Background

The crusades were a series of medieval religious wars which were initiated and supported by the Latin (Catholic) Church. The best known crusades were called between 1095 and 1291 for the purpose of recovering and maintaining the ‘Holy Land’, namely, Jerusalem and the surrounding Levantine coast. Most of the participants in these crusades hailed from the Kingdom of France and surrounding Latin states. Several military orders were founded or expanded during the crusading period: these Christian religious societies provided knights to help ensure the success of the crusades. The First Crusade (1099-1095) was successful, and culminated in the establishment of four Latin polities in the Levant: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch, and Counties of Edessa and Tripoli. Collectively, these four polities are sometimes referred to as the Latin East, Outremer, or the Crusader States. The lands these states were carved out of were previously occupied by the Seljuk Turks and Egyptian Fatimids. These groups had themselves captured these lands from the Eastern Christian Byzantine Empire, whose call for for military aid from the Latin West had inspired the call for the First Crusade.

The Latin foothold in the Levant lasted for almost 200 years, from 1096 until 1291. In that time, Islamic powers including the Seljuks and Fatimids, as well as newer powers such as the Zenghids, Ayyubids and Mamluks, depleted Latin territory in the region. A number of large and small-scale crusades were called with the purpose of regaining lost Latin territory. Several crusades were also called with the aim of gaining military and economic advantages over competing regional powers in the Levant, to enable the Latins to retain their foothold in the region. However, none of these later crusades were as successful as the first, and the last remaining Latin-held city in the Levant, Acre, fell to the Mamluks in 1291.

These crusades to the ‘Holy Land’ are the most famous. However, there were also contemporaneous Latin crusades against the Andalusian Muslim states of the Iberian Peninsula, and against the Finnic and western Slavic pagans of the Baltic coast. There were also many much later calls for crusades against the Ottoman Empire as it expanded into Eastern Europe in the later medieval and early modern periods.

The contemporary image of a participant in the crusades is almost always male: a knight, Templar, or preacher. The history of women during the crusades has traditionally received less attention and focus. However, women participated in, and were affected by, the crusades and the governance of the four polities of the Latin East and competing neighbouring polities. This blog site is intended to provide information and bibliographies about women during the crusades for teachers and students of History.

Glossary of Terms

Ayyubid: Muslim dynasty in Egypt and Syria founded by Saladin.

Fatimids: Shi’ite dynasty in Egypt, North Africa, and Syria, 909–1171.

Frank: Originally the name of a Germanic tribe of the Rhine region, the name was used by Byzantines and Muslims in the Middle Ages to refer to most western Europeans.

Great Schism: Period when two popes claimed sovereignty over the church, 1378–1417. One pope resided in Rome and the other in Avignon.

Holy Roman Empire: Loosely organized state encompassing central Europe and northern Italy. Ruled by a German king, who could be crowned emperor by a pope. Also called German empire.
Hospitallers: The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

Imam: Muslim religious leader.

Jihad: Muslim holy war or struggle.

Normans: Originally Scandinavian people who settled in southern Italy and Sicily, as well as northern France and elsewhere.
Outremer: “Across the sea.” French term for the Levant.

Patriarchates: The five major episcopal sees of Christianity in the ancient and late ancient world. They were Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople.

Seljuks: Sunni Turks who conquered Iran and Iraq before invading Syria and Asia Minor.

Sharia: Islamic law.
Shia: Minority Muslim sect that recognizes Ali and his successors as the legitimate rulers of Islam

Sunni: Majority Muslim sect.

Sultan: Muslim ruler, usually independent.
Vassal: One who swears fealty and military service to a feudal lord in return for land tenure or money.

Glossary terms source: Madden, T., 2013. The Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.