Not at all close to the facts. Read any of the books by leading crusade historians Jonathan Riley-Smith and Thomas F. Madden. As an introduction I suggest to first read
What Were the Crusades? and then move on to reading
The Crusades: A History by Jonathan Riley-Smith. It destroys all the modern myths about the crusades, the crusaders and their motivations.
When Pope Urban called for the crusades there were two goals, as Riley-Smith writes: one, the “freeing of the eastern churches, and especially the church of Jerusalem, from the savagery and tyranny of the Muslims. This was the liberations of people, the baptized members of the Church.”
Second, “the liberation of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.” Which “had been vandalized on the orders of the Fatimid caliph Hakim. Christ’s cave-tomb had been leveled almost to the ground.”
The first crusades and crusaders did not have the intention to forcefully convert anyone. They were not wars against Muslims but wars for the liberation of Christians. In all the lands conquered, Muslims lived peacefully side by side with the crusaders, but they were required to pay the same tax that they had before always imposed on Christians.
The crusader was a new type of pilgrim, a penitential warrior pilgrim.
Riley-Smith: “The crusaders regarded themselves as pilgrims and while on crusade they engaged in characteristic devotional and liturgical exercises.”
Pope Urban: “If any men among you go there not because they desire earthly profit but only for the salvation of their souls and the liberation of the Church, we, acting as much on our own authority as on that of all the archbishops and bishops in the Gauls, through the mercy of almighty God and the prayers of the Catholic Church, relieve them of all penance imposed for their sins, of which they have made a genuine and full confession.”
Notice that their motivations were not allowed to be material. Notice also that the crusaders were not promised forgiveness of sins, but were relieved of any penance already imposed on them for their sins. They were required to make a full confession.
One crusader wrote about his motivations: “Considering how many are my sins and the love, clemency and mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ, because when he was rich he became poor for our sake, I have determined to repay him on some measure for everything he has given me freely, although I am unworthy. And so I have decided to go to Jerusalem, where God was seen as man and spoke with men and to adore in the place where his feet trod.”
The crusades were not waged for material gain. Crusading was an expensive business. Most crusaders had to find a sponsor and sell or rent out their property. Noble families impoverished themselves by crusading, and when they returned home, all they had to bring back with them from the East was a relic, which they would then donate their local church or monastery.
Riley-Smith: "In the light of the evidence it is hard to believe that most crusaders were motivated by crude materialism. Given their knowledge and expectations and the economic climate in which they lived, the disposal of assets to invest in the fairly remote possibility of settlement in the East would have been a stupid gamble.
“The argument that the crusades were a response to economic conditions at home turns out to be grounded on dubious assumptions. Why did these interpretations hold for so long? Charters recording the pledging and selling of property and rights by crusaders have, after all, been in print for at least 100 years. The reason that so many historians overlooked them may have been that they were blinded by an abhorrence of religious and ideological violence, and by their inability to comprehend that it could have had any appeal. They forgot how intellectually respectable the Christian theory of holy war once was. It was easier to believe that the crusaders were too simple-minded to understand what they were doing; or to argue that they had been motivated, whatever they said, by a desire for material gain.”
Thomas F. Madden: “Crusading was an enormously expensive operation. Lords were forced to sell off or mortgage their lands to gather the necessary funds. They were also not interested in an overseas kingdom. Much like a soldier today, the medieval Crusader was proud to do his duty but longed to return home.”
I have above only addressed the first crusades. The crusades lasted 700 years, from their first preaching in 1095 to the fall of Hospitaller Malta in 1798.
