England and the Crusade - Essay Example

England and the Crusade Introduction The Crusades were the campaigns that were organized by the Roman Catholic Church so as to help the Christians gain more access to the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Such crusades began during the middle Ages and they consisted of military wars against the Jews and the whole Muslim community. The crusade wars did not just start with England and its kings. The very first crusade was organized by Pope Urban II in the year 1095. This pope had the very objective of enabling the Christians, especially the Catholics, to be able to visit and stay in Jerusalem. After this first crusade, many other crusades followed. The struggle was between the Muslims and Christians. Each one of them wanted to take full control of Jerusalem, also referred to as the Holy Land. However, in the year 1291, this consistent battle came to an end when the Muslims finally took over Jerusalem. The Roman Catholic Pope was shocked by this defeat and had heart attack that led to his death. From that time, no more war of crusade was seen in Jerusalem (Smith, 1995, p. 66). Pope Urban was depressed to death because he had spent all his time and resources in the crusade. He succeeded in convincing the Roman Christians to join the war. Those who decided to join him were promised a lot of good things. One of such goodies was the forgiveness. Pope Urban had said it in public that anyone who would join the crusade would have all his sins forgiven. On hearing this, many catholic faithful rushed and vowed in public to give their all in the fight. It was during this time that the very Pope also managed to convince and gain the support of other state leaders. Kings from various nations who were members of Roman Catholic and had the same objective agreed to join Pope Urban. These kings provided the Pope with military army and some other forms of support such finance. This is when the big countries like France, England and Germany joined the crusade war (Teall, 1959, pp. 84-95). However, the crusade army did not only cause trouble to the Muslim nations but also to the various countries that they passed through. For example, the crusade carried out by England caused many damages in Sicily and Cyprus. It is thought that some nations joined this movement for their individual gains. They were just hiding in this holy war. The main objective of Pope Urban is also not clearly known. Some scholars tend to argue that his motives were not godly as people may think. They say that he only had personal interests and therefore decided to use the armies of nations such as England to achieve this goal. It is, therefore, not clearly understood whether the crusades were political or religious. The role of women and children was to remain back and guard homes while men went to war. Women were also used to help in the recruitment of the army men. The women would supply food and other services to the army camps. However, some daring women agreed to take up the cross and follow the men to the battle fields. On the other side of the battle field were the strong Jewish and their Muslim army. These nations also came together to defend the Holy Land from being captured by the Christians. England and the Crusades England was one of the several nations that decided to join Pope Urban in the Crusade struggles. During this middle ages, England was still far behind other European countries in terms of wealth and other forms of development. This nation England was, at this time, very small in size, quite poor and had no much of the natural resources. At this time, the king of England who was in office was called King Edward I. This king was a good friend of the French government. Since England was very weak at this time, King Edward used its men and the little money to join France in the crusading war (Tyerman, 1988, pp. 23-45). Because of this low profile of England, the neighboring nations such as Wales and Scotland used to fight it frequently. In most occasions, the king of England would lose such wars. However, England would win the battle through its unfailing efforts. It was this very dedication that enable England take part in the crusade war. Many of the English Kings vowed in public to take in public to take part in the crusade wars. However, most of these Kings never went to these wars. They only used the vow as part of the many policies to get them into office. However, one king was courageous enough to join the crusade war. This king was called King Richard I. even though England was such a small nation in the middle ages, its strong kings, King Richard in particular, managed to build a strong army that could participate in the fight for the Holy Land, Jerusalem (Wickham, 200, pp. 244). At a tender age of 16, Richard had already managed to form a strong Christian army. He became too powerful and even attempted, with his army, to rebel against his father. With this same army, Richard led England to the Third Crusade. He worked with and later on took over King Philip II of France and fought against the Muslim territories. While still in England, King Richard had started to use his powers and the army. He ordered that the Jewish in be chased away and killed. Reacting after this order, the residents of England began massacre and beat many Jewish. The victims started to escape from England. However, the unlucky Jewish were killed by these furious residents. The Crusade strategies employed by King Richard In the year 1187, King Richard decided to take up the cross as count of Poiton (Holt, 1983, pp235). However, Richard had to confess all his sins in public first, before he could continue with his quest for the Holy land. King Richard’s father had already paved the way for him by joining hands with King Philip II of France. This agreement between King Edward and King Philip happened in the year 1188. Richard then agreed to work with King Philip II in the crusade war. This was going to be the Third Crusade war. It was then that king Richard started to recruit men into his crusade army. The training of this army began afterward. King Richard I spent a lot of money and other resources in recruiting and training his army men. This did not create any problem for Richard. He had already planned how he would obtain the finance. Most of the finance came from the treasury of his father. Richard exploited the wealth of his father’s kingdom and heavily invested in the crusade army. Another source of finance was taxation. This king imposed heavy taxes on the citizens. These citizens had to pay dearly for the goods and services offered by the government. The revenue collected was directed towards the servicing of the crusade army. Richard even sold his rights and other privileges as a king to the interested authorities. In exchange for such rights, Richard received large amounts of money which he used in the crusade. Besides, his monarch officials had to bid and pay a lot of money so as to retain their positions in the kingdom. Having used all his powers and authority in gathering the required money for the Third Crusade, Richard and Philip II set off for the Holy War in the year 1190 (Althoff, 2002, pp. 78). Attack and capture of Sicily On their way to Acre, Richard and Philip paused in Sicily in the year 1190. On their arrival, King Richard ordered the ruler of Sicily to release his sister from prison. The presence of Richard and Philip in Sicily made the residents very uncomfortable. The residents then decided to demonstrate, demanding that the foreign rulers leave their town in peace. However, King Richard proved to be very hard on his mission. He instead ordered his strong army to attack Sicily. Messina was one of the towns in Sicily that was attacked and captured by King Richard, with the help of Philip II. This town was looted and burned down by the powerful English soldiers. After that, King Richard built his army base in this town of Messina. He then demanded that Sicily ruler sign a peace agreement with England. This the only condition Richard gave to Sicily he could leave their town. King Tancred, the ruler of Sicily, eventually agreed to sign this treaty from which Richard was the only beneficiary. King Richard obtained a lot of money from the agreement and further used this money to fund his army (Thomas, 2005, pp. 4-8). Capture of Cyprus In the early months of 1191, Richard and his Crusade team decided to leave Sicily for Acre. On their way, they stopped over at Cyprus due to the bad weather at the sea. During their struggle in the sea, the ruler of one of the powerful towns in Cyprus had managed to capture and imprison some members of Richard’s team. This town was called Limas sol and the leader was known as Isaac. King Richard ordered the release of the captives but Isaac would not hear him. On reacting to this defiance, Richard directed his army to attack Lima sol and capture its strongholds. This step by the English King was supported by some other leaders from Jerusalem and joined their hands in the capture. It is this very support that enabled Richard to conquer Cyprus. Isaac eventually agreed to make peace with Richard of England and joined him in the Crusade movement (Setton, 1985, pp. 201). Cyprus was then used by England as strategic base for the army to fight the Muslim community. Richard, therefore, decided to settle in Cyprus for a while and made a Christian empire. Later on, the English army left Cyprus for Acre where they waged war for Crusade. However, it was not a success and Pope Urban was shocked to death. Bibliography Althoff, G. 2002. Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory and Histography. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Pp78-98 Charles, M. 1992. The Byzantines and Saladin: Opponents of the Third Crusade: Speculum, 37(2). Pp 167-181 Holt, P.1983. Saladin and His Admirers: Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies. London: University of London. Pp235-239 Setton, M. 1985. A History of the Crusades: The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp201 Smith, R. 1995. The Oxford Illustrated history of the Crusades. London: Oxford Press. Pp66 Teall, J. 1959. The Grain Supply of the Byzantine Empire. Dumbarton: Oak Papers. Pp 85-94 Thomas, F. 2005. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp4-8 Tyerman, C.1988. England and the Crusades. Chicago: University of Chicago. Pp 34-45 Wickham, C. 2000. The Long Century. London: Brill. Pp 244 Read More