Tell me about the children's crusade. Children's crusade

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Digging through the Internet, I found an interesting article. Rather, this is an essay by a 4th year student of the Smolensk Pedagogical University Kupchenko Konstantin. Reading about the crusades, I came across a mention of a children's crusade. But I didn’t even suspect that everything was so bad !!! Read to the end, do not be intimidated by the volume.

Children's crusade. How it all began

Gustave Dore The Children's Crusade

Introduction

« It happened just after Easter. We had not yet waited for the Trinity, when thousands of youths set out on the road, abandoning their work and their shelter. Some of them were barely born and were only six years old. For others, it was just right to choose a bride for themselves, but they chose exploit and glory in Christ. They have forgotten the worries entrusted to them. They left the plow with which they had recently blown up the earth; they let go of the wheelbarrow that weighed them down; they left the sheep, next to which they fought against the wolves, and thought about other adversaries, the Mohammedan heresy of the strong ... Parents, brothers and sisters, friends persistently persuaded them, but the firmness of the ascetics was unshakable. Having put on the cross and rallied under their banners, they moved to Jerusalem ... The whole world called them madmen, but they went forward».

This is approximately how medieval sources tell about an event that shook the entire Christian society in 1212. In the sultry dry summer of 1212, an event took place that is known as the children's crusade.

Chroniclers of the XIII century. described feudal quarrels and bloody wars in detail, but did not pay close attention to this tragic page of the Middle Ages.

More than 50 medieval authors mention children's campaigns (sometimes briefly, in one or two lines, sometimes giving them a half-page description); of these, only more than 20 are trustworthy, since they either saw the young crusaders with their own eyes. And the information of these authors is very fragmentary. For example, here is one of the references to the children's crusade in the medieval chronicle:

"The Crusade Called for Children, 1212"

« Children of both sexes, adolescents and adolescents, and not only small children, but also adults, married women and girls went on this expedition - they all walked in crowds with empty wallets, flooding not only all of Germany, but also the country of the Gauls and Burgundy. Neither friends nor relatives could in any way keep them at home: they indulged in any tricks to hit the road. It got to the point that everywhere, in the villages and right in the field, people left their weapons, throwing in place even those that were in their hands, and joined the procession. Many people, seeing in this a sign of true piety, filled with the Spirit of God, hastened to supply the pilgrims with everything they needed, giving them food and everything they needed. The laity fiercely rebuffed the clergy and some others, who possessed a more sound judgment and denounced this walk, reproaching them for unbelief and claiming that they resisted this act more out of envy and avarice than for the sake of truth and justice. Meanwhile, any business started without a proper test of reason and without relying on wise discussion never leads to anything good. And so, when these mad crowds entered the lands of Italy, they scattered in different directions and scattered throughout the cities and villages, and many of them fell into slavery to the local residents. Some, as they say, made it to the sea, and there, trusting the crafty sailors, they allowed themselves to be taken to other overseas countries. Those who continued the campaign, reaching Rome, found that it was impossible for them to go further, since they did not have support from any authorities, and they had to finally admit that their energy was wasted and in vain, although, however, no one could take off their vow to make a crusade - only children who had not reached a conscious age, and the elderly, bent under the weight of years, were free from it. So, disappointed and embarrassed, they set off on their way back. Once accustomed to marching from province to province in a crowd, each in his own company and without stopping chanting, they now returned in silence, alone, barefoot and hungry. They were subjected to all kinds of humiliation, and more than one girl was captured by rapists and deprived of innocence».

Religious authors of subsequent centuries, for obvious reasons, bypassed the terrible plot in silence. And enlightened secular writers, even the most evil-speaking and merciless, apparently considered the reminder of the senseless death of almost a hundred thousand children to be "a blow below the belt," an unworthy reception in polemics with churchmen. The venerable historians saw in the ridiculous enterprise of children only an obvious indisputable stupidity, on the study of which it was inexpedient to expend mental potential. And therefore, the children's crusade is given in respectable historical research dedicated to the crusaders, at best, a few pages between the descriptions of the fourth (1202-1204) and fifth (1217-1221) crusades.

So what happened in the summer of 1212?To begin with, let's turn to history, consider briefly the reasons for the crusades in general and the campaign of children in particular.

Causes of the Crusades.

For quite some time now, Europe looked with dismay at what was happening in Palestine. The stories of the pilgrims returning from there to Europe about the persecution and insults they endured in the Holy Land worried European peoples... Little by little, a conviction was created to return to the Christian world its most precious and revered shrines. But in order for Europe to send numerous hordes of various nationalities to this enterprise over the course of two centuries, it was necessary to have special grounds and a special situation.

There were many reasons in Europe that helped to realize the idea of ​​the Crusades. Medieval society was generally characterized by a religious mood; the crusades were a peculiar form of pilgrimage; the rise of the papacy was also of great importance for the crusades. In addition, for all classes of medieval society, the crusades seemed very attractive from a worldly point of view. Barons and knights, in addition to religious motives, hoped for glorious exploits, for profit, for the satisfaction of their ambition; merchants expected to increase their profits by expanding trade with the East; the oppressed peasants were freed from serfdom for participating in the crusade and knew that during their absence the church and the state would take care of the families they had left in their homeland; the debtors and defendants knew that during their participation in the crusade they would not be prosecuted by the creditor or the court.

A quarter of a century before the events described below, the famous Sultan Salah ad-Din, or Saladin, defeated the crusaders and cleared Jerusalem of them. The best knights of the Western world tried to reclaim the lost shrine.

Many people of that time came to the conviction that if sin-laden adults cannot return Jerusalem, then innocent children must fulfill this task, since God will help them. And then, to the joy of the pope, a prophet-boy appeared in France, who began to preach a new crusade.

Chapter 1. Young preacher of the children's crusade - Stephen of Clois.

In 1200 (or perhaps the next), not far from Orleans, in the village of Cloix (or perhaps elsewhere), a peasant boy named Stephen was born. This is too similar to the beginning of a fairy tale, but this is only a reproduction of the negligence of the then chroniclers and the inconsistency in their stories about the children's crusade. However, the fabulous opening is quite appropriate for a story about a fabulous fate. This is what the chronicles tell us about.

Like all peasant children, Stefan helped his parents from an early age - he grazed cattle. He differed from his peers only by a slightly greater piety: Stephen was more often than others in church, he wept bitterly than others from the feelings that overwhelmed him during the liturgies and religious processions... He was shocked by the April "course of the black crosses" - a solemn procession on the day of St. Mark. On this day, prayers were offered for the soldiers who died in the holy land, for those who were tortured in Muslim slavery. And the boy burst into flames along with the crowd, furiously cursing the infidels.

On one warm May day in 1212, he met a pilgrim monk who was coming from Palestine and begging for alms.The monk began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened, fascinated. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then suddenly that he was Jesus Christ.

Everything further was like in a dream (or the boy's dream was this meeting). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's one, for "from the lips of infants comes strength against the enemy." There is no need for swords or armor - for the conquest of Muslims, the sinlessness of children and the word of God in their mouths will be enough. Then the numb Stephen took a scroll from the hands of the monk - a letter to the king of France. Then the monk quickly walked away.

Stephen could no longer remain a shepherd. The Almighty called him to a feat. Out of breath, the boy rushed home and dozens of times recounted what had happened to him to his parents and neighbors, who looked in vain (because they were illiterate) at the words of the mysterious scroll. Stefan’s zeal didn’t quench Stefan’s zeal. The next day he packed up his knapsack, took his staff and headed for Saint-Denis - the abbey of Saint Dionysius, patron of France. The boy reasoned correctly that it was necessary to collect volunteers for the children's trip in the place of the greatest gathering of pilgrims.

And so early in the morning, a frail boy walked with a knapsack and a staff on a deserted road. The "snowball" rolled. The boy can still be stopped, restrained, tied up and thrown to "cool down" in the basement. But no one foresaw a tragic future.

One of the chroniclers testifies " by conscience and truth, " what Stefan was " an early matured villain and a nest of all vices"But these lines were written thirty years after the sad ending of a crazy undertaking, when they began to look for a scapegoat in hindsight. After all, had Stephen had a bad reputation in Cloix, the imaginary Christ would not have chosen him for the role of a saint. It is hardly worth calling Stephen and the holy fool, as Soviet researchers do. ”

On the way, Stephen stayed in towns and villages, where with his speeches he gathered tens and hundreds of people. From numerous repetitions, he ceased to be shy and confused in words. An experienced little speaker came to Saint-Denis. The abbey, located nine kilometers from Paris, attracted crowds of thousands of pilgrims. Stephen was well received there: the sanctity of the place disposed to the expectation of a miracle - and here it is: the child Chrysostom. The shepherd boy boldly recounted everything he had heard from the pilgrims, deftly knocked out a tear from the crowds, which had come to be moved and cry! "Save, Lord, those suffering in captivity!" Stephen pointed to the relics of Saint Dionysius, kept among gold and precious stones, revered by crowds of Christians. And then he asked: is this the fate of the Tomb of the Lord Himself, which is defiled by the unbelievers every day? And he snatched a scroll from his bosom, and the crowds buzzed when the boy with burning eyes shook before them the immutable command of Christ addressed to the king. Stephen recalled the many signs and wonders given to him by the Lord.

Stephen preached to the adults. But in the crowd there were hundreds of children, whom the elders often took with them on their way to the holy places.

A week later, the wonderful youth came into fashion, having withstood the fierce competition with adult eloquence and holy fools.His children listened with fervent faith. He appealed to their secret dreams: about feats of arms, about travel, about glory, about serving the Lord, about freedom from parental care. And how it flattered the ambition of the teenagers! After all, the Lord chose as his instrument not sinful and greedy adults, but their children!

Pilgrims dispersed to the cities and villages of France. The adults very soon forgot about Stefan. But the children excitedly talked everywhere about their peer - the miracle worker and the orator, amazing the imagination of the neighboring children and making each other terrible vows to help Stephen. And now the games of knights and squires were abandoned, the French children began a dangerous game of the army of Christ. The children of Brittany, Normandy and Aquitaine, Auvergne and Gascony, while the adults of all these regions quarreled and fought with each other, began to unite around an idea that was not higher and purer in the 13th century.

Chronicles are silent whether Stephen was a happy find for the pope, or one of the prelates, or perhaps the pontiff himself, had planned the appearance of the boy-saint in advance. Whether the cassock that flashed in Stephen's vision belonged to an unauthorized fanatic monk or the disguised envoy of Innocent III - it is now impossible to find out. And it doesn't matter where the idea of ​​the children's crusading movement arose - in the bowels of the papal curia or in the heads of children. Dad grabbed her with an iron grip.

Now everything boded well for the children's hike: the fertility of frogs, the clashes of dog packs, even the beginning drought. Here and there there appeared "prophets" twelve, ten and even eight years old. They all insisted that they were sent by Stephen, although many of them did not see him in the eyes. All these prophets healed the possessed and performed other "miracles" ...

The kids formed squads and marched around the neighborhood, recruiting new supporters everywhere. At the head of each procession, singing hymns and psalms, there was a prophet, followed by an oriflamma - a copy of the banner of St. Dionysius. The children held crosses and lighted candles in their hands, waved smoking censers.

And what a tempting sight it was for the children of the nobility, who watched the solemn procession of their peers from their castles and houses! But almost every one of them had a grandfather, a father or an older brother who fought in Palestine. Some of them died. And now - an opportunity to take revenge on the infidels, gain glory, continue the work of the older generation. And children from noble families enthusiastically joined the new game, flocked under the banners with images of Christ and the Ever-Virgin. Sometimes they became leaders, sometimes they were forced to obey an artistic peer-prophet.

Many girls joined the movement, who also dreamed of the Holy Land, exploits and freedom from parental authority. The leaders did not drive the "girls" - they wanted to collect a bigger army. Many girls disguised themselves as boys for safety and ease of movement.

As soon as Stefan (May has not yet expired!) Announced Wandom as a gathering place, hundreds and thousands of teenagers began to converge there. With them were a few adults: monks and priests, going, in the words of the Reverend Gray, "to plunder to their hearts or to pray to their fill," the urban and rural poor, who joined the children "not for Jesus, but for the sake of bread bite"; and most of all - thieves, cheaters, various criminal rabble, who hoped to profit from noble children, well equipped for the journey. Many adults sincerely believed in the success of the unarmed expedition and hoped that they would get rich prey. The elders who had fallen into their second childhood were also with their children. Hundreds of corrupt women hovered around the offspring of noble families. So the detachments turned out to be amazingly colorful. And in the previous crusades, children, old people, hordes of Magdalene and all kinds of scum took part. But beforethey were just a makeweight, and the core of Christ's army was made up of barons and knights skilled in military affairs. Now, instead of broad-shouldered men in armor and chain mail, the core of the army was made up of unarmed children.

But where did the authorities and, most importantly, the parents look? Everyone expected the children to get mad and calm down.

King Philip II Augustus, a tireless collector of French lands, an insidious and far-sighted politician, initially approved the initiative of the children. Philip wanted to have the Pope on his side in the war with the English king and was not averse to please Innocent III and organize a crusade, but only his power was not enough for that. Suddenly - this idea of ​​children, noise, enthusiasm. Of course, all this should kindle the hearts of the barons and knights with righteous anger against the infidels!

However, the adults did not lose their heads. And children's fuss began to threaten the tranquility of the state. The guys are abandoning their houses, fleeing to Vendome, and in fact they are going to move to the sea! But on the other hand, the pope is silent, the legates are agitating for the campaign ... Cautious Philip II was afraid to anger the pontiff, but nevertheless turned to the scientists of the recently created University of Paris. They answered firmly: the children must be stopped immediately! If necessary - by force, for their campaign is inspired by Satan! Responsibility for stopping the march was removed from him, and the king issued an edict commanding the children to immediately get rid of stupidity from their heads and go home.

However, the royal edict did not impress the children. Childish hearts had a lord more powerful than a king. The matter has gone too far - you can't stop it with a shout. Only the faint-hearted returned home. Peers and barons did not dare to use violence: ordinary people sympathized with this idea of ​​children and would rise to their defense. There would have been riots. After all, the people had just been taught that God's will will allow children without weapons and bloodshed to convert Muslims to Christians and thus free the "Holy Sepulcher" from the hands of the infidels.

In addition, the pope declared loudly: "These children are a reproach to us, adults: while we sleep, they are happy to stand up for the holy land." Pope Innocent III still hoped with the help of children to awaken the enthusiasm of adults. From distant Rome, he could not see the frenzied childish faces and, probably, did not realize that he had already lost control of the situation and could not stop the children's trip. The massive psychosis that gripped the children, skillfully fueled by the churchmen, was now impossible to contain.

Therefore, Philip II washed his hands and did not insist on fulfilling his edict.

There was a groan of unhappy parents in the country. Amusing solemn children's parades around the district, so touching the adults, turned into a general flight of teenagers from families. Few families, in their fanaticism, themselves blessed their children for a disastrous campaign. Most of the fathers whipped their offspring, locked them in closets, but the children gnawed at the ropes, undermined the walls, broke the locks and ran away. And those who could not break free fought in hysterics, refused food, languished, fell ill. Willy-nilly, the parents gave up.

Children put on a kind of uniform: gray simple shirts over short pants and a large beret. But many children could not afford this either: they wore what they were wearing (often barefoot and bareheaded, although the sun almost never set behind the clouds that summer). On the chests of the participants of the campaign, a cloth cross of red, green or black was sewn (of course, these units competed with each other). Each detachment had its own commander, flag and other symbols, which the children were very proud of. When the detachments with singing, banners, crosses cheerfully and solemnly passed through cities and villages, heading to Vendome, only locks and strong oak doors could keep a son or daughter at home. Like a plague swept across the country, taking away tens of thousands of children.

Enthusiastic crowds of onlookers enthusiastically greeted the detachments of children, which further fueled her enthusiasm and ambition.

Finally, some priests realized the danger of this venture. They began to stop the detachments, where they could persuade the children to disperse to their homes, assured that the thought of a children's campaign was the machinations of the devil. But the guys were adamant, especially since in all major cities they were met and blessed by papal emissaries. Reasonable priests were immediately declared apostates. The superstition of the crowd, the enthusiasm of the children and the machinations of the papal curia won over common sense. And many of these apostate priests deliberately set out with children doomed to inevitable death, like seven centuries later, teacher Janusz Korczak went with his pupils to the gas chamber of the fascist Treblinka concentration camp.

Chapter 2. Way of the Cross of German children.

The news of the boy-prophet Stephen spread throughout the country at the speed of the pilgrims on foot. Those who went to worship at Saint-Denis brought the news to Burgundy and Champagne, from there it reached the banks of the Rhine. In Germany, his "holy youth" was not slow to appear. And there the papal legates zealously set about processing public opinion in favor of organizing a children's crusade.

The boy's name was Nicholas (we only know the Latin version of his name). He was born in a village near Cologne. He was twelve or even ten years old. At first, he was just a pawn in the hands of adults. Nicholas's father energetically "shoved" his child prodigy into the prophets. It is not known whether the boy's father was rich, but he was undoubtedly driven by low motives. The monk-chronicler, witness of the process of "making" a minor prophet, calls Father Nicholas " mischievous fool". How much he earned on his son, we do not know, but after a few months he paid for his son's affairs with his life.

Koln- the religious center of the Germanic lands, where thousands of pilgrims often flocked with their children, - was the best place for the deployment of campaigning. In one of the churches of the city, the jealously revered relics of the "Three Kings of the East" - the Magi, who brought gifts to the Christ-child, were kept. Let us note a detail, the fatal role of which will become clear later: the relics were capturedFrederick I Barbarossa during his robbery of Milan. And it was here, in Cologne, at the instigation of his father, Nicholas proclaimed himself God's chosen one.

Then the events developed according to the already tested scenario: Nicholas had a vision of a cross in the clouds, and the voice of the Almighty ordered him to collect the children on a campaign; the crowds greeted the newly appeared boy-prophet; Immediately followed by the healing of the possessed and other miracles, rumors of which spread with incredible speed. Nicholas spoke on the porches of churches, on stones and barrels in the middle of the squares.

Then everything went according to the well-known scheme: adult pilgrims spread the news about the young prophet, children whispered and gathered in teams, marched around the outskirts of different cities and villages finally left - to Cologne. But there were also some peculiarities in the development of events in Germany. Frederick II, himself a young man who had just won the throne from his uncle Otto IV, was at that time the pope's favorite, and therefore could afford to contradict the pontiff. He decisively forbade the idea of ​​children: the country was already shaken by turmoil. Therefore, the children gathered only from the Rhine regions closest to Cologne. The movement snatched from families not one or two children, as in France, but almost everyone, including even six-year-olds and seven-year-olds. It is this little one that, on the second day of the hike, will ask the elders to snag, and in the third or fourth week it will start to get sick, die, at best, stay in roadside villages (unknowingly the way back - forever).

The second feature of the German version: among the motives of the children's campaign, the first place was occupied not by the desire to liberate the "holy land", but by the thirst for revenge. The valiant Germans perished in the crusades quite a lot - families of any rank and state remembered the bitter losses. That is why the detachments consisted almost entirely of boys (although some of them turned out to begirls in disguise), and the sermons of Nicholas and other leaders of the local troops more than half consisted of calls for revenge.

Detachments of children hurriedly gathered in Cologne. The campaign had to start as soon as possible: the emperor was against, the barons were against, the parents were breaking sticks on the backs of their sons! Just look, the tempting idea will fail!

The inhabitants of Cologne showed miracles of patience and hospitality (nowhere to go) and gave shelter and food to thousands of children. Most of the boys spent the night in the fields around the city, groaning with the influx of criminal rabble, who hoped to profit by joining the children's campaign.

And then came the day of the solemn performance from Cologne. End of June. Under the banner of Nicholas - at least twenty thousand children (according to some chronicles, twice as many). These are mainly boys of twelve years of age and older. No matter how opposed the German barons, but the offspring of noble families in the troops of Nicholas turned out to be more than Stephen's. After all, there were much more barons in fragmented Germany than in France. In the heart of every noble teenager, brought up on the ideals of knightly valor, there was a burning thirst for revenge for the grandfather, father or brother killed by the Saracens.

The people of Cologne poured out onto the city walls. Thousands of identically dressed children are lined up in columns in the field. Wooden crosses, banners, pennants sway over the gray sea. Hundreds of adults - some in cassocks, some in rags - seem to be captives of the children's army. Nicholas, the commanders of the detachments, some of the children from noble families will go in carts, surrounded by squires. But many young aristocrats with knapsacks and staffs stand side by side with the last of their slaves.

Mothers of children from distant cities and villages cried and said goodbye. The time has come to say goodbye and sob to the Cologne mothers - their children make up almost half of the participants in the campaign.

But then the trumpet sounded. The children started singing a hymn to the glory of Christ of their own composition, alas, not preserved for us by history. The line moved, trembled - and moved forward to the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, the lamentations of mothers and the murmur of sane people.

An hour passes - and the army of children hides behind the hills. Only a thousand-voiced singing is still heard from afar. Cologne disperse - proud: they have equipped their children on the way, and the Franks are still digging! ..

Not far from Cologne, Nicholas's army broke into two huge columns. One was headed by Nicholas, the other by a boy whose name the chronicles did not preserve. Column of Nicholas moved south by a short route: along Lorraine along the Rhine, in the west of Swabia and through French Burgundy. The second column reached the Mediterranean Sea along a long route: through Franconia and Swabia. Both the Alps blocked their way to Italy. It would have been wiser to go plain to Marseille, but the French children intended to go there, and Italy seemed closer to Palestine than Marseille.

The detachments stretched out for many kilometers. Both routes ran through semi-wild lands. The local people, not numerous even at that time, huddled up to the few fortresses. Wild animals came out of the woods onto the roads. The thickets were teeming with robbers. Dozens of children drowned while crossing rivers. In such conditions, whole groups ran back home. But the ranks of the children's army were immediately replenished with children from roadside villages.

Glory was ahead of the participants in the campaign. But not in all cities they were fed and left to spend the night at least even on the streets. Sometimes they drove away, rightly protecting their children from "infection". The guys happened to be left without alms for a day or two. The edibles from the knapsacks of the weak quickly migrated into the stomachs of those who were stronger and older. Theft in the detachments flourished. Broken women lured money from the offspring of noble and wealthy families, the sharper took away the last penny from the children, enticing them to play dice on the halts. Discipline in the detachments was falling day by day.

We set off early in the morning. In the very heat, they made a halt in the shade of trees. While they walked, they sang simple hymns. At the halts, they told and listened to full extraordinary adventures and the wonders of the story of battles and campaigns, about knights and pilgrims. Surely there were jokes and mischievous children among the guys, who ran after each other and danced when others fell off their feet after a many-kilometer hike. Surely the children fell in love, quarreled, made peace, fought for leadership ...

On a bivouac in the foothills of the Alps, near Lake Leman, Nicholas was at the head of the "army" almost half the size of the original. The majestic mountains only for a moment, with their white caps of snow, enchanted children who had never seen anything similar in beauty. Then horror struck the hearts: after all, they had to climb to these white hats!

The inhabitants of the foothills greeted the children warily and sternly. It never crossed their minds to feed the guys. At least they didn't kill the good. The grubs in their knapsacks melted away. But that's not all: in the mountain valleys, German children - many for the first and last time - met ... the very Saracens whom they intended to baptize in the Holy Land! The vicissitudes of the era threw detachments of Arab robbers here: they settled in these places, not wanting or not being able to return to their homeland. The guys crept along the valley in silence, without songs, dropping their crosses. There would be to turn them back. Alas, clever conclusions were made only by the rabble who adhered to the children. These scum have already robbed the children and fled, for further promises only death or slavery among the Muslims. The Saracens hacked to death a dozen or two of the guys lagging behind the detachment. But children are already accustomed to such losses: every day they buried or abandoned dozens of their comrades without burial. Malnutrition, fatigue, stress and illness did their part.

Crossing the Alps- without food and warm clothes - became a real nightmare for the participants of the hike. These mountains terrified even adults. To wade along icy slopes, on eternal snows, on stone cornices - not everyone has the strength and courage for this. Merchants with goods, military detachments, and clerics were transshipped across the Alps to Rome and back as needed.

The presence of guides did not save unwary children from death. The stones were cutting bare, freezing feet. Among the snow there were not even berries and fruits to satisfy hunger. The knapsacks were already completely empty. The passage through the Alps due to poor discipline, fatigue and weakness of children took twice as long as usual! Frostbite feet slipped and did not obey, children fell into the abyss. A new ridge rose up behind the ridge. We slept on stones. If they found branches for a fire, they warmed up. Probably they fought because of the heat. At night they huddled in heaps to warm each other. Not everyone got up in the morning. The dead were thrown on the frozen ground - there was no strength even to roll them over with stones or branches. At the highest point of the pass was a monastery of missionary monks. There the children were slightly warmed and welcomed. But where could they get food and heat for such a crowd!

The descent was an incredible joy. Greens! Silver rivers! Crowded villages, vineyards, citrus fruits, the height of a luxurious summer! After the Alps, only every third participant in the campaign survived. But those who remained, perked up, thought that all the sorrows were already behind. In this abundant land, they, of course, will be fondled and fattened.

But it was not there. Italy met them with undisguised hatred.

After all, there appeared those whose fathers raided these abundant lands, desecrated shrines and plundered cities. Therefore, in the Italian cities "Germanic serpents" were not allowed. Alms were given only by the most compassionate, and even then secretly from the neighbors. Barely three or four thousand children reached Genoa, stealing food along the way and robbing fruit trees.

On Saturday, August 25, 1212 (the only date in the chronicle of the campaign, with which all the chronicles agree), emaciated teenagers stood on the shore genoese harbor... Two monstrous months and a thousand kilometers behind, so many friends are buried, and now - the sea, and the holy land is just a stone's throw away.

How were they going to cross the Mediterranean? Where were you going to get money for the ships? The answer is simple. They don't need ships or money. The sea - with God's help - must make way for them. From the first day of campaigning for the campaign, there was no talk of any ships and money.

Before the children there was a fabulous city - rich Genoa. Recovering in spirit, they again raised high the remaining banners and crosses. Nicholas, who had lost his carriage in the Alps and was now walking with everyone else on foot, stepped forward and made a fiery speech. The guys greeted their leader with the same enthusiasm. Even though they were barefoot and in rags, in wounds and scabs, they reached the sea - the most stubborn, the strongest in spirit. The goal of the campaign - the holy land - is very close.

The fathers of the free city received a delegation of children led by several priests (at other moments of the campaign, the role of adult mentors is hushed up by the chroniclers, probably due to their unwillingness to compromise the churchmen who supported this ridiculous venture). The children did not ask for ships, they only asked for permission to spend the night in the streets and squares of Genoa. The fathers of the city, glad that they were not asked for money or ships, allowed the children to stay in the city for a week, and then advised them to return to Germany, pick up, hello.

The participants of the hike entered the city in picturesque columns, for the first time in many weeks again reveling in everyone's attention and interest. The townspeople greeted them with undisguised curiosity, but at the same time wary and hostile.

However, the Doge of Genoa and the senators changed their minds: no week, let them go home tomorrow! The mob was strongly against the presence of little Germans in Genoa. True, the Pope blessed the campaign, but suddenly these children carry out the insidious plan of the German emperor. On the other hand, the Genoese did not want to let go of such an amount of gratuitous labor, and the children were asked to stay in Genoa forever and become good citizens of the free city.

But the participants in the campaign dismissed the proposal that seemed ridiculous to them. After all, tomorrow - on a journey across the sea!

In the morning, Nicholas's column in all its glory lined up at the edge of the surf. The townspeople crowded on the embankment. After the solemn liturgy, chanting psalms, the detachments moved towards the waves. The first rows entered the water up to their knees ... up to the waist ... And froze in shock: the sea did not want to part. The Lord did not keep his promise. New prayers and hymns did not help. As time went. The sun was rising and hot ... The Genoese, laughing, went home. And the children all did not take their eyes off the sea and sang, sang - until they were hoarse ...

The permit to stay in the city was about to expire. I had to leave. Several hundred teenagers, who had lost hope of the success of the campaign, seized on the offer of the city authorities to settle in Genoa. Young men from noble families were accepted into the best houses as sons, others were dismantled into service.

But the most stubborn gathered in a field not far from the city. And they began to confer. Who knows where the Lord laid down to open the bottom of the sea for them - maybe not in Genoa. We must go further, look for that place. And it is better to die in sunny Italy than to return home beaten by dogs! And worse than shame - the Alps ...

The heavily thinned detachments of the unlucky young crusaders moved further to the South-East. There was no longer a question of discipline, they went in groups, more precisely, in gangs, getting food by force and cunning. Nicholas is no longer mentioned by the chroniclers - he may have stayed in Genoa.

The horde of adolescents has reached at last Pisa... Being expelled from Genoa was an excellent recommendation for them in Pisa, a city that rivaled Genoa. The sea did not part even here, but the inhabitants of Pisa, in defiance of the Genoese, equipped two ships and sent some of the children to Palestine on them. In the chronicles there is a dull mention of the fact that they safely reached the coast of the holy land. But if this happened, they probably soon died of want and hunger - the Christians there themselves barely made ends meet. The chronicles do not mention any meetings between children-crusaders and Muslims.

In the fall, several hundred German teenagers reached Rome, the poverty and abandonment of which, after the luxury of Genoa, Pisa and Florence, amazed them. Pope Innocent III received the representatives of the little crusaders, praised and then chided them and ordered them to return home, forgetting that their home is a thousand kilometers beyond the accursed Alps. Then, by order of the head of the Catholic Church, the children kissed the cross, that, "having arrived at a perfect age," they would certainly end the interrupted crusade. Now, at the very least, the Pope had several hundred crusaders for the future.

Few of the participants in the campaign decided to return to Germany, most of them settled in Italy. Only a few reached their homeland - after many months, or even years. Due to their ignorance, they did not even know how to tell plainly where they had been. The children's crusade resulted in a kind of migration of children - scattering them in other areas of Germany, Burgundy and Italy.

The second German column, no less numerous than Nicholas's column, suffered the same tragic fate. The same thousands of deaths on the roads - from hunger, fast currents, predatory animals; the hardest crossing over the Alps - though through another, but no less destructive pass. Everything was repeated. Only the uncleared corpses were left behind even more: there was almost no general leadership in this column, the campaign in a week turned into a wandering of uncontrollable hordes of teenagers hungry to brutality. Monks and priests with great difficulty gathered the children into groups and somehow curbed them, but this was before the first fight for alms.

In Italy, children managed to poke their Milan, who for fifty years barely recovered from the raid of Barbarossa. From there they barely carried their feet: the Milanese hunted them with dogs like hares.

The sea did not make way for the juvenile crusaders not in Ravenna nor elsewhere. Only a few thousand children made it to the very south of Italy. They had already heard about the Pope's decision to stop the campaign and decided to deceive the pontiff and sail to Palestine from the port of Brindisi. And many things simply plodded forward by inertia, not hoping for anything. In the extreme south of Italy that year there was a monstrous drought - the harvest died, the famine was such that, according to the chroniclers, "mothers devoured their children." It is even difficult to imagine what the German children could eat in this region, swollen with hunger, hostile to them.

Those who miraculously survived and made it to Brindisi, new misadventures awaited. The townspeople identified the girls who took part in the campaign to the sailors' dens. Twenty years later, chroniclers will wonder: why are there so many blond blue-eyed prostitutes in Italy? Boys were seized and turned into half-slaves; The surviving offspring of noble families were, of course, more fortunate - they were adopted.

Archbishop Brindisi tried to stop this Sabbath. He gathered the remains of the little martyrs and ... wished them a pleasant return to Germany. The most fanatical "merciful" bishop seated on several boats and blessed for the unarmed conquest of Palestine. The vessels equipped by the bishop sank almost in sight of Brindisi.

Chapter 3. Way of the Cross of French Children

More than thirty thousand French children came out when German children were already freezing in the mountains. There was no less solemnity and tears at the farewell than in Cologne.

In the first days of the campaign, the intensity of religious fanaticism among the teenagers was such that they did not notice any difficulties on the way. Saint Stephen rode in the best carriage, covered and covered with expensive carpets. Young high-born adjutants of the leader pranced beside the cart. They happily rushed along the marching columns, transmitting instructions and orders of their idol.

Stefan subtly captured the mood of the masses of the participants in the campaign and, if necessary, addressed them at the halts with an incendiary speech. And then there was such a crowd around his carriage that in this crowd of one or two babies were certainly maimed or trampled to death. In such cases, they hastily erected a stretcher or dug a grave, quickly prayed and hurried on, remembering the victims until the first crossroads. But they discussed for a long time and lively who was lucky to get hold of a piece of St. Stephen's clothes or a splinter from his cart. This exaltation captured even those children who fled from home and joined the crusader "army" not at all for religious reasons. Stephen's head was spinning from the consciousness of his power over his peers, from incessant praise and boundless adoration.

It is difficult to say whether he was a good organizer - most likely the movement of the detachments was led by the priests accompanying the children, although the chronicles are silent about this. It is impossible to believe that loud-voiced adolescents could, without the help of adults, cope with a thirty-thousand-strong "army", set up camps in convenient places, organize overnight stays, give the detachments a direction of movement in the morning.

While the young crusaders marched through the territory home country, the population everywhere received them hospitably. If children died on the hike, it was almost exclusively from sunstroke. And yet, gradually, fatigue accumulated, discipline weakened. To maintain the enthusiasm of the participants in the campaign, every day they had to lie that by evening the troops would arrive at their destination. Seeing some fortress in the distance, the children excitedly asked each other: "Jerusalem?" Poor fellows forgot, and many simply did not know, that it is possible to reach the "holy land" only by crossing the sea.

Passed the Tour, Lyon and came to Marseilles almost at full strength. The guys covered five hundred kilometers in a month. The ease of the route allowed them to get ahead of the German children and were the first to reach the Mediterranean coast, which, alas, did not part for them.

Disappointed and even offended by God, the children scattered around the city. We spent the night. The next morning they prayed again on the seashore. By the evening, several hundred children were missing in the detachments - they moved home.

The days passed. The Marseilles somehow tolerated the crowd of children that had fallen on their heads. Fewer and fewer "crusaders" went out to pray to the sea. The leaders of the campaign looked longingly at the ships in the harbor - if they had money, they would not disdain now the usual way of crossing the sea.

The Marseilles began to murmur. The atmosphere was heating up. Suddenly, according to the old expression, the Lord looked back at them. One day the sea parted. Of course, not in the literal sense of the word.

The woeful situation of the young crusaders touched two of the city's most eminent merchants - Hugo Ferreus and William Porkus (Hugo the Iron and William the Pig). However, these two devilish figures with their gloomy nicknames are not at all invented by the chronicler. Other sources also mention their names. And they, out of pure philanthropy, provided the children with the required amount of ships and provisions.

The miracle that was promised to you, - said Saint Stephen from the platform in the city square, - has happened! We just misunderstood the signs of God. It was not the sea that was supposed to part, but the human heart! The will of the Lord is revealed to us in the act of two honorable Marseilles, etc.

And again the guys crowded around their idol, again strove to snatch a piece of his shirt, again they crushed someone to death ...

But there were quite a few children among the children who tried to quickly get out of the crowd in order to sneak out of the blessed Marseilles on the quiet. Medieval boys had heard enough about the unreliability of the ships of that time, about sea storms, about reefs and robbers.

By the next morning, the number of participants in the campaign had significantly diminished. But it was for the best, the rest were tolerably accommodated on the ships, clearing their ranks of the faint-hearted. There were seven ships. According to the chronicles, a large ship of that time could hold up to seven hundred knights. Thus, we can reasonably assume that there were no less children on each ship. This means that the ships took about five thousand children. With them were no less than four hundred priests and monks.

Almost the entire population of Marseille poured out to see the children ashore. After the solemn prayer service, ships under sails, colored with flags, accompanied by chants and enthusiastic shouts of the townspeople, majestically sailed out of the harbor, and now they disappeared beyond the horizon. Forever.

For eighteen years nothing was known about the fate of these ships and the children who sailed on them.

Chapter 4. Tragic ending. What is left in the memory of Europeans about the children's crusade.

Eighteen years have passed since the departure of the young crusaders from Marseilles; all the deadlines for the return of the participants in the children's campaign have passed.

After the death of Pope Innocent III, two more crusades fizzled out, they managed to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims, having entered into an alliance with the Egyptian sultan ... In a word, life went on. They forgot to think about the missing children. To throw a cry, to raise Europe in search, to find five thousand children who, perhaps, are still alive - this never occurred to anyone. Such a wasteful humanism was not in the customs of that time.

Their mothers have already wept. Children were born visibly and invisibly. And many died. Although, of course, it is difficult to imagine that the hearts of mothers who took their children on a hike did not sore from the bitterness of senseless loss.

In 1230, a monk suddenly appeared in Europe, who had once sailed from Marseilles with his children. To him, for some merits released from Cairo, mothers of children who disappeared during the campaign flocked from all over Europe. But how much joy did they have from the fact that the monk saw their son in Cairo, that the son or daughter was still alive? The monk said that in Cairo, about seven hundred participants in the campaign were languishing in captivity. Of course, not a single person in Europe touched a finger to ransom the former idols of the ignorant crowds from slavery.

From the stories of the fugitive monk, which quickly flew around the entire continent, the parents finally learned about tragic fate their missing children. Here's what happened:

The children, crowded in the holds of the ships sailing from Marseille, suffered terribly from stuffiness, seasickness and fear. They feared sirens, leviathans and, of course, storms. It was the storm that fell upon the unfortunate as they passed Corsica and went around Sardinia... The ships were carried to St. Peter's Island off the southwestern tip of Sardinia. At dusk, children screamed in horror as the ship was thrown from wave to wave. Dozens of those on deck were washed overboard. The current carried five ships past the reefs. And two flew straight to the coastal cliffs. Two ships with children were blown to pieces.

Fishermen immediately after the shipwreck buried hundreds of children's corpses on an uninhabited island. But such was the disunity of Europe at that time that news of this did not reach either French or German mothers. Twenty years later, the children were reburied in one place and the Church of the New Immaculate Babies was erected on their mass grave. The church became a place of pilgrimage. This went on for three centuries. Then the church decayed, even its ruins were lost over time ...

Five other ships somehow made it to the African coast. True, nailed them in algerian harbor... But it turned out that it was here that they had to sail! They were clearly expected here. Muslim ships met them and escorted them to the port. Exemplary Christians, compassionate Marseilles Ferreus and Porcus donated seven ships because they intended to sell five thousand children into slavery to the infidels. As the merchants correctly calculated, the monstrous disunity between the Christian and Muslim worlds contributed to the success of their criminal design and ensured their personal safety.

What is slavery among the infidels, the children knew from creepy stories, which were carried across Europe by the pilgrims. Therefore, it is impossible to describe their horror when they realized what had happened.

Some of the children were sold out at the Algerian bazaar, and they became slaves, concubines or concubines of wealthy Muslims. The rest of the guys were loaded onto ships and taken to Alexandria markets... Four hundred monks and priests who were brought to Egypt with their children were fabulously lucky: they were bought by the elderly Sultan Malek Kamel, better known as Safadin. This enlightened ruler had already divided his possessions between his sons and had leisure for scholarly pursuits. He settled the Christians in the Cairo palace and put him in charge of translating from Latin into Arabic. The most educated of the learned slaves shared their European wisdom with the Sultan and gave lessons to his courtiers. They lived satisfyingly and at ease, only they could not go outside Cairo. While they were settling in the palace, blessing God, the children worked in the fields and died like flies.

Several hundred little slaves were sent to Baghdad... And it was only possible to get to Baghdad through Palestine ... Yes, the children stepped on Holy land... But in chains or with ropes around the neck. They saw the majestic walls of Jerusalem. They passed through Nazareth, their bare feet burned the sands of Galilee ... In Baghdad, young slaves were sold out. One of the chronicles tells that the Baghdad Caliph decided to convert them to Islam. And although this event was described according to the stencil of that time: they were tortured, beaten, tormented, but not one betrayed their native faith, the story could be true. Boys who have gone through so much suffering for a lofty goal could well have shown unbending will and die martyrs for their faith. There were, according to the chronicles, eighteen of them. The Caliph abandoned his venture and sent the surviving Christian fanatics to slowly dry up in the fields.

In Muslim lands, juvenile crusaders died of disease, beatings, or mastered, learned the language, gradually forgetting their homeland and relatives. They all died in slavery - not one returned from captivity.

What happened to the leaders of the young crusaders? About Stephen was heard only before the arrival of his column in Marseille. Nicholas disappeared from sight in Genoa. The third, unnamed, leader of the crusader children disappeared into obscurity.

As for the contemporaries of the children's crusade, then, as we have already said, the chroniclers limited themselves to only a very cursory description of it, and the common people, forgetting their enthusiasm and delight at the idea of ​​the little madmen, fully agreed with the two-line Latin epigram - literature honored one hundred thousand ruined children with only six words:

To the stupid shore
The mind is childish.

Thus ended one of the most terrible tragedies in the history of Europe.

The material is taken from here http://www.erudition.ru/referat/printref/id.16217_1.html slightly reduced, removed the situation in Europe at the beginning of the XIII century. and an excursion into the history of the Crusades. The book "The Crusader in Jeans" about the events described above can be found on Librusek. Posted by Thea Beckman.

For the first time at the very beginning of the XI century. Pope Urban II called on Western Europe to crusades. This happened in the late autumn of 1095, shortly after the gathering (congress) of churchmen ended in the city of Clermont (in France). Pope addressed the crowds of knights, peasants, townspeople. monks who gathered on the plain near the city, with an appeal to start a holy war against Muslims. Tens of thousands of knights and village poor from France responded to the pope's call, all of them in 1096 went to Palestine to fight against the Seljuk Turks, who had recently captured the city of Jerusalem, which was considered sacred by Christians.

The liberation of this shrine served as a pretext for the crusades. The crusaders attached crosses of fabric to their clothes as a sign that they were going to war with a religious goal - to expel the Gentiles (Muslims) from Jerusalem and other holy places for Christians in Palistina. In reality, the goals of the Crusaders were not only religious. By the XI century. land in Western Europe was divided between secular and church feudal lords. According to custom, only his eldest son could inherit the land of the lord. As a result, a large layer of feudal lords was formed who did not have land.

They longed to get it in any way. Catholic Church not without reason she feared that these knights would not encroach on her vast domains. In addition, the clergy, led by the Pope, sought to extend their influence to new territories and profit from them. Rumors about the riches of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean, which were spread by pilgrim travelers who visited Palestine, aroused the greed of the knights. The popes took advantage of this by throwing a cry "To the East!"

L. Gumilyov also believes that at this time in Western Europe there was a passionary impetus and this overheated society had to be cooled with the help of expansion.

In the XII century. the knights had to equip themselves for war under the sign of the cross many times in order to keep the occupied territories. However, these crusades all failed. At the beginning of the XIII century, in the cities and villages of France, and then in other countries, the idea began to spread that if adults for “their sins” were not given the opportunity to free Jerusalem from “infidels”, then “innocent” children could do it ...

Pope Innocent III, the instigator of many bloody wars under the religious banner, did nothing to stop this insane campaign. On the contrary, he declared: "These children are a reproach to us adults: while we sleep, they are happy to speak up for the Holy Land." The crusade was also supported by the Franciscan Order.

The Children's Crusade began with the fact that in June 1212, in a village near Vendôme, a shepherd boy named Stephen (Etienne) appeared, who announced that he was a messenger of God and was called to become the leader and again to conquer the Promised Land for Christians: the sea was to dry before the army of spiritual Israel.

On a warm May day in 1212, Stephen met a pilgrim monk who was coming from Palestine and begging for alms.

The monk accepted the served piece of bread and began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened, fascinated. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then suddenly dropped that he was Jesus Christ.

Everything further was like in a dream (or the boy's dream was this meeting). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's one, for "from the lips of babies comes strength against the enemy." And then the monk disappeared, melted away

Stephen walked all over the country and everywhere caused stormy enthusiasm with his speeches, as well as the miracles that he performed in front of thousands of eyewitnesses. Soon, in many localities, boys appeared as preachers of the cross, gathered around them whole crowds of like-minded people and led them, with banners and crosses and with solemn songs, to the wonderful boy Stephen. If anyone asked the young madmen where they were going, he received in response that they were going across the sea to God.

Stephen, this holy fool, was revered as a miracle worker. In July, singing psalms and gonfalons, they set off for Marseille to sail to the Holy Land, but no one thought about ships in advance. The army was often joined by criminals; playing the role of participants, they lived off the alms of pious Catholics.

The extravagance that gripped the French children also spread in Germany, especially in the lower Rhine regions. Here came the boy Nikolai, who was not yet 10 years old, led by his father, also a vile trader of slaves, who used the poor child for his own purposes, for which later “together with other deceivers and criminals ended, as they say, with a gallows. appeared with a machine on which there was a cross in the form of the Latin "T", and it was announced that he would cross the sea with dry feet and establish the eternal kingdom of peace in Jerusalem. Wherever he appeared, he irresistibly attracted children. 20 thousand boys, girls, as well as a disorderly rabble and moved south through the Alps.On the way, most of her died of hunger and robbers or returned home, frightened by the difficulties of the campaign: nevertheless, several thousand still reached Genoa on August 25. Here they were unfriendly driven away and forced them to a quick further campaign, because the Genoese were afraid of any danger to their city from a strange army of pilgrims.

When a crowd of French children reached Marcel, singing hymns, they entered the suburb and walked through the streets of the city straight to the sea. The inhabitants of the city were shocked by the sight of this army, looked at them with awe and blessed them for the great feat.

The children stopped at the seaside, which most of them saw for the first time. Many ships were in the roadstead, and the sea went into an endless distance. Waves ran ashore, then receded, and nothing changed. And the children were waiting for a miracle. They were sure that the sea should make way for them and they will move on. But the sea did not part and continued to splash at their feet.

The children began to pray fervently ... time passed, but still there was no miracle.

Then two traders in slaves, volunteered to transport these "supporters of Christ" to Syria for "the reward of God." They sailed on seven ships, two of them suffered a wreck at the island of San Pietro near Sardinia, and on the other five merchants arrived in Egypt and sold pilgrims - crusaders as slaves. Thousands of them ended up in the Khalifa’s house and were worthily distinguished there by the endurance with which they worked in the Christian faith.
Both slave workers later fell into the hands of the Emperor Fridrich II and were sentenced to death by hanging. In addition, this empire was said to have succeeded, as they say, at the conclusion of peace in 1229 with Sultan Alkamil, to return again the freedom of a significant part of these unfortunate children-pilgrims.

Children from Germany, under the leadership of Nicholas, expelled from Genoa, reached Brindisi, but here, thanks to the energy of the local bishop, they were prevented from taking a sea voyage to the East. Then they had no choice but to return home. Some of the boys went to Rome to ask the Pope for permission from the crusader vow. But the Pope did not comply with their requests, although, as they say, he had already ordered them to abandon their insane enterprise; now he only gave them a reprieve of the crusade until they came of age. Return trip destroyed almost the entire remnant of this children's army. Hundreds of them fell from exhaustion on the journey and died miserably on the highways. The worst fate fell, of course, on the lot of the girls, who, in addition to all other disasters, were also subjected to all kinds of deception and violence. Several managed to find shelter in kind families and earn their own food in Genoa with their own hands; some patrician families even trace their origins back to the German children left there; but the majority perished in a miserable way, and only a small remnant of the entire army, sick and exhausted, ridiculed and mocked, saw the homeland again. The boy Nicholas seemed to live and later, in 1219, fought at Damietta in Egypt.

V 1212 year The so-called Children's Crusade took place, an expedition led by a young seer named Stephen, who breathed into French and German children the belief that with his help, as poor and devoted servants of the Lord, they would be able to return Jerusalem to Christianity. The children went to the south of Europe, but many of them did not even reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but died on the way. Some historians believe that the Children's Crusade was a provocation organized by slave traders to sell the participants in the campaign into slavery.

In May 1212, when the German people's army passed through Koln, in its ranks, there were about twenty-five thousand children and adolescents heading to Italy to reach from there by sea Palestine... In the chronicles XIII century more than fifty times this campaign is mentioned, which is called the "children's crusade".

The crusaders boarded ships in Marseilles and partly died from the storm, partly, as they say, the children were sold into slavery to Egypt. A similar movement swept Germany, where the boy Nikolai gathered a crowd of twenty thousand children. Most of them died or scattered along the road (especially many of them died in the Alps), but some reached Brindisi, from where they were supposed to return; most of them also died. Meanwhile, King John of England, Andrew of Hungary and, finally, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, who accepted the cross in July 1215, responded to the new call of Innocent III. The beginning of the Crusade was scheduled for June 1, 1217.

Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)

A business Innocent III(d. in July 1216 years) continued Honorius III... Though Frederick II postponed the campaign, and John English died, after all in 1217 year significant detachments of crusaders went to the Holy Land, with Andrey Hungarian, the duke Leopold VI of Austria and Otton Meransky at the head; it was the 5th crusade. The military operations went sluggishly, and in 1218 year King Andrew returned home. Soon, new detachments of crusaders arrived in the Holy Land, led by Georg Vidsky and Wilhelm of Holland(on the way, some of them helped Christians in the fight against Moors v Portugal). The crusaders decided to attack Egypt, which was at that time the main center of Muslim power in Asia Minor. A son al-Adil,al-Kamil(al-Adil died in 1218), offered an extremely beneficial peace: he even agreed to the return of Jerusalem to Christians. This proposal was rejected by the crusaders. In November 1219 year, after more than a year's siege, the crusaders took Damietta... Removal from the camp of the crusaders Leopold and the king John of Brienne was partly reimbursed by the arrival in Egypt Louis of Bavaria with the Germans. Part of the crusaders, convinced by the papal legate Pelagius, moved to Mansoor, but the campaign ended in complete failure, and the crusaders concluded 1221 year peace with al-Kamil, according to which they received a free retreat, but pledged to cleanse Damietta and Egypt in general. Meanwhile on Isabella, daughters Mary Iolanta and John of Brienne, married Frederick II Hohenstaufen. He pledged to the Pope to begin a crusade.

Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)

Frederick in August 1227 actually sent a fleet to Syria with Duke Henry of Limburg at its head; in September he sailed himself, but was soon to return to the shore due to a serious illness. Landgrave Ludwig of Thuringia, who took part in this crusade, died almost immediately after landing in Otranto... Dad Gregory IX did not respect Frederick's explanations and pronounced excommunication over him for not fulfilling his vow at the appointed time. A struggle began, extremely harmful to the interests of the Holy Land, between the emperor and the pope. In June 1228, Frederick finally sailed to Syria (6th Crusade), but this did not reconcile the pope with him: Gregory said that Frederick (still excommunicated) was going to the Holy Land not as a crusader, but as a pirate. In the Holy Land, Frederick restored the fortifications of Joppa and in February 1229 concluded an agreement with Alkamil: the Sultan ceded Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and some other places to him, for which the emperor undertook to help Alkamil against his enemies. In March 1229, Frederick entered Jerusalem, and in May he sailed from the Holy Land. After the removal of Frederick, his enemies began to seek to weaken the power of the Hohenstaufens both in Cyprus, which had been a fief of the empire since the time of Emperor Henry VI, and in Syria. These disagreements were very unfavorable reflected in the course of the struggle between Christians and Muslims. Relief for the crusaders was brought only by the strife of the heirs of Alkamila, who died in 1238.

In the fall of 1239, Thibault of Navarre, Duke of Hugo of Burgundy, Count Peter of Brittany, Amalrich of Montfort and others arrived in Acre. And now the crusaders acted discordantly and recklessly and were defeated; Amalrich was taken prisoner. Jerusalem again fell for some time into the hands of a certain Eyyubid ruler. The alliance of the crusaders with the emir Ishmael of Damascus led them to war with the Egyptians, who defeated them at Ascalon. After that, many of the crusaders left the Holy Land. Earl Richard of Cornwall (brother of the English king Henry III), who arrived in the Holy Land in 1240, managed to conclude a profitable peace with Eyyub (Melik-Salik-Eyyub) of Egypt. Meanwhile, strife among Christians continued; the barons hostile to the Hohenstaufens transferred power over the kingdom of Jerusalem to Alice of Cyprus, while the legitimate king was the son of Frederick II, Konrad. After Alice's death, power passed to her son, Henry of Cyprus. The new alliance of Christians with the Muslim enemies of Eyyub led to the fact that Eyyub called for the help of the Khorezm Turks, who took Jerusalem shortly before that returned to Christians in September 1244 and devastated it terribly. Since then, the holy city was forever lost to the crusaders. After a new defeat for the Christians and their allies, Eyyub took Damascus and Ascalon. The Antiochians and Armenians had to at the same time pledge to pay tribute to the Mongols. In the West, the crusading zeal cooled, as a result of the unsuccessful outcome of the last Campaigns and as a result of the actions of the popes, who spent money collected for the emperor you can free yourself from the earlier vow to go to the Holy Land. However, the preaching of the Crusade to Palestine continued as before and led to the 7th Crusade. Before others the cross accepted Louis IX French: during a dangerous illness, he made a vow to go to the Holy Land. With him went his brothers Robert, Alphonse and Karl, Duke of Hugo of Burgundy, c. Wilhelm of Flanders, c. Peter of Brittany, Champagne Seneschal John Joinville (famous historian of this campaign) and many others.