The Crusades

The First Crusade

Nov 27, 1095

Pope Urban II declared the First Crusadeat the Council of Clermont. It started because Muslims took the Holy Land and then they were going to take Constantinople.

Annihilated by the Turks

Oct 1, 1096

The Peoples Crusade were destroyed by the Turks in Anatolia

Christians retook the Holy Land

Jul 1, 1099

The first assault made by the Christians to the Muslims didn't work but the second was successful, and they retook the city.

Second Crusade

Dec 1, 1145

The Second Crusade is launched to recapture territory recently lost to Muslim forces

pope Eugene proclaims the second crusade

Dec 1, 1145

In the Bull Quantum Praedecessores, Pope Eugene III proclaims the Second Crusade in an effort to retake territory once again coming under the control of Muslim forces.

german crusaders

Feb 1, 1148

German Crusaders under Conrad III who had survived the Second Battle of Dorylaeum the previous year are massacred by the Turks.

The second crusade is finished

Jul 28, 1148

The political divisions among the Crusaders stand in sharp contrast to the greater unity among the Muslims in the region - a unity that would only increase later under the dynamic and successful leadership of Saladin. With this, the Second Crusade is effectively finished.

the third crusade

Jan 1, 1187

Crusade that followed Saladin's re-conquest of much of Palestine in 1187, which included the loss of Jerusalem. The Third Crusade was led by Frederick I Barbarossa of Germany, Philip II Augustus of France and Richard I the Lionheart of England.

Frederick Barbarossa

Jun 10, 1190

The elderly Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa responded to the call to arms, and led a massive army across Anatolia, but drowned in a river in Asia Minor on June 10, 1190, before reaching the Holy Land.

The third crusade finished

Jan 1, 1192

The successes of the Third Crusade would allow the Crusaders to maintain a considerable kingdom based in Cyprus and the Syrian coast. However, its failure to recapture Jerusalem would lead to the call for a Fourth Crusade six years later.

The treaty

Sep 2, 1192

Richard finalized a treaty with Saladin by which Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control, but which also allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the city.

Fourth crusade

Jan 1, 1200

Pope Innocent began to ask the rulers of Europe to participate in a fourth crusade, again attempting to take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids who ruled there. Saladin had died in 1193 AD, and the Crusaders thought his successors were weaker and would be easier to beat.

Crusaders in Venice

Jan 1, 1202

The Crusaders came to Venice to get their ships, but they didn't have enough money to pay for them. So the Venetians said, "Okay, you can pay us later, but in exchange you have to fight for us to get back the city of Zara that went over to the Hungarians a few years ago." The Crusaders agreed to do this, even though Zara was a Christian city. The Pope didn't like this and excommunicated all the Crusaders.

The crusaders took Constantinople

Jan 1, 1203

with the help of the Venetians the crusaders took Constantinople and put Alexius IV on the throne. But Alexius IV could not raise the money he had promised, and when he tried to raise the money through taxes he became so unpopular that he and his father were killed and a new emperor, Alexius V, got on the throne.

The fourth crusade is finished

Jan 1, 1204

The Crusaders and Venetians attacked Constantinople and sacked the city. A lot of the islands which had belonged to the Empire were taken over by the Venetians too. They took the piles of money and jewels and gold that they had captured in the sack of Constantinople and they went home.