Crusade

In the X century, shortly after the Viking Christianization, many warriors were raised as a mistaken effort to completely eradicate foreign invasions. Since there was peace between the major European nations including France, England, Germany and Italy; the newly-trained warriors were found needless and they resorted to fight among each other and terrorize villagers. An outlet for this need of war was sought by Pope Gregory VII who after being called for aid by the Byzantine emperor, sought to expand Christianity to new lands.

However, it wasn't until the year 1095 when the pope Urban II launched a full-scale attack against the Muslims. His belief was that no Muslim could ever possess the center of the world, as featured in mos medieval maps. Henceforth, he offered all loyal warriors who fought for Jerusalem a full redemption of their sins. This, of course, caused much enthusiasm in Europe which led more than 100,000 crusaders to fight for what they believed in - the Holy Land.

Urban II planned the departure of the First Crusade for August 15, 1096. However, without his consent, an army led by Peter the Hermit marched toward Jerusalem as an attempt to be the first Crusader army to reach the Holy City.

Peter's army was undisciplined and faced many problems. The most remarkable was its lack of food and water which was often scarce in the area. Afterward, his army marched to the Danube in which he hoped to have support from the local villages by providing food and water for his army - or at least selling it at a reasonable price. Since most of the time the locals refused to offer such commodities for the foreigners, many pillages ensued.

After a long march, Peter's army finally arrived at Constantinople where he was met by another early crusader army consisting of Italians and the French. When they acknowledged Alexius of their arrival, Alexius became desperate because he was skeptical about the Crusader's intentions. Such was his desire to get rid of them that he ferried them "free" of charge across the Bosporus.

When the crusaders arrived to Asia Minor, they promptly divided their army in two and were defeated by the Turks who were more experienced and had a vast knowledge of the land. Peter did survive to the massacre which killed thousands of crusaders making this first attempt to reach Jerusalem before the main Crusader army an utter failure - reason for which this first Crusade is now called "The People's Crusade." as it was mostly disorganized.

Two months after this event, all the main armies of Europe congregated outside the walls of Constantinople to ask Alexius for aid to reach Jerusalem and to be provided with food and water. Alexius, suspicious of this, asked for every noble to swear loyalty to him which did happen. Alexius sent a Byzantine army to escort the Crusaders with the condition that any lands recovered from the Turks were to be given to him. The Crusaders agreed and a full army of thousands of knights, warriors, peasants, women and children marched toward Jerusalem.

When a Crusader soldier wrote an entry to his diary, he mentioned that he thought it would only take the complete army two months to reach the Holy Land - but unfortunately, he found that it was much more lengthy since many cities and forts had to be besieged first. It took two years for the Crusaders to reach the Holy Land - and in the way Nicaea, capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, was besieged and finally captured.

After many battles including the Battle of Darylaeum the Crusader army reached Jerusalem on May 7, 1099. Due to the lack of water in Jerusalem's surroundings, many soldiers died. A close estimate reveals that out of the 7,500 knights who marched to Jerusalem, only 1,500 survived.

Peter Desiderius had a divine vision in which he swore that provided the Crusader army starved and marched around Jerusalem, the city would fall within 9 days. Such was the enthusiasm for this that many siege weapons were built and the Crusaders marched around the city and in the seventh day, the Crusaders finally entered Jerusalem killing everyone in their path.

Everyone was massacred by the Crusaders including children and women. Many accounts claimed that there was so much blood on the street that it could reach a warrior's ankles.

The First Crusade was the only Crusade to achieve its intended goals. It successfully took control of the Holy Land which even though lasted for less that two hundred years, was still a major European victory which had much influence in the Western World including in architecture, entertainment and ways of life. Additionally, the medieval crossbow is an invention owed to the Crusades, which was the time when it was finally implemented into warfare.

Medieval Aristocracy

During much of the early Medieval period, foreign invasions were very common. Kings began to lose their power because they could no longer protect their people from the vikings who destroyed everything in their path.

This led to many economical and social problems which were firstly addressed in Normandy when the first settlers arrived during the X century. Their fear was enormous and so was their courage for they devised a way to effectively diminish Vikings and other invaders which seemed to be possessing most of Europe. This received the name of "Feudalism" in which the king appointed a lord to take care of his land. The lord then appointed many knights or nobles to possess the land he firstly acquired from his king by distributing it equally among them. They in turn used serfs to work the land. This is all better illustrated in the following picture:

As it can be noted, it was kings who received most of the pay whilst the serfs (bottom) worked almost all day long and were subject to heavy taxes which were later deposited in the royal treasury.

Serfs were a step higher than slaves. Even though they were very maltreated, they still possessed some rights and privileges. Nevertheless, they would seldom die from hard work and low wages. Serfs were the crux of Feudalism. They worked the lands; giving a monetary income to their patrons (the vassals) who would in turn generate taxes to his or her lord. Who would pay homage to the king. It was all a transference of money passed down from the serfs to the king.

Serfs were very discomfort about their situation. They worked for hours and were paid a very small salary. This, along with other causes, brought Feudalism to an end.

Serfs were very numerous and constituted a strong percentage of the medieval population. Knights were much more rare to find and Lords were much more important and far between. Of course there was only one king who was supreme in the feudalism.

Knights

As young as the age of seven, kids were already chosen to become knights by their parents. In order to be chosen to become a knight, a test had to be conducted on them to decide whether they were suitable for the task or not. In order to be chosen, a kid had to be tall for his age, strong and extremely healthy. If chosen, the kid was called a "Page". It was his lord (normally a knight) who frequently trained the young Page by assigning him diverse tasks in or outside the castle. In this process, many Pages died, though it was common since their death meant their weakness.

In order to become a Squire at the age of 13 or 14, the Page had to have shown promise in fighting. The Squire frequently stayed with the former knight who had taught him about knighthood since he was a young Page. During this period of time, the Squire handled the knight's weapons and was appointed to clean them and help the knight in any way he could. By the time a Squire reached the age of 15, he had to start wearing an armor to begin getting used to the weight.

Between 18 and 21, the Squire was finally ready to become a knight. A ceremony invariantly took place to help the knight overcome his problems. The day before the ceremony, the Squire had to fast and bath himself "to cleanse his sins". Afterward he had to go to confession and stay in the church praying to God for guidance all night long. When the ceremony took place, the knight had to enter the hall with his eyes looking straight ahead toward the altar and his sword charging forward, being carried with both hands. As the Squire walked toward his lord, the lord asked him some questions about his tasks and what he was destined to do during his lifetime. If the lord was satisfied with the answers, he would carry on with the ceremony which was later to become a feast.


Though knights were characteristic for being courteous and almost invariantly descended from the upper class, knights sought to exploit serfs as accorded in the feudal system.

Their objective was simple - knights had to protect their lord and king in exchange for fief and sometimes gold. Their strength and ability to command others in the battlefield and in a castle's garrison made most kings focus in them.

When a knight earned a lord's confidence it was common to see a castle appointed to the knight. They always swore loyalty to their king and would fight for him to the end.

Knights reached their peak during the XI and XII centuries, but they appeared earlier since the beginning of the end of the Viking raids. It was then when their image was forged for they had to follow the code of chivalry.

The Vikings were a tribe inhabiting Scandinavia who wanted to possess the Southern Countries because of the terrible weather conditions that they were subject to.Lack of agriculture led many adventurous Vikings to sail South in search of land. Ireland was the primary target of such attacks which were successful most of the time.Nevertheless, as the Vikings kept pushing forward into land, they began conquering Scotland - and at their peak, they conquered half of England.It was during the X century when king Alfred the Great decided to halt the Viking progression so he reorganized his army, built many ships, and made a decisive defeat on them.Eventhough the Vikings retreated to Norway, they still sailed and attacked many villages. Even though the Vikings could not defeat the regular army of Scotland, Ireland or England; the Vikings could still terrorize villagers and easily defeat local armies which inspired a lot of fear into the medieval villagers.

Viking Offense
Vikings attacked mostly with Dragon Ships which consisted of up to 100 well-trained infantry.The Dragon Ships were very well designed. They could easily be taken inside a river to attack villages from unexpected positions - giving them a huge advantage.

Lords

Lords were nobles who, sometimes appointed by the king, would rule many acres of land. Being in command of thousands of serfs, lords were generally very rich.

Being the richest, except for the king, lords normally had castles or palaces located in a place where watching over their territory could be easy. Most of the castles governed by lords were medium-sized.

Nevertheless, as Feudalism decayed, so did lords. Lords didn't possess as many lands as they used to when Feudalism was over. In fact, lords were not as common anymore.

Kings

Kings were the ultimate rulers of a country. They possessed all the power that a man could possess. According to tradition, they were appointed by God himself from heaven. God gave them the privilege to rule over a country. Furthermore, whatever they did was always right. This conspicuously changed when, for example, Louis XVI was decapitated. But before the XVII century, the king, or monarch, had absolute power. Hence, absolutism.

The royal family, being also chosen by God, also enjoyed many privileges. Every royal family member had a right that consisted on being able to enter any house, sleep with any woman; and stay in the house for as long as he or she wanted. This, along with many other "privileges" made peasants, serfs; and sometimes lords, resentful towards the royal family. Nevertheless, before the XVII century; nothing could be done about it, or, torture would come in handy.