What cause of the Crusades do you think had the most influence on them starting? And Why?

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The Cause of the First Crusade

             The Crusades were wars fought in the middle ages between the Muslims and the Christians.  You are probably wondering what they fought over.  Well ill tell you, they  fought over the Holy Land where Jesus Christ was born, lived and died. The Holy Land was a town called Jerusalem. The first Crusade was in AD 1096.  The Crusades continued from the 11^th to 14^th century.   In 1095 Pope the second went to Clermont in South- cental France to give a speech.

            There was as many as 10,000 people gathered there to hear the Pope's speech(There was so many people because the Pope rarely left Italy and made speeches).  They knew  it would be a historic event in history.  The Pope gave a masterful speech  He mentioned that the Holy land had been captured.  He refered to the Seljuk Turks as "new accursed race of Persians".  This had started many wars to get the Holy Land of Jerusalem back from the Seljuk Turks.

Jeruselam

            In 1095 Muslim armies took Jerusalem from the Christians.  Jerusalem was then ruled by the Seljuk Turks who were Muslim invaders.  Now the Seljuk Turks were fierce and brutal, so you're probably thinking things like what did the Seljuk Turks do to Christians?  They brutally harassed Christians and severely damaged their holy sites.  Capture of Jerusalem was accomplished by three days of massacres of the resisting Muslims and Jews with about 20,000 victims and the pillage of Muslims sanctuaries.   When the Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire, the  people in the Empire feared they would go west and conquer what was left of Europe.

            After attacks on the Turks by Christian Crusaders they took Jerusalem.  The Byzantine Empire then got control over western Europe.  The Crusaders ,who named Jerusalem the Capital of the Latin Kingdom, expelled Jews Muslims and non-Christians. Many Holy sites that were destroyed by the Muslims were rebuilt and restored. Such as The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church was rebuilt in 1149 and still stands in Jerusalem today.

Duties of Knights

            Knights involved in the Crusades had many duties.  Like today how soldiers in the army have many of them. Many knights gained fame by fighting in tournaments against fellow knights and winning the fight.  These fights were not real, what I mean by that is that they didn't fight to death. Most Crusade knights owned a small castle surrounded by farmland. There were different types of knights in the Crusades such as:  The Knights Templar, and the Knights Hospitallers (These knights were christian knights).   In 1118 the Knights Templar had to defend the kingdom of Jerusalem against the Muslim Crusaders.  They were organized as a monastic order following a rule devised for them by Bernard of Chairvaut.  The Templars became very powerful religous and scular movement in the medieval times.   

              The Knights Hospitallers began a Benedictine nursing order founded in the early 12th century about the same time as the Templar's took rule.  They started out as a protective and medical force for pilgrim care to the Holy Land.  The Hospitallers Knights also were a monastic order like the Knights templars.  In 1190 the Teutonic Knights were founded by German lords fighting in the Crusades.  Like the Templars and the Hosptallers the Knights Teutonic cared for Christian Pilgrims.  During the war on their armor they wore a big black cross.  They later transitioned from caring for pilgrims to fighting Muslims in Germany.

The First Crusade

            The first Crusade happened because of many reasons.  One of those reasons is because of a man named Peter the Hermit.  Peter the Hermit was a man who preached of the Crusades and had a big part of the first one starting.  He had many followers with him(followers were people who agreed and believed the same things he did. During the First Crusade the Crusaders traveled to Constantinaple.  When they got there they were massacured by the Seljuk Turks. 
            The Crusaders later had victory over the Seljuks in 1097.  This allowed the Byzantine Empire to rule western Europe.  In 1098 Crusaders went to attack and took Antioch.  A large amount of the army continued on to Palestine and took Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was established along with the minor principalitties all along the easter coast of the Mediterraneam sea.

Motivation

            The reason the Holy Land was so holy was because it was Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was where the passion of Christ(Jesus Christ) took place.  Jerusalem was captured by the fearful and very strong Seljuk Turks who also conquered the Byzantine Empire.  Byzantium tried hard to get help from the west.  All of this had much to do with the motivation the first Crusade,  but none had as much to do with it as much as the appeal at the council of Clem in 1095 by Pope Urban the second.

            Some other motivation of the Crusades is the fact that because the Seljuk's were ruling it left the west crying for help.  Conflict motivated Pope Urban the second to flee Rome by the emperor Henry the fourth, to seek support to fight a holy war against the Muslims and the Christians(Crusades).  Feudalism had brought anarchy and the creation of policies which resulted in almost continuous war.  All this motivated the first Crusade to happen in 1095.