These Walls were built by the Crusaders inside Herod's once magnificent Port of Caesarea
Due to the undeclared war between Israel and Hezbollah, our journey this year starts in Girne (Cyprus) instead of Caesarea where Saint Paul, the Apostle, boarded his ship. He was sent as prisoner to Rome. Caesarea and Kyrene (Girne) have one thing in common. In the 11th - 13th century both were crusader towns. Today, only a few ruins allude to this time.
Ruins of St Hilarion Castle between Nicosia and Girne (on Cyprus' North Coasr)
We discovered Caesarea's crusader fortifications during our trip in 2018. This summer we will visit the St Hilarion Castle a few kilometres south of our departing point. On our second day, we will cross over to Turkey, the coast which once belonged to the principality of Edessa and then became part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia – both crusader states. Did the crusaders leave anything else behind than ruins?
The Crusader States lasted from 1098 - 1291 when Akko fell
Most of their direct legacy is gone indeed. The only direct legacy that comes to my mind is the Castel Sant Angelo in La Valetta (Malta) which is still owned by the Knights of Saint John, albeit only one single knight lives there. All other legacies like the Maltese Cross in Health Care are indirect and difficult to spot:
The time of the crusades was the coming of age for the Papacy in Rome. The bishop of Rome was for centuries only second behind the Patriarch in Constantinople. With the crusades, the popes became a power centre by themself. Contrary to a Patriarch a pope was independently wealthy. Rome received 10% of all churches revenues in Western Europe which made it far more wealthy than any king. The pope's money mattered. With whom he sided often decided which side prevailed. This influence gave the popes the power to orchestrate and coordinate the crusades. That Byzantine Emperor Komnenos had to ask the pope for help after the destruction of the Byzantine Army in 1071 by the Seljuk in Manzikert says it all. The letter was not addressed to the Christian Kings. They were not powerful enough to roll back the Seljuks who - town after town - occupied Anatolia. The popes already coronated the European Kings. It seemed natural that they took the lead in this matter. It was the first step to separate church from worldly power. A step that Rome (and China) never took. The limitation of worldly power became one of the key features in our western civilisation. It echoes in the American Constitution and is now a fundamental principle in all our democracies.
Pope Urban II calling for the First Crusade in 1091 in Clermont in France
The crusades also put the nail in the coffin of the Byzantine Empire and erased most of Christianity in the Middle East. For their shipping, Venice, Pisa & Genoa demanded generous trade privileges from Constantinople. This deprived Byzantium of vital tax revenues. Never found any numbers to calculate the revenue lost. But knowing Justinian’s finances, I guess it amounted to 1/3. Add to this the territories now occupied by the crusading knights who collected the taxes for their military expenses. I would not be surprised if the Byzantine Empire had permanently lost half of its tax revenue. An empire can recover from a lost battle. But only if it can pay for the rearmament. Once the financial power is gone, military and political power wanes. Something to remember given today's debt burden. Constantinople was destroyed by the very forces that claimed to come to its “rescue”. In 1204 it was indeed sacked by the crusaders under the leadership of Venice. With Byzantium gone, the roots for Ottoman dominance for the next 500 years were laid. The West has only itself to blame.
The Siege of Constantinople in 1204 by Palma il Giovane (16th century)
A more beneficial effect of the crusades was the resumption of long-distance trading in the Mediterranean. Hand in hand with trading goes the exchange of ideas and knowledge. It is not just the classics from antiquity which began to flow back to Europe and started the Renaissance. A lot of new technology flowed from East to West. Damascus steel became the basis for the plate armor industry in Milan (Switzerland would not be independent had plate armor and hard hats not protected our infantry). The steel plow from China revolutionised agriculture and shifted the center of Europe from the Mediterranean to northern Europe. Once the new plow was pulled by horses, even heavy soils could be farmed. Northern France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden became agricultural powerhouses with rapidly increasing populations. Equally important was the adoption of Chinese printing technology and gun powder. One revolutionised the way we disseminate knowledge, the other the way we fought wars.
Late Medieval Plate Armour was produced in Milan with Technology form Damascus
Last but not least, understanding that India and China were far richer motivated Spain and Portugal, two nations who had conducted their own crusades to “free” their south, to venture into the Atlantic. They opened a new chapter in human history which may not have occurred without the crusades.
None of these far reaching consequences for our sociey and our history will be visible during out trip this summer. We will see ruins of past glories. But being in a place which shaped our destiny so profoundly will be interesting though.
Comments