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The Crusades, c1095–1204

Political motives for the crusades

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Recall questions on the Seljuk threat to Byzantium, Alexius I's appeal to Urban II, papal ambition, and the disorder in Europe the crusade was meant to relieve.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

At which council in November 1095 did Pope Urban II launch the First Crusade?

Key term

Which Byzantine emperor's appeal for military aid helped prompt Urban II to call the First Crusade?

Who and when

What did the papacy stand to gain politically from leading a crusade?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    At which council in November 1095 did Pope Urban II launch the First Crusade?

    Model answer

    The Council of Clermont.

  2. 2

    Which Byzantine emperor's appeal for military aid helped prompt Urban II to call the First Crusade?

    Model answer

    Alexios I Komnenos.

  3. 3

    What political problems in Europe did Urban II hope a crusade might ease?

    Model answer

    Endemic private warfare among the nobility. Diverting that violence eastwards fitted the Peace and Truce of God movements, by which the Church tried to limit fighting at home.

  4. 4

    What did the papacy stand to gain politically from leading a crusade?

    Model answer

    Leadership of Latin Christendom. Directing the knighthood of Europe asserted papal authority over lay rulers, and success might heal the schism with the Greek Church.

  5. 5

    What was the state of relations between Rome and Constantinople in 1095?

    Model answer

    Formally broken since the schism of 1054, though Urban II had reopened contact with Alexius I, and helping Byzantium offered a route to reunion on Roman terms.

  6. 6

    What threat did the Seljuk Turks pose to the Byzantine Empire by 1095?

    Model answer

    After Manzikert in 1071 they had overrun most of Asia Minor, the empire's main recruiting ground, and their sultanate at Nicaea stood within reach of Constantinople.

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