Supremacy, Masculinity, and the Crusades

The Crusaders "Protecting the Weak"

In her article "A Call to Arms: A New Look at the Clermont Address", Audrey DeLong examines the four accounts of Pope Urban II's address at Clermont that led to the First Crusade. DeLong discusses how messages concerning masculinity, supremacy, and duty conspired to stir the Crusaders into a blood-thirsty frenzy, intent on capturing Jerusalem and Palestine in the name of Christ. 

According to DeLong, the Frankish Crusaders viewed themselves as God's chosen people, and as such, it was their duty to retake and protect the Holy Land (DeLong 2010, 32-5). Because the Franks were God's chosen people, they were following in the footsteps of other pious biblical heroes, like the Maccabees (DeLong 2010, 32-3). By comparing themselves to the Maccabees, the Crusaders turned their expansionist agenda into a pious quest that fights for the spiritual wellbeing of Jerusalem (DeLong, 32). Furthermore, as God's chosen people, it was the Franks' duty to protect the weak- and Jerusalem and the Church themselves- from the Crusaders' enemies and their supposed "barbarity" (DeLong 2010, 35-7). 

Because the Franks saw themselves as God's chosen people, they believed that Palestine was theirs by right (DeLong 2010, 37-9). The Crusaders believed that they were inheriting the Holy Land from God himself (DeLong 2010, 37-8). Thus, unlike their enemies, the Crusaders did not gain possession of Jerusalem through greedy conquest, but through passive inheritance from God (DeLong 2010, 37). The Crusaders were also promised material riches and eternal honor as rightly-deserved rewards for their conquest of Palestine (DeLong 2010, 38-9). 

The obligation to protect the weak and the inheritance of land and riches are important components of Middle Ages masculinity (DeLong 2010, 32, 35-6). Men in the Middle Ages were obligated to continue their fathers' family lines and legacies by protecting their families' interests, gaining wealth, and conducting themselves with honor (DeLong 2010, 32). As such, the idea that, by conquering Jerusalem, the Crusaders were following in the footsteps of the Maccabees greatly appealed to men from higher socio-economic brackets, who had the opportunity to elevate their family line to heroic status (DeLong 2010, 37-9). Men of lower socio-economic station were drawn to the potential for wealth and land in Palestine, where they could make a name for their family (DeLong 2010, 37-9). 

The appeal of the conquest was increased by the Crusaders' belief that they were protecting the weak and innocent by conquering Palestine (DeLong 2010, PAGE). The Crusaders were stirred into a vicious, bloodthirsty frenzy by false accounts of Turkish "atrocities" against Christians, the innocent, and women (DeLong 2010, 35-7). These stories led the Crusaders to believe that it was not only the weak that were in danger, but rather the entire Church and city of Jerusalem (DeLong 2010, 37). Because Frankish men saw themselves as "naturally superior" to everyone else, they saw it as their duty to protect the Church, Jerusalem, and the innocent by taking the city in a bloody conquest and brutally murdering everyone in it (DeLong 2010, 36-7). 

Additional Sources:

DeLong, Audrey. 2010. "A Call to Arms: A New Look at the Clermont Address". This Rough Magic vol 1 (issue 1): 26-53.

Image Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/opinion/sunday/the-first-victims-of-the-first-crusade.html