The Encyclopaedic Glossary

The Crusades

Since the fall of the Roman Empire and with the emergence of various branches of Islam, the entire Middle East, from Byzantium to Baghdad and from Edessa to Cairo, was nothing but a huge cauldron boiling with fratricidal struggles and civil wars, conquests and defeats.

Jerusalem, a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims, was accessible and open to all pilgrims. Until the mid-11^th century, Jerusalem was under the authority of the Fatimid sultans of Cairo. Christian pilgrims were tolerated in the holy city. Problems existed but were endured.

The second half of the 11^th century saw the arrival of the Seljuk Turks from their steppes in Central Asia. They took advantage of internal struggles and divisions among the Arab lords to settle in the region. In 1071, they captured the city of Jerusalem. The Christians living in the city, as well as pilgrims, were then subjected to increasingly cruel abuses. This was one of the many factors that triggered what History would come to call "the Crusades".

Contrary to popular belief, there were not only nine "Great Crusades" organised to conquer Jerusalem, liberate Christ's tomb and defend the Latin states of the Holy Lands. Other crusades were organised to fight in countries and regions that were sometimes quite surprising. The crusade then took on the full meaning of its definition: "A military expedition with a religious purpose".

Even less categorical in terms of facts than the Muslim crusades, the Nordic crusades, like the Reconquista, can be considered as a single great war, which began in the 11^th century and ended in 1410 with the crushing defeat of the Teutonic Order at Tannenberg (Grundvald).

The Reconquista, meanwhile, began in the 8^th century, continued and intensified in the 11^th and 12^th centuries, and ended in 1492 with the fall of Granada. Like the Northern Crusades, it can be considered not as a series of expeditions, but as a single war lasting several centuries.

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• The Crusades against the Muslims
  1. The People's Crusade (1096)
  2. The First Crusade (1096-1099)
  3. The Crusade of the Faint-Hearted (Lombards, Nivernois, French and Bavarians) (1100-1101)
  4. The First Norvegian Crusade (1107-1111)
  5. The Venetian Crusade (1122-1124)
  6. The Second Crusade (1147-1149)
  7. The Second Norvegian Crusade (1152-1155)
  8. The Third Crusade (1189-1192)
  9. The GErman Crusade (1197 - 1198)
  10. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)
  11. The "Children's" Crusade (1212)
  12. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)
  13. The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)
  14. The Crusade knoiwn as the "French Crusade" (1239) followed by the "English one" (1240)
  15. The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254)
  16. The First Shepherds' Crusade (1250 - 1251)
  17. The Heighth Crusade(1270)
  18. The Ninth Crusade or Lord Edward's Crusade(1271)
  19. The Crusade of the Poor(1309)
  20. The Second Shepherds' Crusade (1320)


• The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades

  ...

  1. The Wendish Crusade (1147)
  2. The First Swedish Crusade (1150)
  3. The Second Swedish Crusade (1249)
  4. The Third Swedish Crusade (1293 - 1295)


• The " Reconquista "

Important figures from 1050 to 1350

• The Masters of the Religious-Military Orders
  1. The Masters of the Templar Order
  2. The Masters of the Hospitaller Order
  3. The Masters of the Teutonic Order
  4. The Masters of the Order of Saint-Lazarus


• The Popes, the Kings, The Princes, The Emperors,...
  1. The Popes
  2. The Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Germany
  3. The Byzantine Emperors and Latin Emperors of Constantinople
  4. The Kings of France
  5. The Kings of England
  6. The Kings of Scotland
  7. The Kings of Norway
  8. The Kings of Sweden
  9. The Kings of Denmark
  10. The Kings of Poland
  11. The Kings of Hungary
  12. The Kings of Bohemia
  13. The Kings of Aragon
  14. The Kings of Navarre
  15. The Kings of Castile
  16. The Kings of Léon
  17. The Kings of Mallorca
  18. The Kings of Portugal
  19. The Kings of Sicily
  20. The Kings of Naples
  21. The Kings of Bulgaria
  22. The Kings of Serbia
  23. The Doges of Venise
  24. The Patriarch of Jerusalem
  25. The Kings of Jerusalem
  26. The Prince of Antioch
  27. The Counts of Edessa
  28. The Counts of Tripoli
  29. The Kings of Armenia
  30. The Kings of Cyprus


• The principal caliphs and sultans
  1. The Caliphs of Cordoba
  2. The Fatimid Caliphs of Cairo
  3. The Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad
  4. The Emirs and Sultans of Damascus
  5. The Sultans of Roum


• Other important characters
  1. Saint Bernard
  2. Peter the Hermit
  3. William of Tyre
  4. Renald de Châtillon

Important notice :
All the information you will find on these pages is for reference purposes only, based on accounts and information found in the literature. It is not a rewriting of history.

For example, specialist authors do not seem to agree among themselves on the number of masters of the Order of the Temple, the dates of their magisteriums, and many other details, even more general ones...

If you have any comments, suggestions or corrections, please do not hesitate to contact me, merci .