Later Crusades
• Efforts at mounting and carrying out Crusades continued in the 13th
century, but (as with the partly legendary “Children’s Crusade” in
1212), most were exercises in vanity and futility.
• The Latin states were slowly overrun, and by 1291, all the
remaining Latin holdings on the mainland disappeared. The grand
experiment in Christian conquest had failed even in strictly military
and political terms, not to mention religious ones.
• The crusader ideal was even more sullied when it was transferred
to the efforts of kings and popes to extirpate heretics. Innocent
III launched an “Albigensian Crusade” in 1208 to try to dislodge
and destroy the dualist heretics in southern France. And in the 13th
century, the popes spoke in terms of crusade in their battles against
the Hohenstaufen dynasty in Italy.
Frankopan, First Crusade.
Runciman, A History of the Crusades.
- Discuss this statement: The “crusader ideal” was, from the beginning,
far from ideal. - Why were the Crusades doomed to eventual military and political failure?
Suggested Reading
Questions to Consider