a great distance from Britain.
While Richard was celebrating his victory in Cyprus, when he was organizing celebration after celebration, the titular king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, arrived in Cyprus; we call him a titular king because in fact he was no longer the king of Jerusalem, he did not have any territorial possessions, but bore only the name of a king. Guy de Lusignan, who arrived in Cyprus to declare signs of devotion to the English king, increased the splendor and influence of >, who gave (according to other sources - sold) him the island of Cyprus.
In April 1191, to Akkon (Acre), besieged by the Germans crusaders, the French fleet arrived in time, followed by the English.
After the arrival of Richard I the Lionheart (8 June) all crusaders tacitly acknowledged his leadership. He drove off the army of Salah ad-Din, who was coming to the rescue of the besieged, and then waged the siege so vigorously that the Muslim garrison capitulated. 6
Saladin tried his best to avoid the pre-agreed ransom, and then the English king Richard I the Lionheart did not hesitate to order the killing of 2,700 captured Muslims. Saladin had to ask for a truce...
During the occupation of Acre, a very unpleasant incident took place among Christians. Duke Leopold V of Austria, having taken possession of one of the walls of the city, put up an Austrian banner: Richard I> ordered it to be torn down and replaced with his own; this was a great insult to the entire German army; from that time on, Richard acquired an irreconcilable enemy in the person of Leopold V.
The French king reached extreme irritation; Philip's hostility towards Richard fueled rumors that the English king was plotting to sell the entire Christian army to the Muslims and was even preparing to encroach on Philip's life. Irritated, Philip left Acre and went home...
retreated to the south and headed through Jaffa towards Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was restored, although Jerusalem itself remained in Muslim hands. Akkon was now the capital of the kingdom. Power crusaders was limited mainly to a strip of coast that began just north of Tire and stretched to Jaffa, and in the east did not even reach the Jordan River.
Since Philip II had previously returned to France, unity of command reigned in the army, and his subsequent actions against Saladin, as well as the respect that the two warriors had for each other, constituted the most famous episode in history crusades on Holy land. 1
After a skillfully prepared throw along the coast (one of his flanks was protected by the sea), Richard fought and defeated Saladin near Arsuf (1191).
In general, this clash served as the apotheosis of the two-week confrontation between the Turks and crusaders, who set out south from recently liberated Acre on August 24. The main goal The Frankish campaign served Jerusalem, the road to which lay on the coast from Jaffa.
Almost immediately the rearguard, consisting of French knights Duke Hugo of Burgundy was attacked by Muslims, confused and surrounded by them, but Richard managed to rescue the tail of the column.
As a result, in the most dangerous areas - in the vanguard and in the rearguard - he placed the brother knights of the military monastic orders - the Templars and Hospitallers. Bound by strict rules and accustomed to discipline far more than their secular comrades, armored monks were better suited to perform such tasks than others.
Although crusaders in general, and Richard in particular, are associated in the popular consciousness with cavalry, the king understood the vital importance of infantry. Holding shields in their hands, dressed in thick felt robes over chain mail, the spearmen covered the few knights and especially their horses on the march, and archers and crossbowmen compensated for the “firepower” of the enemy’s horse archers.
The main burden of defending the column along the route fell on the infantry. Numbering up to 10,000 people, it was divided approximately in two so that the cavalry (up to 2,000 people in total) and the convoy were between the two echelons. Because the crusaders moved in a southerly direction, their right flank was covered by the sea. In addition, they received supplies from the sea from crusader fleet all the way where the coastline allowed ships to get close to the shore.
Richard ordered both echelons to change places daily, one day holding back Muslim attacks, and the other walking along the coast in relative safety.
Saladin had no less than 30,000 soldiers, who were divided in a 2:1 ratio into cavalry and infantry. His infantry is called “black” by his chroniclers, although they are also described as Bedouins “with bows, quivers and round shields.” It is possible that we are talking about Sudanese warriors, whom the rulers of Egypt often recruited into their troops as skilled archers.
However, it was not they, but the horse archers who represented the source of greatest anxiety for crusaders. Ambroise, poet and crusader, speaks about the threat of the enemy:
“The Turks have one advantage, which served as a source of great damage to us. are heavily armed, while the Saracens have a bow, club, sword or spear with a steel tip.
If they have to leave, it is impossible to keep up with them - their horses are so good that there are no similar ones anywhere in the world, it seems as if they do not gallop, but fly like swallows. They are like stinging wasps: if you chase them, they run away, but if you turn around, they catch up.” 8
Only when the enemy was disorganized by losses and exhausted did Richard give knights an order to finish the job with a crushing throw.
On the coast near Arsuf, Salah ad-Din ambushed and then launched a powerful attack on the rear of Richard I's column to force the rearguard crusaders get involved in a fight.
At first, Richard I> forbade resistance, and the column stubbornly continued to march. Then, when the Turks became completely bolder, and the pressure on the rearguard became completely unbearable, Richard ordered the predetermined signal to attack to be sounded.
The well-coordinated counterattack took the unsuspecting Turks by surprise.
The battle was over in just a few minutes...
Obeying orders >, crusaders overcame the temptation to rush to pursue the defeated enemy. The Turks lost about 7 thousand people, the rest fled in disorder. Losses crusaders amounted to 700 people.
After this, Salah ad-Din never dared to engage Richard I in open battle. 6 The Turks were forced to go on the defensive, but lack of coordination prevented crusaders develop success.
In 1192, Richard I marched on Jerusalem, hot on the heels of Salah ad-Din, who, retreating, used scorched earth tactics - he destroyed all crops, pastures and poisoned wells. Lack of water, lack of feed for horses and growing discontent in the ranks of his multinational army forced Richard, willy-nilly, to the conclusion that he was unable to besiege Jerusalem unless he wanted to risk the almost inevitable death of the entire army.

He reluctantly retreated to the coast. Until the end of the year there were many small skirmishes in which Richard I showed himself valiant knight and a talented tactician.
The staff service and organization of supplies for his army were an order of magnitude superior to those typical of the Middle Ages. Richard I even provided a laundry service to keep clothes clean, in order to avoid the spread of epidemics. 6
Abandoning hope of taking Jerusalem, on September 1, 1192, Richard signed a treaty with Saladin. This peace, shameful for Richard’s honor, left for Christians a small coastal strip from Jaffa to Tire, Jerusalem remained in Muslim power, the Holy Cross was not returned.
Saladin granted peace to Christians for three years. At this time, they could freely come to worship holy places.
Three years later, Christians pledged to enter into new agreements with Saladin, which, of course, had to be worse than the previous ones.
This inglorious world fell heavily on Richard. Contemporaries even suspected him of treason and betrayal; Muslims reproached him for excessive cruelty...
9 October 1192 Richard left Holy land...
Richard I the Lionheart was on the throne for ten years, but spent no more than a year in England. He died during the siege of one of the French castles on April 6, 1199, wounded by an arrow in the shoulder... 4
The siege of Acre is fatal mistake by the figures of the Third crusade ; crusaders they fought, wasted time and effort over a small piece of land, essentially useless and completely useless, which they wanted to reward the King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan.
With the passing of Richard the Lionheart, the heroic era crusades V Holy land has come to an end... 1

Information sources:
1. " Crusades"(magazine "Tree of Knowledge" No. 21/2002)
2. Uspensky F. “History crusades »
3. Wikipedia website
4. Wazold M. " »
5. Donets I. “Battle of Hattin”
6. “All the wars of world history” (according to Harper Dupuy’s Encyclopedia of Military History)
7. Riley-Smith J. “History crusades »
8. Bennett M., Bradbury J., De-Fry K., Dickey J., Jesties F. “Wars and battles of the Middle Ages”

(1187) plunged the Christian world into sorrow. Pope Urban III wrote to all the princes, inviting them to unite against the infidels and begin the third crusade. He established fasts and solemn services, promised complete remission of sins to anyone who took up the cross, and proclaimed universal peace for seven years.

Crusader states (the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli - highlighted in green) at the beginning of the Third Crusade

This time three sovereigns accepted the cross. The German emperor summoned all the German princes to the Diet in Mainz; The third crusade was preached here: “Frederick could not resist the breath of the Holy Spirit and accepted the cross.” To avoid overcrowding the army with unfit elements, which turned out to be so disastrous for the second crusade of Emperor Conrad, it was forbidden to accept into the army people who did not own at least three marks of silver (150 francs). The German army (about 100 thousand people) followed the path of the first crusade - along the Danube and through Bulgaria. She was moving almost in perfect order; Frederick Barbarossa divided it into battalions of 500 people, each with a special commander at its head; in addition, he formed a military council of 60 dignitaries.

Frederick Barbarossa - Crusader

The Germans in the Third Crusade first of all had to endure the fight against the Byzantines. Finally, the Germans received ships, crossed the Hellespont and, entering the mountains of Asia Minor, began to delve deeper into a country devastated by wars. Soon they had no food or supplies; the horses began to fall. Finally, exhausted and exhausted by the incessant attacks of Turkish horsemen, the crusaders arrived at Iconium. They divided into two detachments: one burst into the city through the gates, the other, led by the emperor himself, defeated the Turks shouting “Christ reigns!” Christ wins!” For several days, the German crusaders of the third campaign rested in the city. Then the army crossed the Taurus along mountain paths. Finally, she arrived in Syria, in the valley of Seleph, and settled down here to rest; in the evening, Frederick, having dined on the river bank, wanted to swim in it and was carried away by the current. The Germans were overcome by despair and dispersed; the majority returned to their homeland, the rest went to Antioch, where they were destroyed by an epidemic (June 1190). Thus ended the third crusade for the German army.

The kings of France and England, who fought with each other during the crusade, gathered under the Gisors Elm in January 1188, embraced and accepted the cross. They ordered a crusade to be preached in their states and, in order to cover the costs of the war, they decided to impose a tax on everyone who remained at home, equal to one tenth of his income (this tax was called Saladin's tithe). However, the war resumed. Both kings set out on the third crusade only in 1190.

They decided to make the trip by sea. French king Philip August headed to Genoa to board ships there. The monarch of England, Richard the Lionheart, walked through France and Italy. Both troops united in Messina. Discord immediately began. The Sicilians looked at these foreigners with hatred. One day an English soldier started a quarrel with a merchant over the cost of bread; the Messinian population beat him, became indignant and locked the gates of the city. Richard took Messina and gave it to the army to plunder (according to legend, it was then that the frightened Sicilians nicknamed him Lionheart). Philip demanded his share of the spoils and secretly wrote to the Sicilian king, offering him help against the English.

Throughout the winter, the French and English armies of the Third Crusade quarreled among themselves, and the knights spent their money. In the spring of 1191, the French crossed into Syria. Part of the English army that followed them was blown by the wind to the shores of Cyprus, which was then ruled by the usurper Isaac Comnenus. He robbed several ships; Richard landed on the island, defeated the Greek army located on the shore, and in 25 days conquered the entire island. He took away half the lands from the population, distributed them as fiefs to the knights, and placed garrisons in all fortresses.

When Philip and Richard arrived in Syria, participants in the third crusade from all European countries had already been besieging Saint-Jean d'Acre there for two years. They undertook this siege on the advice of the King of Jerusalem, Hugo Lusignan, who considered it most necessary to acquire the harbor. Jean d'Acre, built on a rock, was surrounded by a strong wall; the crusaders, located on the plain, surrounded their camp with a ditch; their ships blocked the port. Saladin, arriving with his army, camped on a hill on the other side of the city; he communicated with the besieged with the help of carrier pigeons and divers. From time to time, Muslim ships managed to deliver provisions to the city.

The Siege of Acre - the main military enterprise of the Third Crusade

The siege progressed slowly. The participants of the third crusade, having brought wood from Italy, with difficulty built three siege engines, each five stories high, but the besieged set them on fire. Then the winter rains began, and an epidemic appeared in the camp. At the end, the French arrived with Philip Augustus and the Germans with the Austrian Duke Leopold. The clashes continued for several more months. Finally, after a two-year siege, the garrison surrendered; he was allowed to leave on the condition that Saladin would pay 200 thousand gold coins, return the Life-Giving Cross and release the Christian captives within 40 days; To secure the agreement, the besieged gave 2 thousand hostages (July 1191).

French king Philip Augustus enters Acre taken by the crusaders (1191)

The skirmishes near Saint-Jean d'Acre gave Richard the glory of the bravest of the leaders of the third crusade. When he returned to the camp, his shield, according to legend, was studded with arrows, like a pillow with needles. He was a monster for Muslims; mothers frightened their children with him: “ Be silent, or I will call King Richard!” When the horse became frightened, the rider asked: “Did you see King Richard?” This ideal knight was rude and cruel. Entering Saint-Jean d'Acre, he ordered the Austrian banner to be torn from the wall and thrown into the mud. When Saladin was unable to collect the agreed amount within 40 days after the surrender, Richard ordered 2 thousand hostages to be taken outside the city walls and executed. Saladin gave up neither money, nor prisoners, nor the Life-Giving Cross.

Philip Augustus was in a hurry to return from the third crusade to France and left immediately after the end of the siege, swearing to Richard that he would not attack his possessions. Richard spent his time on small expeditions along the coast. When he finally decided to march towards Jerusalem, winter was already approaching; he was caught by cold rains and returned to the coast (1192). He rebuilt the Ascalon fortress; then he went to rescue Saint-Jean d'Acre, which was being contested by both contenders for the Jerusalem crown (on the one hand, Conrad of Montferrat, supported by the French and Genoese, on the other, Hugo Lusignan with the British and Pisans). Here he learned that his brother John entered into an agreement with the French king in order to take away his possessions from him; this news prompted him to stop the third crusade and return to Europe, but Conrad entered into an alliance with Saladin, but was suddenly killed by the two. assassins, sent by the Elder of the Mountain (1192). Saladin died in 1193.

Results of the Third Crusade. Crusader states around 1200. Map

The new German crusader army, arriving from Italy by sea (1197), helped the Syrian Christians again take possession of all the coastal cities; but when the news of the emperor's death was received HeinrichVI, the Germans dispersed, and Jerusalem remained in Muslim power.

At the end of the 12th century. Christian possessions in the Levant are moving. Christians before the third crusade lost their conquests inland and were driven back to the coast. The Kingdom of Jerusalem is limited to Phenicia alone. Its capital becomes Saint-Jean d'Acre, where the Templars and Hospitallers are moving their main abode. The County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch are united under the rule of one prince. Edessa is irretrievably lost. Four crusader states of the 12th century. reduced to two.

But in the West, Christians acquired two new states. The island of Cyprus, which Richard conquered during the Third Crusade and gave to Hugh of Lusignan, becomes the Kingdom of Cyprus. On the mainland, the Armenian prince Leo II, who received the title of king from Emperor Henry VI, subjugated all the small Armenian regions of Cilicia; he extended his power beyond the Taurus Mountains: to the west - along the entire coast to the Pamphylian Gulf, to the east - to the Euphrates Plain. He called upon European knights and merchants and gave them castles and quarters in cities to live in. He turned the Armenian leaders into vassals, their possessions into fiefs. Despite the resistance of the clergy and lower classes, he adopted the customs and laws of the Frankish crusaders (Assizes of Antioch); he forced his people to recognize the supremacy of the pope. The papal legate arrived in Tarsus to crown Leo king of Armenia. This is how the new kingdom of Lesser Armenia arose, where the French aristocracy was formed over the lower stratum of the population, preserving their Armenian nationality, and which can be considered as a Frankish state.