Station: [3] Who wanted the crusades?

Society in the Early Middle Ages was quite static. There would have been little need for change if it hadn’t been for the development of an economic crisis. It wasn’t about money, it was about property. The 11th century saw a growth in population that placed the nobility in the predicament of having too many sons who couldn’t be well provided for anymore. As a consequence, hordes of violent young men took up their arms and marched through Europe hogging everything they could lay their hands on.

Our Picture Tour “Who wanted the crusades?” explains how this problem was solved and what role the simultaneous transition within the Catholic Church played. We will talk about the first Crusade which ended with the seizure of Jerusalem in 1099. You will also learn more about the precursors of this crusade which set the ground for the development of the concept of holy war.

The reason why we focus in such detail on the First Crusade is because it initiated a development that can only be understood on the basis of its previous history.