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The Last Medieval Crusade
How many crusades were there?
The First Crusade is the most well-known of all of the Crusades. Kicking off in 1096, the First Crusade saw thousands of nobles, knights, and men-at-arms pour into the Holy Land in an exciting struggle for control of Jerusalem. The First Crusade was a surprising success. Many devoted Christians answered the call and stunned the Muslim defenders in the Levant. However, after the First Crusade, the Crusades became a mixed bag. Numerous subsequent attempts were made to duplicate the success of the First Crusade, but none of them came close. Some Crusades were abject and expensive failures. Others led to the sack of the wrong city.
How many crusades were there? And which crusade was the last crusade to be attempted? What happened to the Christians that made it to the Holy Land?
How Many Crusades Were There?
If you ask people how many crusades there were officially, you are likely going to get a plethora of answers. Historians will have different answers from students, for example. Pinpointing an exact number of crusades is difficult for a reason. Do you just count the crusades that targeted the Holy Land? Because there were a number of crusades that targeted Christian and non-Christian factions within Europe as well. Do you count major crusades or small, fabled crusades as well? There were some strange and poorly documented crusader efforts, such as the Children’s Crusade and the Shepherd’s Crusade. Do they count? Different people will give you different answers.
What we know for sure is that there were eight officially numbered crusades. The First Crusade began in 1096, and the Eighth Crusade ended in 1270, capping 174 years of crusades.
So, was the Eighth Crusade the last of the Medieval crusades targeting the Holy Land? Yes and no.
The Last Numbered Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was an anticlimactic end to nearly two centuries of warfare. The Eighth Crusade was launched by King Louis IX of France, whose piety gained him the moniker Saint Louis. This…
