Holy War- Week 3 Flashcards
Difference between Crusade and Holy War for Tyerman
The Crusades were holy wars fought in response to the will of God on behalf of the Christian faith in defense of lands, people or religion. Rather than the Holy wars being offensive. The Crusade was a category of war but also a lived experience, a pattern of behaviour and a cultural mentality.
Crusading Vows
Crusade armies were distinguished by troops who had taken very particular vows of service. They were temporary vows until the specific commitment had been satisfied. Vows were signalled by the adoption of a physical cross, usually made of cloth or other textile, occasionally metal, and worn on the shoulder or other part of the recipient’s garments. The cross symbolised a transcendent obligation to adhere to adhere to Jesus Christ’s injunction to ‘take up your cross and follow me’
Plenary Indulgence
Were Lavish spiritual indulgences justified by the extreme penitential hardship, effort, danger and risk: full remission of penalties of confessed sins and the prospect of equal forgiveness in the afterlife. They were available to all types of people, the old, the young, the weak, the infirm, the sick, the indolent, the cowardly, the preoccupied.
Margaret of Beverley
An educated Cistercian nun, defended the walls of Jerusalem in 1187 and was also involved in the fighting around Antoch, she was a Crucesignara. She was a Virage, a woman assuming a masculine identity. However, her story was written by her brother so it doesn’t show unfiltered feminine perspectives.
Penance at Hastings
The victors at the Battle of Hastings 1066 were expected to perform penance for the slaughter of the battle even though it was a lighter one. Pope Gregory argued that certain sorts of fighting themselves constituted penance earning absolution and remission.
Crusade Martyrs
The author Tyerman mentions in chapter 1, page 21, that there were no crusader martyrs and even Louis IX of France was canonized as a confessor rather than a martyr. The papacy monopolized official canonization (meaning, saint-making). It was increasingly unwilling to make saints. Thus while popular opinion deemed fallen crusaders martyrs, this was never officialized.
Abbasids
Exercised power in Iraq and Western Iran from the 940s, ruled by a series of Caliphs. Relied on their accommodation between their Shi’ite beliefs and those of their Sunni subjects and taxpayers.
Fatimids
Were conquers of Egypt and the economic powerhouse and commercial hub of the levant. They ruled over a population of predominantly Sunni Muslims, Coptic and Melkite Christians. They competed with the Abbasids for dominance over the wider Islamic world.
Seldjuks
11th Century invaders of the Mediterranean region, they came from outside of the old Arab world. They infiltrated the Near and Middle East overtime by defeating indigenous rulers.
Seldjuk System
Power rested with the Seljuk princes who ruled various cities and provinces of the empire as a family business. Any Prince could aspire to be the Sultanate in Bagdad to inspire competition and cohesion. Their power depended on their own permanent personal military households and their paid or enslaved army.
Byzantine Policies and Geopolitical Interests
It was cosmopolitan in nature and international in reach, they traded in silk, soldiers, metals, furs and spices. They created alliances with the Turks and the Egyptian Fatimids, and even assisted Frankish leaders such a Raymond of Toulouse
Knights and Nobles
: Nobles used knights to assert their power within local communities when their was Political fragmentation. However, by 1200 knights were synonymous with power, and all nobles were knights and by 1200 all knights were noble
Frangopoulo
Found in Constantinople during the winter of 1096-7, the armies of the first crusade found the Frangopouloi. ‘the Frankish people’. They were a group of expatriate westerners.
Piacenza
Pope Urban II held a council in 1095 at Piacenza, where Greek ambassadors asked for military aid against the Seljuk Turks. After which the Pope decided to invade Syria and Palestine. The Council of Piacenza represented the first international church assembly of Urban’s troubled pontificate.
Urban II
Promoted the first crusade between 1095-96, and he was at the centre of international ecclesiastical politics for over 15 years. Preaching the First Crusade formed part of this process, providing Urban with a popular international cause, a unique diplomatic opportunity to consolidate reconciliation with Byzantium and a chance to ally moral reform with political action that involved the laity as well as clergy: most of the canons of the Councils of Piacenza and Clermont in 1095 addressed issues of church discipline.
