The Crusades were a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by Pope Urban II and the Catholic Church with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. Jerusalem was and is a sacred city and symbol of all three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The Crusades were originally launched in response to a call from the leaders of the Byzantine Empire to help fight the expansion into Anatolia of Muslim Seljuk Turks, who had cut off Christian access to Jerusalem. They were also sparked by the destruction of many Christian sacred sites and the persecution of Christians under the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim. The Crusaders, comprised military units of Roman Catholics from all over Western Europe, were not under unified command.
Several hundred thousand soldiers became Crusaders by taking vows; the Pope granted them plenary indulgence. Their emblem was the cross. The term "crusade" is derived from the French term "for taking up the cross."
Today we see references to Crusades being made in the following literature/media:
1. The Canterbury Tales
"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Although not inspired by one particular Crusade or Crusader, Chaucer drew his inspiration from the Crusade Movement as a whole. The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas.
2. Ivanhoe
Richard the historical figure might not have been very popular with the people of England, but Richard the Lion Heart appears in connection with Robin Hood in Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe and the many works derived from the novel, and in numerous films about Robin Hood. The story is set in 1194, after the failure of the Third Crusade, when many of the Crusaders were still returning to Europe. King Richard, who had been captured by the Duke of Austria on his way back, was believed to still be in the arms of his captors. He appears in many other fictional accounts of the Third Crusade and its sequel, for example, Graham Shelby's The Kings of Vain Intent and The Devil is Loose. He is the main character in Norah Lofts' novel The Lute Player (which focuses on his sexuality). Richard is a major character in James Goldman's The Lion in winter, in which there are references to the alleged homosexual relationship between Richard and Philip of France.
3. Robin Hood
The popular ballads of Robin Hood and his Merry Men represent the conditions of England at that time. Unable to pay the heavy taxes levied by the Government many people lost their homes and were outlawed from their lands. Many of them took to the forest and caves where they lived in hiding. Such a group of men sought refuge in the Sherwood Forest under the leadership of Robin Hood. Many are the stories of the brave exploits of Robin and his men who robbed the rich to pay the poor.
4. Poems of Tennyson
The glowing figures of Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, and Sir Gawain are the best examples of Knights in ‘Idylls of the King’ by Lord Tennyson.
5. Assassin's Creed
An award-winning historical fiction action-adventure open world stealth video game series. The Assassin's Creed games take place in 2012, featuring the protagonist Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent Assassins; though raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. Desmond is forced to use the "Animus", a device that allows him to experience his ancestral memories. Within the Animus, Desmond experiences the memories of Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, a disgraced Assassin working to redeem his former rank during the Crusades.
6. The Da Vinci Code
After the First Crusade recaptured Jerusalem in 1099, many Christian pilgrims traveled to visit what they referred to as the Holy Places. However, though the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure control, Bandits abounded, and pilgrims were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey into the Holy Land. Around 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem with the proposal of creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims.
King Baldwin agreed to the request, and granted space for a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount, in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.
The Crusaders, therefore, referred to the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the new Order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. The Order, with about nine knights, had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive.
Dan Brown’s novel is part of the exploration of alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descendants from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation and books by Margaret Starbird. They find evidence for this occult tradition in such assorted subjects as The Knights Templar.
7. A Knight’s Tale
A Knight's Tale is a 2001 romantic adventure comedy film written, directed, and produced by Brian Helgeland starring Heath Ledger. The film follows the story of William Thatcher, a peasant masquerading as a knight, along with his companions in the world of medieval jousting. William poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, winning accolades and acquiring friendships set in the background of the Crusades.
As G.M. Trevelyan puts it, “The rich, many colored fabric of later medieval life, the world of Dante and of Chaucer would never have come into existence if barbarous Europe had remained as much shut in upon herself as she had been before the Crusades”. (A Shortened History of England 142)
