The crusades keep coming up at the moment.
Probably because some people want to transform them into some terrible war of aggression against “peacable muslims”, when the opposite is true.
A good site for facts about the crusades is the CCEL History of Christianity by the Protestant Historian Schaff. he is very opinionated, and not very pro-catholic, but he does give a lot of the facts. try here:
ccel.org/s/schaff/history/5_ch07.htm
On what provoked the crusades:
Muslim attack on Armenia, 1059, 30 years **before ** the Crusades.
On Sunday 6th August the siege of Sebastea began, as did the slaughter; thousands of corpses littered the ground. What a dreadful scene. The bodies of highly renowned men were piled in a heap as if a forest of trees had been felled. and the ground was soaked with blood…
They ruthlessly massacred an immense number of people, carried off booty and took untold numbers of captives, men and women, young boys and girls, whom they sold into slavery… Fateful day! In a matter of minutes sebastea and the surrounding plain were bathed in blood. The clear waters of the River Kizil Irmak which cuts through the city walls, suddenly flowed red.
In 1064 the Turks returned. He made his way towards Armenia and entered the country; the inhabitants were put to the sword and driven into slavery. The infidels were so numerous that they covered the plains and closed off al the escape routes. Then he invaded Georgia, bringing death and slavery wherever he went. … The Turks exterminated all the inhabitants, men, women, priests, monks and nobles; the young boys and girls were taken away captive into Persia…" Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa.
Then the Muslim attack on Byzantium came in 1071, 20 Years **Before ** the Crusades. They killed and slaughtered thousands in the cities of Anatolia. reaching to the very gates of Constantinople.
All this happened before the first crusader set foot in the east.
The Eastern Emperor Alexis appealed to the west for help. In response Pope Urban preached his famous sermon at the Council of Clermont in 1095, launching the Crusades. Here is an excerpt:
Freshly quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it.
