Crusades & Crusaders (Part 3)

Jerusalem

 

The first part is HERE.

The second part is HERE.

I'll patiently be waiting for you to read them in case you haven't already.

(Waiting...)

Ok? You read them? Now let's move to the third part.

The Fourth Crusade, which led to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, was not so much a real Crusade as a parody thereof. We will talk about it in a future article about the history of the E.Roman Empire. Now let's move to the Fifth Crusade.

A little before the official Fifth Crusade, a campaign called the Children's Crusade took place. Its name does not have a symbolic meaning or anything, mind you; the participants were literally children! Needless to say, it didn't end well. The fate that awaited those poor children who thought they could make the world a better place was too cruel to be elaborated on here. 😢

Anyway, soon after that, the Fifth Crusade began. The forces were led by King Andrew II of Hungary, Duke Leopold VI the Glorious of Austria and King John I of Jerusalem. The forces managed to capture Damietta (1218), scaring the Muslims, who asked for a peace treaty, even offering to return Jerusalem to the Crusaders.

It was not a bad deal in my opinion. However, the Crusaders had grown too arrogant (perhaps in the hope that Holy Roman Emperor Frederic II would join them soon) and rejected it, although some of them, including John, wanted to accept it.

Unfortunately for the Crusaders, Freddie never showed up. To make matters worse, the Muslims took Damietta back (1219). Nevertheless, they were still generous enough to offer a peace treaty, though, this time, it wasn't as beneficial to the Christians as it had been before.

'Umm,' the Crusaders awkwardly stroked their napes. 'You know, we have just realized that the previous deal you proposed, the one about you ceding Jerusalem to us and all, wasn't that bad after all. Is it too late to accept it now?'

'In your dreams,' the Muslims laughed. 'Now our terms are different. Take it or leave it.'

They took it.

Pope Honorius III blamed Emperor Frederic for the failure of the Fifth Crusade, since he hadn't joined the campaign as he had promised.

'Whoops! I knew I had forgotten something,' the Emperor laughed.

Unfortunately for him, Honoriuses successor, Gregorius IX, did not find this as funny as his predecessor, so he excommunicated Frederic.

Despite that, Freddie participated in the Sixth Crusade. 'Fine, fine, I'm coming; jeez, what's with some people?' he rolled his eyes while departing in 1228.

In any case, I think we have to admit that Frederic was a skilled diplomat. Without fighting, he managed to take back Jerusalem and Bethlehem for the sake of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, by allying himself with Sultan Al Kamil of Egypt, who desperately needed allies, because the Ayyubids were threatening him.

Frederic entered Jerusalem and, even though most Christians hated his guts by that time (since he had allied himself with Muslims) and no priest accepted to crown him, he became the King of Jerusalem by crowning himself. Yeah, he literally picked up the crown and put it on his head. As simple as that!

However, soon after Frederic's departure from Jerusalem, things drastically changed. Local barons refused to acknowledge the Emperor or his representatives, Al Kamil died and his son, Al Salah, allied himself with the Khwarasmians, a Turkish tribe whose state had recently been destroyed by the Mongols. 

The Egyptians and Khwarasmians captured Jerusalem and so, one more Crusade had come to naught.

That's all for today.

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