Knights Templar in 250 Facts

[RolandVT]

The Crusades in the Holy Land were a series (12 total) of military expeditions in 1096–1272 into Palestine with the objective of liberating it from the Muslims. The Crusades ultimately failed – in 1291 the last Christian armed forces were driven out of the Holy Land by victorious Muslims.

Actually, it is not correct to talk about “failure of the Crusades” – in reality, it was not the failure of the latter, but of the Outremer. In other words, it was the failure of European (Latin) Christians to maintain their presence in Palestine.

Contrary to a popular misconception, it is not surprising that the Crusades ultimately failed: it was a genuine miracle that they achieved any success at all (in several cases incredible, astounding success).

A genuine miracle because the Christians were at a severe disadvantage in every aspect of this 200-year-long religious war. They were severely outnumbered; they did not have a standing army with a uniform command (infighting cost them many battles and the whole crusades); their logistics was a nightmare; they were initially totally unfamiliar with… well, anything in Palestine.

They were dependent upon very long-distance supply routes from Western Christendom, whose ships could only brave the long sea journey between late spring and early autumn.

Essentially, crusaders from Western Europe were isolated in the Islamic heartland. Their outposts (Outremer) were surrounded by far more numerous enemies; much better organized and trained – and hell-bent on recapturing the lost territories.

Add to that inevitable poor planning and strategy, mismanagement, infighting, poorly (if at all) trained and insufficiently armed warriors, ragtag army (crusades consisted of a rapidly assembled group of determined Christians) – and ultimate failure will become inevitable – even with shock troops of Templar quality.

But probably the crucial reason for ultimate failure of Crusades was insufficient commitment of Western rulers (and even the Church) to this endeavour. They predictably were far more concerned with problems and aspirations at home than with liberating the Holy Land from the Muslim.

In other words, they were insufficiently committed to winning the permanent religious war with Muslims which required not a series of military expeditions but the permanent process of fighting such a war. This process was never established – which inevitably led to losing the war and to the ultimate failure of Crusades.