Showing posts with label 11th Century. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 11th Century. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Third Crusade


We just learned about the Second Crusade.

Another part of the crusades was the Third Crusade.

After the Second Crusade, one of the Muslim rulers named Saladin took back Jerusalem in some other battles.

So the church and the European countries decided to go to war again.
They battled their way through Asia toward Jerusalem, and took over a lot of land but did not take back Jerusalem.

Even though they won most of their battles, people were still upset that they did not take back Jerusalem, and came back home.


(from: wikipedia - third crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Nativity

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Second Crusade


We just learned about the The Prince's Crusade.

Another part of early Christianity is the Second Crusade.

After the European countries' wars to take over lands in the name of Christianity, there were some wars where some non-Christian rulers of other countries took them back.

Because the European countries were victorious in the Prince's Crusade, they decided to have another war and try to take that land back.
During the hundreds of years in Europe and Asia, many countries battled each other for land and power.
The difference with the Crusades is that people were using Christianity or other religions as the reason to go have wars to take over other lands.

Some lands in places that are now Syria and Turkey took lands back, and so armies from Germany and France came to take the country back in the name of Christianity.

Tens of thousands of people were killed on both sides of the war, and the crusaders from Germany and France lost the battle.


(from: wikipedia - second crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Helena

Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Prince's Crusade


We just learned about the The People's Crusade that was mostly just poor people and not soldiers.

Another part of the First Crusade was The Prince's Crusade.

This was not like the People's Crusade which was just a bunch of poor people.

This was actual armies, with thousands of people.
There were soldiers, horses and even nobles like counts and dukes.
No one is for sure how many, but some people think it was around 10,000 knights, 50,000 soldiers, and a total of 100,000 people in the army.

The armies came out of Europe into what is now Turkey, and fought their way down to Jerusalem.
They fought for 3 years, from the year 1096 to the year 1099 and killed about 100,000 people in the battle.

At the end of it all they took over Jerusalem, left some soldiers there but most people went home.

Through the years many wars have been fought between different countries, and a lot of times the people in power would use religion as the reason why people should go fight and kill others.

Because the army in the First Crusade won their battles, the countries in Europe used that as a reason to have even more wars using Christianity as the reason to go to war.



(from: wikipedia - first crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constantine the Great

Sunday, April 26, 2020

The People's Crusade


We just learned a little about the The Crusades.

At the beginning of the Crusades, some of the church leaders were very upset because some people in other lands called Turks had come along and taken over other lands.
The Turks were not Christians, and many people said that the Turks were not nice to Christians in the lands they took over.
They also took over the holy places like Jerusalem.

Some of the church leaders called for people all over to attack anyone that wasn't a Christian, and even to kill them.
They called it a holy war, and told people that Jesus wanted this to happen and that if they died for this war Jesus would be happy, even though Jesus tried to teach people not to kill or hurt people.

One of the church leaders in Germany named Peter the Hermit gathered thousands of people and got them very angry at anyone that wasn't Christian.
These people were very poor and scared, and they followed him carrying shovels and pitchforks and not much else.
They were not well trained soldiers, but they were all told to go kill anyone that wasn't Christian, so they went through some parts of Germany and killed thousands of people.

Later they went up against some actual Turk soldiers, and almost all of the poor people were killed.

Because it was just normal people and not soldiers, this was called the People's Crusade.
It was a very sad time because these people didn't really know much of what was going on, they just needed someone to follow and they were poor and starving.
So they started the crusade, killed a lot of people, and then were killed themselves.


(from: wikipedia - people's crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Battle of Milvan Bridge

Sunday, April 19, 2020

The Crusades


We just learned about the East-West Schism.

Another part of early Christianity The Crusades.

During the time of the church's growth into Europe, the Christians sometimes would have battles against other groups of people that were not Christians.

Sometimes these people were in places like Jerusalem, and other times they were in countries like Germany.

The crusades went on for hundreds of years, and were like wars that people fought in the name of Christianity.
They fought them either to try and take back a land, or to try and force someone to be Christianity.


(from: wikipedia - crusades)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Edict of Milan

Sunday, April 12, 2020

East-West Schism


We just learned about the Peace and Truce of God.

Another part of early Christianity is the East-West Schism.

Long ago when the first leaders of Christianity started building churches after Jesus died, the most powerful of all the churches was in Rome.

Saint Peter was seen as the first leader of the church in Rome, and so even though many other cities in Europe had leaders, Rome was the one in charge.

We learned about the emperor Constantine that ruled around the year 300, and he wanted to change things so he made a new city called Constantinople, in the country that is now called Turkey.

After that, people argued over whether Rome was better or Constantinople.

Through the centuries Christianity spread to the east into countries like Turkey, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.
It also spread west to countries like Spain, France, Germany and England.

After hundreds of years of Christianity spreading through the world, some people started to disagree with each other about who was really in charge, how the churches should be run, about how people should act in church, about what people should believe, and a lot of other things.

The people started to break up into two groups:
- The Roman Catholic Church - They supported Rome as the head of the church, and people from the western countries followed Rome.
- The Eastern Orthodox Church - They supported Constantinople as the head of the church, and people from the eastern countries followed them.

The word "schism" means splitting up.

When these two churches started splitting up, they called it the "East-West Schism" and it started the two groups of churches splitting up into east and west, for hundreds of years.


(from: wikipedia - east-west schism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Edict of Serdica

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Peace and Truce of God


We just learned about the Leif Erikson - Christianity in Greenland.

Another part of early Christianity is the Peace and Truce of God.

Long ago around the time of year 1000 AD, there was a lot of war and people killing each other trying to take over each other's lands.

The church wanted to try and stop this, or at least to help protect people that couldn't fight.
So they started something called the "Peace of God", also called Pax Dei.

This was a rule that the church came up with that said no one could attack poor people, women or children. They were not allowed to steal things from poor people or farmers.
Churches were also protected so that it was against the rules to attack them or rob them.

Later on the church also started something called the Truce of God, or Treuga Dei.
This made it against the rules for anyone to fight on Sundays.
It also made everyone promise never to attack any churches or the lands that churches owned, or the people that worked for the churches.

With the Peace and Truce of God, it helped stop all the people in power from just going around killing and robbing people all the time.


(from: wikipedia - peace and truce of god)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Persecution