Proud knights in the Crusades would march towards forgiveness of their sins, filled with greed. Bloodshed was worth it, dying was worth it. Marching towards Jerusalem with victory in their eyes, they would take anyone who stood in their way of victory. In Jerusalem they never stopped killing the Muslims. That was the Crusades of the Middle Ages.
In the year 1095, people were shocked in Western Europe by the words of Pope Urban II, "The Muslims have conquered Jerusalem". The Muslims forbade Christians and pilgrims to come to Jerusalem to pray. Pope Urban wanted the Christians to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. People shouted "God wills it". All over France these were the words of the Christians.
The French, German, and Italians were the European Christians that went on Crusades. The word Crusade meant "a war of the cross". During the first Crusade (1095-1097) most of the knights died of hunger, thirst or disease. When they got to Jerusalem they slaughtered anyone they could find. They took vows before going on a crusade. Sometimes during a crusade a knight would forget his vows and ride off or live in the village closest by.
In a Crusade there were pilgrims who were going to pray in Jerusalem, groomers that cleaned the horses, wives and children of the knights, and two kinds of knights: a mounted knight who rode on a horse and a foot soldier who walked on foot. Some of the knights went on Crusades to get rich or to steal a new home from the people they were fighting, but most of the knights went to get healed of their sins. Richard the Lion Heart (or Richard the I of England) was a famous general in the Crusades. The fourth Crusade (1199-1204) started off with a tournament against the Turks in France but the Crusade ended in tragedy. Pope Innocent III wanted the Christians to go and kill the Muslims. Most of the armies that went were already half destroyed by the Turks. They didn't reach Jerusalem. After the first Crusade (1095-1097) Godfrey, a general, ruled Jerusalem till he died in 1099. His brother Baldwin ruled starting Christmas day. All together there were six Crusades in a period of 176 years. The Crusades lasted from 1095 until 1271.
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