Notes

During the late 1000s, the Seljuq Turks, a Muslim people from Central Asia, gained control of Palestine-known among Christians as "the Holy Land." The Turks went on to attack Asia Minor, part of the Byzantine Emperor who called on Pope Urban II in Rome for help. He was so eager to get back the Holy Land he called a meeting of church leaders and feudal lords. Thus started the Crusades, a series of military expeditions to regain the holy land. At least 10,000 Europeans took up the cause. The First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099. French and Italian lords led several armies of Crusaders from Europe to Constantinople. The goal of the Crusades was to take the Holy Land from the Turks. All the Crusades except the first failed to reach that goal. The Crusaders sewed crosses on their clothes. In 1187 the muslim leader Saladin gained control of Jerusalem. Three European rulers - Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Richard I of England, and King Philip II of France - then led separate armies in the Third Crusade. The crusade lasted fro 1189 to 1192. It, too, failed. When Barbarossa drowned on the way to the Holy Land, his army turned back. Philip and Richard quarreled and Philip took his army back home to seize English lands in France. Richard and the forces under his command remained in the Holy Land, but they could not recapture Jerusalem. Richard settled for a truce with Saladin. During the Crusades, the weapon of choice for many European soldiers was the crossbow. This weapon was a powerful bow that was held horizontally. It fired a short, heavy arrow called a bolt with the pull of a trigger. The crossbow required far less skill to use than did the traditional bow. Yet it was a deadly weapon that was capable of penetrating chain mail and plate armor.