In 1248 the Seventh Crusade was launched by the Pope.
with so many failures behind them you would have thought that the Roman Catholic Church would have been unwilling to launch yet another expensive crusade to the Holy lands, and the Pope was still very angry with Frederik II who had betrayed him during the sixth crusade.
Paying for Seventh Crusade
Just as in previous Crusades it was the common man and the Christian people who would be the ones forced to pay for this expensive Crusade, as the Pope and the church would yet again impose taxes on medieval people to fund this latest 7th crusade.
The money was raised through taxation although Christian people were getting pretty hacked off with the whole concept of the Crusades to the Holy lands.
The Seventh Crusade – Pope and Emperor Frederik
There was a difference between previous Crusades and this latest seventh crusade as the Pope had launched the crusade to be directly against the Holy Roman Emperor Frederik II, basically Frederik had totally messed things up and although the Christians had won Jerusalem through negotiation.
Christians could still not visit the city of Jerusalem because the Pope had excommunicated Emperor Frederick.
Timeline of the Crusades with dates of seventh Crusade
King Louis IX & Seventh Crusade
King Louis IX was one of the most famous medieval French kings and he would lead the seventh crusade.
King Louis IX was a devoted Christian who was very upset when he heard the news that Turkish Muslims had overrun Jerusalem and thousands of innocent people were being slaughtered inside the Holy cities walls.
The Muslim Turks warriors & Knights Templar
During the Holy Crusades the Knights Templar emerged as a fearsome and legendary fighting unit, many of the previous Muslim warriors had been terrified of the Knights Templar, their distinctive white and red crosses and fight to the death mentality earned them their reputation.
However this was different during the seventh crusade as Muslim Turks were considered to be crazy warriors at the time and had an even more scary reputation.
The Knights Templar struggled to defeat these wild warriors who had managed to force them from Jerusalem and had made the Holy city a very dangerous place for any Christian to visit.
End of 7th crusade in 1254
Despite all his hard effort and leadership King Louis IX troops were no match for the Muslim Turks soldiers, King Louis IX soldiers also became ill and started to die from dysentery in large numbers and were forced to pull back and regroup.
However they could not carry on and the seventh crusade was yet another failed attempt for Roman Catholic Church to reclaim the Holy lands.
