The Crusades Context:

Question 1

Why were knights an issue during this time?

Answer 1

-Prone to violence in order to get money and land because they are the ‘second sons’.

Question 2

What were doom paintings?

Answer 2

-it was a physical depiction of the weighing of souls (particularly terrifying due to illiteracy) .

Question 3

How could salvation (saving of the souls) be claimed?

Answer 3

• Pilgrimage, payment and by going to church and confessing to a priest.
• ‘indulgence’ granted to rich people who would pay to have their sins wiped.

Question 4

What was the idea of purgatory?

Answer 4

• The place between heaven and hell.

- People wanted to limit their time as much as possible.

Question 5

What year was the Schism between the eastern and western churches?

Answer 5

1054.

Question 6

What year were the Byzantines defeated by the Turks at the battle of Manzikert?

Answer 6

1071.

Question 7

What year did Gregory VIII become Pope?

Answer 7

1073.

Question 8

What year did Alexios II become emperor of Byzantium?

Answer 8

1081.

Question 9

What year was the first crusade?

Answer 9

1096-1099.

Question 10

What were the 1040’s Reform Movements (the truce of God and Peace of God movements).

Answer 10

• Created to reduce noble violence.
• The Truce of God was a temporary fighting ban (made permanent) which left only 80 days to fight each year.

Question 11

Who created the idea of a just war?

Answer 11

St Augustine.

Question 12

What are the conditions of a just war and how is it backed up?

Answer 12

• legitimate ruling authority
• defending one’s own territory
• showing the right intentions
• keeping violence to a minimum.

Backed up by old testament

Question 13

What year was the great Schism?

Answer 13

1054.

Question 14

What happened in the Great Schism 1054?

Answer 14

The pope in Rome excommunicated the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox church. The Patriarch then excommunicated the pope in Rome

Question 15

What was the investiture contest?

Answer 15

• Gregory the 7th and Henry the 4th excommunicated/ deposed one another.
• Henry made anti-pope Clement III
• Gregory formed an army in the name of ‘salvation’ and gave a blessing for the Christian knights to fight Arab Muslims.
• Fighting over supreme power and appointing bishops.

Question 16

Why did crusading appeal to Western Europeans?

Answer 16

• fighting for God + die in Jerusalem
• Salvation
• reducing purgatory
• fear of sin and the doom paintings
• 2nd sons wanting land and money

Question 17

Why did crusading appeal to the Pope?

Answer 17

• supreme power and the church being important.
• money and land.
• decrease violence amongst Christians.

Question 18

Who were the Fatimids?

Answer 18

• Shia Muslims.
• resided in Egypt.
• Also possessed Jerusalem.
• Peacefully reigning over Syria and Palestine.

Question 19

Who were the Seljuk Turks?

Answer 19

• Sunni Muslims
• Residing in Anatolia.
• Ruled by Kilij Aslan.
• 1079: had taken over most of Syria, Palestine, and Jerusalem.
• Alexios using this as an excuse for crusading.

Question 20

What were the key Sunni Muslim cities?

Answer 20

Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul

Question 21

Who ruled Damascus?

Answer 21

Duqauq.

Question 22

Who ruled Aleppo?

Answer 22

Ridwan.

Question 23

Who ruled Mosul?

Answer 23

Kerbogha.

Question 24

What was happening due to the Arab conquest?

Answer 24

• Christians had to pay taxes to secure safety.
• Worship places not attacked.
• Not persecuted.
• Pilgrimages allowed.

Question 25

What were threats to the Byzantine Empire?

Answer 25

• Normans had took over much of Southern Italy.
• The aggressive Pechnegs had began to raid the Balkans.
• Turks on the Eastern Fringes of the empire.

Question 26

What was the impact of the threats to the Byzantine empire?

Answer 26

-People living in Asia minor relocated to
Constantinople where they would be safe.

• Pressure on resources.
• Tax up.
• Turks raided Asia minor and took Anatolia/ shores of Bosporus.
• Robert Guiscard the Norman leader was prepared to take advantage and attack.

Question 27

Who was Alexios I Comnenus?

Answer 27

• The new Byzantium emperor.

- Was a usurper so lacked political legitimacy.

Question 28

What were Alexios’ six main problems in his early reign?

Answer 28

• Lack of support.
• The Normans in the South (Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly)
• Pencengs threatening Constantinople.
• Religious divisions.
• Turks
• Economy- heavy taxation and trading privileges grated to Venice seen as a threat to local traders.

Question 29

How did Alexios fix his five main problems in his early reign?

Answer 29

• Lack of support : gave appointments and commissions to leading families to keep them loyal.
• The Normans in the South (Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly): Alexios took personal command of the army and by 1084 had driven them out.
• Pencengs threatening Constantinople: large army defeated them.
• Religious divisions: heretics punished and orthodox clergy members appointed.
• Economy: Unresolved

Question 30

What was the issue of the Turks?

Answer 30

• Christians beaten at the battle of Manzikert 1071.
• Threatening Constantinople.

Question 31

How did Alexios fix the issue of the Turks? (Spoiler alert: he didn’t!).

Answer 31

• Alexios used one of the chieftains in Asia Minor (Sulyman) to keep Asia Minor under control so Alexios could spend time on other issues.
• He died and Antioch captured again.
• Alliance with Malik Shah who retook Antioch but he died and no heir, Turks killed anyone who tried to continue alliance.

Question 32

Who did Alexios try to make an alliance with when Malik Shah died?

Answer 32

Abu’l-Kasim (but he was killed).

Question 33

What happened when the Pechnegs remerged?

Answer 33

They attacked and captured a town north of Nicaea called Nicomedia and 80km from Constantinople (which was vulnerable via sea).

Question 34

When was Nicomedia retaken and what happened?

Answer 34

1091- Pechnegs utterly defeated and some even joined the byzantine army.

Question 35

What did Alexios do in order to secure himself after it was discovered they were trying to remove him as Emperor?

Answer 35

• Arrested Nikephoros and tortured him until he confessed.
• Plot included high ranking figures.#
• Purged his government.

Question 36

Where were the locations the normans were in in the south?

Answer 36

Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly

Question 37

How far away was Nicomedia from Constantinople?

Answer 37

80km

Question 38

Why was the economy an issue for Alexios?

Answer 38

heavy taxation and trading privileges grated to Venice seen as a threat to local traders.

Question 39

How did Alexios fix the issue of the normans?

Answer 39

Alexios took personal command of the army and by 1084 had driven them out.

Question 40

How did Alexios fix the issue of a lack of support?

Answer 40

gave appointments and commissions to leading families to keep them loyal.

Question 41

How did Alexios fix the issue of religious divisions?

Answer 41

heretics punished and orthodox clergy members appointed.

Question 42

How did Alexios fix the issue of pechnegs near Constantinople?

Answer 42

-large army defeated them.