Crusades

Introduction

Prior to 1165 when “The Letter of Prester John” was sent to Prince Manuel, the leader of Constantinople, the Middle East had experienced two major religious battles as the Christians from Europe attacked Jerusalem in attempt to recover the holy land from the Muslims. These series of battles are called the crusades. With close examination to some parts of the first two crusades, it is evident that there is a reason the letter was sent to Constantinople and why the letter needed to be from someone like Prester John.

The First Crusade (1096-1099)

The first crusade is also known as the Princes’ Crusade, in which the Europeans had spectacular achievements. The crusaders easily took over Jerusalem and established four “crusader states”. Although the Princes’ Crusade seems unstoppable on their way to Jerusalem, another group of crusaders had a much different experience – the People’s Crusade. The People’s crusade is an unofficial army consisting of Christians from the lowest social classes such as workers, farmers, women, and children. Unlike the Prince’s Crusade which is well-trained and greatly armed, the people’s Crusade does not have any legitimate weapons and have no source of supply. The “army” suffered from hunger and thirst during their entire journey out of Europe, and once they finally reached Constantinople, they People’s Crusade had already lost one-forth of their men. Inevitably, after the People’s Crusade finally entered the Middle East through Constantinople, they were quickly destroyed by the Turks, who had a lot more training as well as much better armed, in the Battle of Civitot.

The failure of the People’s Crusade suggests that conducting a battle in such a scale requires a great amount of financial support as well as resources, without a stable way to keep the army funded, the crusaders would quickly lose power in the Middle East. Thus, Constantinople, which is in between the European countries and the Middle East, becomes a crucial tactical point for the crusaders.【1】【2】

The Second Crusade (1147-1149)

Forty-eight years after the First Crusade, the second major crusade was launched in Europe as the response to the fall of the County of Edessa, which was one of the “crusader states” established after the first crusade. In contrast to the First Crusade, the Second Crusade was led by European Kings mainly Louis VII of France, and Conrad III from Germany. Also different from the First Crusade, the Second Crusade failed dramatically. After entering Anatolia, the two armies were separately defeated by the Seljuk Turks. Despite the fact that the two crusader army took different routes, they were both ambushed by the Seljuk Turks, it either means the Seljuk Turks know the crusaders’ paths beforehand or someone had the Turks informed after the crusaders entered the Middle East. Either way, Prince Manuel, the leader of Constantinople at that time, becomes very suspicious.

Since the two army that took different routes were separately ambushed by the Seljuk Turks and Prince Manuel expressed no opinion to such things that happened near Constantinople. It suggests a possibility that Prince Manuel who is also the leader of an empire, does not fear the Crusaders’ Empires at all, and he may become a wild card in later crusades. Thus the Crusaders’ Empire either have to capture Constantinople by force, or they could let someone with much higher authority than Prince Manuel to talk Prince Manuel into joining the Crusaders’ Empires. Therefore, Prester John, a king who is suggested to rule over every Christian countries, become necessary to exist.【3】

 

 

【1】Kostick, Conor, and Conor Kostick. The social structure of the First Crusade. Leiden: Brill, 2008. 95-130. Accessed January 23, 2018. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/stable/pdf/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h1gw.8.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A5075d2ef8f3f3ea176c7c14ebe5b6851.

【2】Kostick, Conor, and Conor Kostick. “Chapter Four.” In The social structure of the First Crusade, 131-57. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2018. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/stable/pdf/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h1gw.9.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A390fa5095bc0e87d4b175e376748e417.

【3】Constable, Giles. “The Second Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries.” Traditio 9 (1953): 213-79. Accessed January 23, 2018. doi:10.1017/s0362152900003743.