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| 1202, Summer |
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| The Crusaders trickled into Venice, only to discover that they had grossly overestimated the numbers to be transported; Venice had fulfilled her side of the bargain, but the Crusaders could not raise the agreed sum. With their options very limited, they agreed to a Venetian proposal (See 1204) to postpone the debt in return for their attacking the Christian city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast (Zara was a source of oak from Dalmatian forests that was used in Venetian shipbuilding). Zara taken and sacked by Crusaders on Nov. 24, 1202. Innocent excommunicated the Crusaders. Constantinople was entered (1203); Isaac II Angelus and his son Alexius IV were restored; Greek opinion was furious about the new exactions to pay the clamorous Crusaders, and Alexius V soon succeeded Isaac. The Crusaders stormed and took Constantinople (1204), the first capture of Constantinople in history, and sacked it with unparalleled horrors. The Latin Empire of the East (Romania) replaced the Greek Empire at Constantinople from 1204 to 1261; the first emperor, Baldwin of Flanders; a Latin patriarch, the Venetian Morosini, replaced the Greek patriarch, and technically the schism was ended; actually the Greeks refused all union. Venice acquired three-eighths of the city, plus Adrianople, Gallipoli, Naxos, Andros, Euboea, Crete, and the Ionian islands. Innocent III was horrified and helpless. The government of the Latin Empire was completely feudal under the Assizes of Romania (copied from the Assizes of Jerusalem). The Greek emperors ruled at Nicaea (1204–61) until Michael VIII surprised and took Constantinople, 1261. The Fourth Crusade shocked Europe, discredited the papacy and the whole crusading movement, and facilitated the advance of the Turks. | 1 |
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| 1208 |
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| The Albigensian Crusade, a European crusade against the Albigensian heretics in southern France, proclaimed by Innocent III (1208) (see (See 1208–13)). | 2 |
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| 1212 |
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| The so-called Children's Crusade, preached by the lad Stephen of Vendôme and by Nicholas of Cologne in Germany. Stephen's contingent reached Marseilles and was sold into slavery. Nicholas's company was turned back. The whole episode is supposed to have been the origin of the story of the Pied Piper. | 3 |
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| 1218–21 |
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| The Fifth Crusade. Innocent III, unwilling to let the crusading idea lapse, preached the Fifth Crusade at the Fourth Lateran Council. Egypt was to be the objective; the date, 1217; John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, was replaced by the papal legate Pelagius as leader (1218). Capture of Damietta (1219); rejection (in the expectation of Frederick II's arrival) of the offers of the sultan (1219) to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta; failure of the march on Cairo; treaty of 1221: eight-year truce; Damietta lost; retreat. | 4 |
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| 1228–29 |
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| The Sixth Crusade, of the Emperor Frederick II. Essentially a lay crusade, it continued the policy of Frederick's father, Henry VI (See 1190–97). Frederick returned ill with fever and was excommunicated. He sailed again (1228); the pope proclaimed a crusade against Frederick's Sicilian lands and renewed the excommunication. Frederick, the first Crusader to understand the Muslims, negotiated a treaty (1229) with Malik al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin, sultan of Egypt; peace for ten years, grant of Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and a corridor from Jerusalem to the coast for the Christians. The patriarch of Jerusalem opposed Frederick at every turn, and Frederick had to crown himself king (1229) in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He returned home at once to repel the papal crusade in his lands. The capture of Jerusalem by a rush of Muslim mercenaries (1244) led to the crusades of King Louis IX of France, but Jerusalem was not again in Christian hands until General Allenby captured it (1917). | 5 |
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| 1248–54 |
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| The Seventh Crusade, the first of King Louis IX of France (See 1270). Poorly organized; Damietta taken without a blow; march to Cairo (1249); rout of the army; capture of Louis; massacre of the army; loss of Damietta. Louis, ransomed, spent four years on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1251–54). | 6 |
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| 1270 |
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| The Eighth Crusade, the second of King Louis IX and Edward of England (the last of the western Crusaders who arrived 1271, and did nothing permanent). Attack on Tunis, possibly at the insistence of Charles of Anjou; death of Louis; the expedition continued by Charles; nothing accomplished. | 7 |
| Local and specific crusading expeditions were subsequently undertaken under various circumstances at different times; there was a revival of crusading zeal with the fall of Constantinople (1453) under papal urging, but the true Crusades were over. | 8 |
| The Crusades testify to the Europeans' enormous religious piety and zeal. However, because the Crusaders had a very slight knowledge of Middle Eastern geography, defenses, and culture; because the expeditions were poorly organized and lacked adequate supplies and reinforcements; and because the Crusaders went equipped primarily with ignorance and bigotry, the expeditions were doomed from the start. The Crusaders promoted some trade between Muslims and Europeans, but they left a permanent legacy of bitterness and hostility between Muslims on the one hand and Jews and Christians on the other. Likewise, because the Crusades brought to the surface latent Christian hostilities toward Jews (as in the Rhineland), Jews subsequently have been suspicious of Christian zeal. | 9 |
| The Crusades gave rise to great orders of knighthood that combined chivalry and monasticism. | 10 |
| The Knights of St. John, or the Hospitalers (black mantle with a white cross), originally an order founded at Jerusalem by Amalfitan merchants (c. 1070) to care for the Hospital of St. John; militarized (c. 1130) on the model of the Knights Templar; transferred to Cyprus (1291); to Rhodes (1310–1522) (Knights of Rhodes) and then to Malta (Knights of Malta). Noble blood was a requisite to knighthood in the order. | 11 |
| The Knights of the Temple (their house in Jerusalem stood near the Temple), or the Templars (white mantle with a red cross) founded (c. 1120) by Hugh of Pajens to guide and protect pilgrims; confirmed by the synod of Troyes (1128) and Pope Honorius II. Bernard of Clairvaux drew up their rule, a modification of the Cistercian; they took the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and their rule in general was that of the canons regular. The order consisted of knights, men-at-arms, and chaplains. Admission to knighthood in the order was open only to those of noble blood. Organization: by commanderies, under a grand master. | 12 |
| Famous orders of chivalry of royal foundation: the Order of the Garter (English), founded c. 1344; the Order of the Star (French), founded 1351, replaced by the Order of St. Michael (1469–1830); the Order of the Golden Fleece (Burgundian), founded 1429, became Habsburg 1477. | 13 |
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