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Ar mieś of the Crusades

The Armies ofChrisłendom

The Christian armies of the various crusades were not only composed ofseveral nationalities, but were raised by a variety of methods. For example, in the early crusades men of all ranks and from all over Europę took the cross and went to fight Islam as volunteers. Some went out of religious fervour; others, mainly the peasants, to escape the plagues and famine of Europę at the time of the ist Crusade; and others, mostly warriors, to seize land or a fortunę in loot. Such armies carried with them the divisions and frictions of all feudal armies, though they were composed primarily of non-feudal elements; for the warriors usually took an oath of allegiance to one of the great leaders so as to gain his fmancial support.

By the time of the 3rd Crusade there was less universal religious fervour and the armies were raised and organized by the leading monarchs of Europę on a morę feudal basis, with a stiffening of mercenaries. By the 6th Crusade the knights went mainly out of a sense ofduty to their barons or the king, or in the hope ofgaining return favours, while the infantry was almost entirely mercenary.

Fighting alongside these crusader armies were the armies raised in Outremer (the Holy Land) itself; these were largely feudal, and therefore consisted of the three basie ingredients of all feudal armies: the barons and their retinues of feudal tenants; levies of free men; and mercenaries. Before discussing the Christian armies it is necessary therefore to outline these three basie forms of military service.

A king granted large estates to his barons and the Church in return for which they promised to supply a fixed quota of knights for military service. To raise this quota of knights the barons and Church sub-let parts of their estates to the lesser nobility in exchange for a similar promise of military service. The sub-tenants let farms to freeholders, again in return for military service, and the peasants worked the land under these freeholders. Therefore, each sub-tenant could supply a feudal retinue of at least one knight (himself), with his sons and/or younger

Detail of mail, helmets and weapons from the Maciejowski Bibie. The horse trapper (see photo p. 6 also) first appears c. 1210; it was in two parts, meeting at the saddle. By c. 1225 the fabric was reinforced with plates of metal or horn, and quilted trappers were also in generał use by this datę. The first plate-metal defence, the headplate or chanfron, did not appear until about 1266. (The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York)