1.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
2.
Mansoura, Egypt
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Mansoura is a city in Egypt, with a population of 480,494. It is the capital of the Dakahlia Governorate, the city is named after the Egyptian victory at the Battle of Al Mansurah over Louis IX of France during the Seventh Crusade. Mansoura was established in 1219 by al-Kamil of the Ayyubid dynasty, after the Egyptians defeated the Crusaders during the Sixth Crusade, it was named Mansoura. In the Seventh Crusade, the Capetians were defeated and put to flight, Louis IX of France was captured in the main Battle of Mansoura, and confined in the house of Ibrahim ben Lokman, secretary of the sultan, and under the guard of the eunuch Sobih. The kings brother was imprisoned in the same house, the sultan provided for their sustenance. The house of Ibrahim ben Lokman is now the museum in Mansoura. It is open to the public and houses articles that used to belong to the French monarch, the Mansura Air Battle on October 14,1973 occurred during the Yom Kippur War. Israeli Air Force fighters attacking Egyptian air bases were intercepted by the Egyptian Air Force, on that day,160 jet fighters, most belonging to Israel, battled for 53 minutes over Mansoura. Despite the numerical and qualitative superiority of the Israeli warplanes,2 Israeli planes were downed, Egypt announced the loss of six planes, only three of which fell to Israeli fire. The Egyptian government subsequently changed the country’s Air Force Day from November 2 to October 14, Mansoura lies on the east bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile, in the Delta region. Mansoura is about 120 km northeast of Cairo, across from the city, on the opposite bank of the Nile, is the town of Talkha. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert, there are some similarities to Alexandrian Egyptian Arabic in some aspects of pronunciation. Mansoura National Museum used to be Dar Ibn Lockman, the house where Louis IX was imprisoned in 1250 during the Seventh Crusade, displayed in the museum are the suits of mail and swords of the crusaders, as well as a collection of maps. Huge paintings depict the Battle of Mansoura, the Mansoura branch of the National Library was recently inaugurated as the Mansoura Misr Library. Mansoura is famous for its style, especially the Shinnawi Palace. It was built by an Italian architect in 1928, the mosque of El-Saleh Ayoub El-Kebir is one of the most important in Mansoura. It was built by a servant of the Sultan and is located in Al-Sagha Street that separates Old Mansoura from the modern city. Like Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, Mansoura was home to a flourishing Greek community until the Nasser era, many of the older and best established shops and businesses around the city still bear their original Greek names
3.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
4.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
5.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
6.
Anjou
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Anjou is an historical and cultural region of France, a former French county, duchy, and province. Its capital was the city of Angers in the lower Loire Valley, the territory has no very clear geographical borders but instead owes its territory and prominence to the fortunes of its various rulers. Henry Curtmantle, count of Anjou, inherited the kingdom of England on October 25,1154, the resulting Angevin Empire would, at its peak, spread from Ulster to the Pyrenees. Count Arthur was taken prisoner by his uncle the king in 1203, in 1205, the county was seized by Philip II Augustus of France. Its status was elevated to that of a duchy for Prince Louis, Anjou corresponds largely to the present-day department of Maine-et-Loire. It occupied the part of what is now the department of Maine-et-Loire. Anjous political origin is traced to the ancient Gallic state of the Andes, after the conquest by Julius Caesar, the area was organized around the Roman civitas of the Andecavi. The Roman civitas was afterward preserved as a district under the Franks with the name first of pagus—then of comitatus or countship—of Anjou. At the beginning of the reign of Charles the Bald, the integrity of Anjou was seriously menaced by a danger, from Brittany to the west. Lambert, a count of Nantes, devastated Anjou in concert with Nominoé. By the end of the year 851, he had succeeded in occupying all the part as far as the Mayenne. The principality which he carved out for himself was occupied on his death by Erispoé. By him, it was handed down to his successors, in whose hands it remained until the beginning of the 10th century, the Normans raided the country continuously as well. A brave man was needed to defend it, the chroniclers of Anjou named a Tertullus as the first count, elevated from obscurity by Charles the Bald. A figure by that name seems to have been the father of the later count Ingelger but his dynasty seems to have preceded by Robert the Strong. Robert met his death in 866 in a battle at Brissarthe against the Normans, hugh the Abbot succeeded him in the countship of Anjou as in most of his other duties, on his death in 886, it passed to Odo, Roberts eldest son. His descendants continued to bear that rank for three centuries and he was succeeded by his son Fulk II the Good, author of the proverb that an unlettered king is a wise ass, in 938. He was succeeded in turn by his son Geoffrey I Grisegonelle around 958, Geoffrey Greytunic succeeded in making the Count of Nantes his vassal and in obtaining from the Duke of Aquitaine the concession in fief of the district of Loudun
7.
County of Artois
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The County of Artois was an historic province of the Kingdom of France, held by the Dukes of Burgundy from 1384 until 1477/82, and a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1493 until 1659. Present Artois lies in northern France, on the border with Belgium and its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras, Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Saint-Omer, Lens and it forms the interior of the French département Pas-de-Calais. Originally a feudal county itself, Artois was annexed by the county of Flanders and it came to France in 1180 as a dowry of a Flemish princess, Isabelle of Hainaut, and was again made a separate county in 1237 for Robert, a grandson of Isabelle. Through inheritance, Artois came under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy in 1384, at the death of the fourth duke, Charles the Bold, Artois was inherited by the Habsburgs and passed to the dynastys Spanish line. After the religious revolts of 1566 in the Netherlands, Artois briefly entered the Dutch Revolt in 1576, after the Union, Artois and Hainaut reached a separate agreement with Philip II. Artois remained with the Spanish Netherlands until it was conquered by the French during the Thirty Years War, the annexation was acknowledged during the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, and it became a French province. Artois had already been largely French-speaking, but it was part of the Southern Netherlands until the French annexation, Artois experienced rapid industrial development during the second half of the 19th century, fueled by its rich coal resources. During World War I, the front line between the opposing Entente and Allied armies in France ran through the province, resulting in physical damage. Since the second half of the 20th century, Artois has suffered along with nearby areas because of the decline of the coal industry, Artois occupies the interior of the Pas-de-Calais département, the western part of which constitutes the former Boulonnais. Artois roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Arras, Béthune, Saint Omer, and Lens, and it occupies the western end of the coalfield which stretches eastward through the neighbouring Nord département and across central Belgium. At the time of Julius Caesar, Artois was the province of the Atrebates and their capital, Nemetocenna, is now the city of Arras, which possibly took its later name from the old name of the region. Artois originally was a Carolingian lordship established in West Francia, in Roman times, Artois had been situated in the Roman provinces of Belgica and Germania Inferior and inhabited by Celtic tribes, until Germanic peoples replaced them as the Roman Empire waned. Upon Isabelles death in 1190, it was claimed as a fief by the French crown. In 1237, King Louis VIII gave the County of Artois as an appanage to his younger son Robert, who became the progenitor of the House of Artois. The dispute was settled in favour of Mahaut, upon her death in 1329, Artois passed to her daughter by the Anscarid count Otto IV of Burgundy, Countess Joan II. Joan II had inherited the County of Burgundy in 1315 and when she died in 1330, she bequested Artois and Franche-Comté to her eldest daughter, Joan III. Joan III, Countess of Artois and Burgundy, entered into the dynastic allegiance with the ducal House of Burgundy, until 1350 all territories of Artois, Franche-Comté and the Burgundian duchy were inherited by their grandson Philip I of Burgundy
8.
Knights Templar
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The order was founded in 1119 and active from about 1129 to 1312. The order, which was among the wealthiest and most powerful, became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and they were prominent in Christian finance. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades, the Templars were closely tied to the Crusades, when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of the situation to control over them. In 1307, he had many of the members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip, the abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages. The re-use of their name for later organizations has kept the name Templar alive to the modern day, after Europeans in the First Crusade recovered Jerusalem in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure Christian control, in 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomons Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Templar knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the orders poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long, another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent IIs papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, with its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The others acted in support positions to assist the knights and to manage the financial infrastructure, the Templar Order, though its members were sworn to individual poverty, was given control of wealth beyond direct donations. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was away, based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks across the whole of Christendom. The Order of the Knights Templar arguably qualifies as the worlds first multinational corporation, in the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become united under effective leaders such as Saladin, and dissension arose amongst Christian factions in, and concerning
9.
Ayyubid dynasty
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The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, Saladin had been the vizier of Fatimid Egypt before toppling the Fatimids in 1171. Three years later, he proclaimed himself sultan following the death of his former master, most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestines coastline in the 1190s, by then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by al-Muazzam Turanshah, however, the latter was soon overthrown by the Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt, attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, in 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341 and this period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas in their major cities. The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, Ayyubs ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and his friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhis death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh, together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid, in his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River, as a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in an incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them all the facilities they needed. Ayyub was made commander of Baalbek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangis son, according to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead a force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt
10.
Bahri dynasty
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The Bahriyya Mamluks or Bahri dynasty was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic origin that ruled the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate from 1250 to 1382. They followed the Ayyubid dynasty, and were succeeded by a second Mamluk dynasty and she married the Atabeg Emir Aybak and abdicated, Aybak becoming Sultan. He ruled from 1250 to 1257, the Mamluks consolidated their power in ten years and eventually established the Bahri Mamluks. They were helped by the Mongols sack of Baghdad in 1258, Cairo became more prominent as a result and remained a Mamluk capital thereafter. In 1260 the Mamluks defeated a Mongol army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in present-day Israel, the defeat of the Mongols at the hands of the Mamluks enhanced the position of the Mamluks in the southern Mediterranean basin. Baibars, one of the leaders at the battle, became the new Sultan after the assassination of Sultan Qutuz on the way home. In 1250 Baibars was one of the Mamluk commanders who defended Al Mansurah against the Crusade knights of Louis IX of France, Baibars had also taken part in the Mamluk takeover of Egypt. Many Tatars settled in Egypt and were employed by Baibars and he defeated the Mongols at the battle of Elbistan and sent the Abbasid Caliph with only 250 men to attempt to retake Baghdad, but was unsuccessful. In 1266 he devastated Cilician Armenia and in 1268 he recaptured Antioch from the Crusaders, in addition, he fought the Seljuks, and Hashshashin, he also extended Muslim power into Nubia for the first time, before his death in 1277. Sultan Qalawun defeated a rebellion in Syria that was led by Sunqur al-Ashqar in 1280, after the Mongol threat passed he recaptured Tripoli from the Crusaders in 1289. His son Khalil captured Acre, the last Crusader city, in 1291, the Mongols renewed their invasion in 1299, but were again defeated in 1303. The Egyptian Mamluk Sultans entered into relations with the Golden Horde who converted to Islam, Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad married a Mongol princess in 1319. Al-Nasir Muhammad organized the re-digging of a canal in 1311 which connected Alexandria with the Nile, the constant changes of sultans that followed led to great disorder in the provinces. Meanwhile, in 1349 Egypt and the Levant in general were introduced to Black Death, in 1382 the last Bahri Sultan Hajji II was dethroned and the Sultanate was taken over by the Circassian Emir Barquq. He was expelled in 1389 but returned to power in 1390, al-Halqa, the primarily free born professional forces, they are also directly under the sultans command. Wafidiyya, These are Turks and Mongols that migrated to the border after the Mongol invasion, typically given land grants in exchange for military service. Other levies, Primarily Bedouin tribes, but also on different occasions also different groups of Turkomans, training manuals of the Egyptian Mamluks and others reveal the methods that could produce the remarkable skills of slave soldiers mamluks. The Egyptian Mamluks were expected to be able to shoot three arrows in one and a half seconds, and capable to strike with the sword, while galloping and they are also able to outshooting Mongols cavalry
11.
Louis IX of France
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Louis IX, commonly known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII the Lion, although his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom until he reached maturity. During Louiss childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals, as an adult, Louis IX faced recurring conflicts with some of the most powerful nobles, such as Hugh X of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux. Simultaneously, Henry III of England tried to restore his continental possessions and his reign saw the annexation of several provinces, notably Normandy, Maine and Provence. Louis IX was a reformer and developed French royal justice, in which the king is the judge to whom anyone is able to appeal to seek the amendment of a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal, tried to prevent the private wars that were plaguing the country, to enforce the correct application of this new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and bailiffs. According to his vow made after an illness, and confirmed after a miraculous cure. He was succeeded by his son Philip III, Louiss actions were inspired by Christian values and Catholic devotion. He decided to punish blasphemy, gambling, interest-bearing loans and prostitution and he also expanded the scope of the Inquisition and ordered the burning of Talmuds. He is the only canonized king of France, and there are many places named after him. Much of what is known of Louiss life comes from Jean de Joinvilles famous Life of Saint Louis, two other important biographies were written by the kings confessor, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and his chaplain, William of Chartres. The fourth important source of information is William of Saint-Parthus biography, while several individuals wrote biographies in the decades following the kings death, only Jean of Joinville, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and William of Chartres wrote from personal knowledge of the king. Louis was born on 25 April 1214 at Poissy, near Paris, the son of Prince Louis the Lion and Princess Blanche, and baptised in La Collégiale Notre-Dame church. His grandfather on his fathers side was Philip II, king of France, while his grandfather on his mothers side was Alfonso VIII, tutors of Blanches choosing taught him most of what a king must know—Latin, public speaking, writing, military arts, and government. He was 9 years old when his grandfather Philip II died, a member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died on 8 November 1226. He was crowned king within the month at Reims cathedral, because of Louiss youth, his mother ruled France as regent during his minority. Louis mother trained him to be a leader and a good Christian. She used to say, I love you, my son, as much as a mother can love her child
12.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
13.
Alphonse, Count of Poitiers
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Alphonse or Alfonso was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse from 1249. Born at Poissy, Alphonse was a son of Louis VIII, King of France and he was a younger brother of Louis IX of France and an older brother of Charles I of Sicily. In 1229, his mother, who was regent of France and it stipulated that a brother of King Louis was to marry Joan of Toulouse, daughter of Raymond VII of Toulouse, and so in 1237 Alphonse married her. Since she was Raymonds only child, they became rulers of Toulouse at Raymonds death in 1249, by the terms of his fathers will he received an appanage of Poitou and Auvergne. To enforce this Louis IX won the battle of Taillebourg in the Saintonge War together with Alphonse against a revolt allied with king Henry III of England, Alphonse took part in two crusades with his brother, St Louis, in 1248 and in 1270. For the first of these, he raised a large sum and he sailed for home on 10 August 1250. His father-in-law had died while he was away, and he went directly to Toulouse to take possession. There was some resistance to his accession as count, which was suppressed with the help of his mother Blanche of Castile who was acting as regent in the absence of Louis IX, the county of Toulouse, since then, was joined to Alphonses appanage. In 1252, on the death of his mother, Blanche of Castile, aside from the crusades, Alphonse stayed primarily in Paris, governing his estates by officials, inspectors who reviewed the officials work, and a constant stream of messages. His main work was on his own estates, there he repaired the evils of the Albigensian war and made a first attempt at administrative centralization, thus preparing the way for union with the crown. The charter known as Alphonsine, granted to the town of Riom and he is noted for ordering the first recorded local expulsion of Jews, when he did so in Poitou in 1249. When Louis IX again engaged in a crusade, Alphonse again raised a sum of money. This time, however, he did not return to France, dying while on his way back, probably at Savona in Italy, Alphonses death without heirs raised some questions as to the succession to his lands. One possibility was that they should revert to the crown, another that they should be redistributed to his family. The latter was claimed by Charles of Anjou, but in 1283 Parlement decided that the County of Toulouse should revert to the crown, Alphonses wife Joan had attempted to dispose of some of her inherited lands in her will. But, her will was invalidated by Parlement in 1274, one specific bequest in Alphonses will, giving his wifes lands in the Comtat Venaissin to the Holy See, was allowed, and it became a Papal territory, a status that it retained until 1791. Hallam, Elizabeth M. Capetian France, 987-1328, women rulers throughout the ages, an illustrated guide. The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century, in R. L. Wolff, H. W. Hazard
14.
Charles I of Anjou
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Thereafter, he claimed the island, though his power was restricted to the peninsular possessions of the kingdom, with his capital at Naples. Charles was the child and youngest son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. He conquered the Kingdom of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen and acquired lands in the eastern Mediterranean, however, the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced him to abandon his plans to reassemble the Latin Empire. By marriage to Beatrice of Provence, heiress of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence, he was Count of Provence, in 1247, his brother Louis IX made him Count of Anjou and Maine, as appanages of the French crown. By conquest and self-proclamation, he became King of Albania in 1272, by the testament of William II of Villehardouin, he inherited the Principality of Achaea in 1278. Charles was born in March 1227, four months after the death of his father, like his immediate older brother, Philip Dagobert, he did not receive a county as appanage, as had their older brothers. In 1232, his brothers Philip Dagobert and John, Count of Anjou and Maine, died, Charles became the next in line to receive the Counties, but was formally invested only in 1247. The affection of his mother Blanche seems largely to have bestowed upon his brother Louis. The self-reliance this engendered in Charles may account for the drive, upon his accession as Count of Provence and Forcalquier in 1246, Charles rapidly found himself in difficulties. Furthermore, while Provence was technically a part of the Burgundy and hence of the Holy Roman Empire, recent counts had governed with a light hand, and the nobilities and cities had enjoyed great liberties. Three cities, Marseille, Arles, and Avignon were Imperial cities technically separate from the county. In 1247, while Charles was in France to receive the counties of Anjou and Maine, the local nobility joined with Beatrice, unfortunately for Charles, he had promised to join his brother on the Seventh Crusade. For the time being, Charles compromised with Beatrice, allowing her to have Forcalquier, rich Provence provided the funds that supported his wider career. His rights as landlord were, on the whole, of recent establishment, from the Church, unlike his brothers in the north, he received virtually nothing. Charles agents were efficient, the towns were prosperous, the peasants were buying up the duties of corvée and establishing self-governing consulats in the villages, Charles sailed with the rest of the Crusaders from Aigues-Mortes in 1248 and fought at Damietta and in the struggle around Mansourah, Egypt. However, his piety does not seem to have matched that of his brother, during his absence, open rebellion had broken out in Provence. Charles moved to suppress it, and Arles, Avignon, Marseille held out until July 1252, but then sued for peace. Charles imposed a lenient peace, but insisted on the recognition of his full rights, in November 1252, the death of his mother Blanche of Castile caused him to go north to Paris and assume the joint regency of the kingdom with his brother Alphonse
15.
Robert I, Count of Artois
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Robert I, called the Good, was the first Count of Artois, the fifth son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. He received Artois as an appanage, in accordance with the will of his father on attaining his majority in 1237. In 1240 Pope Gregory IX, in conflict with the Emperor Frederick II, offered to crown Robert as emperor in opposition to Frederick, on 14 June 1237 Robert married Matilda, daughter of Henry II of Brabant and Marie of Hohenstaufen. They had two children, Blanche Robert II, who succeeded to Artois, while participating in the Seventh Crusade, Robert died while leading a reckless attack on Al Mansurah, without the knowledge of his brother King Louis IX. He and the Templars after fording a river, charged a Mamluk outpost in which the Mamluk commander, enbolded by his success, Robert, the Templar knights, and a contingent of English troops charged into the town and became trapped in the narrow streets. According to Jean de Joinville, he defended himself for some time in a house there, Jean Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, Power, Kingship and State-Making in Thirteenth-Century, Routledge,2014. Jean-François Nieus, Un pouvoir comtal entre Flandre et France, Saint-Pol, 1000-1300, a History of the Crusades, Vol. II, ed. Kenneth M. Setton, University of Wisconsin,1969, Charles T. Wood, The French Apanages and the Capetian Monarchy, Harvard University Press,1966
16.
Guillaume de Sonnac
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Guillaume de Sonnac was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1247 to 1250. Sonnac was born to a family in the French region of Rouergue. No date of birth survives for the Grand Master and he was described by Matthew Paris as a discreet and circumspect man, who was also skilled and experienced in the affairs of war. De Sonnac was an member of the order before his election as Grand Master. He was the Preceptor of Aquitaine in France for the Templars and arrived in the Holy Land around autumn of 1247, finding the remnants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in a precarious state. Grand Master Armand de Périgord had been taken prisoner at the Battle of La Forbie in 1244, before his first year in the East was out, he was the orders new leader. De Sonnacs tenure was a violent one. By 1247, the Christians had lost power bases in Tiberias, Mount Tabor, Belvoir and this prompted a fresh campaign from King Louis IX of France, who landed at Limassol, Cyprus on 17 September 1248. De Sonnac sailed from Acre to meet him and make preparations, shortly after, the new Grand Master received an Emir from the Sultan, offering the crusaders a peace deal. De Sonnac related this to the French King, who ordered him to any negotiations without gaining Royal permission first. This ensured the new campaign would be concluded with violence, not diplomacy, on 5 June 1249, the French crusader army, combined with de Sonnac and his Templar knights, attempted to land in Egypt. They targeted Damietta, just as the Fifth Crusade had years earlier, fighting on the Egyptian beaches was heavy and the King fought in waist-high water alongside the troops. After a prolonged battle, the Muslims were forced to retreat, De Sonnacs next engagement was at the Battle of Mansurah, for the city containing the areas defensive force, the last obstacle to central Egypt. The Muslims had been protected by the swollen Nile, but on 8 February 1250, De Sonnac, Robert of Artois, the Kings brother and William II Longespee, leader of the English troops, launched an assault on the Muslim force without the main Frankish army. Taken by surprise, the Egyptians quickly retreated from the riverbank into the city, john of Joinville claimed that the Count meant to follow on his own and that the rest of the raiding party did so as to not look cowardly. The Templars thought that they would be dishonored if they allowed the Count to go before them, however, another source, Matthew Paris, reported that de Sonnac was forced into the assault by the Count. Robert was bellowing and swearing disgracefully as is the French custom, disgusted, de Sonnac returned to his men and prepared to chase down the numerically superior enemy. Whatever the fact, the three commanders charged into Mansurah with tired men and no reinforcements and were drawn into heavy fighting
17.
Renaud de Vichiers
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Renaud de Vichiers was the 19th Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1250 to 1256. He joined the Knights Templar and was appointed Preceptor of Saint-Jean-dAcre in 1240 and Master of France from 1242 to 1249. He was a supporter and comrade-in-arms of Louis IX of France and he shortly quarrelled with Louis, though, over a diplomatic mission of Hugues de Jouy, the Templar Marshal, to Damascus. In 1252 Hugues was banished from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1252 Renaud de Vichiers retired to a monastery where he stayed until his death on 20 January 1256
18.
Shajar al-Durr
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Shajar al-Durr was the second Muslim woman to become a monarch in Islamic history. She was the wife of As-Salih Ayyub, Egypt Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty and later Izz al-Din Aybak, in political affairs, Shajar al-Durr played a crucial role after the death of her first husband during the Seventh Crusade against Egypt. She became the Sultana of Egypt on May 2,1250, marking the end of the Ayyubid reign, there are several theories about the ethnic roots of Shajar al-Durr. Many Muslim historians believed that she was of Turkic origin and some believed that she was of Armenian origin, several sources assert that Shajar al-Durr took the title of sultana, the feminine form of sultan. But The Cambridge History of Islam disputes the claim, stating that a form, sultana, does not exist in Arabic. Nevertheless, westerners often referred her as sultana, because in their perspective, sultana was used for women, Shajar al-Durr was of Turkic origin, and described by historians as a beautiful, pious and intelligent woman. She was purchased as a slave by As-Salih Ayyub in the Levant before he became a Sultan and accompanied him, later when As-Salih Ayyub became a Sultan in 1240 she went with him to Egypt and gave birth to their son Khalil who was called al-Malik al-Mansour. Some time after the birth, As-Salih Ayyub married her, in June 1249, the crusaders landed in the abandoned town of Damietta, at the mouth of the river Nile. As-Salih Ayyub was carried on a stretcher to his palace in the town of Al Mansurah where he died on November 22,1249 after ruling Egypt for nearly 10 years. The coffined body of the Sultan was transported in secret by boat to the castle on al-Rudah island in the Nile, Shajar al-Durr continued to have food prepared for the sultan and brought to his tent. High officials, the Sultans Mamluks and soldiers were ordered - by the will of the ill Sultan - to swear an oath of loyalty to the Sultan, his heir Turanshah and the Atabeg Fakhr ad-Din Yussuf. A crusader force led by Louis IXs other brother Robert I of Artois crossed the canal of Ashmum and attacked the Egyptian camp in Gideila, Emir Fakhr ad-Din was killed during the sudden attack and the crusader force advanced toward the town of Al Mansurah. Shajar al-Durr agreed to Baibarss plan to defend Al Mansurah, in February 1250 the dead Sultans son Al-Muazzam Turanshah arrived in Egypt and was enthroned at Al Salhiyah as he had no time to go to Cairo. With his arrival, Shajar al-Durr announced the death of as-Salih Ayyub, Turanshah went straight to Al Mansurah and on April 6,1250 the crusaders were entirely defeated at the Battle of Fariskur and king Louis IX was captured. Once the Seventh Crusade was defeated and Louis IX was captured and he then sent a message to Shajar al-Durr while she was in Jerusalem warning her and requesting her to hand over to him the wealth and jewels of his late father. The request and manners of Turanshah distressed Shajar al-Durr, when she complained to the Mamluks about Turanshahs threats and ungratefulness, the Mamluks, particularly their leader Faris ad-Din Aktai, were enraged. In addition, Turanshah used to drink alcohol and when drunk he abused the bondmaids of his father, Turanshah was assassinated by the Mamluks at Fariskur on May 2,1250. He was the last of the Ayyubids Sultans, after the assassination of Turanshah the Mamluks and Emirs met at the Sultanic Dihliz and decided to install Shajar al-Durr as the new monarch with Izz al-Din Aybak as Atabeg
19.
Qutuz
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It was under his leadership that the Mamluks achieved success against the Mongols in the key Battle of Ain Jalut. Qutuz was assassinated by a fellow Mamluk leader, Baibars, on the triumphant return journey to Cairo, although Qutuzs reign was short, he was one of the most popular Mamluk sultans in the Islamic world and holds one of the highest positions in Islamic history. Captured by the Mongols and sold as a slave, he traveled to Syria where he was sold to an Egyptian slave merchant who sold him to Aybak. According to some sources, Qutuz claimed that his name was Mahmud ibn Mamdud and he was descended from Ala ad-Din Muhammad II. He became the most prominent Muizi Mamluk of Sultan Aybak and he became his vice-Sultan in 1253, Aybak was assassinated in 1257 and Qutuz remained vice-Sultan for Aybaks son al-Mansur Ali. Qutuz led the Muizi Mamluks who arrested Aybaks widow Shajar al-Durr, in November 1257 and April 1258 he defeated raids of the forces of al-Malik al-Mughith of Al Karak which were supported by the Bahriyya Mamluks and included Shahrzuri Kurds. The raids caused a dispute among the Bahriyya Mamluks in Al Karak as some of them wanted to support their followers in Egypt, in February 1258, the Mongol army sacked Baghdad, massacred its inhabitants and killed the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustasim. It then advanced towards Syria which was ruled by the Ayyubid king an-Nasir Yusuf, vice-Sultan Qutuz and the Egyptian Emirs were alarmed by a message from an-Nasir Yusuf in which he appealed for immediate help from Egypt. On 12 November 1259, Al-Mansur Ali was deposed by Qutuz, when Qutuz became the new sultan, he promised the emirs that they could install any other sultan after he defeated the Mongols. Qutuz kept Emir Faris ad-Din Aktai al-Mostareb as the Atabeg of the Egyptian army, Hulagu and his forces were proceeding towards Damascus, where some of the Syrian emirs suggested to an-Nasir Yusuf to surrender and submit to Hulagu as the best solution to save themselves and Syria. The Mamluk Baibars, who was present at the meeting, was upset by the suggestion, however, he managed to escape with his brother to the citadel of Damascus. Baibars and the Mamluks then left Syria, travelling to Egypt where they were welcomed by Sultan Qutuz. When an-Nasir Yusuf heard that the Mongol army was approaching Aleppo, he sent his wife, his son, the population of Damascus and other Syrian towns began to flee. After besieging Aleppo for seven days, the Mongols sacked it, when an-Nasir Yusuf heard about the fall of Aleppo he fled towards Egypt, leaving Damascus with its remaining population defenseless, but Qutuz denied him entry. Yusuf thus stayed on the border of Egypt, while his Emirs deserted him to proceed into the country, Sultan Qutuz ordered the seizing of the an-Nasir Yusufs jewelry and money, which were sent to Egypt with his wife and servants. Sixteen days after the fall of Aleppo to the Mongols, Damascus surrendered without a fight, Yusuf was taken prisoner by the Mamluks and sent to Hulagu. With the centers of Islamic power in Syria and Baghdad conquered, the center of the Islamic Empire transferred to Egypt, Hulagu sent messengers to Cairo with a threatening letter, urging Qutuz to surrender and submit to the Mongols. Qutuzs response was to execute the messengers and they were sliced in half, and their heads were mounted on the gate at Bab Zuweila in Cairo
20.
Aybak
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Izz al-Din Aybak was the first of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in the Turkic Bahri line. He ruled from 1250 until his death in 1257, aibak was an Emir/commander of Turkic origin who served with other Turkmens in the court of the Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub and therefore was known among the Bahri Mamluks as Aybak al-Turkmani. He raised to the position of Emir and worked as a Jashnkir, the Ayyubids lost control over Egypt. Aybak, from the end of July 1250 the new sultan of Egypt, was given the royal name al-Malik al-Muizz, until then, Aybak relied foremost on four Mamluks, Faris ad-Din Aktai, Baibars al-Bunduqdari, Qutuz and Bilban al-Rashidi. Aybaks formal rule ended after just five days, nevertheless, the actual power in Egypt was still exercised by Aybak, who had returned to his position of atabak. An-Nasir Yusuf sent his forces to Gaza to conquer Egypt and overthrow Aybak, aybaks triumphs over the Ayyobids of Syria consolidated his position as a ruler of Egypt. Through negotiation and mediation of the Abbasid Caliph, Aybak freed the Ayyubid prisoners and gained control over southern Palestine including Gaza and Jerusalem, feeling secure by his victories and his agreement with the Ayyubids, Aybak imprisoned the young Ayyubid co-sultan Musa and appointed Qutuz as vice-sultan in 1252. In 1253 a serious rebellion led by Hisn al-Din Thalab in Upper and Middle Egypt was crushed by Aktai, in 1254, in a conspiracy with Qutuz and a few Mamluks, Aybak invited Aktai to the citadel and had him murdered. Aybak plundered the properties of the Bahriyya Mamluks and retracted Alexandria which Aktai controlled as own domain since 1252 and those who could not flee were either imprisoned or executed. Now Aybak was the absolute and sole ruler of Egypt and parts of Syria, but shortly afterwards he settled a new agreement with an-Nasir Yusuf, which limited his power to Egypt only. Shajar al-Durr, who already had disputes with Aybak felt betrayed by the man who she made sultan, on the day of his death he was about 60 years old and had a few sons, among them Nasir ad-Din Khan and al-Mansur Ali. Aybaks 11-year-old son Ali was installed by his loyal Mamluks, who were led by Qutuz, the new sultan took the royal name al-Malik al-Mansur Nour ad-Din Ali with Qutuz as a vice-sultan. Aybak was not liked nor respected by the Egyptians though he was remembered by the historian as a courageous and generous Sultan, Aybak ruled in a turbulent time. Aibak built a Madrasah in Cairo known by the name al-Madrasah al-Muizzyah, an-Nasir Yusuf Bahri dynasty Kipchaks List of rulers of Egypt Sources Abu al-Fida, The Concise History of Humanity Al-Maqrizi, Al Selouk Lemerefatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob,1997. Idem in English, Bohn, Henry G, the Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades, AMS Press,1969. Al-Maqrizi, al-Mawaiz wa al-itibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-athar, Matabat aladab, Cairo 1996, ISBN 977-241-175-X. D. Shayal, Jamal, Prof. of Islamic history, Tarikh Misr al-Islamiyah, dar al-Maref, Cairo 1266, ISBN 977-02-5975-6 The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Macropædia, H. H. Berton Publisher, 1973–1974
21.
Baibars
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Baibars or Baybars, of Turkic Kipchak origin — nicknamed Abu al-Futuh and Abu l-Futuhat — was the fourth Sultan of Egypt in the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. He was one of the commanders of the Egyptian forces that inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the reign of Baibars marked the start of an age of Mamluk dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and solidified the durability of their military system. As Sultan, Baibars also engaged in a combination of diplomacy and military action and his name was derived from Kipchak Turkic bay + bars. Baibars was born in the Dasht-i Kipchak/Cumania, between the Edil and Yaiyk rivers, to the Cumans-Kipchaks and it was said that he was captured by the Bulgars in the Kipchak steppe/Cumania and sold as a slave, ending up in Syria. Baibars was quickly sold to a Mamluk officer called Aydekin al bondouqdar and sent to Egypt, Baibars was a commander of the Mamluks under the Ayyubids. In around 1250 he defeated the Seventh Crusade of Louis IX of France and they were besieged from all directions by the Egyptian forces and the town population, and suffered heavy losses. Robert of Artois, who took refuge in a house, only five Templar Knights escaped alive. Baibars was still a commander under Sultan Qutuz at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, after the battle, Sultan Qutuz was assassinated while on a hunting expedition. Baibars succeeded Qutuz as Sultan of Egypt, also, the threat from the Mongols was still serious enough to be considered as a threat to Baibars authority. However, Baibars first chose to deal with Sinjar, and marched on Damascus, at the same time the princes of Hama and Homs proved able to defeat the Mongols in the First Battle of Homs, which lifted the Mongol threat for a while. After suppressing the revolt of Sinjar, Baibars then managed to deal with the Ayyubids, unfortunately, al-Mustansir II was killed by the Mongols during an ill-advised expedition to recapture Baghdad from the Mongols later in the same year. Like his unfortunate predecessor, al-Hakim I also received the oath of alliegance of Baibars. As sultan, Baibars engaged in a struggle against the Crusader kingdoms in Syria. He started with the Principality of Antioch, which had become a state of the Mongols and had participated in attacks against Islamic targets in Damascus. In 1263, Baibars laid siege to Acre, the capital of the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and he used siege engines to defeat the Crusaders in battles such as the Fall of Arsuf from March 21 to April 30. After breaking into the town he offered free passage to the defending Knights Hospitallers if they surrendered their formidable citadel, the Knights accepted Baibars offer but were enslaved anyway. Baibars razed the castle to the ground and he next attacked Athlith and Haifa, where he captured both towns after destroying the crusaders resistance, and razed the citadels
22.
First Crusade
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The First Crusade was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II in 1095. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the crusades, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city and they also established the crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. The First Crusade was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades and it was also the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The majority view is that it had elements of both in its nature, the origin of the Crusades in general, and particularly that of the First Crusade, is widely debated among historians. The confusion is due to the numerous armies in the first crusade. The similar ideologies held the armies to similar goals, but the connections were rarely strong, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa from the predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire, and Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom. In North Africa, the Umayyad empire eventually collapsed and a number of smaller Muslim kingdoms emerged, such as the Aghlabids, who attacked Italy in the 9th century. Pisa, Genoa, and the Principality of Catalonia began to battle various Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean Basin, exemplified by the Mahdia campaign and battles at Majorca and Sardinia. Essentially, between the years 1096 and 1101 the Byzantine Greeks experienced the crusade as it arrived at Constantinople in three separate waves, in the early summer of 1096, the first large unruly group arrived on the outskirts of Constantinople. This wave was reported to be undisciplined and ill-equipped as an army and this first group is often called the Peasants’ or People’s Crusade. It was led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Sans Avoir and had no knowledge of or respect for the wishes of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The second wave was not under the command of the Emperor and was made up of a number of armies with their own commanders. Together, this group and the first wave numbered an estimated 60,000, the second wave was led by Hugh I, Count of Vermandois, the brother of King Philip I of France. Also among the wave were Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse. It was this wave of crusaders which later passed through Asia Minor, captured Antioch in 1098 and finally took Jerusalem 15 July 1099. ”The third wave, composed of contingents from Lombardy, France. At the western edge of Europe and of Islamic expansion, the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was well underway by the 11th century and it was intermittently ideological, as evidenced by the Codex Vigilanus compiled in 881
23.
Crusade of 1101
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The Crusade of 1101 was a minor crusade of three separate movements, organized in 1100 and 1101 in the successful aftermath of the First Crusade. It is also called the Crusade of the Faint-Hearted due to the number of participants who joined this crusade after having turned back from the First Crusade. Calls for reinforcements from the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Pope Paschal II, successor to Pope Urban II and he especially urged those who had taken the crusade vow but had never departed, and those who had turned back while on the march. As in the first crusade, the pilgrims and soldiers did not leave as a part of one large army, in September 1100, a large group of Lombards left from Milan. These were mostly untrained peasants, led by Anselm IV, Archbishop of Milan, when they reached the territory of the Byzantine Empire, they pillaged it recklessly, and Byzantine emperor Alexios I escorted them to a camp outside Constantinople. This did not satisfy them, and they made their way inside the city where they pillaged the Blachernae palace, the Lombards were quickly ferried across the Bosporus and made their camp at Nicomedia, to wait for reinforcements. Joining them at Nicomedia was Raymond IV of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who was now in the service of the emperor. He was appointed leader, and a Byzantine force of Pecheneg mercenaries was sent out with them under the command of General Tzitas. This group marched out at the end of May, towards Dorylaeum, following the route taken by Raymond, after capturing Ancyra on June 23,1101, and returning it to Alexios, the crusaders turned north. They briefly besieged the heavily garrisoned city of Gangra, and then continued north to attempt to capture the Turkish-controlled city of Kastamonu, however, they came under attack from the Seljuq Turks who harassed them for weeks, and a foraging party was destroyed in July. However, the Seljuqs, under Kilij Arslan I, realizing that disunity was the cause of their inability to stop the First Crusade, had now allied with both the Danishmends and Ridwan of Aleppo, in early August the crusaders met this combined Muslim army at Mersivan. The crusaders organized into five divisions, the Burgundians, Raymond and the Byzantines, the Germans, the French, the Turks nearly destroyed the crusaders’ army near the mountains of Paphlagonia at Mersivan. The land was well-suited to the Turks—dry and inhospitable for their enemy, it was open, the battle took place over several days. On the first day, the Turks cut off the crusading armies’ advances, the next day, Duke Conrad led his Germans in a raid that failed miserably. Not only did fail to open the Turkish lines, they were unable to return to the main crusader army and had to take refuge in a nearby stronghold. This meant that they were cut off supplies, aid. The third day was quiet, with little or no serious fighting taking place, but on the fourth day. The crusaders inflicted heavy losses on the Turks, but the attack was a failure by the end of the day, Kilij Arslan was joined by Ridwan of Aleppo and other powerful Danishmend princes
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Norwegian Crusade
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The crusaders did not lose a single battle during the Norwegian Crusade. Sigurd and his men sailed from Norway in the autumn of 1107 with sixty ships and perhaps around 5,000 men, in the autumn he arrived in England, where Henry I was king. Sigurd and his men stayed there the entire winter, until the spring of 1108, after several months they came to the town of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia where they were allowed by a local lord to stay for the winter. However, when the winter there was a shortage of food. Sigurd then gathered his army, attacked the castle and looted what they could there. During the journey, the Norwegians encountered a pirate fleet of galleys which were seeking peaceful trading ships to rob. However, Sigurd set his course straight for the pirates and stormed their ships, after a short time all the pirates had been either slain or escaped, and Sigurd acquired eight ships from them. After this they came to a castle in Muslim Al-Andalus called Sintra and they took the castle, and killed every man there, as they had refused to be christened. They then sailed to Lisbon, a half Christian and half heathen city, there they won their third battle, and acquired great treasures. Their fourth battle was won in the town of Alkasse, where they killed such a number of people. After another victorious battle against pirates when sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar they sailed further along the Saracen land into the Mediterranean, the Balearics were at the time perceived by Christians to be nothing more than a pirate haven and slaving center. The Norwegian raids are also the first recorded Christian attacks on the Islamic Balearic Islands, the first place they arrived at was Formentera, where they encountered a great number of Blåmenn and Serkir who had taken up their dwelling in a cave. The course of the fight is the most detailed of the entire crusade through written sources, after this battle, the Norwegians supposedly acquired the greatest treasures they had ever acquired. They then went on to successfully attack Ibiza and then Minorca, tales of their success may have inspired the Catalan–Pisan conquest of the Balearics in 1113–1115. In the spring of 1109, they arrived at Sicily, where they were welcomed by the ruling Count Roger II, in the summer of 1110, they finally arrived at the port of Acre, and went to Jerusalem, where they met the ruling crusader king Baldwin I. They were warmly welcomed, and Baldwin rode together with Sigurd to the river Jordan, the Norwegians were given many treasures and relics, including a splinter off the True Cross that Jesus had allegedly been crucified on. This was given on the condition that they would continue to promote Christianity, later, Sigurd returned to his ships at Acre, and when Baldwin was going to the Muslim town of Sidon in Syria, Sigurd and his men accompanied him in the siege. The town was taken and subsequently the Lordship of Sidon was established
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Venetian Crusade
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The Venetian Crusade of 1122–24 was an expedition to the Holy Land launched by the Republic of Venice that succeeded in capturing Tyre. It was an important victory at the start of a period when the Kingdom of Jerusalem would expand to its greatest extent under King Baldwin II, the Venetians gained valuable trading concessions in Tyre. Baldwin de Burg was a nephew of Baldwin I of Jerusalem, in 1118 his uncle died and he became King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. In the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, fought near Sarmada on 28 June 1119, the Franks suffered a defeat by the forces of Ilghazi. Later that year Baldwin regained some territory, but the Franks were seriously weakened, Baldwin asked for help from Pope Callixtus II. The pope forwarded the request to Venice, the terms of the crusade were agreed through negotiations between the envoys of Baldwin II and the doge of Venice. The church also extended its protection to the families and property of the crusaders, in 1122 the Doge of Venice, Domenico Michiel, launched the seaborne crusade. The Venetian fleet of more than 120 ships carrying over 15,000 men left the Venetian Lagoon on 8 August 1122 and this seems to have been the first crusade in which the knights brought their horses with them. They invested Corfu, then a possession of the Byzantine Empire, in 1123 Baldwin II was captured by Balak of Mardin, emir of Aleppo, and imprisoned in Kharput. Eustace Graverius became regent of Jerusalem, the Venetians abandoned the siege of Corfu when they heard this news, and reached the Palestinian coast in May 1123. The Venetian fleet arrived at Acre at the end of May and was informed about a Fatimid fleet, of around a hundred sail, sailing towards Ascalon. in order to assist the Emir Balak at his siege. Thus the Venetian fleet sailed south in order to meet it, with the intend to divert the fleet off Ascalon. The Egyptians fell into the trap assuming an easy victory they were now caught between two Venetian squadrons and outnumbered. Some 4,000 Saracens were killed including the Fatimid admiral and 9 vessels captured with the Venetians adding to their triumph the capture of 10 merchant vessels on rout back to Acre, both Fulcher of Chartres and William of Tyre recorded the event. On this the ships followed in haste and fell almost all the other enemy ships around. But the shores, they say, were so covered with the corpses that were ejected from the sea, that the air was tainted. At lengths the fight continued man against man, and most heatedly one side was trying to advance while the side tried to resist. Finally, however, the Venetians were with Gods help victorious On 15 February 1124 the Venetians, the seaport of Tyre, now in Lebanon, was part of the territory of Toghtekin, the Atabeg of Damascus
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Second Crusade
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The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe as a Catholic holy war against Islam. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi, the county had been founded during the First Crusade by King Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall, the armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe. After crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were defeated by the Seljuk Turks. Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem, the crusade in the east was a failure for the crusaders and a great victory for the Muslims. It would ultimately have a key influence on the fall of Jerusalem, the only Christian success of the Second Crusade came to a combined force of 13,000 Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and German crusaders in 1147. Travelling from England, by ship, to the Holy Land, after the First Crusade and the minor Crusade of 1101 there were three crusader states established in the east, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa. A fourth, the County of Tripoli, was established in 1109, Count Baldwin II and future count Joscelin of Courtenay were taken captive after their defeat at the Battle of Harran in 1104. Baldwin and Joscelin were both captured a second time in 1122, and although Edessa recovered somewhat after the Battle of Azaz in 1125, Joscelin was killed in battle in 1131. His successor Joscelin II was forced into an alliance with the Byzantine Empire, Joscelin had also quarreled with the Count of Tripoli and the Prince of Antioch, leaving Edessa with no powerful allies. Meanwhile, the Seljuq Zengi, Atabeg of Mosul, had added to his rule in 1128 Aleppo, both Zengi and King Baldwin II turned their attention towards Damascus, Baldwin was defeated outside the great city in 1129. Damascus, ruled by the Burid Dynasty, later allied with King Fulk when Zengi besieged the city in 1139 and 1140, in late 1144, Joscelin II allied with the Ortoqids and marched out of Edessa with almost his entire army to support the Ortoqid army against Aleppo. Zengi, already seeking to take advantage of Fulks death in 1143, hurried north to besiege Edessa, manasses of Hierges, Philip of Milly and others were sent from Jerusalem to assist, but arrived too late. Joscelin II continued to rule the remnants of the county from Turbessel, Zengi himself was praised throughout Islam as defender of the faith and al-Malik al-Mansur, the victorious king. He did not pursue an attack on the territory of Edessa, or the Principality of Antioch. Events in Mosul compelled him to home, and he once again set his sights on Damascus. However, he was assassinated by a slave in 1146 and was succeeded in Aleppo by his son Nur ad-Din, the news of the fall of Edessa was brought back to Europe first by pilgrims early in 1145, and then by embassies from Antioch, Jerusalem and Armenia. Bishop Hugh of Jabala reported the news to Pope Eugene III, Hugh also told the Pope of an eastern Christian king, who, it was hoped, would bring relief to the crusader states, this is the first documented mention of Prester John
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Third Crusade
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The Third Crusade, also known as The Kings Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin. After the failure of the Second Crusade, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria, the Egyptian and Syrian forces were ultimately unified under Saladin, who employed them to reduce the Christian states and recapture Jerusalem in 1187. Spurred by religious zeal, King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France ended their conflict with other to lead a new crusade. The death of Henry in 1189, however, meant the English contingent came under the command of his successor and his death caused tremendous grief among the German Crusaders, and most of his troops returned home. After the Crusaders had driven the Muslims from Acre, Philip in company with Fredericks successor, Leopold V, Duke of Austria, on 2 September 1192, Richard and Saladin finalized a treaty granting Muslim control over Jerusalem but allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the city. Richard departed the Holy Land on 2 October, the successes of the Third Crusade allowed the Crusaders to maintain considerable states in Cyprus and on the Syrian coast. However, the failure to recapture Jerusalem would lead to the Fourth Crusade, after the failure of the Second Crusade, Nur ad-Din Zangi had control of Damascus and a unified Syria. Eager to expand his power, Nur ad-Din set his sights on the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt, in 1163, Nur ad-Din sent his most trusted general, Shirkuh, on a military expedition to the Nile. Accompanying the general was his nephew, Saladin. With Shirkuhs troops camped outside of Cairo, Egypts sultan Shawar called on King Amalric I of Jerusalem for assistance, in response, Amalric sent an army into Egypt and attacked Shirkuhs troops at Bilbeis in 1164. Nur ad-Din sent the scalps of the Christian defenders to Egypt for Shirkuh to proudly display at Bilbeis for Amalrics soldiers to see and this action prompted both Amalric and Shirkuh to lead their armies out of Egypt. In 1167, Nur ad-Din again sent Shirkuh to conquer the Fatimids in Egypt, Shawar again opted to call upon Amalric to defend his territory. The combined Egyptian-Christian forces pursued Shirkuh until he retreated to Alexandria, Amalric then breached his alliance with Shawar by turning his forces on Egypt and besieging the city of Bilbeis. Shawar pleaded with his enemy, Nur ad-Din, to save him from Amalrics treachery. Lacking the resources to maintain a siege of Cairo against the combined forces of Nur ad-Din and Shawar. This new alliance gave Nur ad-Din rule over all of Syria. Shawar was executed for his alliances with the Christian forces, in 1169, Shirkuh died unexpectedly after only weeks of rule. Shirkuhs successor was his nephew, Salah ad-Din Yusuf, commonly known as Saladin, Nur ad-Din died in 1174, leaving the new empire to his 11-year-old son, As-Salih
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Crusade of 1197
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Thus the military campaign is also known as the Emperors Crusade. While his forces were already on their way to the Holy Land, the nobles remaining on the campaign captured the Levant coast between Tyre and Tripoli before returning to Germany. The Crusade ended abruptly after the fall of Sidon and Beirut in 1198, on 2 October 1187 the Ayyubid sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem and large parts of the Crusader states. In an effort to reclaim the Outremer estates, the Third Crusade was launched by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England, and Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire in 1189. Frederick departed with a army, defeated a Seljuk contingent near Philomelion and captured Iconium. Henry VI, elected King of the Romans since 1169, succeeded his father Frederick and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Celestine III in 1191, in 1194 Henry could assert the inheritance claims of his wife Constance by conquering the Kingdom of Sicily. By declaring a new Crusade to reconquer Jerusalem, Henry aimed at an agreement with Pope Celestine III to acknowledge his rule over Sicily, in 1195 the armistice concluded by King Richard ended. Sultan Saladin had already died in 1193 and a conflict over his succession raged in the Ayyubid lands, in view of these favourable developments, the emperor hoped to continue the momentum of the previous campaign. Henry VI decided to take advantage of his fathers threat of force against the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Isaac II Angelos had maintained close ties with the Sicilian ursurper king Tancred of Lecce, he was overthrown in April 1195 by his brother Alexios III Angelos. Henry took the occasion to exact tribute and had a letter sent to the Byzantine emperor in order to finance the planned Crusade. Alexius immediately submitted to the demands and exacted high taxes from his subjects to pay the Crusaders 5,000 pounds of gold. Henry also forged alliances with King Amalric of Cyprus and Prince Leo of Cilicia, during the Holy Week of 1195, Emperor Henry made a pledge and at the Easter celebrations in Bari publicly announced the Crusade. In summer he was travelling through Germany in order to gain supporters. Bretislaus III, Duke of Bohemia had agreed to join the Crusade at the Diet in Worms on December 1195, in March 1197 Henry proceeded to the Kingdom of Sicily. The crusaders embarked for Acre, while the emperor first had to suppress a revolt in Catania. Still in Sicily, out for hunting near Fiumedinisi in August, Emperor Henry fell ill with chills and he died on September 28 before he could set sail for the Holy Land. They captured the wealthy and important city of Sidon and on October 24 entered Beirut, with the support of the Princes, Emperor Henrys vassal King Amalric of Cyprus married Queen Isabella and was crowned King of Jerusalem in 1198. The crusaders continued their campaign and by reconquering the estates around Byblos Castle restored the link to the County of Tripoli
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Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main fleet reached Constantinople. In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor with crusader support, however, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261. Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, the Kingdom had been established 88 years before, after the capture and sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade. The city was sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Saladin led a Muslim dynasty, and his incorporation of Jerusalem into his domains shocked and dismayed the Catholic countries of Western Europe. Legend has it that Pope Urban III literally died of the shock, the crusader states had been reduced to three cities along the sea coast, Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch. The Third Crusade reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a sense of cultural, organizational. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, at its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people behind thirteen miles of triple walls. As a result, it was both a rival and a target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice. Crusaders also seized the breakaway Byzantine province of Cyprus, rather than return it to the Empire, barbarossa died on crusade, and his army quickly disintegrated, leaving the English and French, who had come by sea, to fight Saladin. There they captured Sidon and Beirut, but at the news of Henrys death in Messina along the way, many of the nobles, deserted by much of their leadership, the rank and file crusaders panicked before an Egyptian army and fled to their ships in Tyre. Also in 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup, ascending as Alexios III Angelos, the new emperor had his brother blinded and exiled
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Fifth Crusade
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The Fifth Crusade was an attempt by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt. Later in 1218, a German army led by Oliver of Cologne, in order to attack Damietta in Egypt, they allied in Anatolia with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm which attacked the Ayyubids in Syria in an attempt to free the Crusaders from fighting on two fronts. After occupying the port of Damietta, the Crusaders marched south towards Cairo in July 1221, a nighttime attack by Sultan Al-Kamil resulted in a great number of crusader losses, and eventually in the surrender of the army. Al-Kamil agreed to a peace agreement with Europe. Pope Innocent III had already planned since 1208 a crusade to recapture Jerusalem, in April 1213 he issued the papal bull Quia maior, calling all of Christendom to join a new crusade. This was followed by another bull, the Ad Liberandam in 1215. Pope Innocent wanted it to be led by the papacy, as the First Crusade should have been, to avoid the mistakes of the Fourth Crusade, which had been taken over by the Venetians. Pope Innocent planned for the crusaders to meet at Brindisi in 1216, every crusader would receive an indulgence, including those who simply helped pay the expenses of a crusader, but did not go on crusade themselves. Oliver of Cologne had preached the crusade in Germany, and Emperor Frederick II attempted to join in 1215, Frederick was the last monarch Innocent wanted to join, as he had challenged the Papacy. Innocent died in 1216 and was succeeded by Pope Honorius III, who barred Frederick from participating, Andrew had the largest royal army in the history of the crusades. The first to take up the cross in the Fifth Crusade was King Andrew II of Hungary, Andrew and his troops embarked on 23 August 1217, in Split. They were transported by the Venetian fleet, which was the largest European fleet in the era, until his return to Hungary, king Andrew remained the leader of Christian forces in the Fifth Crusade. In Jerusalem, the walls and fortifications were demolished to prevent the Christians from being able to defend the city, if they did manage to reach it, Muslims fled the city, afraid that there would be a repeat of the bloodbath of the First Crusade in 1099. King Andrews well-mounted army defeated sultan Al-Adil I at Bethsaida on the Jordan River on 10 November 1217, muslim forces retreated in their fortresses and towns. The crusaders catapults and trebuchets did not arrive in time, so they had fruitless assaults on the fortresses of the Lebanon and on Mount Tabor, afterwards, Andrew spent his time collecting alleged relics. At the beginning of 1218 Andrew, who was very sick, Andrew and his army departed to Hungary in February 1218, and Bohemund and Hugh also returned home. Later in 1218 Oliver of Cologne arrived with a new German army, with Leopold and John they discussed attacking Damietta in Egypt. To accomplish this, they allied with Keykavus I, the leader in Anatolia, in July 1218 the crusaders began their siege of Damietta, and despite resistance from the unprepared sultan Al-Adil, the tower outside the city was taken on August 25
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Sixth Crusade
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The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade, however, Frederick again promised to go on a crusade after his coronation as emperor in 1220 by Pope Honorius III. In 1225 Frederick married Yolande of Jerusalem, daughter of John of Brienne, Frederick now had a claim to the truncated kingdom, and reason to attempt to restore it. In 1227, after Gregory IX became pope, Frederick and his army set sail from Brindisi, Italy, for Acre, Gregory stated that the reason for the excommunication was Fredericks reluctance to go on crusade, dating back to the Fifth Crusade. Frederick attempted to negotiate with the pope, but eventually decided to ignore him, Frederick claimed that his regency was illegitimate and demanded the surrender of Johns mainland fief of Beirut to the imperial throne. Here he erred, for John pointed out that the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem were constitutionally separate and this would have important consequences for the crusade, as it alienated the powerful Ibelin faction, turning them against the emperor. Acre, as the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Fredericks own army and the Teutonic Knights supported him, but Patriarch Gerald of Lausanne followed the papal line. Once news of Fredericks excommunication had spread, public support for him waned considerably, the native barons greeted Frederick enthusiastically at first, but were wary of the emperors history of centralization and his desire to impose imperial authority. This was largely due to Fredericks treatment of John of Ibelin in Cyprus, even with the military orders on board, Fredericks force was a mere shadow of the army that had amassed when the crusade had originally been called. He realised that his hope of success in the Holy Land was to negotiate for the surrender of Jerusalem as he lacked the manpower to engage the Ayyubid empire in battle. The Egyptian sultan, occupied with the suppression of rebellious forces in Syria, agreed to cede Jerusalem to the Franks, in addition, Frederick received Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa, and Bethlehem. Other lordships may have returned to Christian control, but sources disagree. It was, however, a treaty of compromise, the Muslims retained control over the Temple Mount area of Jerusalem, the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock. The treaty, completed on 18 February 1229, safeguarded a 10-year truce, one of the results of the treaty was that Jews were once more prohibited from living in Jerusalem. This agreement should not be confused with the 1192 Treaty of Jaffa between Saladin and Richard Lionheart, Frederick entered Jerusalem on 17 March 1229, and attended a crown-wearing ceremony the following day. It is unknown whether he intended this to be interpreted as his coronation as King of Jerusalem, in any case the absence of the patriarch, Gerald. There is evidence to suggest that the crown Frederick wore was actually the imperial one, as Frederick had matters to attend to at home, he left Jerusalem in May
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Eighth Crusade
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The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX of France against the city of Tunis in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade, the Ninth Crusade is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth. The crusade is considered a failure after Louis died shortly after arriving on the shores of Tunisia, despite the failure of the Seventh Crusade, which ended in the capture of King Louis by the Mamluks, the King did not lose interest in crusading. He continued to send aid and military support to the settlements in Outremer from 1254 to 1266. The War of Saint Sabas between Genoa and Venice had drawn in the Crusader States and depleted their resources and manpower, the exhausted settlements were systematically overrun by the methodical campaigns of Baibars. By 1265, he had raided Galilee and destroyed the cathedral of Nazareth, captured Caesarea and Arsuf, in late 1266, Louis informed Pope Clement IV that he intended to go on crusade again. Louis formally took the cross on 24 March 1267 at an assembly of his nobles, the crusade was set to sail from Aigues-Mortes in early summer 1270 in Genoese and Marseillois shipping. Too weak to engage Baibars, they returned to Aragon as well. Louis initial plan was to descend on the coast of Outremer by way of Cyprus, however, a new plan was developed in 1269, wherein the fleet would first descend on Tunis. This change has often attributed to the Kings brother Charles of Anjou. However, the details of Charles preparations suggest that he was not initially aware of the change of plans, the large and well-organized crusading fleet sailed about a month late, on 2 July 1270, and landed on the Tunisian coast on 18 July. The crusaders built a camp on the ruins of Carthage. The North African summer bred pestilence, and an epidemic of dysentery swept through the crusading ranks, Louis Damietta-born son John Tristan died of the disease on 3 August. Soon Louis, too, fell sick, and died, in penitence and his brother Charles arrived just after his death. Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on 30 October by an agreement with the sultan, in this agreement the Christians gained free trade with Tunis, and residence for monks and priests in the city was guaranteed. After hearing of the death of Louis and the evacuation of the crusaders from Tunis, the treaty was quite beneficial to Charles of Anjou, who received one-third of a war indemnity from the Tunisians, and was promised that Hohenstaufen refugees in the sultanate would be expelled. Prince Edward of England arrived with an English fleet the day before the crusaders left Tunis, the English returned to Sicily with the rest of the crusaders, the combined fleet was badly damaged in a storm off Trapani. At the end of April 1271, the English continued to Acre to carry on the Ninth Crusade, bertran dAlamanon, a diplomat in the service of Charles of Anjou, and Ricaut Bonomel, a Templar in the Holy Land, both composed songs around 1265
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Ninth Crusade
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The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. Louis IX of Frances failure to capture Tunis in the Eighth Crusade led Henry III of Englands son Edward to sail to Acre in what is known as the Ninth Crusade, the Ninth Crusade saw several impressive victories for Edward over Baibars. Ultimately the Crusaders were forced to withdraw, since Edward had pressing concerns at home and it is arguable that the Crusading spirit was nearly extinct, by this period as well. It also foreshadowed the imminent collapse of the last remaining crusader strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, following the Mamluk victory over the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut by Qutuz and his general Baibars, Qutuz was assassinated, leaving Baibars to claim the sultanate for himself. As Sultan, Baibars proceeded to attack the Christian crusaders at Arsuf, Athlith, Haifa, Safad, Jaffa, Ascalon, as the Crusader fortress cities fell one by one, the Christians sought help from Europe, but assistance was slow in coming. In 1268 Baibars captured Antioch, thereby destroying the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch, securing the Mamluk northern front and threatening the small Crusader County of Tripoli. Louis IX of France, having organized a large crusader army with the intent of attacking Egypt, was diverted instead to Tunis. Prince Edward of England arrived in Tunis too late to contribute to the remainder of the crusade in Tunis. Instead, he continued on his way to the Holy Land to assist Bohemund VI, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, against the Mamluk threat to Tripoli, on May 9,1271, Edward finally arrived at Acre. He brought a small but not insignificant contingent of no more than 1,000 men, Edward arrived at Acre while it was still under siege. His arrival caused Baibars to change his plans and turn away from Acre, the forces under Edwards command were much too small to take on the Mamluks in a straight battle, being unable to even stop the Mamluks from seizing the nearby Teutonic Montfort Castle. They settled for launching a series of raids, later, the arrival of additional forces from England and Hugh III of Cyprus, under the command of Edwards younger brother Edmund, emboldened Edward. He launched a raid with the support of the Templar, Hospitaller. The Crusaders surprised a force of Turcomans, reportedly killing 1,500 of them. Muslim sources list one emir as killed and one as wounded during this raid, on top of that, the Muslim commander of the castle was forced to abandon his command. However, Edward did not take the castle itself, and retreated before Baibars could respond in kind, in December 1271, Edward and his troops saw some action when they repelled an attack by Baibars on the city of Acre. Baibars eventually abandoned his siege of Tripoli, but the reason is not known. Contemporary accounts state that Edwards attacks on Baibars interior lines forced him to abandon the siege, some modern observers reject this interpretation, saying he instead abandoned it to avoid overcommitting himself in one direction due to a lack of intelligence on the Crusaders true capabilities
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Savoyard crusade
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The Savoyard crusade was born out of the same planning that led to the Alexandrian Crusade. It was the brainchild of Pope Urban V and was led by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy and it made small gains against the Ottomans in the vicinity of Constantinople and on Gallipoli. Noting the greater attention paid to Bulgaria than to the Turks, historian Nicolae Iorga argued it was not the thing as a crusade. This was the beginning of the Savoyard crusade, although John II would never fulfill his vow personally, the original members of the Order of the Collar were devoted followers, and often relatives, of Amadeus and all were probably pledged to accompany him on crusade. In the event, all but two who could not go for reasons of health, travelled east, the Order, like the crusade, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The deadline established for the departure of the crusade was 1 March 1365, the deadline was met by nobody, although on 27 June the king of Cyprus left Venice on the Alexandrian Crusade. In January 1365, as reported at Venice, ten galleys were being gathered in Provence for Louiss use, in the spring he invaded, not Turkish Europe, but rather the north of Bulgaria, then ruled by the tsars second son, Sratsimir. He conquered and occupied Vidin, and took Sratsimir captive back to Hungary and his expedition was thus completed in time for him to cooperate with Amadeus in a joint attack on the Turks in the spring of 1366. On 1 April 1364 Urban V made an effort to fund Amadeuss expedition with a series of seven bulls granting him various new sources of income. All confiscated ill-gotten gains from theft, rapine or usury which could not be restituted were to be used for the six years for the crusade. Finally, the church was to pay a tithe of its tithes to the count for the crusade, in early 1366 Amadeus was in Savoy assembling his army. More than half of the army consisted of the vassals of the count of Savoy. His half-brother Ogier and his nephew Humbert, son of his half-brother Humbert, Aymon, younger brother of James of Piedmont, and Amadeuss two illegitimate sons, both named Antoine, participated. A letter from Pope Urban in March 1365 did not convince them otherwise, Urban, the architect of the crusade, negotiated with Genoa and Marseille to procure ships, but the promise of transportation from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was never fulfilled. Although Amadeus went to Avignon to protest, and apparently received a Papal blessing for his adventure, on 8 February Amadeus began the voyage over land to Venice. Amadeus had reached Rivoli by 15 February, and Pavia, where his brother-in-law Galeazzo II Visconti ruled and he then turned around and visited Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne before returning to Pavia by late May, there to be godfather at the baptism of his nephew Giangaleazzos infant son Giangaleazzo II. Half of the crusading host under Étienne de la Baume went from there to Genoa to embark on the fleet awaiting it and take it to Venice. On 1 June the rest of the army under Amadeus left for Padua, where the ruling family, the departure of the fleet took place around 21 June
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Barbary Crusade
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The Barbary Crusade, also called the Mahdia Crusade, was a Franco-Genoese military expedition in 1390 that led to the siege of Mahdia, then a pirate stronghold in Tunisia. Froissarts Chronicles is the account of what was one of the last crusades. During the lulls of the Hundred Years War knights looked for opportunities for glory, as Genoese ambassadors approached the French king Charles VI to subscribe to a crusade, they eagerly supported the plan to fight Muslim pirates from North Africa. These pirates had their base at Mahdia on the Barbary coast. Genoa was ready to supply ships, supplies,12,000 archers and 8,000 foot soldiers, the proposal by the doge Antoniotto Adorno was presented as a crusade. As such it would give prestige to its participants, a moratorium on their debts, immunity from lawsuits, the French force also included some English participants and consisted of 1,500 knights under the leadership of Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. It has been estimated that the force numbered about 5,000 knights. Two priests representing both popes blessed the departing, an armada of about 60 ships left Genoa on July 1,1390 and landed at the end of July near the town of Mahdi where the soldiers disembarked unchallenged. The crusaders put up their camp and invested the city for the next two months. They had failed to bring sufficient siege engines to breach the walls, the crusaders had to build a wall around their camp and fortify it. The Berbers send out a negotiating party asking why the French would attack them, they had only troubled the Genoese, in answer they were told that they were unbelievers who had crucified and put to death the son of God called Jesus Christ. The Berbers laughed saying it was the Jews not they who had done that, in a subsequent encounter with the large relief army the crusaders killed many but eventually had to retreat exhausted and tired. The duration of the not only frustrated them, but their logistical systems started to weaken. When a final assault on the city was repelled they were ready to settle for a treaty, on the opposing side the Berbers realized that they could not overcome the heavier armed invaders. Both sides looked for a way to end the hostilities, the siege was lifted with the conclusion of a treaty negotiated through the Genoese party. The treaty stipulated a ten-year armistice, an agreement by Mahdia of payment of taxes to Genoa for 15 years, thus piracy from the Barbary coast was reduced, and the crusaders withdrew. By mid-October the crusaders had returned to Genoa, losses due to fighting and disease amounted to 274 knights and squires, about 20%. The Berbers had repelled the invaders, and the Genoese could conduct trade with less interference, the French knights had no tangible goals but had participated for action and glory
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Battle of Nicopolis
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It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444. There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by individual kings or knights, most recently there had been a failed crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was ongoing warfare in northern Europe along the Baltic coast. In 1393 the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman had lost Nicopolis — his temporary capital — to the Ottomans, while his brother, Ivan Stratsimir, still held Vidin but had been reduced to an Ottoman vassal. In the eyes of the Bulgarian boyars, despots and other independent Balkan rulers, in addition, the frontline between Islam and Christianity had been moving slowly towards the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary was now the frontier between the two religions in Eastern Europe, and the Hungarians were in danger of being attacked themselves. The Genoese also owned the citadel of Galata, located at the north of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, to which Bayezid had laid siege in 1395. The two decisive factors in the formation of the last crusade were the ongoing Hundred Years War between Richard IIs England and Charles VIs France and the support of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, in 1389, the war had ground to one of its periodic truces. The support of Burgundy, among the most powerful of the French nobles was also vital, in 1391, Burgundy, trying to decide between sending a crusade to either Prussia or Hungary, sent his envoy Guy de La Trémoille to Venice and Hungary to evaluate the situation. Burgundy originally envisioned a crusade led by himself and the Dukes of Orléans and Lancaster and it was very unlikely that defense against the Turks was considered a particularly important goal of the crusade. Charles VI, having secured a peace with England through the marriage of his daughter, was able to reply that it was his responsibility to protect Christianity, the number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts. The oft-given figure of 100,000 crusaders is dismissed by Tuchman, next in importance were the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, who were the standard bearers of Christianity in the Levant since the decline of Constantinople and Cyprus. Venice supplied a fleet for supporting action, while Hungarian envoys encouraged German princes of the Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony. French heralds had proclaimed the crusade in Poland, Bohemia, Navarre and Spain, the Italian city-states were too much engaged in their customary violent rivalries to participate, and the widely reported and acclaimed English participation never actually occurred. The report of 1,000 English knights comes from contemporary Antonio Fiorentino, a thousand knights would have actually amounted to four to six thousand men and at least twice as many horses, counting foot-soldiers and other retainers. However, there are no records of financial arrangements being made in England to send a force abroad, nor of any royal preparation needed to organize and dispatch such a force. Atiya also thought that the invocation of St. Furthermore, there was no collection of money in England to pay for captives. Nevertheless, obviously inflated figures continue to be repeated, the strength of the Ottoman forces is also estimated at about 20-25,000, but inflated figures continue to be repeated. The Ottoman force also included 1,500 Serbian heavy cavalry knights under the command of Prince Stefan Lazarević, however, Burgundy retained control of the enterprise he was funding by naming 24-year-old John, Count of Nevers, the Dukes eldest son, for nominal command
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Crusade of Varna
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The Crusade of Varna was a string of events in 1443–44 between the crusaders and the Ottoman Empire. It culminated in a decisive Ottoman victory at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444, after the war ended in 1430, the Ottomans returned to their earlier policy of controlling all lands south of the Danube. In 1432, Sultan Murad II began raiding into Transylvania, after King Sigismund died in 1437, the attacks intensified, with the Ottomans occupying Borač in 1438 and Zvornik and Srebrenica in 1439. At the end of 1439, Smederevo capitulated and Murad succeeded in making Serbia an Ottoman province, Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia, fled to his estates in Hungary. In 1440, Murad besieged Hungarys main border fortress, Belgrade, after failing to take the fortress, he was forced to return to Anatolia to stop attacks by the Karamanids. Meanwhile, Sigismunds successor Albert had died in October 1439, shortly after signing a law to restore the ancient laws, the law restricted the royal authority by requiring the participation of landed nobility in political decisions. Four months after Alberts death, his son, Ladislaus, was born while Hungary was in the midst of a civil war over the next monarch. On 17 July 1440 Vladislaus, king of Poland, was crowned despite continuing disputes, John Hunyadi aided Vladislauss cause by pacifying the eastern counties, gaining him the position of Nádor of Transylvania and the corresponding responsibility of protecting Hungarys southern border. By the end of 1442, Vladislaus had secured his status in Hungary, the impetus required to turn the plans into action was provided by Hunyadi between 1441–42. In 1441, he defeated a raid led by Ishak Pasha of Smederevo and he nearly annihilated Mezid Beys army in Transylvania on 22 March 1442, and in September he defeated the revenge attack of Şihabeddin Pasha, governor-general of Rumelia. Branković, hoping to liberate Serbia, also lent his support after Novo Brdo, on 1 January 1443 Pope Eugene IV published a crusading bull. The crusaders, led by Vladislaus, Hunyadi, and Branković and they correctly expected that Murad would not be able to quickly mobilize his army, which consisted mainly of fief-holding cavalrymen who needed to collect the harvest to pay taxes. Hunyadis experience of campaigns from 1441–42 added to the Hungarians advantage. They also had better armor, often rendering the Ottoman weapons useless, Murad could not rely on the loyalty of his troops from Rumelia, and had difficulties countering Hungarian tactics. In the Battle of Nish the crusaders were victorious and forced Kasim Pasha of Rumelia, however, the two burned all the villages in their path in an attempt to wear down the crusaders with a scorched earth tactic. When they arrived in Sofia, they advised the Sultan to burn the city and retreat to the mountain passes beyond, shortly after, bitter cold set in, and the next encounter, fought at Zlatitsa Pass on 12 December 1443, was fought in the snow. Until the Battle of Zlatitsa the crusaders did not meet major Ottoman army, only at Zlatica they met strong and well positioned defence forces of the Ottoman army. Four days after this battle Christian coalition reached Prokuplje, Đurađ Branković proposed to Władysław III of Poland and John Hunyadi to stay in Serbian fortified towns during the winter and continue their campaign against Ottomans in Spring 1444
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Northern Crusades
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The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. And 1293, Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians, Semigallians and Curonians, the campaigns started with the 1147 Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs of what is now northern and eastern Germany. The crusade occurred parallel to the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, the Swedish crusades were campaigns by Sweden against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians during period from 1150 to 1293. The Danes are known to have made two crusades to Finland in 1191 and in 1202, the latter one was led by the Bishop of Lund Anders Sunesen with his brother. The difference in creeds was one of the reasons they had not yet been effectively converted. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian principalities, Estonians for their part made raids upon Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by some Catholics to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, however, these peaceful efforts seem to have had only limited success. Although the crusaders won their first battle, Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded, in 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Albert died 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia, although he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the bishops efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn, to ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from the Empire, at Alberts request, Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularize recruitment to his army and the name Marys Land has survived up to modern times. This is noticeable in one of the given to Livonia at the time. In 1206, the crusaders subdued the Livonian stronghold in Turaida on the bank of Gauja River. In order to control over the left bank of Gauja. By 1211, the Livonian province of Metsepole and the mixed Livonian-Latgallian inhabited county of Idumea was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, the last battle against the Livonians was the siege of Satezele hillfort near to Sigulda in 1212. The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, had at first considered the Germans as useful allies, the first prominent Livonian to be christened was their leader Caupo of Turaida. As the German grip tightened, the Livonians rebelled against the crusaders and the christened chief, Caupo of Turaida remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217
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Wendish Crusade
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By the early 12th century, the German archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg sought the conversion to Christianity of neighboring pagan West Slavs through peaceful means. During the preparation of the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, however, the Slavic leader Niklot preemptively invaded Wagria in June 1147, leading to the march of the crusaders later that summer. They achieved an ostensible forced baptism of Slavs at Dobin but were repulsed from Demmin, another crusading army marched on the already Christian city of Szczecin, whereupon the crusaders dispersed upon arrival. The Ottonian dynasty supported eastward expansion of the Holy Roman Empire towards Wendish lands during the 10th century, the campaigns of King Henry the Fowler and Emperor Otto the Great led to the introduction of burgwards to protect German conquests in the lands of the Sorbs. Ottos lieutenants, Margraves Gero and Hermann Billung, advanced eastward and northward respectively to claim tribute from conquered Slavs, bishoprics were established at Meissen, Brandenburg, Havelberg, and Oldenburg to administer the territory. A great Slavic rebellion in 983 reversed the initial German gains, while the burgwards allowed the Saxons to retain control of Meissen, they lost Brandenburg and Havelberg. The Elbe River thus became the limit of German-Roman control. Lacking support from the Salian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, christians, especially Saxons from Holstein, and pagans raided each other across the Limes Saxonicus, usually for tribute. From 1140-43 Holsatian nobles advanced into Wagria to permanently settle in the lands of the pagan Wagri, count Adolf II of Holstein and Henry of Badewide took control of Polabian settlements which would later become Lübeck and Ratzeburg, Vicelin was subsequently installed as bishop at Oldenburg. Adolf sought peace with the chief of the Obodrite confederacy, Niklot, the fall of Edessa in 1144 shocked Christendom, causing Pope Eugenius III and St. Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a Second Crusade to reinforce Outremer. While many south Germans volunteered to crusade in the Middle East and they told Bernard of their desire to campaign against the Slavs at a Reichstag meeting in Frankfurt on 13 March 1147. Approving of the Saxons plan, pope Eugenius issued a bull known as the Divina dispensatione on 13 April. Those who volunteered to crusade against the Slavic pagans were primarily Danes, Saxons, the German monarchy took no part in the crusade, which was led by Saxon families such as the Ascanians, Wettin, and Schauenburgers. Papal legate Anselm of Havelberg was placed in overall command, after expelling the Obodrites from his territory, Adolf signed a peace treaty with Niklot. The remaining Christian crusaders targeted the Obodrite fort Dobin and the Liutizian fort Demmin, the forces attacking Dobin included those of the Danes Canute V and Sweyn III, Archbishop Adalbert II of Bremen, and Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. Avoiding pitched battles, Niklot ably defended the marshland of Dobin, one army of Danes was defeated by Slavs from Dobin, while another had to defend the Danish fleet from Niklots allies, the Rani of Rügen. Henry and Adalbert maintained the siege of Dobin after the retreat of the Danes, when some crusaders advocated ravaging the countryside, others objected by asking, Is not the land we are devastating our land, and the people we are fighting our people. The Saxon army under Henry the Lion withdrew after Niklot agreed to have Dobins garrison undergo baptism, the Saxon army directed against Demmin was led by several bishops, including those of Mainz, Halberstadt, Münster, Merseburg, Brandenburg, Olmütz, and Bishop Anselm of Havelberg
