Many of our ancestors participated in the Crusades. Many were to fall at Acre as well as other distant and far away locations in the land of Palestine. In some cases, their bodies would be returned to their grieving families and in other instances, their remains were buried in Normandy and the grieving family never again saw their loving husband or father, son or brother.

This page will concentrate upon a history of the Crusades with special emphasis upon English involvement in the Crusades in order to better understand the life and times in which our Knight ancestors lived and died. The Crusades were begun with the anthem of freeing the Holy Places from the Mohammedan tryanny, the Knights making a solemn vow to do so. The Crusades were not limited to the Holy Land but were also launched in the north of Europe against the Prussians and Lituanians In the thirteenth century, Crusades were even launched by the Pope against the English noble, John Lackland., an ancestor in many of our lines.

The Crusades may be described as eight in number. For centuries, the people of Europe had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Anglo Saxons of Britain were making pilgrimages as early as the 8th century when St.Willibald, Bishop of Eichstadt made a journey lasting seven years, due to the distance and hardships of the journey. Chaucer, in his famous "Canterbury Tale", immortalized these pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

"And jhesu, for his grace, wit me sende
To shewe yow the wey, in this viage,
Of thilke parfit glorious pilgrymage
That highte jerusalem celestial."

Charlemagne built churches and monasteries to support the pilgrims and those coming to the Holy Land to become monks and religious followers. Armies of pilgrims traveled through Europe, which established hospices to replenish the provisions of the numerous pilgrims. Negotiations were made with the leaders in the East in order to protect those making the pilgrim's journey.

Pilgrimages reached a height in the tenth century as knights, bishops and abbots made the laborous journey to Jerusalem. The Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, Hakem, in 1009, ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre and all Christian establishments in Jerusalem. Christians were cruelly persecuted. The Frankish protectorate was overthrown in 1027 and replaced by Byzantine emperors, by whose diplomacy the Holy Sepulchre had been replaced. The Christian quarter was surrounded by a wall and some hospices in Jerusalem were created to supply the pilgrims.

Interest in the pilgrimage increased in the eleventh century, including those of humbler classes who undertook the holy journey to pray in the Holy Land. Richard II, Duke of Normandy financed the journey of some seven hundred pilgrims in 1026. Gunther, Bishop of Bamburg led twelve thousand on the journey in 1065. These pilgrims were forced to take shelter in a ruined fortress in order to defend themselves against marauding Bedouins. In 1092 Eric, King of the Danes, made the journey to Jerusalem. The Seljurkian Turks, who conquered the Holy Land in 1076 put a check upon the pirlgrims.

What concerned Pope Urban II was Muslim rule in the Holy Land, and he wished to see the Holy Land under Christian rule. The rise of Seljukian Turks compromised the safety of all pilgrims and even threatened the independence of the Byzantine Empire. Europe's revival helped the Pope and other European Christians feel more confident than did those of previous generations. To Christians, the Muslims appeared to be growing weaker. Then the Turks overran Jerusalem. All manner of insults and injuries were heaped upon the Christian pilgrims by the Seljukian Turks. Many were imprisoned and sold into slavery. Those who returned to Europe were filled with tales of woe, arousing the religious feelings of all classes.

.Pope Urban II responded to the call for help from the emperor at Constantinople and organized what was to become known as the First Crusade. In Pope Urban's appeal he stated:

Enthusiasm for the Crusade spread to Scotland, England, Castile and Scandinavia, and among the enthused were common people. William of Malmesbury wrote: "The Welshan left his hunting, the Scot his fellowship with lice, the Dane his drinking party, the Norwegian his raw fish. Fields were deserted of their husbandmen; whole cities migrated...God alone was placed before their eyes." Before Urban II could organize his crusade, peasant mobs began to march in the direction of the Holy Land. Many did not reach Constantinople -- the major city on route to the Holy Land. For the knights the Crusade was an opportunity to emulate the great deeds of Charlemagne. Preachers of the crusade spread throughout Europe. England was engaged in wars with all of these countries during the time period of the Crusades. The cry of the crusaders on their way to combat Islam and liberate the Holy Land was "God wills it!" Some three hundred thousand men died in the first crusade.

The suffering in the Holy Land was intense due to the heat and lack of water. During the siege of Jerusalem, the valley and hills around Jerusalem were strewn with dead horses, putrifying carcasses. The Crusaders, with bare feet, the priests at their head, marched in procession around the walls praying for a miracle that would cause the walls of Jerusalem to fall. Such was the scene which would repeat itself again and again during the history of the Crusades.

Only one English king, Richard I, actually went on a Crusade, though Edward I did so before he became King of England. In 1146 Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine along with a great number of knights, enlisted under the cross. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded as a result of the First Crusade in 1099. In 1173, King of Jerusalem, Amalric died, leaving the royal power to Baldwin IV "the Leprous", a child of 13 and the Kingdom of Jerusalem found itself threatened on all sides. Simultaneously, two factions, led by Guy de Lusignan, brother-in-law of the king and Raymond, Count of Tripoli, contended for control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Tyre, Antioch and Tripoli were the only places in Syria that remained in Christian control.

The news of the Christian defeat in Syria caused great upset in Christendom. Under the guidance of Gregory VIII, Philip Augustus, King of France and Henry II, the Plantagenet, took the cross in 1188. The forces were joined by a great number of German knights as all over Europe, peace was made in order to join the Christian forces under the cross. Meanwhile, Saladin had united the Mohammedan forces and had organized a "counter-crusade".

Frederick Barbarossa, along with an army of 100,000 men, in May of 1189, crossed Hungary and took the Balkan passes to attack Constantinople. Many German princes returned to Europe but others, under the Emperor's son, Frederick of Swabia, reached Antioch and proceeded to Saint-Jean d'Acre, where a temporary Christian city arose outside the walls of Acre. This siege lasted two years when Philip Augustus, King of France and Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England arrived. While Philip was landing at Acre, Richard was shipwrecked off the coast of Cyprus. With the help of Guy de Lusignan, Richard conquered Cyprus. He then offered Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, who had been king of Jerusalem. With this, the Lusignan dynasty began, which would last three hundred years. Guy's brother, Amaury became the first King of Cyprus after being crowned by the Holy Roman Emperor.

With the arrival of the Kings of France and England, Acre capitulated 13 July 1191. The loss at Acre was very heavy and included six archbishops, twelve bishops, forty counts and five hundred knights who lost their lives. The list included the names of the dukes of Swabia, Flanders and Burgundy, the archbishops of besancon, Arles, Montreal, etc. Famine ran rampant as prices for the little food remaining sky rockedted. Horse flesh, including the intestines was consumed. A quarrel arose between Philip Augustus and Richard resulting in Philip leaving Palestine. Richard planned an attack on Jerusalem itself but was beguiled by Saladin's negotiations during which time Saladin brought in numerous troops from Egypt. After a last expedition against Saladin at Jaffa, Richard declared a truce and left for Europe in 1192. A new threat arose to Europe. The union of the Western and Eastern Churches was procaimed at the Council of Lyons in 1274. Meanwhile, Philip III, King of France, the King of England and the King of Aragon made a vow to go to the Holy Land. The 25,000 Christians defended the city valiantly but were forced to flee and by July 1291, the last Christian towns in Syria capitulated and the Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist.

Along with the Crusades came change. As men's awareness was broadened by their travels, the face of Europe was forever changed, most especially with a rise in trade and commerce. In addition to tradesmen and merchants, the roads of Europe were also traveled by peasants looking for land to settle on, by refugees of war and famine, by men who were part-time soldiers, and by part-time bandits. An increasing number of young men were attending universities. Scholars wandered from town to town.

Lords granted charters to towns, and monarchs did also, the monarchs offering towns protection, freeing the towns from the jurisdiction of nearby lords. The charters that people sought for their town included guarantees of personal freedom and freedom from arbitrary seizure of property. Each town had its church or churches, and as the towns grew in wealth some hired their own soldiers and sailors. Merchants and craftsmen joined fraternal and political clubs called guilds. Towns were often densely packed with people. In towns diseases spread more rapidly. Towns would be places that normally killed more people than were born, their populations being continuously replenished by migrations from the countryside.

Most people were still farming people, and that would remain so in civilized societies until the 20th century. Aristocrats continued to be aggressive, and little wars among Christendom's knights continued. The Church discouraged warfare among the knights and denounced fighting for booty as a sin. The knights obliged, and in the place of reduced warfare, tournaments were created. The Church objected to the tournaments also, but these complaints the knights largely ignored.

In 1144, Muslims captured the city of Edessa in northern Greece, and a crusade from 1147 to 1149, led by the German emperor, Conrad II, and the French monarch, Louis VII, failed to retake the city for Christendom. In 1187 the Muslims, led by the great Saladin, reconquered Jerusalem. Richard the Lionhearted of England led a third crusade from 1189 to 1191. It is in this Crusade that many of our ancestors participated. This crusade was joined by the French and German monarchs and failed to retake the city. The death of Saladin in 1193 inspired hope among the Christians, and Pope Innocent III decided on a new crusade to retake Jerusalem.

In managing the new crusade, Innocent III demanded that the kings of western Christendom make peace with each other. Venetian merchants, in competition with Constantinople for trade with the Muslims, offered transportation for the crusaders, and the crusaders accepted in exchange for fighting and capturing a port town, Zara, for the Venetians.

In Constantinople, during the battle, fire destroyed much of the city. With the fall of the city, the crusaders set up their own king. Pope Innocent III was delighted by the news of the fall of Constantinople to Roman Christianity. Eastern Orthodox Christians would cling to their faith despite rule by Latin Christians. People devoted to the Church joined the crusade.

During the crusade against heretics in southern France and northern Italy, children whose emotions were fired by the cause of Christianity and the preaching against heretics decided to do their bit by trying to retake the Holy Land. The crusading epidemic broke out among the children of France and Germany in 1212. The Children's Crusade did not have the blessing of the Church and technically was not a Church crusade. The French expedition was led by Stephen, a twelve year old shepherd who had a vision of Christ appealing to him to rescue the Holy places. From him, the word spread throughout Europe and the childdren's army soon reached some thirty thousand girls and boys, including the children of nobles. The hardships of the journey killed many of them. The French children fell prey to slave dealers in Marseilles who offered to take them to the Mediterranean. Of seven ships, two were shipwrecked while the remaining five ships of children reached the African shore, where the children were sold into slavery. Thousands of children died in the children's crusade, either killed or sold into slavery. The repercussions from the children's crusade was to led to the establishment of orphanages for the thousands of orphaned children.

In the Fourth Crusade, directed against Constantinople rather than expelling the Mohammedans from the Holy Land. Alexius offered two hundred thousand marks of silver and the maintenance for a year of an army of ten thousand against the Mohammedans. A few Crusaders such as Simon de Montfort, refused to be used for private gain and withdrew from the expedition. Pope Innocent threatened excommunication if the expedition was turned against Constantinople. Once the army arrived at Constantinople, Alexius refused to pay the army, which led to the invaders assault on the city which fell 12 April 1204. Churches and altars were despoiled as well as palaces. Chalices became drinking cups. A prostitute sang and danced for the amusement of the soldiers, while on the chair of the patriarchs in St.Sophia. Hundreds of sacred relics were taken and sold or melted. Skulls and bones of saints, pieces of wearing apparel and other sacred objects were sent to Western Europe, including the stone on which Jacob slept and Moses' rod, which was turned into a serpent, along with fragments of Mary's garments, all of which had been safely preserved at Constantinople for over eight hundred years, were eagerly absorbed by towns and cities which welcomed the relics. The true crown of thorns was purchased by the king of France from Baldwin II for ten thousand marks of silver and was carried through Paris by the French king barefoot and in his shirt. A part of the true cross and the swaddling clothes of Bethlehem were acquired also in Paris.

Pope Innocent opposed the Magna Carta, which many of our ancestors signed. Across Christendom, Church law remained more significant than secular law, and in 1233 the Church began exercising justice through a new ecclesiastical court -- the Inquisition. It was heresy that most offended the Church.

The use of water-power was still increasing. Western Europe was enjoying a long period of boom in commerce. Grand Cathedrals contributed to community, where people gathered for prayer, funerals and festivities. The cathedrals were not only churches but also served as town halls, places where actors staged plays, where couples courted and homeless pilgrims slept.

The Church was at its all time high in influence and power. It remained at the center of people's lives. Kings were transforming their realms into nation-states.

At the end of the century, when King Edward I of England and Philip IV of France went to war against each other over a fishing conflict (the first big war in western Europe in the 1200s). Edward of England resisted. Philip of France maintained that he was completely sovereign and responsible to God alone.

The Crusades marked a monumental moment in history. The most famous men of their age were identified with the Crusades. Emperors and kings led their armies: Konrad III, Frederick Barbarosa, Frederick II, Richard I, Louis VII, Philip Augustus and Louis IX, Andrew of Hungary. Ladies of nobility accompanied their husbands or went alone including: Alice of Antioch, Queen Eleanor of France, Ida of Austria, Berengaria, wife of Richard Coeur de Lion, Margaret, Queen of Louis IX. King's sons shared the risks: Frederick of Swabia, Sigurd, and Edward, son of Henry III, accompanied by his wife, Eleanor. Priests, abbots, and high ecclesiastics fought in the ranks and at the head of the troops. Many of the nobility of Europe lost their lives fighting in the armies "of the Cross," "of Christ," "of the Lord," or "of the faith."

Kings who were unable to go to the Holy Land themselves had a passion for the Holy Sepulchre. Edward I commanded his son to take his heart and deposit it there. Robert Bruce requested his friend, James Douglas to take his heart to a resting place in Jerusalem.

The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099 and lost it in 1187; they reconquered in 1229 and lost again in 1244. A burning desire of a Holy cause had grasped the whole of western Europe. The Holy Land became the imagination of a land of wonders, filled with the Divine presence of Christ. To have visited it, to have bathed in the Jordan, was for a man to have been sanctified.

* Please note that direct line ancestors have been noted by emphasizing their names in red.