Why Medieval People went on Crusades – Ronan 2003

There are four main reasons why people in the medieval ages went on crusades: One, people went on Crusades because they wanted to take back Jerusalem by reason that they thought that it was rightfully theirs since it is there where Jesus died. Second, some people did it for honour, revenge or love. Third, the people wanted their sins to be forgiven, to go to heaven or to take back goods from the Holy Lands or because they had committed a crime and were forced by the church to go on a Crusade. And some people just went on Crusades for fun.

Taking back Jerusalem was the main reason why Crusades occurred. The church thought that since Jesus had lived and died there that it was theirs. So the church had to make up a new rule saying to all the people that god told the Pope that it is alright to kill or even better, rewarded to kill anyone that does not believe in god (for them it was the Muslims). This was actually not true, god had never told the Pope that they would be rewarded to kill a Muslim, and not rewarded for a Christian. The Pope had simply made it up so that the Christians could once again take over Jerusalem. This is why most peasants, lords, knights, kings, wives and even children went on Crusades. For example the Pope Urban II’s sermon in 1295 said, “Brothers, I speak as a messenger from God. Your fellow Christians in the East desperately need help. The Saracens have attacked them and have pushed deep into Christian land. They are killing great numbers of Christians. They are destroying churches and land. In the name of God, I beg you all to etc.

The second most important reason to go on Crusades was for honour, revenge and love. The Christians that went on Crusades for honour probably wanted to be known more by their village, to be more famous or maybe they went fighting for someone else. The people that went on Crusades for revenge went probably because a Muslim might have killed a relative or friend and they wanted to show how fierce they could fight and to avenge the relative or friend. And last, some people went on Crusades for love because their wife could have been killed or maybe a Christian and a Muslim were fighting for one woman. For example French Crusader sent a letter to his wife in 1190 saying, “Alas, my darling! It breaks my heart to leave you, but I must go to the Holy Land. That is where I will win paradise and praise and your true love.” And also an other French Crusader sent a letter to his wife in 1098 saying, “My dear wife, I now have twice as much silver, gold and riches as I had when I set off for this Crusade.” And

Some Christians also went on Crusades because they wanted to go to heaven or wanted to shorten their time in Purgatory. They also went to be forgiven. Some people went on Crusades because they knew that if they killed a Muslim they would be allowed to take all his belongings, food and money. Some people were forced to go on crusades by the church because they had committed a crime. For example, from an English trial in 1291 said, “You have been found guilty of hitting a priest with your sword. For this outrage you must join a crusade or pay a suitable soldier to go instead.”

Some Christians went on Crusades because they didn’t want to disobey god in which they should kill Christians and they just couldn’t stop thinking of fighting and since the Pope had told everyone that they could now kill any body but Christians they joined Crusades just for fun. For example a twelfth-century English writer said, “A knight loves to prepare for war in tournaments. He sees his own blood flow and feels his own teeth crack when his opponent hits him. He is thrown to the Ground and rises again twenty times. Then he is ready for war.”

I think it is disloyal from the Pope to say a lie on God’s words. God had never said that it was allowed to kill people that didn’t believe in him. It is also disloyal to be able to send someone to fight for you so that you can forgiven. I think that if the Crusades had never existed than the piece between Christians and Muslims would have came much earlier. But it did advance all of Western and Eastern Europe to build much better castles, more foods, spices, new ideas on medicine and maths, luxuries like carpets, mirrors, perfumes, glass, and they changed there numerals from Roman numerals to Arab Numerals.