of Bouillon and other french lords led the way. They marched from Constantinople and they went through some lands that were claimed by the Seljuk Turks to get to Antioch. Battles with isolated turkic forces happened along the way until Godfrey of Bouillon’s brother set up the first crusade in Edessa.
The Crusaders eventually captured Antioch their progress was slowed because of some inconvenience between themselves and on August 1908 was when they reached jerusalem. “…Godfrey dies and Baldwin leaves Edessa” to become the first king of the Jerusalem, “…the Christian Kingdom”. Most who survived the trip returned home.
After the first crusade “…european lords tried to secure their rule over the states conquered by the first crusaders”, but when muslim forces came back and attacked Edessa the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, and the Knights Hospitaller rode under the banner of the second crusade.
The two monarchs of Emperor Conrad III of Germany and King Louis VII of France, “…pledged to the cause” and both of them led armies into the “…Holy Land.” The crusader instead of focusing on Edessa, led an attack on Damascus and it turned out to be a failure. Many crusaders returned home, the ones who stayed were “…focused on defending the Kingdom of Jerusalem” meanwhile the muslim forces were becoming more power and enclosed them in a circle.
In the middle of the 12th century, the Turkic ruler Saladin volunteered to lead the Seljuks and managed to unite the broken apart muslim armies of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Saladin thought that the Christian armies were in the wrong and strongly agreed to have them evicted. At the moment Saladin conquered Jerusalem, a request for another crusade was called for all around europe.
The request caused three kings to come forward, King Phillip II of France, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and King Richard I of England. Those were the three who led this Third Crusade which accomplished very little. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa died on the way of the crusade, King Phillip returned back home after the “…capture of Acre” the only one of the three who stayed was King Richard who became known as “Richard the Lionheart”. King Richard led many attacks to Jerusalem but was never able to take over city.
1198, Pope Innocent III “…calls for a new crusade” but it was not because of events happening in the Holy Land but out of “…desire to elevate the papacy…” but it didn’t achieve to “rouse any monarchs.” This crusade was led mostly by French knights, and they set out towards the Holy Land.
The Venetian Lords did nothing but distract the French Knights on their journey to the Holy Land by convincing them to take over the “…wealth and splendor” of Eastern Orthodox Constantinople instead. So now, the fourth crusade took over the capital of the Byzantine Empire which was a Christian city.
Most of the crusades that came after the fourth crusade were poor, they were horribly organized and they had very little support. The fifth crusade, led by King Andrew II of Hungary, traveled first to the Holy Land and after he went to Egypt, but he failed.
The sixth crusade led by Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire, was the most successful after the fourth crusade. Frederick’s troops reclaimed Jerusalem in 1228. But unfortunately the kingdom “…was plagued by civil war” which made them weak in their interior structure which allowed the Muslim armies to attack.
