the defeat of his entire army at Mansourah and in Louis’s own capture by the forces of
the Egyptian sultan. After his ransom, Louis spent four years overseeing the
refortification of Acre, Caesarea, Jaffa, and Sidon, before returning to France and
devoting himself to civil reforms. Determined to make up for his failure, though, Louis
launched a new campaign in 1270, which aimed first at the seizure of Tunis before
advancing toward Egypt and the Holy Land itself. Louis fell ill in Tunis, however, and
died on August 25, after which his demoralized army returned to France.
The lasting consequences of the Crusades for France, as for the rest of the Latin
Christian world, had little to do with the political or military aspects of the wars. Their
effect on the Holy Land itself was slight. Indeed, to most of the larger Muslim world the
battle to control Palestine was a relatively minor frontier struggle far removed from the
center of Islamic life. Economically, the Crusades served as a catalyst for the growth of
European commerce by contributing to the evolution of advanced systems of finance and
capital administration; they also helped to expand western markets for eastern goods like
spices, textiles, metalwork, and glassware. Inevitably, for the feudal north, the increased
contact with the Greek, Jewish, and Islamic worlds introduced new ideas and methods
into the European tradition—new technologies, new scientific concepts, new
philosophical traditions, new artistic methods and techniques. But many of these
developments were already well underway in the Mediterranean parts of Europe prior to
the Crusades, and it would be a mistake to overemphasize the Crusades’ importance in
this regard. Indeed, the cultural influence of the Crusades has been greatest in later
centuries, in the way that the conflicts have been remembered and either romanticized or
vilified in the Christian and Islamic worlds. In popular western culture, they have come to
be synonymous with chivalry and pageantry, the medieval world’s ill-fated but noble
attempt to rescue its spiritual homeland from the hands of foreign tyrants; to much of the
Muslim world, they have been regarded, just as erroneously, as the clearest example of
naked western aggression and hypocrisy, a cultural wounding from which Islam has yet
to recover fully. Neither view is accurate.
For France, the most important legacy of the Crusades was the impetus they gave to
the expansion of the kingdom’s borders southward to the Mediterranean. The strategic
need for a Mediterranean harbor from which to launch further Crusades (and to
participate directly in the burgeoning maritime trade) provided a justification for
Capetian expansion into the Midi, Languedoc, and Provence—and the crusade against the
southern Cathars provided the vehicle for it. French churches acquired innumerable relics
from the East, which augmented popular piety and enriched many ecclesiastical houses.
Historical writing and poetry in France drew considerable inspiration from the crusade
movement; the sheer scope of the enterprise excited the imagination of numerous writers,
among them Guibert de Nogent, Jean de Joinville, Geoffroi de Villehardouin, and the
anonymous author of the Chanson d’Antioche.
Clifford R.Backman
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; CRUSADE CYCLE; CRUSADE
SONGS/CHANSONS DE CROISADE; CRUSADER ART AND ARCHITECTURE;
EUGENIUS III; GREGORIAN REFORM; GUIBERT DE NOGENT;
HISTORIOGRAPHY; INNOCENT III; JOINVILLE, JEAN DE; LOUIS VII; LOUIS IX;
MILLENNIALISM; PEACE OF GOD; PHILIP II AUGUSTUS; PILGRIMAGE;
TRUCE OF GOD; VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROI DE]
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