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Essay on Crusades
The primary use of the term is to describe the series of expeditions from W. Europe to the E. Mediterranean, beginning in 1095, which were designed to recover the Holy Land from Islam and then to retain it in Christian hands, and later to counteract the expanding power of the Ottoman Empire. Crusaders were granted indulgences and the status of martyr in the event of death.
The First Crusade was solemnly proclaimed by Urban II at the Council of Clermont (1095), with the double object of relieving the pressure of the Seljuk Turks on the E. Empire following the Battle of Manzikert (1071) and of freeing the church of Jerusalem from Muslim control. (Leupp, Gary (2005)Several armies set out. Antioch was captured in 1098 and Jerusalem in 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon was appointed as the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem; on his death in 1100 his brother Baldwin was crowned King of Jerusalem......
