A.d. 1201 to 1300

The 13th century saw the continuation of and the end of the Crusades:

4th crusade (1201 - 1204)

Pope Innocent III arranged for the Venetian Republic to transport the Crusaders on their ships to attack Egypt and then go from that base on to Palestine. Once at sea, however, the Venetians, who had much trade with Egypt, diverted the chiefly French Crusaders to attack a rival seaport, Zara in Dalmatia although belonging to Hungary, and then they proceeded on to Constantinople, which was sacked and ravaged in Easter week, even though it was still a Christian city. Only a handful of these Crusaders ever went on to Palestine and those had no effect there. The remainder stayed and continued to plunder Byzantium while the Venetians consolidated their hold on Crete. The entire Crusade was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III following the sack of Zara. (Ref. 49 , 222 )

NOTE: Insert Map 40. The Crusades and The Political Situation c 1230

Children's crusades (1212)

One group of children from Germany got only into Italy and collapsed. Another group from France embarked and was sold into slavery by Venetian seamen. Some historians consider these disasters as examples of mass hysteria, which seemed to characterize many actions of the Middle Ages. (Ref. 125 )

5th crusade (1217)

This group left Germany, Austria and Hungary under Hungarian King Andrew II and after a year took Damietta, at the mouth of the Nile. They finally got the "True Cross" from the Moslems, but soon lost their foothold in Egypt when reinforcements under the German Frederick II failed to arrive.

6th crusade

Frederick II led this Crusade, even though he had been excommunicated by the pope for his failure to join the previous one. On his arrival in Palestine he was shunned by the Christians already there because of the papal ruling, but be negotiated with Al-Kamil, the Saracen general, and eventually signed a treaty which gave Acre, Jaffe, Sidon, Nazareth, Bethlehem and all of Jerusalem, except the Dome of the Rock, to the Christians and gave free access of both religions to the holy areas, as well as releasing all prisoners on both sides. Pope Gregory IX considered the treaty an insult, however, and refused to ratify it. The Moslems then re-took Jerusalem in 1244.

7th crusade

Louis IX of France again conquered Damietta but the Nile flooded and stalled the expedition for six months while his men became diseased and unruly. When they finally went on they were defeated and King Louis became ill, was captured and then cured by an Arab physician. A few more abortive Christian raids were made following this - last Crusade but by the end of the century, Baibars, the slave Sultan of Egypt, had conquered back one Christian city after another in his domain, while Sultan Khalid of Syria re-conquered the rest. (Ref. 49 )

Throughout the Crusades, disease undoubtedly killed more Crusaders than did Saracen swords. There are repeated accounts of "plague" and "pestilence". Scurvy was common and in some camps it was almost universal, producing severe morbidities. Barber surgeons had to cut away the hypertrophic gums, in spite of the screams of pain, so that the people could eat. Dysentery and leprosy added their own tolls. The Christian medical care was bad, much inferior to that of the Moslems, although both were primitive and associated with superstitions. (Ref. 42 )

Results of the crusades

From Durant (Ref. 49 ) and Tannahill (Ref. 211 )

• Jerusalem was left in the hands of the ferocious Egyptian Mamluks
• Moslem powers, once tolerant of religious diversity, had been made intolerant
• Much of the Mediterranean became a back-water as the cities of Spain, southern France, northwestern Italy, Cyprus and north Africa, as well as Palestinian and Syrian ports, lost their trade. Some were virtually abandoned
• Trade now went through Constantinople and Baghdad via Trebizond on the southern shore of the Black Sea - a roundabout concession to Arab-Byzantine enmity. The trade west from Constantinople went to Venice, to Pavia and the River Po, connecting with land routes over the Alpine passes to Germany and northern France or even beyond through Switzerland with transfer to the Rhine. Thus eastern Italy recaptured the Mediterranean trade
• Moslem civilization proved superior in refinement, comfort, education and ability to wage war, when compared to the Christian. Secular life in Europe was stimulated by the acquaintance with Moslem commerce and industry; better banking techniques were adopted, paving the way for an economic revolution. Surgery profited from the knowledge of the Moslems and the Jews and advances were made in the use of anesthetic combinations of Mandragora, opium, wild lettuce and hyoscyamus and in the treatment of wounds
• As the wealth of the French nobles went to the Crusades, the power and wealth of the French monarch actually rose
• The western Roman Empire lost prestige by the emperors' failures
• Orthodox Christian belief weakened in this 13th and the following centuries
• Europeans returned to the custom of shaving beards through contact with the Moslems and a thousand Arabic words flowed into Europe
• The greatest medical administrative gain was the formation of the paramedical organization, the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, which subsequently served as a medical corps throughout Europe and the Near East. (Ref. 42 )

The islamic church

The Islamic center at Baghdad was destroyed by Mongols in 1258 but a new capital was then established in Persia at Maragha and a new culture developed which Toynbee (Ref. 220 ) says marks the beginning of the present day Islamic Society. The Islamic church had little influence in world affairs after that time until the 20th century, even though it continued to expand its geographical boundaries up through the 17th century.

International jewry

After the 4th Lateran Council in 1215 the Jews' position in Europe deteriorated still further, as they were often subject to arbitrary financial payments and severe business restrictions. Pope Innocent III ordered all Jews to wear special, pointed, yellow hats, although in some areas they had to wear other distinguishing badges, usually yellow in color. Sporadically they were expelled from some countries (in England in A.D. 1290) and in others confined to ghettos. The term "ghetto", however, was actually not used until 1516 in Venice, when the Italian word "ghetti" was coined. (Ref. 8 ) Thousands of Jews fled Germany and went to Poland in this century.

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