The failure of the Crusades

Popes kept on urging kings, lords, and knights to go on Crusades. Many answered the call. In English churches you can still see carvings of knights who took the cross.

Why did they go? Some just liked fighting. Some wanted a chance to win fame and glory. But faith in God was the most important thing. Men who had done wrong hoped that their sins would be forgiven. They all believed that Crusaders went to Heaven.

Not only soldiers went on Crusades. Monks, priests, and nuns joined them. Some kings and lords took their wives. There was even a 'Peasants' Crusade' and a 'Children's Crusade'. Most of the peasants were killed, and a lot of the children were sold as slaves by the Turks.

In the end, the Crusaders failed. They were too few in number, and they were fighting far from home. Too often, they quarrelled among themselves. After 1250, the Turks grew stronger. When Acre fell in 1291, the 'Kingdom of Jerusalem' was at an end.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 28