The First Crusade

The holy wars

The Crusades were some pretty famous wars between Christians and Muslims. These battles started during the medieval era when Christians traveled to Jerusalem for holidays. At the time the area was governed by the Byzantine Empire, but the empire was losing land to the Turks and Arabs. These two groups were Islamic and when they gained Jerusalem the Muslims did not want the Christians going to the city. So basically the Muslims didn’t want their religion destroyed by Christians. To stop the Christians from going to Jerusalem the Muslims stated persecuting them.

            The Christians did not want this because Jerusalem contained Christ’s tomb and pieces of the true cross, the one he was crucified on. The Christians also did not like the fact that they were being persecuted. So a man named Alexius wrote a letter to the pope at the time. The pope’s name was Urban II and the letter was asking for help in capturing Jerusalem back and stopping the persecution of Christians. Urban II said he would help and he’d bring help.

The byzantine people were glad. One, the pope would bring help and large groups of soldiers. Two, they would get Jerusalem back. But the crusade did not go as planned because the army was ill prepared and didn't have much organization. This army was quickly defeated by the Seljuk, a Muslim group in Anatolia. The next attack on the Muslims was more planned and prepared. The army was divided among the leaders, for example Raymond of Saint Gillies led the Provencal knights. The army went to Constantinople where they were soon sent to Anatolia. The crusaders soon captured the city of Dorylaeum giving the Byzantine Empire control of western Anatolia. Then the army conquered Antioch in Anatolia. Finally the army marched to Jerusalem where they regained the city in July 1099.