The Crusades were a series of religiously motivated military campaigns from 1095 to 1291.
Primarily organised by the Catholic Church, they were originally intended to recapture the Holy Land from occupying Muslims, but later crusades were aimed at suppressing or converting anyone who did not adhere to Catholic ideals and to crushing the Pope’s political enemies. Papal taxes were taken from across Europe to pay for the Crusades.
Soldiers and knights who ‘took up the cross’ and became crusaders took vows - one side benefit was that they gained an indulgence that absolved them of past sins. Today the term crusade is applied to any cause which is followed with zeal, but especially those fraught with overwhelming obstacles.
David I’s advisers had to persuade the King not to leave Scotland to go on a crusade to Jerusalem. Among the Scots who took up the cross were Alan FitzWalter, High Steward of Scotland, who joined Richard the Lionheart on the Third Crusade.
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