Politics and Religion in the Third Crusade: Examining the Rise of Political Motives on Crusade through the Plantagenet-Capetian Rivalry through 1190 to 1193

Abstract

In 1095CE hundreds of Frankish warriors, filled with religious fervor, gathered at Clermont in France to hear a sermon by Pope Urban II. In it, the pontiff laid out a grand mission, to reclaim Jerusalem from the forces of Islam and restore it once again to the stewardship of Christianity. The expedition that followed would be known as the First Crusade and led to nearly two centuries of sustained military, economic, and societal presence by European Christians in the Levant. My research project focuses on the Third Crusade of 1190-1193CE, which was launched in response to the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, in 1187CE. My research asserts that the Third Crusade was a turning point in the development of crusading ideology. My work argues that this expedition began a process whereby crusading evolved into a tool for achieving the political goals of its secular leaders, as opposed to an act of religious penitence. This involves a close analysis of the principal leaders of the crusade, Richard I of England (r.1189-1199) and Philip II of France (r.1180-1223), and places their actions on crusade within the wider context of their rivalry to achieve political dominance in Western France. Given the integral part crusading played in the notion of medieval kingship, and taking into account growing monarchical participation in crusades, I also hope to connect the two concepts of royal power and crusading ideology as they were being solidified in the late twelfth century.