298 Crusades Lecture 18, 19 April 9, 11 Flashcards
Question regarding 3rd crusade?
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- Post-Third Crusade Spin Campaigns
Spin campaigns for Richard and Saladin post Crusade.
S: piety, Islamic justice. Probably a later gloss.
R: paragon of justice and fairness.
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- Chivalry.
Means horsemanship etymologically.
Idea of what it means to be a good knight.
Variants: 11th century Song of Roland; late 12th century Arthurian Romances, read around the campfire on the eve of a major battle.
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- This kind of rhetoric increasingly used in the recording of the crusades. Civilizing. Idealisation.
Makes it fun to read, but suspect as an account of what actually happened or what the major figures were really like.
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- Financing the Crusades
Third Crusade:
Church taxed its own churches to finance the crusades.
Threat so immediate that authority granted to secular leaders to tax their own people for the crusade.
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- Saladin Tithe
See handout for an example from England. No aggressive tax like this before in medieval history. Jews exempt. Sense of urgency. Crusade to end all crusades.
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- Financing: Have to talk in relative scales.
Louis 9 spent about four years collecting money for his crusade. It amounted to four times the royal income.
Iraq. 1 billion per week. Small percentage of federal budget.
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- Every crusade cost more than the one previous.
Crusades are relying more and more on professional mercenaries.
Mercenaries charging more and more. The more popular a crusade is, the bigger the demand for mercenaries. Eg Third Crusade.
Need for a professionalizing of the finances.
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- Where does the money come from?
Church does not have the right to tax the people. Can tax other churches.
Starts taxing universities, convents, etc. Called a one fortieth.
Every year every ecclesiastical body had to pay this to Rome for the crusades. Still could not be enough.
Then they would levy a tithe for a year or two. Saladin tithe unique because state involved.
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- No crusade called off due to lack of money. Partial exception of fourth crusade.
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- Crusades an investment opportunity.
Invest in a crusader.
Loan made by either an individual or an institution. Usury a sin.
As opposed to charging interest, I get temporary possession of your rents and lands and will take a cut. Usufruct.
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11a. Thus, with every crusade, a lot of properly changed hands. Any time there is a sudden drop in properly values in a region, probably indicates a crusade had been preached there.
Churches the top loaners. Bishops. Monasteries. Latter would melt down candlesticks, etc. So as to be able to loan money.
3rd the Jews. Saw the crusades as an opportunity for making money. World in which crusades are happening anyway, so may as well make the best of it. Temporarily able to control land.
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11b. Development after the Third Crusade of the idea that providing support for a crusade in terms of materiel would earn one a proportionate indulgence.
Also new idea under Innocent III that a vow could be commuted or redeemed once taken – with money.
This radically alters crusade funding, recruitment, planning, and preaching.
Criticism: Crosses for Cash
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11c. Why was Crusading so expensive?
Mercenaries, definitely. But also:
For every knight, ten to twelve attendants. Some were squires. Some infantry.
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11d. 5th crusade
Louis kept elaborate records, including ships manifests
Military command always a difficulty to organize for a crusade.
Who do you report to if your lord away on crusade ? Personal loyalty, not institutional.
Work out a company structure of about fifty knights.
Company of St. Victor
14 knights, 90 retainers, 7 clergy, 342 commoners, 42 women
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11e. commoners; tanners, ferriers, cooks, etc. Merchants.
15 of the women were wives. Extra wife was wife of one of priests. Rest: cooks, laundresses, etc.
Only 14 took the cross.
This is why crusading was so expensive.
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- The world before the fourth crusade.
Circa 1200
Many local warlords in the Middle East. In fighting. Next several crusades about reclaiming Jerusalem and shoring up what remains.
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- Europe looks very different.
England, France, and Germany the dominant political powers.
These are the home of feudalism, to the degree it ever existed.
Feudalism not an identifiable set of ideas. But these regions dominated by interconnected land holders.
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- Economically and culturally, the center of life is the Mediterranean.
Crusades have made this abundantly clear to northern lords.
Literacy, government, etc a whole different world.
Tax revenue of city of Palermo 4 times what king of England got from his entire kingdom.
The crusades have connected more northerners to the Mediterranean.
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- City- states
Catalans in Spain extend influence to Sicily. Control western part of the sea.
Venetians control eastern Mediterranean.
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- Since 1100, the three northern kingdom have been trying to gain direct access to the Mediterranean.
Marriages. Land acquisition. Meta narrative of the politics of the twelfth century.
HRE gets control of the top third of Italy. Weak control. Swiss Alps interfere. About once a decade, emperor marches army south to remind the Italians who is in charge. Once he is gone, city -states essentially independent.
Extending in to Mediterranean far more important than holy land.
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- The Fourth Crusade
If the Simpsons had a crusade. D’oh! Wrong city!
Asbridge doesn’t spend time on this crusade
1202 to 1204
Loved by conspiracy theorists
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- In response to third crusade.
Region roiling with religious and ethnic strife, endangering the remaining crusader states.
Background politics for 4th crusade
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19 first. SLIDE
In 1182 the last of the Comneni ascended throne: Andronicus.
Heavy-handed
Widely hated
Provinces rebelled; Constantinople revolts and overthrows him.
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19 second
Isaac II Angelos
Bulgaris and Syria successfully rebel
Frederick Hohenstaufen marched through his lands and temporarily capturing Adrianople and Philiopolis
Fred leaves only after Isaac made huge concessions
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19 third
As Isaac gains back regional control, loses control inside the palace
1195 brother usurps
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19 fourth
Coup in Constantinople
Isaac II Comnenus had lost throne in 1195 to his brother. Blinded, imprisoned.
New emperor: Alexius III, evil uncle of Alexius Angelus
Corrupt
Rebellions in Bulgaria, Serbia
Drains treasury
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HRE. SLIDE
Philip of Swabia marries Irene Angelos soon afer Alexius takes throne. Brother to emperor Henry VI.
Daughter of Isaac
Henry also king of Sicily and so heir to Norman claims to Greek territories once conquered.
Hohenstaufen now have direct interest in Isaac’s claims over his brother
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HRE 2
Henry on verge of asking for new crusade against Constantinople
He would then command combined steengths of two empires against Jerusalem
Never goes anywhere
Henry died in 1197
Seed planted
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