The Crusades (1969)

[music] >> The early Arab world was a conglomerate of petty kingdoms and autonomous clans and tribes. Then in the first third of the 7th century, Muhammad preached a new faith. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad, son of Abdullah, is his prophet. Multitudes of disunited peoples accepted the Islamic faith and were unified. And the Arab conquest began. Western Asia, North Africa, Christian Spain, Muslim civilization grew to one of the most brilliant cultures in the history of man while the Dark Ages settled upon [music] Europe. Ignorance, superstition, fear of men and demons tyrannized the people. Noblemen fought each other like wolves in unceasing wars. Famine, pestilence, rain, [music] and drought raged through the countryside unchecked. In 1070, the Turks conquered Jerusalem. Pilgrims returning from the Holy Land told chilling tales of Turkish persecution of the Christians. Pope Urban II rallied the people of France and kindled a fire that spread beyond [music] his control to burn through the ages of men, a fire that ignited the fervor of two great religions and loosened Europe from its foundations. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> The appeal to free the Holy Land from infidels was irresistible. To many, it meant escape from an oppressive, isolated life. To the iron men who loved war for its own sake, it promised an easy road to glory justified by deep religious purpose. The promise of absolution of sins set many a conscience-troubled man, haunted by the ghosts of his victims, to take up the cross in hope of salvation. >> [music] >> Serfs sold their possessions for arms and left their plows [music] and families. Honest and pious men set out with murderers, adventurers, [music] and thieves. Few knew whither or how far. "Jerusalem will be freed FROM THE INFIDEL." THEIR battle cry rang through every corner of Western Europe. Priests often passed through the untrained and undisciplined [music] ranks to exhort them to unity and stir them on in their common [music] cause for God. But calamity was soon incoming. Unprepared [music] and ill-equipped, ignorant of the distances to be covered and the obstacles to be overcome, they fell prey to seas and storms. By the time they had reached Hungary, their scanty provisions [music] were exhausted and the starving throng resorted to plunder, raid, and murder. Hungarians resisted and the first crusading columns were battle-scarred before they had covered one quarter of their journey. What the sword failed to accomplish, famine, plague, leprosy, and fever finished. Succeeding armies met the remains of the first, those still living and the dead. In 1099, >> [music] >> after 3 years and untold hardships, the Crusaders, their number reduced [music] by thousands, stood in awe before the walls of Jerusalem. The siege began. But resistance was heavy. And after 40 days of unsuccessful assault, the enfeebled army, disillusioned and disheartened, began to withdraw. Suddenly, someone thought he saw the apparition of a gigantic knight on Mount Olive. The word spread like fire through the ranks. God had spoken. Their battle fervor revived, they turned. >> [music] >> Jerusalem at last was captured. The Crusaders, enraged by combat, whipped to religious fury, forgot the simplest precepts of their faith. Blood-crazed soldiers spared neither age nor sex. >> [music] >> 70,000 Muslims and Jews were cruelly tortured and slaughtered. And many a person died believing in the superiority of his own faith. Their frenzy spent, they fell upon the True Cross. The Christians were as much delighted, one eyewitness writes, as if they had seen the body of Christ hung thereupon. Dying Crusaders whispered their last confession, thanking God that this final privilege of their faith was not denied them. And those already dead were buried in hostile, foreign soil. The living went to give praise to God. For 40 years, tyrannical [music] Christian rule in Jerusalem oppressed the people. Muslims and native Christians [music] were equally stripped of their land and wealth and reduced to serfdom. Feudal obligations [music] more severe than any in Europe were imposed and ruthlessly enforced. And the people looked [music] back with envy to the golden age of Muslim domination. Revolt [music] was imminent. European power in Jerusalem was beginning to be challenged. To maintain its influence in the Holy Land, Europe once more mustered its forces. "Cursed be he who does not stain his [music] sword with blood." The people armed for the Second Crusade. The church provided [music] financial and spiritual support. Kings, as penance for their sins, took up the cross. Women and children followed the soldiers of God and when fortune turned, as it often did, were captured and [music] sold into slavery. Disease, treachery, [music] and defeat in battle destroyed the Christian forces. Europe was stunned by the collapse of the Second Crusade. Enthusiasm [music] waned and there followed 40 years of uneasy peace. But wounded vanities, desire for revenge, religious and secular power struggles eventually furnished excuses a plenty to take up the [music] cross once more. With the Third Crusade emerged a new Muslim leader, Saladin, Sultan of Egypt. Priests were struck by his devotion to God, the brave by his generosity, >> [music] >> the cowardly by his wrath. He poured [music] his forces over the Holy Land. Time after time, he outgeneraled and outmaneuvered [music] the Christian armies, routing and decimating their numbers. Europe fared badly. "How can the Almighty allow his defenders to be so humiliated?" The Age of Faith [music] was brought into question and desperately it prepared to defend itself against foreign beliefs or no belief at all. And the Crusades continued. [music] Constantinople became the coveted prize. "Those who had never seen [music] Constantinople," one chronicler reports, "opened wide eyes. They could not believe so rich a city could [music] be in the whole world. There was no man among us so bold but that his flesh crept at the sight. >> [music] >> For 30 days the catapults hurled rocks against the city's walls with devastating force. Then Constantinople surrendered. The plunder and pillage that followed dealt a blow from which the Byzantine Empire was never to recover. In Europe the passions of their elders inflamed the children. Supernatural powers it was proclaimed would strengthen their bodies. Children by the hundreds emerged from towns and cities. Where are you going? Passersby would ask. To Jerusalem they replied. Thus 30,000 strong began the Children's Crusade. Many starved. Many were killed. And many more were kidnapped and sold into [music] slavery. The next 40 years witnessed the struggle and defeat of the fifth and sixth crusades. Then the year 1248 heralded the advent of the seventh. King Louis [music] the ninth of France, just, merciful, gentle and deeply pious, led the armies. He crossed the Mediterranean to attack the Muslims on the Nile. Dead bodies [music] from battle after battle covered the land and floated on the river. Quickly they putrefied. [music] And the pestilence they bred spread through the army. The angel of death hovering over the living descended with fury upon the beleaguered camp. Defeated by hunger, disease and desertion, his army was [music] routed and Louis was taken prisoner. More heavily than his chains he felt the shame of being the first king of France imprisoned by a foreign enemy. He was ransomed for 1 million golden besants and later returned to his homeland. For 16 years the crusading [music] impulse seemed dead. Only the heart of Louis still throbbed with the faith that the Holy Land might yet be liberated. The soldiers of God armed for the eighth and last time. Louis landed his forces on the coast of Tunisia hoping to convert the people and to attack Egypt from the west. The suffering of defeat in battle was intensified by the horrors of dysentery and the plague. >> [bell] >> Louis was stricken and lay dying on the plains of North Africa. He asked to be placed on a bed [music] of ashes. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he died. With the death of Louis the crusades may be said to have come to an end. The veteran came home to tell his [music] tale to awestruck listeners. A tale of bravery and courage. Of treachery and cowardice. Of cruelty and death. Of piety and repentance. Of Saint Francis preaching the word of God to sultans. Of men whose [music] dying breath was a supplication to God. Of love and devotion. Such is the legend of King [music] Richard the Lionhearted imprisoned in a tower and his faithful servant who having searched for years to find his master recognized his [music] voice and his song and rushed to England to tell its people that their beloved [music] king was still alive. Of men of boundless faith [music] who willingly subjected themselves to horrendous ordeals rather than deny the miracles of God. Truth and fiction merge. It does not matter. For the story of the crusades is a human epic. The protagonists whole peoples. The stage all of Europe and Asia. Nothing quite like it ever happened [music] before. Nothing quite like it since. The crusades were born in [music] agricultural feudalism and ended 200 years later in a social and economic revolution the effects of which [music] can be felt down to our own day. Time and chance sweep the affairs of [music] men. Wild surgings of the human spirit have infinite [music] consequences. And liars play in [music] accompaniment. >> [music]