The Crusades
The 4th Crusade, 1202-1204
- mainly by Germans and some French
since John of England and Philip of France ignored the whole thing - they made their way to
Venice, who agreed to transport them to Egypt for a price
- when they couldn’t meet the
payment, Venice got them to agree to attack Constantinople - the fall of Constantinople to the
crusaders in April, 1204 meant the virtual end of the Byzantine
empire - the Greeks struggled to
renew the empire for the next 240 years before the Turks totally took over
The Children’s Crusade, 1212
- a French shepherd boy (age 12)
supposedly had been commanded by Christ to lead children against the Turks and they would
succeed where the adults had failed - the 20,000 kids who followed him were given “free”
transportation to the east, and at the end of the journey they were sold as slaves
The 5th Crusade, 1218-1221
- mostly Austrians, Hungarians and
Scandinavian knights went on this crusade, which was a total failure
The 6th Crusade, 1228-1229
- led by Frederick II of Germany (who
had been excommunicated after a slow start), this was one of the most successful crusades,
with little fighting, but negotiations provided all that the
crusaders wanted
The 7th Crusade, 1248-1254
- led by Louis IX of France sailed for
Egypt on 1800 ships with 60,000 men - he waited too long to attack, was eventually
defeated and captured
The 8th Crusade, 1270
- led once again by Louis IX, the
crusade landed at Tunis in North Africa in order to move overland to Egypt - Louis died in a
plague which swept his army, and his brother Charles brought everyone back to Europe
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