Crusades

Crusades, wars, sometimes degenerating into mere marauding expeditions, undertaken in the Middle Ages at different periods for rescuing the Holy Land and its sacred places from heathen hands. The first, in consequence of Peter the Hermit's preaching, was headed by Godfrey de Bouillon in 1096; the second was preached by St. Bernard in 1147; the third, in 1189, had among its members Richard of England, Philip Augustus of France, and Leopold of Austria; the fourth, in 1202, led to the founding of a Latin empire in the East by Baldwin of Flanders; the fifth, in 1228, was commanded by Frederick II.; and the sixth and seventh, in 1248 and 1270, were under St. Louis IX. of France. However they may be condemned, the crusades led to trade and intercourse between East and West, and those who took part in them at least pursued a lofty ideal. The word is also used metaphorically of an attack upon an abuse.