Thanksgiving, football, crusading, and a courageous queen

I hope all who celebrated Thanksgiving enjoyed the holiday as much as my family and I did. For my fellow football fans, congratulations to Lions and Panthers and Bears fans (yes, that is you, David Blixt!) My sympathies to Tony Romo for his injury and to Green Bay fans….sigh. Eagles fans, the mob forms in center city tomorrow to march on Chip Kelly’s house; pitchforks provided, torches are optional.
Today On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban called for a crusade to rescue Jerusalem from the infidels, which led to the First Crusade and the deaths of thousands of people—not only all who died during this initial foray to the Holy Land, but all who died in subsequent crusades. There is disagreement about how many crusades there were; some say seven, others nine. The first was the most successful in military terms, for they managed to capture Jerusalem; it was also the bloodiest, resulting in the brutal massacres of noncombatants in the captured cities. The second was a fiasco, probably better known for what did or did not happen between Eleanor and her uncle in Antioch. The third is the most famous because of the two larger than life commanders who captured the public imagination, in their time and in succeeding centuries—Saladin and the Lionheart. The fourth ended with a shameful assault upon the city of Constantinople, so they never even got to the Holy Land. The fifth has been largely forgotten, from 1217-122. The sixth involved the Emperor Frederick II, who was excommunicated at the time and who pragmatically struck a deal with the Saracens that enabled him to assume control of the Holy City instead of fighting for it; Henry III’s brother, Richard of Cornwall, also took part in this one. The seventh was another failure, resulting in the capture of the French king, Louis IX, son of Blanche in yesterday’s Facebook Note, later canonized by the Catholic Church. Twenty-some years later, Louis gave it another shot; this ill-advised venture ended in his death in Tunisia. Some historians count Edward I’s unsuccessful campaign against the brutal Sultan Baibars in 1271-1272; my readers will remember this one for the unsuccessful attempt upon Edward’s life by one of the storied Assassins.
In-between the organized blood-letting, there were minor skirmishings and the infamous Children’s Crusade of 1212, in which children of France and Germany were said to have spontaneously vowed to liberate the Holy Land. As you’d expect, that did not end well. In recent years, some historians have cast doubts upon the story, and it is hard not to hope they are right. Dante placed the belligerent troubadour Bertran de Born in one of his circles of Hell for stirring up strife between Henry and his sons. I’m sure it never occurred to Dante, but I’d have put Pope Urban in one of those circles, too. Here is the link to a funny website envisioning historical events through the prism of Facebook. Both Richard and the Saracens “unfriend” the Pope, but of course he perseveres; sadly, medieval popes always did. http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/if-hi...
And on November 27th, 1198, one of the more interesting and admirable women of the MA died in Palermo at the age of forty-four, Constance de Hauteville, aunt to Joanna’s husband, King William, and unhappy wife to Richard’s nemesis, the emperor Heinrich. We all know about Eleanor’s rebellion against Henry. Few know that Constance courageously took part in a rebellion against Heinrich for the most honorable of reasons—to spare her beloved Sicily any more suffering under Heinrich’s iron rule. I have written a short story (yes, me!) about Constance, which appears in the George RR Martin anthology, Dangerous Women under the title Queen in Exile.