And when I say "holy," I mean how many were fought for legitimate religious reasons? I mean, the Third Crusade, the legend of Saladin and Barbarossa, was started because of a captured caravan.
How many Crusades are actually "Holy?": 2015-09-18 00:58:29
The Church approved it. I don't think it recommended and suggested crusades. Pretty much like war in Europe. Approves the war of a strong country against a small one. Asks for peace only if the war lasts a long time and stalemate. It may impose some mean conditions that is not fair to one party however.
There is a really strange war I forgot. The Chruch recommended for the weakest party to surrender. The country had now other laws and a new ruler. The people obviously created a new army that was efficient to liberate the country and continue war because far from over. The mean belliquous country says a breach of contract of capitulation was made. The governement of the weak country had to repress the rebellion to prove it did not initiate it. Finally, the rebellion worked. The Church asked the new governement to be recognized and stop bullying this small country after just a few hundreds of thousands of losses.
Edited 9/18/2015 01:10:49
How many Crusades are actually "Holy?": 2015-09-18 12:43:33
Not greatly read up on the Crusades but I was very much under the impression that they where just push backs against the aggressive caliphs of Islam retaking land that was already "Christian" owned.
Edited 9/18/2015 15:33:53
How many Crusades are actually "Holy?": 2015-09-18 15:42:13
Aggressive caliphs? Not much. The golden age of Islam's expansion had ended about two centuries earlier. Anatolia was being fought over by the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantine Empire. The trigger for the Crusades was when the Byzantine Emperor requested military assistance from the Church.
Ostensibly, the Crusades were launched to help Christian pilgrims but they really were for gold and glory. In those days, Islam was the most advanced civilization and its wealth and culture was famed in Europe; naturally it attracted invaders. Sure there was some discrimination against Christians (and Jews) by the Muslims, but on the whole the Christians under their rule were pretty well off.
Edited 9/18/2015 19:53:14
How many Crusades are actually "Holy?": 2015-09-19 00:13:53