Crusades Timeline

The Seljuk Turks, a Sunni Muslim empire ruling Iran and Iraq, faced Egypt's Shia Fatimid caliphs as bitter rivals. On 26 August 1071 their sultan, Alp Arslan, defeated the Byzantine army at Manzikert and took Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes prisoner. Anatolia, the land also called Asia Minor, now stood open to Turkish conquest, and Byzantine generals fighting one another for the throne helped the Turks take it over. The Seljuks founded the Sultanate of Rum there, ruling from Nicaea. From the Fatimids they seized Jerusalem and the Holy Land, a loss that helped push Western Christians toward a crusade.

Alexios I Komnenos, a general, took the Byzantine throne after a string of defeats had shrunk the empire. The Venetian fleet helped him drive off a Norman invasion, and in return Venice received wide trading privileges throughout the empire. From Isfahan, Malik-Shah, Alp Arslan's son, governed the Seljuks, and his reign is associated with the poet Omar Khayyam and a calendar reform. Rival lords fought for power when Sultan Malik-Shah died, and the Seljuk empire came apart. Facing the Seljuk advance in Anatolia, Alexios I looked to the West for military aid, an appeal that eventually set the First Crusade in motion.

In March 1095, envoys of Byzantine emperor Alexios I asked Pope Urban II's Council of Piacenza for military help. Urban II proclaimed a crusade at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, promising remission of sins to those who went. Jewish communities in the Rhineland came under attack from some crusader bands. On 21 October 1096 the Turks destroyed most of the People's Crusade, Peter the Hermit's popular army. Antioch fell to the crusaders on 3 June 1098. Bohemond kept it for himself, breaking his vow to hand captured lands back to the Byzantine emperor.

The crusaders took Jerusalem on 15 July 1099 and slaughtered many of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The conquests produced four crusader states: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, and the Counties of Edessa and Tripoli. Knights who lived like monks made up the new military orders, Templars and Hospitallers among them. Afterward most crusaders went home, and the new states ran short of fighting men. The crusaders also gained from rivalries dividing the region's Muslim rulers, who had not yet united against them. Then a strong Muslim leader came to power against the crusader states: Zangi, ruler of Mosul.

Muslim forces captured the crusader city of Edessa on 24 December 1144, sparking the Second Crusade. King Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany led it, attacking Damascus but abandoning the siege after just four days. Then Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt and Muslim Syria. At Hattin he destroyed the Kingdom of Jerusalem's army, stripping the crusaders of most of their states and sparking the Third Crusade. On 2 October 1187 Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin, who let its Christians purchase their freedom with a ransom.

Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, Philip II of France and Richard I of England led the Third Crusade. Germans at the siege of Acre founded a hospital brotherhood for the sick, the beginning of the Teutonic Order. Richard I's arrival revived the siege of Acre, and its garrison surrendered. On 7 September 1191, Richard's crusaders defeated Saladin's army in a battle at Arsuf. He then made peace with Saladin: the crusaders held a coastal strip, and the holy places were open to Christian pilgrims. Jerusalem stayed in Muslim hands, and Acre became the centre of the crusaders' Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The Fourth Crusade, meant for the Holy Land, was diverted against Constantinople, a Byzantine city. The crusaders could not pay Venice for its ships, so they seized Zara for the Venetians. On 12 April 1204 they took Constantinople and sacked the city. Baldwin of Flanders, one of the crusade's leaders, became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople. In 1261, forces of the Empire of Nicaea retook Constantinople, and the Byzantine Empire was restored in the city.

From 1209 to 1229 the Albigensian Crusade was waged against the Cathars, a religious movement in the south of France that the Catholic Church had condemned as heretical. In 1212 the Children's Crusade, an outpouring of popular faith, left for Jerusalem without ever reaching the Holy Land. The Fifth Crusade took Damietta in Egypt, but its army later capitulated to Sultan al-Kamil and handed the city back. Despite excommunication, Frederick II secured Jerusalem from the same sultan by diplomacy. Later, Khwarazmian forces in alliance with Egypt's Ayyubid rulers seized Jerusalem from Christian hands. In Egypt, Louis IX's Seventh Crusade met defeat at Mansurah, and the king was taken prisoner and ransomed later.

Soon after, Mamluk officers murdered Turan Shah, Egypt's final Ayyubid sultan, and seized power. On 3 September 1260 the Mamluks defeated the Mongol invasion at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Louis IX died of illness at Tunis, in North Africa, while leading the Eighth Crusade in 1270. Krak des Chevaliers, a castle of the Knights Hospitaller, fell to the Mamluk leader Baibars. The Mamluks then took Acre, the crusaders' last stronghold on the mainland, and the crusader states ceased to exist. Crusading itself went on after Acre, with more crusades in the years to come.

From the 14th century on, crusading in the East consisted mostly of small expeditions with narrow goals. In 1365, King Peter I of Cyprus took Alexandria, but his crusade held the city only briefly. Under Sultan Bayezid I, Ottoman armies gained control over much of the Balkans, then turned against the Byzantine Empire. By the 14th century, crusades aimed not just at the Holy Land but also at defending Christians in Europe from the Ottomans. On 25 September 1396, a crusade army of Hungarians and other Europeans was crushed by the Ottomans at Nicopolis. That disaster closed the age of huge international crusades against the Ottoman advance.

Byzantine emperor Manuel II visited Italy, Paris and London seeking Western aid, and was welcomed with honor, but no military help came. Near Ankara, the conqueror Timur, or Tamerlane, overcame Bayezid and held him captive. The Ottomans were weakened for a time after this defeat, but under Sultan Murad II they advanced into Europe once more. King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary broke his truce with the Ottomans, was beaten at Varna, and died in the fighting. The Varna defeat of 1444 ended the West's attempts to save Constantinople, and the Byzantines were left on their own. It was the last major offensive Christians mounted in Europe against the Ottomans, who later conquered Constantinople.