Struggle from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance
Charlemagne Christianizes Europe
According to historian Don Nardo, “Most knights and other medieval warriors fought not for love or honor but to gain power, land, prestige, or money, either for themselves of their leaders. Justice, morality, and protecting the innocent were usually secondary considerations used conveniently to justify aggression and slaughter.”
Charlemagne Introduced Christianity
During the reign of Charles the Great, a military commander in Europe later crowned Charlemagne (768-814 C.E.), much of Germany, France, Switzerland, parts of Spain and Italy united under his reign. He conquered the Franks by invading for more than twenty years to force them to become Christian. They resisted and he brought his armies back three times, killing, burning their places of worship, building his own churches, and replacing their priests with his.
Although he succeeded in Christianizing the Franks, after his death squabbles among his sons resulted in the breakup of his empire and beginning of the Dark Ages. During this time, invaders acquired Charlemagne’s lands and assimilated his Christian beliefs.
Travel Became Dangerous
Around the second or third century, Pilgrims began traveling to the Holy Land in order to strengthen their faith and see Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and other landmarks of early Christianity. But as history professor Steven Kreis relates in his online course, The History Guide, travel became increasingly difficult. “Stability in both the Muslim and Byzantine worlds was essential for the easy and safe continuance of pilgrim traffic…But in the early 11th century this stability broke down as the Egyptian ruler of Palestine, Hakim (c.996-1021), abandoned the tolerant practices of his predecessors, and began to persecute Christians and Jews and to make travel to the Holy Lands difficult once again.
In 1095 or 1096, Pope Urban wrote to Christian landowners in Europe asking them to liberate the Christian holy sites from Muslim rule. This plea began a period called the Middle Ages, a time between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. Landowners who had consolidated their properties and wealth during the Dark Ages were ready for an opportunity to gain more wealth and prove their prowess.
Misguided Crusaders
They organized their knights and vassals into armies and embarked on the Crusades or Holy Wars to liberate the Christian sites in the Middle East. Six Crusades went to the Holy Land, but only the first and last succeeded in releasing the Holy Land from the Muslims. Nevertheless, each Crusade exposed the Christians to new ideas of learning, castle building, war tactics, and cultures. At the same time, the Christian invaders made enemies by raping, looting, enslaving, and destroying everything in their path including other Christians.
The first Crusade succeeded more due to the disunity of the Muslims, than by the tactics of the Crusaders. According to Kreis, one of the Muslim rulers, “Saladin (1137-1193), a chivalrous and humane man became the greatest Muslim leader during the period of the Crusades” because he unified the Muslim leaders. The next four Crusades failed to liberate the Holy Land.
Diplomacy Leads to the Renaissance
Then according to Kreis, a Christian ruler, “Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250), personally led the Sixth Crusade (1228-1229). No fighting was involved. Speaking Arabic and long familiar with the Muslims from his experience in Sicily, Frederick secured more for the Christians by negotiation than any crusader had secured by force since the First Crusade. In 1229 he signed a treaty with Saladin's nephew that restored Jerusalem to the Latin world.”
After two hundred years, and countless deaths, the Crusades ended. But the Crusaders used the knowledge they gained from their travels to improve their own castles and educate themselves and their followers, and the Renaissance began.
Sources:
Kreis, Stephan. “The Holy Crusades.” The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History. 24 June 2008, copyright 2000. http://www. historyguide.org/ancient/lecture6b.html.
Nardo, Don. The Middle Ages: The History of Weapons and Warfare. Farmington Hills: Lucent, 2003.
